Dragon Age: Dreadwolf is the latest game to suffer a sizable leak online, and it points toward a different approach to the next game in the series.
Developmental footage was shared to Reddit this weekend. Snippets of gameplay leaked have been scoured from the site – though can still be found elsewhere – but the accompanying post describing 20-minutes of gameplay has not been removed.
A warning for those looking to discover Dreadwolf entirely spoiler free: now’s your time to stop reading.
© BioWare
The gameplay described by the poster follows a “Knight” class character and takes place in the middle of a Darkspawn assault on “the Gray Warden fortress HQ of Weisshaupt.” The footage was reportedly shared by a “kind playtester” of the game and represents an unfinished segment with “missing textures for a lot of elements.”
The Dragon Age series has altered with each entry – often to the dismay of PC RPG enthusiasts – and it looks like Dreadwolf will do so again. Continuing the series’ steady departure from its strategic combat roots, the fights are described as “real-time and similar to hack-and-slash” in terms of gameplay. A “guiding reference point” for the game was reportedly 2018’s God of War. The footage released shows a warrior decked out in armor dodging an attack to the side before dropkicking an enemy into a wall.
“The most immediate thing you noticed is that animation quality has DRASTICALLY improved,” the post states. “Like, for any other AAA title it's probably not that big a deal. But we've never seen animation quality this good in any BioWare game. I didn't actually play it, but I can tell it probably feels really good to control your character. No more stiff animations, it's all very fluid and seems also very responsive.”
The poster also noted that they didn’t see any evidence of direct party control, though they couldn’t confirm that this wouldn’t be possible in the full title. If true, that would likely leave Dreadwolf far closer to Mass Effect in terms of party-based combat.
Other highlights from the leaker include describing the hair in the game as “glorious” – a description which will no doubt shock series fans used to lackluster dos – and the fact that jumping remains for for those fond of hopping about in Inquisition.
Dragon Age: Dreadwolf has been in development since 2015, and appears to follow on from the closing events of Dragon Age: Inquisition, with that game's party member Solas being established as the main antagonist. No release date for Dragon Age: Dreadwolf has bee confirmed as of yet.
