BioWare and EA have said little to nothing about Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, even though the RPG was confirmed to be in development several years ago. Up until this point, official updates on the game have been limited to cinematic trailers and concept art reveals, but actual, concrete gameplay and story details have been next to non-existent. A recent sizeable leak, however, seems to have spilled the beans on several of those.
The leaked details come from a report published on Insider Gaming and a subsequent thread published by a Reddit user, the latter of which claims to have gotten roughly 20 minutes of gameplay footage from a pre-alpha build of the game. Screenshots and a brief gameplay clip showcasing combat from said footage have also leaked.
Interestingly, the most significant detail emerging from the leak pertains to the game’s combat, which is apparently deviating from past games significantly. As per the Reddit leak, Dragon Age: Dreadwolf will feature fully real-time and hack-and-slash combat, unlike past series instalments. Of course, Dragon Age 2’s combat was also quite action-oriented in nature, but Dreadwolf is allegedly taking a different approach, with combat that is allegedly quite similar to 2018’s God of War.
That includes parries, counters, and blocks, in addition to being able to use hotkeyed abilities as well (though the latter isn’t new to the series). Abilities also include a special attack that’ll need a full special bar to be executed. The leaks also claim that Dragon Age: Dreadwolf’s combat is also removing something of a series staple- unlike past Dragon Age games, Dreadwolf reportedly will not allow players to control their party members beyond being able to issue some commands for abilities.
As per the Reddit leak, the game also features “drastically improved” animations, which apparently means the player character doesn’t feel as stiff to control as past Dragon Age protagonists have. Inquisition’s jumping mechanic also seems to have been retained.
Meanwhile, Insider Gaming claims the game will feature a hub location will players will be able to converse with party members and NPCs and head out for new quests- which, of course, will sound familiar to you if you’ve played past BioWare games, including Dragon Age: Inquisition itself. The game’s structure will allegedly once again revolve around recruiting characters to your ever-expanding party.
Both leaks also talk about the current state of the game. Apparently, with things such as missing voice lines, unfinished UI, missing visual features (like skyboxes), placeholder text, and more, there’s still plenty of work to be done. Insider Gaming claims the game is unlikely to release in 2023, contrary to what past leaks have suggested, with a 2024 launch looking much more likely.
BioWare and EA have also yet to confirm what platforms Dragon Age: Dreadwolf will launch for, but according to previous reports, it will not be a cross-gen title.
