Dragon Age: Dreadwolf alpha footage leaks online

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf alpha footage leaks online

Time Stamp: February 5, 2023 12:58 PM

Another day, another leak – this time, it’s from Dragon Age: Dreadwolf.

Whilst the links to screengrabs and the video itself have since been removed from Reddit – although they can be found elsewhere on the internet without too much effort – the original post describing the 20-minute gameplay video remains accessible.

There may be spoilers ahead, so please don’t proceed unless you’re happy to be spoiled!

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf – “Who is The Dread Wolf?” Trailer.

“A kind playtester shared their recorded gameplay of DA4 that was in early Alpha at that stage,” the OP explains. “I saw what they recorded before they were shuffled to another project. No, I will not share the video as the individual in question asked me not to. And until I get their permission, it will remain private. I don’t want to get anyone in trouble, so they need to let me know it’s okay and nothing in the video would get back to them.”

As for what the footage itself reveals? Apparently, the entire clip takes place within the “Gray Warden fortress HQ of Weisshaupt”. The combat is reportedly “real-time and similar to a hack-and-slash”, with “God of War (2018) as the “guiding reference point”.

As well as their regular combos, players can use abilities too, courtesy of a “special bar which generates, allowing you to pull off a special move”. Interestingly, the OP doesn’t “understand the comparison to Final Fantasy 15’s wheel – it seems more like a “standard Dragon Age ability wheel” to them.

The OP also says there was no party control demonstrated and “thinks it’s a safe bet […] you will not be able to directly control your party members in the game”. Given this is early alpha footage, though, it may just be that that feature hasn’t yet been implemented. We’ll have to wait and see on that one, I guess.

“The most immediate thing you noticed is that animation quality has DRASTICALLY improved,” the poster adds. “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.”

Jumping is also available – news likely to make many DA fans jump for joy – and “the player character’s hair looks glorious”. In this instance, they were playing as an Elvish “Knight” Class which boasts a sword and shield.

BioWare’s follow-up to Dragon Age Inquisition has been in some form of development since at least 2017, when an early draft of its story was being written. As Tom recently summarised for us, work on BioWare’s next big Dragon Age game is reportedly going well, and it should release in the next year or so.

Early last year, reports began to rule out a 2022 release for the new Dragon Age, even though it had originally been on the cards. That’s because there have been several setbacks and reboots as staff changed, and the vision for the project settled back into its single-player role-playing game roots following the failure of online multiplayer experiment Anthem.

ICYMI, last December BioWare dropped a new “in-game cinematic” from Dragon Age: Dreadwolf.

Time Stamp:

More from Eurogamer