20 minutes of "alpha gameplay" taken from Bioware's upcoming Dragon Age: Dreadwolf has reportedly leaked online.
Whilst the leaker - who initially took to Reddit to share the information - stopped short of dropping the full video for all the community to see, they did share a little gif and some screenshots, the links to which have since been deleted.
The post itself, however, is still live (and the screenshots and video can be found if you're determined enough), and it gives us a lot of details about the upcoming RPG, some of which we haven't heard much about before.
That said, it may be a tad spoilery for some, so only read on if you're happy to have some details about the sequel spoiled ahead of time - you have been warned!
After explaining that the alpha footage comes from "a kind playtester" before they were "shuffled to another project", the leaker explained that they held back from posting the full video just in case it identified the playtester (which it probably would, quite honestly).
They then explained that the footage takes place in the "Gray Warden fortress HQ of Weisshaupt", with real-time combat "similar to hack-and-slash" that has reportedly been heavily influenced by that of Santa Monica's 2018 God of War reboot.
"The most immediate thing you noticed is that animation quality has DRASTICALLY improved," the OP teased. "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 leaker also revealed that ultimate/special abilities will be available - there's some kind of bar that you'll fill up as you fight - but "thinks it's a safe bet [...] you will not be able to directly control your party members in the game", although this may, of course, simply be because this is a very early build that doesn't yet have that mechanic enabled.
The OP also revealed that rather than imitate Final Fantasy 15's ability wheel - as some have suggested - they believe that it's like a "standard Dragon Age ability wheel", which will hopefully put some minds to rest. Oh, and you can still jump!
The first issue of Dragon Age: The Missing is here, and it looks like it might just give us some insight into what Solas is up to in the upcoming game.
We know that Solas has a big role to play in Dreadwolf - let's face it, the title alone gives it away - and even back when we were still calling the game Dragon Age 4, Solas figured heavily into the early teasers. The latest teaser seemed to hint at Varric's involvement, too.
Keep up to date with all the best games set to launch this year with our guide to new games 2023.
