The new open-world Dungeons & Dragons video game from Wizards of the Coast isn’t going to be as big as beloved RPGs like Skyrim, it seems – but there’s a good reason why.
Warlock was first unveiled last year by the D&D publisher as a brand-new open-world game featuring Tasha, an archmage and demonologist well known to fans of the tabletop series.
We haven’t heard too much about it since, but we did get to see a whole 10 minutes of its Dragon’s Dogma-esque gameplay in August – and, now, Invoke Studios head Dominic Guay is sharing more about the exciting project.
Speaking in a new edition of Edge, Guay describes how the developers don’t want to guide players around Darkon. You know, the whole dreaded yellow paint thing? They’re not a fan, and that’s why they’re opting for an open world that’s a bit smaller than most folks familiar with the genre might expect.
“Because we wanted this to be exploration-driven, we didn’t want the player just to follow a waypoint around,” as he says.
So, while the world is “small,” it’s not lacking in substance. As Guay puts it, “By having a bit more density, we can afford to pull back a little bit on the handholding.” That’s good to read, honestly – and there’s plenty to discover as well.
“There’s a lot of really cool spells. Maybe you won’t find them, and that’s ok, because you’ll find others.” You know what that sounds like to me? More reason to play through the game again.
The controls sound exciting, too, as Guay describes Warlock’s system as one that simulates a “real-time expression of magic instead of something that feels a bit slower.”
That should also make the world feel far more alive, if you ask me, and a bit more action-packed to boot – once more reassuring me that size might not matter after all.
It certainly didn’t in Baldur’s Gate 3, perhaps the best D&D experience to date… and it wasn’t even open world.