Dreadwolf Fans Should Be Prepared for Drastically Different Combat

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf has shown players very little of what they can expect from the game, and details like combat have been no exception. One thing players can expect from Dragon Age: Dreadwolf‘s combat is a change from the system used in Dragon Age: Inquisition because of indications from various leaks and a pattern the Dragon Age series has established over the past three games.

Combat is one of the most important parts of Dragon Age, but is a bit of a weird space for the franchise. Like Dragon Age‘s protagonist, its combat system always changes from game to game, either out of necessity for improvements or because of functional reasons such as a change in game engines. With leaked footage from 2022 showcasing combat from Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, it looks like players will once again have to adjust their expectations and learn a new combat system.

Every Dragon Age Game Has Different Combat Systems

Combat in Dragon Age Has Been Messy From the Beginning

Dragon Age: Origins opened the series with slow, weighted combat that was inspired by the combat of Dungeons and Dragons. It included a dice-roll system to hit and to calculate damage and, while largely effective, was largely criticized, especially in hindsight, for being slow and clumsy. Dragon Age 2 made a dramatic departure from this system, where the combat was fast and intense. Warriors would swing heavy weapons as if they weighed hardly anything at all, rogues would send enemies into many different pieces with the touch of a blade, and mages would send explosions at a glance.

Dragon Age: Inquisition Sought Balance

Dragon Age: Inquisition had yet another combat system that deviated from its predecessors. Dragon Age: Inquisition sought to balance the discrepancy between the two games by marrying the two styles: incorporating the faster movements of Dragon Age 2, but implementing the weight and physics of Dragon Age: Origins. The result was a combat system that was faster than many other CRPGs, but not as flashy or unrealistic as Dragon Age 2‘s offering.

EA’s Frostbite Brought Problems with Dragon Age: Inquisition

Because of BioWare’s confidence in innovating the combat system with every Dragon Age game, players can probably expect a new combat system with Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. EA’s Frostbite system was one of the barriers for BioWare when developing Dragon Age: Inquisition, including the combat system, and now that the developer has had a decade to work with Frostbite, the combat may be more robust than what was seen in Dragon Age: Inquisition.

A Move Towards Real-Time Action-RPG Combat in Dragon Age

A Dragon Age: Dreadwolf leak from 2022 showed a short clip of a sword-and-shield warrior inside the Grey Warden fortress of Weisshaupt amid combat. The combat is vastly different from previous Dragon Age games, with it being more similar to God of War‘s combat than other Dragon Age games. This is in part thanks to the real-time combat which, for the sword-and-shield playtester, included manual parrying. The transition from turn-based to real-time action-RPG combat is one of the biggest departures from the other Dragon Age games, but also one the franchise has arguably been heading towards.

There’s Still a Way to Go For Dragon Age: Dreadwolf’s Development

The leaked footage was recorded at a very early stage of Dragon Age: Dreadwolf‘s Alpha phase, and so is likely to change a great deal before the release of the game. That said, for now, it’s a fair indicator of the direction Dragon Age: Dreadwolf is heading in, and all players have until the promised reveal in the summer later this year.