Don’t expect total control over your team members in BioWare’s next game.

Tom Henderson has written what he’s learned about the new Dragon Age, which has gone through at least two reboots. Supposedly, even though it has changed from the original live service concept to the more familiar (and more appreciated) single-player model, there are still live service remnants in the RPG. The gameplay loop will be somewhat similar to the previous episodes: there will be a central hub area where all your teammates and allies will be located.

From here, we’ll go on missions, which sounds like Dragon Age: Dreadwolf won’t be open-world. Instead, we’ll go through the Eluvian network, entering a “mirrored portal” to our following location. The combat system has also undergone a surprising change: we will no longer be able to control our team members directly. We have been able to do it since the beginning of the series! Instead, the rumor is that we’ll get the Mass Effect model: giving orders to others. It worked there, but here, it seems a bit of a step backward!

Henderson added that there are temporary placeholder texts and missing voice acting in the game, so he doesn’t think 2023 will be the new Dragon Age’s launch window, but he admitted that he doesn’t know the release date. It was confirmed by a Reddit user:

“I’ve played it. You can’t directly control party members. A more apt comparison (and it’s bizarre that they didn’t reference this considering it’s another BioWare franchise) is Mass Effect. It’s exactly like Mass Effect’s wheel, where you hold RB and choose what ability they use. The combat is great, and the cutscenes are decent. Best as far as BioWare is concerned (which should be a given). What’s not great are the facial animations. Granted, the game isn’t done yet (and might be far from done, who knows), but as of right now, it’s [Mass Effect:] Andromeda 2.0,” wrote Donny_Canceliano.

The studio announced in October that it had reached alpha with the game, and BioWare’s previous games were released less than a year after reaching the milestone. Early 2024 could be realistic: Anthem was also released in February. But all that’s not official; Dragon Age: Dreadwolf will come to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC.

Source: WCCFTech