Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons’ New Gameplay Puts its Open-World Design in the Spotlight

If you're wondering what the next big game set in the Dungeons & Dragons universe could look like after Baldur’s Gate 3, Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons may have just offered a pretty bold answer. The first long gameplay footage shown at Gamescom makes it clear that this isn't simply another turn-based RPG trying to copy Larian Studios' massive success. 

What makes Warlock particularly compelling, though, isn't that it resembles those games. The more important part is how it appears to use magic as something that can actually change the rules of the world rather than simply giving you different ways to damage enemies. 

You play as Kaatri, an experienced warrior who is already capable of handling herself when the game begins. 

She isn't a helpless character who suddenly finds herself in a magical world and has to learn how to fight from scratch. Kaatri has used a lot of weapons, been fighting for years, and appears to have gone through some bad things before the story begins. But now her mission is more personal: someone gone, someone so important to her.

The developers still don’t know what Kaatri is targeting, so there’s still a lot of mystery surrounding that part of the story. It could be a family member, an old friend, or someone else who had a major impact on her life, but the game isn't revealing that yet. 

To find this person, Kaatri makes a pact with a powerful witch named Tasha, despite the fact that Tasha is clearly someone she shouldn't trust. Tasha gives Kaatri access to forbidden magic from other worlds, but as you'd expect from a Dungeons & Dragons pact, that power comes with a price.

That price could become one of the central parts of Kaatri's story. In her quest to find the one she's lost, she may be risking more than her physical safety, for the pact could put her very soul in jeopardy. From the gameplay footage, we already see that Kaatri and Tasha have a weird relationship, with Tasha leaving a magical mark on Kaatri’s eye that looks almost like a wound. 

Tasha immediately gives the impression that she has her own agenda. She helps Kaatri, but the way she talks, the way she carries herself, it’s hard to believe she’s doing all this out of kindness. The voice cast also gives these characters some extra weight, with Tricia Helfer playing Kaatri and Maggie Robertson playing Tasha. 

The story takes Kaatri into Darkon, an extremely dark region within the Dungeons & Dragons universe. Darkon is one of the Domains of Dread, areas surrounded by mysterious mists that are notoriously difficult to escape. People trapped within these domains generally search for a way out, but Kaatri enters Darkon willingly because she's following the trail of the person she's looking for.

Darkon is also in an unusual situation when Kaatri arrives. 

There is no ruler of the land since the Dark Lord that was supposed to rule over the region has apparently escaped. With the region already on the edge of collapse, the ruined structures, distant castles, and suspicious reactions from the people Kaatri encounters all start to make more sense. 

Skev isn't necessarily someone you should trust without thinking, though. His appearance may make him look like a harmless companion, but Darkon doesn't exactly seem like the kind of place where appearances can be taken at face value. His role appears to go beyond simply following Kaatri around and making jokes. 

One of the most promising parts of the gameplay is how little the game seems to rely on constantly placing markers everywhere. When Kaatri enters a settlement, she can speak with people, listen to rumors, and discover optional stories known as mysteries. 

That information isn't part of the mandatory main quest. You can follow the rumor and investigate what is happening below the settlement, or you can simply continue with your journey. The developers have said they want to keep the map relatively clean instead of marking every possible point of interest for you. 

That approach could make exploration feel more natural because discovering a strange castle, cave, or mysterious event would come from paying attention to the world rather than simply clearing another icon from the map.

Magic is where Warlock really starts to separate itself from a standard action game. Kaatri doesn't just have familiar fire, ice, and lightning attacks that exist exclusively for combat. You can use magic to interact with the environment, such as grabbing a nearby lamp and throwing it at a wooden obstacle to burn it away. 

Other examples are even more creative. 

Kaatri can lift a chest into the air and use Misty Step to briefly lose her solid form and move through iron bars. At one point, she uses Black Tentacles on a wall and attaches a large piece of stone to them, creating a platform that allows her to reach another area. Instead of giving you one specific spell for every environmental puzzle, the game appears to encourage you to combine the tools you already have.

That philosophy carries over into combat as well. Kaatri can use the classic Warlock spell Eldritch Blast from a distance, use Gust of Wind to push enemies or objects around, and use Levitate to lift creatures into the air before bringing them back down. Tasha’s Leash can pull enemies or objects toward Kaatri and then allow her to throw them somewhere else, giving you another way to control the battlefield.

One of the most interesting demonstrations involves changing the environment before combat. Kaatri can bring out a small ritual table and use the required materials to make it rain, leaving enemies and metal surfaces wet. When she later uses Witch Bolt, the electricity can chain between those wet targets instead of remaining on a single enemy. 

Kaatri is also a Pact of the Blade Warlock, so her magical abilities aren't limited to attacks from a distance. She can instantly summon weapons such as swords and hammers, allowing you to combine her spells with melee attacks. That creates a character who can use magic to create an opening and then close the distance to finish an enemy with a weapon. 

Progression is tied closely to exploration, too. Throughout different parts of Darkon, you'll find sources of raw magic known as Raw Magic, which can be used to improve your spells and unlock new features through Kaatri's connection with Tasha. 

Some powerful spells are completely optional, meaning you could discover an ability while exploring that another player might never encounter. As a result, two players could potentially enter the same battle with very different abilities depending on how much of the world they explored.

You'll also find new armor, talismans, potions, and Pact weapons, with some equipment designed to work better alongside particular spells. 

However, Warlock isn't giving you the freedom to turn Kaatri into an entirely different class whenever you want. She's a fixed character with her own personality, story, and abilities, so the progression system is about developing her rather than creating an entirely different character.

The developers are also avoiding the idea that bigger automatically means better when it comes to the open world. Darkon's map will be large, but the goal isn't to make you run across empty land for 15 minutes just to reach your next objective. 

You'll move through different regions, including mountains and coastlines, while encountering events, hidden paths, and locations to discover along the way. That approach should make exploration feel more worthwhile if the world consistently gives you something to investigate.

There are still reasons to remain cautious about the gameplay footage. Kaatri uses exactly the spell she needs at the right moment throughout the demonstration, which makes the systems look extremely flexible, but it's still unclear how freely they will work during normal gameplay. 

The developers did clarify that the section shown wasn't even a mandatory mission. Kaatri follows a side mystery because she chooses to investigate it, encounters a dangerous creature called Death's Kiss, decides to run rather than fight, and later chooses to battle another enemy guarding Raw Magic.

It's also important to understand that Warlock isn't trying to be another Baldur’s Gate 3. 

This isn't a turn-based RPG where you roll dice, completely customize your character, and reshape the story through countless dialogue choices. Instead, Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons is a single-player action-adventure game with RPG progression systems. 

From what has been shown so far, Warlock's biggest strength could be the way it uses magic. The relationship between Tasha and Kaatri has the potential to drive the story, Darkon provides a strong setting, and the ability to interact with the environment through spells could separate the game from more conventional action titles. 

If you can approach random problems in the open world in several different ways, Warlock could have something genuinely interesting at its core. If the game instead expects you to use one specific spell for most situations, some of that potential could disappear. 

For now, though, the gameplay has shown enough to make Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons one of the more interesting upcoming games set in the D&D universe, with its 2027 release planned for PC, PlayStation 5, and XBOX Series X/S.