I'm ready to sell my soul for a new fantasy RPG, and after checking Warlock out at Gamescom, Tasha just has to tell me where to sign.
Can you resist the allure of power? Could you ignore the voice in your head, whispering sweet nothings? It can give you the ability to bend reality to your will; to warp and twist forgotten magics into weird and wonderful new forms. Yet, with that power comes an inherent darkness: an acknowledgement that you'll have to break some rules to get what you want. That's the eldritch drama that Warlock, Wizards of the Coast's upcoming D&D-set RPG, tasks you with exploring - and I watched Kaatri grapple with it in my hands-off Gamescom preview.
Warlock is the first big Dungeons and Dragons game we've seen post-Baldur's Gate 3. The brainchild of Invoke Studios, with help from Wizards of the Coast, it looks very different from Larian's CRPG epic. Trading out the turn-based combat for more action-heavy, RPG-style gameplay, you play as Kaatri, a newly pacted Warlock that's chosen the mysterious Tasha (of Tasha's Hideous Laughter and Tasha's Cauldron of Everything fame) as her patron. Or, perhaps more accurately, Tasha has chosen her.
While the exact details of our grisly quest remain a mystery, Gamescom gave us our first deep dive into Warlock's gameplay, with a focus on combat and traversal. What I saw was a slightly extended version of the Opening Night Live trailer, and while I think a few elements need a little bit of tuning up, I see the foundations of a solid Dungeons and Dragons experience lurking beneath the surface.
Let me start with the demo's primary focus: combat. One of the things Baldur's Gate 3 did so well was its translation of the TTRPG's spells and cantrips into tangible, genuinely exciting in-game abilities. Given that spells like Eldritch Blast and Misty Step are iconic in their own right, I was interested to see how Invoke reimagined them in its own style. Would we see Larian's iconic green lightning bolt again? Or would the studio do something new?
I was pleasantly surprised by just how readable each spell was, and by the fact that they aren't just straight copies of Larian's. Misty Step is accompanied by an eerie violet mist and some silver sparkles (given Warlock's entire brand is purple, this makes a lot of sense), while Eldritch Blast is a wispy, spiraling beam of blue and black energy that you can charge up for extra damage. It's a refreshing, new take on the spells we know and love, and I'm glad Invoke has taken the time to truly make them their own.
You can also use your spells and rituals to interact with the environment. As she ventures out into the open world, Kaatri summons a Downpour that puts out fires and drenches her enemies - and she does it via ritual cast, which pulls up a screen where she adds grisly spell components to a ouija-esque board. She uses her telekinetic abilities to lift up a lamp, using the oil to burn away various wooden boxes that are blocking her path, before dousing said flames with water. I'm informed there are myriad other ways the player could have approached that latter situation, too: Tasha's Leash could have come in handy here, or a blast of Gust of Wind.
While Warlock is a more linear experience than Baldur's Gate 3, it's clear the team has considered how to best encapsulate D&D's sense of endless possibility into its RPG. I doubt we'll see the same scope as BG3, where the sky truly was the limit, but there's still a lot of flexibility here.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.pcgamesn.com/warlock-dungeons-and-dragons/gamescom-preview-2026
