Warlock is "fundamentally a linear story," Wizards of the Coast says

In a post-Baldur's Gate 3 world, it feels like the idea of limitless choice is a fundamental part of a good fantasy game. Before BG3, BioWare did it with Dragon Age, forcing you to really think about your choices and consider the ramifications of them. Choice and player agency has become something that developers often strive to provide in modern RPGs; sometimes for better, other times for worse.

Warlock, Invoke and Wizards of the Coast's new Dungeons and Dragons-set title, is a much more linear experience than the likes of BG3 or Dragon Age: Origins and its later sister, Inquisition. While Warlock is set in Darkon, a sprawling open world realm that's included in D&D's iconic Ravenloft setting, Kaatri's story is much more confined than your Tav's was, with the focus instead being on crafting a strong narrative and encouraging creative - but managed - exploration.

Speaking to me at Gamescom, Invoke's Vice President and General Manager, Dominic Guay, tells me that, as a result of that more linear approach, there won't be branching narratives or a good/bad morality system. Instead, this is a pre-written story about Kaatri, and while you can cause all the chaos you like, the primary 'campaign' and its outcomes are set in stone.

"There is fundamentally a linear story contained in the world," Guay says. "We need to be so careful because the world is so open and exploration-drive, we can't put like, breadcrumbs every 50 meters with big setup cinematics, otherwise you'd have to follow all of those. So we need to accept that players will sometimes branch in and out of that core story and its more baked narrative moments, but fundamentally it is a linear story inside of that world."

As part of our wider discussion about Invoke's learnings from Baldur's Gate 3, Guay also notes that Warlock doesn't have a morality system, meaning there's no world where you choose to be "the evil character or the good character. Kaatri's story is written, and the story fundamentally has written, set pieces to it," he says, but notes that other sidequests and open-world instances do effectively turn into "your own little adventures."

While this may disappoint some, for a game like Warlock it feels like this approach makes a lot of sense. Firstly, taking the 'warlock' as an archetype, it feels like evil and darkness is somewhat inherent to their personality. You've actively sought out a dark pact for power; being nice to everyone doesn't exactly feel like it fits.

Then, the structure of the game is more linear: it's supposed to be its own campaign with an action focus. While you could try and squeeze character choices in here, I'd rather play a strong action-adventure game than a weak, choice-driven experience. It's something that I felt let Avowed down: if you can't make the choices really matter, they just fall flat.

As I said in my Warlock preview, I'm excited by Invoke's take on Darkon, and while I think its combat needs a little more time to cook, I believe it can be a solid D&D experience. The story will be core to that success, that's for sure, but either way, 2027 can't come quick enough.