Montreal-based Invoke has unveiled the first-ever gameplay from its upcoming Dungeons & Dragons action-adventure game, Warlock.
The reveal came during Gamescom Opening Night Live in Germany, which follows the initial cinematic trailer announcement at The Game Awards 2025 in December.
Ahead of Gamescom, MobileSyrup got to see an extended version of the demo alongside Invoke developers. In the footage, we see protagonist Kaatri (Canadian-American Battlestar Galactica star Tricia Helfer) speaking with Tasha (Resident Evil Village‘s Maggie Robertson), the patron witch with whom she’s made a dark pact in exchange for magical abilities to locate someone dear to her.
Unlike Baldur’s Gate 3, Warlock is not a D&D RPG and instead focuses on third-person magic-heavy combat and exploration. We quickly see an example of this during the demo as Kaatri uses telekinesis to throw a lamp at objects in her way to set them on fire, only to conjure an orb of water from a nearby pond to extinguish it and clear a path. In the next area, she levitates a crate and then dematerializes through the grate beneath it to enter the sewer. We also see magic being used in platforming, with Kaatri creating a sort of goo on the wall of a broken staircase and then telekinetically attaching a concrete slab to it so she can jump across.
And before a later combat sequence, Kaatri is able to use a little divination table to summon rain that she then uses to her advantage by electrifying metal poles to chain electricity between enemies. She can also use her magic to yank a pillar down onto an enemy, “Force Push” another away and even slow time to teleport behind them and escape danger. She also has beams of energy she can shoot, as well as some melee weapons and a shield.
Overall, though, it’s heavily focused on magic, which looks refreshing considering how many action-adventure games are more melee-centric. In a Q&A, Invoke said Kaatri will command a “significant” number of spells to provide players with options for experimentation. Some of these will come directly from existing D&D lore, like Eldritch Blast and Black Tentacles, while others are original to Warlock.
“We wanted to create tools that the players could experiment with,” said Dominic Guay, Invoke’s vice president and general manager. “All these spells — some more than others — can be used in various ways. Most spells are used two or three times in different ways.”
They also confirmed that while Warlock will have progression systems and upgradeable spells, it’s not a choice-driven game like Baldur’s Gate 3. The game also features an open world, although Invoke says it’s focusing on density in detail and content instead of a massive map that takes a long time to traverse.
And finally, Invoke stressed that it wants Warlock to be “approachable” for anyone, regardless of whether they’ve played Dungeons & Dragons. “We know some players will come in with a lot of prior insights, and that’s cool,” says Jeff Hattem, Invoke’s VP of creative. “And hopefully, they enjoy what we’re doing with the universe. But we want to make sure we’re not leaving any players behind.”
Warlock doesn’t yet have a release date, but it’s set to come to PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC sometime in 2027.
Image credit: Invoke Studios
