Wizards of the Coast's parent company Hasbro hinted very strongly in February that more D&D-based video games were coming, which makes sense given the huge success of Baldur's Gate 3. Thing. However, I have to admit that I wasn't looking forward to the next game. One is a cooperative survival game developed by the team that created Disney Dreamlight Valley. But yeah, that's what it is.
it's not just It's a survival game, mind you. This unnamed project, currently underway at Gameloft, will feature “unique cooperative gameplay built around an innovative hybrid of survival, life simulation, and action RPG” set in the world of Forgotten Realms. I promise. “Players can expect adventures that combine the rich lore of this legendary series with real-time survival in a unique campaign that weaves resilience, friendship, and danger at nearly every turn.”
That doesn't make much sense, does it? At first glance, the combination of survival (try not to get killed by an owlbear), life sim (get a job killing an owlbear), and action RPG (kill an owlbear) genre sounds like a straight game of D&D . But if that were the case, I imagine Gameloft would simply call it an RPG, or a D&D game, or a less obvious “unique” game. Of course, that would put the new one in direct conflict with Baldur's Gate 3, and no one needs to go through that kind of head-scratching.
But aside from the risk of being destroyed by Larian, there's the fact that doing something different with the D&D license is itself a good idea. A D&D survival game can be great, especially if it's set in one of the more exotic worlds like Dark Sun or Planescape (though that's probably too much for a mainstream audience, so it's a little more familiar) The decision was made to remain in the Forgotten Realms). Rather than focusing on a powerful adventure, it instead just says to the players, “Hey, you live here now, good luck. Maybe don't go into that cave.”
The life sim angle also has potential. His colleague Harvey Randall says, “Imagine if you put Karlach in there as a romantic NPC. People would really like that.” I don't think he's wrong, guys.
I hope Gameloft has learned its lessons from Disney's Dreamlight Valley, a “dream life sim” tarnished by overpriced DLC and “terrible microtransactions.” It will take some time to figure out how it all fits together. Gameloft is still accepting new games, and there is no indication of a possible release date.
