It has been shut to 10 entire years since Dragon Age: Inquisition, when you can consider it — and it is truthful to say that developer BioWare has endured a tough decade. The studio successfully tanked its as soon as industry-leading fame with Mass Impact: Andromeda and ANTHEM — two titles that fell up to now in need of previous requirements that expectations surrounding the crew’s subsequent undertaking dropped to an all-time low.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard is that undertaking — a return to the fantasy setting of Thedas, and a brand new journey constructed on the hefty lore of its three predecessors. It is also no secret that The Veilguard — beforehand often known as Dreadwolf — arrives having been dragged by way of a very tumultuous improvement cycle.
We do not know for certain what number of varieties the undertaking has adopted and subsequently shed over its time within the oven, however the sport that we have been taking part in for the sake of this evaluate might be one of the best Dragon Age title since Origins. BioWare is again, and so on.
We are saying ‘most likely’ as a result of that is the brand new Dragon Age, pumped filled with motion fight, colour-coded loot, and watered-down dialogue wheels. Making an attempt to check it to one thing like Origins — charting the course of a complete franchise within the course of — is greatest left to five-hour video essays on YouTube. What it’s worthwhile to know proper now’s that The Veilguard is the furthest the sequence has ever strayed from its CRPG roots.
And that is comprehensible, given how a lot BioWare itself has modified since 2009. However in a world the place Baldur’s Gate 3 (there it’s, the inevitable name-drop) exists — and it is the gold normal for what a contemporary, choice-driven RPG could be — The Veilguard feels prefer it’s disappointingly late to the social gathering, and it could’t presumably compete on a pure role-playing stage.
You are Rook — a totally customisable and quite unlikely hero, who’s handed the daunting job of coping with two historical elven gods, now free from their ethereal jail. As soon as you have spent an outrageous period of time sculpting your good protagonist — utilizing the sport’s impressively in-depth character creation system — you are thrown into the thick of issues, as returning rogue Varric leads the cost towards his previous pal Solas.
Should you’ve performed Inquisition — and its all-important Trespasser enlargement — you may know what is going on on. The Veilguard is a direct sequel when it comes to the central plot, but it surely takes place years after the occasions of the prior instalment. As such, it leans fairly closely into the established Dragon Age narrative, however on the identical time, it comes near feeling like a standalone entity, full with principally new characters and places. Newcomers should not have an excessive amount of bother attending to grips.
The sport begins off actually robust; a string of dramatic and fast-paced story missions set the tone, offering peak BioWare vibes. As the journey opens up — with Rook having made an otherworldly construction often known as the Lighthouse right into a base of operations — it turns into clear that Mass Impact 2 was an enormous inspiration on the sport’s structural backbone.
Mainly, Rook must assemble a crew to carry down these pesky gods, and so an online of character-driven storylines begins to take form. BioWare’s greatest video games have at all times been outlined by their characters, and whereas it is unlikely that Rook’s allies will ever be positioned on the identical pedestal as Garrus or Morrigan or, hell, even Varric, The Veilguard provides up some endearing personalities all through.
By the point we hit the principle story’s last stretch, we cared fairly strongly about Rook and the gang — and if that is not BioWare getting again on monitor, we do not know what’s.
Nevertheless, the writing generally is a bit… cute, for lack of a greater phrase, typically lacking the sort of wit and punch that make trendy classics like Baldur’s Gate 3 and The Witcher 3 so compelling. However even with a couple of too many Marvel-esque quips being flung about, the script is emotionally partaking when it issues. This generally is a actually gripping RPG if you’re compelled to agonise over key story selections, holding your breath as the implications play out.
The issue is that these weighted, story-shifting choices are pretty few and much between. The overwhelming majority of your dialogue choices boil down to picking how Rook reacts to the present state of affairs — versus truly impacting it. Granted, with the ability to form your hero’s persona by way of considerably superficial dialogue is vital — it helps you join — however we discovered ourselves craving for extra significant interactions from time to time.
However it’s not like The Veilguard has deserted its Dragon Age DNA. In reality, what are arguably your most affecting choices come proper at the start of the sport, as you are ready to decide on Rook’s race, background, and sophistication. These selections echo by way of all the journey, making surprisingly important adjustments to dialogue and the way you are perceived by each social gathering members and the world’s wider factions.
Structurally, The Veilguard is about throughout plenty of separate places — every of which could be travelled to by way of large magical mirrors referred to as Eluvians. Your hub — the aforementioned Lighthouse — is on the coronary heart of this community, granting you handy entry to wherever your subsequent quest occurs to start.
A few of these places are one-time stops — locations the place major missions and vital companion quests happen. They’re linear by design, letting BioWare craft some excellent set items, backed by beautiful surroundings. That is the place The Veilguard is at its greatest, stacking fastidiously constructed fight encounters on prime of partaking exploration and tense story moments. Once more, it is peak BioWare.
The yr is 2024, although, and so AAA video games aren’t allowed to simply movement. The Veilguard is not open world, but it surely does function plenty of giant, seamless environments that home generic aspect quests and too many map icons. It’s totally paying homage to God of Battle (2018) and God of Battle Ragnarok — a Metroidvania-like method the place particular companion skills open further paths, resulting in hidden treasure chests.
Fortuitously, this is not the identical sort of bloat that crippled Inquisition — there are nowhere close to as many MMO-esque fetch quests, and your efforts are often rewarded with distinctive loot or cool boss fights. However there’s an argument to be made that The Veilguard could be a greater total expertise when you trimmed numerous the fats, and simply caught with curated, Mass Impact 2-style missions.
As talked about, Dragon Age is a full-on motion RPG now, though it does have a time-stopping command menu that allows you to situation orders to your present teammates; it is primarily Mass Impact’s fight blueprint however with swords, shields, and magic. There are even ‘detonations’ to contemplate — talent combos that lead to high-damage chain reactions. Shepard could be proud.
Due to some tough enemy sorts and misleading parry timings, fight does really feel awkward at first. However as soon as it clicks — prefer it did for us, perhaps 5 or so hours in — throwing down with spirits, demons, and darkspawn turns into a real spotlight. When you think about the sequence’ trajectory, Dragon Age’s regular transition to motion fight has at all times appeared inevitable — and so it is a aid that BioWare’s managed to make one thing that feels nice to play, and satisfying to succeed at.
And it isn’t like that is out of the blue Satan Might Cry. There’s nonetheless a strategic edge to the encounter design, in that you simply’re typically compelled to prioritise sure targets, or save your cooldown-based skills for the proper counterattack. It finally ends up hanging a very nice steadiness between moment-to-moment reactions and actively attempting to manage the rhythm of a struggle.
Add various character builds to the combination — backed by implausible talent timber that truly require significant alternative — and there is an terrible lot to love about The Veilguard’s motion. Our solely actual criticism is directed at simply how a lot visible noise there could be on-screen at anyone time, particularly throughout greater brawls. Harm numbers, focusing on strains, flashing parry indicators — it could critically hamper your capability to learn the battlefield.
Fortunately, BioWare’s gone above and past with the sport’s settings, which allow you to totally customise the person interface, together with textual content measurement, subtitle backgrounds, goal markers, tooltips, and extra. Likewise, fight problem could be tweaked to a formidable extent, letting you fine-tune all the pieces from injury calculations to the timing on dodge and parry home windows. Beautiful stuff.
Efficiency is close to good on PS5, too. The title’s efficiency mode is locked at a silky 60 frames-per-second, barring some extremely uncommon dips when the sport’s busy rendering a brand new space. Load occasions are lightning fast as nicely — which is an enormous deal given how typically you may be quick travelling between waypoints with a view to full quests.
And visually, The Veilguard is a little bit of a stunner. As alluded earlier, the environmental artistry is excellent; from the crumbling, dream-like buildings of the Fade to the gorgeously autumnal Arlathan forest, it is a superbly offered expertise. What’s extra, the character designs are excellent, even when the artwork route as an entire has nearly fully deserted the property’s as soon as grittier, gorier aesthetic.
