Dragon Age: The Veilguardwas by far my most anticipated game atSummer Game Fest. In fact, it’s hard to imagine a game I’m more excited to see release - the next closest contender is probablyBioWare’sother series,Mass Effect. I’m so ready for Dragon Age: The Veilguard that eventhe last minute switch to what is clearly a much worse title, complete with a clunky ‘The Facebook’ discordance, is not enough to put me off. After seeing the first hour of gameplay, that excitement has been ratcheted up another notch. But I also feel like I’ve seen the new Mass Effect too.
BioWare’s cousins have always been a little in-bred. The good kind, with royal blood and Hapsburg chins, but nevertheless, a distinct family resemblance flows through all of its games. Dragon Age has become more action-driven as the series has gone on, learning from Mass Effect, while Mass Effect has added more variety to its lore, learning from Dragon Age. Both series have parts ofBaldur’s Gateand Jade Empire in them. The best parts ofAnthemborrowed from BioWare’s back catalogue too.
This is often called The BioWare Magic, which is a catchier descriptor than ‘mythologically rich worlds with diverse, well-written characters and a focus on relationships between companions including slowburn romances and all sorts of friendships plus witty banter and deep yet swift combat’. Dragon Age: The Veilguard has The BioWare Magic. But it also felt more like a ‘BioWare game’ than specifically a ‘Dragon Age’ game.
This was in the back of my mind going into the preview. The removal of the tactical combat approach the previous three entries had, slimming down the companions to just seven (the previous lowest in the series being eight in Dragon Age 2, nine if you count Bethany and Carver as two separate choices), and the bad news buried under the title change that you’d be taking just two companions, not three, into battle with you made this seem like a very different type of Dragon Age.
When you freeze the game during combat, the ability wheel is near-identical to the one in Mass Effect 3. It also feels like companions are less vital here - though obviously influenced by the fact we were at the beginning of the game with everyone underpowered and few companions to choose from (we only had Varric, Harding, and later, Neve), they didn’t seem to do much. The player character - the Rook - was the star of the show in the way Shepard is, rather than taking on the conductor’s role Dragon Age leads usually take.
Some Combat Screenshots From Dragon Age: The Veilguard
That’s probably my biggest criticism of what I saw, and really, I’m not even sure it is a criticism. I have always found Mass Effect’s combat (in 2 & 3, at least) to be more enjoyable than Dragon Age’s by a qunari hair, and I never made the best use of the different companions in battle anyway. I still feel it’s a loss for the series overall to slim down the gameplay options, but if I come out of any game preview and think ‘that game reminds me of Mass Effect’, that’s pretty much the best result I can get unless you put tickets for The Eras Tour in the goodie bag.
There is also a unique flourish to combat that makes it distinct. Rogues (the Rook of our demo) use Momentum, which relies on landing hits without taking any, aided by bigger and faster dodges. Warriors use Rage, which raises through active involvement in battle, meaning landing or parrying attacks, and Mages use Mana, which we didn’t get to see - but given Mages have always used Mana I assume that’s a more standard cooldown system for spells.
Just don’t get any ideas about jumping to other companions to try these out. you’re able to use the combat wheel to direct companions to use their powers, but can’t control them directly like in ye olde Dragon Age. My l’espirit de l’escalier thought was to result if the Rook falls - usually you play as the other companions to revive the protagonist or even just win the fight without them. Since you can’t play as them this time, I assume when the Rook dies, it’s game over.
As for the companions themselves, well, it’s The BioWare Magic at work again. We already know both Harding and Varric are great, but with a ten year development gap and an almost entirely new team, old characters can be tricky. Instantly the two felt like they’d never been away and avoided the trap of being parodies or fanfiction versions of themselves, while the more measured and elegant Neve felt different from Vivienne and Josephine.
The Rook takes longer to get to know, but the refreshed dialogue wheel now points to the outcome of a response rather than just a paraphrase, to make your choices clearer. There’s still an unpredictability in that it just describes the Rook and not what reaction this choice will have (our first options were ‘You will threaten everyone in the tavern’ and ‘You will try and talk your way out of it’), but you’ll always know what you’re getting yourself into.
There’s also a lot more depth to your backstory here. While there’s no unique origin prologue, the lore half of the character creator feels a lot closer to Dragon Age: Origins than the series ever has. Companions referenced this a few times in the hour we saw too, so it feels neatly folded into the entire experience. This more natural storytelling comes with a greater focus on ‘show not tell’, with increased environmental storytelling over reliance on cutscenes - in our excerpt the docks had been attacked and our soldiers killed, but rather than seeing this passively, we walked through the aftermath and had to interact with the scene to piece it all together.
Then the biggest surprise of the whole thing - we met Solas. I have long had my doubts that he was actually the game’s Big Bad, expecting something of a face turn once he realises what he has unleashed upon the world, but I still thought that would be a major arc. I expected to be chasing him down for the first third or maybe half of the game, but instead finding him is the first quest, which was where the gameplay demo ended. I still expect he’ll have a major part to play, but I wonder if, after a decade break between the games, there was a need to downplay Solas’ betrayal in Inquisition to not alienate new fans playing for the first time.
This idea of attracting new fans is mentioned a lot during the hour, and the retelling of Solas’ story felt logical in-world and succinct without being patronising to welcome any newbies in without being jarring. There have also been some tweaks to combat, including the option of not dying at all and greater guidance on when enemies are attacking, aimed at upping the inclusivity. Of course, challenge can be tweaked upwards too, and this inclusivity is also reflected in the character creator. BioWare has always put a lot of care into building your hero, and with body type, gender, weight, and height customisations on top of the usual microscopic nose jobs, this is its best yet.
Note: It also lets you customise your ‘bulge size’ regardless of gender or any other option, and includes gender neutral pronouns. On the one hand, brace for angry shouting into microphones. On the other, we can finally get offCyberpunk 2077’sbulge aboutits deeply flawed ‘trans character creator’.
I’ve struggled to put into words how good it feels to see Dragon Age back. The few minor wrinkles stand out because it’s easy to describe why I’m wary of them, but it’s much harder to accurately describe what it is about The Veilguard that blew everything else I saw at SGF out of the water. Why do you love your grandma’s cooking? Why do your lucky shoes fit so snuggly? Why does it feel so good to come back home? I dunno, man. It just does. Dragon Age: The Veilguard is a game that just does. Everything I saw reminded me why I love Dragon Age, why I’ve missed it, and why I need it back in my life.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
WHERE TO PLAY
Dragon Age: The Veilguard is the long-awaited fourth game in the fantasy RPG series from BioWare formerly known as Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. A direct sequel to Inquisition, it focuses on red lyrium and Solas, the aforementioned Dread Wolf.
