Dragons spewing fire, lightning, and ice have been unleashed over Thedas, as armies of mages and horned warriors march on major cities. Two evil gods have unleashed a plague that threatens to cover the world in corrupted flesh. Raw magic runs rampant, tearing holes in the fabric of reality and sundering the land. But for all its high fantasy drama and world-shaking action, some of my favorite moments in Dragon Age: The Veilguard were spent sitting on the couch with my party, chatting about the latest demon attack like we were having the world’s grimmest sleepover.
The stakes couldn’t be higher for The Veilguard, both in its narrative and in expectations for the game itself. BioWare’s beloved RPG series changed a lot over its three previous games, but the latest feels the riskiest, fully committing to real-time combat for the first time and exploring lands never seen before in the series while still clinging to the story established in the previous game. Fortunately for fans who’ve been waiting over a decade for it, The Veilguard mostly succeeds in both heading in a new direction and showing the climax of what’s come before, even if the growing pains of its new combat system and an uneven story keep it from being truly great.
