I am normal about Dragon Age, which is a normal thing for normal people to say about a video game RPG franchise. I've played and loved every entry that developer BioWare has put out, compiled a critical compilation on the popularly maligned Dragon Age 2, and run – present tense – a completely normal number (three, in a shared setting, with the longest having started nearly a decade ago) of concurrent tabletop campaigns using Green Ronin's Dragon Age system.
But to say that my expectations of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, set to release almost 10 years after Inquisition, were high when heading into an on-site preview event earlier this month is technically inaccurate. Between Inquisition and Veilguard, BioWare ultimately produced Anthem and Mass Effect: Andromeda, both of which failed to live up to expectations, and various reports over the years, even taken with several grains of salt, have not reflected kindly on Veilguard's own production. And that's not even getting into my own more personal wounds and disappointments – though it does feel important to admit that I texted a group of four other people, "They let Mary Kirby go??" in August 2023.
It would be more accurate to say that my expectations were tempered. What even is Dragon Age in 2024, I thought to myself ahead of the event. I wondered whether BioWare finally managed to pull it together for the culmination of so many stories and years of work, or if it would fall apart like several of the developer's other endeavors. I'd steeled myself, preparing for the possibility that the latest game in a franchise that actually meant something to me would miss the mark, while running the numbers on just how far off it might be.
In the aftermath, however – and assuming the rest of the game is as good if not better than what I played – I've come to believe that yes, I can and will happily play the latest and greatest Dragon Age for another 10 years if necessary. The story, as much as I've seen, is just as epic and devastating, the companions are compelling, and it's mechanically much more expansive in some ways while tighter in others.
In hindsight, I don't think I was exactly wrong to worry given… well, everything. But roughly seven hours with Dragon Age: The Veilguard, running from the very start of the game through various chunks of what the developers referred to as "Act 1," has calmed whatever fears I had, and I suspect it'll do the same for anyone else in a similar boat at full release.
Rook takes pawn
I'm getting ahead of myself, but then again as I said, I'm normal about Dragon Age. But if you happen to not be quite as normal as myself, the good news is that you seemingly don't have to know as much about it as I do. While I can't pretend to fully understand what a total neophyte might think of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, it does seem to be very deliberately designed in as friendly a way as it can be.
You play as Rook, an entirely new character with a faction, race, and class determined during character creation, roughly a decade after the events of Dragon Age: Inquisition. You've been brought in to help Varric, a dwarf rogue with a clever tongue and the source of your nickname, stop Solas, an ancient elf mage, from bringing down the barrier between the world and the realm of dreams and magic. Why? Because it'll basically mean chaos and destruction, though Solas seems to view this as acceptable collateral damage; a poorly healed bone must be broken to set it right.
Would it be helpful to know more about all of this? Probably. Is it necessary? It really doesn't seem like it! Dragon Age: The Veilguard constantly pairs Tolkien-style proper nouns like "Evanuris" with, as an example, further context that these are the ancient elven gods, at least early on. Knowing the history between Varric and Solas, what happened in the previous games, and generally anything about the franchise is going to add depth, but the fact that Veilguard seems largely set far to the north of anything previous (and long after the events of those games) helps immensely as it's essentially new to everyone, regardless of experience level.
Companion collecting
As revealed in previous footage by BioWare, stopping Solas goes all kinds of wrong and suddenly it's up to you and a ragtag band of companions, sourced from various factions across Thedas, to stop two rampaging elven gods that were freed in the process and aren't exactly thrilled at the state of the world. But those companions also have their own unique viewpoints, agendas, abilities, and so on. If you're coming to Dragon Age fresh off Baldur's Gate 3, this should feel relatively familiar.
Harding, the dwarven Inquisition scout and archer, is with you from the jump, and the prologue introduces the Tevinter mage Neve, who represents the Shadow Dragons faction. Directly following the events of the prologue, the party is dumped in Arlathan Forest and eventually recruits elven Veil Jumper (and mage) Bellara. Lucanis, the Antivan Crow, is rescued later and while my time with the game didn't reach recruiting Mourn Watch mage Emmrich, Grey Warden Davrin, or Lords of Fortune warrior Taash, it does seem like the first act gets to all of that swiftly.
If you're coming to Dragon Age fresh off Baldur's Gate 3, this should feel relatively familiar.
In the later sections of my preview, which jumped ahead by an unclear amount of time, I was able to mix and match them all into my party with some small requirements. Depending on exactly what you're doing, certain party members are necessary, and given that Dragon Age: The Veilguard has pared down to two companions as opposed to Inquisition's three, it's important that you're deliberate with your choices for combat reasons if nothing else.
Interestingly, companions also seem to have individual exploration abilities. Bellara, for example, can interact with magical artifacts while Lucanis can pull platforms from the Fade to allow for extra traversal options. While this might at first sound limiting, the game actually gets around requiring certain party members to be present by letting Rook's dagger use these abilities as well when they're not present. My time during the preview was relatively linear, so these opportunities didn't present as often as they likely will in the full game, but I suspect it will allow for some fun little secrets and extras more than necessities.
War changes, actually
For anyone that's been paying attention, Dragon Age: The Veilguard's combat is overall a natural evolution from the past three mainline titles. But it still might surprise some folks to see just how much of an action RPG the franchise has become. Yes, there are skills to buy and customization is as important as ever, but when you're in the thick of battle it's about dodging and positioning yourself just right and using abilities in combination with your companions to maximum effect.
Even with the overall slide into territory typically reserved for the likes of God of War, Dragon Age: The Veilguard comes packed with reasons to take advantage of these systems. While I had the opportunity to play as a Mage, Rogue, and Warrior, it was the Warrior that ended up being my favorite for an extremely simple reason: the ability to kick the hell out of enemies and send them flying off ledges. The amount of time I spent lining up that skill alone is… well, let's just say significant.
Another standout quality-of-life feature in combat is the game's system of flagging which skills might combine with whatever else is going on across the battlefield. A skill wheel that can be toggled in the middle of combat brings up several assigned skills that you or your companions can use – a pretty standard way of going about this in modern RPGs. But if any of those skills can cause a reaction combo with whatever other status has currently been applied, that skill's image will be embellished as if to say, "Hey, this one will do more than usual!" With how fast the game's combat can move, it's an incredible welcome reprieve of juggling informed decisions.
One added benefit (or detriment, depending on your outlook) to this mechanical change is the simple fact that Dragon Age: The Veilguard just feels harder than previous Dragon Age games. While my experience during the preview event wasn't quite the same as spending several hours building up a single character over time and really getting granular about skills and upgrades, and therefore isn't necessarily indicative of what playing the game naturally might be, more than once I found myself seriously struggling on the suggested difficulty level and teetering on the edge of several deaths in a row. (And some of my compatriots weren't so lucky; I watched a number of them die during a particularly challenging mission that I won't spoil here, and I can easily imagine thrown controllers during that sequence on Halloween.)
By the time I'd gotten to what seemed to be the final battle before the next act at the besieged Grey Warden stronghold of Weisshaupt, after several hours and what was clearly many more that were omitted, I was sprinting for the end. Not because I could cover it, as the initial embargo seemed to preclude me from doing so, but because if I did not reach the end a world would exist where many of my peers knew what happened next, and I did not, for nearly two months. That was, in a word, unacceptable. Ultimately, I finished with two minutes to spare and a sigh of relief – and a slowly calming heart rate due to the immense spike during the last battle. I don't know what all of that says about me as a person, but I do think it speaks to the strength of what BioWare has on its hands.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard is set to release on October 31, 2024 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X. If you're looking for something to hold you over until then, you could always check out some of the top games in our ranking of the best RPGs.
