It has been shut to 10 complete years since Dragon Age: Inquisition, for those who can consider it — and it is honest to say that developer BioWare has endured a troublesome decade. The studio successfully tanked its as soon as industry-leading popularity with Mass Impact: Andromeda and ANTHEM — two titles that fell to date wanting previous requirements that expectations surrounding the staff’s subsequent challenge dropped to an all-time low.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard is that challenge — 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 called Dreadwolf — arrives having been dragged by means of a very tumultuous growth cycle.
We do not know for certain what number of types the challenge 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 is most likely the most effective Dragon Age title since Origins. BioWare is again, and so forth.
We are saying ‘most likely’ as a result of that is the new Dragon Age, pumped stuffed with motion fight, colour-coded loot, and watered-down dialogue wheels. Attempting to check it to one thing like Origins — charting the course of a whole franchise within the course of — is greatest left to five-hour video essays on YouTube. What it is advisable to know proper now’s that The Veilguard is the furthest the collection 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 commonplace for what a contemporary, choice-driven RPG might be — The Veilguard feels prefer it’s disappointingly late to the get together, and it could possibly’t presumably compete on a pure role-playing degree.
You are Rook — a totally customisable and fairly unlikely hero, who’s handed the daunting process 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 excellent 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.
If you happen to’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 similar time, it comes near feeling like a standalone entity, full with largely new characters and areas. Newcomers should not have an excessive amount of hassle 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 called the Lighthouse right into a base of operations — it turns into clear that Mass Impact 2 was a giant inspiration on the sport’s structural backbone.
Mainly, Rook must assemble a staff to convey down these pesky gods, and so an online of character-driven storylines begins to take form. BioWare’s greatest video games have all the time 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 primary story’s closing 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.
Nonetheless, the writing is usually a bit… cute, for lack of a greater phrase, typically lacking the type of wit and punch that make fashionable classics like Baldur’s Gate 3 and The Witcher 3 so compelling. However even with a number of too many Marvel-esque quips being flung about, the script is emotionally participating when it issues. This is usually a really gripping RPG whenever you’re pressured to agonise over key story decisions, holding your breath as the implications play out.
The issue is that these weighted, story-shifting selections are pretty few and much between. The overwhelming majority of your dialogue choices boil down to selecting how Rook reacts to the present scenario — versus really impacting it. Granted, having the ability to form your hero’s character by means of considerably superficial dialogue is vital — it helps you join — however we discovered ourselves craving for extra significant interactions once in a while.
Nevertheless it’s not like The Veilguard has deserted its Dragon Age DNA. In actual fact, what are arguably your most affecting selections come proper at first of the sport, as you are in a position to decide on Rook’s race, background, and sophistication. These decisions echo by means of the whole journey, making surprisingly vital adjustments to dialogue and the way you are perceived by each get together members and the world’s wider factions.
Structurally, The Veilguard is about throughout a variety of separate areas — every of which might be travelled to by way of big 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 areas are one-time stops — locations the place important missions and vital companion quests happen. They’re linear by design, letting BioWare craft some very good set items, backed by beautiful surroundings. That is the place The Veilguard is at its greatest, stacking rigorously constructed fight encounters on high of participating 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 stream. The Veilguard is not open world, but it surely does function a variety of giant, seamless environments that home generic aspect quests and too many map icons. It is very harking back to God of Struggle (2018) and God of Struggle Ragnarok — a Metroidvania-like strategy the place particular companion skills open further paths, resulting in hidden treasure chests.
Luckily, this is not the identical type of bloat that crippled Inquisition — there are nowhere close to as many MMO-esque fetch quests, and your efforts are normally rewarded with distinctive loot or cool boss fights. However there’s an argument to be made that The Veilguard could be a greater general expertise if you trimmed loads of 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 permits 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 end in high-damage chain reactions. Shepard could be proud.
Because of some tough enemy varieties and misleading parry timings, fight does really feel awkward at first. However as soon as it clicks — prefer it did for us, possibly 5 or so hours in — throwing down with spirits, demons, and darkspawn turns into a real spotlight. When you think about the collection’ trajectory, Dragon Age’s regular transition to motion fight has all the time appeared inevitable — and so it is a reduction that BioWare’s managed to make one thing that feels nice to play, and satisfying to succeed at.
And it is not like that is all of the sudden Satan Could Cry. There’s nonetheless a strategic edge to the encounter design, in that you just’re typically pressured to prioritise sure targets, or save your cooldown-based skills for the proper counterattack. It finally ends up putting a very nice stability between moment-to-moment reactions and actively making an attempt to manage the rhythm of a struggle.
Add numerous character builds to the combination — backed by incredible talent timber that truly require significant selection — 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 might be on-screen at anybody time, particularly throughout greater brawls. Injury numbers, focusing on traces, flashing parry indicators — it could possibly 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 consumer interface, together with textual content dimension, subtitle backgrounds, goal markers, tooltips, and extra. Likewise, fight issue might be tweaked to a powerful extent, letting you fine-tune the whole lot from harm calculations to the timing on dodge and parry home windows. Beautiful stuff.
Efficiency is close to excellent 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 instances are lightning fast as effectively — which is a giant 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 constructions of the Fade to the gorgeously autumnal Arlathan forest, it is a fantastically introduced expertise. What’s extra, the character designs are very good, even when the artwork path as an entire has nearly utterly deserted the property’s as soon as grittier, gorier aesthetic.
