Dragon Age: The Veilguard review: old gods, new magic

Dragon Age: The Veilguard offers a flawed yet engrossing story-driven action role-playing game (RPG) experience. Uplifted by a compelling cast of supporting characters, an impressively dynamic combat system, and gorgeous environments, Veilguard never quite escapes the long shadow of its predecessors. This makes for a memorable third-person fantasy adventure which, while likely to appeal to long-time fans of the series, may bamboozle newcomers with its onslaught of proper nouns and specialist terms.

It’s been nearly a decade since the RPG veterans at BioWare released Dragon Age: Inquisition, the predecessor to Veilguard. Despite this gap, Veilguard builds directly and insistently upon plotlines and themes developed in Inquisition, to the extent that the 2014 RPG often feels like required reading for this latest release.

This issue is baked into the RPG’s core premise. You play as ‘Rook’, a troubleshooter employed by Varric, a sassy and lovable bard from Dragon Age 2 and Inquisition who is putting together a team to stop the ancient elven mage Solas (another Inquisition character) from ending the world in a catastrophic ritual.

After an exciting twist, you’ll put together a team of talented misfits while squatting in Solas’ magical interdimensional summerhouse, using a network of portals to zip across the world to put out fires, make friends, and try to prevent an impending apocalypse. These trips involve journeys to gorgeous, explorable environments where you’ll traverse beautiful vistas, battle bad guys, and solve problems. Sometimes you’ll make tough ethical decisions along the way which affect the main story, too, though such opportunities are more scarce than would be ideal.

As pitches for a grand adventure go, it’s strong, if a little by the numbers. However, if you don’t know who Varric or Solas are or why the world of Thedas is in this mess, you may find yourself adrift. Contrary to the likes of Baldur’s Gate 3 and Metaphor: ReFantazio which stand alone, Veilguard exists under the long shadow of its predecessors, building on existing themes and plotlines while rarely establishing new threads. Though there is an in-game repository of information (known as the ‘codex’), the vast reams of text on offer can often feel off-putting rather than inviting.

For long-time series fans, this is a feature, rather than a bug. Seeing answers and resolutions to long-time mysteries (some of which date back to the original Dragon Age: Origins in 2009) makes for some powerful and rewarding catharsis. However, regardless of its impressive combat and strong writing, Veilguard is defined by its past. While the RPG never outright collapses under the weight of its predecessors, it certainly buckles and bends with regularity.

Fight club

Veilguard’s combat system is a courageous offering, combining engaging, kinetic action with occasional moments of thoughtful strategy. As you battle, you’ll use a real-time combination of attacks, dodges, parries, and special skills to win victory. Much like BioWare’s sci-fi series Mass Effect, combat exists in real-time but may be paused at the touch of a button, allowing you to direct your comrades or select some of your more powerful, cooldown-based abilities. These abilities vary wildly depending on your build. As a Rogue, I had access to special bombs, daring shooting techniques, and devastating sword attacks, all of which could be refined and tweaked as I leveled up.

Abilities can be strung together in combos, where certain actions ‘detonate’ corresponding status ailments (such as ongoing damage over time or a flat damage reduction), creating a satisfying magical explosion. What’s more, given that these abilities work on a cooldown, you often have to choose between damaging combos and necessary combat utility. Is it better to heal or to unleash a maelstrom of deadly necrotic magic? Do I have my ally taunt my opponents, or should I order them to make me temporarily invulnerable with an inspiring shout? Questions like this keep Veilguard’s combat engaging hundreds of battles into the campaign.

All of this is punctuated by a slick system of parries and dodges, allowing you to rapidly react to enemy attacks. Parry at the right time, and you’ll perform a ‘perfect parry’, sometimes stunning your opponent and, depending on your build, offering you significant buffs to damage. This adds an ebb and flow to battles, rewarding you for attentive play. However, those looking for a more laid-back experience can easily customize Veilguard’s combat difficulty to suit their needs, tweaking granular elements from parry windows to enemy health.

This sort of customisability is at the forefront of Veilguard. Not only is the character creation process detailed enough to give Starfield and Cyberpunk 2077 a run for their money with its wide range of body types and permutations, but you also have access to a massive advancement tree which varies depending on your class. This tree contains dozens of nodes, each unlocking novelties ranging from significant passive buffs to brand-new abilities. Each of the game’s three core classes (Warrior, Rogue, and Mage) boasts a completely different tree and, thanks to the meaningful choices on offer, I always found myself looking forward to my next level up.

Bonding moments

BioWare RPGs tend to live and die on the strength of their supporting cast, and Veilguard is no exception. While I shall do my best to avoid spoilers, rest assured that the cast of supporting characters in Veilguard is diverse and relatable.

Each companion’s personal storyline is a coherent multi-part adventure, composed of dramatic set-piece battles, gripping dialogue, and gentle walk-and-talk scenes framed against Veilguard’s jaw-dropping environments. Having a gut-wrenching discussion about family trauma is one thing, but doing so on a sprawling, torchlit coastline at dusk elevates the scene to new heights. Though these scenes are occasionally undermined by slightly janky facial animations, such flaws rarely detract from the meaningful exchanges on the screen.

Veilguard draws each of its companions from a different faction and, by extension, a different region of the setting. This ensures that their differences in opinion seem organic rather than forced. It follows that an upstanding and knightly Grey Warden would be skeptical of a dubious assassin from the cutthroat, Venice-inspired nation of Antiva.

Unfortunately, not every aspect of Veilguard’s storytelling is as consistent or impressive as these character-driven vignettes. The RPG’s explorable environments boast plenty of side quests, but almost all of them are forgettable and leave little scope for decision points and player agency. In one particularly disappointing showing, you meet a fan-favorite character from Dragon Age 2, only for her to have you fight a series of repetitive arena battles as she offers repeated, canned dialogue after each of your victories. While Veilguard rarely stumbles to this extent, the side-quests often feel rushed and do little to broaden the fantasy.

Despite its high barrier to entry, the main story does demonstrate opportunities to make meaningful decisions as a player character. One particularly gut-wrenching decision forced me to choose between two missions offered by different companions. There was only time for one, and, no matter what I did, somebody was bound to lose out. When I made my decision, the venomous disappointment of the offended party felt compelling and realized.

It’s these moments that cement Veilguard’s place in the Dragon Age canon. While flawed, janky, and rushed in places, BioWare’s latest delivers a coherent and rewarding adventure that will delight fans of the series. However, those newer to Dragon Age will need to hit the books if they want to enjoy everything Veilguard has to offer.

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Accessibility

Dragon Age: The Veilguard offers a broad range of accessibility options. The game offers filters for colorblind players with Protanopia, Deuteranopia, and Tritanopia. Subtitle size and frequency can also be customized. Visual effects such as motion blur, camera shake, and depth of field can also be adjusted.

Combat and exploration are highly customizable. Difficulty in battle can be tailored to remove requirements for quick and precise input timing while the glint distance on objects can be adjusted along with objective marker and waypoint visibility. There are also sliders for the camera and aiming sensitivity.

How I reviewed Dragon Age: The Veilguard

I spent over 35 hours with Dragon Age: The Veilguard, taking time to explore the central campaign, companion storylines, and numerous side-quests. I took the time to experiment with all three classes as well as a wide range of different builds. I also replayed certain set pieces throughout the game to test the extent to which making different choices would affect the story.

I played the game on PS5 on a 48-inch LG C2 OLED 4K TV with a Dualsense Wireless Controller. The game mostly ran smoothly, but I did occasionally notice input lag when in menus. That said, the lag was rarely sufficient to meaningfully detract from the experience.

First reviewed October 2024