Dragon Age: The Veilguard combines the series’ best qualities into one

With each new Dragon Age game, BioWare brings a new evolution of its RPG series that builds on what came before. 2011’s Dragon Age 2 transitioned away from the CRPG roots of its predecessor for a more engaging and real-time action battle system. Then, 2014’s Dragon Age: Inquisition fully embraced gaming’s open-world trend at the time and delivered a story filled with political intrigue.

Ten years later, Dragon Age: The Veilguard takes all of the best aspects of Dragon Age 2 and Dragon Age: Inquisition — from combat to world-building — to create what could very well be the best game in the series so far. Digital Trends spent four hours playing Dragon Age: The Veilguard and spoke with game director Corinne Busche about the game’s settings and what players can expect after such a long development cycle.

Introducing Minrathous

Dragon Age: The Veilguard starts off in Minrathous, the capital of the Tevinter Imperium. The game’s prologue opens with the customizable main protagonist, Rook, as they journey to stop Solas from opening up a portal to the Fade, a magical dimension filled with dangerous monsters. It’s an explosive start that really grabs your attention, and that’s by design according to Busche.

“I think about the prologue of games as being a contract that we make with the player about what you can expect, what is the promise of the game,” Busche tells Digital Trends. “I wanted players to have that opportunity to jump right in and really get a feeling for the stakes, the depth, and the emotion of the game, right from the opening moments.”

After the prologue, I learn who the true enemies are: Elgar’nan and Ghilan’nain, two ancient and powerful elven gods that make Solas look like small fry in comparison. Throughout the game, they’ll continually make appearances, making them feel like constant threats.

In one of the later portions of the demo I played (when the party attempts a siege on the castle Weisshaupt), the gods take the form of giant thunderclouds, giving them an oppressive presence. They spread blight wherever they go to sow chaos and disorder. It’s a great change of pace from Inquisition, where its main antagonist, Corypheus, barely felt like he was even in the game.

The Veilguard’s impressive visuals stand out to me in these early hours. After having replayed Origins a few months ago, the Minrathous’ sapphire and emerald hues look stunning in comparison. Lore also plays a part in making it look vibrant. Other cities are affected by the blight, covering them in oozing red and black grime. The contrast between these areas show off the game’s art direction, Busche explains.

“Northern Thedas is a very different part of the world. This is a part of the world that embraces magic. Magic is literally seeping through these ancient ruins using magic like people use electricity to light up the city streets of Minrathous,” Busche says. “What that meant is we knew that there would be aspects of this game that absolutely are more vibrant with those magical energies, but a critical part of it are those dark and blighted lands, truly horrific moments where you’re fighting alongside people as they struggle. That darkness is still very much a part of the game.”

My favorite area so far popped up when the party went into an underwater prison to rescue Lucanis, a vampiric assassin with black wings. As I was navigating the dungeon, I felt like I was in Atlantis; the flowing water visuals made me forget that the series originated during the Xbox 360 and PS3 era, where many RPGs stuck with dull grays and browns for their color palette. BioWare really went out of its way to create as many diverse biomes as possible, and it already shows in the opening hours.

Making friends

Of course, the most important aspect of Dragon Age is its characters — and The Veilguard is already offering some memorable ones. Lucanis is quickly turning out to be my favorite companion; he has a demon residing inside of himself that periodically takes form and only he can see. That makes the other companions look at him funny as it seems like he’s just talking to air.

The dialogue wheel makes a return, where Rook can choose the kind of tone they want to set during conversations, usually between nice, sarcastic, and stern. The Veilguard does a great job in visualizing the impact of your choices. For example, flavor text on the screen will actually spell out that characters could feel happy or upset because of what you said or what action you took.

The Veilguard emphasizes decision-making, but so far, I haven’t seen how impactful my choices will be long-term. During the prologue, Rook can choose between two companions — the dwarf Harding or mage Neve — to accompany you to stop Solas. Whomever you choose ends up with visible bruises for a good while afterward. I personally chose Neve, and seeing those bruises on her face actually made me feel bad for her.

There’s another big choice to make later in the game that involved saving a city, and depending on what I did, I thought there would be a huge change in how the story progressed. However, all that really changed was the order of smaller events leading up to a side quest with Lucanis where we hunted down an old witch who bathed in blood to stay youthful. I enjoyed that side quest, as its conclusion led to an interesting plot twist in Lucanis’ family history, but I didn’t really notice how the big decision beforehand really affected that much. Hopefully it’s a longer-term affair.

Fighting around

The Veilguard’s combat is most reminiscent of Dragon Age 2’s, where it plays much more like a standard console action RPG. Players will have to continually press buttons to dish out attacks. This is a departure from Origins and Inquisition’s combat where heroes had auto-attacks, letting players just press a button once to continually assault enemies. I’m a bit disappointed that it’s not there, but it does force me to be more engaged with the minute-to-minute gameplay.

Combat feels responsive and impactful among the three main classes you can choose: warrior, mage, and rogue. I loved the warrior’s ability to throw a shield, and there are skills that would allow me to throw it consecutive times. The way the shield hit enemies and came back to me felt like I was wielding Kratos’ Leviathan Axe from God of War again. The rogue feels the most versatile, being able to evade attacks with precision and switching between dual swords and a bow and arrow. The mage is my least favorite of the bunch so far, as I felt like it wasn’t dishing out as much damage as the others, but I could see its untapped potential with its humongous multi-target spells.

Companions come in clutch when fighting bosses. In particular, the magic bow-wielding Bellara was integral to beating those harder fights because of her healing spells, as I could only carry three potions at a time. Neve’s ice-based magic let her slow down time and enemies, which allowed me to regroup whenever fights became too hectic. Mixing and matching companions is incredibly fun, and you’re bound to find a few favorites. The only downside is that you can only bring along two companions instead of three like previous games. It’s an odd limitation and feels like a small step backward.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard is shaping up quite nicely. I’m interested to see what Northern Thedus has to offer, especially since it’s a new, unexplored area within the Dragon Age games. The updated gameplay feels modern, despite some strange omissions, and the art direction is impeccable. If the first four hours are indicative of the entire journey, the result should hopefully be an RPG that looks as good as it feels.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard launches on October 31 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.