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    Dragon Age: The Veilguard review

    Vaseline Posted on

    As I excitedly slashed, shot, wooed, looted, and blasted my way through the stunning and captivating world of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, I kept having one thought: “Wait, BioWare made this? BioWare 2024?” With this game coming in the wake of the debacle that was Anthem, preceded by Dragon Age: Inquisition and Mass Effect: Andromeda, both of which were fine in retrospect, I wasn’t sure these former masters of role-playing could make a game like this no more. But assembling my team of interesting and endearing companions to save the world felt like putting the old band back together, in more ways than one.

    The scope of this adventure spans the entire north of Thedas, sending you from the shores of Rivain to the devastated wastes of Anderfels as you attempt to prevent the rise of an ancient and menacing evil. It was exciting, as a long-time fan of the series, to finally see so many of the places I had only read about in a diary in 2009. And the way BioWare lets us do that exploration is very focused and deliberate. .

    How do you rank Dragon Age’s companion characters?

    How do you rank Dragon Age’s companion characters?

    Veilguard’s level design was one of the first things I noticed and reminded me of the original Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic more than anything. The smooth, winding corridors with just enough little corners to explore are cleverly connected in a way that proves how a BioWare-style RPG gains a lot and loses almost nothing by abandoning the idea of ​​a completely open world. (The exceptions to this are some of the more vertical parts of the city of Minrathous, which can be tricky to navigate.) Across the board, the environmental art is truly breathtaking, from the desolate peaks of Kal-Sharok to the surreal, floating elf ruins in Arlathan Forest.

    I was also very happy with the character designs. The armor and outfits are fantastic. I spent over an hour in the character creator, as I usually do, and came out with a version of our main character, Rook, who delighted me every time she was on screen. This might be the most beautiful hair I’ve ever seen in a video game.

    Veilguard’s combat is a refinement of what we saw in Dragon Age 2 and Inquisition.

    Even with all that visual splendor, I was able to achieve a stable 60fps at 4k on my RTX 4070 Super with DLSS set to maximum performance, which mostly didn’t affect visual quality in very noticeable ways. The only exception to this was in the late game, when so many spell effects could happen at once that not only was I losing frames, but it was hard to see what was actually going on.

    However, through the crackles and sparks, Veilguard’s combat is definitely a refinement of what we saw in Dragon Age 2 and Inquisition. I’ve always preferred the more tactical style of Dragon Age: Origins or Baldur’s Gate 3, but that ship sailed for this studio so long ago that even the Evanuris don’t remember what it looked like. And so, if we judge this very action-oriented combat system for what it is, it’s pretty good! BioWare has fully committed to the fast-paced style and refined it to a point that I quite enjoy it. And the ability to pause to issue orders to party members, just like in Mass Effect, still gives tactical players like me the ability to look around the battlefield and consider our next move. However, it certainly feels better on a controller than on mouse and keyboard.

    When I finally defeated my first dragon in Dragon Age: Inquisition, I felt a little sad to think that I was probably starting to exhaust the seemingly endless stream of content. But then I saw the quest sticker: “Dragons slain – 1 in 10.” In all my hours I had only seen three. It’s a surprisingly big, dense world, and I quickly realized that there were still entire sandboxes that I hadn’t even set foot in yet. Even in my hundredth hour, I’m still discovering. Despite the less than compelling plot, I still want to go back and explore every nook and cranny of Dragon Age: Inquisition and continue fighting until every dragon’s skull is mounted on my wall. – November 11, 2021

    Score: 8.8

    Read the full Dragon Age: Inquisition review

    I was somewhat disappointed that at this point party members are more of an extension of your own character in battle than their own entities. For example, they don’t even have health bars. They cannot be taken out in battle, while you immediately lose an encounter if Rook goes down. They do have equipment slots and skill trees, although less than what Rook gets. But overall, the amount of customization available to the entire team via piles and piles of interesting, expandable loot was more than enough to satisfy my RPG cravings, if not fulfill my wildest fantasies about complex battle management.

    In my 100-hour, almost 100 percent, almost obsessively completing playthrough, I styled Rook as a Spellblade – a mid-range melee mage hybrid – and really enjoyed the playstyle once I unlocked all my core tools. Dancing with a dagger through a lightning storm I’ve summoned, darting out of danger and then back in for a killing blow is just a really good time that rewards precise timing and sensible aim prioritization. This isn’t the tactical Dragon Age of my youth, but it’s a Dragon Age I can live with.

    And the combat highlights are without a doubt the boss fights, which provide a very satisfying challenge even on standard difficulty. While standard mob battles with Darkspawn or Venatori cultists eventually became a bit repetitive after 90+ hours, I always managed to battle a High Dragon because I had to carefully study attack patterns and think on my feet.

    Your entire team is made up of complex, memorable, and lovable companions.

    In the sense that a BioWare RPG is really about your companions, otherwise known as the friends we’ve made along the way, this might be the most BioWare game of all time. Not only is the entire team made up of complex, memorable, likable and distinctive personalities from across Thedas, but they are all treated like the stars of their own story. Veilguard is light on that classic kind of side quest that’s like, “Help Bingo Bongo find some fat,” and I don’t miss those that much because they’ve been replaced by full-length heroic arcs for each companion, with twists, turns, a personal enemy, major character developments, and a moment of triumph more suited to a protagonist than a sidekick. It’s as if the writers blew up the loyalty missions from Mass Effect 2 into seven miniature games of their own. Nearly every side mission ties into one of these, taking away the feeling of being busy.

    Choosing a favorite from the seven Veilguard members to talk about really feels like an impossible task. I really want to say that they are all my favorite. But I had a rewarding romance with the stoic Gray Warden, Davrin, and became the mother of his young griffin friend Assan, so he has to be my choice for this playthrough. Seriously, if anything ever happens to that little guy, I will wash Thedas away in a tidal wave of fire. The Vincent Price-inspired gentleman necromancer Emmerich is also a delightful twist on the usual edgy gothic death-mage styles.

    And while the developers asked us not to reveal specifically who I’m talking about here, as a non-binary person, Veilguard contains some of the most authentic representations of coming to terms with gender stuff – and having to navigate the backlash of your family on it – I saw it in a game. It doesn’t feel like an after-school special or like I’m being pandered to. It’s handled quite well, and the discovery that the writer of this character is himself non-binary didn’t surprise me at all.

    The larger plot that threatens the world in the background while we do all these more personal quests is nothing special in terms of overall structure. We need to unite some factions to fight some evil gods who are trying to do bad things with tentacles. The main wrinkle that makes that interesting, though, is that Solas – also known as the Dread Wolf, the elven god of lies and rebellion – is waiting in the wings, leaving me to guess whether he was a friend or an enemy.

    In a way, this story feels like both a farewell and a gentle restart.

    As a continuation of the Dragon Age series, Veilguard feels a bit disconnected from where we left off ten years ago. If you were expecting decisions from previous games in the series to be carried over, I’m sad to say they’ve never mattered more. You can only import three choices, one of which only comes up in the context of a single letter that you may or may not be able to find and read. You can recreate your Inquisitor from Dragon Age: Inquisition, the same way Inquisition lets you recreate your Hawke if you played Dragon Age 2. And the Inquisitor ends up being a pretty important character, which was cool.

    But things like who you chose as head of the Chantry at the end of the Inquisition are never discussed. There is no sign of the Warden of Origins, even if you visit their order’s stronghold. Hawke gets only a passing mention. There are a few other cameos from both Origins and Dragon Age 2, but those characters conspicuously make no reference to any major choices you’ve made in their presence. In a way, this story feels like both a farewell and a gentle reboot, which paradoxically was a bit refreshing and disappointing at the same time.

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    The pacing at the beginning is also a bit weird, and I felt like I could practically smell the rewrites. For example, it’s hilarious that no one ever says the word “Veilguard” out loud in the hundred hours I played this dialogue-heavy campaign, exposing a last-minute marketing pivot for what it was. But it doesn’t take long for things to get on track story-wise, and when they do, they stay on it.

    The sacrifices I had to make in the closing hours hurt. The wise decisions I made paid off.

    Aside from a huge choice you’ll make early on, the most interesting bits of story design don’t come until the end of Veilguard’s story. And again, it’s hard to get too deep into this without spoiling anything, but the finale is also very much in the spirit of Mass Effect 2, which has an ending that was perhaps the best set of complex sequels yet . ever seen in an RPG. The sacrifices I had to make in the closing hours hurt. The wise decisions I made paid off. And I even had the opportunity to pull a dramatic ace up my sleeve at the last minute, especially because I handled everything that preceded it very thoroughly and carefully. That felt like the ultimate reward.

    Through it all, the cinematic flair is off the charts, proving that BioWare is unmatched in that regard in the RPG world. So many of the best things I can’t even tell you about, but parts of it felt like I was watching a big budget fantasy movie in the best way. A triumphant and effective – if not entirely iconic – score elevates these moments even further.

    Vaseline
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