| Dragon Age: The Veilguard | |||
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| Gameplay & Story | Release Date | Pre-Order & DLC | Review |
It's time to put together a team with unique powers to stop the gods in BioWare's latest game, Dragon Age: The Veilguard! Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard Review Overview
What is Dragon Age: The Veilguard?
Dragon Age: The Veilguard is the latest installment of BioWare’s critically acclaimed fantasy RPG franchise, Dragon Age. The game features full action-RPG gameplay, as opposed to its predecessors which had a more tactical approach mixed with some action elements.
Set 10 years after the events of Dragon Age: Inquisition, it follows the story of Rook, a fully-customizable protagonist recruited by Varric Tethras, tasked with leading the charge against gods who wish to bring ruin to Thedas. Similar to the previous installments, you will be forced to make decisions that will affect the different characters, factions, and outcomes in the story, with varying degrees of effects.
Moreover, Veilguard centers the gameplay in you and your companions journey around the world of Thedas, where you’ll be looking for answers, helping allies, and eradicating threats to help your cause in fighting against the tyrannical gods. It has a more fluid gameplay loop that is similar to action RPGs like Final Fantasy XVI, Dragon’s Dogma 2, Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, and the like. You will be able to choose between three distinct classes, each with their own strengths and unique specializations.
The game features a heavily streamlined skill tree for your personal character and a simple skill system for your companions, which you can easily respec to try out and fit together different team compositions that suit your playstyle.
Over onto the scope of the map, Veilguard features smaller explorable areas for you to find hidden treasure and other secrets to strengthen your equipment. This is a departure from previous Dragon Age installments, such as Dragon Age: Inquisition, wherein maps were semi-open which misled players to accomplish all the accessible side content in that area. Lastly, the game also has a simple equipment upgrade system as opposed to Inquisition’s grindy crafting system.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard features:
⚫︎ A Narrative Set 10 Years After the Events of Dragon Age: Inquisition
⚫︎ Recurring Characters From Past Installments
⚫︎ “Choices Matter” Storyline
⚫︎ Fully Customizable Main Character
⚫︎ 7 Different Companions Each With Their Stories and Questlines
⚫︎ 3 Distinct Classes With Different Playstyles
⚫︎ Streamlined Progression Systems
⚫︎ Fluid Action RPG Gameplay
For more gameplay details, read everything we know about Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s gameplay and story.
 Dragon Age: The Veilguard |
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 Steam |
 Epic |
 PlayStation |
 Xbox |
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Dragon Age: The Veilguard Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Full On Action RPG Gameplay Great Worldbuilding and Character Interactions Choices Still Matter Less is More Exploration Straightforward Progression |
Disney Looking Characters Obnoxious Enemy Tracking Allies Are Just Assists |
Dragon Age: The Veilguard Overall - 90/100
Dragon Age: The Veilguard was the result of BioWare learning from their lesson on fully investing into the action in an action RPG. The prior installment tried to balance its old identity of being both a strategy RPG and an action RPG, this time they went full on with the latter design. Veilguard delivers on its action-packed gameplay, enhanced by new mechanics, tighter level design, and a faster pace. Coupled with great audiovisual presentation, a compelling narrative, and so much side content to explore and finish, Dragon Age has definitely made a comeback worthy of your time.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard Story - 9/10
Without spoiling too much of the story, BioWare continues to wow audiences with stellar worldbuilding and a compelling narrative that’s built upon a long standing foundation of the prior games, novels, and other material. There may be some questionable dialogue at times where it either takes itself a little too seriously or comedic, which may leave you scratching your head. Nevertheless, the game carries on its legacy of having your choices matter for the most part, and executes it well.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard Gameplay - 9/10
Finally embracing the faster pace of the action RPG genre, the gameplay is more fluid and more engaging as opposed to the older games. They’ve also made a big effort in making every class fun to play and widely unique from each other. It also streamlined most of the past progression systems and made its simpler and easier to digest and understand. It also incorporates smaller and more engaging areas to explore as opposed to the prior game’s semi-open world approach.
However, the combat is not perfect. With the more individualistic approach in gameplay, party members feel like assist characters that you command to do certain abilities. Enemy tracking is also egrigiously annoying, where certain encounters feel like a slog due to the dominance of enemy ranged units constantly harassing you forcing you to play more defensively.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard Visuals - 9/10
Everything about the game’s visuals are extremely well done, where the lighting, post-processing, and art direction come together to make a very beautiful and appealing game. This also applies to the game’s animations and effects, where everything in motion look amazing. But it does have its issues, specifically with the character faces. Some facial animations and the faces themselves look off. Certain character and enemy designs don’t fit the game’s theme, which make them look out of place or not as threatening as they were depicted before.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard Audio - 9/10
The game’s audio design has always been commendable, where the sound effects and music have been great enough to enhance the experience. Similarly, the game’s voice acting is also noteworthy where most of the characters deliver their lines well.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard Value for Money - 9/10
As a AAA franchise, Dragon Age has always delivered with numerous side content and a lengthy single player experience to boot. As always, a $69.99 price point is steep. However, this game in particular has improved from the previous installment in almost all aspects from audiovisuals, gameplay, and even the story.
With smaller yet more condensed areas to explore, it manages to make major cities and landscapes meaningful to explore. It also has a ton of replayability based on the number of possibilities and choices you can make in the story. Other than that, you can also play as different classes to experience the different playstyles that the game has to offer.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard Review: Finally Embraced the Action
After a decade since the release of the previous game, BioWare finally released Dragon Age: The Veilguard. To fans like myself, we consider this as BioWare’s last chance at redemption after a series of misses with recently released games and not to mention, a whirlwind of events that sprung layoffs and controversies over at the company. With their reputation and the series as a whole on the line, they have done well to create a full action RPG experience based on what they already made with the previous Dragon Age games.
The game has amazing graphics, a compelling narrative with a well-established world, and most importantly, actually engaging gameplay that can rival the action RPGs we have today. After sinking in more than 25 hours of gameplay and playing it on Nightmare difficulty as a Mage, Dragon Age: The Veilguard may just be what BioWare needs to redeem themselves.
Upgraded Visuals And Some Downsides
It’s no surprise that the visuals of Veilguard trump the previous game by a mile. The lighting, in particular, seems to be one of the biggest focal points during gameplay. When seeing everything in motion in cutscenes and in combat, I can’t help but marvel at how everything looks. It’s one of the better looking games of 2024 that’s for sure, and mainly because of how BioWare enhanced their overall aesthetic with the great use of lighting.
The only problem I really have with the visuals is how "Disney-fied" everything is. If you were to compare the appearance of an Ogre in the past three games, you’d find that the one in Veilguard seems to be the least visually threatening of the bunch. Not only that, but even the player characters in the game seem off, which I can’t really put my finger on what it is exactly that doesn’t seem right with the whole theme. Maybe it’s a mix of weird facial animations and overall structure that it seems out of place at times.
I’m Putting Together a Team… Again
Similar to the past games, it always ends up having to put together a team of some sorts. From the group that put down the Archdemon in Origins, the Champion of Kirkwall’s entourage in Dragon Age 2, and the titular Inquisition from Dragon Age: Inquisition. It’s no different this time in Veilguard, whereas Rook is tasked with leading a band of various characters, each with their own specialties, to stop the recently unbound gods from destroying Thedas. While the whole organization isn’t as grand as the Inquisition’s, the Veilguard do have the means of being able to go wherever using the Eluvian Mirror in their base of operations, the Lighthouse.
Those who aren't familiar, BioWare always made a focus on getting to know the companions who’ll be joining you in your quest. The group dynamics and the conversations that they have always add a lot to the experience in playing the Dragon Age series, which is one of the reasons why the recurring characters are beloved. They also all have different preferences when it comes to the decisions you make, where some of them may even hold your past choices against you when it comes down to it. In my playthrough, I was certainly surprised at how much I liked the cast and I’m definitely sad about being only able to bring 2 companions with me to the fight.
Worldbuilding, Choices, and Consequences
The world of Dragon Age is vast, and it’s been something that’s been developing for almost 15 years. Fans of the series will appreciate just how much the series has evolved since then, where now knowing the context of everything that’s happened till now, the lore is past politics and has been exploring the strength of the actual gods in the world of Thedas. It’s good that they continually add the codex for new players to understand the different terms being thrown around, as I’d imagine newcomers having a culture shock similar to how you’d experience the Warhammer lore for the very first time.
The series is no stranger to giving the player extreme choices where you have to pick one or the other, as it’s no different in Veilguard. Without spoiling too much, I was pleasantly surprised at how the game literally made me look at the consequences from the choice I made early on. This will be one of the main points of replayability in the game, as you’d want to know all of the possible outcomes when you choose a different option in the events that unfold in the game.
Out With the Old, In With the New
The series has seen a lot of changes over the years with a big emphasis on the change of gameplay. Dragon Age was first introduced as a realtime action strategy RPG, where it functioned similarly to an active tabletop game. Over the course of its sequels, however, the game started to incorporate more and more action RPG elements into the game.
This was obviously seen in Inquisition, where it tried to be a middle ground between action RPG and strategic gameplay. It resulted in a game where it’s too slow to be an action RPG, yet too active to be a tactical strategy game. BioWare decided to finally embrace the action RPG design and make it a more active game, with a tactical pause included for you to safely cast abilities.
This was a very welcome change since they even overhauled the different classes to be more proactive in terms of gameplay. The perfect example would be the Mage class, as now they’re more engaging to play. Having the option to play and mix both weapon sets (Sword + Orb and Staff) during combat made it super satisfying to play as you combo your spells with your different weapons. This isn’t to say that only the Mage class was fun to play, as even the other classes like Warrior and Rogue had their own unique twist on how combat encounters would go.
New Design, New Problems
There are some downsides with their current gameplay and combat design, despite it being very enjoyable. First off, your allies don’t actually help you out as much, at least not in my playthrough, as they don’t deal meaningful damage until I command to use a skill or focus on certain enemies. Even then, you’d be hard pressed to rely on your companions to finish the job for you, unless you buff them to no tomorrow. I also found myself using my companions to provide me with defensive buffs most of the time, as opposed to using the game’s skill combo system with Primers and Detonators.
Another issue was the enemy tracking for their attacks. The gameplay is very similar to the modern Assassin’s Creed games where there are indicators for attacks you can block, parry, and dodge only. Committing to a dodge early against melee opponents would have them home in and even close the distance on you at times, which proved to be the main annoyance I had with combat encounters.
Playing on Nightmare difficulty, I found these two issues prevalent in certain encounters where huge armored enemies would constantly swarm me and ranged barriered enemies would constantly harass me with ranged attacks causing me to dodge prematurely. In a game where you’d die to about 2-3 hits, this was a pain to deal with mainly because of how much enemies tend to overwhelm you with attacks at wildly different timings.
This forced me to play a lot more defensively at times, which wasn’t anything new. But it did feel like my offensive options are limited due to how much enemies would constantly overwhelm you. This may easily be a skill issue on my part, as I should parry as much as I can and dodge at proper timings. However, when everything starts to converge on you, timing your defense can be pretty difficult.
Less Doesn’t Mean Worse
One of the main issues of Dragon Age: Inquisition was how it handled area exploration. While the main story quest was begging you to leave the area to progress further, players simply tried exploring the massive starting map which had places that you weren’t supposed to interact with early in the game. What didn’t change, however, was exploring to find more materials for you to use for upgrades.
This time in Veilguard, they remedied this by simply locking out areas that you can’t interact with for the time being. This may seem counterintuitive, since it was a semi-open area in the previous game, but it walled off players from being sidetracked by content that they’re not supposed to be engaging in due to a lack of levels, equipment, etc. This greatly improved the experience, as it tells the player that you’re only allowed to explore this area for now, so that they don’t get stuck trying to fight an overleveled dragon out in the wilds.
This forces players to actually finish side quests to open up new areas to explore, which means more loot and treasure to strengthen the team. Of course, it wouldn’t be great either, if they’re forcing you to do side content to be able to explore more, but I didn’t really find any quest boring in my experience. Even the companion quests add more to their individual stories, as you get to know more of the colorful characters in your ranks.
Easy to Understand Progression
Veilguard also managed to streamline both skill and equipment progression in the game. By simply just giving Rook the more complex skill tree, it gives you more focus on yourself instead of minmaxing everyone. The skill tree in question isn’t anything out of the ordinary either, as it’s a generic skill tree you’d find similar to Path of Exile, God of War, etc. What makes it special is that you can refund it as much as you want, whenever you want. Which means that you’re free to change up your build on the fly to try out new abilities, spells, and other passives that may strengthen your character.
Other than that, the equipment progression is also very simple. When you find a usable weapon or armor, it’ll come with several different passive upgrades that are locked. Depending on the rarity of the gear, you’ll have more of its passive upgrades unlocked. Finding a copy of that specific gear, from either purchasing it from vendors or finding it from treasures, will directly upgrade the rarity of the gear so that these strengthen them immediately.
Not to mention that the game’s upgrade system is also simple, where it strengthens the base stats of that gear up to the current level of your Workshop. I will advise players to immediately upgrade their Workshop as much as they can, so that they can conserve valuable materials to use for other upgrades.
Similar to Rook, your companions will also have their own equipment that you have to upgrade and find in the different areas of the game. But contrary to Rook's skill tree system, they will only have skill trees based on the five different skills they have in their kit. This means that other than their smaller variety of equipment, their skills are also the only thing you can enhance and such. This is both good and bad, since you don't really need to focus on your companions as much when strengthening them but this does limit the customization you have from the past iterations where you had almost free rein to change their builds.
It’s a fairly simple progression system that focuses on Rook and doesn’t add unnecessary fluff or have too many menus for you to go through, as you’d want to be able to play the game faster with your new improvements.
Quite a Late Comeback
As a longtime fan of the series, I would safely say that BioWare made a really great game this time around. One that they can be sure that their fans would appreciate after waiting so long. They also committed to the action aspect as well, which I greatly appreciate since the gameplay of Inquisition seemed half-baked when combining both the strategy and action aspect of it.
Not everyone will appreciate the shift to a more fast-paced action RPG style of gameplay, but I can assure you that the soul of the series still lives on. The interesting character interactions, the worldbuilding, the different factions, and even how it all comes together in the story; Dragon Age: The Veilguard is a comeback that the fans have been waiting to see and experience.
Is Dragon Age: The Veilguard Worth It?
Yes. Dragon Age is Actually Back!
Although the price is steep as with all AAA games at $69.99, you are getting a great quality game with amazing audiovisual presentation, interesting narrative, and most importantly engaging gameplay. The game offers tons of replayability by making different choices in specific pivotal moments as well as playing as another class that plays differently. While it took a while for BioWare to bounce back, they definitely did it in style. Dragon Age: The Veilguard is the refinement of the previous game and turned it into a full fledged action RPG, where the engaging combat takes the spotlight.
| Digital Storefronts | |||||||
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| Steam |
Epic |
PlayStation |
Xbox |
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| $59.99 | $69.99 | ||||||
Dragon Age: The Veilguard FAQ
Do I have to play the previous games to understand the story of Dragon Age: The Veilguard?
You don't necessarily have to, as the game provides a glossary of terms and a quick summary of the events of the previous game in the game's Codex. To get the full context, however, you will want to play at least just Dragon Age: Inquisition and its DLCs.
What are the different factions in Dragon Age: The Veilguard?
The different factions you can choose for Rook's background in the game are the following:
⚫︎ Antivan Crows
⚫︎ Grey Wardens
⚫︎ Lords of Forune
⚫︎ Mourn Watch
⚫︎ Shadow Dragons
⚫︎ Veil Jumpers
Take note that each faction will have corresponding passive bonuses to Rook when determining his background during character creation.
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Dragon Age: The Veilguard Product Information
| |
| Title | DRAGON AGE: THE VEILGUARD |
|---|---|
| Release Date | October 31, 2024 |
| Developer | BioWare |
| Publisher | Electronic Arts (EA) |
| Supported Platforms | PC(Steam, Epic Games Store), PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One |
| Genre | Action, RPG |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| Rating | RP |
| Official Website | Dragon Age: The Veilguard Official Website |
well that was a lie lmao
Bro, Diavoros, the game hasn't even come out yet so you obviously haven't played it. How would you know it's trash?
It is not a good videogame by any stretch of imagination and giving it such an overwhelmingly positive review is such a disservice to potential consumers.