I don’t think it’s especially controversial to say that Dragon Age: Inquisition sort of sucked. Well, it wasn’t bad – it did win a bunch of Game of the Year awards – but it certainly fell short of the first two games, and the open-world take on the game ended up being a painful slog of side-quests and wasted time. It wasn’t bad, but I never felt like it did the series justice. I’m pretty happy, then, that Dragon Age: The Veilguard is a far more focused affair, with a generally faster pace, and open zones rather than full open-world gameplay. It’s so much better, and while it’s not perfect, it does feel like a return to form for the series and for Bioware as well.
Things kick off really fast, with you being introduced to Rook, your character, as they’re going into a bar to try and meet one of their companions. Things don’t quite go according to plan, and you soon find yourself instead teaming up with the familiar old face of Varric. Not that this really improves matters as things continue to go south, one thing leading to another, some ancient Elven gods getting released, and it now being your job to try and un-release them. Classic RPG stuff, really.
The trials and tribulations that you’ll have to navigate on The Veilguard’s overarching quest will often have you battling your way through demons and blightspawn. So it’s a pretty good thing that the combat is an absolute blast, letting you easily switch between two weapons, regardless of the class that you settle on. As a mage, that meant switching between a magical staff, and an orb and dagger combo that let me cause miniature explosions.
Levelling up naturally gains your character new abilities, and you can easily respec within your class if you want to try out a different build, which is nice, though you’re locked into your overall class from the beginning. You don’t get to test the classes out before deciding what to be, just watch a video showing what they can do. Would it kill big old RPGs to allow us to test the classes for a bit? At the very least, there’s only three fighting classes – rogue, mage or warrior – and they’re broad enough that you should know what you want to be.
Of course, you’re not going to go alone – that’d be dangerous, wouldn’t it? Two companion characters can go into battle with you. Dragon Age has changed a lot since the original game, and with the more action-heavy combat, BioWare has scaled back the control you have over the rest of the party, now more about ordering and using their abilities to the fullest. It’s a simple system to use through the ability wheel and feels incredibly smooth, allowing you to feel like you’re half-controlling your whole crew.
While we’re talking companions, gosh, it’s a good group. The mix of characters here is very good, and you’re bound to find a couple of characters you like spending time with, and writing and performances that you’ll enjoy. I was a big fan of Neve, mostly, and her general “Sherlock Holmes but fantasy” vibe was incredibly cool to play along with. This helped a lot as, during the character creation process, I chose to be from the Shadow Dragon faction, which Neve and I had in common. I do feel as though I preferred the options in Dragon Age 2 overall, mostly because of Isabela, but it’s still a good bunch to mesh with this time around.
And the writing is mostly good throughout the game… mostly. It lacks the same backwards-facing decisions as the original trilogy, which is something of a shame, and the way that your decisions in The Veilguard impact the world and your team tends to be a lot more immediate. It’s more immediate that way, letting you know what’s going down straight away, but is another shift for the series.
In the moment-to-moment, though, there’s a weird, uncanny feeling that permeates a lot of the general chatter between characters. It feels like Iron Man or Loki could pop out at any given moment; it’s all just a bit Marvel. There are quips, and a vibe that just doesn’t quite mesh with the high fantasy feel, and which feels rooted in scriptwriting trends that felt played-out half a decade ago. That’s my main gripe though – and specifically with Bellara, who was the biggest offender on this front – and plenty of you will enjoy having that style of conversation sprinkled throughout.