Dragon Age: The Veilguard Review - A Beautiful And Engaging Journey

Despite being the fourth entry in the series, Dragon Age: The Veilguard is surprisingly approachable for new players, while still providing plenty to get excited about for those of us who have long held a fascination with the lore in this expansive universe. Developed by BioWare and published by EA, the single-player fantasy RPG offers everyone a chance to spend many hours as a hero in the world of Thedas. Dragon Age has always been known for having strong characters, whether a companion with a full story arc of their own, or simply a blacksmith in one of the towns. Happily, The Veilguard continues to provide this deeply immersive quality.

The Dragon Age franchise has a rich history for those who wish to dig deep into it all, and yet Thedas still feels just as welcoming to new players in The Veilguard. The main narrative picks up ten years after the events of Inquisition, and anyone who has played that game will enjoy seeing Easter eggs appear throughout. Now, the player takes on the role of Rook to form a party strong enough to face powerful Elven gods, dragons, and the blight.

One tip for those starting out, however, is to actually take your time with the character creator. Unlike some games where players hardly ever see themselves, in The Veilguard, players will be constantly seeing their Rook in cutscenes, fights, and everything in between. Thankfully, there is a way to tweak things once in the game if you decide you aren't happy with it, so you aren't stuck for 80 hours with a main character you aren't happy with.

The Story Of Dragon Age: The Veilguard Is Engaging And Deep

Continuing The Strong Lore Of The Series With Fresh Twists

It's hard to even know what to say about The Veilguard's story while remaining spoiler-free. There are so many twists and turns in the journey, and things can change based on what the player decides to do. Ultimately, the narrative centers around a ritual gone wrong. At the start of the game, Rook is part of a small team who is trying to stop a powerful mage, Solas, from tearing down the Veil that keeps demons and an evil blight from pouring into the world of Thedas.

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As one might expect, given that this happens at the beginning of a very lengthy RPG, stopping the ritual creates problems. Two even more threatening Elven gods find their way into the world and begin to cause havoc. Filling the world with monsters known as darkspawn, and covering the land with a corrupting blight, these gods are more than happy to kill anyone who will not bow down to them. The question then becomes how Rook can find the right allies to help, and then how a ragtag group can take down gods.

The Seven Companions Are Each Strikingly Unique And Feel Real

Although There Could Be A Bit More Romance

Completing missions and objectives around northern Thedas can build alliances with the different factions, each of which is represented in the crew through one of the companions that joins up. There are seven companions who bring very different personalities, opinions, and story arcs of their own to the game. Among them are three women, three men, and one non-binary, and yes, any of them can be romanced by any Rook.

The first time I ever found myself getting into the idea of romance in a video game was long ago when I played Dragon Age: Origins and fell for the handsome Alistair. Naturally, I paid homage to that memory by choosing to go with another Grey Warden for The Veilguard, and became close with Darvin. Although, that may have also been partly because Darvin comes with a baby griffon named Assan, who is my favorite thing in the entire game.

I was a bit disappointed, however, that the romance portion seemed to be less than in other Dragon Age games, but perhaps that had to do with my choices.

Game Mechanics For Combat Are Smooth And Natural

And Player Choices In Dialogue Can Be Very Important In Dragon Age: The Veilguard

The combat mechanics for The Veilguard surprised me, in a good way. I was a bit hesitant going into it, knowing that developers had changed the combat mechanics to be more action-oriented this time around.

In gameplay on PS5, using a controller, I immediately felt comfortable in combat. There are quick buttons for useful attacks, and it's simple to pull up an action wheel during combat which can allow a player to signal companions to do a certain move or even craft some combos. However, at times when I tried not using this action wheel at all, I found that my companions were still useful in the fight, and I was still able to be powerful with just my accessible button attacks. This means players can truly play how they want to, whether with a lot of control or more laid back.

Choices are always a big part of games like this, often with serious consequences. Although the screenshot I put here has a rather boring example of dialogue options, I did this on purpose. The choices that Rook is presented within many of the cutscenes and dialogue can have a profound impact on the story.

People can live or die based on what choice is made, or the statement made will be remembered later and influence outcomes and reactions. Because of this, it was tough to find a screenshot of a decision where it was not offering potential spoilers for the story, but still gets the point across.

The concept of having weighty decisions that influence outcomes is not new. In fact, that is one of the best features for making a game like this immersive. Thankfully, the autosave feature of Dragon Age: The Veilguard also includes temporary decision saves before some of the potentially traumatizing choices.

Assan And Manfred Are Hilarious In A Dark And Blighted World

And So Many Little Details Make The Game Special

I found that while playing Dragon Age: The Veilguard, there were so many small details that drew me in and made me want to stay in this world. The characters are all very well-designed, but particularly the adorable Assan and Manfred. Assan is a young griffon being raised by Darvin, and Manfred is a hilarious, if creepy, living construct that was formed by Emmrich the necromancer to be his skeletal assistant.

Likewise, side conversations between companions or NPCs could often bring a smile to my face. Of course, sometimes they were discussing sad situations in the world, but other times it could be a silly discussion about how bad the coffee was.

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While playing, Rook and their companions regularly come across new transmogs of outfits to change-up their looks, including some rather silly ones. Additionally, traveling in the game was very user-friendly, with a way to fast travel to major locations by just pulling up the map. And, while much of the game is mission-focused on where to go, the areas will open up for open exploration after specific quests have happened. This includes featuring many smaller side quests in each zone.

Final Thoughts & Review Score

Screen Rant Gives Dragon Age: The Veilguard A 9/10

The only change I really found myself wishing for was that it would have been nice if there was a New Game Plus mode or some way to continue playing after the final battle. This adventure is so long, and I wanted to do everything, but ultimately needed to push through to finish the game after having played nearly 70 hours.

Overall, I feel as though the narrative explored here was incredible, with many thought-provoking moments and surprising twists. There are certainly some sensitive topics that won't be for everyone, but overall, I feel that Dragon Age: The Veilguard is a heroic adventure worthy of the franchise.

Reviewed On PlayStation 5

Publisher(s) Electronic Arts

Pros

• Deep and captivating storylines for both main campaign and companion arcs
• Beautiful graphics
• Excellent continuation of story without leaving new players behind

Cons

• Lacking New Game Plus or continued gameplay
• Despite a robust character creator, it still has limitations
• A couple of game crashes