Hello, Seekers! I (Jonathan) have been enjoying a respite from work travel and have taken full advantage of it by delving into the latest installment in developer BioWare’s iconic fantasy role-playing video game series: Dragon Age: The Veilguard (or Veilguard for short). Known for its companion romances, rich lore, and making players face the consequences of their choices, the Dragon Age franchise has wielded enormous influence in contemporary gaming. Veilguard arrived a full decade after the last major installment, Dragon Age: Inquisition, and expectations were high. Read on for my full Dragon Age: The Veilguard game review.
Genre: Action role-playing game (RPG)
Overview: Rook must unite seven companions and their allied factions to battle against evil gods for the future of Thedas.
My Rating: 4.0/5.0
Dragon Age: The Veilguard Game Review
Veilguard is a visual departure from its predecessors. The old games’ realism has been replaced by a vaguely cartoonish style. It’s not bad, just different. I would’ve loved to see more realism that took advantage of newer consoles’ graphics capabilities, but that’s strictly a matter of preference. More important is that for the most part animations are fluid and exciting, and settings like Minrathous and Treviso are beautifully rendered. I spent a fair amount of time just exploring and admiring the architecture of both cities and absorbing the huge amount of available lore. One annoying quirk I encountered while doing so was respawning in the water I’d just drowned in only to drown again, and again, and again. The only recourse was to load a recent save. This did not happen every time, but often enough that it became a nuisance.
On the subject of visuals, much ado was made about the character creator. I was overwhelmed by the options to adjust bodily dimensions down to nose length and width and found them unnecessary, especially when something as obvious as body hair was absent for humans. Facial hair is an option, but the rest of your human character is elven smooth. That curious omission will hopefully be fixed in a future patch. Still, I was pleased by the wide range of available skin tones and hairstyles. Almost everyone should be able to make a Rook that resembles them. Factions with respective backgrounds were also introduced as part of the character-creation process. Some, like the Grey Wardens, will resonate most with players familiar with Dragon Age lore. While faction choice alters some elements of gameplay like dialogue and side quests, it has minimal impact on the main storyline’s events, and certain factions are better integrated than others. There’s room for growth in this area.
Another widely-touted feature of Veilguard is the revised combat system. It felt more like an evolution than a revolution to me. A greater emphasis has been placed on using your companions’ abilities and party composition. I acclimated to it quickly, but I lost count of how often I triggered the wrong ability because I fumbled the blind button press. It’s an issue endemic to modern games (see the bevy of spells to toggle through in Hogwarts Legacy). That aside, I never encountered lag or other issues even with myriad complex animations happening, and there was a good variety of difficulty and strategy needed for boss battles.
The companions, typically a strength of Dragon Age, are where I have the most mixed feelings. Emmrich represents a high. A necromancer with a fear of death and a charming skeletal assistant? Say less. Then there’s Lucanis, who I romanced in my first playthrough. He oozes brooding sex appeal, but when I wanted The Notebook, I got the Post-It. It was indicative of a broader issue with the companions, namely that their responses to Rook’s attempts at flirting either gloss over or completely ignore what’s being said. And the payoff–the infamous “night before the final battle” scene of which BioWare is so fond–is just not worth it. It’s brief, entirely too tame, and not up to the standard set by previous games. I might have been less aggrieved had I not just spent the better part of the last two years playing Baldur’s Gate 3, which managed to be spicy and emotionally fulfilling. BioWare is courting a broader (and younger) audience with this change and others, and while I understand it, I dislike it.
In summary, Veilguard breaks new ground for the Dragon Age series with its updated combat and aesthetics, milder romances, and greater emphasis on fighting with companions. In striving to be all things to all people, it lost some of what made the series special, but this may only matter to ardent fans. While I may not totally love the new look and feel of Dragon Age, I’ve still found it enjoyable and have started my second playthrough.
Have you played Veilguard? If so, tell us what you thought in the comments. (Also check out our other gaming content here.)