Review: Dragon Age: The Veilguard

BioWare was once revered as one of the best developers of western RPGs. From Baldur’s Gate to the phenomenal Mass Effect trilogy, I once fell in love with the studio’s worlds, stories and most importantly, its stellar character writing. Dragon Age: The Veilguard attempts to steer the studio back on the right path after suffering a few misfires in the last decade. It’s not quite the homerun we were expecting but there’s still a lot to like (and even love) in The Veilguard while also being critical of its low points.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard picks up some time after the events of Inquisition. Solas is causing chaos and a newbie on the scene, your custom-made protagonist Rook, joins Varric and a group of misfits to band together against Solas’ devastation. Unfortunately, there are more powerful forces at work that push you into taking charge of your crew against a new, rising threat. Without spoiling anything further, I’ll leave the story explanation there.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard, like most BioWare games, lives and dies on the strengths of its writing and characters. Fortunately, the game presents a wonderful cast of new characters like the familiar rogue dwarf Lace Harding, the beautiful detective Neve Gallus, the noble Qunari warrior Taash and the straight-laced assassin Lucanis Dellamorte, among others. Admittedly, it takes a while to warm up to everyone. BioWare makes the decision to hastily introduce characters first and unravel their stories maybe 10 or 20 hours into the game through personal quests largely detached from the main story.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard, like most BioWare games, lives and dies on the strengths of its writing and characters.

Naturally, this makes it a bit difficult to form attachments to your companions at first, but as their personal plights open up, they become vastly more interesting than just extra soldiers by your side. Neve, for example, could be mistaken for an overly stoic detective who takes her job a bit too seriously, but ends up having a terrific character arc through her personal questline. The same can be said about Lucanis and many other companions. Unlike Mass Effect (and other Dragon Age games, for that matter) that let you spend time conversing with your crew in-between big quests as you get to know them better, there are sadly very few meaningful interactions with The Veilguard‘s companions in the first dozen hours of the game.

It’s unfortunate because the companions form the emotional backbone of your adventure (it’s literally in the title) – I only wish BioWare allowed players to at least start learning about these characters a little earlier to build those crucial connections and bonds. That said, most of the companions are simply a joy thanks to good character writing that gets progressively better as the game goes on. Once the stakes ramp up in the second half of the game, you should be very well-adjusted and connected to your companions to care enough about their survival and struggles.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard introduces a Bond Rank system that rises and falls depending on choices you make throughout the story. Some companions will appreciate your choices while others might despise them. This normally results in a companion’s Bond Rank dropping or the character completely disappearing from the hub area for some time or for a certain amount of quests, which realistically puts a lot of weight on your decisions. If a bond increases, you can open up romantic dialogue paths. The romance elements are pretty good and feel organic in how they evolve over the course of the game. There are obvious standouts like Harding, Neve and Lucanis but most of them are well-developed.

Like the characters, the strength of Dragon Age: The Veilguard‘s writing also takes a while to, well, get really good. In its best moments, The Veilguard‘s writing is as good as Mass Effect 2 but at its worst, it dips to Anthem‘s or Mass Effect: Andromeda‘s level, complete with quippy one-liners that feel incredibly out-of-place at times. The inconsistent writing might put off many BioWare fans who rightfully feel that the studio’s history of excellent writing and dialogue isn’t reflected here – truth be told, the quality is mostly upheld but as mentioned before, you’ll only get that confident BioWare writing in the latter portion of the game.

In its best moments, The Veilguard‘s writing is as good as Mass Effect 2 but at its worst, it dips to Anthem‘s or Mass Effect: Andromeda‘s level.

In terms of gameplay, Dragon Age: The Veilguard is the most radical departure from past games in the series, moreso than Inquisition. BioWare puts a heavy emphasis on the “action” part of “action-RPG”. Combat is performed in real-time with a pause menu to bring up a wheel that lets you trigger your own special attacks as well as issue commands to your companions (though they pretty much act freely and you don’t really have control over their immediate actions). The AI is good enough to make your companions useful in fights and I didn’t have too many problems with them keeping up with my pace.

Combat is fast, flexible and feels great when you get decent combos going. There are three classes to choose from at the beginning: Rogue, Knight and Mage. You can then focus on specialising in class-specific playstyles through a massive skill tree. The Rogue, my prime choice in the game, lets you either better your agility with dual blades or focus more on ranged offence with a bow. The Knight lets you wield a large, powerful hammer for big, ground-shaking AoE attacks or feel cool as hell with a magic scythe that can cut through enemies at range. Thanks to the flexibility in how you build your skill tree, every class feels terrific to play and only gets better as you level up. Likewise, companions can also be levelled up as each is also slotted into a class.

The RPG elements of Dragon Age: The Veilguard aren’t nearly as strong as I would’ve liked from BioWare. Most dialogue choices tend to shoehorn you into the “good guy” role with options to reply either positively, sarcastically, slightly less positively or angrily positively. There aren’t many chances for you to pick a traditionally “bad” or “evil” route, which is a shame because it negates those role-playing elements quite a bit. By and large, Rook isn’t a bad person because the storytelling demands a traditional heroic archetype out of them. Try to dismantle your relationships or pick the least satisfactory choices all you like, the story will still put you on rails during certain beats, which is a bit disappointing.

You’ll spend quite a bit of time in a hub area called the Lighthouse. Apart from having a nice little customisable room for Rook, you’re free to explore and converse with companions (when the game allows it). Most of your pre-planning for quests is also done here, where you get to really sink your teeth into some of the good role-playing options that BioWare actually does include. You can also upgrade your equipment, change your appearance – which thankfully includes almost everything except class rerolls – and plan your next steps. It’s not as in-depth as the Normandy from Mass Effect where you’re free to be a commander and actually do leadership things like plot your destinations or check up on your crew, but it works fine, I guess.

Try to dismantle your relationships or pick the least satisfactory choices all you like, the story will still put you on rails during certain beats, which is a bit disappointing.

Most quests are fairly linear affairs in Dragon Age: The Veilguard (reminiscent of Dragon Age 2 or Mass Effect 2). You’re dropped into zones that usually have a clear path forward, save for a few mid to late game areas that let you freely explore semi-open world maps. If the biggest complaint for Inquisition was the unnecessary size of its biomes, then you’ll probably love the more streamlined approach The Veilguard takes with its world. BioWare doesn’t short-change the terrific world-building either. Every area is jam-packed with detail that make the world feel alive and lived in. Quest objectives will typically push you towards a goal, but for the most part, you can take your time mingling in the city streets, visit vendors, briefly chat with NPCs or find new areas off the beaten path for that extra bit of immersion.

Exploration is usually rewarded with random items you collect in the world that can be sold to merchants for some gold, which is then used to buy new weapons, armour or other useful items. Stumbling upon bigger chests rewards you with higher-level equipment anyway, so there’s rarely a reason for you to actually purchase new equipment from merchants unless you really need to. Transmog is available in case you pick up a bad-looking piece of armour with very high stats, though most of the game’s attire is fantastic and very stylish.

On a technical level, Dragon Age: The Veilguard is extremely polished with rare bugs or visual glitches. I hardly saw any technical hiccups during my 50-ish hours on PS5 except for one instance of the game crashing. Luckily, a forgiving autosave system let me jump right back into the moment when the crash happened. Voice acting is solid across the board with highlights like Ali Hillis’ Harding and Gareth David-Lloyd’s Solas who is, once again, a scene-stealer. The graphics are dazzling – this is easily the best-looking game BioWare has ever made. Every environment is stunning, dripping with detail and strong visual fidelity.

I can definitely see the game’s art style being a sticking point for many fans. Unlike the grounded or realistic characters of past Dragon Age games, The Veilguard goes for more stylised character designs with exaggerated features (some have compared it to DreamWorks animation). Personally, this didn’t really bother me. Characters still look fantastic with improved animations over the robots from Mass Effect: Andromeda. The character creator is also one of the best in BioWare’s history with plenty of options to make your ideal Rook, including backstories, factions and more.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard isn’t BioWare at its best and far from BioWare at its worst, but it is a step back in the right direction, especially after suffering two misfires that would’ve buried most studios. The game does lack a bit of role-playing freedom and momentum before it starts to show its true colours in the second half, though. The combat will surely be divisive too (and definitely not everyone’s cup of tea) but for players that don’t mind some stylish real-time action, there’s a lot to like here. The Veilguard falls short in some areas and absolutely shines in others, though it never really coalesces to form something great either. As a fun action-RPG, it works but it’s also clear that BioWare still has a few miles to go before it can recapture its best days.

*PS5 Review code provided by Electronic Arts