Dragon Age: The Veilguard Review

After first being revealed at The Game Awards long, long ago (we’re talking 2018), BioWare and Electronic Arts’ Dragon Age: The Veilgaurd has arrived just in time for peak gaming season. Can this title stack up to this year’s other juggernauts, or should players be wary?

Dragon Age: The Veilguard Review

Playing and beating all Dragon Age titles multiple times, we’re no strangers to the series – we even platinumed Dragon Age: Origins.

Featuring a world close to annihilation, Solas (Dreadwolf, which is a way better name than The Veilguard) is trying to open a portal to the Fade and unleash the demons that lurk within. Working alongside Varric and others, players set out to hunt Solas down and stop him.

Finally catching up to him, Varric tried to reason with the mad Elf, but he’d have none of it. When words failed to find him, a tower from one’s party was thrown down on top of him that interrupted the ritual and imprisoned Solas back to the Fade.

In that short amount of time, two ancient evil gods managed to sneak out, and voilà, we have a purpose and a story.

Solas was undoubtedly bad, but these two are nightmares, gaining the title of God through conquest and tyranny.

Ghilan’nain and Elgar’nan are Elven Gods that bring blight, destruction, and Dragons. With zero chance of stopping the big bads right now, the group retreats to a part of the Fade known as the Light House.

Serving as the hub for you and your team, players will set out to do what one does best: defeat a big Ancient evil – albeit two of them. Dragon Age: The Veilguard is one of those games that you can complete in 40-50 hours, or 80 hours for the completionists out there.

The early parts of of Dragon Age: The Veilguard prove to be overly linear. There’s loot and minor secrets, such as a hidden room with some extra gold. However, this title doesn’t even try to pretend to be open world – think Dragon Age 2.

Everything in Dragon Age: The Veilguard is also disconnected, since you are traveling through the Fade from area to area. Fast travel will help alleviate some backtracking, but players will revisit the same areas multiple times.

To be fair, areas in Dragon Age: The Veilguard evolve as one progresses. Despite this, we ended up hitting up Docktown at least a dozen times.

Choices are also hit and miss in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Certain obvious choices will have significant impacts on your team and the game world; an early one leaves one of your teammates scarred, while a later one costs players an entire city.

The bigger issue with the choices is the fact that you can’t really be a bad guy this time around. Sure, you can occasionally punch people or leave others to die, but most choices boil down to three different versions of yes.

You get the sassy yes; the good boy, yes; and the “FINE, I’ll do it” yes. At some point, we need to move the story forward; it could have been handled better.

Choices were lacking, but the banter between party members during missions somewhat made up for it. Players can only bring two allies at a time, more like Mass Effect than Dragon Age.

For instance, one of my favorite combos is Taash and Emmrich. During an adventure in the undercroft, we were discussing what would happen to our bodies after we died. Emmrich is a Necromancer and obsessed with reanimated corpses, so once that was brought up, Taash shut it down immediately. So now, when Taash dies, I will inherit their body.

That was a forced choice that I actually enjoyed.

For longtime fans, Dragon Age: The Veilguard features a number of changes to its combat system. Proving to be more of action RPG then the system in Dragon Age: Inquisiton, it ended up feeling more like a light version of 2018’s God of War than anything else.

After playing as a Mage for a few levels, the class became enjoyable. While players are slow due to a restricted mana pool, Dragon Age: The Veilguard opens to to include additional equipment that dramatically changes one’s build.

Starting as a lightning Mage, we switched to a Spellblade once we discovered the joys of the Arcane Bomb. Our bread-and-butter used to be Walking Bomb, so the switch-up proved to be second nature before too long.

As one auto-attacks in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, the enemy builds up stacks of the Arcane Bomb. Once it reaches three hits, it turns into a big bomb that can explode for big damage. With the right build, one can make said big bomb stack multiple times as well.

Enter us ripping enemies up en masse near the end of our playthrough. Allies play a big role in combat as well, with all companions potentially being a healer.

When it comes down to it, those that dive into Dragon Age: The Veilguard should aim for combos.

Some attacks and spells have things like Overwhelm, Sundered, or Weakened. When you combine that with an ally’s attacks, this sets off a detonation that does big damage and looks even better.

Our particular build revolved around setting up our own Arcane Bomb, then Overwhelming the enemies for allies to make them go boom. It’s just a shame combat takes too long to get to the really fun stuff – there’s even an ultimate attack just waiting to be charged up for big damage.

The economy is also another highlight of Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Never feeling reach, we were always desiring items.

While one does not sell gear, if the players gets a copy of an item, it then upgrades to the next rarity level. From there, players can go to the Light House and put enchantments on the gear at no cost.

That’s not all – players can then put down trophies and other items in thier own room, but the customization is very limited. Do note there are free refunds on skill points, which is always a good thing.

Unfortunately, not everything is rosy in Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

For longtime fans, there are only three choices from previous Dragon Age titles can be brought over, all from Dragon Age: Inquisition.

Certain party members are also needed to get through obstacles; Taash’s fire breathing, for instance, must be used to light torches and burn brush. As a Mage that can literally spawn fire from nothing, not lighting them ourselves felt backwards.

Perhaps the biggest offense comes from its control scheme. The pickup item button and the jump button should NEVER be the same, and it proves to be the case here.

Tech-wise, there are no bugs, crashes, or frame drops to speak of in Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard is a perfectly fine action RPG that simply doesn’t stand up to the best of what 2024 has to offer. While those who liked Dragon Age 2 will appreciate this title, more casual fans best tread with caution.

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