Dragon Age: The Veilguard Review

Despite being the fourth entry in the series Dragon Age: The Veil Guard is surprisingly accessible for new players, while also offering plenty to be excited about for those of us who have long been fascinated by the lore of this expansive universe. Developed by BioWare and published by EA, the single-player fantasy RPG offers everyone the chance to spend many hours as heroes in the world of Thedas. Dragon Age has always been known for having strong characters, whether it’s a companion with a full story arc of their own, or simply a blacksmith in one of the towns. Happily, The Veil Guard continues to provide that deeply engaging quality.

THE Dragon Age the franchise has a rich history for those who want to delve into everythingand yet Thedas still feels equally welcoming to new players in The Veil Guard. The main narrative takes place ten years after the events of Inquisitionand anyone who has played this game will enjoy seeing Easter eggs pop up everywhere. Now, the player takes on the role of Rook to form a group strong enough to face powerful elven gods, dragons, and the plague.

A tip for those just starting out, however, is to dedicate some time to the character creator. Unlike some games where players almost never see each other, in The Veil Guard, players will constantly see your Tower in cutscenes, fights, and everything else. Fortunately, there is a way to tweak things once in the game if you decide you’re not happy with it, so you’re not stuck for 80 hours with a main character you’re not happy with.

The story of Dragon Age: The Veilguard is engaging and deep

Continuing the strong tradition of the series with new features

It’s hard to even know what to say about The Veil Guardthe 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 revolves around a ritual gone wrong. At the beginning of the game, Rook is part of a small team that is trying to stop a powerful wizard, Solas, from destroying the Veil. which prevents demons and an evil plague from invading the world of Thedas.

As you’d expect, given that this happens at the beginning of a very long RPG, stopping the ritual creates problems. Two even more threatening elven gods arrive in the world and begin to wreak havoc. Filling the world with monsters known as darkspawn and covering the land with a corrupting plague, these gods are more than happy to kill anyone who does not bow to them. The question then becomes how Rook can find the right allies to help and how a disorganized group can overthrow gods.

The seven companions are surprisingly unique and look real

Although there might be a little 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 they join. There are seven companions who bring very different personalitiesopinions and story arcs specific to the game. Among them are three women, three men and one non-binary, and yes, any of them can be dated by any Tower.

The first time I had the idea of ​​romance in a video game was a long time ago, when I played Dragon Age: Origins and fell in love with the handsome Alistair. Naturally, I paid homage to that memory by choosing to go with another Gray Guardian to The Veil Guardand became close to Darvin. Although this may also have been partly because Darvin comes with a baby griffin named Assan, which is my favorite thing in the entire game.

I was a little disappointed, though, because the romance part seemed to be shorter than in other Dragon Age games, but maybe that has to do with my choices.

The game mechanics for combat are smooth and natural

And the player’s choices in dialogue can be very important in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

The combat mechanics for The Veil Guard It surprised me, in a good way. I was a little hesitant to start, knowing that the 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 the player to signal teammates to make a certain move or even create some combos. However, Sometimes when I tried not to use this action wheel, 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 that players can truly play however they want, be it with a lot of control or in a more relaxed way.

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 that on purpose. The choices presented to Rook in many of the scenes and dialogues can have a profound impact on the story.

People can live or die based on the choice made, or the statement made will be remembered later and influence outcomes and reactions.. Because of this, it was difficult to find a screenshot of a decision where it didn’t offer potential spoilers for the story but still got my point across.

The concept of making important decisions that influence outcomes is not new. In fact, this is one of the best features to make a game like this engaging. Fortunately, the autosave feature of Dragon Age: The Veil Guard it also includes temporary decisions saved before some of the potentially traumatizing choices.

Assan and Manfred are hilarious in a dark and ruined world

And so many little details make the game special

I discovered this while playing Dragon Age: The Veil Guardthere were so many little details that attracted me and made me want to stay in this world. The characters are all very well drawn, but especially the adorable Assan and Manfred. Assan is a young griffin raised by Darvin and Manfred is a hilarious yet frightening living construct who was formed by Emmrich the necromancer to be your skeletal assistant.

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

While playing, Rook and his companions regularly encounter new clothing transmogs to change their appearance, including some pretty silly ones. Additionally, traveling in the game was very user-friendly, with a way to quickly travel to key locations just by opening the map. AND, Although much of the game is focused on the quest of where to go, areas will open up for open exploration after specific missions happen. This includes many smaller side quests in each zone.

Final Thoughts and Review Score

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

The only change I really wanted was for 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 very long and I wanted to do everything, but ultimately I needed to push through to finish the game after playing almost 70 hours.

Overall, I feel like the narrative explored here was amazing, with lots of thought-provoking moments and surprising twists. There are certainly some sensitive topics that won’t be for everyone, but overall, I feel like Dragon Age: The Veil Guard is a heroic adventure worthy of the franchise.