Earning a strong 4.25 out of 5 on my completely arbitrary rating system (see below), I found Dragon Age: Veilguard to be a worthy addition to the Dragon Age series. Given the concerns about the future of Bioware, I am personally breathing a sigh of relief, as this gives me some confidence that they will be able to continue delivering better and better installments of Dragon Age and Mass Effect, two of my favorite RPG universes in all of gaming.
I think the first thing to talk about is representation, since it seems to be the elephant in the room in many of the reviews I am reading, which seem to include a lot of coded language around being “strong-armed” or “force-fed” parts of the story. While there were a few story arcs that put aspects of identity front and center, the player is never forced to engage with them, and they felt respectfully written and true to the story the writers were trying to tell. During character creation, I was pleased to see the choice of gender, gender identity, gender presentation, and voice were all independent. It also includes a variety of customizations that I have not seen before, including vitiligo and top-surgery scars. The player can opt-in to a transgender identity early on in the story through a unique moment of reflection for the character, and taking that path opens up a small number of additional dialogue opportunities between the character and the companions as the story unfolds. I absolutely enjoyed this aspect of the game, and felt that it added depth to the characters and narrative.
The story overall was excellent, and the pacing was particularly noticeable for me. A lot of RPGs can make it feel awkward or “non-canonical” for the character to spend time engaging in side quests and advancing companion storylines, but the writing in Veilguard managed to tie it all together very nicely. The character is encouraged to (and rewarded for) going deep and broad, and completionists will be rewarded for their efforts. There are story beats where it feels “right” to rush ahead through a sequence of story quests, and times where it feels “right” to spend some time on yourself and your allies. The quests were deep and varied and tied into the overall plot (or one of your character’s relationships or allies), and I never felt like I was being sent on an errand, which made the 75 hours I spent completing the game fly by. There were plenty of major set piece battles and quests throughout the adventure, and they all feel consequential, emotional, and atmospheric… and, true to its name, it has no shortage of dragon encounters! The final battle was a satisfying capstone to the game, with plenty of opportunities to see the result of your actions (and inaction) come full circle. It was long enough, without dragging or feeling repetitive, and the endings feel well-done.
The core combat system is a significant highlight for me, delivering a punchy and rewarding experience where every victory feels hard-earned, even though I was playing on the default difficulty and was never really in danger (I only ended up using two revives total in the entire playthrough). Higher difficulties look like they ratchet the difficulty up in ways that I can definitely see being worthwhile for subsequent play-throughs or for players seeking more of a challenge: timings will be tighter, party composition will be more important, and optimizing for weak points, enemy weaknesses, and player resistances will become more important. Sound and audio cues are plentiful, though on the settings I was using the combat graphics can get pretty busy and make it hard to see some of the “tells.”
This satisfying gameplay is complemented by stunning graphics and in-engine cinematics that I often took time to enjoy (and/or screenshot) just on their own. Each of the primary locations has its own visual style, and each one is cinematic and atmospheric and offers plenty of opportunities to take in the scenery and enjoy the complaints of your graphics card. Once I resolved some instability with my graphics card itself that required tuning the clock down a bit, the Nvidia optimized settings for Veilguard ended up being almost perfect for me, with the game running at 60fps for a huge majority of my play-time.
Exploration in Veilguard is rewarding, with things to find (and the accompanying small hit of dopamine) around every corner. The maps are unique and littered with puzzles and secrets that make venturing off the beaten path consistently feel rewarding. The puzzles were generally pretty easy, with a few head-scratchers thrown in for good measure, but some did border on the tedious. I suspect that even the ones that were fun to figure out on the first play-through might end up feeling like a bit of a drag on a replay. Another thing to note for explorers and completionists: the game will frequently take you back to a place somewhat after it opens up, so you might find yourself retreading your steps and walking past treasure chests that you stumbled across in your explorations as part of some later quest. It’s also worth noting that the first time you visit a number of the “permanent” locations, you will be more on-rails and will have the rest of the area open for exploration later, so there will be times where you see something and can’t explore it just yet. I generally didn’t find this to be a problem, but it is a bit unfortunate that there are some quests that you can’t return to, and so any items or upgrades that you miss along the way will be inaccessible to you as you progress and eventually complete the quest. (I’m not 100% sure, but on reflection it seems like you may be able to tell whether you can return to a setting by whether there is an Eluvian on the map when you enter.)
Another charming detail worth noting: You can pet the cats! And there are lots of them. And, if you have a controller, it will treat you to a nice rumble along with their purring. (There are also some dogs, but not nearly as many. Also, the dogs don’t purr.)
Companions and squad-mates are a staple of Bioware games, and Veilguard is no exception. I found this crop to have a lot of depth and a staggering amount of banter, to the point where it seems like you might never hear it all, even after repeated play-throughs. One thing I appreciated was that a lot of the inter-companion banter during quests would pick up where it left off (with some suitable “… so where was I …”) if it is interrupted by combat. The individual characters’ story arcs were really fleshed-out and well-integrated into the world, and aren’t shy about making you feel things either. These arcs make the companions feel alive and make the risks you are taking as part of the story feel more weighty. You get to see the impact your character has on the companions as they wrestle with their past or their desires or their insecurities, and there are meaningful choices to make along the way. No two companion arcs are the same, and they have a mix of “conversation” and “combat” sections throughout. Funnily enough, the richness of these companion arcs is so compelling that it made me realize that the player’s character (at least with the Veilguard background) actually doesn’t have nearly the same kind of development, beyond the central plot at least. I felt like it picked up a bit at the end, but “I” never really felt as well-developed as my companions did, though this may well be desirable from a game design standpoint to allow the player more freedom to choose motives and internal desires for the PC. The voice acting is predominantly good for both Rook and his companions, with a few excellent moments and a few awkward ones here and there.
The rate at which you acquire talent points, unlock new talent trees, and upgrade your weapons feel good, ensuring a constant feeling of advancement. The talent tree I had for the Warrior felt pretty fun, and I never felt like I had to go through “bad” nodes to get to the ones I wanted. By the end, I definitely felt like I had gotten to all of the nodes that I wanted and had found some fun ones that I didn’t know I needed. I was initially not sure which of the “champion” trees I was going to enjoy, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the early-game and foundational skills were very fun and ended up leading me naturally toward the champion tree that worked well with them. You can also freely change around your talent points, though after a certain point doing so would be very daunting due to the sheer number of points you accrue. I will say that if you are thinking of hitting the “reset all talents” button, you might want to screenshot your build, since it could be very difficult to remember where you put everything if you end up wanting to go back. There is an arena that unlocks partway through that provides a useful space to practice builds and get a feel for different companion synergies, though it quickly gets to the point where it is too “easy,” which might make it useless for optimizing late-game builds on higher difficulties. It’s also worth noting that player power (and survivability) can be earned through exploration, not just from completing quests and slaying monsters. I found that the default difficulty offered a balanced challenge, and my character’s journey from a “squishy” warrior who can’t time a parry to save his life into an indestructible tank wielding flaming weapons as he ricochets around the battlefield was enjoyable.
On the technical side, while the graphics are visually stunning, I was not a fan of the facial animation when simultaneously smiling and talking, though the other animations were fine for me. I definitely picked more of the stoic, angry, emotional, etc dialogue options as a result. The lighting, particularly on the hair, is much more cinematic and atmospheric than prior installments of the game (or, at least, with the settings I’ve been able to play on).
As a long-time player of Bioware titles, I think Veilguard is clearly cut from the same cloth and makes good use of the “style” that we’ve come to know and love. The companion system feels like an evolution of the one in Mass Effect 2, for example, doubling down on the story arcs and the player’s involvement with them. They even took another pass at what feels like the dream sequences from Mass Effect 3, learning from fans’ criticisms and making it feel great. The dialogue wheel, companion banter, player base, faction reputation system, exploration progress tracking, map systems, fast travel, etc all feel like they build on successful foundations, and occasionally even improve upon them.
If you have played Dragon Age or other BioWare titles or you are interested in trying out an excellent RPG and the 50-75 hour investment doesn’t scare you off, I highly recommend picking up Veilguard!
Final Rating: 4.25/5