I recently had the opportunity to play BioWare’s new fantasy action RPG Dragon Age: The Veilguard. I’ve only spent a few hours with past Dragon Age titles, so Veilguard wasn’t something I was eagerly waiting for. But after jumping through several sections set throughout the game, it became my most anticipated release for Fall 2024.
Back in June, I was able to sit in on a private preview during Summer Games Fest. However, that session was strictly manual. We were only able to watch the presenter play out the game’s opening prologue via the character creator. The experience at Publisher EA was much more eye-opening and exciting.
Create a rook
Veilguard begins by giving players the opportunity to customize the game’s protagonist, Rook. Players can choose from four races. In addition to the traditional elf, human, and dwarf options, there’s a large horned race called Qunari unique to Dragon Age. I had previously played as a Qunari in 2014’s Dragon Age: Inquisition, so I wanted to try something new and chose the elf.
Once you’ve decided on your race, choose one of three classes: Rogue, Warrior, or Mage. Once again, I decided to go outside of my usual playstyle and chose the Mage. Rook also has six factions to choose from in the game. Faction selection acts as Luke’s backstory, granting reputation points to various organizations in the story as well as buffs against certain enemy types.
The final part of setup is to choose a difficulty option or play style for the game, with information about how each option changes the damage taken, enemy aggressiveness, tactical challenge, and timing of defenses. It’s great to be able to check.
Combat is fast, fluid, and fun
After character creation, I played through five different sections of the game. The first section is the game’s opening prologue, which was released in June. This is where I was introduced to the game’s combat, and I was really surprised at how exciting it was. As a magician, I usually attacked with spells from a distance. The face buttons on the controller have light and strong attacks, and you can combine them. For example, doing three light attacks in a row will start an attack chain where the last hit deals even more damage.
You can also dodge by tapping the button. Double tap to start warp avoidance. This literally teleported the character several feet further away from the standard dodge distance, but it was just as fast to do, so it felt very comfortable. The movement of warping around the battlefield and delivering blows was very smooth and fun.
When you pause during combat, you can use the ability wheel to signal special moves with your party members with combos highlighted.
EA
Hold RB or R1 to reveal the ability wheel. This pauses the game while you target a specific enemy and select a special ability to use (including that of your allies). (Mass Effect fans will be familiar with this mechanic.) While exploring the wheel, the game also highlights which spells you and your allies can combine for more powerful attacks. will be displayed. This is what we are told to keep in mind. When you take on the more difficult later game sections.
If you don’t want to stop the momentum of the fight, you can shortcut to these abilities by holding LT/L2 and pressing one of the face buttons. Holding RT/R2 will continuously use your character’s ranged attacks. For example, a magician fires a magic beam (magic beams are upgraded in the skill tree and become more powerful the longer you hold them). Rogue, on the other hand, can tap to fire a single arrow or hold to fire continuously.
What I was particularly impressed with about the mage is his secondary equipment: orbs and daggers. Instead of fighting with a magic wand, you can also attack from close range with a knife while shooting spells by shooting floating orbs. I chose to use this play style most of the time. Because I felt it would give me the best of both worlds. Early sections only had a few skills available, but later chapters gave you access to higher level characters with more unlocked.
One notable mechanic was the run option, which required you to get the enemy’s health low enough before you could click R3 to finish them off with a bang. For example, the sorcerer magically lifts them into the air, then throws a dagger at them, then slams them to the ground, retrieves the dagger from the corpse, and continues like a villain.
Combat was a lot of fun and I looked forward to each encounter. I was also excited to see the large skill tree and see what skills I could unlock throughout the game. Especially since I knew I could combine skills with more powerful companion abilities. As someone who usually avoids the mage class in action RPGs, I’m a complete convert and plan to use it for my main playthrough when the game launches next month.
Using mages in combat: It’s literally a blast.
EA
As I progressed through the game’s five preview sections, my character switched places each time. I had the opportunity to use each of the four races and three classes. My favorites were definitely Mage and Rogue. Rogue moves incredibly fast and is exactly how I like my action characters. If mages didn’t have such an impact on me, this is probably the class I would have chosen at the start of the game.
Warriors were my least favorite because they were slow and focused on defense. They are equipped with huge shields, and many of their abilities are based on knocking back enemies or perfect defense. It couldn’t be helped that the section I chose ended up being a battle with a large dragon boss. So I had to learn new characters while fighting some of the most powerful enemies I encountered during my time at EA. This was the only time I died during the preview, so it didn’t leave much of an impression on me.
Colors, cosmetics, and friends drove me crazy.
When I wasn’t fighting evil magical skeletons and beasts, the game’s visuals were an absolute treat, especially at the demo station promoting Nvidia GeForce RTX 40 series graphics cards. Veilguard’s art style is a combination of realistic and cartoonish, giving the environments and characters a slightly exaggerated look. It goes well with dense areas of the world and bright, oversaturated colors.
Would it really be a fantastical forest without the broken archway?
EA
This visual style was especially evident in the early woodlands we explored. The levels were thick with shimmering mist, giving much of the surroundings a slight rainbow hue. Especially since this is a game with a lot of loot, players will want to explore every nook and cranny. Weapons, armor, and accessories are all color-coded based on rarity and strength, and we’re happy to report that equipping new items will change your character’s appearance in-game and in cutscenes.
Characters also retain combat damage incurred during major events. At the end of the prologue, you’ll have a choice between one of your two companions to accompany you on a more dangerous path, or the other to stay behind and provide cover. During this time, Luke and your chosen partner were seriously injured, and I spent the next few hours playing with my visibly injured companion. In fact, characters frequently point this out during conversations, and the companion eventually has to be absent from the quest due to injury. This was a great example of how Veilguard’s choices can affect how the story progresses and what options are available going forward.
Many of these choices refer to the companion’s preferences. There were seven teammates in total, and I was able to spend time with each of them. When you make a big decision, a notification will pop up as to whether each character approved or disapproved of your choice. This is similar to previous games, and similar to the “character remembers this” alert in games like Life is Strange.
Skeleton Manfred always loses at rock, paper, scissors.
EA
You can spend even more time with your team in the game’s hub section, the Lighthouse. Here, your companions are placed around the map and highlighted when they have something to say, much like the ships in Mass Effect. Spending time and talking with them will strengthen your relationships and unlock further gameplay. One character in particular seen here, though not a battle buddy, is the skeleton Manfred. Although my interaction with them was limited during the preview, they were always happy to play rock, paper, scissors with me, so I look forward to having fun together in the future.
The seven companions of Veil Guard are colorful.
EA
The lighthouse is also a place where you can participate in Solas’ past quests. These are playable vignettes with lengthy cutscenes about the motivations and backstory of Solas, Veilguard’s main antagonist. These give further color to the villain and give us a glimpse into his sinister motives. After the mission, Luke and his friends sit together and discuss the effects of the vision they just experienced. It’s a fun way to try out some interesting concepts as well as reflect on them. These quests are optional, and we had access to two different quests during the preview. During our hands-on, we found that these missions are definitely worth completing.
Assassin Lucanis needs your help.
EA
However, the biggest narrative experience for Companions, for which Mass Effect fans are all set, comes from Companion Quests. Each character has their own backstory and ongoing B-plot that you can unlock and assist. We got to play as Lucanis, a gentle gentleman assassin. Due to an EA embargo, I can’t talk about this particular quest, but it was one of my favorite moments in the game, and the final boss fight was as cool as it was creepy.
skeptic converted
I went into a preview session for Dragon Age: The Veilguard back in June vaguely excited about what I saw, but I left the session looking forward to the game’s full release. As someone who had never really gotten into the series and wasn’t particularly interested in the combat in the previous games, I almost did a complete 180 on it. The game looked very nice and the combat was definitely the high point. There were times when I came away excited about character classes that I usually avoid (a real benefit of being able to play the game quickly).
As someone who deeply enjoyed Mass Effect, I long for another BioWare title to give me the same excitement. Based on my early hands-on experience, Veilguard might be it.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard will be released on October 31st for Xbox, PlayStation, and PC.
