Dragon Age The Veilguard – Triumphant Return for BioWare
Dragon Age The Veilguard – As I excitedly slashed, blasted, wooed, looted, and delved my way through the stunning and enthralling world of Dragon Age The Veilguard, I kept having one thought: Wait, BioWare made this? 2024 BioWare, you’re really selling it with this game. Coming in the wake of the debacle that was Anthem, itself preceded by Dragon Age: Inquisition and Mass Effect: Andromeda, which were both merely all right in hindsight, I wasn’t sure these former masters of the roleplaying game craft could make a game like this anymore. But putting together my team of interesting and endearing companions to save the world felt like getting the old band back together in more ways than one.
A World of Adventure and Intrigue
The scope of this adventure is the whole north of Thus, sending you from the coasts of Rane to the blighted wilds of the Anderfels as you attempt to prevent the rise of an ancient and menacing evil. It was thrilling as a longtime fan of the series to finally see so many of the places I’d only read about in a journal entry way back in 2009. The way BioWare has us go about that exploration is very focused and deliberate.
Veil Guard’s level design was one of the first things that jumped out at me, reminding me of the original Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic almost more than anything. The slick, looping corridors with just enough little nooks to discover are cleverly interconnected in a way that proves how a BioWare-style RPG gains a lot and loses almost nothing by ditching the idea of a fully open world.
Visual Splendor and Technical Performance
Even with all of that visual splendor, I was able to get a stable 60 FPS at 4K on my RTX 470 Super with DLSS set to maximum performance, which usually didn’t affect the visual quality in very noticeable ways. The one exception to this was in the late game when there could be so many spell effects going off at once that I’d not only lose frames but also find it difficult to see what’s actually going on through the crackle and sparks. Though Veil Guard’s combat is definitely a refinement of what we saw in Dragon Age 2 and Inquisition,
I’ve always preferred the more tactical style of Dragon Age: Origins or Baldur’s Gate 3. But that ship sailed so long ago for this studio, not even the Evanuris remember what it looked like.
Engaging Combat and Character Customization
Judging this very action-focused combat system for what it is, it’s pretty good. BioWare has committed fully to the fast-paced style and refined it to a point that I enjoy it quite a bit. The ability to pause and issue party members orders, just like in Mass Effect, still gives some opportunity for more tactical players like myself to look around the battlefield and consider our next move. It definitely feels better on a controller than on a mouse and keyboard, though. I was somewhat disappointed that party members are more like extensions of your own character in combat at this point rather than their own entities.
They don’t even have health bars, for instance, and can’t be knocked out, whereas you instantly lose an encounter if Rook goes down.
Character Development and Story Arcs
In the sense that a BioWare RPG is really about your companions, also known as the friends we made along the way, this might be the most BioWare game of all time. Not only is the whole squad made up of complex, memorable, likable, distinct personalities from across Thus, but they’re all treated as the stars of their own story. Veil Guard is light on that classic kind of side quest that’s like “help Bingo Bongo find some nug grease,” and I don’t miss those much because they’ve been replaced by full-length heroic arcs for each companion. With twists, turns, a personal nemesis, major character developments, and a moment of triumph fit for a protagonist rather than a sidekick.
A Narrative Experience to Remember
The larger plot that’s threatening the world in the background as we’re doing all these more personal quests is nothing particularly outstanding in its overall structure. We need to unite some factions to fight some evil gods who are trying to do bad things with tentacles. The major wrinkle that makes that interesting, however, is Solas, also known as the Dreadwolf Fen’Harel, the Elven god of lies and rebellion, waiting in the wings, keeping me guessing about whether he was a friend or foe.
Conclusion: BioWare’s Triumphant Return
Dragon Age The Veilguard refreshes and reinvigorates a storied series that stumbled through its middle years and leaves no doubt in my mind that it deserves its place in the RPG pantheon. The next Mass Effect is going to have a very tough act to follow, which is not something I ever imagined I’d be saying before I got swept away on this adventure. It’s good to have goals in life. Enjoyable action combat, a fantastic cast of allies with sweeping story arcs all their own, top-notch cinematics, and moving, nuanced character writing are the wings on which this triumphant dragon soars. If we never get another Dragon Age, at least it got to go out on a high note.
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