Dragon Age Dragon Age: The Veilguard Pre-Release Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Cohesion]

They do buy the games they defend (whether they actually enjoy them or just force xirselves through the slog and then go back to defending them on plebbit coz muh lgbtq raperesentation), but also they are a tiny and extremely vocal minority that's shrinking every single day. You know why.

Saw a comment on Retardera once were a trannie was angry he had to defend the Acolyte despite the fact he hated it and never finished the show. He did it because he didnt want to 'see the chuds winning'.

Мыши плакали, кололись, но продолжали есть кактус.

You must play shit game for 200+ hours, finish it several times and write a negative review. Basic codex credo man.
We are prestigious journalists.

Sounds like masochist credo to me.

Yet there is no other entity which scrutinizes games and writes proper reviews like dex.
Bonus points for calling fag dev a fag and watching meltdown.

 

[Skinwalker]

You can stop sending me alerts from this thread now, thanks.

 

[True Ukrainian]

You think so? I think EA might give them one more chance to resurrect mass effect or something, since their brand somehow still isn't dead

Andromeda bro.

 

[Rahdulan]

They're thirsty for games like Lollipop Chainsaw, which got a remaster recently.

I don't know...

That's better than Concord, but not by much.

I'll be waiting to see how this does in comparison.

 

[kites]

I'll be waiting to see how this does in comparison.

Shadows will be nearly half the price and remastered by Grasshopper themselves, but I don't know if it has the same level of name recognition as Lollipop. I would imagine $40 is just too far an ask for most people; it was for me.

 

[Vyvian]

I feel like this game is going to sell like hotcakes but nobody will ever talk about the gameplay or interesting quests it will just be a bunch of screenshots of their characters.
Much like how influencers craft fake realities to post on instagram and whatnot the people that buy this game will stage "fun" screenshots to talk about an adventure they never actually take.

 

[Cael]

You can just check the best-selling and wishlist charts on Steam.

View attachment 55114

Horrible numbers for an AAA game about to come out. Diehard fans will cope with "but it's a console game," but it doesn't matter.

Steam is indicative of the popular reception for this.

Their YouTube trailers have been getting consistently ratio'ed.

The only positive thing most people are talking about is the hair tech, completely sidestepping how awful combat looks.

It's joever.

They need to add a category there for "You can't pay me enough to get this".

 

[Technomancer]

The lore changed to all Qunari having horns unless it's a rare case like Stan.

Pretty sure they were supposed to have horns since Origins. But no one liked the helm clipping, it would be too costly to remodel each individual asset for them and no one bothered to come up with alternatives for head slots since there were plenty of other things to do before release. So it got cut.

Dragon Age has never made a "good"/Consistent looking Qunari

Literally just a black guy with white hair.

Dragon Age 2 Qunari looks good? well, there is a reason why there is no Female Qunari in Dragon Age 2.

That weird ass prototype Stan is from Sacred Ashes trailer, promotional material that came early enough that design was not finalized yet. Weird to use it as a point in an argument. Cyberpunk 2077 teaser was pretty different too. Sacred Ashes are filled with discarded and changed early ideas, Morrigan is ugly, Leliana had cool unique armor, the darkspawn design is worse, the warden still has white guy default ala Shepard along with cut glowing eyes that were supposed to signify uniqueness of wardens and their inherent magical powers that allowed them to become the ultimate darkspawn slayers through bloodmagic ritual.

The reason DA2 had no female qunari is the same reason why it was called "2" - publisher meddling and unreasonably short production time. EA wanted the game fast and didn't care to hear no for an answer. Concept for females was there, but since the plot could do without females of that race because it is conveniently caste based, they never got implemented. And since final DLC also got canceled and cut, there were never enough opportunities to revisit it before third game.

Spoiler

 

[Storyfag]

If this doesn't flop harder than Ass Defect Androgyny, I'll be eating my own hat.

You don't have a hat, stop pretending.

Xe is a Mountain Jew. Xe most certainly has a smol hat.

 

[Storyfag]

They do buy the games they defend (whether they actually enjoy them or just force xirselves through the slog and then go back to defending them on plebbit coz muh lgbtq raperesentation), but also they are a tiny and extremely vocal minority that's shrinking every single day. You know why.

Saw a comment on Retardera once were a trannie was angry he had to defend the Acolyte despite the fact he hated it and never finished the show. He did it because he didnt want to 'see the chuds winning'.

Мыши плакали, кололись, но продолжали есть кактус.

You must play shit game for 200+ hours on the hardest difficulty AKA slightly above easy-peasy popamole, finish it several times and write a negative review. Basic codex credo man.
We are prestigious journalists. Kek.

Seven times, to be exact.

 

[Dishonoredbr]

 

[Stoned Ape]

The youtuber doing this has a really annoying habit of emphasising the ends of sentences in a forced manner. He should get an AI to read his script instead, it would sound more natural.

 

[Dishonoredbr]

8:46 It's me or Lucannis animation looks super rough. His kick doesns't seems that strong to send someone fly, then running towards the enmies and they're just waiting to get hit.

 

[Dishonoredbr]

https://www.eurogamer.net/after-pla...rd-feels-like-the-series-mass-effect-2-moment

'There's actually more companion interaction than I thought there would be. You do still have the opportunity to equip them across four equipment slots, and though you don't level them up individually, there is an equivalent Bond level that you share with them that grants similar kinds of abilities. You increase this Bond level by taking them out on missions with you (you can take up to two of them) and by talking to them back at base.'

You can't level up your companions anymore.

 

[Dishonoredbr]

 

[Butter]

You can't level up your companions anymore.

More fuel for the theory that this is an aborted live service game.

 

[whydoibother]

NDA is up, some reviews posting.

ShillUp (normie Playstation focus reviewer) liked it, says its like God of War.


Wolfheart (PC rpg focus reviewer) didn't like it, says it looks plastic and cheap.

 

[Tyranicon]

This thing is gonna get mixed reviews at launch, all the usual suspects are going to cry about "review bombing," and the steam forums will be a warzone.

Oh, and IGN will give it a 9/10.

 

[Volourn]

4 equipment slots, no leveling up, only 3 party members, lmfao.

 

[Rahdulan]

Oh, it's going down.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.eurogamer.net/what-i-learned-talking-to-bioware-about-dragon-age-the-veilguard

What I learned talking to BioWare about Dragon Age: The Veilguard​

"I don't think we're ever going to make everyone happy."

Image credit: EA / BioWare

I was fortunate enough to play Dragon Age: The Veilguard for several hours recently, exploring multiple missions and trying multiple characters at multiple levels and using differing builds, and it was good, I really liked it. You can read my much lengthier preview impressions of Dragon Age: The Veilguard elsewhere on the site. But here I want to cobble together some of the things I learned while interviewing co-game director John Epler, and taking part in a group Q&A with other lead developers working on the game.

Veilguard has really only been in full production for about four years​

Technically it's been 10 years since the previous Dragon Age game, Inquisition, but that doesn't mean Veilguard has been in full development the entirety of the time. The team has been iterating on ideas ever since Inquisition add-on Trespasser came out, "But in terms of the actual game as you're seeing it now, as it's shaped today, I'd say four years," John Epler tells me. "That's when everything just started to come together and you're like, oh yeah, yep, this is what we want. This is what we need for this Dragon Age game."

There have been rumours the game has undergone some fairly major revisions during its protracted development time. "Absolutely," says Epler, when I ask him. "The version that we were working on back then and the version working on now: there's definitely similarities - you'll see names that are the same in terms of the major actors, obviously Solas is still part of it - but the structure of the game has definitely changed as we refined as we built, and again, as we really focused on making it a single-player story based RPG."

It's single-player now, but BioWare did try some multiplayer ideas​

BioWare hasn't been shy about experimenting with multiplayer in the past. Mass Effect had a fairly established co-operative multiplayer mode, and Anthem was built around it. Even Dragon Age: Inquisition had a dungeon-delving, four-player co-op multiplayer mode. It won't come as a shock, then, to know BioWare explored having it in its newest Dragon Age game too. "We tried a bunch of different things - multiplayer is one of them," Epler says. "We tried a few opportunities, how it would work and what didn't. But what it comes down to is we are a studio that's made around, that's been constructed and honestly staffed around, building these single-player story-based experiences, so once we started focusing on that, that's when things really came together for us."

There are three acts in the game, and it feels large​

My day's play was spread across the first act of the game, playing through character creation right up to level 30 and the Siege of Weisshaupt, which serves as the dramatic climax for the first act of The Veilguard. It is spectacular in terms of the events unfolding and the size of the enemy it throws at you there - those of you who played Dragon Age: Origins will know the enemy well.

Given the level range I experienced - one to 30 - it suggests Act One will occupy us for a considerable amount of time. But it's not necessarily a like-for-like calculation, as far as the other acts and their relative lengths are concerned. "We've basically broken it down into essentially a three-act structure," Epler explains. "Each act is different though. Not every act is the exact same as the other one, and a lot of the content that's not [on] the critical path you can do at any time. [...] We describe it as context-shifts: at the end of each act, the context shifts, the world changes, and how Rook approaches their fight against the gods is going to change accordingly."

"One of the things I'd add as well," Veilguard co-director Corinne Busche says, "is the conclusion of this game needs to matter. It needs to be the natural conclusion of your efforts and building up the Veilguard and taking on these gods, and Weisshaupt really serves as your first true demonstration of what you're up against. So while it is a large first act, and it is a very climactic mission to cap it off, from my perspective that is where you really get that sense of the overwhelming power, the stakes of what's here."

In other words, Act One may be larger and longer than the others.

Image credit: BioWare

BioWare learnt its lesson from the infamous Inquisition Hinterlands slog​

Dragon Age: Inquisition made pretensions at being an open-world game. It wasn't, natively, but it did have several zones that were equivalent to open-world areas, where you had settlements as well as areas of adventure and danger around them. The Hinterlands was one of them. But it's a zone now remembered for being a slog - for being a zone filled with collectibles and other arbitrary forms of content designed, seemingly, just to keep you busy and fill the map up. The difference in The Veilguard is it won't be an open-world game. It is, as I heard several times during my demo-day, a mission-based game, which is to say the missions are like levels, with shaped beginnings, middles and ends. There's the potential to revisit some of them, like the Crossroads, where there are slightly more open-ended things to do, but overall, it's a much tighter and more focused experience.

"We wanted it to all feel very deliberate and handcrafted, so those missions, we learnt our lessons from the Hinterlands," Epler says. "They're not meant to be fetch quests; they have story, they have narrative, they tie into the story of the space, tie into the larger arc of the characters or of the plot, or tie into how the various factions interact with these spaces they inhabit."

"I'll tell you what," Busche adds, "it's hard to buck trends sometimes, but we really felt we could tell the best stories, we could create the most curated moment-to-moment experience by really going back to a mission-based structure."

Less control over companions is intended to make them feel more like autonomous beings​

In The Veilguard, a layer of companion micro-management has been removed. You don't play as them. You can order some of their special attacks and you can equip a few equipment slots, and customise bond abilities relative to their bond level with you, but otherwise, they are autonomous. They feel like people around you rather than a party you control, and for what it's worth, I thought it worked well - there was actually more control over them than I'd expected. But it's a design decision that's come under some scrutiny as the series seems to move away from being party-based.

"Our North Star," Busche says, "was we wanted you to embody Rook, to step into Rook's shoes, to experience this world on the ground as this character, and what that meant is giving you more autonomy, more control of the character, putting you in control of every single swing, really making it feel like you're a part of this world. And what's more, we talked a lot about - I know a lot of the questions that came up today were about the companions, the depth, the authenticity - we really felt like there was a big opportunity here to make the companions feel more realised, more like they're characters that fight alongside you, that have their own styles, motivations, interactions, if you're not actually embodying them.

"But of course, throughout all of that, we do know in the combat system, that sense of teamwork - of pause and play tactical depth - has been the through-line through every single edition of Dragon Age, so we wanted to walk the fine line of making that teamwork and sense of strategy show up but also make you feel like you're in this world."

"But also," Epler adds, "part of making the companions feel like their own people, like their own characters, is giving them that autonomy as well on the battlefield. You are the leader of this group but they have their own personalities, their own stories, and we wanted to make sure that you felt that through the gameplay as well."

Image credit: BioWare

You can romance any companion character but it's not, apparently, player-sexual​

BioWare has received flak over the decision to make The Veilguard more open romantically, in the sense you can romance any companion character in the game regardless of who your Rook is - what their gender is, what their race is. In previous BioWare games, this hasn't been the case. Inquisition famously had Dorian, a gay man, only romance other gay men, and as every-day as this sounds, it was remarkable for the studio at the time. Inquisition also had Solas romance only female elves, so characters there had defined preferences, whereas now, they don't seem to, and it's caused some aggravation. But it sounds like there may be some preference and differentiation after all.

"One of the things we wanted to allow is player choice as much as possible, so being able to develop a romance with any character no matter who your Rook is," Epler says. "But those romances may play out a little bit differently based on every activity, based on how you built your Rook, how you customise them."

Co-director Corinne Busche then adds: "Handling romances and romantic options, it's quite the challenge, and to be honest with you all, I'm not sure there's a right answer on how to approach it. What we felt was best for this game was to make sure that you could romance the companions, but I want to be clear that it's not player sexual," she says. " These are fully fleshed out characters that have their own romantic histories, preferences, backgrounds, and that doesn't change based on who you, the player character, are. They don't adapt their personalities to conform to the player and that's fundamentally the difference. There's merits to it and challenges. We're also mindful to have characters in the world of all orientations, so that we do get that really thoughtful representation again where people can see themselves."

You can't really be evil in The Veilguard​

Given my outrageous antics in my Let's Get Evil in Baldur's Gate 3 series, the ability to negatively affect a world is of prime importance to me. Grin. It's actually something that began with Dragon Age: Origins many years ago, as Morrigan and a desire for blood magic led me off my normal goodie-two-shoes path and somewhere darker altogether. But BioWare games have changed since then, and you haven't been able to be evil in them for some years now. I'm not actually sure which the last game was that you could be evil in - Dragon Age 2, was it, or Star Wars: The Old Republic?

The same is true of The Veilguard, to my disappointment, and it's something I saw firsthand in the dialogue options on the day: there was really only the option to be abrupt rather than outright nasty. "Rook is a character who, because of where the world is, because of the stakes, they need to stop the elven gods," Epler explains. "Why you do that - your motivations for doing that and how you approach it - you do have a lot of choice in how you approach those missions. There's some big choices in the game fairly early on where you can do some things that are pretty morally not spectacular, but it's not a game where you can go off and murder a bunch of orphans," he says. "But we want to give you that feeling of 'I know I can build this character that I can role-play in a way that I'm passionate about and excited to do'."

In a broader sense, I also didn't see much differentiation in dialogue outcomes. There was a sense that my responses were variations on pre-destined outcomes rather than differing courses altogether. That doesn't mean there aren't some major choice moments, though. "There is at least, and I won't get into spoilers, but there are definitely a couple of fairly significant choices that reshape the world in pretty [big] ways," Epler says.

I didn't see any dialogue-affecting skills such as BioWare games have had in the past, either, though there are additional dialogue options activated according to your faction, race, and class. "We wanted to focus on base reactivity," Epler says. "One of the things with dialogue skills, and this was true in Mass Effect, is the moment you have one, that's where you're putting your first 20 skill points, because, 'well if this is going to unlock special things for me...'" I'm not ashamed to say I know exactly what he's talking about.

Image credit: BioWare

There's no Keep for importing saves but something broadly equivalent​

There's no external Keep feature for importing past Dragon Age saved data into the game this time, but there is something else built into the game itself. During character creation, you'll have the ability to import your Inquisitor from Inquisition, and all of the associated major decisions they made during the game. If you don't have an Inquisitor, you can make one, in The Veilguard, customising their look as well as choosing what you would have done in the game.

The reason why it's done this way is two-fold. Firstly, it helps contain the amount of choice being brought in from previous games, because as Epler points out, a lot of choices made in previous Dragon Age games pertain to places that just aren't relevant here. "For us, the core philosophy was we want you to make choices that matter, choices that we can actually reflect," Epler says. "Part of going to northern Thedas is a lot of stuff that matters tremendously if you're in Ferelden and Orlais doesn't matter as much in Tevinter."

The other reason it's been done this way is to serve as an onboarding tool. As Busche says, "It's been a long time since Inquisition, even if you're a die-hard fan. Unless you're watching a YouTube replay of the whole game, you might have little cobwebs on the choices you made or the implications of them. So not only did we want to allow this to be an in-game feature that would allow you to replicate those choices that John mentioned are contextually appropriate to the game, but we also view it as a dual-purpose onboarding tool. If I'm a player that I just don't remember or I haven't played the past games, you're going to go in and those choices, those beautiful tarot cards that Matt [Rhodes, art director] and his team put together, with all the context around what these choices meant, why they mattered. So I really view it as a beautiful onboarding tool as well."

It may be divisive, but BioWare believes The Veilguard will, ultimately, win people around​

Ever since being unveiled a few months ago, The Veilguard has proved divisive. First there was the name change from Dreadwolf to The Veilguard, then the reveal of the art style, then the comparisons to Baldur's Gate 3. Whatever BioWare seems to do, it seems it can't please everybody, but Epler isn't disheartened by it.

The art style, for one, he believes is timeless. "It's still going to look striking in 10 years, 15 years," he says. And the more that people see the game in motion, the more convinced he says they are by it. For what it's worth, I agree. The Veilguard was gorgeous when I played it and one of the best looking BioWare games I've seen. "I mean obviously people have their thoughts," he adds, "and in the case of a game like The Veilguard, and you spoke to it earlier, this is a game where the last one came out 10 years [ago], so people had that long to think about what [a new one] could be. Whatever version of the game you had in your head, it doesn't matter what it was, it was never going to be the version of the game you saw."

He continues: "Any time you make a change to anything that's been around for a while, there's going to be some element of divisiveness, and what really it comes down to is believing in the direction you're going and then showing people more of it, showing people why it makes sense in context," which is why BioWare is trying to do exactly that with official blog posts and preview events like these. "There's always going to be some people who aren't happy with one element or another, and that's true of anything that you create."

BioWare, though, attracts a fierce kind of scrutiny, perhaps more than any other developer I've known. It speaks to the amount of people BioWare's games have reached over the decades, and the effect those games have had on them, as they have on me. But a byproduct of being around for so long is, inevitably, change. The BioWare that made Baldur's Gate 2 or even Dragon Age: Origins is not the same BioWare that's making The Veilguard now. Key personnel have changed, the company has fundamentally changed, and so have the games being made today.

Image credit: BioWare
We know this and yet the phenomenal success of Baldur's Gate 3 has rekindled a spark of mutiny about why modern day BioWare isn't like olden day BioWare. Larian made a great success of a traditional CRPG after all. "Honestly I love that Baldur's Gate 3 was so successful," Epler says, "because as an RPG creator, as an RPG, it expands the market, it expands the people who are going to want to play your game and who are passionate about it.

"In the case of Baldur's Gate 3, they have a very specific focus and we have a very specific focus, and we talk to people at Larian all the time. There's friendships. We love Baldur's Gate; they talk about Dragon Age as well, and it's always strange to hear the idea there's this conflict because we just want the other people to do well. Because if Baldur's Gate 3 does well, suddenly you've got millions of people who are ready for another fantasy RPG experience - and we have The Veilguard."

Then he says something I was hoping to hear, because in the past, it seemed BioWare was trying to please other people rather than focus on what it felt was best. But with The Veilguard, a single-player, mission-based RPG, it seems much more confident to walk its own path, and I think you can feel this in the game itself.

"I don't think you'll ever make [everyone happy]," Epler says, "and I think honestly if you do try to make everyone happy on any creative product, you ultimately end up making no-one happy, because you're compromising one thing for another thing. You end up in a mushy middle where nobody's happy because you're not you're not doing X well enough for the people who like X, you're not doing Y well enough for the people like Y, and more importantly, you yourself as a creator are not making the thing that you believe in, that you think it should be. I always find design by committee in a lot of ways ends up being the death of creative endeavours, when you're trying to make everyone happy.

"I don't think we're ever going to make everyone happy," he adds. "There's always going to be someone who's unhappy. But ultimately it's about making the best version of the game that you believe, as a creator, is the game it needs to be, and then putting it out there. Some people will love it and some people won't, but at least you'll have those people who love it because you did care enough to go in that direction that you felt was right."

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/dragon-age/the-veilguard-preview-hands-on/

Playing 6 hours of Dragon Age: The Veilguard gave me the faith its trailers couldn't: This is the BioWare comeback fans want​

Dragon Age: The Veilguard won me over with its combat and polish, even if the story won't stop holding my hand.

(Image credit: BioWare)
Dragon Age: The Veilguard is going to be called BioWare's comeback. It isn't built on the multiplayer trend-chasing that plagued Anthem, and from the six hours I got to play during a hands-on preview event this month, Veilguard didn't seem to be the buggy mess that Mass Effect Andromeda was, either. It has all sorts of features that prove BioWare was listening to its players. And critically, it's BioWare doing what it's meant to be best at: gorgeous, intense, intimate RPGs.

All the marketing for The Veilguard so far has been polarizing: my fellow Dragon Age nerds at PC Gamer have been going back and forth on whether each new video heralds doom or redemption for the series. Prior to playing it I was trending towards the disillusioned side. Now, in spite of all the choices BioWare's made that I do still disagree with—the double-down on action combat, the shiny and poreless character designs, the cartoonish darkspawn—I believe The Veilguard is going to be a great return to the world I've loved for 15 years.

Setting the dragon stage​

As is only right, I got to start in character creation, which is hands down the most detailed character creator BioWare's ever done. We've all seen and gushed over the silky hairstyles, another massive improvement for the series, but there are wild details like faction-dependent casual outfits and asymmetrical ear editing too. Regardless of my opinions on the overall visual style, there's no arguing it's gorgeous.

(Image credit: BioWare)
As soon as I close out of character creation, I catch my main character Rook mid-bar brawl trying to extract the location of an informant out of a bartender. Unlike the reveal trailer it inspired, playing through this scene immediately put a smile on my face when I realized Veilguard was winking into the camera. Here we are, kicking off a Dragon Age game with an interrogation again, but finally I'm the one demanding answers.

I'm presented with my first choice right away: Will Rook extract the information with charisma or with her fists? As anyone who's ever accidentally picked a way more aggressive dialogue option than intended in a Dragon Age game will be glad to hear, the repercussions are spelled out right above each dialogue option: "Try to convince the bar owner" or "Beat down the entire room."
One way or the other, Rook and fan-favorite sidekick Varric Tethras get the info they need and head out into the magical city Minrathous into the scene we saw in the gameplay reveal.

A combat convert​

Though it isn't immediately obvious as I work through the training wheels tutorial combat—in which Rook and Varric trek through Minrathous fighting the spirits ransacking the city—I realize quickly after that the combat is fun. Like, 'I'm having a good time playing a warrior and I never play a warrior in a Dragon Age game' kind of fun.



(Image credit: BioWare)

I can parry some magical projectiles with my shield or stagger enemies by parrying their melee attacks. I can create distance by dodging backwards and then close the gap with my "driving kick" skill that has me leap through the air. I can also sprint forward and land a special, heavier attack. In the first fight with a large pride demon, AOE attacks littering the ground keep me on my toes. I'm constantly tuned in to the action and the mobility I have around each fight is genuinely enjoyable.

Some bits are sillier: the health and mana potion pots all over the world are so aggressively bright green and red they look out of a platformer from the '90s. I didn't ever click with the timed "quick recover" button press when knocked down in combat and rolled my eyes at the Captain America-style shield throw that warriors have as a basic ranged attack equivalent to a mage's magic laser and rogue's arrows. At times it's a bit too much superhero style for my dark fantasy series.

Cranking up the difficulty and switching classes in each new segment really kept me sweating. I was often pulling up the companion control wheel to fire off Neve's "time slow" spell or Bellara's healing ability. When BioWare said that it had gotten rid of full party member combat control in Veilguard I was miffed that they thought we couldn't handle it. But honestly they were right. After trying both a mage and a rogue, it really did take my full attention not to die in later boss fights.

The nodes of the skill tree are a mix of activated abilities and traits that unlock context-dependent combos. Things like "grappling spear" will harpoon and pull enemies in when activated while traits like "tumbling blades" let you attack after doing a combat roll or "counterblow" by attacking after a perfect defense. It does feel like there's a high skill ceiling here for those who learn their kit and combos particularly well.



(Image credit: BioWare)

I was among those disillusioned and disappointed by BioWare's swerve into action-heavy combat for Veilguard. But now that I cast my mind back, I realize… this is actually what I asked for. I've been tired of RPGs propped up by a skill hotbar for years now, hoping for a more fluid combat system where I could string together my own combos instead of rigidly planting my feet for each skill. I was mostly thinking of MMOs when I lodged those complaints, but now it's Dragon Age that's getting that fast, combo-based combat.

It still isn't what I would have chosen for the series, Dragon Age: Origins-loving curmudgeon that I've apparently become, but I have to admit that what BioWare set out to achieve with this combat system it's done very well. I'm a begrudging convert.

Another quality of Veilguard that BioWare has continually touted is how it allows you to customize your experience. My favorite example of customization is buried deep in the gameplay menu: the "wayfinding" settings. By default Veilguard holds your hand a lot. A minimap and quest log on screen are normal enough, but it also guides you with an objective marker constantly pointing you towards each door and path you should take.



(Image credit: BioWare)

I found it a bit oppressive, a real distraction from appreciating my surroundings, and was very pleased to find Veilguard lets me individually tweak lots of those elements by turning off visibility entirely or only showing briefly when I ping them with a button press. I decided to turn everything off, even the minimap, and explore each area naturally. Turning the visual noise off meant I could actually enjoy the most detailed, populated scenes I've ever seen in Thedas as I explored the city streets in Treviso and an incredible underwater prison while recruiting Lucanis. I appreciate the ability to say "actually, I've got this" and have Veilguard trust me to make that choice.

It's just a shame that The Veilguard's writing doesn't always extend me the same respect.

Conversation competencies​

(Image credit: BioWare)

The quest writing in The Veilguard is desperate to chew my food for me. Not just with voiced hints in the usual 'maybe I should try that lever' style, but characters actively over-explaining themselves or dorky lines like "Everyone suit up. All hands for this one." It's not only quest dialogue either, but in how Veilguard recaps my choices for me.

Multiple times as I played, text explanations popped up mid-cutscene to explain that the events I was seeing were caused by my decisions. Yeah: I made that choice two minutes ago! I'm grasping the cause and effect. Unlike those wayfinding settings, there isn't an "I understand how BioWare games work" toggle.

In a section I can't be specific about due to spoilers, a character tells me their opinion on something while a popup adds "This character now feels…" to make sure I notice this is a result of a prior conversation. I'm fine with 'character will remember that' style popups, but these reek of an insecurity that players won't 'get it.'



(Image credit: BioWare)

It's an understandable concern for the fourth entry in a series whose story starts with the consequences of a game that came out a decade ago. Though I'm sympathetic, I think there are points when I'm going to feel like the writers are sitting next to me on the couch talking through my first experience.

Where I don't feel talked down to are in the one-on-one conversations with my companions, thank goodness. Developing relationships with your party members, whether they're platonic or romantic, has always been a cornerstone of BioWare's RPGs and I was relieved to feel that old allure.

Instead of a castle in the mountains, our base of operations this time is The Lighthouse, a surreal collection of buildings floating in the magical void called The Fade. Each of your party members has their own floating abode that they'll fix up and personalize over the course of the game, with a handy little overhead light out front letting you know when they've got something new to talk about.



(Image credit: EA)

These encounters are everything I've always loved about Dragon Age. They're more naturally written conversations than the quest dialogue I have gripes about and they include emotional delivery from some great voice talent. I barely scraped the surface in the early sections of the game we were allowed to play but it made me eager to hear a lot more from the companions we've seen less of so far like Taash the dragon hunter and Davrin the Grey Warden.

The best bit is when my companions all get together. That artwork of all seven lounging around in The Lighthouse (above) is an actual scene. Initially, it's Rook sitting in an armchair while Harding and Neve share a sofa, all three discussing what to do after stopping Solas' magical Veil-tearing ritual. It feels lived-in and intimate, putting them in context together in a way I haven't quite felt in a Dragon Age game before. I suspect that setup will be a recurring one as more party members join the crew and larger discussions ensue. And now I'm getting completely into conjecture, but I wonder if my party members' poses in that scene will change as their relationships to me (or to each other) evolve.



(Image credit: BioWare)

At the end of our play session, BioWare told us that everything we'd played was from just Act 1 of The Veilguard. I'd been spirited through recruitment missions and boss fights and several genuinely gorgeous missions that didn't allow me to miss Dragon Age: Inquisition's open world design at all. It made a believer out of me with its combat and reassured me that the quieter moments with my party members between all the action would be worth waiting for.

I'll continue to nitpick, and some bits I'm just never going to come around on, but that comes with the fan territory. From what I've seen so far, there's a good chance The Veilguard will do the series proud.

 

[Storyfag]

Playing 6 hours of Dragon Age: The Veilguard gave me the faith its trailers couldn't: This is the BioWare comeback fans want​

Yeah, yeah, and I am We are the Pope.

 

[Lovely Feather Pillow]

4 equipment slots, no leveling up, only 3 party members, lmfao.

Oh, it's going down.

We're so fucking back, boys!

 

[Skinwalker]

You can't level up your companions anymore.

More fuel for the theory that this is an aborted live service game.

Again? We already theorized this for Cisquisition.