GamesRPGDragon AgeAn hour of Dragon Age: The Veilguard left me with more questions than answers, but I’m starting to believe I can love a BioWare RPG againWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesRPGDragon AgeAn hour of Dragon Age: The Veilguard left me with more questions than answers, but I’m starting to believe I can love a BioWare RPG againWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: BioWare)
It’s been ten years since the launch of Dragon Age: Inquisition – and ten years since I’ve played it. Despite playing the entire trilogy to completion and quite enjoying myself along the way, I’ve forgotten more than I ever knew about the series, and it feels likeBioWareis catering to people just like me withDragon Age: The Veilguard. The long-awaited fourth entry in the series has to pay off over a decade of anticipation from hardcore series fans, while bringing back lapsed players like me and inviting in complete newbies at the same time. It’s a tall task to try and satisfy all those audiences at once, but BioWare is doing everything it can to stay true to the series' roots while adapting to what it hopes will be a new wave of fans.
“Each Dragon Age is an iteration,” creative director John Epler tells GamesRadar+. “We take what worked before, we see what didn’t and evolve. And this one to us is an evolution of all those other Dragon Age games kind of pulled together into a perfect package.”
As part ofSummer Game Fest, the devs demonstrated the first hour of the game to the media, playing straight through from title screen to a jaw-dropping title card cliffhanger that I certainly won’t be spoiling here. You’ve already seen some of this if you checked out today’s public gameplay reveal, and The Veilguard is certainly giving us a more action-focused Dragon Age experience than ever before, and that action looks polished, weighty, and complete.
This has all gone a long way when it comes to assuaging my fears about the game following so many rumors, reports of development hell and – let’s be honest – a string of disappointing games from a once-legendary studio. But The Veilguard gives me hope that BioWare will be back with the good stuff this year, and I couldn’t be more relieved.
Summer Games PreviewWe’re diving into the hottest upcoming games out of Summer Game Fest. To find all of our hands-on reports, visitGamesRadar’s What’s Hot 2024 hub.
Summer Games PreviewWe’re diving into the hottest upcoming games out of Summer Game Fest. To find all of our hands-on reports, visitGamesRadar’s What’s Hot 2024 hub.
Summer Games PreviewWe’re diving into the hottest upcoming games out of Summer Game Fest. To find all of our hands-on reports, visitGamesRadar’s What’s Hot 2024 hub.
Summer Games PreviewWe’re diving into the hottest upcoming games out of Summer Game Fest. To find all of our hands-on reports, visitGamesRadar’s What’s Hot 2024 hub.
Summer Games PreviewWe’re diving into the hottest upcoming games out of Summer Game Fest. To find all of our hands-on reports, visitGamesRadar’s What’s Hot 2024 hub.
Summer Games PreviewWe’re diving into the hottest upcoming games out of Summer Game Fest. To find all of our hands-on reports, visitGamesRadar’s What’s Hot 2024 hub.
Creating with class
(Image credit: BioWare)
BioWare interview(Image credit: BioWare)I saw Dragon Age: The Veilguard up close and spoke to BioWare: Here are the 5 coolest details, including the best character creator the studio’s ever put in an RPG
BioWare interview
(Image credit: BioWare)I saw Dragon Age: The Veilguard up close and spoke to BioWare: Here are the 5 coolest details, including the best character creator the studio’s ever put in an RPG
(Image credit: BioWare)
I saw Dragon Age: The Veilguard up close and spoke to BioWare: Here are the 5 coolest details, including the best character creator the studio’s ever put in an RPG
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Putting the ‘action’ in ‘action-RPG’
(Image credit: BioWare)
The combat’s not quite God of War, as the rumors suggested – if anything, it looks a bit more like modern Assassin’s Creed in my eyes, but even that’s not quite right. It’s quite fast and fluid, and looks like a natural evolution of the sort of strategic action combat BioWare’s been building for years. I don’t know how good that action will feel in practice – this demo was all hands-off, after all – but it looks at least as effective as an action game as any game the studio’s done before. You can cancel attacks, execute quick dodges, and build up combos.
On the strategic side, enemies might have elemental weaknesses, or barriers and other defenses that are more vulnerable to specific types of abilities. Combat, then, looks to be a matter of managing your abilities to best whittle down those defenses and take advantage of those weaknesses. And, of course, your companions will have abilities that play in here, too.
We really needed to get the stakes, the spectacle, right off the bat.John Epler
We really needed to get the stakes, the spectacle, right off the bat.
“Over the course of the game you get access to three abilities per companion,” Epler says, “as well as an additional two abilities you can slot, and an additional ability that comes off of items that we won’t talk about right now.” The devs intend to give you “a lot of tools for every encounter.”
You can also pause at any time in or out of combat to pop open a tactical command menu, letting you pause the action at any time to choose your abilities and issue orders to your companions. The action fully freezes here, giving you all the time you could want to plan your next move. This screen will also give you the lowdown on the weaknesses of whatever enemy you target. You can’t fully escape the action combat if you want a more old-school experience, but there is a way to have a more strategic view if you want to – another way The Veilguard attempts to court multiple kinds of RPG fans.
Love and war
(Image credit: BioWare)
There are two things I remember about my time in the old Dragon Age games: firstly, that Varric is cool, and secondly, Solas is a jerk. That’s pretty much where the story of The Veilguard picks up.
“One of the things we wanted to do with this game is make the prolog feel like the final mission of a different game,” Epler says. “We really needed to get the stakes, the spectacle, right off the bat. Obviously, players who had been waiting to confront Solas have been waiting for just this moment.” It’s an effective opener. It certainly set the hook for me, building the stakes and introducing lore without getting bogged down in the deep details.
(Image credit: EA)
Romance is a Dragon Age thing. Romance is absolutely a thing we’re doing, and each character’s romance flavor is going to be different.John Epler
Romance is a Dragon Age thing. Romance is absolutely a thing we’re doing, and each character’s romance flavor is going to be different.
“The companions have always been the beating heart of Dragon Age,” Epler says, “and especially in The Veilguard, we found as we were building a story, more than ever before, it’s a story about the people around you; a story about building this team, and working with them.
Each companion has their own storyline that runs parallel to the main story. But beyond that, something that we’ve never really done in Dragon Age [before] and that we’ve really done a deliberate job with this time, is you cannot succeed without them. Each of them has a reason why they need to be a part of your party, why they need to help you stop the end of the world.”
But yes, of course, there will be opportunities to get to know your companions on a more intimate level, Epler confirms. “Romance is a Dragon Age thing. Romance is absolutely a thing we’re doing, and each character’s romance flavor is going to be different. So you know, we don’t want every character for the romance to feel the same. We want everyone to have their own flavor that’s appropriate to them as a character.”
Check out thebest RPGsto play while you wait for Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
TOPICSSummer Game FestBiowareDragon Age
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PRODUCTSDragon Age 4Summer Game Fest 2024
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1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
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2Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”
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Marvel Rivals review: “So preoccupied with trying to be like Overwatch that it forgets to play to its own strengths”
1Sonic the Hedgehog 3 review: “Keanu Reeves as Shadow is wasted whilst Jim Carrey steals the show”
1Sonic the Hedgehog 3 review: “Keanu Reeves as Shadow is wasted whilst Jim Carrey steals the show”
1
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2Mufasa: The Lion King review – “It’s no Hakuna Matata but this Disney origin story is a class above the 2019 movie”
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3Kraven the Hunter review: “The insistence on an R-rating helps save this, with a decent helping of bloodthirsty action”
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4The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review – “An uninspired expansion of the most iconic screen take on Tolkien”
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5Cobra Kai season 6, part 2 review: “Returns to the sort of hard-hitting form that made it such a fan favorite in the first place”
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