I can’t stop looking Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Whether I’m exploring the game’s main base in a dreamlike Fade or a forest shimmering with golden foliage and wild magical energy, the game just looks beautiful. And if you’ve got the graphics horsepower to see it through, it also features some of the most fancy ray tracing I’ve ever seen. There’s a level of polish in every aspect of the game, including the new action-oriented approach to combat, that’s simply awesome to see.
Protector continues the story of the decade Dragon Age InquisitionThe DLC was most notable for its shocking ending. It turns out that one of your angrier companions, Solas, was actually an Elven god hell-bent on destroying the Veil he created to separate the real world from the spirit-filled Fade. Oh, and it’s where he traps even more evil Elven gods. Solas fancied himself a hero, but then again so did Marvel’s Thanos.
This time, you play as Rook, a new recruit who has been recruited into the ranks of regular Varric to track down Solas before he tears his cover. It happens sooner than you think – your team finds him and stops his magical ritual in your first mission. However, this unleashes two very angry Elven gods who continue to wreak havoc throughout Thedas.
BioWare is wasting no time showing off its new aesthetic Dragon Age. The characters of the game are more stylized than before inquisitionbut I didn’t mind the slight loss in realism. If anything, this entry feels more different than the previous one Dragon Age titles. The sense of style also goes into every environment. The Lighthouse, your base of action, is a stunning medieval building floating in the middle of a dreamy, magical storm. I would often find myself staring into the Fade distance, imagining what else was beyond the horizon. It’s something I find myself in every new location, the details in the world hint at thousands of untold stories.
For such a game and suffered somewhat (including losing original creative director Mike Laidlaw), Dragon Age: The Veilguard surprisingly well built. In the twenty hours I’ve spent with the game (so far), what I appreciate most is the level of craftsmanship and quality.
While the storyline isn’t exactly groundbreaking, I couldn’t put it down Dragon Age: The Veilguard because it’s fun to play. The new combat system is more action-oriented than before (consider the difference between Mass Effect 1 and 2), with special actions reminiscent of counters and end times God of War. You can’t directly control your companions, but you can apply special abilities to them that can help you or attack your enemies. It’s a well-balanced system that makes smaller encounters feel really fun, and allows for some epic boss battles (some of which lasted about 10 minutes and left my controller a sweaty mess).
As you level up, you can customize your character however you want Veilgaurd’s massive skill tree. I’ve perfected my Rook to be a lightning-quick, dual-sword Rogue who doesn’t mind whipping out her bow for the occasional headbutt. (You can also choose between Fighter and Mage classes early on, which should be pretty self-explanatory.) Each skill tree has three specializations: for example, rogues can choose to be Veil Rangers (archery emphasis), Saboteurs (specialized). traps and poison) or Duelists. Personally, I’m partial to the Duelist’s double sword move.
Battles can be intense, and thankfully so Dragon Age: The Veilguard performs well enough to hold. Playing on a PC equipped with an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X and NVIDIA RTX 4080 Super GPU, the game managed to stay well above 100fps while playing at 4K with DLSS, “Ultra” graphics and ray tracing settings. If you have the hardware to support it, it’s likely to become a new showcase for ray tracing capabilities: Lighting and magical elements from the sun realistically affect characters and the environment, and shadows on the board look more natural.
But I was also surprised to find this Protector even with low graphics settings (absolutely no ray tracing) and a basic 30-40fps, it was still very playable on my Steam Deck. It’s certainly not the ideal way to play, but it’s useful for tackling side quests in bed or on the go. Just considering how well it performs on a handheld, I’d bet the game would play well on low- and mid-range GPUs as well as consoles without breaking a sweat. (And if you want to enjoy advanced ray tracing features from your couch, there is for .)
Besides just looking great, Protector BioWare’s focus on its characters kept me hooked. I enjoyed walking around Docktown with Neve, who warmed to my character (also a fellow Shadow Dragon) discussing how much she loved her run-down neighborhood. I helped Davrin come to terms with his new role of raising one of the world’s last Griffons and learned about the trauma behind Bella’s usually warm demeanor. As always, you can romance any of your companions (how can you not love Neven?) and there’s still plenty of fun to be had in building those relationships.
Admittedly, it just felt good to spend a few hours leading a group of ragtag do-gooders to save the world against grim odds. It’s pretty much every RPG and adventure story, but who can deny the joy of killing a few evil gods? (Enlisting the combined talents of composers Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe to score the game probably made me a little more emotional.)
after Baldur’s Gate 3 couldn’t catch me (I’ll get back to that, I swear!), I was scared Dragon Age: The Veilguard would be another failure. But it was the kind of show I needed: It’s beautiful to look at, fun to play, and I really enjoyed the new cast of characters. This is BioWare at its best – I hope they can do the same .
