I am unable to cease looking at Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Whether or not I am exploring the sport’s house base within the dream-like Fade, or a forest shimmering with golden leaves and wild magical vitality, the sport merely appears to be like beautiful. And, if you happen to’ve obtained the graphical horsepower to see it, it additionally delivers among the most luxurious ray tracing I’ve ever seen. There is a stage of polish throughout each side of the sport, together with its new action-oriented strategy to fight, that is merely superb to behold.
Veilguard continues the story of the decade-old Dragon Age Inquisition, which was most notable for the stunning ending of its DLC. It turned out that Solas, one among your extra cantankerous companions, was truly an Elven god hellbent on destroying the Veil, a boundary he created to separate the true world from the spirit-filled Fade. Oh, and that is the place he additionally trapped much more evil Elven gods. Solas thought of himself a hero, however then once more, so did Marvel’s Thanos.
This time round, you play as Rook, a brand new recruit enlisted by collection common Varric to trace down Solas earlier than he tears down the Veil. That occurs earlier than you’d assume — your group finds him and stops his magical ritual in your first mission. However doing so unleashes two very pissed off Elven gods, who proceed to wreak havoc throughout Thedas.
BioWare wastes no time exhibiting off its new aesthetic for Dragon Age. The sport’s characters are extra stylized than in Inquisition, however I did not thoughts the slight loss in realism. If something, it makes this entry really feel extra distinct from earlier Dragon Age titles. The sense of fashion carries over to each atmosphere, as nicely. The Lighthouse, your base of operations, is a surprising collection of medieval buildings floating in the midst of a dreamy, magical storm. I’d usually discover myself simply staring off into the gap of the Fade, imagining what else lay past the horizon. That’s one thing I discovered myself doing in each new location, the element on the earth hints at hundreds of untold tales.
For a sport that was , and suffered some (together with shedding its unique inventive director, Mike Laidlaw), Dragon Age: The Veilguard is surprisingly well-constructed. And all through my twenty hours with the sport (thus far), it’s that stage of craft and high quality I recognize essentially the most.
Whereas the storyline is not precisely groundbreaking, I have not been in a position to put down Dragon Age: The Veilguard as a result of it is such a pleasure to play. The brand new fight system is extra action-oriented than earlier than (consider the distinction between Mass Impact 1 and 2), with counters and particular strikes harking back to the current God of Warfare. You may’t immediately management your companions, however you possibly can have them deploy particular skills that may both help you or assault your enemies. It is a well-balanced system that makes small encounters really feel genuinely enjoyable, and it permits for some epic boss fights (a few of which have lasted almost 10 minutes and left my controller a sweaty mess).
As you stage up, you possibly can tweak your character to your liking with Veilgaurd’s large ability tree. I’ve honed my Rook to be a lightning-fast dual-sword wielding Rogue who is not afraid to whip out her bow for the occasional headshot. (You may as well select from Warrior and Mage lessons early on, which needs to be fairly self-explanatory.) Every ability tree has three specializations: Rogues, for instance, can select to be Veil Rangers (an archery emphasis), Saboteurs (specializing in traps and poison) or Duelists. Personally, I am a sucker for the Duelist’s double sword motion.
Battles can get hectic, and fortunately Dragon Age: The Veilguard performs nicely sufficient to maintain up. Whereas taking part in on a PC powered by an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X and NVIDIA RTX 4080 Tremendous GPU, the sport managed to remain nicely above 100fps whereas taking part in in 4K with DLSS, “Ultra” graphics and ray tracing settings. When you have the {hardware} to assist it, it will possible grow to be a brand new showpiece for the chances of ray tracing: Lighting from the solar and magical parts realistically hits characters and the atmosphere, and shadows throughout the board look extra pure.
However I used to be additionally stunned to search out that Veilguard was additionally nonetheless very playable on my Steam Deck, albeit with low graphics settings (positively no ray tracing) and a fundamental 30-to-40fps. That is definitely not the perfect solution to play, however it’s useful for coping with facet missions in mattress, or on the go. Given how nicely it performs on a mere handheld, I would wager the sport would play nicely on low-end and mid-range GPUs, in addition to consoles, with out a lot of a sweat. (And if you wish to enjoy superior ray tracing options out of your sofa, there’s for the .)
Past merely wanting nice, Veilguard stored me hooked due to BioWare’s consideration to its characters. I loved strolling by Docktown with Neve, who warmed as much as my character (additionally a fellow Shadow Dragon) whereas discussing how a lot she beloved her rundown neighborhood. I helped Davrin come to phrases together with his new position elevating one of many final Griffons on the earth, and I realized in regards to the trauma behind Bella’s usually heat demeanor. As common, you possibly can romance any of your companions (how will you not love Neve?), and there’s nonetheless loads of enjoyable available making an attempt to arrange these relationships.
I’ll admit, it merely felt good to pour some hours main a gaggle of ragtag do-gooders to avoid wasting the world towards relentless odds. That’s just about each RPG and journey story, positive, however who can deny the pleasure of killing a number of evil gods? (Bringing on the mixed abilities of composers Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe to attain the sport possible additionally made me a bit extra emotional.)
After Baldur’s Gate 3 did not seize me (I’ll get again to it, I swear!), I feared that Dragon Age: The Veilguard can be one other letdown. Nevertheless it turned out to be precisely the form of spectacle I wanted: It’s stunning to behold, enjoyable to play and I genuinely loved the brand new batch of characters. It’s BioWare at its greatest – I’m simply hoping they will do the identical for the .
