Gather around folks, it’s time for a Dragon Age: The Veilguard review. Carrying on the legacy of its forefathers albeit in a slightly less impressive way, the latest addition to the series attempts to expand on the Dragon Age universe in a way that’s appealing to newer gamers rather than real fans of the series. The 2024 action role-playing game was developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts (EA), and it has received a range of feedback from middling reviews to being the best Bioware game so far.
Marking a refreshed sequel to the Dragon Age: Inquisition (2014), there are many things that the Dragon Age: The Veilguard gameplay and design get right, despite the onslaught of content being too much for some gamers unfamiliar with this format. If you like an immersive game heavy on the lore, there is a lot here to keep you busy here.
Image: Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Dragon Age: The Veilguard Review—Where Will Our Decisions Take Us This Time?
Depending on whether you’ve played a game in this series before, you might have very different expectations from, and experiences with, the game. While Dragon Age: The Veilguard echoes many of the elements of murky morals and diverse landscapes from previous iterations, it also takes on a life on its own through its storyline and gameplay.
Depending on the characters you select and build, you can experience combat quite differently, but the character classes reflect those we typically see in other games, making it easy enough to get the hang of after the initial few run-ins with opponents. The mage class here stands out as the most clunky to operate, but if you like a challenge, you may as well test your abilities with its play style.
While encountering Dragon Age: The Veilguard, our first impressions on the experience held true for most of the game—the choices you make do hold some consequences for how the game unfolds. Rook, the main character you play, isn’t the most engaging and inspiring of protagonists and you will often find yourself wondering why they’re so central to the storyline. Yes, it does allow you to enjoy the stories surrounding your party members a little bit more, but the Rook remains uncompelling.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard Storyline—What Are We Fighting For?
Our protagonist Rook is presented with the mammoth task of bringing down the elven god of trickery, Dread Wolf, and so they must band together with their companions to accomplish this mission. When things go awry and other forces break out, the mission expands to become a more challenging one. The journey takes you around the land of Thedas as you explore the fascinating landscapes and genuinely intricate location designs.
The companions in the game all have their own lore and story arcs, so you’ll never run short of storylines to explore. Through Conversations, Quests, and Outings, you’ll be able to explore interlinked plot points that come up unexpectedly. It’s interesting to explore how choices made early on in the game can tie into consequences much later on, providing you with enough unique content that you can play through the game a few times and learn something new each run.
There does appear to be a three-character limit on the number of Rooks you can create, but if you’re mentally prepared to delete one of them and restart the whole process, you can choose to do that.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard Gameplay—Is It For Combat Lovers?
Yes, the narratives and conversations make up a big part of the gameplay in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, however, the combat is significantly more engaging in this one compared to the other games in the series. From leveling up the skill tree to acquiring your gear, there are a lot of elements to perfecting your character in this game.
From experimenting with elements to weapons, there are different components you can test out for your combat and these are not frivolous changes—they do make a difference to your gameplay. A significant portion of Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s performance is character-led, which means that there is no pressure to obtain any “ultimate” gear. Your choices, preferences, and playstyle determine your experience of the game.
While the majority of our Dragon Age: The Veilguard review is largely positive, we’ll say that the combat isn’t sufficient for someone looking exclusively to battle as the moves can get repetitive and you might find yourself leaning on your companions to carry the fight through their autonomous mechanics. The boss fights might keep you on your toes every once in a while but it is not designed to be an “action” game.
The burden of choice is something you can expect to encounter frequently whether with the storyline or your combat styles, but if you aren’t crazy about building the perfect character, you can get away with investing here and there, without breaking down each spec.
Image: Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Is Dragon Age: The Veilguard Good?
From our impressions of the Dragon Age: The Veilguard game, we can objectively say that it is a good game. For those who love dense storylines, there is a lot of it, and for those who enjoy combat, there is some of it. For fans of the series who wanted a big game filled with complex decisions, personal struggles, and exceedingly grey morals, there is nothing to see here.
The dialogues are enjoyable if a tad bit overdone, similar to other games in this genre, but it is ultimately a game designed to keep you playing for hours on end. The voice actors do a great job of bringing their characters to life. There is also a healthy sprinkling of romance here and there for those who enjoy that sort of thing.
The flood of information and the on-screen clutter can get overwhelming sometimes, but it’s nothing that a break from speedrunning the game won’t fix. Map exploration, while limited until unlocked, also provides a great way to pass the time. It does take some time to pick up steam and really get going, but it gets there eventually.
For returning players of the series, we and most Dragon Age: The Veilguard reviews will tell you that the game has tried hard to be a little bit of everything that is popular right now, losing some of itself in the process. It doesn’t fully commit to its duality-heavy RPG status and clings to playing safe in many ways. Yes, people make bad decisions, but they’re all textbook good people in the end. The complexity that returning fans are looking for just isn’t there.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard Player Numbers Dwindle
Does the audience for such a game still exist? That’s an interesting question considering that since its launch in October 2024, the Dragon Age: The Veilguard player numbers surpassed 85,000 concurrent players on Steam in its opening weekend and peaked at 1.5 million players across platforms, but it still missed EA’s expectations by 50%. For a game of this scale, the launch performance and immediate decision to go on sale do not paint a pretty picture.
Electronic Arts reported that it had forecast bookings of between $2.4 billion to $2.55 billion but the numbers actually fell to a lower $2.22 billion in its third quarter. This was associated with the unimpressive performance of two major titles EA Sports FC 25 and Dragon Age: The Veilguard. EA and BioWare were both banking on Dragon Age fans to carry the game and the companies further, but things have turned out very differently.
The popularity of Baldur’s Gate 3 has been tagged as one of the reasons for Dragon Age’s decline, but it would be unfair to say that the former title has stolen all the gamers who might have played Dragon Age. If BG 3 can take its narrative format and keep players returning to it again and again, maybe Dragon Age: The Veilguard just isn’t doing enough to create that same level of engagement.
For our final thoughts on the Dragon Age: The Veilguard review, we’ll conclude by saying that it is a good title that might be a great entry point for those unfamiliar with this genre of games. Even veterans in this category can benefit from a more lighthearted approach to decision-making and their consequences, compared to that of BG3 and other older RPGs.
This title may be the last we see of Dragon Age for a while at the least, so it doesn’t hurt to give it a shot and see what all the ruckus is about.