With the reveal that BioWare‘s Dragon Age: The Veilguard will be coming out in the Fall later this year, fans were predictably eager to find out more about the roleplaying game. Not wanting to disappoint the legions of players who are waiting to jump in, the team shared more details through interviews as well as the official gameplay reveal, and it all looks much better than the initial trailer suggests.
First up, rather than a giant open world like Dragon Age: Inquisition or a linear one like Dragon Age 2, Veilguard will be a mixture of both in some sense. Speaking to IGN, director Corinne Busche explains that it will offer a “mission-based” experience in which “everything is hand-touched, hand-crafted, very highly curated.”
“We believe that’s how we get the best narrative experience, the best moment-to-moment experience. However, along the way, these levels that we go to do open up, some of them have more exploration than others. Alternate branching paths, mysteries, secrets, optional content you’re going to find and solve. So it does open up, but it is a mission-based, highly curated game.”
The same goes for side quests and optional content, something fans would be happy to hear, especially if they are keen to explore the backstories of some of their companions in Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
As for the game in action, the graphical fidelity of Veilguard has certainly benefitted from the latest Frostbite Engine, with its stylised take on the world and the characters being a distinct choice. Whether you like it or not is subjective, but at the very least, it seems to be in line with how the series has evolved over the years.
When it comes to combat, however, Dragon Age: The Veilguard is more action-heavy than any of the other titles in the franchise. With a party of three, players will have to be more strategic in how they deal with threats, something Busche refers to as “sophisticated animation cancelling and branching.” Learning when to dodge, counter, and take certain actions will benefit players in the long run, providing a nice blend of swift action and calculated thinking.
“The combat system is an interesting challenge going into the fourth iteration of this game because as you know, every Dragon Age has reinvented combat to some degree,” Busche explains. “Of course, pause and play strategy is always the backbone of it. But what that means is that in addition to fans of all three prior games and welcoming in an entirely new generation of fans, we’ve got a pretty diverse player base to accommodate.”
Having specialisations for each class is also a step in the right direction, allowing a party to be kitted out in ways that help the players approach certain encounters or make it a more satisfying experience to play through. It has never been more important to progress your friendships with the party, as this will also help unlock additional abilities to further enrich the combat. And yes, romance is going to be integral as well.
Now that we have learned more about Dragon Age: The Veilguard, the promise it shows will have us even more anxious to get our hands on the final product. While no release date has been set, we do know it will come out sometime in the Fall of 2024.
