Dragon Age: The Veilguard

The newest Dragon Age release took ten years. Whether fans and new players alike will be hooked by the continuation of the story after such a long time remains to be seen. But the strengths of a BioWare RPG are all there.

Almost to the day ten years after Dragon Age: Inquisition, BioWare returns to Thedas — “The Dragon Age Setting”, as the acronym “the d.a.s.” was used before it became the name of the world. Originally codenamed the arguably much catchier Dreadwolf, the fourth Dragon Age iteration now runs under the name of The Veilguard, aptly describing the organisation players will join and eventually lead in the course of the game. When evil creatures and mages want to rip down the veil between worlds, the group has to step up, including in the usual BioWare manner a cast of seven companions with friendship and romance options. The game again mixes action with strategic gameplay and of course plenty of RPG builds and leveling. For the first time, players will explore the region of the Tevinter Imperium, a kind of theocratic amalgamation of Eastern and Western Rome in the world of Dragon Age.

From what the trailers have shown and what the fans are expecting, the game’s entire story and background lore will be hard to grasp without knowledge of the earlier titles and especially their story-heavy add-ons, a fact that has befuddled many a casual Dragon Age player in earlier titles before. But at least the overall progression of good versus evil in the rather classically crafted fantasy setting of Dragon Age will probably be easy to understand for new players as well.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard releases on 31 October 2024 digitally and physically for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S.