Dragon Age: The Veilguard

A dynamic third-person action RPG with hack-and-slash combat, Dragon Age: The Veilguard takes players to the magical fantasy world of Thedas, at the heart of the Tevinter Imperium. A breach in the Veil—the magical barrier separating the world of spirits from the world of the living—set the Fade merging with reality and unleashed threats from another world. It is up to a new group of heroes to restore order. They travel through varied regions, each filled with unique quests and events, balancing storytelling with exploration.

The Veilguard features high-quality graphics, with a color palette, occasional cartoon-like elements, and stylized simplifications that create a unique visual style. But BioWare made clever use of visual contrasts: on one hand, the lavish cities of Tevinter; on the other, villages eaten away by the Blight and the dark, oppressive atmosphere of the Deep Roads. Bright, vivid animations and a wealth of effects make the action spectacular and visually rich.

The Dragon Age universe depicts a world in a constant struggle for survival. At its center is the continent of Thedas, torn apart by periodic disasters known as Blights. They are caused by the Blight, an ancient corruption that infects all living things, turning humans, elves, and dwarves into monstrous Darkspawn. Each Blight is led by an archdemon—a powerful dragon corrupted by the Blight.

The true cause of the Blight is unknown, but it is linked to the Veil—a magical barrier separating the real world from the Fade, where spirits and demons live. The Veil not only acts as a safeguard but also remains a constant threat, since tears in it allow creatures from the Fade to invade the continent.

As if that weren't enough, Thedas is torn apart by constant conflicts. In the north, the human empire of Tevinter, once a powerful magocracy, struggles for influence against powers such as Ferelden in the south, Orlais in the west, and Antiva in the east. Dwarves living in underground cities fight not only the Darkspawn but also one another for control of rare resources. The elves, having lost their former glory, are in decline and gradually disappearing from the world stage. Wars, political intrigue, and social conflicts only add fuel to the fire.

The ancient order of Grey Wardens has dedicated itself to fighting the Blight and the Darkspawn. They also appear in The Veilguard. The conflict between mages and their Templar guards, which reached its peak in Inquisition, has ended, and the new game focuses on other factions. These include the famous assassins, the Antivan Crows, who offer unique opportunities and quests, as well as the Mourn Watch and the Shadow Dragons.

The game actively encourages players to explore the world through dialogue, notes, and chronicles, but instead of a deep dive into the lore, players got a flood of meaningless information. In essence, Veilguard erased the rich lore foundation laid by the previous games. In an effort to make the game an accessible entry point to the series and attract a new generation of players, BioWare’s writers simplified the setting and atmosphere and retconned the canon. They avoid revealing key events from previous games to avoid overwhelming newcomers, replace the characters’ complex motivations with simplified plot devices, and serious themes with lighthearted fairy-tale elements.

Long ago, an elven civilization flourished in Thedas, ruled by powerful leaders known as the Evanuris. Gifted with divine power, they cruelly oppressed ordinary elves. Driven by a sense of justice, the trickster god Fen’Harel rebelled against the oppression and tyranny of his fellow gods. He created the Veil and imprisoned the Evanuris within it. The people were free, but their happiness did not last long—the Veil caused the elves to lose their immortality and their civilization to decline.

Centuries later, during the events of Dragon Age: Inquisition, the self-taught elven mage Solas discovers the Veil’s ancient secrets and decides to restore his people’s former glory and power by tearing it down. This threatens to plunge Thedas into chaos and destroy it, as demons from the Fade are released.

In The Veilguard’s prologue, the protagonist, known as Rook, and their allies interrupt Solas’s ritual. This, however, leads to unpredictable consequences. Two Evanuris with bloodthirsty and sadistic tendencies manage to escape the Fade: Ghilan’nain and Elgar’nan. They unleash a new Blight, unlike anything seen before, as if it combined the forces of every previous one. New Archdemons, the most powerful ever known, lead vast armies of Darkspawn and threaten to destroy all life.

The Veilguard offers a fast-paced fantasy story, but it lacks the narrative depth, moral dilemmas, and emotional highs and lows that defined Origins. Most importantly, it is no longer dark fantasy. The story consists of 14 major chapters and moves through a series of key events that are logically connected, but not dramatically. The writers sometimes try to stir emotions, but avoid confrontations and heated conflicts, keeping the story from reaching the tension it needs. Instead of a rising catharsis, the story offers “eco-drama,” and even the villains are not insulted but met with attempts to understand and persuade them.

The main conflict centers on the protagonist’s team fighting the Evanuris. Each chapter introduces new friends and enemies, and the path to the finale includes one major plot twist and a couple of smaller ones. The story’s structure and pacing follow BioWare’s classic formula: the hero assembles a team, helps companions with personal matters, solves other people’s problems, and sets off on a “suicide mission,” where two squads defeat everyone. It all ends with one of five possible finales. The developers have done everything to help players complete the game perfectly: they remind you about unfinished quests, give hints about key steps, and otherwise guide you toward the best outcome.

The writers limit the player’s influence on events: choices are simplified, consequences are predictable, and most decisions have only cosmetic effects. You also can’t play as a “cynical egoist” or a “noble paladin.” The dialogue feels predictable, since every response option leads to the same outcome, and there’s no way to pressure or bribe anyone, or to draw the wrong conclusions. The protagonist avoids difficult or ambiguous topics, making conversations “neutral”—unlike in previous games in the series, where players felt responsible for their overly talkative characters.

The Veilguard has one of the most detailed character creators for making a realistic-looking character. You can choose a race (human, elf, dwarf, Qunari), gender, class (warrior, mage, rogue), background (starting conditions and bonuses), and faction (dialogue options and interactions with NPCs). You can adjust your character’s appearance, including their hairstyle, beard, scars, skin sag, ear shape, and many other details.

The protagonist is more of a functional figure in the story than a charismatic leader who inspires empathy, despite being presented as the most important hero in the series. They become the world’s savior by chance, without any special talents or status. Their interactions with the world revolve around playing a predetermined role, while their personality gets lost in generic, unremarkable lines.

The seven companions offer a wide range of personalities, most of them bland and lacking character. The best moments involve a necromancer who dreams of becoming a lich and an inventor exploring her elven heritage. But even then, a heated discussion about the morality of necromancy ends with them apologizing to each other.

The character designers aimed to meet all the standards of inclusivity, but the result feels overly heavy-handed. For example, the nonbinary companion becomes the embodiment of cringe, responsible for 80% of all awkward moments. Instead of showing passionate personalities and revealing their character and skeletons in the closet, the companions’ stories focus on outward traits and identity issues, without even trying to go deeper—in the words of today’s internet. Their personal quests feel like a waste of time: the hero faces a problem, an antagonist appears, and the quest ends with the hero defeating them. As a result, the player can influence the ending and earn unique abilities and armor for the companion.

Fast-paced and flashy, it requires players to “button-mash” against enemies, keep moving (missed attacks deal heavy damage), use active abilities, and take enemy traits into account. Warrior abilities work better against some enemies, while ranged mage attacks are more effective against others.

Each class offers its own approach to combat. Warriors charge dramatically into the fray with massive weapons. Rogues set traps, use turrets, and fight at both close and long range. Mages have received a huge arsenal of spells, including necromancy, elemental magic, gravity anomalies, and summoning through rifts in space. Mages aren’t limited to ranged attacks with a staff—they also use a sword and a magical orb in close combat.

The combat is based on a typical hack-and-slash system: light and heavy attacks, positive and negative status effects, and abilities. Dodges, parries, and counterattacks add variety to the defense mechanics. For example, successfully parrying a series of attacks gives your weapon a burning effect, while some builds even let you parry red attacks, which can usually only be dodged. You can also use the environment to knock enemies off cliffs.

The hero can take only two companions into battle, and the tactical element remains in the form of commands issued to them through a special menu. All characters have three active abilities and one ultimate attack. Companions’ basic attacks are weak, but they are almost invulnerable to enemies and feel like an “extension” of your available skills. The system lets you freely change your character’s build, but you can only change classes when starting a new game.

The combat system is flexible, but the situations and enemies don’t encourage you to use all of its features. Success in battle depends on both the protagonist’s abilities and how they work with other classes, as well as the character’s level and equipment. You can combine abilities: one character applies a primer to an enemy, and another sets it off with a detonator, dealing extra damage. There’s always a combination available, and the interface itself will show you which ability is the primer and which is the detonator. Fill the stagger meter to perform a flashy finisher, or build up rage to use a super attack against bosses.

The varied bestiary includes enemies with different types of attacks and defenses. In addition to regular health, enemies are often armored or protected by barriers. Mini-bosses are more interesting than the main bosses, though both suffer from having too much health, which turns fights into drawn-out battles. Dragons have a special place in the game as the main type of large enemy. This time, they don’t have unique attacks or weaknesses, and all the fights follow the same pattern, even though they have several phases. At times, the player fights several dragons at once, using ballistae and coordinating the team’s actions.

The Veilguard campaign takes 40–60 hours, during which players complete dozens of varied and repetitive quests. The quest list is short: find clues, defeat enemies, solve a puzzle, conduct a mini-investigation, solve a spatial puzzle, destroy Blight growths, loot chests, and gather resources. Completing side quests helps level up your character, which has a major effect on difficulty—the progression system uses auto-leveling.

Side quests provide experience and rewards while also strengthening the game world’s factions, which comes in handy in the finale. This is done by collecting various resources that serve as currency for trading: each faction has its own preferences and demands specific materials, such as minerals, wood, or rare artifacts. In the end, it often comes down to clearing areas or collecting resources.

Equipment for heroes and companions differs, making each one feel unique but reducing variety. Weapons can be upgraded by “fusing” them with an identical duplicate to create an even more powerful version. Armor, however, can only be upgraded at the hub by a special character, using resources. The upgrade system is tied to trading: collected resources serve as currency for buying equipment from merchants. Their selection is limited and rarely changes, and access to more advanced gear only becomes available when you raise a faction’s level, which happens closer to the finale.

As a result, exploration has a major impact on your playthrough in The Veilguard: side quests, puzzles, riddles, and secrets reward you with far more valuable equipment than the crafting system does. Inventory space is unlimited, so you can keep all the gear you’ve collected.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard has no open world. Instead, it features compact, linear locations across different biomes, linked by magical portals. They’re highly detailed, making travel quick and keeping the focus on exploration and gameplay. Each location has a unique atmosphere and details that highlight its character, while still feeling like part of a cohesive world where attention to detail makes up for the linear design.

The Arlathan Forest shows ancient magic awakening among the ruins of the elven empire. The Hossberg Wetlands are shrouded in the darkness of the Blight. The Tevinter capital, Minrathous, impresses with its grandeur, luxury, and skyscrapers. Not all locations are linear: their layouts combine straight paths with branching routes, hidden passages, and vertical elements. A zipline lets you reach hard-to-access areas, making travel faster, adding new routes, and allowing secrets and resources to be hidden more securely.

Visual contrasts—from grand ruins to infected villages and cities at night—make the world more immersive, while platforming and simplified puzzles make exploration enjoyable.

The Lighthouse is the central feature of the game world: a hub that serves as a real home for the player and their companions. Here, you can customize rooms, upgrade equipment, and build relationships with companions by talking to them. Each character has their own room, where their personal stories unfold, and new features and areas become available as you progress through the game. By collecting special keys from secondary bosses, you can unlock locked doors in the Lighthouse to obtain unique armor and unlock the best ending.