Platform(s): PlayStation 5 (version reviewed), Xbox Series, PC
Genre: Action RPG masquerading as a CRPG, new Bioware experience

Back in the aughts, you can always count on Bioware to deliver a huge story-based role-playing game experience, much like how you can count on Michael Jordan making legendary basketball plays. The earlier Baldur’s Gate entries, Jade Empire, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, the Mass Effect trilogy; these games had captivating stories and some solid gameplay and action to boot. In fact, the first Dragon Age game, Origins, is their 2010-era throwback to Baldur’s Gate right down to the moral dilemmas, complex grey-level issues, and dark overtones presented in the fantasy world of Thedas.

So what the hell happened from 2017 onward? Well, a lot. But to sum it up: the best people left the company, management, and trends-chasing. Fast forward to now after the messes that were Mass Effect: Andromeda and Anthem, and we have Bioware attempting to go back to what they were good at with the fourth Dragon Age game, Dragon Age: Veilguard.

I mean, I can forgive Anthem because Bioware has no business making a live service looter shooter. I don’t expect Michael Jordan to score home runs in his mercifully short baseball career. However, I do expect the b-baller pro to play damn good basketball as if his life depended on it, much like how I expect Bioware to deliver the best RPG experience that transcends imitators and duplicators.

I did not get that with Dragon Age: Veilguard. What I got was just a standard role-playing game experience albeit with that triple-A major game company polish. That’s fine and all, but let me vent out my frustration onto the new Bioware’s efforts for just a bit.

Mazes & Monsters

Let’s start with the game’s plot. Taking place after Dragon Age: Inquisition after the titular group disbanded (or not), you are a new character just codenamed Rook under the tutelage of Dragon Age alumni Varric who has to deal with another alumni Solus (the Dread Wolf) who wants to pierce a magic veil to supposedly fix the world at the cost of lives. After that kerfuffle and a sabotage later, the world of Thedas ends up with two psychopathic elven gods planning to release an age-old evil and rule the world. And it’s up to you to gather a group of specialists and experts to stand up against them and their plans. Basically your fantasy equivalent of a heist film, but with more killing and all-out spell battles.

Without spoiling much, the main narrative is actually decent in the first 5 hours and the last few just before your multiple endings (more on that later). However, everything in-between just feels like padding and unnecessarily stretched out that it feels like an actual choir to play through. This isn’t helped by how your companion missions are just dumped right at you before the final few showdowns of the game, instead of being weaved organically.

Speaking of which, the characters of Veilguard. They’re mid as best, and insufferable at worst.

You can always gauge the quality of a Bioware game with a standout character that just etches into your memory even if you’ve only played a few hours of it (due to people singing their praises online too). For Baldur’s Gate back then, there’s Minsc. In Star Wars: KOTOR, there’s HK-47. In Dragon Age: Origin, there’s Morrigan and Alistair. In Dragon Age: Inquisition, there’s the Iron Bull.

I can’t for the life of me single out anyone memorable (for the right reasons) in Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s new cast of adventurers. Sure, I recall Harding being in the previous Dragon Age, but she’s so unremarkable and generically chipper that I just called her “stock happy dwarf archer”. As party members to my Rogue build, I do use the black Grey Warden with the griffin and Indian ice mage, or even Disney Princess elf ranger, but they don’t leave much of an impression. Even the most interesting one of the lot, Emmerich the dapper necromancer gentleman with the skeleton butler Manfred, is just a mish-mash of tropes I’ve seen before that’s done better. Imagine the worst aspects of Joss Whedon’s dialogue-writing out in full force and dictating most of the flow and conversation, and you have new Bioware’s style to a tee: spiffy and supposedly hip, with not much substance to go about.

And then there’s the Qunari dragon hunter Taash. I will say this: there are better ways to write a character like this AND make them interesting and likeable, without coming off as forced and equipped with a tacked-on agenda that just begs for online flames and outrage. Whichever team handled this bit clearly does not have nuance required to approach the subject. It’s about as subtle as a sledgehammer.

I don’t count Varric, Solas, and a few others I can’t mention due to spoilers because they had their stories built up since the past few games and already have their characterizations sorted by the actual talent that left. The new folks might be fine for the crowd the game is supposedly pandering for, and for anyone who wants a lighter RPG experience with fluff and some whimsy to go with the bloodshed, but this new cast is not doing it for me. Heck, I can’t even be completely antagonistic to my own party members and even force them to leave out of conflict; everything here just feels too sanitized when compared to past Dragon Age stories that aren’t afraid to hang around the grey moral area between good and evil. That whole spiel on Twitter where a YouTuber or two said that Dragon Age’s conversation are what happens when HR is in the room? As someone who finished the game in his 35-hour playthrough, they’re not exaggerating.

Swords & Sorcery

Following the design route the company has been on since Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s combat is real-time and action-heavy all the way. You can still pause the screen to assign commands, but they’re just as simplified as they were in past Dragon Age games and Mass Effect. You can have up to two extra party members to tag along with Rook, and they don’t die. They can however do combo moves with you or with themselves against a target, allowing you to pile on extra triggers like Detonation for more damage. You’ll also face a ton of enemies from human spellcasters to assassins, to even demons and zombies, to hulking polygonal golems and stone warriors. They come in all shapes and sizes, as well as barrier types. You’ll need to match moves and attacks to deplete their protection and life bars lest you get overwhelmed. Blue barriers? Use magic or ranged. Yellow barriers? Use your heavy melee attacks. Red life? Just use whatever attacks.

While all of this is fun for the first few hours, all enhanced with tight controls and lovely particle effects & meaty sounds, it gets pretty old after 10 hours or so as you deal with the same types of mobs throughout your journey. As such, the same tactics do apply: destroy enemy barriers, deal with enemy spawners nearby, kill mobs with a combination of melee, ranged, spells, and combo attacks. Perhaps if they give better and restrictive protection that only your party members can penetrate instead of just giving them bigger health and shield bars in higher difficulties, the game would be less reliant on attrition battles. Boss battles are fine and all, with some fun weak points to exploit and attacks to avoid, but they don’t stand out when compared to other RPG fares of 2024. It’s a shame, because this is one of the aspects Dragon Age: The Veilguard nails core-wise. With a little more fine-tuning and better balancing, the rest of the game’s fights would be more fun instead of the slog they are. As someone who has endured through a lot of good and tedious action RPGs, I know a slog when I experience one.

Dreadwolf In the Fold

Despite all my criticisms, Dragon Age: The Veilguard is still a competent and decent action RPG experience that’s just bogged down by its legacy and namesake; rightfully so. I think Bioware do need to stick around and hopefully aren’t getting dissolved by parent company EA. At least given the positive reception & pre-order sales at this time of writing, Bioware might be sticking around for another game or two, provided that it’s in the veins of an action RPG.

At the very least, the team should take into account all the feedback of the writing and characterization from learned Bioware enthusiasts who are constructive with their criticism, because this fantasy writing is about as sanitized & sterile as a hospital. It’s even hamfisted at parts involving the game’s sole Qunari party member. And the crazy part is that all the good stuff is all at the start and at the last 2 hours of the game; everything else in-between just feels like work & a slog to go through thanks to repetitive missions, middling mob combat that takes longer than it should to resolve, and drawn-out character arcs for stock party members that just feel focus-tested from some bigwig company.

And yes, the character quests-completing missions are optional if you want the best outcome for the game, but that’s basically 10 extra hours of legwork that’s just as bad as the repetitive dungeons in Dragon Age 2 and arguably the throwaway missions in Dragon Age: Inquisition. Then again, one can get some joy out of the game’s bad ending if they don’t like the cast. Make of that what you will, but at least Bioware is giving you that choice albeit late in the game.

Long story short: Dragon Age – The Veilguard is far from being a disaster that many internet haters are claiming it to be. It’s a serviceable and high-budget comfort food-level action role-playing game. Though if I’m being fair, that’s probably the worst thing a standout trendsetter company like Bioware can commit: something that straddles along the lines of “fine”. I accept the fact that we will not be getting an RPG in the veins of Dragon Age: Origins as the classic team is long gone. But at the very least, with the resources and time given, they could at least try a lot harder than this boil of banality.

Pros

• Lovely graphics & vistas, even if art style is an odd choice.
• Great combat structure & controls..
• Great climax & resolution.

Cons

• Maudlin, divisive writing and stock characters.
• Terrible pacing & level structure.
• Lack of enemy variety & drawn-out mob fights.

Final Score: 60/100

Review copy provided by publisher.