Five minutes before the game is revealed. Dragon Age: Veil Guard I was still hoping that I would love it. Despite rumors of internal reboots, BioWare layoffs, Dreadwolf's name change, and the out-of-field reveal trailer, I was officially the latest clown sitting in the car on a PC Gamer team full of disgruntled Dragon Age fans. . Now that we've seen 20 minutes of action, combat, and theatrics, I'm finally willing to admit that BioWare is simply no longer interested in making the Dragon Age game I want to play.
My fellow RPG player Joshua Wolens saw in person a longer version of the intro sequence that BioWare released today and said: Dragon Age becomes what it was probably always meant to be: a Mass Effect game.
As the group battled through the demon-infested streets of Minrathous and Venatori cultists to confront Solas, custom protagonist Rook jumped, backflipped, and tactically rolled through the combat in what looks like a new version of the not-particularly welcome turn towards the action of Dragon Age 2. combat 13 years ago.
Veilguard is more action RPG than the series. Although you can give orders to your party in the middle of combat, you can no longer directly control them, which seems like a real loss in a party-based series. Heck, it has a timed prompt to “recover quickly” from being shot down in combat and an actual reticle for firing a bow.
It wasn't just the combat in that gameplay trailer that put me off. The vibe of the entire sequence felt strange. “Don't worry; scouting is my specialty,” says Harding, whose title is Scout Harding. “Hey, Chuckles, I hope I'm not interrupting,” Varric says, as he interrupts a giant Fade destruction ritual with dramatic orchestral music.
I'm not going to pretend that a show where “swooping is bad” is a popular joke has always been grim and serious. Dragon Age has been silly and a little boring for a long time, and balancing that silly humor with its darker themes has always been a strength. But the series has felt self-conscious since immediately following the success of Dragon Age: Origins.
This game reveal had the overly acrobatic combat of a Star Wars game, the team-up heroic banter of a Marvel game (“do you want me to shoot?”), and the cutscenes of an Uncharted game: pushing a wooden Scaffold off. of place at the last second to interrupt an evil ritual, ugh! It sure seems like Veilguard wants to be anything but a Dragon Age game.
What does a Dragon Age game look like at this point? In my opinion, it feels a lot like Baldur's Gate 3. Right after the game's release last year, I wrote: fellow Dragon Age fans, I need you to play Baldur's Gate 3 with me. It wasn't afraid to be a modern take on an old role-playing game, had incredibly passionate character voice-over performances, and struck a chord with grim fantasy and serious silliness.
That's all I wanted from the next Dragon Age. And at the time he truly believed that the game formerly known as Dreadwolf would arrive at its release date covered in scars and darkspawn guts with some of those same qualities. But Veilguard is less of an RPG than ever, the reveal of it didn't endear me to the characters I was supposed to already love, and it seems obsessed with proving it has an epic plot.
He's embarrassed by his own origins (sorry) and in a world where we all fell in love with the complicated but beautiful Baldur's Gate 3, I still don't understand why.
It was only 15 minutes, I know. Outside of combat, perhaps these seven new companions will be interesting, complex people with the excellent quip lines that the series is known for. Perhaps this over-the-top introduction is similar to the way Inquisition started with a literal bang and Veilguard will have thoughtful moments of political intrigue. Maybe something of the environment I love is still there beneath this boastful affectation.
An early game reveal has always been BioWare's chance to show us what the newest game in the series considers important. Dragon Age 2 said “we have action combat!” Dragon Age: Inquisition said “we have huge maps!” And Dragon Age: The Veilguard says “we have 15-year-old intellectual property that you're still emotionally attached to!” It's me. I'm still emotionally attached.
In a show that has always had great relationships, let me put it this way: I think this is like that big gesture to save the relationship, where you realize that the best thing your partner can come up with is not what you want and it's up to you to break things. It's time to put away the clown makeup I've been faithfully wearing for years, stop making excuses for Dragon Age, and just finish Baldur's Gate 3.
