Dragon Age: The Veilguard – hands-on report

BioWare’s lore-rich fantasy RPG series makes its long-awaited return when Dragon Age: The Veilguard comes to PS5 on October 31, after nearly a decade since the last installment. The Veilguard takes place across the northern region of Thedas, giving players a chance to finally explore the magical city of Tevinter. As a first-time visitor to Thedas’ world of magic, my recent hands-on with the game was an enlightening introduction to the deep storytelling of the series grounded by the game’s intuitive real-time combat and enchanting visuals. 

Customize everything

My hands-on journey began by thoroughly exploring The Veilguard’s extensive character creator, following an opening animation highlighting where the story left off in Dragon Age: Inquisition. The Dragon Age series is known to offer highly detailed character customization, but I was surprised to see just how in-depth The Veilguard went with options to customize nearly every physical aspect of your character, from diverse head and body shapes to tattoos (options for face and full body), make-up, and facial scars. In particular, the various hair textures shown in the selection of close to 100 hairstyles look so detailed and realistic that you can see the care developers put into each hair follicle.

Once I finished customizing my character for nearly half an hour (I could have spent hours on this), I played around with the new lighting preview feature. The new feature allows you to see your character in up to four different lighting settings to ensure your creation is faithful to your vision before you commence your journey through Thedas.

Similar to past games in the series the character creator is where you choose your combatant’s race and class. Additionally, The Veilguard adds a feature to pick between six Factions, including options for Grey Wardens, Veil Jumpers, Shadow Dragons, Lords of Fortune, the Mourn Watch, and Antivan Crows. Be sure to select carefully as a chosen Faction directly influences a character’s unique backstory and even future dialogue choices.

Combat with companions

The fast-paced and intuitive combat in Dragon Age: The Veilguard was the cherry on top of my experience with the game. As a self-described beginner when it comes to most game genres, the combat controls were easy enough to pick up while providing a high ceiling for the more advanced players to put together combo attacks with companions.

In Dragon Age: The Veilguard you control your companion’s abilities through the new Ability Wheel, as opposed to switching between and fully controlling your party members like you could in Dragon Age: Inquisition. Pulling up the Ability Wheel halts the action and lets you trigger your personal and companions’ abilities. Switching between real-time combat and the Ability Wheel felt natural and served as a quick break from all-out action, giving me a chance to plan combo attacks with companions or trigger my own abilities. Punctuating combo attacks by unleashing an Ultimate ability served as one of the more satisfying tenets of the gameplay experience, though it was rare I was able to pull off such a feat.

Trek through Thedas

Stepping foot in Minrathous, the capital of Tevinter, players are met with vivid colors and an impressively expansive depth of field. From the finely tuned details of raindrops splashing into puddles and broken-up concrete, to the sky-high architecture and statues seen from a distance, the visual fidelity of The Veilguard is truly immersive and encourages exploring freely.

The graphics especially shine when you’re tasked to travel through the Arlathan Forest to find missing Veil Jumpers. The contrast in color of the shadow-casting trees is highlighted by sunlight peering through their branches, showing the attention to detail paid by the developers in terms of lighting and photorealism in varied environments.

Friends help friends

Each companion I met on my voyage through Thedas made an impression and drew me deeper into the story, though my limited playing time didn’t allow me to meet the whole cast. 

“The companions are really the stars of the show just as much as anyone else,” John Epler, Creative Director, BioWare.

Early on you’ll meet Neve Gallus, the self-assured private investigator who helps locate Solas to prevent a major catastrophe from ensuing in the game’s prologue. Born and raised in Minrathous, Neve’s confident demeanor helps guide the team through Tevinter early in the game, and her Ice Breaker ability that rains down shards of ice on foes was a joy to activate.

There’s so much to chew on when it comes to the depth of the character creator, RPG elements, and real-time combat in The Veilguard, but being able to quickly grasp the action basics allowed me to immerse in the world. The Veil between Thedas and the Fade lifts this Halloween, when Dragon Age: The Veilguard releases October 31 on PS5.