The qunari all look absolutely awful. With that out of the way, IGN recently did a long first gameplay impression of Bioware’s latest installment in their Dragon Age franchise, Dragon Age: The Veilguard. The 13 minute preview goes over several points of interest, both through the reviewer’s commentary as well as the gameplay shown on screen. Keep in mind that these gameplay previews have spoilers that IGN didn’t cut so watch at your own peril.
As anyone would expect, The Veilguard is probably the furthest thing from Dragon Age’s, well, origin in Origins. Completely gone are any hint of influence from the CRPGs of old and replacing it is more action oriented gameplay with extremely streamlined build paths, and the dreaded dialogue wheel of Dragon Age 2 returns. Even the companions aren’t controllable anymore, and it doesn’t even matter which companions you take as you can use their skills even if they aren’t in your current party.
Some would say this is a good thing rather than a bad thing, and that is an interesting point to approach this from. Dragon Age: The Veilguard is almost certainly going to draw comparisons to Larian Studios’ Baldur’s Gate 3, being probably the most anticipated western RPG release since the Dungeons and Dragons adaptation, and when the competition is that steep it’s understandable to want to make your own impact in the minds of your playerbase rather than trying to compete with another game, not to mention Veilguard has been in development for over 10 years and some things just can’t be changed.
Still, it is a bit sad to see the series moving even further in this direction. Dragon Age 2 was reviled on its release and time has not been kind to it in hindsight, similarly Dragon Age: Inquisition was received well but as the years have progressed people have noticed the cracks in that game more and more. Despite the criticisms the series has faced since Origins it seems Bioware is intent on continuing down the more action oriented path rather than trying to take a step back and see what worked with Origins.
Dragon Age Origins was the peak of the series, but 10 years of development is a long time. While The Veilguard certainly isn’t trying to emulate Origins in any way perhaps it will be a decent game in its own right. We’ll find out very soon come its release on October 31st.