Dragon Age: The Veilguard (Xbox Series X) Review

This is my third time checking out our Dragon Age: The Veilguard, but this time, it’s complete, and after more than 50 hours of gameplay, the main story, and countless side quests and companion quests, I can confidently say it is everything I hoped it would be.

There is something to be said about games being announced far too early, or even games being released far too quickly. Call of Duty and Final Fantasy players are eating well every year, and fans of games like Fable, Dragon Age and The Elder Scrolls are over here starving for something new. Now, finally getting a new release in one of my favourite franchises with Dragon Age: The Veilguard, I’ve been granted the opportunity to jump in head first.

What I thought Dragon Age: The Veilguard was about was really only a small portion of the story. I don’t want to spoil any story beats, as I believe Dragon Age: The Veilguard is a story best experienced, but I can give a brief rundown. As revealed in the most recent game trailer, Solas, The Dread Wolf, is not the biggest issue. Instead, two ancient elven gods were released into the world, and it is up to you and your team to stop them.

You spend a lot of time speaking with other characters, gaining insight, building an army and a close-knit team. Veilguard is heavily voice-acted, and everyone is wonderful, but a special shout-out goes to Gareth David-Lloyd, who plays Solas. The range Solas has in Veilguard is mind-blowing at times. He covers every emotion you can think of in this game and does so with so much power that I haven’t stopped thinking about it. As I mentioned, everyone, even random NPCs, is great, but David-Lloyd is something special.

“Dragon Age: The Veilguard is the Game of the Year contender to beat.”

I spoke on the character creator in my last Veilguard preview, as I spent far more time than I should have there, and my messaging is still the same. There are preset and sliders and choices galore for you to create the character of your dreams. BioWare has tried to remain inclusive with a variety of skin tones, hairstyles, eye colours, markings, tattoos and more. There are even extra-deep settings that allow you to fiddle with various levels of colour. For instance, there are three places where you can adjust the colour of your eyes: the inner iris, outer iris, and sclera.

For past Dragon Age players, you will be able to customize your Inquisition back story, including romance, what the Inquisitor looked like and their relationship with Solas. You will also need to choose your class and race. You can choose from Human, Elf, Dwarf or Kunari for your race. And also, choose your faction, which will impact the story throughout. Mage, Rogue or Warrior are the classes available. If you’ve played any Dragon Age game or RPG in general, you are likely pretty familiar with this. In Dragon Age: The Veilguard, you can take your class a step further with the type of weapon you use and specializations, allowing you to focus your talents within your class further.

Each class has three specializations and two weapon groups. Rogues have daggers and bows with these specializations: Saboteur, which involves traps and explosives. Duelist, which is more close-ranged and melee-focused. Then, there is Veil Ranger, which is primarily long-ranged and bow-focused. Warriors have their sword and shield or a two-handed weapon, as you’d expect. Their specializations are Reaper, which allows for leeching life and shield throwing. Slayer, which is your more two-handed focused spec. And finally, Champion, which involves a lot of flames and shields.

Mages have their staff, and something called an orb and dagger. This brings your Mage closer range but still allows shorter, long-distance attacks. This made the Mage feel so much faster and a close competitor to the Rogue in my eyes. I went with this as my main for my first playthrough and really enjoyed it. You can take on these specializations: Evoker, which is more ice-focused to help slow the battlefield down; Death Caller, which is more magic-focused and based around life drain magic; and then Spellblade, which is a bit of magic and melee. 

Dragon Age: The Veilguard encourages you to respec as you see fit. There is no cost, and you can do it at any time. So once you choose one of those specialization paths above when spending your points, you aren’t locked to it. I played around with each specialization and often swapped my skill points based on what cool gear I found. It is easy to do, and there is a lot of customization in the way you play.

Something that I found interesting was how every class seems to have a bit of magic, even if that isn’t what we are calling it. Why can my warrior rain fire down from the sky? I’m not sure, but it looks really cool. For some, I think this might be a complaint, but I like that Dragon Age: The Veilguard is blurring the lines between classes, even just slightly, so you don’t have to sacrifice everything if you want to try a new class.

“Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s stunning armour, landscapes, environment, and animations will sway you if the excellent combat, story, and characters aren’t enough.”

Once you get into combat, there are a few things you will need to keep an eye on. First, who you take into battle with you matters. We will talk more about companions later, but in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, you are able to assign your companions to specific targets, and each has three talents that are also available to you. Jumping into the quick menu during a fight pauses combat, and you will see what you have available and what is on cooldown. There are also on-screen and audio cues when a companion’s talents are available.

If you don’t like the pause to check out talents, you can also hold your left trigger, and every skill has a hotkey. These talents are something you should ensure you’re using regularly. First, who doesn’t want extra damage? But they can also be used for crowd-control, like freezing from a Mage, or a buff that amps up damage from a Warrior, or healing with a Mage’s healing spell. The talents also work together, so you can chain them during a fight. 

You can combo your or your companion’s talents with something you’ve chosen. Which ones work together will be highlighted on the screen, allowing you to chain up to three together for a massive burst. You need companions that synergize together to make that work. It will greatly help your damage, but it also looks really cool when they all chain together on screen.

Can you get by just mashing buttons? Sure, if you’re on a lower difficulty and plan to make good use of the green pots filled with potions or blue pots that fill your ultimate power. But Dragon Age: The Veilguard has brought depth to their combat system, keeping things interesting strategically and visually, as well as bringing a challenge for those who want it. Certain skills will also allow for combos, which can allow for various actions after a certain button combination is input, like X, X, Y, for instance. But you can also change your difficulty level at any time, which makes things more accessible and allows for more difficulty if you choose.

For fellow gatherers like me, fear not; you can still collect items from the world. These can be brought to something called a Caretaker who will help you upgrade or enchant your weapons. When you get an item, you will see a little lock beside some of the specs, which means once you upgrade it, you will have access to even better perks. You have to find Mementos in the world to upgrade your Caretaker, which will give you access to even better enchantments and perks.

There are also Runes which allow for specific damage types, but these aren’t applied to weapons like enchantments are. Instead, they are on your talent hotkeys and are used in bursts with cooldowns like your normal talents. They have passive and active skills, like allowing for an extra potion slot and receiving more healing from emotions, etc. 

“Dragon Age: The Veilguard didn’t stop with more than 40 hours of story-only content; there are likely another 30+ hours if you want to dive into every side quest.”

The enemies you take on in Dragon Age: The Veilguard will be familiar to anyone who has played the series. Dark Spawn and Ogres are taking over, Dragons are after you, and everyone has gotten a serious glow-up. With updated designs, Dragon Age: The Veilguard is taking advantage of this generation of consoles and PCs, bringing new life into our old friends. Blight and enemies can best be described as “wet,” and paired with some serious sound effects—I was grossed out more than once.

As I mentioned, though people were concerned you couldn’t control your companions in Veilguard, you can, within reason, but you can also use them to control your story. Each character is from a different faction and has different values. Choices you make in the world will affect them, and the choices you make with them can greatly affect the world around you. With seven to choose from, bringing the right people with you at the right time and leaving the right ones home will matter.

Sometimes, it will affect the story long-term (especially who you side with), and other times, it will affect how your team and the people around you react. There is also a little recap at the end of every major mission/area that tells you what happened, what choices were made, and how relationships have changed. A welcome addition for someone like me who has a hard time remembering story beats.

All of this allows for major replayability, with so many outcomes available and even more side quests, relationships and missions to take on. Companions and dialogue have always been at the core of Dragon Age, and I am thrilled to see that even after ten years, BioWare has brought that same charm and wit to its story and characters. This is the first time in any companion-based game that I have liked everyone. 

There are nods to past games and characters throughout, and even though I played them all thoroughly, I don’t remember half the people because I’ve been holding out for Morrigan since the beginning. In Dragon Age: The Veilguard, I genuinely had a hard time choosing who to bring with me because I liked them so much and didn’t want to miss out.

This was especially true when it comes to romance. I held out as long as I could, but between Neve, Lucanis and Davrin, it was a struggle. Romance dialogue felt less cheesy this time around, too. I mean, it is still campy, but so is the beginning of every relationship I’ve ever been in. I think it felt more true to life in Veilguard.

“Veilguard is extremely well-polished, with every raindrop feeling real and every step met with flowing hair—maybe even too much hair.”

For reference, though, Neve and Emmrich are your Mages, Harding and Bellara are your long-range with bows, Davrin and Taash are your tanks, and Lucanis is just doing his thing with a dagger. I tried to stick to keeping a tank AND someone, but I always wanted Lucanis and Davrin in my party and they don’t work as well as I want together, though they do make for some interesting dialogue. I highly recommend trying different pairs for that alone. 

What is also interesting is that you still level up your companion’s skills. They each have five, and only three come into combat at a time, but everyone has the opportunity to heal you, which I love. I wasn’t stuck taking someone just for a heal. Everyone was flexible. The only time this doesn’t come into play is when a character is “Hardened,” meaning you made a choice somewhere that hurt them. They no longer take on support abilities (healing) and are harder to romance. It really put a wrench in my plans when I made a call earlier in the game.

Each companion also has their own story arc. BioWare has made a conscious effort to become more inclusive regarding race, gender and other social issues. A few of their stories this time around will have a great impact on specific audiences, and it is great to see a company jump into these issues head-on rather than just making pronouns or including skin colour. I am sure a wake of people will have nasty things to say, but seeing more people be able to see themselves in video games is only good in my books, even if I don’t relate to the stories directly. 

And perhaps a character in its own right: The Lighthouse. This is your base, and it is truly something to behold. Not only is it filled with secrets and loot, holds your Caretaker for upgrades and houses your companions, but it also grows with you as your team progresses. Nature starts coming back to life, new areas unlock, and your companion’s rooms change based on where you are in the story. You can also decorate your own room, swap transmog for yourself and companions and even change your appearance here.

Between companion and main story quests, you will have your hands full. But Dragon Age: The Veilguard didn’t stop with more than 40 hours of story-only content. There are likely another 30+ hours to go if I want to dive into every side quest and find every collectible. This game is massive, and none of it feels like an afterthought. As you move through the game, you will see notifications that a new level is available to explore, meaning more of an area has opened up. There is a constant drive to go back to old locations and find new content. Dragon Age: The Veilguard might just consume me.

If the excellent combat, story and characters aren’t enough to sway you, Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s stunning armour, landscapes, environment, and animations will. Veilguard is extremely well-polished, with every raindrop feeling real and every step met with flowing hair. Maybe even too much hair. Sometimes, I looked like I was headbanging. Each area looked completely unique, and lore and factions were taken into account, which was a great move on BioWare’s part.

We are getting a look at cities we have only ever heard of, and cutscenes often put me in awe of the environment around me. Even the combat animations have stepped up their game, feeling like something out of Final Fantasy XVI. Everything is big and flashy, which may be a lot to some, but it kept me excited and engaged even during long battles. Occasionally, however, it prevented me from seeing what was happening on screen. Heading to areas we know from past games, I would stop to look around frequently. I won’t spoil where you go, but some locations really have seen a glow-up.

Like any good RPG, there are a million mechanics I can go into, including collectibles, gear and merchants. Rather than constantly swapping gear, you can find pieces that upgrade what you already have. You don’t sell or break down your weapons/armour. You hold onto it, and it will improve over time, though you can always swap it out for a different item. You can also find new items in the world or at merchants. 

Some merchants are faction-based, and these can be upgraded, much like your Caretaker, to give you access to better gear for you and your companions. Some merchants will have access to upgrade materials, mementos for your Caretaker, gifts, and even items that permanently upgrade a stat when purchased. Appearances can be purchased from merchants as well for transmog, but you can’t preview them first, and that seemed like a strange oversight.

“Dragon Age fans have been starving for the last ten years. With Dragon Age: The Veilguard, BioWare is back, baby!”

The final thing I really want to mention that I think a lot of people might sleep on is how the game saves. There are what feels like a thousand autosaves and 100 proper save slots—plenty of room for gamers. But there are also temporary decision and temporary chapter saves. This means if you make a choice you don’t like, you can hop back in and change your mind without losing a ton of progress. 

I remember that in Skyrim, there was a point before you exited the sewers where you could change whatever you wanted about your character after playing the whole intro. We had a permanent save we created so we could skip it any time we wanted. I’ve done the same after major moments in Veilguard, where I can go back, make the opposite choice and see what happens. Not quite the same, but it works. I’m still going to replay this game a thousand times, but I breathed easier once I knew I could change my mind!

As I said, I could go on about this game for days. Aside from some small nitpicks, I truly believe BioWare took the time and went above and beyond expectations. Dragon Age: The Veilguard is the Game of the Year contender to beat. With a gorgeous, detailed art style, a combat system that works wonders, a story that can really pull your morals in all directions and companions that kick ass, this is the Dragon Age I’ve been waiting for. I said it before, and I’ll say it again. Dragon Age fans have been starving for the last ten years. With Dragon Age: The Veilguard, BioWare is back, baby!

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