Dragon Age: The Veilguard

Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Developer(s)	BioWare
Publisher(s)	Electronic Arts
Director(s)	Corinne Busche John Epler
Producer(s)	Amber Vincent Rob Davidson Scylla Costa
Programmer(s)	Andy Kempling Christopher Kerr Michael Webb
Artist(s)	Matt Rhodes
Writer(s)	Trick Weekes
Composer(s)	Hans Zimmer Lorne Balfe
Series	Dragon Age
Engine	Frostbite
Platform(s)	PlayStation 5 Windows Xbox Series X/S
Release	October 31, 2024
Genre(s)	Action role-playing
Mode(s)	Single-player

Dragon Age: The Veilguard is an action role-playing video game developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts. The fourth major game in the Dragon Age franchise, The Veilguard is the sequel to Dragon Age: Inquisition (2014). Set ten years after Inquisition,^[1] the game features new locations in the fictional world of Thedas for the player to explore.^[2]

The game's development, which began in 2015, has been marked by lengthy delays, several fundamental changes in design, and high staff turnover.^[3][4] The game was announced as Dragon Age: Dreadwolf in 2022^[5][6] and retitled to Dragon Age: The Veilguard in June 2024.^[7][8]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard released for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S on October 31, 2024.^[9][10] The game received generally positive reviews from critics.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard is a single-player^[11] action role-playing game.^[12][13] In previous games, a player's role-playing choices in earlier titles were imported from save files or the web application Dragon Age Keep.^[11][14][15] Veilguard instead allows players to only select three choices they made in Inquisition.^[16][17][18] Creative Director John Epler said that decisions made in the previous games largely didn't impact events in Veilguard, which allowed the game's creators "to avoid contradicting" past choices individual players made.^[16]

During character creation, the player is able to choose a lineage for their player character (human, dwarf, elf, or qunari), a fighting class (rogue, mage, or warrior), and a character backstory with one of six faction associations.^{[19][20][21][22]} Like the choice of origin in the original game, this faction sets the character's course throughout the game.^[21] Unlike in previous games, customization options include body size^[20] and body part selections that are independent of the voice or pronouns (she/her, he/him, or they/them) chosen for the player character.^[19] Players are also be able to remake their player character from Dragon Age: Inquisition which appears in the game, alongside some other previous Dragon Age characters.^[11]

There are seven companion characters from which two can be chosen to form a combat party of three.^[12][13] Unlike previous games in the series, players cannot directly control the companions in combat.^[23] The companions in Veilguard are described as pansexual, allowing romances with player characters of any gender, but Busche said that they were not "playersexual", or only attracted to the player character.^[24] While the combat system is now real-time action-based, as opposed to the tactical strategy approach of earlier Dragon Age titles, Veilguard still employs a pause-and-play mechanic similar to Inquisition's.^[25]: 35 Instead of that game's open world design, Veilguard uses a "hub-and-spoke design" where players get around the game's world by magical portals; the areas so accessed vary in size.^[25]: 38

The development of the fourth main entry in the Dragon Age series, code-named "Joplin", began in 2015 with Mike Laidlaw as its creative director. It was intended to be a smaller, more narrative-focused game set in the Tevinter Imperium region of the game's world setting, Thedas.^[26]

Problems with the development of BioWare's other games Mass Effect: Andromeda and Anthem led to repeated interruptions as Joplin staff was shifted to these games. This included putting Joplin on hold in late 2016 with development resuming in March 2017 after Andromeda shipped.^[26][27] In October 2017, BioWare and its parent company Electronic Arts cancelled Joplin altogether, reportedly because it had no room for a live service component to provide ongoing monetization opportunities.^[26][27]

Development of the game was restarted under the code-name "Morrison" in 2018, this time with a live-service component and based on Anthem's code.^[26][28] According to Bloomberg News, after the success of the single-player game Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and the decision to cancel the reworking of the massively multiplayer online Anthem in February 2021 following its lackluster launch, EA and BioWare decided to remove the planned multiplayer components from Morrison and to develop it as a single-player game only.^[29] Alpha-stage footage leaked in February 2023 indicated that the game would use real-time action combat gameplay, influenced by God of War, unlike previous Dragon Age games.^[30][31][32]

The project has been marked by a high turnover of leading staff. Several veteran Dragon Age staff, including Laidlaw, left the company in response to Joplin's cancellation in 2017.^[26] After the 2018 restart, Mark Darrah remained as an executive producer, while Matthew Goldman took over the position of creative director for the project from 2017 to 2021.^[33] By December 3, 2020, Darrah had resigned from BioWare, replaced by BioWare Austin studio head Christian Dailey as executive producer.^[34] Goldman left BioWare by November 2021,^[28] and was replaced as Creative Director by John Epler.^[35] Dailey left BioWare in February 2022.^[36] Corinne Busche became game director thereafter, Benoit Houle director of product development, and Mac Walters production director.^[36] Walters in turn left BioWare in January 2023.^[37] In March 2023, Darrah returned as a consultant for the game and the Mass Effect team joined the production of Veilguard, according to EA.^[38][39]

In August 2023, BioWare laid off 50 people working on Veilguard and the next Mass Effect game;^[40] this included Mary Kirby who was one of the series' original writers and credited with "creating Varric and the Qunari".^[41] PC Gamer commented "that's not to say there are no veterans of the good old days left, but you're looking at a very different group of people than the one that made the studio's greatest hits".^[41] In October, seven of them sued BioWare for additional compensation, complaining that BioWare's NDAs prevented them from adding their work on Veilguard to their portfolio.^[42]

Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe composed the game's soundtrack, replacing Trevor Morris, the composer for Inquisition.^[43][44]

Dragon Age 4 was announced at The Game Awards in December 2018. Promotional material showed red lyrium (a corrupted power source of magic in the game's universe) and the character Solas – the Dread Wolf – as significant elements of the game's plot.^[45] Marketing on social media was focused on the tagline "The Dread Wolf Rises".^[46][47][48]

In August 2020, a concept art video was released at Gamescom.^[49][50][51] In December 2020, a teaser trailer featured the dwarven character Varric Tethras as narrator, as well as Solas.^[52][53][54] No details on the game were released at the July 2021 EA Play event.^[55][56] Jeffrey Grubb, for VentureBeat, commented that "holding back during this EA Play is just about enabling the publisher to get the game into position to begin marketing it in earnest. That will likely start in 2022".^[55] Ash Parrish, for Kotaku, highlighted that given all the changes in development "Dragon Age 4 is probably not yet ready to be shown to the world" and that "BioWare has been drip-feeding fans information for years now".^[56] Grubb, in a follow-up article for VentureBeat in January 2022, stated that "EA hasn't decided on when to begin marketing the project".^[57][58]

In June 2022, the game's title was announced as Dragon Age: Dreadwolf.^[59][5] Parrish, now for The Verge, highlighted that the title reveal for the game was "exciting for a lot of fans" because it not only makes Solas the antagonist of the upcoming game but also makes Dreadwolf a direct sequel unlike previous installments in the franchise.^[6] A teaser trailer released in December 2023 featured new locations: Antiva, Rivain, and the Anderfels.^[2]

In June 2024, the game was retitled Dragon Age: The Veilguard. BioWare explained that the titular Dread Wolf remains part of the game, however, the updated title is a stronger reflection of the game's focus.^{[7][60][61][62][63]} BioWare general manager Gary McKay stated that the retitling was not due to focus testing:

We actually think sticking with Dreadwolf would have been the safer choice – 'Dread Wolf' is a cool name after all! In the end, it was most important for us to have a title that was authentic to the companions that are the heart of this adventure we've created. We've worked throughout development to create really incredible backstories for each companion that intersect with the main narrative in meaningful ways.^[7]

On the title change, Ed Smith of PCGamesN commented that he liked "the sound of the new Dragon Age, and its focus on a cast of characters and their connections, so a name that reflects that conceit feels right".^[64] In contrast, Andy Chalk of PC Gamer and Kenneth Shepard of Kotaku disliked the name change.^[65][66] Chalk felt Veilguard "doesn't convey anything in the way Dreadwolf does" – "I see the word 'Dreadwolf' and I instinctively know that some bad shit is happening".^[65] Shepard stated, "I understand the naming convention lines up with Dragon Age: Inquisition, which also was named after the team you were assembling, but Dreadwolf was a striking title that I will dearly miss".^[66]

Following the release of the trailer introducing the companions, both Robin Valentine of PC Gamer and Edwin Evans-Thirlwell of Rock Paper Shotgun were apprehensive of the design shift from previous games.^[67][68] Valentine thought the companions looked "more ready for a battle pass than an epic quest" with Evans-Thirlwell echoing that it had more of an Ocean's Eleven vibe than a Dragon Age one.^[67][68] Gita Jackson of Aftermath viewed the "weird and bad" companion trailer as part of EA's "long legacy" of poor marketing since "Dragon Age has been the victim of this before".^[69] Critics who attended the 2024 Summer Game Fest and experienced a hands-off gameplay demo were more positive about the upcoming game and felt the companion trailer did not accurately portray it.^{[70][19][71][72][20]} Mike Minotti of GamesBeat commented, "don't let that weird CG trailer scare you".^[73] Both Sean Booker of CNET and Alex Donaldson of VG247 were reminded of Mass Effect games;^[72][70] Maddy Myers of Polygon and Parrish of The Verge thought the updated customization options in character creation stood out.^[19][20] Parrish reserved "final judgment" for the finished product as "an hour of hands-off gameplay isn't enough to completely dispel the lingering concerns that the game's tortured development cycle has affected its quality. But I know the Dragon Age series, and based on the conversations I've had and the little I've seen, it feels like despite the turmoil, BioWare still got it right".^[20]

Dragon Age: The Missing is a four-issue limited series comic, by writer George Mann, published by Dark Horse Comics from January 25 to May 10, 2023.^[74][75] This prequel focuses on the continuing investigation into Solas by Varric Tethras and Lace Harding as they follow a lead to the Dark Roads; several Veilguard companions appear in the series.^[74][76][77]

A tie-in fantasy podcast titled Dragon Age: Vows & Vengeance was released weekly from August 29 to October 17, 2024. The eight episode audio drama focuses on backstories for the game, with each episode featuring a different Veilguard companion.^{[78][79][80][81]}

Dragon Age: The Veilguard received "generally favorable" reviews from critics for its Windows and PlayStation 5 versions^[82][83] and "universal acclaim" for its Xbox Series X/S version, according to the review aggregator website Metacritic.^[84] OpenCritic determined that 74% of critics recommended the game.^[85]

Hayes Madsen of Rolling Stone called Veilguard a "fresh start for the franchise" with the game "practically a soft reset".^[98] Leana Hafer, for IGN, similarly commented that the "story feels like both a send-off and a soft reboot, in a way, which was paradoxically a bit refreshing and disappointing at the same time".^[99] Hafer also noted that Veilguard seems "a little disconnected" from previous games, however, she thought it was "cool" that the "Inquisitor ends up being a fairly important character".^[99] Robin Valentine of PC Gamer thought the Inquisitor felt "like a glorified cameo" and was disappointed that Veilguard "doesn't really care about" decisions made by players in previous games – "in a game that already feels disconnected from its predecessors tonally and mechanically, it's a disheartening wiping clean of the slate".^[100]

Ash Parrish of The Verge highlighted that throughout the Dragon Age series players made choices with mostly insubstantial "personal consequences", however with Veilguard, Parrish thought it was "the first time my choice felt consequential to my character, to the world around her, and to me as a player".^[101] In contrast, Madsen thought the game's "choices don't feel quite as consequential as past entries" and the "major decisions" which impact the course of the story are "few and far between".^[98] Madsen commented that Veilguard has many "little touches and details" to showcase the player's iteration of Rook within the narrative and that the companions are where the "storytelling truly shines – each one is wonderfully written and well integrated into the plot".^[98]

Todd Harper's review for Polygon focused on the companions, noting that these characters are "the essence of Dragon Age, even more so than the fantasy plot of evil gods and impending mystical disaster that's driving the story" and thought the Veilguard companions were "weird and idiosyncratic in the best ways".^[102] Hafer similarly noted that the companions are each "stars of their own story" and collectively are "made up of complex, memorable, likable, distinct personalities from across Thedas".^[99] However, Hafer was "disappointed" that in combat the companions felt "more like extensions of your own character" instead of distinct entities.^[99]

Hafer opined that Veilguard has "weird" pacing and that the larger background plot, beyond companion storylines, "is nothing particularly outstanding in its overall structure" with only Solas as "the major wrinkle" which makes it "interesting".^[99] Madsen commented that Solas is "arguably a second protagonist" with the game focusing on "the choices he made, how he's altered the world, and how your journey as Rook mirrors that".^[98] Harper viewed the "non-narrative" of the game, such as "exploration and combat", as "serviceable".^[102] Hafer thought the boss fights were the highlight of the game's combat and that Veilguard has "visual splendor".^[99] Parrish opined that the "companions and environments are arresting in their design" in this "slow burn" game.^[101] Harper also noted that the game is "graphically gorgeous".^[102]

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