After ten years, we’re now just a little over a month away from playing Dragon Age: The Veilguard. I played a hefty seven hours of BioWare’s first original game since Anthem in 2019 and fourth mainline installment in the Dragon Age series, starting with the prologue and later loaded into several different saves. As a longtime fan, what I’ll say is ten years is a very long time but so far, The Veilguard hasn’t disappointed.
Getting Into Character
Now, I could talk to you about the combat (and I will) or the gorgeous locales (that’s coming too) or the way it felt to see Varric and Solas again. Or I could skip straight to the character creator and start with: There’s. So. Much. Hair. Look, I loved Dragon Age: Inquisition, but fans have long acknowledged the limitations of its character creator. The Veilguard blew me away in that regard. After the lackluster options of the last entry, it’s wild to see what we’ve got to look forward to. Thirty hair options for Qunari and 88 for non-Qunari, complete with gorgeous physics as Rook scurries through Northern Thedas. So many different hair textures are represented, whether you’d like totally straight hair, 2B waves or 4C curls. In making my character, I was drawn immediately to a long braid that whipped around as quickly as I did.
Qunari horns also see a massive improvement. With 49 unique styles, options range from large and imposing to decorative or even asymmetrical. That said, yes, their foreheads can look pretty jarring. I played as a Qunari mage during most of my preview and will say I got used to the look pretty quickly. Drago n Age: The Veilguard actually only marks the second game of the series where you can play as a Qunari, so the odd imbalance of forehead versus face feels like stylistic growing pains. I remain curious about whether more time with the character creator might help. The Arishok of Dragon Age 2 is, in my opinion, such a beautifully crafted model and I would love to be able to create a Qunari Rook that feels as memorable.
Customization certainly doesn’t stop at hair (or horns) of course. Every aspect of your Rook is editable, even allowing for facial asymmetry if you choose. Sliders allow you to change everything from head shape to the melanin in your skin to the presence of vitiligo. Perhaps my favorite addition, however, is the introduction of body diversity. Cyberpunk 2077 and Baldur’s Gate 3 had whiffs of this, but nowhere near what you’re capable of in The Veilguard, which is much more similar to the breadth of the character creator in Dragon’s Dogma 2. For each of the four races, there are plenty of presets to choose from, all with varying heights and muscle/fat distribution. Once you’ve chosen your preset, however, you can build further upon those elements as much as you’d like.
First is a triangulation of coordinates allowing for many unique combinations of body types that are thinner, larger, or more muscular. Height sliders are fun – especially when it means watching my particularly short elf ruin years of Solas’ ritual planning by pushing over a statue. The options feel almost endless. There’s even a glute slider and, yes, I gave my Rook one hell of an ass. All of this is only scratching the surface. I haven’t even gotten into facial hair, makeup, scars or tattoos. As an elf, my Rook sported` some vallaslin, but there are so many different designs for both the face and the body to experiment with.
While I didn’t spend very much time exploring customization for the Inquisitor, I just know we’ll all get the chance to make them in the way we’ve always imagined. Also, it may be a relief to some of you to know that Veilguard abandons the awful green lighting of Inquisition’s character creator and instead allows you to cycle through several lighting options in service of creating Rooks that look just as good in gameplay as they do when you create them.
Fighting Chance
Combat, meanwhile, was a refreshing change from DA:I. My go-to class has always been mage, and even as a Knight-Enchanter I often felt like I was standing in one place holding down the left trigger. This felt like a return to the pace of DA2, with innovations that improve upon the experience of battle overall. The Veilguard introduces a new fighting style for mages featuring an orb and dagger tailored for close-quarters combat. It’s tailor-made for players like me who love magic but, also, really like to stab.
During my preview, I played through the prologue and then dropped forward into various points of Act 1, so I really got to quickly experience the progression Rook and their companions can go through as fighters. We may not be able to take control of our companions this time around, but The Veilguard really encourages strategizing with them. They’ll call out to you when they’ve rebuilt their mana or stamina, and the ability wheel even suggests combos. My focus during the event was mission-driven so I didn’t get as much of a chance to interact with the characters as I would have liked, but even the brief moments of banter endeared me to them pretty quickly.
Each class gets its own ultimate ability (think the Focus ability) along with a ranged attack – for warriors that means yeeting your shield like a giant metal boomerang. I’ve always played Dragon Age for story and not combat, but with this new system I had so much fun. I felt present during every encounter and truly accomplished after every boss battle. That said, there’s definitely a bit of a learning curve. I still found myself confusing controls a few hours in. It’s a departure from all three previous installments, but luckily The Veilguard offers five different difficulty levels that you can change at will if you want to ease yourself in.
The Dragon Age-Free Decade Ends Soon
As a longtime fan, The Veilguard felt like a homecoming of sorts. Just as much as seeing familiar faces in Solas and Varric, I was overjoyed to be back in the world of Thedas itself. Moving us north allows for that sense of discovery I got in Inquisition, and if I’d encourage anything it’s to really look at your surroundings. Not only are there small environmental puzzles to untangle along with small and effective moments of visual storytelling, but the horizon is full of breathtaking scenery that drives home the scale of these locations I’ve personally always wondered about. One new locale, for instance, is a gorgeous underwater prison called the Ossuary. I won’t spoil what you’re there to do, but the design alone makes it one of the most memorable moments I’ve had in any Dragon Age game.
Even after hours of gameplay, I still felt like I could have played for many hours more. I’m optimistic about The Veilguard and excited for it in a way I haven’t quite felt about another game in quite some time. If you’d like to see even more of the game, check out our exclusive IGN First coverage, which features even more gameplay and deep dives on Rook’s companions.
