Dragon Age: The Veilguard (God, I actually dislike that title change) is nearly right here, lastly. After an early scare due to a barely complicated first trailer, that gameplay demo quelled a lot of our worries, however can it actually escape Baldur’s Gate 3’s shadow?
I am of the hanging opinion that it already has… form of. It is onerous not to consider Larian’s near-flawless RPG every time the brand new Dragon Age is introduced up (in truth, I already linked the 2 final yr), but all of the in-depth previews and the gameplay presentation launched to the general public counsel we’re a completely completely different breed of RPG, one which’s doing its personal factor.
In our personal hands-on preview of the sport, Alex already teased that “Dragon Age: The Veilguard goes to be quite a lot of issues to lots of people.” And I believe that is sums up the unorthodox sequence as an entire fairly properly. Anybody who claims Dragon Age hasn’t advanced (or devolved) with every new entry is both mendacity or urgently must revisit not solely Inquisition, but in addition Dragon Age 2 and Origins.
The sequence’ want for reinvention hasn’t all the time been tied to a pure artistic push, and DA2’s maddening dev cycle and the top consequence (which was principally fulfilling regardless of the whole lot) are the stable proof of how shaky its progress course of has been for the reason that very starting. Working alongside the much more simple Mass Impact trilogy, Dragon Age’s unstable DNA solely grew to become tougher to disclaim.
I’ve already rambled a lot up to now about Baldur’s Gate 3 (and in addition the more moderen Divinity video games) taking on a lot of the fantasy RPG area that Dragon Age used to manipulate, no less than within the big-budget leagues. A key distinction has all the time been that Larian caught nearer to CRPG custom whereas Dragon Age, even throughout its humble beginnings, pursued a extra approachable set of methods and moment-to-moment gameplay largely inherited from older BioWare video games like Star Wars: Knights of the Previous Republic.
There is a widespread non secular thread connecting BioWare and Larian’s output, and that goes past the shared Baldur’s Gate and Dungeons & Dragons floor, but the previous’s output has been charting new paths for itself for greater than a decade now. We may attribute a lot of the brand new components and fight system iteration seen within the just-released gameplay of The Veilguard to Mass Impact’s pre-Andromeda success; an try to profit from a now-firmly established lineage of ARPGs. Nonetheless, The Veilguard additionally seems to face by itself as way over ‘Mass Impact however basic fantasy’ or an action-heavy riff on its predecessors.
Up to now, and with out having performed The Veilguard myself, it appears like we may very well be going by way of a brand new kind of BioWare RPG by the top of 2024. These unfamiliar with the Dragon Age sequence which have loved Baldur’s Gate 3 may make the fourth entry their subsequent ‘fantasy relationship sim’ pit cease earlier than discovering the three earlier video games. Then again, longtime BioWare followers will both get better misplaced religion or double down on the thought the corporate is simply too far gone and would not resemble the early 2010s model of itself anymore.
Personally, I used to be stunned by The Veilguard’s reveal, and the gameplay demo hasn’t surprised me, but the devs are saying the best issues within the interviews and Q&As launched afterwards, and I am beginning to suppose they may have made the right late follow-up to Dragon Age: Inquisition, simply not the one many people had been anticipating.
