Dragon Age - The Veilguard Test - How much RPG is left in it?, Gather the party, real-time action with a tactical break

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Bioware is rebuilding Dragon Age along the lines of Mass Effect and delivering a pompous fantasy adventure. However, the depth of the RPG mechanics and the story falls by the wayside.

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All screenshots and video scenes come from GamersGlobal

The Dragon Ageseries began with an acclaimed party role-playing game and has evolved steadily ever since. Although the stories of the games on the fantasy continent of Thedas are intertwined, the game mechanics (especially the combat) and graphic style have never been the same twice.

Ten years after the not without controversy when it comes to open world design Dragon Age – Inquisition and a few setbacks later, Bioware is now back with the fourth part of the series called Dragon Age – The Veilguard back. The plot follows the cliffhanger at the end of Inqusition, but is still suitable for newcomers, because everything important is quickly established at the beginning: your character Rook, created in the extensive editor, is part of a group that wants to prevent the old elf gods from reaching the end to usher in the world. Once again, the game mechanics have changed significantly in this new iteration of Dragon Age. This test is intended to convey as spoiler-free as possible why some weaknesses that I see in Veilguard could be strengths in your eyes and vice versa. I played the PS5 version; in the 4K test video above you can see the quality mode with one exception.

Right at the beginning you meet the dwarf Varric, his former companion Solas, also known as the dire wolf. Without giving too much away: This is where the problems with old elf gods really begin.

How much RPG is left in it?

It should be said right at the beginning: Don't expect a classic role-playing game. The background story that you initially choose for Rook in the editor is often taken up and this sometimes results in special dialogue options, but such answers were much rarer for my Gray Warden than with V in Cyberpunk 2077. You also don't need to rely on alternative dialogues depending on appropriate character values like in Night City or in Baldur's Gate 3 (in the test) hope, because there are no attribute values. The characterization of Rook through your decisions is also limited. You can usually only appear nice, neutral or strict – although the strict option often still sounds nice and friendly.

What’s left of RPG substance then? That's right: looting and leveling and leveling up your loot. And of course you choose warrior, rogue or magician as your starting class and expand them in the skill tree, but more on that later.

Rook's backstory also assigns the Avatar to a faction. In addition to a passive bonus, you collect trust points more quickly with the corresponding group, which unlocks the expanded inventory of the corresponding faction dealer more quickly.

Gather the party

At the beginning of the story, Rook is still a protégé of Varric, the fans since Dragon Age 2 know. Early party member Borte Harding is also known from Inquisition, as is his opponent Solas. On top of that, other familiar faces make cameo appearances. Veterans can even recreate their Inquisitor from the predecessor and state what big decisions they made back then (there is no save import function). Your choice of consequences from the predecessor affects, among other things, whether the Inquisition still exists. This shouldn't scare newcomers, especially since Veilguard is now primarily set in the north of the continent instead of in the south like its predecessors. You just have to endure the names of factions and places flying around your ears that you can only assign later.

You always take two companions with you.

Otherwise, the starting point is simple: There are gods who are up to no good and since Varric has to heal himself after the prologue, you, as the new boss of the service, gather the Avengers – er, the Veil Watch. The range of archetypes in the party ranges from a monster hunter with a flying griffin to a Qunari Amazon to an assassin obsessed with two things: coffee and a demon. The troupe is the real heart of the story. In your base you have many opportunities to chat with the seven, strike up a monogamous romance (unsubtly by choosing answers marked with hearts) or advance their personal quests.

An old Bioware virtue: Party members interact with each other, and not just at some events at the base. When I'm out and about, I always have two companions with me and they exchange ideas: The Gray Warden Davrin often asks the aforementioned coffee assassin Lucanis whether he still has his demon under control and then the conversation always quickly turns to who of both would survive a duel. However, it's more of a friendly, rivalry kind of thing. The group is an amazingly harmonious bunch, despite their very different backgrounds and personalities. And although Rook sometimes doubts himself and, apart from the main character syndrome, has no special qualities and no authority from the top, no one in the group doubts our authority as a leader.

Two people in tow, a lot of party banter and a story where you first have to put a team together – that might bring back memories for some people Mass Effect 2 and indeed Veilguard has quite a few Mass Effect-Parallels. The story has features from the second and third parts of the SF role-playing games, as you first put the group together in the first half of the game. Since those recruited all come from a different faction, it will also be important for you to gain the support of these factions in the fight against the gods.

If you hold down the skills button, time stops and you can trigger not only your own skills but also those of your companions. This is very reminiscent of a certain Bioware series with a science fiction scenario.

Real-time action with tactical pause

Each individual party member has a special magical power or other gimmick. This allows you to reach new places while exploring, Metroidvania-style. For example, the Daemon of Lucanis can cause platforms to appear on dimensional rifts, while the Gryphon of Davrin destroys the suspension of objects. Many of these abilities ultimately involve activating inactive switches or creating platforms. If you don't have the right figure with you, you can still summon the necessary power thanks to a magic dagger. However, you only change the composition of the active group at fast travel points and who you have with you plays an important role, especially in the combat system, which has been tailored even more towards direct action rather than tactics.

There are also parallels to Mass Effect in the battles: you fight in real time, but stop time at the touch of a button. So you can calmly order your AI buddies who they should attack preferentially (implementing this command doesn't always work) or when they should use a skill. You can also activate your own abilities undisturbed in this mode. Alternatively, you can unleash Rook's special maneuvers using key combinations (shoulder button and a button) in real-time combat.

Rook himself is agile: you use button mashing to deal blows, you use rolls to avoid attacks, or you counter them with the right timing – unless you play a magician, who has to survive without counterattacks, but has other subtleties such as switching between two movesets : staff and dagger. By deepening your relationship with your companions, you receive points that you can use to specialize their skills. Rook's skill tree, on the other hand, is reminiscent of Assassin's Creed Valhalla: There is one point for each level-up and you only switch gears via the nodes in the branched skill network
unlock smaller bonuses and work your way up to major new abilities. These are not just new skills or ultimate attacks, but also some new moves for combat. This is how my villain learned attacks during the dodge jump. I find a pretty nasty melee attack from aiming with the Bog, in which I ram an explosive arrow into the opponent's chest. Here, too, Bioware keeps it simple in detail: arrows fill up on their own over time, the party members have no life bar, but depending on the equipment you have equipped, they distribute well even without skills while they automatically fight. The options for equipment management are clearly limited: weapons, armor or accessories can be equipped either for Rook or explicitly by a specific Veilguard figure.

The purple bar above the enemies' health bar is a typical posture bar. You can also specialize characters for damage on this bar, but even with this, standard enemies quickly get out of step and then become vulnerable to a finisher.