We finally get a gameplay trailer for Dragon Age: Veilguard, a 20 minute one at that, The Dragon Age franchise has long been a fan favorite on the BioWare’s roster of excellence along with Mass Effect and fans have been hungering for a long time to see the next installment in this epic series. The game is slated to release in the fall of 2024. A thing to keep in mind is the footage shown is from early development.
The Combat
The trailer showed off the rogue class and we saw a lot of gap closing and quick dodges against enemies and what was observed to be charged strikes. The combat seemed very fluid with the various moves and we observed the ability to deflect projectiles back at enemies.
We also observed the massive change in UI, it is less cluttered and the spells themselves come up on a button press and we also use it to aim as time slows down. The Rogue class showcased also gets access to a bow and its use also gets incorporated amidst the chaos of combat.
We will only be limited to three special moves for combat while we can have all abilities unlocked, which is unlike the previous titles where we cast any number of spells we wanted provided we had enough mana or stamina.
Notably what’s missing is us being able to direct the individual members of our party to perform their specialty or unique moves, the gameplay shown is just the combat of the player character and no way to command each member individually. However, this is not the case as the special wheel will have moves unique to the characters that can be casted just like in previous titles, they just weren’t shown in the gameplay trailer.
Thoughts on the Gameplay
What seems to be the case with Veilguard is that it has done away with its roots of being a CRPG(computer Role-Playing-Game) like Baldur’s Gate, Divinity Original Sins etc. We are only controlling our player character but we still have access to specializations like the previous games had. Per a reddit Q/A it has been confirmed that our protagonist will not have blood magic specializations which will be made clear later on as to why.
The Q/A also stated, warriors cannot dual wield swords as they will be more focused towards two-handed weapons, only rogues can dual wield. The specializations for the classes are as reported by GameRant are:
- Rogue: Duelist, Saboteur, Veil Jumper
- Warrior: Slayer, Reaper, Champion
- Mage: Elemental Magic, Necromancy Spells, Combat Mage
These are names for the specializations but it is not confirmed what is the name for the last specialization of the mage class.
Conclusion
The reception to it so far has been mixed as its criticism is stemming from the speculations that EA has made BioWare lose their own direction, this coupled with the fact the people who worked on the original dragon age games have long since left the company. It seems people are comparing what was shown to the gameplay of Elden Ring, which is far from what core Dragon Age players have come to expect, the tactical aspect of it seems to have been stripped with them moving away from the tabletop style.
We will have to wait to see what the reception is when the game releases as it has been a long time since the last title from BioWare. That coupled with the fact that BioWare’s track record for its last few titles have been terrible at launch with immense performance issues and disinteresting plot lines and non engaging characters specially for Mass Effect Andromeda.
We know in terms of the story, the events of Veilguard will take place 10 years after the events of Dragon Age: Inquisition but the choices of what happened in that game will not be affected here. The developers have emphasized that choices in game will actually effect events in the future with characters and the storyline as this one of the main points of criticism for a lot of titles recently where players are made to believe choices affect events in the when in reality they didn’t.
