When BioWare introduced that Dragon Age: Dreadwolf had been renamed Dragon Age: The Veilguard, normal supervisor Gary McKay defined the choice was rooted in a want to mirror the sport’s “actually deep and compelling group of companions.” It’s a logical pivot contemplating the immense cultural impact Baldur’s Gate 3’s assortment of misfit heroes triggered final 12 months. BioWare little doubt hopes that no less than one of many Veilguard will resonate at a scale akin to Asterion, Karlach, or Shadowheart.
A camp of companions is about so far as the similarities with Baldur’s Gate 3 goes although, if the not too long ago showcased 20 minutes of gameplay is to go by. Dragon Age: The Veilguard seems to be a cinematic fantasy journey with linear momentum, motion fight, and large set-piece moments. Little of what was proven might correlate with Baldur’s Gate 3’s expansive and reactive world. And that’s okay as a result of Dragon Age isn’t Baldur’s Gate. BioWare isn’t Larian. And nor ought to they be. Relatively than making an attempt to hit Baldur’s Gate’s lofty requirements, Dragon Age: The Veilguard ought to as an alternative be looking for to resurrect BioWare’s golden period. An period that produced very totally different RPGs to what Larian does.
Earlier than we begin, it’s price recognising that the time period ‘BioWare’s golden period’ will imply various things to totally different folks. For some, it’ll be the Infinity Engine years – the time of deep, crunchy CRPGs like the unique Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale. For what I think is many extra folks (myself included), it’s the 2007-2014 interval of epic and emotional choice-driven storytelling, greatest demonstrated by the Mass Impact trilogy and Dragon Age. Seeded by Star Wars: Knights of the Outdated Republic’s want to supply a selection between the sunshine and darkish facet of the Pressure, BioWare grew to become extra within the narrative spun by good dungeon masters reasonably than natural player-driven adventures. In consequence, the studio discovered itself progressively much less invested in systemic guidelines and cube rolls, as an alternative placing all of its efforts into crafting unforgettable tales round a participant. The largest, most impactful moments can be the results of weighty choices that fashioned narrative tent poles.
The shift from pre-rendered isometric environments to totally 3D worlds enabled BioWare to push its storytelling ambition, with conversations shot like TV dialogue and set-pieces scripted to look like blockbuster films. It’s a format that proved massively influential on the likes of CD Projekt Pink, however has in some way remained singular in online game historical past. Followers now lament the absence of “BioWare-style RPGs”, which disappeared following the shaky Mass Impact: Andromeda and disastrous live-service shooter Anthem. In the meantime, renewed curiosity in old-school RPG design means style tendencies have shifted. Firms like Larian, Obsidian, and Owlcat have discovered methods to advance and evolve BioWare’s unique, extra systems-driven template, ensuing within the likes of Pillars of Eternity, Pathfinder, and Baldur’s Gate 3.
With old-school being the norm today, it’s now the gameplay showcase for Dragon Age: The Veilguard that’s a blast from the previous. It feels nostalgic, a lot so plainly we might be on the verge of a BioWare renaissance. Depicting a quest from very early within the recreation, the 20-minute demonstration carries the identical sense of cinematic spectacle and drama that powers a few of BioWare’s greatest moments. Tonally and structurally, it jogged my memory a variety of Dragon Age: Inquisition’s ‘Right here Lies The Abyss’ quest, which noticed the get together push ahead via a besieged citadel to ultimately conflict with a bunch of Gray Wardens conducting a demonic ritual. This Veilguard quest, nevertheless, carries even better weight as a result of it’s Solas that awaits on the climax of the demo: Inquisition’s ally-turned-enemy and the Dreadwolf himself.
There’s such a robust sense of character on this sequence, each when it comes to the personalities inside it and the ambiance of all the occasion. It is unmistakably BioWare storytelling. And, regardless of this being a snapshot proven completely out of context, the scene efficiently conveys the narrative stakes; as fan-favourite dwarf Varric makes an attempt to speak down Solas from his god-summoning ritual, the dialog carries the load of their former friendship and the uncertainty of the Dreadwolf’s deception. Looking forward to the primary time, I even questioned if BioWare was about to kill Varric off in what’s successfully a trailer, which is testomony to how effectively the demo’s writing conveys risk and the way strongly it’s anchored within the earlier Dragon Age tales.
This impact is sensible when you think about the folks working behind the scenes. Whereas detractors prefer to deal with the important thing figures who’ve left BioWare, it’s price noting that The Veilguard’s artistic director, John Epler, is a 17-year studio veteran who was a cinematic designer through the period of Dragon Age: Inquisition, a job devoted to delivering story beats. Moreover, most of the undertaking’s longest-serving BioWare workers are writers who’ve penned video games way back to Dragon Age: Origins. The proper palms are right here to make sure The Veilguard delivers one other sturdy Dragon Age story.
In fact, Dragon Age isn’t only a story. It’s an RPG, a style that has developed considerably since Inquisition launched a decade in the past. However it’s unfair to count on The Veilguard to pilfer from and construct upon Baldur’s Gate 3, a recreation that was solely totally launched lower than 12 months in the past and was constructed by a staff roughly twice as massive as BioWare’s present workers roster. Nonetheless, it is important that BioWare doesn’t ignore the style’s current achievements, particularly within the areas that its golden period recipe was as soon as a frontrunner. Which means stronger, extra impactful, and extra nuanced reactivity relating to narrative decisions. Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s story can not merely department into binary pathways at each choice; there must be deep, long-held penalties throughout all the narrative expertise.
Whereas the demo’s brevity means it isn’t capable of showcase how Veilguard’s strategy to narrative selection works, there are nonetheless small glimpses that present hope. You’ll be able to choose a background to your protagonist, Rook, throughout character creation, and that historical past is alleged to affect the way you navigate the story. The demo makes a few references to the Shadow Dragons background (a resistance group from Tevinter who opposes the mage imperium’s corrupt management), suggesting that your character’s traits will affect dialogue, relationships, and alternatives. Longterm followers will recognise this as an echo of the primary Dragon Age’s origin tales, however I’m really reminded of the tag system from Larian’s Divinity: Unique Sin 2, during which key traits resembling race and sophistication would open up new dialogue timber the place acceptable. I’m hoping that BioWare has crafted its personal model of this method to make sure our Rooks really feel vital inside their very own story.
The large query is how any new strategy to character decisions will fold into the bigger construction. In an interview with IGN, recreation director Corinne Busche defined that Veilguard is “a mission-based recreation. Every little thing is hand-touched, hand-crafted, very extremely curated.” It’s a design that can presumably really feel akin to the linear most important quest chain that runs via the core of Dragon Age: Inquisition. Or, extra seemingly, Mass Impact 2 (arguably the head of BioWare’s work on this ‘cinematic RPG’ subject.) Which means we will fortunately say goodbye to the MMO-like bloat of Inquisition’s busy work-filled hubs, however doubtlessly at the price of a world that feels alive, natural, and reactive. The narrowed scope means the main target could completely be on character narrative – a wonderfully legitimate strategy, however one that may’t use the identical toolkit as Baldur’s Gate 3. The place Larian crafted a world that reacts to your each transfer, BioWare ought to deal with constructing a story that reacts to your each choice.
To some, that can sound like a low-level ambition. However let’s face it, BioWare has been in a foul place for a decade and realistically must get again to what it was good at earlier than it leaps too far into the unknown. That additionally means addressing its pre-Anthem faults too, which brings us to fight. With out beating across the bush, fight in Dragon Age 2 and Dragon Age: Inquisition sucks. Their design factors to a reluctance by BioWare to confess it had moved on from the Infinity Engine period of actual time-with-pause battles, and so what we got was a hybrid motion system that was unfulfilling each tactically and mechanically. Whereas I do pine for the sturdy tactical fight of previous, that’s what we now have trendy CRPGs like Baldur’s Gate 3 for. And so fortunately Veilguard completes Dragon Age’s full transition into motion fight with a system that appears to do for swords and sorcery what Mass Impact did for rifles and telekinesis. It seems lively and impactful, with a fair mixture of character skills and skill-based mechanics. Hopefully it’ll supply one thing way more partaking than Inquisition’s barely readable slog-fests.
Whereas I welcome Dragon Age’s shift to correct motion fight, I do nonetheless hope it’s extra reliant on techniques and squad command than Mass Impact. The collection’ roots nonetheless must be acknowledged, and so I want the demo confirmed extra of the brand new Skill Wheel, which can be utilized to concern instructions to your two NPC allies. Whereas the get together measurement is down by one member, I do hope that Veilguard’s battles are nonetheless constructed on a basis of attention-grabbing interaction between fighters. A screenshot that includes way more developed characters than these within the gameplay demo exhibits an Skill Wheel populated by expertise that may mix and ‘detonate’, indicating the Energy Combos system from Mass Impact Andromeda (one in every of its few good concepts) has been tailored for Dragon Age. It’s stuff like this that makes me hopeful that Veilguard will supply the very best Dragon Age fight since Origins, even when it’s of a wholly totally different format.
At a time when Baldur’s Gate 3 is incontestably the strongest RPG ever made, it’s comprehensible to be just a little shocked that Dragon Age: The Veilguard seems so in contrast to it, particularly contemplating the collection was developed because the religious successor to BioWare’s unique Baldur’s Gate video games. However whereas these roots are experiencing an unprecedented surge of recent recognition, we shouldn’t neglect BioWare’s golden ‘cinematic RPG’ period was actually, actually good. Dragon Age: Inquisition’s story and relationships stay top-notch. Dragon Age 2’s detonation of the Chantry is without doubt one of the most memorable moments in Western RPGs. Mass Impact 2 is without doubt one of the best video games ever made. These video games could also be not be as systemically superior as the very best RPGs of the second, however they gave us tales and characters that stir vital feelings in gamers each previous and new to today. The magic of BioWare’s glory days is singular, and nonetheless simply as precious to the RPG area as any of Larian’s most necessary choices. If it is again, then that is nothing however factor.
However don’t simply take it from me. As Larian’s personal publishing director Michael Douse recently tweeted: “Two intentionally very totally different video games (which is sweet) joined thematically by a couple of precept vibes (character, narrative, romance) that ought to be loved as a part of an enormous RPG buffet.”
Matt Purslow is IGN’s Senior Options Editor.