There’s a BioWare game I keep coming back to when I think about the several hours I spent playing Dragon Age: The Veilguard – and interviewing BioWare about it – and it’s probably not the game you’re expecting me to say. It’s not Dragon Age: Inquisition and it’s not Dragon Age: Origins, or Dragon Age 2, as if I’d have the stones to say that. It’s a game from another series the studio is probably better known for, and it’s arguably the studio’s best: Mass Effect 2.
Just as Mass Effect 2 streamlined the elbowy role-playing of Mass Effect 1, honing it into a pacier cinematic action game, so does Veilguard do this for Dragon Age. There are no pretensions at being an open-world game as in Inquisition any more; The Veilguard is a narrower, mission-based game – a phrase I hear a few times over the course of the day – and because of it, the pace never sags. Whatever you do, there’s a feeling of purpose and shape. Missions crescendo to spectacular boss fights, and the combat encounters that lead to them feel considered and satisfying. Traversal sections are varied with puzzles and zip wires and slides and balance beams. There’s never any dead time; always, there’s momentum, and at its best, it’s a breathlessly exciting ride.
To me it screams confidence, something the Dragon Age team seems to have lacked in the past. This is a series that’s grappled with its identity ever since it began, and that’s changed hugely from one instalment to the next, pulled this way and that by the demands of the time. But here we are with a beautifully baggage-less single-player RPG, and a sense that behind it, BioWare is doing what it believes it is best at. And okay yes, it’s notable that the lines between Dragon Age and Mass Effect are blurring, whereas before, the teams and games felt distinct, but there’s no denying the resulting effect. The Veilguard is good. It’s very good.
We begin our demo day at the very beginning of the game, in character customisation, which I’m pleased to report is as feature-rich as I hoped and expected it to be. There are four races to choose from – human, qunari, dwarf, elf – and you can customise the shapes of their bodies as well as intricately sculpt their faces. I am particularly fond of the triangular slide-around gauge for overall shape, which is fun to play with and see the effects of in real-time, and of the hair, which is some of the most believable-looking hair I’ve seen in a game. More unusual features include customisable “bulge size”, for exactly what you think, a melanin slider, and a cataracts slider for the eye or eyes – you can specify which. There’s a lot of detail here.