Dragon Age: The Veilguard Feels Like a New DnD Campaign, For Better or Worse

The Dragon Age franchise has been in a tight spot for what seems like forever. Once an undeniable force in the game industry, Bioware's fantasy epic has recently been relegated to "what-if" status and a general sense that the next game would never come to fruition. It's been nearly a decade since the last Dragon Age game hit store shelves, and Bioware has seen few wins in that time. This, along with the seemingly endless staff changes within the studio, caused the gaming world to become pretty skeptical about seeing their beloved franchise ever actually continue. Then, the seemingly impossible happened. Dragon Age: The Veilguard was released on October 31st, 2024, almost 10 years to the day since the last installment, cementing the next chapter of the Dragon Age empire. Being a long-time lover of the series myself, I jumped at the opportunity to give it a go and see if the new Bioware was able to create something that lived up to the legends of old.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard had a notoriously rocky development. Starting development all the way back in 2015, Veilguard saw constant leadership turnover, as well as resources diverted from it to supplement Bioware's two most infamous flops – Anthem and Mass Effect: Andromeda. Not only were the people who finished Veilguard almost entirely different than the people who started it, but Bioware itself has effectively become a wholly different company. The fact that Veilguard was released at all is a miracle. Due to these difficulties, however, the game has an offputting air about it that's difficult to explain. Playing Dragon Age the Veilguard feels like sitting down for the first time to play Dungeons and Dragons with a group you barely know and has all the trials and tribulations that come with it.

Dungeons and Dragons has seen a resurgence in the past ten years, unlike practically anything modern culture has seen thus far. Playing DnD is no longer something to be mocked and ridiculed, with millions of people around the globe sitting at tables and enjoying this role-playing pastime. Ask anyone who plays DnD regularly and they'll likely all give you the same answer in regards to what is the most difficult aspect of the game itself: scheduling. Trying to get a group of four to five people together routinely enough to carry out a fully fledged campaign can be difficult at the best of times. To help curtail this, many people will sign up for games with strangers, either online or in person, to get their tabletop fix.

The fact that Veilguard was released at all is a miracle.

A common practice for DnD campaigns with people who haven't met before (and even people who have) is a list of "untouchables" that the Dungeon Master will send out before finalizing the campaign. This is typically a document that helps the DM specify what topics are alright to include in their games and what ones would trigger or upset their new players. Untouchable lists are commonplace because they're correct and courteous, ensuring that everyone in the group has a fun and safe time while they sit at their respective tables. The interactions between the characters of Veilguard feel very much like the beginning of one of these new games – everyone gets along, everyone respects each other, and everyone seems hesitant to confront anyone else.

This may be proper etiquette for a new DnD table, but there's just one problem: it's entirely paradoxical to the very core of the Dragon Age series.

Bioware games are remembered by their characters and the interactions they have together. The conflicts that arise between the cast members of classic Bioware titles feel real and earned, and regardless of how they're resolved, the resolutions feel absolute. In Veilguard, the most you can do to instigate conflict is to "be slightly passive-aggressive," and it feels like the choice to be a right bastard is taken away from you. In previous Dragon Age titles, you could essentially be a sociopathic tyrant, caring as much or as little for the people around you as you feel fit. In Veilguard, it's difficult to get your party to react in any way beyond emphatic enthusiasm. Even when the iconic "party member disapproves" pops up, it doesn't seem to have any really palpable consequence on the interactions themselves.

This is the crux of Veilguard's problems – the safety of the party's personalities creates flawless and stagnant characters with nowhere to go. They have stories to tell, but none of them really seem to have any lessons to learn or to teach. While being a borderline sociopath sounds like an odd thing to champion, it's more about having the choice taken away from you than it is the choice itself. Veilguard has a distinct "no bummers allowed" vibe when it comes to character interactions that make the entire thing feel bizarrely tone-deaf.

Early on in the game's main storyline, your party stumbles upon a town that's currently being strangulated by the Blight. It's a ghastly scene with the entire town covered in corpses, blood, and delusional, shell-shocked citizens. You have stumbled right into the center of an ongoing blood ritual. Potentially hundreds of innocent citizens are dead, sacrificed to a cause that they didn't even know existed. It's a heavy moment, but it lands with a dull wet thud due to the tonal whiplash caused by the happy-go-lucky quippy dialogue being touted moments before (and after) and the disturbing implications of something like a mass humanoid sacrifice.

The conflicts that arise between the cast members of classic Bioware titles feel real and earned, and regardless of how they're resolved, the resolutions feel absolute. In Veilguard, the most you can do to instigate conflict is to "be slightly passive-aggressive," and it feels like the choice to be a right bastard is taken away from you.

These sorts of experiences add to the feeling of this being a new tabletop session, as there has to be some sort of conflict in order for games to work, but it can be hard to gauge the reaction of players if you aren't sure what their limits are. The difference is that a DnD game has real people who can adapt, discuss their differences, have real and honest conversations, and talk out of character to solve the issues presented in-game.

It's incredibly difficult to not lose these sorts of moments in translation, and this has always been a problem adapting a tabletop game like DnD into video games as a whole. Larian Studio's unbelievably good Baldur's Gate 3 has shown that this feat is technically possible, but unfortunately for the gaming world, it's incredibly difficult. Games like Veilguard could potentially mark the beginning of a new trend of games trying to capture the magic of sitting around a table, and it will inevitably have varying results. Baldur's Gate 3 lets you be whatever you want to be and do whatever you want to do, no matter how dastardly and depraved, whereas Veilguard's stale safety causes it to feel unambitious and, worst of all, boring.

It may be a little unfair to compare a game like Dragon Age: The Veilguard to something like Baldur's Gate 3. The size and scope of each experience are completely different, as are the characters and their motivations. Regrettably, it feels like EA wanted their own Baldur's Gate 3, without understanding what made that game great in the first place. The frustrating thing is that Veilguard, as a lone experience, works really well. The environments are beautiful and vibrant, the action RPG elements are fun and appropriately frantic, and the exploration is straightforward and enjoyable. But as the first follow-up in a decade to one of the most beloved fantasy gaming franchises in the world, it simply doesn't work. The character interactions feel too much like strangers never really getting to know each other to feel legitimate, with the characters themselves embodying a shell of what their potential otherwise says they could be.

The frustrating thing is that Veilguard, as a lone experience, works really well. The environments are beautiful and vibrant, the action RPG elements are fun and appropriately frantic, and the exploration is straightforward and enjoyable.

I want to reiterate that this has nothing to do with the game itself or the characters being too "woke." To say Veilguard's weak points are because of inclusivity is a reductive stance. It dismisses any merit the game has by making baseless claims on its faults being the result of the audacity to have strong female characters or LGBTQ+ representation. The fact that these characters are written poorly has nothing to do with these factors. Bioware games live or die by their characters, and Veilguard's fall short. Nothing more, nothing less.

I played Veilguard for roughly 30 hours, desperately waiting for the "aha!" moment everyone claimed I would get. Despite dedicating more than a full calendar day to this game, I never felt engaged with the characters. Regardless of the setting, it never got past that awkward "first few sessions" feeling, and the game suffers greatly for it. Dragon Age: The Veilguard is not an unpleasant experience, but rather a disappointingly safe one. You can almost see the suits at EA standing behind the developers as they crafted this fantasy experience. You can feel the corporate interference in how the characters interact with each other. It seems to have worked though, with Dragon Age: The Veilguard selling well and having mass appeal. While the widest net may catch the most fish, it's also stretched as thin as can be, and Dragon Age: The Veilguard is an appropriately shallow character study as a result.