Xbox Series X PS5

Dragon Age: The Veilguard

Role-playing (RPG)StrategyAdventure

Time to beat: about 26.6 hours
Plays offline: Yes

Overview

Dragon Age: The Veilguard is a 2024 action role-playing game developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts (EA). It is the fourth major game in the Dragon Age franchise, and the sequel to Dragon Age: Inquisition (2014). The story follows a customizable player character called Rook as they prevent the elven trickster god Solas from ending the world. In the process, Rook accidentally frees two other amoral elven gods and must also prevent them from conquering the world. As in the game's predecessor, the player character is controlled from a third-person perspective, but Veilguard foregoes Inquisition's open world in favour of discrete levels accessed via fast travel. Likewise, tactical elements were deprioritized over a new combat system emphasizing combo abilities.

The game began development in 2015 and was affected by lengthy delays and changes to staff. Originally planned as a live-service game, the game was re-envisioned as a single-player title following the success of EA's Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (2019). The game's approach to combat was influenced by Sony's God of War (2018). It was originally announced as Dragon Age: Dreadwolf in 2022, and retitled Dragon Age: The Veilguard in June 2024.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard was released for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S on October 31, 2024. Veilguard's release marked the biggest launch for a BioWare game on Steam and reached 1.5 million players across all platforms, which was nevertheless well below EA's expectations. The game received generally positive reviews from critics. Veilguard won Outstanding Video Game at the 36th GLAAD Media Awards and Game of the Year at the Gayming Awards, received nominations at The Game Awards, Golden Joystick Awards, and DICE Awards, and was featured in several publications' year-end lists for 2024.