Dragon Age: The Veilguard combines the series’ best qualities into one

With each new Dragon Age game, BioWare brings a new evolution of its RPG series that builds on what came before. 2011’s Dragon Age 2 transitioned away from the CRPG roots of its predecessor for a more engaging and real-time action battle system. Then, 2014’s Dragon Age: Inquisition fully embraced gaming’s open-world trend at the time and delivered a story filled with political intrigue.

Ten years later, Dragon Age: The Veilguard takes all of the best aspects of Dragon Age 2 and Dragon Age: Inquisition — from combat to world-building — to create what could very well be the best game in the series so far. Digital Trends spent four hours playing Dragon Age: The Veilguard and spoke with game director Corinne Busche about the game’s settings and what players can expect after such a long development cycle.

Introducing Minrathous

Dragon Age: The Veilguard starts off in Minrathous, the capital of the Tevinter Imperium. The game’s prologue opens with the customizable main protagonist, Rook, as they journey to stop Solas from opening up a portal to the Fade, a magical dimension filled with dangerous monsters. It’s an explosive start that really grabs your attention, and that’s by design according to Busche.

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“I think about the prologue of games as being a contract that we make with the player about what you can expect, what is the promise of the game,” Busche tells Digital Trends. “I wanted players to have that opportunity to jump right in and really get a feeling for the stakes, the depth, and the emotion of the game, right from the opening moments.”

After the prologue, I learn who the true enemies are: Elgar’nan and Ghilan’nain, two ancient and powerful elven gods that make Solas look like small fry in comparison. Throughout the game, they’ll continually make