How Dragon Age: The Veilguard's New Combat Works

Ahead of 'srelease on October 31, several new previews have given an in-depth look at the game's new combat systems and mechanics. The fourth game in the series, has gone through extended development times since 2018. Regardless of the long wait, however, general impressions from early previews of the game and its combat have been largely positive.

Over the course of three games, the combat of has steadily moved away from tactical RPG gameplay using a " system, similar to the classic entries also developed by BioWare. While both and retained some tactical elements, like the ability to switch between characters, the combat of both games took a much more action-oriented approach. Now, as gameplay previews for show its combat in-depth, it looks like the game emphasizes action even more than its predecessors.

As highlighted in a preview of ,the game's combat is a significant departure from previous entries, taking on an almost entirely action-focused approach with minimal tactical elements. Players solely control their created protagonist, Rook, and choose from three different classes.

Each class has two distinct weapon sets with a variety of light, heavy and ranged attacks. These basic attacks are then complemented by more powerful abilities with set cooldowns, and defensive actions like dodging, blocking or parrying.

Certain enemies in have colored shields over their healthbars, which can be broken more easily by certain types of attacks. The yellow «armor» shield, for example, is most vulnerable to heavy attacks.

Combined with an element system, where certain attacks and abilities can exploit enemy weaknesses to deal additional damage, the ability to freely swap between weapon sets mid-combat, and varied enemy attacks, including unblockable attacks that have to be dodged, 's combat has been most heavily compared to games like modern and BioWare's other RPG series, .

Like in, while players can't take control of their companions as in past games, they can command