I'm slightly less panicked about Dragon Age: The Veilguard after seeing 24 seconds of gameplay

I wasn't expecting to see Dragon Age: The Veilguard turn up at the Xbox Games Showcase over the weekend ahead of the gameplay reveal it had already planned for tomorrow. But turn up it did, with a CG trailer that had a lot of fans, including me, very nervous about the plastic-y, poreless character designs. Partly to quell that public panic, I'm willing to bet, BioWare just gave us a «sneak peak» at 24 seconds of the planned 15+ minute gameplay reveal tomorrow. Everyone take ten deep breaths. It looks better—probably.

As my colleague Robin Valentine pointed out yesterday, the CG trailer debuted at the Xbox show had serious hero shooter vibes, with a «hello fellow kids» kind of banter that I don't associate with the dry, dark humor of Thedas. 

I was worried too, and spent the evening consoling myself with thoughts of the Sacred Ashes trailer for Dragon Age: Origins and the Dragon Age 2 Destiny trailer, both of which looked very different from the actual games. The Veilguard's trailer did say «game engine footage,» though I'm not certain how much stock to place in that.

Anyhow, here's that new 24 seconds of The Veilguard which definitely is in-game footage:

Enjoy this sneak-peek at tomorrow's Gameplay Reveal!Rook and Varric arrive in the stunning — and seedy — city of Minrathous. Little do they know what dangers await. Tune in tomorrow to find out: https://t.co/UGVqA1ZiTE #DragonAge pic.twitter.com/LSJ3oBVoZoJune 10, 2024

«Rook and Varric arrive in the stunning—and seedy—city of Minrathous. Little do they know what dangers await,» BioWare says in the accompanying post.

Now look, this thing is a somewhat compressed video posted to X in a maximum of 720p so I can't tell if the whole world looks just as shellac-ed as Scout Harding's face did in that reveal. We don't see either Varric or our protagonist Rook's faces here either, but this seems like something I might be happy to call a Dragon Age game. 

It's dark. It's moody. And if it's not as grimy and gritty as we're