Dragon Age: The Veilguard ends a decade of waiting. BioWare’s fourth main Dragon Age game arrived on PlayStation 5, Windows and Xbox Series X/S on October 31, 2024, and it is a different animal from Dragon Age: Inquisition.
Gone is the open world. In its place: discrete levels reached by fast travel, a combat system built on combos, and a hero named Rook.
It works more often than it doesn’t. The Veilguard is the most focused Dragon Age game BioWare has made, and its 8.2 out of 10 reflects a game that knows what it wants to be.
Trailer, via Dragon Age.
Rook Interrupts a Ritual
The story picks up ten years after Inquisition. Solas, the elven trickster god once known as Fen’Harel, is trying to tear down the Veil — the boundary between the physical world and the Fade. He built the Veil himself to imprison the other elven gods. Now he wants to undo that, out of regret for sealing the ancient elves away from the Fade and causing their society’s collapse.
Varric Tethras, Viscount of Kirkwall, and Lace Harding, lead scout of the Inquisition, are sent to stop him. Rook joins them.
Rook interrupts Solas’s ritual in Arlathan Forest. The interruption frees two other elven gods, Elgar’nan and Ghilan’nain, and traps Solas in the Fade. Varric is badly injured. Solas forms a blood connection with Rook.
That is a strong setup, and it gives the game a villain problem it mostly solves: two amoral gods who want to harness the Blight, destroy Thedas, and build a new elven empire on the ruins.
Six Factions, Seven Companions
Character creation is where The Veilguard separates itself from its predecessors. You pick a lineage — human, dwarf, elf or qunari — a class, and a faction.
The six factions each carry their own weight:
- Antivan Crows, an order of assassins from Antiva
- Grey Wardens, who fight darkspawn from their headquarters in the Anderfels
- Lords of Fortune, treasure hunters from Rivain
- Mourn Watch, guardians of the Grand Necropolis in Nevarra
- Shadow Dragons, a Tevinter resistance faction opposing corruption and slavery
- Veil Jumpers, who explore the forest of Arlathan
Your faction shapes Rook’s backstory and conversation options. It is the closest the series has come to the origin system of Dragon Age: Origins, and it is the right call.
Combat runs on three classes — Warrior, Mage, Rogue — each with two weapon types and abilities you can swap mid-fight. Fast attacks, parries and dodges feed a companion ability wheel. You exploit enemy weaknesses and close with combos.
You cannot directly control your companions in combat, a break from earlier games. Two of the seven can be brought into combat: Harding, Bellara Lutare, Davrin, Emmrich Volkarin, Lucanis Dellamorte, Neve Gallus and Taash. Each has a full story.
The companions are pansexual, so any Rook can romance any of them. Game director Corinne Busche said they were not “playersexual” — not merely attracted to the player. Busche also said the developers “built finding forgiveness into those relationship dynamics.”
A Decade of Delays and a Retitling
The Veilguard began development in 2015. It was planned as a live-service game, then reworked into a single-player title after the success of EA’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order in 2019. Combat took cues from Sony’s God of War (2018).
It was announced as Dragon Age: Dreadwolf in 2022 and retitled in June 2024.
Creative director John Epler said decisions from previous games largely did not carry into The Veilguard, which let the team “avoid contradicting” choices individual players had made. Instead of importing save files or using the Dragon Age Keep web app, you select three choices from Inquisition.
That is a real loss. The series built its reputation on a world that remembered what you did. Cutting that thread makes The Veilguard feel like a fresh start wearing an old name.
A Big Steam Launch, Short of Expectations
The launch was the biggest for a BioWare game on Steam. It reached 1.5 million players across all platforms — well below EA’s expectations.
That shortfall is the number to watch. A 1.5 million-player launch for a franchise this size, after a decade of development, is not the result EA wanted.
The delays and staff changes show in places. The pivot away from imported choices will bother longtime players more than newcomers.
But the combat is the best the series has had. The faction system gives Rook a place in Thedas instead of making them a blank hero. And the companion cast — seven companions, each with their own story — carries the emotional weight the plot needs.
What BioWare Got Right
Dragon Age: The Veilguard is a good game. It had to follow Inquisition and survive a decade of reworks.
It does not clear all of that. The choice-import cut is a genuine wound, and the sales shortfall is a genuine warning.
What it does clear is the part BioWare controls: the fighting, the factions, the companions. Rook is a hero worth playing. The Veilguard is worth the ten years — even if EA may not agree.
Key Facts
- Release date: October 31, 2024
- Platforms: PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox Series X/S
- Developer: BioWare
- Publisher: Electronic Arts
- Players reached at launch: 1.5 million across all platforms
- Score: 8.2 of 10
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