Hands-on preview | It's been a long time coming, but Dragon Age: The Veilguard feels like it's worth the wait

I am normal about Dragon Age, which is a normal thing for normal people to say about a video game RPG franchise. I've played and loved every entry that developer BioWare has put out, compiled a critical compilation on the popularly maligned Dragon Age 2, and run – present tense – a completely normal number (three, in a shared setting, with the longest having started nearly a decade ago) of concurrent tabletop campaigns using Green Ronin's Dragon Age system.

But to say that my expectations of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, set to release almost 10 years after Inquisition, were high when heading into an on-site preview event earlier this month is technically inaccurate. Between Inquisition and Veilguard, BioWare ultimately produced Anthem and Mass Effect: Andromeda, both of which failed to live up to expectations, and various reports over the years, even taken with several grains of salt, have not reflected kindly on Veilguard's own production. And that's not even getting into my own more personal wounds and disappointments – though it does feel important to admit that I texted a group of four other people, "They let Mary Kirby go??" in August 2023.

It would be more accurate to say that my expectations were tempered. What even is Dragon Age in 2024, I thought to myself ahead of the event. I wondered whether BioWare finally managed to pull it together for the culmination of so many stories and years of work, or if it would fall apart like several of the developer's other endeavors. I'd steeled myself, preparing for the possibility that the latest game in a franchise that actually meant something to me would miss the mark, while running the numbers on just how far off it might be.

In the aftermath, however – and assuming the rest of the game is as good if not better than what I played – I've come to believe that yes, I can and will happily play the latest and greatest Dragon Age for another 10 years if necessary. The story, as much as I've seen, is just as epic and devastating, the companions are compelling, and it's mechanically much more expansive in some ways while tighter in others.

In hindsight, I don't think I was exactly wrong to worry given… well, everything. But roughly seven hours with Dragon Age: The Veilguard, running from the very start of the game through various chunks of what the developers referred to as "Act 1," has calmed whatever fears I had, and I suspect it'll do the same for anyone else in a similar boat at full release.

Source>>  Hands-on preview | It's been a long time coming, but Dragon Age: The Veilguard feels like it's worth the wait