I recently got the opportunity to go hands-on with BioWare's upcoming fantasy action-RPG Dragon Age: The Veilguard. I've only put a handful of hours into the past Dragon Age titles, so Veilguard wasn't one I was eagerly awaiting. But after jumping through several sections set throughout the game, it's become my most anticipated release of fall 2024.

Back in June, during Summer Games Fest, I was able to sit down for a behind-closed-doors preview. However, that session was strictly hands-off; we were only able to watch the presenter go through the character creator and play the game's opening prologue. My hands-on at publisher EA was significantly more eye-opening -- and exciting.

Creating your Rook

Veilguard starts by giving players a chance to customize Rook, the game's protagonist. Players can pick between four races: the traditional elf, human and dwarf options, plus a large, horned race called qunari that's unique to Dragon Age. I had previously played as a qunari in 2014's Dragon Age: Inquisition, so I wanted to try something new and picked elf. 

After settling on your race, you pick one of three classes: rogue, warrior, and mage. Again, deciding to pick something outside my usual play style, I selected mage. Rook also has six in-game factions to choose from. Your faction choice acts as Rook's backstory, giving reputation points for various organizations in the story, as well as buffs against certain enemy types. 

The last part of setup was selecting your game's difficulty option, or play style, and it was nice to see information on how each option changed the incoming damage, enemy aggression, tactical challenge and defensive timing.

Combat is fast, fluid and fun

After character creation, we played through five different sections of the game, the first being the game's opening prologue that was showcased back in June. Here we were introduced to the game's combat, which really took me by surprise with how exciting it was. As a mage I was typically attacking with spells from a distance. Light and heavy attacks are set to the controller's face buttons and can be weaved together. For example, three light attacks in a row will start an attack chain that will do more damage with the final blow. 

You can also dodge with a tap of a button; double tapping will initiate a warp dodge. This felt very good since it literally teleported my character a few extra feet away from the standard dodge distance but was just as fast to pull off. Warp dodging around the battlefield and delivering blows was super fluid and fun.

Holding down RB or R1 brings up the ability wheel. This causes the game to pause while you target specific enemies and select special abilities to use, including those of your companions. (Fans of Mass Effect will be familiar with this mechanic.) While you're surveying the wheel, the game will also highlight which spells you and your companions can combo together to make a stronger attack -- something we were told to keep in mind when taking on the harder, later game sections. 

If you don't want to freeze the combat's momentum, you can hold down LT/L2 and press one of the face buttons as a shortcut to these abilities. Holding down RT/R2 will also use your character's ranged attack continuously. For example, the mage shoots a beam of magic (which be upgraded in the skill tree to increase in power the longer it's held), while for the rogue you can tap to shoot a single arrow or hold to continuously fire. 

What really impressed me about the mage was the secondary loadout: orb and dagger. Instead of fighting with a magic staff, a floating orb could be sent out to shoot spells while also allowing you to attack close up with a knife. I opted to use this play style for most of my time since it felt like it gave me the best of both worlds. Although the early sections only had a few skills to take advantage of, later chapters gave us access to higher level characters with more unlocked. 

One mechanic worth pointing out was the execution option, which required getting an enemy's health low enough before clicking R3 to finish them off with a flourish. For example, the mage would lift them magically into the air before throwing a dagger into them, then slamming them into the ground, retrieving the dagger from the corpse and continuing on like a badass.

The combat was incredibly fun and I looked forward to every encounter. Seeing the large skill tree also got me excited for what skills I'd be able to unlock in the full game, especially since I knew I'd be able to combine them with stronger companion abilities as well. As someone who typically avoids mage classes in action RPGs, I was totally converted and am planning to use one for my main playthrough when the game launches next month. 

As I made my way through the five preview sections of the game, my character would be swapped out each time. I had the chance to use each of the four races and three classes. My favorites were easily the mage and rogue. The rogue was incredibly fast moving, just how I like my action characters. If the mage hadn't made such an impact on me, this is probably the class I'd be choosing when the game launches. 

The warrior was my least favorite due to how slow and defense-focused it was. They were equipped with a massive shield and many abilities were based on knocking back the enemy or perfect guarding. It didn't help that the section I chose them for ended up being a massive dragon boss fight, so I had to learn the new character while fighting the hardest enemy I encountered while at EA. This was the one time I died during the preview, so it didn't leave a great impression. 

Colors, cosmetics and companions kept me immersed

When we weren't battling evil magical skeletons and beasts, the game's visuals were an absolute treat, especially at our demo stations, which advertised Nvidia GeForce RTX 40-series graphics cards. Veilguard's art style is a mix between realistic and cartoonish, giving it a slightly exaggerated look to the environments and characters. It fits nicely with the dense areas and bright, hypersaturated colors of the world. 

The visual style was especially noticeable in an early forest area we explored. The level was thick with a shimmering fog, giving slight rainbow hues to a lot of the surroundings. It makes the player want to explore every nook and cranny, especially since this is a game with a lot of loot. Weapons, armor and accessories are all color-coded based on their rarity and strength, and I'm happy to report that equipping new items will change your character's appearance in the game and cutscenes.

Characters will also retain battle damage that happens at key events. At the end of the prologue, you're given a choice between one of their two companions to join them down the more dangerous path, while the other stays behind and provides cover. During this, Rook and your chosen partner get quite badly injured, and I spent the next couple hours playing with a visibly damaged companion. In fact, characters would frequently make note of it during dialogue, and the companion eventually had to sit out from a quest due to her injuries. This was a great example of how Veilguard's choices will impact how your story proceeds and the options you'll have available to you going forward.

Many of these choices will reference your companion's preferences. There are seven teammates in total and we got to spend some time with each of them. Making large decisions will cause notifications to pop up about whether or not each character approved or disapproved of your choice, the same as in earlier games and similar to the "character will remember this" alerts found in games like Life is Strange. 

You'll be able to spend additional time with your team in the game's hub section, the Lighthouse. Here, much like the ship in Mass Effect, your companions will be stationed around the map and will be highlighted when they have stuff to tell you. Spending time and conversing with them will strengthen your relationship and unlock further gameplay. One character specifically found here, though not a combat companion, is Manfred the skeleton. Interactions with them were limited in the preview but they were always willing to play a game of rock paper scissors with me and I look forward to vibing with them in the future.

The Lighthouse is also where you can participate in Solas's Past quests. These are playable vignettes with lengthy cutscenes all about the motivation and backstory of Solas, Veilguard's main antagonist. They give more color to the villain and offer a glimpse into his evil motivations. After the mission, Rook and their companions will sit down together and discuss the ramifications of the vision they just experienced. It's a fun way to not only play through some interesting concepts but then reflect back on it. These quests are optional and I had access to two different ones during my preview. It was expressed to us during the hands-on that these missions are definitely worth completing.

However, the biggest narrative experience for your companions comes from -- Mass Effect fans get ready -- their companion quest. Each character has a unique backstory and B-plot going on that you can unlock and assist them with. The one we were able to play through involved Lucanis, a suave gentleman assassin. EA's embargo doesn't allow me to talk about this specific quest, but I will say that it was one of my favorite moments with the game and the boss fight at the end was just as cool as it was disgusting.  

A skeptic converted

I entered my preview session for Dragon Age: The Veilguard vaguely excited from what I'd seen back in June, but I left the session eagerly awaiting the game's full release. As someone who never fully clicked with the series, and specifically didn't care for the combat in the previous games, I've pretty much done a complete 180. The game looks extremely nice and the combat was easily the high point. I even left being excited for a character class I usually tend to avoid (a real benefit of getting to play a game early). 

As someone who deeply enjoyed Mass Effect, I'm anxious for another BioWare title to get me just as excited. Based on my early hands-on experience, Veilguard just might be it.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard comes out for Xbox, PlayStation and PC on Oct. 31.