'Dragon Age: The Veilguard' review in progress: BioWare made a good game again

It's been 12 excruciating, miserable years, but BioWare has finally made a pretty good video game again.

Veilguard does a substantially better job of establishing stakes and getting you to care in the first two minutes after hitting “new game” The A-plot in Veilguard is a perfectly adequate excuse to travel from place to place, removing nasty blight infestations and solving a variety of other problems.

The real meat is in the characters, and Veilguard ’s commitment to its party is one of its best qualities.

This isn’t a short game (I expect my finished save to come in at around 45-50 hours ) But it’s one that feels intentional and focused in its design, which makes the pacing breezy and engaging after the opening chapter or two .

Each party member has a specific environmental puzzle-solving power that only unlocks after they join the party.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard is a solidly good RPG .

It may not be a new standard-bearer for the genre, but merely being pretty good feels like something of a triumph.

The only bummer is that commanding your homies to prime and detonate is about as far as the tactical depth goes.