BioWare has released the first Dragon Age: The Veilguard gameplay trailer, and we're a long way from the careful, considered CRPG approach of 2009's Dragon Age: Origins.
Last week, BioWare revealed that Dragon Age: Dreadwolf had become The Veilguard, and that we'd get a first look at gameplay soon. That time has come, and first impressions of Dragon Age: The Veilguard are...certainly different.
The trailer opens with the player character, here named Rook, and series regular Varric Tethras looking for a mage detective (that's a detective who's a mage, not one who finds mages) named Neve Gallus.
Varric and Rook move through a city seemingly watched over by a giant Panopticon-style tower, and it isn't long before demons are running loose throughout the city, apparently summoned by Solas himself, the Dreadwolf of the game's previous title.
Soon, Rook, Varric, and companion Harding get into some combat, and we see that Dragon Age: The Veilguard is pretty much shrugging off the cloak of tactical RPG combat to fully embrace action.
The combat looks very hack-and-slash-inspired; the focus seems to be on stylish moves and cooldowns rather than strategy and planning, which means the trajectory of Dragon Age 2 and Inquisition is arguably at its apex here.
The Veilguard also looks like it's putting quite a heavy emphasis on setpieces and "cool moments"; bringing down a statue and watching as demons rampage through the city streets spring to mind in this trailer.
Although the combat doesn't look much like old-school Dragon Age, we do get to see our protagonist making some dialogue decisions on an Inquisition-style dialogue wheel that assigns responses to certain tones and moods.
We also get to see decisions being made that will apparently impact the plot and how characters feel about us; at one stage, Rook makes a decision of which one character approves and another disapproves.
It's also worth noting that this gameplay trailer represents the opening moments of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, which means that it might be placing a heavier emphasis on setpieces than later sequences do in order to set the scene.
The trailer culminates in Varric confronting Solas about his deeds, upon which Solas shatters Varric's iconic crossbow Bianca and two powerful-looking demons appear to flank him.
We'll have to wait and see just how much of the original Dragon Age's DNA has actually made it into The Veilguard, but either way, the game is launching on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S this fall. You can check out our hands-off preview of BioWare's latest RPG right here.
