Summary
Dragon Age: The Veilguardis here, and its early player impressions range from largely favorable to overwhelmingly positive, depending on the platform. This turn of events bodes well for BioWare, suggesting thatDragon Age: The Veilguardwill be a return to form for the studio.
While it can be argued that thecritically acclaimedMass Effect Legendary Editionhad already signaled that BioWare was back to making widely beloved games in 2021, that release was merely a remaster. As far as its original works go, the company’s latest two titles precedingThe VeilguardwereAnthemandMass Effect: Andromeda, neither of which set the world on fire.
But thenewDragon Agegame, which hit digital and physical store shelves on October 31, is looking like it might, not least because early player impressions of this Halloween release are excellent across all platforms. Specifically,Dragon Age: The Veilguardpresently boasts “Mostly Positive” reviews on Steam, based on over 4,100 player impressions, 77.82% of which end with a recommendation. Over on the PlayStation Store, the game has so far amassed more than 1,500 reviews with an average rating of 4.58 stars. Its 4.4-star Xbox Store rating is almost as impressive, though it’s based on a smaller sample size of just over 400 reviews.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard Players Praise Combat, Performance, and More
Since the game has barely been out for half a day as of this writing, its current crop of user reviews is obviously focused on things that can be gleaned from early impressions. E.g., many players have opined thatDragon Age: The Veilguard’s combat is super funand polished, even if some of them still say they’d have preferred a more traditional CRPG experience in the vein ofDA: Origins. In terms of Steam reviews in particular, a lot of them praise the game’s PC performance as nothing short of stellar, saying that the RPG runs well even on older hardware. Quite a few users on Valve’s storefront also appear elated thatThe Veilguardis the first EA game in a long time that doesn’t require its launcher and just boots straight from Steam.
4,130
4.58 stars
1,549
4.4 stars
404
These early player impressions matchDragon Age: The Veilguard’s critical reception, which is reflected in its “Strong” rating on OpenCritic, derived from an aggregate score of 82 and a 76% reviewer recommendation rate. Time will tell whether this positive buzz translates to sales, but as things stand right now, the game seems to be off to a decent commercial start, having peaked at 70,414 concurrent players on Steam alone.
Since it was a mid-week release, it’s likely thatDragon Age: The Veilguardwill further improve upon this figure over the weekend. For some added context,Metaphor: ReFantaziois another recent semi-linear RPG that had a similar peak of just under 86,000 Steam players following its October 11 debut and sold 1 million copies across all platforms in its first 24 hours on the market.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
WHERE TO PLAY
Enter the world of Thedas, a vibrant land of rugged wilderness, treacherous labyrinths, and glittering cities – steeped in conflict and secret magics. Now, a pair of corrupt ancient gods have broken free from centuries of darkness and are hellbent on destroying the world.Thedas needs someone they can count on. Rise as Rook, Dragon Age’s newest hero. Be who you want to be and play how you want to play as you fight to stop the gods from blighting the world. But you may’t do this alone – the odds are stacked against you. Lead a team of seven companions, each with their own rich story to discover and shape, and together you will become The Veilguard.
