REACTION - Dragon Age: The Veilguard knows exactly how a deep dive should be done
Dragon Age: The Veilguard has the unfortunate distinction of being one of the last Game Informer cover stories to get the full comprehensive deep dive before the legendary outlet was shut down by Gamestop. Since their content archive from 30+ years has been unceremoniously dumped from the internets, it’s worth noting just how effective and thorough the extended peeks into this sequel have been.
We’ve now seen detailed looks at character classes with longer uncut sequences of gameplay, which for a lot of RPG’s has a tendency to remain curiously obscured even in the run up to launch. BioWare have done a fantastic job reframing the narrative around this sequel, and early indications point to a return to form for a studio that struggled to make a splash with Anthem and Mass Effect: Andromeda in recent years.
Although the name change isn’t as cool as Dreadwolf (the subtitle provided during its initial reveal), the nuanced combat and detailed world design are pointing to a team doubling down on what they do best. Hopefully these explicit deep dives will serves as a template for other AAA devs seeking to market their titles with a “warts and all” approach that builds credibility.
TARPS?
At the bottom of some of our articles, you’ll see a series of absurd looking images (with equally stupid, in joke laden names). These are the TARP badges, which represent our ‘Totally Accurate Rating Platform’. They allow us to identify specific things, recognise positive or negative aspects of a games design, and generally indulge our consistent silliness with some visual tomfoolery.