Let’s get this out of the way quickly: I do not thinkDragon Age: The Veilguardis a particularly good Dragon Age game. I think it has its moments - the Siege of Weisshaupt is among my favourite moments in the series - but otherwise, I thinkthe writing at best falls flatandat worst ruins what made Thedas so great.
And yet, when it wasconfirmed that The Veilguard wouldn’t be getting any DLC, I was gutted. Not because I had any notion that the DLC would fix the base game. Hell, I think we’ve all gone a bit too far in believing that games can be fixed in a post-No Man’s Skyworld. Rather, I was disappointed because DLC could have given that iteration ofBioWareits first real chance to show what it was capable of without any baggage.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard Was Doomed From The Start
It’s well-documented that the development of a fourth Dragon Age was an absolute mess. Thanks to EA’s meddling, the original Dragon Age 4 was cancelled in 2017 (as per a report fromKotaku),and then reworked into a live-service title. Perhaps after Inquisition sold big, EA reckoned the IP was ‘wasted’ on a measly single-player release.
Then,this too was scrapped, and the multiplayer game that BioWare had was reworked into a single-player title.I’ve already written about what this meant for The Veilguard, so I won’t repeat myself too much here, but needless to say, these devs had everything working against them.
Ultimately, Dragon Age: The Veilguard feels like it was finished out of obligation. It wrapped up the story that it absolutely had to, and dropped pretty much everything else. I understand why - the project was in development hell and had been rebooted twice. If storylines need to be dropped, you’re going to drop everything but Solas and the elven god shenanigans.
DLC wouldn’t have helped tellthatstory any better, but it could have told the other stories. How about an expansion set in the South? All we hear in The Veilguard is that Ferelden is getting super mega destroyed (side note: a terrible decision, I hate that), so we could have a story set there without the consequences impacting Rook’s story. Perhaps we can evenplay as our Inquisitor again?
This could have been a way to bring back world states, whichThe Veilguard’s creative director suggested was a possibility.
Even if the DLC had us play as Rook, it could have dove into the many other storylines that were swept aside. Maybe one that deals with political intrigue, like the first three games did, since this was sorely lacking in the base game. Or perhaps we could go on a journey to find that cure for the Grey Wardens? Seriously, did the Hero of Ferleden ever find it? Were any of our theories about the cure correct? Do they even matter in a post-Veilguard world?
On the other hand, it wouldn’t have had to tie into the other games at all. The DLC could have told a new story entirely. Maybe we could have spent more time with our new cast of companions, giving us more conversations with them that the base game really ought to have had. No one would be playing second fiddle to Solas now, so they would have some room to breathe.
Previous DLC Told New Stories, While Improving On Past Mistakes
The lack of DLC is part of a disturbing trend we have seen from BioWare after Dragon Age: Inquisition. All of the previous games in the series got a whole lot of DLC, save Dragon Age 2, which still got two expansions plus a companion that added a new questline.
Every time, the DLC lets developers respond to criticisms made about the game, and perhaps most crucially, get more experience with every aspect of development. Dragon Age: Awakening made it harder to cheese your way through combat with 1,000 potions in your inventory. Dragon Age 2’s DLC added some much-needed environmental variety. Then, Trespasser finally made Inquisiton’s combat more fast-paced and engaging, forcing you to make use of the space around you.
Unfortunately, everything I just listed is absolutelyfinein The Veilguard. Few take issue withthe combat, or the difficulty, or the visuals. Many praise them, in fact. It’s the writing and the handling of the lore that fans are most aggrieved over, and DLC would not have fixed it. The Veilguard’s version of Thedas is poorly handled at its very foundations, largely due to the fact that none of the politics from the previous games can matter anymore because of the lack of world states. When you take that out of Dragon Age, you lose what makes it special.
However, DLC could have let this team tell its own story, rather than finishing another. We could have seen them play to their strengths, relishing in the opportunity to create something new, rather than the strange half-and-half that is The Veilguard. It desperately feels like itwantsto be something new, and it would have been interesting to see what the devs could have done if they’d created DLC that was even more divorced from the previous games.
At the very least, it would be more Dragon Age - something that I can’t see us getting for a long, long time now.
