Gaming

Dragon Age: The Veilguard Is Far From BioWare’s Best

BioWare is not back, not yet at least.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard reviews posted this morning, and right now the new BioWare RPG is sitting at two different Metacritic scores, depending on the platform. On PC, the game boasts a 79. On PS5, it boasts an 84. Meanwhile, there is no score for the Xbox Series X|S version. This is a decent return, but when you factor in how long the game’s development was, how expensive it likely was, and the pedigree of the studio, it is a somewhat underwhelming return.

Compared to the lows of Anthem and Mass Effect: Andromeda, Dragon Age: The Veilguard is a major improvement. That is a low bar for a studio with a legendary past though. While it is faring better than these games, its Metacritic scores don’t come close to the highs of BioWare, including the highs of Dragon Age.

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To this end, BioWare has released 21 games since its inception. Three of these games don’t have any Metacritic data. That leaves 18 games. Of these 18 games, 12 of the releases are higher than Dragon Age: The Veilguard on Metacritic, while only five are lower. In other words, BioWare is still far from its best.

  • Shattered Steel – 1996 – N/A
  • Baldur’s Gate – 1998 – 91
  • MDK2 – 2000 – 83
  • Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn – 2000 – 95
  • Neverwinter Nights – 2002 – 91
  • Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic – 2003 – 94
  • Jade Empire – 2005 – 89
  • Mass Effect – 2007 – 91
  • Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood – 2008 – 74
  • Mass Effect Galaxy – 2009 – N/A
  • Dragon Age Origins – 2009 – 91
  • Mass Effect 2 – 2010 – 96
  • Dragon Age 2 – 2011 – 79
  • Dragon Age Legends – 2011 – N/A
  • Star Wars: The Old Republic – 2011 – 85
  • Mass Effect 3 – 2012 – 93
  • Dragon Age: Inquisition – 2014 – 89
  • Mass Effect: Andromeda – 2017 – 71
  • Anthem – 2019 – 59
  • Mass Effect Legendary Edition – 2021 – 87
  • Dragon Age: The Veilguard – 2024 – 84

Without context, Dragon Age: The Veilguard is a decent return for BioWare. The more context you add though, the more the return is actually underwhelming. What is more important though is how the game will land commercially. If it sells well, none of this will matter.

For more Dragon Age: The Veilguard coverage — including all of the latest news, all of the latest rumors and leaks, and all of the latest speculation — click here.