Dragon Age: The Veilguard is a Mission-Based Game, Not Open World

With 2014’s Dragon Age: Inquisition, BioWare delivered the series’ largest, most open-ended instalment, letting players explore a number of vast, open world maps at their own leisure, so it’s no surprise that many had been expecting that the series’ next game would do something similar, or maybe even go fully open world (especially since subsequent BioWare releases like Mass Effect: Andromeda and Anthem did so as well). It turns out, however, that Dragon Age: The Veilguard is not going to be open world after all.

Speaking to IGN, director Corinne Busche revealed that Dragon Age: The Veilguard is instead going to be a mission-based game, which means every location and all content in the game is going to be “hand-touched, hand-crafted, very highly curated”. That said, she assures that levels will still have opportunities for explore, branching paths, optional content, and what have you.

“We believe that’s how we get the best narrative experience, the best moment-to-moment experience,” Busche said. “However, along the way, these levels that we go to do open up, some of them have more exploration than others. Alternate branching paths, mysteries, secrets, optional content you’re going to find and solve. So it does open up, but it is a mission-based, highly curated game.”

And what exactly does that mean for the game’s side quests? Busche says players will find different kinds of optional quests throughout their journey, ranging from bite-sized to larger in scale, with the development team’s approach being to ensure everything is “hand-crafted and curated”, similar to the levels themselves.

“Some of them are [highly curated], especially when it involves the motivations and the experiences of the companions,” Busche said. “You’re really along on this journey with them. Others, you’re investigating a missing family… and the entirety of this bog is open up to you. You’re searching for clues, finding a way to solve their disappearance. So really it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. But I do want to emphasize that hand-crafted and curated is our approach.”

Further details have also been revealed on Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s combat, hub location, companion characters, some of its character romances, while EA has also confirmed that the game will feature multiple graphics modes on consoles.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard launches this Fall for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Check out its recent 20-minute gameplay deep dive through here.