It’s long been alleged thatDragon Age: The Veilguardwas initially conceptualised as a live-service multiplayer game akin toBioWare’s previous gameAnthem, but after Anthem flopped and the single-playerStar Wars Jedi: Fallen Orderexceeded expectations,the multiplayer model was scrapped.
We now know BioWare’s side of the story, which is that multiplayer was considered in pre-production, butthe studio scrapped the ideabecause it wouldn’t allow its developers to “return to our roots” and focus on “amazing storytelling”.
This lines up with what we’ve previously heard, and I’m sure that nobody is upset that The Veilguard isn’t joining the list of live-service gameslaunched and then quickly shut down because of lack of interest. But I can’t help but wonder what a multiplayer DA:TV might have been, especially now that we have a better idea of what the final iteration of the game will actually look like.
What Could Multiplayer Have Added?
BioWare’s focus with The Veilguard is very much on the characters and the “opportunity to influence the world”. BioWare general manager Gary McKaytells Game Informerthat multiplayer wouldn’t have allowed BioWare to do that effectively, but also said that the story this time is crafted so that “you literally cannot save the world without these characters”.
I dread the thought of live-service elements in The Veilguard – pay $6.99 to buy 50 shards and skipthe worst part of the game! – but I don’t think multiplayer gameplay has to be the boogeyman it’s become in the wake of the life-service trend’s rise. Live-service engenders multiplayer, but not vice versa. What if The Veilguard had been, for example, a multiplayer campaign?
Yeah, this is basically just fanfiction, but the fact that it was a serious option indicates some value in the idea. In a multiplayer campaign, you’d still be experiencing a story, you’re just forced to do it with other people. Lots of co-op campaigns are completely competent at telling stories.It Takes Two,Borderlands, andPortal 2all come to mind. Divinity: Original Sin andits sequelcan both be played in co-op, and offer rewarding experiences in themselves.
In a parallel timeline, there is a version of The Veilguard that allows multiple players to take control of different companions and roleplay as them. Players would be able to switch through companions at will – perhaps there would be no Rook at all, since there wouldn’t be one main player. I imagine something like Baldur’s Gate 3, if you were restricted to Origin characters and could jump between different ones at will. Each character would still have its own meaningful arc, influenced by the players who control them.
Dragon Age has tried multiplayer before, largely unsuccessfully, in Inquisition. There, the model copied the more successful PvE-style of Mass Effect 3’s multiplayer, and it’s easy to see how you might jump from this into a campaign built around the idea.
Of Course, Then It Wouldn’t Be The Veilguard
This approach, of course, would result in a very different game. Players would be able to directly control what characters do and how the story ultimately shapes up, and that would add far more layers of complexity than BioWare likely scoped for. I’m still not sure how linear a story is going to be told in The Veilguard, but I expect it’ll be similar to the games in the series that fans already know and love. There’ll be some flexibility, but our companions aren’t going to go buckwild just because we encourage them to.
Ultimately, I’m glad that BioWare is sticking to its roots and doing what it knows how to do best. That’s a solid foundation for a game, after all. But I can’t help but wonder what kind of game we could have gotten if BioWare had stuck with the multiplayer concept, and quite frankly, I wish more recent releases had excellent co-op campaigns. Maybe in another universe, my housemates and I are all playing The Veilguard together but in different rooms, yelling at each other through open doors about Solas’ betrayal. That could’ve been cool, too.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
WHERE TO PLAY
Dragon Age: The Veilguard is the long-awaited fourth game in the fantasy RPG series from BioWare formerly known as Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. A direct sequel to Inquisition, it focuses on red lyrium and Solas, the aforementioned Dread Wolf.
