BioWare Veteran Agrees Dragon Age: The Veilgaurd Needed World States

Dragon Age: The Veilguard Should Have Supported World States, Says Mark Darrah Published Sep 25, 2026, 9:22 AM EDT Dragon Age: The Veilguard occupies an awkward place in the series. While it is technically a very good game with strong combat, game design, and minimal bugs, it is generally agreed to have some of the worst writing of the series, and just wasn't the Inquisition follow-up many of us were after. In other words, it was seen as a good game, but a bad Dragon Age game. Nowhere is that more felt than in how The Veilguard ditches the reactivity of previous games. Before launch, we were told that the Dragon Age Keep - the website used to log all of our choices across the series - would not be used in The Veilguard. Instead, we would select just three of the choices we made in Inquisition, completely ignoring Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2. For many, this was the beginning of the end. This wasn't just felt by fans. In a recent TikTok, BioWare veteran Mark Darrah - who returned to consult on The Veilguard's development - says that he pushed for the Dragon Age Keep to be used once again, allowing for choices from the previous three games to be referenced. Mark Darrah Reveals What He'd Change About Each Dragon Age Game, Including The Veilguard Darrah touched on this when he was asked what he would change about each Dragon Age game. When he got to The Veilguard, he couldn't think of anything he would remove, but he knew what he would add. "The thing that I would add is The Keep," Darrah says. "I told them to. It wouldn't take that much... I mean, it would, but..." He stops there, making his thoughts on the matter clear. It would seem then that while he was consulting on The Veilguard, he warned the devs that removing World States wouldn't go down well with fans. In their defence, we can see in the game's files that there were attempts to push for more reactivity. Namely, we were supposed to be able to port over more decisions made in Inquisition, but these went unused. Concept art shows even more ideas that never made it into the game, like being able to save whoever we left in the Fade in Inquisition. That would have meant getting an appearance from either Hawke, Stroud, Alistair, or Loghain - and whoever it was would have meant reflecting decisions made all the way back in Origins. So, what went wrong? In my previous deep dive on the topic, I touched on how clear it is that the devs didn't agree with something they had to do in The Veilguard, as many of them alluded to fans making a critique that they agreed with. Similarly, the fan council, who were brought on to take a look at early game builds, made it known that they wanted more reactivity, but this never made it into the game. If I were to hazard a guess, the devs did want to make World States happen, but didn't have the time. After all, the version of The Veilguard we got was made from the bones of a cancelled multiplayer game, and those are not strong foundations for a single-player game that reflects player choices. Alas, it was not meant to be. Still, The Veilguard is well liked by many fans for what it is, even if they mourn what it could have been. Released October 31, 2024 ESRB M For Mature 17+ // Blood, Nudity, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Violence Developer(s) BioWare Publisher(s) Electronic Arts Engine Frostbite Genre(s) RPG