Dragon Age: The Veilguard is the first BioWare game I've ever played, proving you don't need to touch the rest of Dragon Age to fall in love

In the months since Dragon Age: The Veilguard was revealed in action, I've inexorably found myself being suckered into a world I know nothing about. Though I'm a fiend for huge RPGs, Dragon Age – and while I'm confessing, Mass Effect – have been left to sulk in my backlog for years. While the prospect of catching up on a series that's run for 15 years has previously been too daunting to overcome, seeing the hype surrounding Veilguard has led me to embrace chaos and dive in without having played its predecessors.

I wasn't sure how that would go, but after spending days gallivanting around Thedas without having to Google a single thing, I'm pleased to report that you can absolutely play The Veilguard without having played another Dragon Age game. Sure, you might have to take it from your new friends that this Solas guy is bad news, but BioWare does a phenomenal job at bringing you up to speed in a way that doesn't really feel like you've missed anything in the first place. So if you don't know your Blood Mage from your Blight, don't worry – join me in learning by doing.

Experience not necessary

Though I tried to play Origins over the summer, I only got an hour or so in before the 2009 game stopped cooperating with my PC. Fast-forward to our glowing Dragon Age: The Veilguard review, and by then I'd already decided to jump in headfirst. From starting Origins I was aware that using blood to cast magic is bad and the corruption-spewing Blight is very bad, but that's as far as my pre-Veilguard knowledge stretched. I was more concerned with the fact that Veilguard continues directly on from Dragon Age: Inquisition's twist, which I'm aware saw party member Solas reveal himself to be an elven god with plans to carry out a potentially world-ending ritual.

I won't get into the hows or whys of this, because if you're coming into Veilguard with as little knowledge as I did, sentences like "tearing down the Veil" will mean as much to you as Hamlet to a toddler. Thankfully, you don't really need to know any of this. Protagonist Rook is all-new to the series, and knows as much about Solas as I did after watching the introductory cinematic. It's a smart approach that works just as well for Veilguard's supporting cast – Rook has no idea who the game's returning characters are, making room for fresh introductions all around. Sure, there are probably some "remember when" lines that may have flown over my head without realizing, but the fact I couldn't tell you for definite suggests references to past games are done slickly. Veilguard has never made me feel like an outsider, which was my biggest worry going in.

If anything, the reverse has happened. With returning characters Varric and Harding playing party-matchmaker for fresh-faced Rook, Thedas is your oyster. No, I didn't have befriending a coffee-loving assassin or a magical detective on my Veilguard bingo card, but I'm certainly not complaining. Nor did I expect to spend so long deliberating whether to help Minrathous or Treviso – two cities I've spent just a few hours each in – during one of the first major decisions Veilguard throws your way. Don't even get me started on Solas, who without knowing his whole story from Inquisition, seems kind of… right about everything? Oh, to be smug and correct.

There are no surprises on a more mechanical level, either. Veilguard's combat is easy to pick up if you've played an action-RPG before, and while its vast skill tree looks intimidating at first, it's more a case of picking a direction that sounds cool and leveling toward it rather than following an MMO-style "correct" build. I've been plodding toward unlocking more death magic purely because it sounds cool, and although I've struggled in some tougher battles, there has never been a moment when I've felt disadvantaged because I've not gone out of my way to pick one of Veilguard's best classes.

So, no: on all counts, you don't need to have played a single Dragon Age game to jump into The Veilguard and have fun. I was so hesitant to dive into the series through its latest entry, but I'm beyond glad I did. Slightly worryingly, I'm already plotting the course I'll take through past Dragon Age games when Veilguard's credits roll – so instead of finding myself at a loss for not already playing them, it's a thrill to have so many new adventures waiting in the future. If you've also been on the fence about Dragon Age, I'd suggest plunging in headfirst like I have: sometimes, the best way to start something is just to start it.

That being said, newcomers should check out these 10 Dragon Age Veilguard tips we wish we knew before playing