It is time — time to regale you all with my review of Dragon Age: the Veilguard.
Straight off the bat I would like to admit that generally I am a Bioware fan-girl. I love Jade Empire, KOTOR, SWTOR, the Mass Effect trilogy and Andromeda, and the previous Dragon Ages.
My favourite Dragon Age is Origins. Next favourite is Dragon Age 2. And I can honestly say that I like the Veilguard better than Inquisition. Inquisition is last on my list. That's not to say that I don't find anything wrong with this new Dragon Age, because I do, but I find it a lot funner and more rewarding to play.
It feels like Dragon Age 2, but with less enticing companions and more exploration and adventure.
Let's begin upon our Journey of Babbles!
First of all: the character creator.
This is possibly one of the best character creators I've ever played around with. A lot of the presets are ugly as sin, but thankfully you can customise every aspect of your Rook's body and face.
In a new effort for Bioware, even the hair is nice! There are several fantastic options available, both long and short, and I am pleased that I have absolutely no need to download character enhancing mods to make my character look better.
Of course there is the ye olde diversity factor included in the character creator -- but, of course, you can ignore it if you so wish.
The graphics are freakin' gorgeous.
Like many people, I was concerned when I first saw various trailers for this game. The companion reveal trailer in particular was goddamned awful and looked like something out of Fortnite.
Thankfully, however, the actual game is nothing like that. The graphics are gorgeous -- in my opinion, possibly the best graphics in any of the Dragon Age games, including Inquisition.
There are so many different environments, the lighting is phenomenal, the characters are well-animated, everything is just stunning. I lose myself often taking in the scenery, pausing to check out the photo mode, admiring all the details that are on often. It's a truly beautiful game.
The map is sizeable with plenty of locations to explore. Each of the locations have secrets to discover, treasures to find, and ancient altars to activate for additional health and free skill points.
There are a couple of cities, a beach, forests, the deep roads, the fade, crypts, tombs, dungeons, swamps... we visit Weisshaupt! The Grey Warden fortress. Even better, all of these areas actually look different and exude a different atmosphere.
While there are beautiful regions, there are also dark and creepy regions. Blood-drenched. Blight-ridden. Skeletons, corpses, deceased everywhere. An Elizabeth Bathory Woman bathing in blood. Murder, massacres. A lot of reviewers are saying that the game doesn't feel 'dark'..... how much darker can you get?
I mean, sure, it's not like in Origins where you bear witness to dwarves being raped by darkspawn to become Mothers in order to bear new darkspawn. That was pretty dang dark. But it's still dark.
The combat is SO MUCH FUN. I love it.
In previous Dragon Ages, for me anyway, the combat was just 'there.' It was something I HAD to do to progress the story. In Inquisition in particular it was so very tiring. All the enemies were damage sponges and they were just in my way.
In this... you have your three active abilities and your ultimate, and you also have six other abilities thanks to whichever companions you have with you. The companions aren't really there to do immense damage, but more to help your character whether it be by taunting the enemies for a few seconds, healing you, making you invulnerable for a time, or helping to set up powerful detonation combinations.
They don't get injured or die, only you can. So you don't need to worry about keeping them alive, only yourself.
My character is a mage and as a mage you have two weapon choices. The typical staff, or a dagger/orb combo that makes you a Spellblade. I chose the Spellblade and there is so much dodging, dashing, take-downs. I focused on lightning damage, which, thanks to the skill tree, also burns my enemies, and I can put arcane bombs on enemies to explode things. It's great! Fast-paced, active, and so much fun.
The combat is so good that I literally want to make another character and play through again, just to test out what a rogue or maybe a warrior has to offer.
The dialogue wheel is basically the same as Dragon Age 2's. The good persona, the jokester persona, then the harder persona.
Some reviewers are disappointed that you can't be evil in this game... well, truth be told - you couldn't be evil in Dragon Age 2 or Inquisition either. You could be hella evil in Origins!!! But Bioware abandoned that path long ago.
That's not to say that's not disappointing. I would love to play a dark and evil character, but at the same time... a dark and evil character in this story would be helping the antagonists, and that's just not Rook's story. Just like it wasn't the Inquisitor's story to help Solas destroy the world, as much as I would've loved to have done that too.
The companions... this is where things start to get a bit weak.
None of the companions are particularly notable. Neve and Bellara in particular have quite awful voice actresses - Neve is monotonous but her voice has slowly grown on me. Bellara is a hyperactive chipmunk and I can't stand her voice or quirkiness.
Harding seems younger and less confident than she was "ten years ago" in Inquisition, whereas Varric seems like he's aged a good 30 or so years during this mere ten.
Lucanis could be interesting, if the demon inside of him wasn't basically a tantrumming child.
Davrin, the Grey Warden with a griffon friend, just seems like a typical black guy. He's supposed to be Dalish, but he might as well just be a human with pointed ears.
Actually, all of the characters may as well just be human. Dwarves don't feel like dwarves, Dalish don't feel like elves. Hell, I haven't even heard one derogatory 'knife-ear' comment and I'm certain Northern Thedas would be just as racist, if not more, than the South.
Of course, there is Taash. Everyone has heard of Taash. The non-binary Qunari she-he who will apparently make you do push-ups if you're mean to her. It. All of her dialogue is based on her identity which is freakin' annoying. But then, I remember, I'm almost 40 and games like this will always be marketed towards 25yr olds or so.
If/when I play through this again, I'll just be ignoring her. Easy solve.
It does suck though. I normally love Bioware Companions... but I actively couldn't care less about these people.
One saving grace that is a nice improvement though: if companion banter starts and then is interrupted by a nonsense NPC, after the unimportant drivel stops the companions resume their conversation. YAY! Too bad I don't care about them.
Story-wise... without getting into specifics: I like having a follow-up to the events from Inquisition. Just knowing what's happened since Solas did everything, and it's nice to learn more lore, too. The main story beats are on point, and although there are minimal things that my Rook seems to influence, I'm finding that I don't really mind.
It's more like Mass Effect in that regard. An interactive movie, basically, with very basic choice on offer.
Your 'choices' affect the companions more than anything else. Like "you have encouraged Harding to think of her newfound magic as a gift", or "you have made an enemy of the First Warden due to your actions", or "Taash has decided to embrace the Qun thanks to your words."
If you trade barbs with Solas, he remembers your spiteful words and reacts accordingly later on down the track. Taash's mother is horrified that you encouraged her daughter to embrace the Qun. Just stuff like that.
I am disappointed that none of my previous choices have really done anything in the game. For example: who did I make Divine? What outcome did that have on the mages/templars? The only choices that get carried through are your Inquisitor, who they romanced, and if they disbanded the Inquisition or not.
I don't really care about events in Origins/DA2 being alluded to as much, though it would be interesting to see Faynriel the half-elf 'dreamer' since he got sent to Tevinter to learn more about his magic. Or even Fenris, since he could be taking his revenge upon the Magisterium. Nothing huge that would've required a lot of world saves and tonnes of background data, but, just a few tiny tidbits.
Overall it doesn't bother me though. It's been years since previous events. My Warden and Alistair are probably in the Deep Roads now, suffering their Calling, Hawke is in the Fade, eaten by a ginormous Fear demon. Just make up your own head-cannon, I guess.
TL;DR:
It's an enjoyable game with fun combat, interesting story, with additional Dragon Age lore to learn which I found quite interesting!
I love the graphics, the music, the combat, the 'Dragon Age 2 Feeling' and the main story woven through the game.
I do not love the companions and several aspects of the dialogue. That doesn't sound like much, but I usually love Bioware Companions so it's so very disappointing to me that I have no care for these Friends of Rook. I like the Andromeda companions more than I like these people, and that's saying a lot.
I would ignore the majority of negativity you may read about this game - it's hyperbolic and won't make that much of an appearance in your game unless you CHOOSE it. Unless, of course, you try to talk to Taash. Big. Major. Eyeroll. I recommend not talking to it at all.
But, do I recommend the game? Yes. Yes I do!
Until next time!! ⚔️🔥🐲
I love your assessment. Your character looks awesome by the way. I don't like the companions. In the other games, I found myself always going to them and seeing if they had something new to say to me or to give me a side quest. In this one, I could care less about the companions haha. I am still going to play it, but have no desire to "binge play" it. Seriously the other games I could play 10 hours straight and want to play more. I am 46 and I agree with your marketing perspective to a younger crowd. I do like the character creator and was able to make someone that looks sort of like me haha, which I find myself wanting to do in any role-playing game.
The companions make such a huge part of Bioware games! It's so disappointing that these companions are awful. They all could have been so interesting. They all come from different cultures, different lifestyles... but they're all soulless and lack that special something that Bioware companions are otherwise known for.
That really is what I'm most disappointed about. But, I suppose they appeal to that younger audience. Even Emmerich, the old man who is considering his upcoming and inevitable death, seems younger than he should be. Likely to appeal to those younger gamers.
Even then, though, they could've made it so these companions appeal to the younger audience but also make them bearable for the older players. They've alienated a good portion of their fanbase by doing this.
I love everything else about the game though xD I'm admittedly binge playing!!
Yeah, that is one thing I loved about the prior Dragon Age games are the companion interactions, who I am going to romance, etc lol. Same with the Mass Effect games, such great characters and companions with unique stories, history, and problems, and this one just falls so short which is extremely disappointing. Have so much fun binge playing, I can't get myself to do it. Which is such a shame, but maybe a good thing, I need to work LOL.
from what you said it seems that the game is not great but is not as bad as people claim either. I have not played the game but I already hate Bellara and Taash.
If not for the focus on her identity, Taash isn't so bad. She has a fair bit of dialogue that's amusing! And then... bam, identity issues shoved in your face again.
Bellara is just... ugh. Hyperactive, annoying voice, fan-girling over another of your companions, and quite a bit of her dialogue is cringe-worthy when you first meet her. She gets better as the game progresses, but I still don't 'like' her.
Overall the game feels like a mix of Dragon Age 2 and Inquisition, but the companions suck and as such an important aspect of the game they really drag it down. If the companions were better this game would be a 10/10! As it stands though, it's more a 7/10.
I might get on board this one once the price drops. I really enjoyed the last release, it is one of my favorite games of all time. I don't pay release price for any games though.
I couldn't help myself xD Dragon Age has been my favourite series since I was first introduced to Origins. I've been a Day One Release person ever since! Eager to discover more about this universe.
Compared to Inquisition, though, it may as well be a different game. It's far more comparable to Dragon Age 2. Inquisition focused more on a massive open world and a million fetch quests, whereas this is more linear and semi-open with far fewer quests. The companions of Inquisition were also a lot more likeable, but I personally hated my character's dialogue with them. I feel that my character's dialogue flows a lot nicer in this new game, but what's on offer to talk about is pretty weak.
I might play it once it is in the bargain bin or if they introduce a patch to get all the social engineering out of the game.