Dragon Age: The Veilguard (2024)

I went into Dragon Age: Veilguard already half-poisoned about its preamble: my very first post about this title was way back when we didn't know much about the game and I was already second guessing most of the choices that were mentioned in passing. Turns out it was worse.

Dragon Age: Veilguard is the last foreseeable entry to the Dragon Age series, aimed at closing the circle of narrative started with Dragon Age: Origins and brought forward by Dragon Age II and Dragon Age: Inquisition. It suffered a long development cycle and a long stay in hell before coming out, clawing its way through a retooling that saw the title going from live service to a narrative RPG game.

I came into Veilguard with tempered expectations because I had been witness to Dragon Age: Absolution (animated series) not too long before and felt like the writers had forgotten about the lore they had painstakingly built over three games and several novellas. Imagine my face when I found out you had to have read Tevinter Nights (novel) to have the needed context as to why things are the way they are.

The disconnect between Trespasser and the initial few cutscenes of Veilguard only served to stiffen my attitude towards it which did not go overly well when it came to Solas and his big reveal, as well as Scout Harding and her own big reveal (which throws, more or less, the entirety of Descent into the trash can so we can have a Special Dwarf and not just a regular one for our journey).

Veilguard simply lacks the audacity that the other predecessor had in exposing a world full of racism and overt classism, full of extremely dark deeds that were never mentioned but it has the audacity to demand that all the lore established throughout the years bends to the simplified tale that is being purported in perhaps the weakest pieces of literature associated with Dragon Age. Why are the Qunari in Antiva? Read Tevinter Nights to know. Why does everyone in the game knows everyone but you are given next to no context as to why you even want to associate with Neve (as opposed to Dorian Pavus)? Read Tevinter Nights.

Never once, if your character is an elf, are called anything but your name. Never once are the Tevinter slaves mentioned (so much so Minrathous looks like a generic Orlais if not for the dark and brooding atmosphere and some of the poorer status people) and the Venatori are now an even bigger threat for no particular reason given despite multiple snippets and Dorian himself revealing that the Venatori - ten years prior - were already in disarray and scattering after the death of Corypheus. Everything is sanitized in order to be fit into neat and tidy boxes while adhering uniquely to Tevinter Night's own canon.

The previous games, despite being a core part of why and how we got to Veilguard in the first place, are written away much like Dragon Age: Absolution did and impart little to nothing on those who are voracious fans of the series down to the novellas written post-games.

The gameplay is fine, if that's what you want to hear: it's snappy and particularly responsive, fun in some parts but overshadowed by the fact there isn't really a way to make me care about anything or anyone.

This could have been a decent Tevinter Nights spin-off, much like Tevinter Nights was a fanfiction of its own (no, it's actually not, it's a collection of stories without particular thought or care about the general world at large). Not a main series title.

I felt very excited when I saw the trailer for Veilguard's release. I played all the main games since 2018, so it was thrilling to have a new Dragon Age to play. But that's exactly where my disappointment goes.

The designs were mostly cool and soundtrack was good. Didn't really like most of Rook's armor and weapon designs.

Combat looks good, but gets stale pretty quickly regarding its dynamic. Losing the ability to control the companions was, in my opinion, quite the mistake. Also, making the party a three-person team seems a cheap way of trying to raise the game's difficulty somewhat.

Keeping the maximum level at 50 seems rather pointless to me, since you can get there quite a few missions before the story's end and you keep getting experience. Leaving to the player the ability to chart skills any way you want and refunding points was a good thing, I thought, although I took no advantage of that while playing (didn't even try to specialize Rook).

Now, I think the writing is mediocre in two levels. The story is not as enticing as the earlier games and dialogues are way inferior. The dialogue issue ties in with the reduction in the party. There's almost no meaningful conversations between characters during quests, which is dumbest thing about this game since it's a Dragon Age. I mean, most of the fun comes from the flirting, the bickering, the tidbits of lore that come from the companions. And none of that exists in this game. There's something else about dialogues: there are too many of them when it comes to Rook's interactions for initiating quests. I mean, to go to a companion's quarters just for a two minute scene for a quest that ends up being just a bunch of dialogue while running around? Even if this is present in the other games, which I honestly don't recall (since I've played each one just once), I think it's excessive in Veilguard. To the point which I grew tired of the companions instead of liking them.

Speaking of the cast, I really liked Emmrich, Lucanis and Neve. Harding could have been so much cooler (and I even romanced her). Now, Davrin? Dull. Bellara? Not that cute. Taash? Felt like a teenager trapped in an adult Qunari's body. Between the griffon and Manfred, Fred is way cooler.

The romance mechanics take way too much time to kick in, by the way. At least, that was my expericence. I committed to an exclusive relationship with Harding and I thought it's crazy that there's no sex scene right away and I couldn't get one before the end of the story. And that goes for any other romantic scenes, actually. There are no opportunities to build the relationship.

Not having a New Game+ in a game that you have multiple endings is just dumb, in my opinion. Too much grind and not everyone wants or can afford to put in 90+ hours (I did, regrettably) more than once.

I was really hoping that I could enjoy Veilguard as much as I enjoyed the other games, especially the first and Inquisition.

And, finally: killing Varric? I mean, are these people crazy? That, for me, was just the worst decision that anyone could make for the Dragon Age franchise.

Oooohhh, just watched some Bioware news on youtube and per a rolling stones magazine interview, Bioware says Dragon Age Veilguard will NOT have any DLC, as the game is apparently the full experience already. This sounds odd because games like The Witcher 3 were a complete experience out the gate, but the story was expanded to include two DLC packs. I actually like it when modern games have their story continued beyond the full experience.

Also, they said Bioware is now fully focused on the next Mass Effect, which I imagine many people knew already.

Thirdly, there will be no remaster of Dragon Age 1 and 2 because of the old Eclipse engine those games used, and there are only a handful of people left at Bioware that even know how to use that engine.

I cannot wait to see the next Mass Effect game footage. I hope it turns out great.

I could not be more irritated about this game.

I have about ten hours in and I'm enjoying the hell out of it. So why am I irritated?

Because people who have likely not even played the game won't shut the fuck up about how it's "woke" and how it's "bad writing" and "bad dialogue" and "bad art design."

I wish I was straw-manning here. But I'm not. People love to hate this game. Even the so-called sophisticated attempts at critique in the r/gaming and Veilguard subreddits can't help but fall into this near-ideological pattern of what feels like piling on hate rather than just saying, "Eh, I don't like this thing about it." And when that does happen, it's often conjoined with a "because it's not like the original Dragon Age games even though I'm clearly just misremembering or mistakenly attributing qualities to those games they did not have on an objective level."

So I'm seeing, "I don't like the art style because the other Dragon Age games aren't like that," or, "I don't like the writing because the other games had way better writing," or, "I don't like the dialogue because it's bad compared to the other games," or, "I don't like Veilguard because the characters are weak compared to the other games."

I'm not going to say you're wrong if you think any of these things but I will say that I mostly disagree, even if that take is premature with only ten hours played so far. Hear me out: I just replayed all three games over the last year, with Origins having gotten a replay most recently, and there is plenty of questionable dialogue and writing in those games; there are so many instances where I was like, "Oof, that could have used a rewrite," or, "Okay, that was a weird choice," or where I otherwise just found things that fell short of the mark.

Those games were not perfect. And ever since the initial reveal, I have always thought Veilguard's art style is just the natural evolution as those games have gone on. I saw that first trailer and thought, "Yep, that looks about right, that tracks." I don't think you're wrong if you don't like it but to argue that it's not in line with the previous games is something I simply don't agree with. Also, saying it looks like Pixar doesn't make it bad. Not everything needs to be fuckin photorealistic to hold merit.

Generally, it seems like holding the previous games as the examples to which Dragon Age Veilguard must live up to is the very axe by which people are attempting to put it to death.

As is usually the case, the things people are crucifying Veilguard over are the things I'm enjoying the most. I'm finding the dialogue to be not just perfectly serviceable, but rich and authentic. The voice performances are engaging. The art style is absolutely delightful and I adore it. I like the characters and want to engage with them more, eagerly looking forward to the next opportunity to talk with them. The story has its hooks in me with the stakes feeling high and weighty.

Other common criticisms I will more readily agree with pertain to the combat and loot/item mechanics. Critiques say they feel dated, which is to say they're not an A+ experience. They do feel fully cooked though, so that's good; it feels like they committed to some decisions and made those systems as complete and fluid as they could. I might not like the format: the skill trees, the rudimentary light and heavy attacks, parries, and dodges, which feels like they were lifted from Hogwarts Legacy, which in turn felt like they had been lifted from games from the previous 5 to 10 years; the loot with green and red arrows and statistics that may mean something to the player but are probably more easily overlooked or ignored for flow; these things I'm not thrilled with but I find them perfectly serviceable, and I must remind players that BioWare has never been on the cutting edge of gameplay. So to point fingers at these systems as evidence that Veilguard is trash or sucks or is not as good as the previous DA games is simply incorrect. Those games have always, always been behind the ball in terms of the currency of gameplay.

I started this by saying I'm irritated because of how people won't shut the fuck up with unfair, disingenuous criticisms of this game, and the internet is now a battleground between its attacker and its defenders, and here I am adding to the pile. But this is also a status update with or through which to share my thoughts and it is with this perspective that I'm playing the game. I did not go in wanting to defend it. I did not go in wanting to attack it. I simply knew it was causing controversy. After a few hours of play, I checked out some of the headlines, conversations, and YouTube video essays, and I got fuckin irritated. I shouldn't be surprised but I could not believe how off the mark so many people are.

Even people I really trust and respect. SkillUp, for example. What the fuck, man? You really don't recommend this game? You just...you really think it's actually as bad and undercooked as you say it is? Are we playing the same game? You're telling me that after x-hours and deliberation, you really - no, you really - think people should pass on this game? I respect not liking it but just straight up saying, "I don't recommend it," I don't know man, I think there's some responsibility to take there. There was one part where he compared the facial animations to Inquisition, displaying a scene where Cassandra was angry, and he argued that her facial animation from back then was better than those in Veilguard. Dude, get up and go to the eye doctor or get your blood checked because you're either blind as as bet or higher than a fuckin kite if you really think that Cassandra vertical slice of facial animation was better than Veilguard's offerings. When that part of his video came up and Cassandra's face was shown, I said out loud, "What the fuck are you talking about?" It's the first time in my five or so years of watching SkillUp that I really had to stop for a second and wonder if his motives were genuine or not. They are, I'm sure of it, but just let that momentary doubt paint the picture.

And it's names as big as his lending themselves to the war that is being waged by ideologues on this game that I feel obligated to answer. If it were simply the handful of typical trolls that were attacking Veilguard, I would be content to ignore them.

But the fact that it's resulted in such polarization even among the bigger more credible individuals in our community has me vexed. I simply do not agree with, and can barely understand, how someone could attack this game in the manner it's being attacked.

And then there's the fucking woke argument. "Woke" is not a thing. It's not real. Getting mad about games including other people is about as idiotic as getting mad that there are other people in other countries that like other things than you. I truly cannot understand the mindset that finds anything even remotely DEI to be grounds for condemnation or attack. If you think it's cringey, that's one thing (maybe it's not, though, maybe you're just a cunt); but if you are so incensed or annoyed or disappointed that there are nonbinary options or nonbinary characters in a work of fiction, then, I don't know, go fuck yourself with sandpaper or something?

Last thought: the longer a game takes to come out, the harder it is for that game to live up to expectations, because the greater the expectations grow. Dragon Age Veilguard was never, ever going to live up to expectations. Many gamers are unrealistic with their expectations. Look, I know that Dragon Age Veilguard is not Baldur's Gate 3, but it was never going to be and I don't think it ever wanted to. Maybe the reason I'm able to enjoy this is because I'm 1) not looking back on the previous DA games with rose-colored glasses and 2) engaging with this game on its own terms - as it fucking deserves and ought to be.

This is such a massive, offensive disappointment and it's already losing thousands of players on Steam. Bioware, you can do better. This game will not appeal to many players. I do not recommend this at all. How this game's dialogue and story and characters made it to launch is beyond me. Play this game at your own risk.

For IGN to say this game goes back to its Dragon Age Origins roots is absolutely insane. This is among the worst dialogue and characters I've ever seen in a video game.

Happy Saturday gaming all!! Had a long break from my single player games again but I'll be going back to Terminator Resistance, which started off very promising :). Looking forward to playing a lot of it this weekend.

One RPG staple I'm finding myself missing in Veilguard is recruiting a new character and going through their enormous lore dump dialogue tree. It's always been a pretty clumsy way to get to know your party, but I think those kinds of wide-ranging intro conversations could help sell the weirdly immediate chumminess of the cast. As is, it feels like I'm barreling through the plot with a bunch of strangers.