I really tried to enjoy myself. God, I tried so hard. I attempted to find nuggets of joy within its hamfisted dialogue, one-note companions and the flashy but soulless fights. But I just couldn’t do it. Every time there was a glimmer of hope, it was dashed against the rocks of infinite disappointment.
Honestly, I’m amazed I finished it. There was certainly a point where I was starting to feel like I’d rather do anything else than listen to a hot Grey Warden talk about his big dumb bird for the hundredth time, or play therapist to a giant dragon slayer who just wants to moan about how their mum doesn’t understand them. These should have been great characters. A veteran knight reclaiming his order’s lost legacy, a proud warrior wrestling with their cultural and gender identity—there’s so much good stuff to mine here. But nope, they’re just plain boring. All of them.
I’m beating a dead horse, I know. I’ve already said my piece. But it’s just a real shame. When I got to the final cutscene that teased what we can expect from the next Dragon Age, it really sealed the deal. I’m out. BioWare just isn’t telling stories I care about anymore. Instead of moping around, I’m moving on. BioWare had an exceptional run, but that developer is long gone. What’s left is just an EA studio that makes middling games I’m not really interested in.
Seriously this sentiment is old as hell. This comic is old as hell.
The BioWare of today is not the one that made the original Baldur’s Gate. Shit, it’s not even the BioWare that made the original Dragon Age.
They’ve been a hollowed out shell chasing whatever “AAA” style sells the most for a long time now. If Baldur’s Gate 3 had come out before Witcher 3, you can bet your ass Veilguard would look and play a hell of a lot more like BG3, because it’s painfully clear they did everything they could to crib the speed of the combat in Witcher 3, which was the hot shit when they started development. Similar to how Inquisition was chasing the Open World fad. If Baldurs Gate 3 had been the hot shit when they began development? Veilguard would have played like that instead.
It is what it is, and this has been this way since at least Dragon Age 2/Mass Effect 2.
They’re just so risk-adverse. It’s the same as Andromeda, and Ubisoft is another great example. They’re so worried about getting the most players that they’re afraid to take risks. What if players don’t like this, what if the audience is smaller? Everything is done by committee and it becomes a fairly flat game.
Just as an FYI, “averse” is what you want there, rather than “adverse”. Likely an autocorrect thing, but figured I’d mention it just in case.
Strange that that’s the case. The thing that made the Witcher 3 good was the writing of the side quests, not the combat.
Not sure if I’ve played a game that’s pivoted to be more like the Witcher that has met that standard in that regard.
The Witcher games have all had terrible combat, just getting slightly better each game. The folklore and universe are really what sells the Witcher games. Though the first one was still real bad.
I hated the combat in Witcher 3. The combat in Veilguard does not feel the same to me, so if it is biting the Witcher, it also improved it. I get they were probably chasing trends, but Veilguard is a solid action game. The author clearly has a bias to CRPGs, and a soft spot for Origins (as do I), but that does not make Veilguard a bad game. Just different