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.
I can’t say this for the author since they seemed to have finished the game, but Veilguard starts real rough, but got really fun to play. The story isn’t anything to write home about, but it suits the more action oriented combat well. I get it is not the DA CRPG everyone seemed to want, but it is a damn fun 3rd person action game. Besides, we still have Baldurs Gate 3.
Agreed on all points. I decided to do a full series playthrough after I finished, and aside from how action oriented the combat is, it really reminds me of DA2. It feels more like you’re playing the character of Rook, just like how you’re playing the character of Hawke. You don’t really have “evil” options, and are more railroaded because why the fuck would Varric recruit someone to be his number 2 that has evil tendencies? You’re not a blank slate nobody like your character in 1 and 3.
My biggest complaint is it feels like a lot of your companions don’t really talk to you that much. You get to know 1 part about them and that’s it, we needed more dialogue with them!
I have not quite finished the game, but I did go through and do as many companion quests as possible, and they felt kinda drip fed. Probably just less developed than the main quest, which is a shame.
Yes exactly! I did every available side/companion quest that was available before progressing the main story, and when I ran out I’d do one main story quest and then back to side quests.
Previous games it felt like you got to do more things with each companion. This one there’s like one story each, and they’ll barely talk to you about anything else on the rare occasions you can talk to them.