This review of Dragon Age: The Veilguard is for people who played all: Origins, DA2 and DAI. Maybe even for those who are coping or grieving after the death of their favourite IP.

I was aware about this title's main issue: writing. But I never imagined that it would be THAT BAD.

Main ideas about Titans and Elvhen people were introduced in Dragon Age Inquisition - for some people it will be a disappointment, for others - a very obvious/lazy solution (some codexes from Inquisition were already a controversy back then).
I imagined a much better resolution with titans in mind, to be honest. Some of these were supposedly written many years ago before Veilguard's development in Black Codex by the devs.
Anyway...

I played this title to at least confirm some lore ideas and finish the Inquisitor's route with "Solavellan Hell".
It was not worth it (characters' animation in cutscene + Solas' retconned drive destroyed it for me :c). The game would save itself if the writing and theme were for adult viewers. I mean, it was written so badly that lore implications did not even hit me. These were stated (in either dialogue or codex entry) and immediately thrown down the drain. It gave no satisfaction to either the players, tourists or others.

I heard that at least the last five hours of this game were a slight saving grace. Well... yes, someone came and rewrote sentences and plot ideas. Sadly, not the whole game.

I'm aware of development hell of this title. But how? How could anyone approve for all these placeholders to be left in the project? Dialogue, party companions (not "Team", for God's sake), NPCs, plot ideas, "origin" here: Rook's possible association - for more than 80 hours of gameplay?

It will be even more hurtful for people who care about: Qun/Qunari, the Crows, Blight lore (Broodmothers and others), Darkspawn, Tevinter inequality we were supposed to fight (r_sism, sl_very and other), Andrastianism (yes, it was never supposed to be the exact Thedas' truth, but neither a complete lie), and plot ideas about Solas' elvhen army.

Most of the mentioned above were completely retconned or ignored and forgotten, sadly.
There is no new original lore to explore - some things sound like a creative fanfiction strike of a very bad and amateur writer.

There is no roleplay in RPG sense. Your Rook will speak in 3 ways the same thing in most cases - with no possibility of a passive-aggressive or grey-type way.

Sometimes the player is treated like a complete idiot that needs hand-holding, assuming they have no voice or need to comment on things their own way (blood magic, for example).

Even the music sounds as if the artist (here very known: Hans Zimmer!!!) had no idea what the devs were trying to achieve with this title. Is this a sci-fi game or fantasy? Some soundtracks were out of place and broke immersion, "sci-fi" magic signs/signboards did so as well.

I do not aim to rant more about graphics, art style or gameplay - I played worse, in cases where the title had great lore and writing. Unfortunately, this title in the whole Dragon Age series did not save itself.

Project Joplin, even with all controversies about lore development, probably would stand its ground. It would be embraced no matter the fandom's position about woke and cultural matters (with GOOD writing of course). Baldur's Gate III, Cyberpunk 2077, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age: Inquisition and others - no problem there. How? These were appropriately written with no stereotypes in mind.

Companions there were NOT as deep as a puddle with only /put two things here/ interests. They had romance development beyond a last-second (not minute) sketch ideas. The game fleshed out romances of companions with each other more than with our Rook, out of nowhere - how could a detective fighting for freedom in the name of defenseless civilians fall in love with a killer for hire? How??? Other romances seemed forced as well - not bad ideas, just badly introduced and too early in some cases!

Veilguard's Harding is not Inquisition's Harding. Suddenly she sounds like a young self-conscious "people pleaser", not a grounded person with a "tired of this sh_t but here to help" attitude from Inquisition.

Neve seems to be a main hero draft with bad voice acting. She was supposed to be a noir detective type... I guess, but somehow became an all-knowing and beloved Mary Sue with no reasonable Sherlock-like intuition.

Bellara, Davrin and Taash are just drafts - with few prompts smashed together but never explored (in exact stated order).

I'm sad because I see some great creators - concept artists, environment artists, gameplay designers that truly tried to make something good (great in concept but lacking something in practical production). These were not perfect, but they weren't tasteless - more like less experienced or not fully realized in the next production stage.

Therefore... I do not recommend Veilguard for people who want to only finish or learn about lore in this final entry of Dragon Age.
Playing this game, I had a feeling as if I was experiencing some completely alien IP.

This did not live up to its name. DO NOT PURCHASE UNLESS YOU WANT TO EXPERIENCE UTTER DISAPPOINTMENT!!!

Hmmm.

I am a huge fan of the Dragon Age Franchise, but this one missed the mark MOSTLY because of the writing in my opinion. Solas and Levellan deserved way more than whatever this was, in fact Rook should have actually been a choice between (Rook OR Levellan) and honestly, that alone would have made the game so much better. Rook for new player choice, and our levellan from Inquisition. There was no tension, no reunion, no blast from the past in that sense, no nasalgia that I was expecting to feel, and the ending was atrocious and lack luster (this especially felt rushed) like, the writing felt so disconnected from the previous game.

I ended up in a fan fic forum later on.. YES.. a fan fic forum, in order to heal from this (I never read fan fic). 'm telling you, if these -true to the series fans- wrote the game and characters instead it would have soared. Also, for the romance between Solas and Levellan.. you dissapointed so many there, in fact, you completely ripped the choice away from so many who anticipated it.

The gameplay itself was enjoyable. The environments were very nice, but the characters were incredibly dull, not always I guess, but mostly - as in I usually explore all friendships and then I choose a romance but honestly it felt more like a chore. Just lacking depth from Inquisition or previous games. The game felt rushed or like some parts of it were a second thought. It felt more action than it did RPG, more like an action with RPG elements as a choice, rather than an integration into the ecosystem.

I would have enjoyed to have more gear options, and the I did not enjoy the upgrade system at all. I actually don't mind repetitive combat systems, I thought it was fine, personally. I also think side quests could have been more interesting as well, I just felt they lacked something from previous games, it's dark fantasy vibes were not as strong.

Anyway, I would give it a 5.5/10 overall. I did play through it all, but it's the first time a Dragon Age game felt like a chore in some areas of it for me.

Some things were fantastic, but the negatives overwhelmed it for me.