So, how bad is it really?

[Tech Enthusiast]

I just love the original dragon age and still crave more.
This is the first installment I did not get at release,.. and looking at the reviews, I think I may skip it.

Part of me wants to find a reason to buy it anyway tho. So... how bad is it really?
Most reviews seem to say combat is boring and story / writing / characters are blant and sad.
Both points are huge red flags for me.

Is it just worse than original Dragon Age (which could still be above average?!), or really bad, bad? Like, if the game was named #game4, rather than Dragon Age,... would you enjoy it as a solid, yet not great, RPG?

[Gaxkang]

oh it's a very solid action RPG. if someone is itching for an action RPG it checks all the boxes for that. plenty of game to play.

and you can make your own character.

and there's plenty of lore to read, just some fans of franchise may take exception with the direction it all goes or, not.

the game is not nearly as dark as Origins was but it does have some dark stuff in it.

if i'd compare the vibe it's comparable to a Marvel movie, i suppose. i would note you cannot play like an evil character or do evil things really. it's like playing a hero with 3 different personality choices in dialogue.

the combat is good for an action RPG. there's nothing wrong with it.

but if someone is looking for a real tactical experience it is not that. it is action.

the game had bad word of mouth, but if someone wants a solid action RPG it's a good game.

[NitroBucket]

I have 12 hours in and I'm really glad I ignored all the people bashing it who don't actually have any game time in it. The amount of doofuses having such strong opinions without actually playing the game is astounding

[Miss P.]

For me, it is not a RPG at all but it is still a cool game. I played all "dragon age" but I didn't remember exactly them, only I like one of them very much (but wich one ?).

I really like it.

Many cinematic scenes which don't break your progression and companions are great. But it is very dark scenario in my opinion. With slavery and traumas.

Combats are like a console game ("monsters hunter" and "soul-like") and a manga-anime ("dragon ball"), but I play with keyboard and mouse so maybe it is better with gamepad or maybe I am too old for this type of battle.

No a open-world. And you can not jump, swim, escalade , etc so the map are limited but really great design and fun to explore (more like "assasin creed"). You can not interact with objects or NPC, they are really static. But the world appears full of life, so that don't bother me. But it is point A to B.

The game reminds me some-kind of "Marvels Sun". You also have micromanagement home.

At first, I was really disappointed in the tutorial (and this is a long one), but the more I go in the story, the more I want to know how it will end and the more fun I have in battle.

No lag, no freeze for me, graphic at intermediate because I think the game is optimised for console and not pc (as you can see in the options, everything is for console like quest-follow, help-sight, etc etc).

I love the differents type of companions and how the NPC are diverses. Really modern take.

I don't know the replay with it because they are many cinematic scenes so. And you can not be a evil character and in fine, the dialogues are really the same whatever you choose.

an example of not-rpg at all :

you go to a village at night, you can not go inside houses except one where you find one letter (ouhouh), you find miserable humans-creatures that you can not kill (for mercy) and you find the mayor that you can only save him totally or let him die slowy. If you save him, he will be not transform in monster and you will have a new quest. I wish third option like killing kill him with an arrow and not let him die slowy - because it is no way to forgive and save evil characters for me and you know that if you not save him, something bad will appear, so why just not kill him directly ? Why ?

another one :

before going to the village, one of your companions will talk super loud :"oh this is dangerous, there is no-one outside" euh if they are monsters, we are screw because only deaf will not heard you


There don't bother me if I don't take the game as a RPG. It is an action game that is all but a fun one. I recommend but you need to pass the tutorial.

You can follow the help-quest but you will be miss lot of treasures and side-quests.

I debuted it so I can not tell you many things.

[Carynara]

I would recommend the following:
1.) Let go of all expectations of this being a DA game.
2.) Let go of all expectations of intrigue, depth, masterful writing, fun companions - all of these are fairly shallow in Veilguard.
3.) Don't expect anything similar to Inquisition, let alone DA:O.
4.) Get the game at a discounted price.
5.) Enjoy the gorgeous graphics, the main storyline, the puzzles, the exploration.

I jumped into it without doing 1 & 2 and I was pouting for half of the game. Once I kinda severed any connection to the DA games in my mind, I started to really enjoy it. It's not gonna be memorable for the story, that's sure, but the gameplay, UI, graphics, etc. are really really nice. I haven't finished it yet, but I think I'm near the last quarter or so (based on levels) and I'm enjoying it now. Some areas are really cool.

Looking at my library, I would put it on par with Hogwarts Legacy. A very solid, entertaining game.

[Tech Enthusiast]

Sounds like the expectations of it being an exeptional game is what drives the reviews then.
Ill pick it up when I see a discount and feel like it is cheap enough for a "normal, rpg with stripped features", like most of the RPGs are nowadays.

Still sad to see Bioware go like that. It once was a guarantee for the exeptional. Just like Blizzard and (gasp) Ubisoft in the yesteryears... hope they just vanish, rather than turn into another Ubisoft tho. Keep at least some of their dignity.

Thanks guys!

[concretecubefarm]

I feel you. I was there in November, pondering whether to buy or not to buy. I decided to wait for a few years for an under $20 bargain.

I skipped DA2 because of the reviews. Got it about ten years later. Better than I expected, But not so good that i regret skipping it. I have no desire to replay it.

Suppress your fear of missing out and follow your instincts. Or not. It is a good enough game you will get some enjoyment out of it.

[Dragonsmen]

Originally posted by Tech Enthusiast:

I just love the original dragon age and still crave more.
This is the first installment I did not get at release,.. and looking at the reviews, I think I may skip it.

Part of me wants to find a reason to buy it anyway tho. So... how bad is it really?
Most reviews seem to say combat is boring and story / writing / characters are blant and sad.
Both points are huge red flags for me.

Is it just worse than original Dragon Age (which could still be above average?!), or really bad, bad? Like, if the game was named #game4, rather than Dragon Age,... would you enjoy it as a solid, yet not great, RPG?

It's so bad they slashed their sales target just before release and not only did they not even get half that but changed how they report it saying the total users not copies sold because there was so many free way to get the game and it still couldn't get the numbers up

[cimerians]

- It's not dragon age as long as you play this game and just think of it as a fantasy rpg then you're (mostly*) fine.

- Combat at first seems pretty cool and the game seems it can be fun but then you will realize how repetitive\time consuming it takes to finish battles.

- Forget about all the history of Dragon Age that's just a reminder.

* It's got a horrible script and the writing is spotty and very cringy. The dialog wheel is ridiculous. If you like sitcoms you might like this but that's never been Dragon Age's calling card.

Do some research and you'll see the original game 'Joplin' was going be really different (before Laidlaw left). It morphed a few times until what you see now which to me isn't dragon age and never will be. One positive is while I don't agree with the ending it has a very good ending sequence.

[buttawise]

Nothing has really lived up to the first game. DA2 is a great adjacent storyline that sets up 3. But after that I dunno seems like they just decided to rewrite characters and inject their own personal worldviews into things with very little verisimilitude. The original devs of BioWare have been gone for more than a decade at this point.

[Carynara]

Originally posted by Tech Enthusiast:

Still sad to see Bioware go like that.

I secretly wish that the folks who wrote BG3 (or BG 1 and 2, for that matter) will somehow get together with the devs who created this gameplay, and will create sth that makes up for these "great story, terrible gameplay" and "terrible story, great gameplay" games...

But, at the end of the day, it's BG that I will remember. No matter how much the gameplay sucked (it really spoiled the gaming experience a lot), for an RPG it's the STORY that matters. That's why we love the genre, above all. Idk who Veilguard managed to miss that.

[Tech Enthusiast]

Honestly, the only "activists" I keep seeing on gaming forums are the "I call everything that is not made up of 100% white males with guns a woke propaganda platform!" - guys.

It is annoying beyond believe at this point and pretty much every single game has 2+ topics just on page 1 of the forums, just about that. As if developers have nothing better to do than making every single pixel a polictial statement, JUST to annoy everyone on purpose.

I am not from the US, so I don't even know what is considered woke... in my country we simply don't care I guess. A game is just a form of art and if the artist wants a gay person in the game, we don't even mention it, because... why would we? I don't call out picaso for having an extra tree in one of his paintings either, just because I don't like trees or whatever.

So yeah. I guess whatever you think is woke about the game, is not a buying / not buying point for me ;-) I also have no idea what woke or anti woke youtubers are. Nor do I care to find out.

[Zanzibar]

Originally posted by Tech Enthusiast:

Honestly, the only "activists" I keep seeing on gaming forums are the "I call everything that is not made up of 100% white males with guns a woke propaganda platform!" - guys.

It is annoying beyond believe at this point and pretty much every single game has 2+ topics just on page 1 of the forums, just about that. As if developers have nothing better to do than making every single pixel a polictial statement, JUST to annoy everyone on purpose.

Yep. It's pretty exhausting TBH. They're games folks, have fun.

Back to the topic at hand, it's different from other DA's, but it's decent fun in its own right.

[Dragonsmen]

Originally posted by Tech Enthusiast:

Honestly, the only "activists" I keep seeing on gaming forums are the "I call everything that is not made up of 100% white males with guns a woke propaganda platform!" - guys.

It is annoying beyond believe at this point and pretty much every single game has 2+ topics just on page 1 of the forums, just about that. As if developers have nothing better to do than making every single pixel a polictial statement, JUST to annoy everyone on purpose.

I am not from the US, so I don't even know what is considered woke... in my country we simply don't care I guess. A game is just a form of art and if the artist wants a gay person in the game, we don't even mention it, because... why would we? I don't call out picaso for having an extra tree in one of his paintings either, just because I don't like trees or whatever.

So yeah. I guess whatever you think is woke about the game, is not a buying / not buying point for me ;-) I also have no idea what woke or anti woke youtubers are. Nor do I care to find out.

Having an entire conversation based on misgendering is what a normal person would call woke and then the limited options forcing you to be a part of it, It goes well beyond characters just being gay or whatever

[Miss P.]

Originally posted by Tech Enthusiast:

Sounds like the expectations of it being an exeptional game is what drives the reviews then.
Ill pick it up when I see a discount and feel like it is cheap enough for a "normal, rpg with stripped features", like most of the RPGs are nowadays.

Still sad to see Bioware go like that. It once was a guarantee for the exeptional. Just like Blizzard and (gasp) Ubisoft in the yesteryears... hope they just vanish, rather than turn into another Ubisoft tho. Keep at least some of their dignity.

Thanks guys!

you are welcome.

For my anwser, I was on chapter 4.

But for dragon age, it is true I didn't remember the story at all. Maybe the games are too old, maybe because I played more well-written games, but I remember I truly like one of the them : the one where a dragon attacks a rempart at beginning. But I think for each Dragon Age, a "better" game released at the same time.

For the "woke-thing", Dragon Age has a normal story and companions in my opinion. No one is the same, like in the real world and I appreciate a lot the diversity.

But some reviews are :
"it is okay to kill everyone and do magic" but if you are gay, bi, trans, a woman, etc etc, or worst of the worst a dark black trans woman with blue horns, this is not okay" so lol to that because the game worth the full price in my opinion. But I am agree, it is not a RPG so I don't understand why they sell as it and I really wish we can swim and do more exploration. The decors are super beautiful, too bad, you passed 2 sec in them.

Mass effect was really great but the 3 ending was horrible lol Really bad. Like they rushed for the end. But I think Bioware had already trouble at this time and for Baldur and Neverwinter, they was great, but maybe because they were the first in this genre and/or based on written rules/worlds.

For story and true RPG, you need to check the Pillars, the Divine Divinity, Baldur's gate 3, the witcher, Cyberpunk, Tyranny, New vegas, Enderal, the Pathfinder, Warhammer Rogue Trader.

[floppydk]

Bad enough to be a free game on PSN lmao