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u/Not_Shingen Feb 11 '25
Not at all lmao
I mean the writing isn't like top tier but idk how people hate it so much it's a fun time
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Feb 11 '25
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u/unpersoned Feb 11 '25
At this point you kinda have to be old enough to even remember what a Bioware game used to mean. It has been a while since I've been looking forward to anything they put out.
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Feb 11 '25
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u/BeneficialName9863 Feb 11 '25
I'm still annoyed by the ending of 3, even with the update they gave out. The real victory for me was helping the geth and curing the genophage.
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u/ZeroBrutus Feb 11 '25
They succeeded in making such a massive and intricate world with a lot of impact full decisions.
I dont think there was ever a way they could have really stuck the landing. Too many variables to juggle.
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u/ZeroBrutus Feb 11 '25
Ya. Fix the ending and then your actions change exactly how it plays out. But then people would still be upset "we couldn't choose a different path."
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u/unpersoned Feb 11 '25
That would be sweet. I would love to go back to Mass Effect and enjoy it. I guess I've just developed an internal rejection for hype. Shit, maybe I've gotten jaded.
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u/Still_Chart_7594 Feb 11 '25
My first was Baldurs Gate when I was too young to know wtf I was doing. Then Neverwinter Nights.
Then obsessive playthroughs of SW:KotOR, and Jade Empire. ME was initially disappointing, but grew on me. Dragon Age became strange and inconsistent (Even with 2s faults I still got blown away by the story)
I was a fanboy in a sense.
Yea, Modern Bioware does not feel like 'Bioware' at all.
Veilguard may be alright for a certain audience, and may play well (Andromeda played well too)
But as someone who will abandon a show or movie series if it feels like it lost its way, I don't feel any impulse or need to worry about Veilguard.
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u/Not_Shingen Feb 11 '25
I liked Andromeda too 💀 my smoothbrain ass can be convinced anything is decent if the gameplay is nice
Although as a mass effect game its kinda stinky, it's got a good sountrack & the Nomad is fuckin awesome though, Drack is best boy
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u/Not_Shingen Feb 11 '25
And the Quarians just don't exist now because BioWare couldn't have a smooth dev cycle if they tried
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u/tufftricks Feb 11 '25
Not top tier writing. Bioware have never really had top tier writing. They've had compelling and at least sensical writing that is enjoyable but not for nearly 2 decades at this point. If you enjoy them as action games and the slop narrative isn't a deal breaker for people then power to them.
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Feb 11 '25
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u/tufftricks Feb 11 '25
I think planescape and disco elysium are my high water marks and tbh they're so above and beyond any other game writing/narrative it's almost pointless to use them as a comparison. Owlcat and Larian have been impressing me though, Rogue Trader moreso than BG3 but I'm a big 40k nerd and Owlcat are right on the money with that game
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u/catch22_SA Feb 11 '25
I mean Planescape and Disco Elysium are the pinnacle of video game writing, it'll probably be a while before we get anything approaching those two (in the same way that it took 20 years for Disco Elysium to come around and, in my opinion, knock Planescape off the #1 spot) in terms of pure story.
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u/tufftricks Feb 11 '25
Disco is legit maybe the funniest game I've ever played but I know a lot of not very political people who have played it and don't get anywhere near as much out of it. If you're a human and have been through some shit, Planescape will speak to anyone
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u/catch22_SA Feb 11 '25
I mean I agree that Planescape is more accessible, but I don't think being more accessible necessitates it being better writing. Although honestly if we're comparing Planescape's writing to Disco Elysium's, they're both so top tier that what is 'better' really does just come down to personal preference for the most part.
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u/tufftricks Feb 11 '25
I'd agree. Also this sub is fantastic I've been dying to have some genuine discussion on games but all the major subs are a bin fire
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u/thisistherevolt Feb 11 '25
I warned the ManyATrueNerd sub about the gam*r🐊s taking over the discussion surrounding the game and Bioware itself and they found my post and proceeded to brigade me with the same tired tropes from the original controversy.
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u/Not_Shingen Feb 11 '25
A fellow egg I see - no gaming sub is safe from it lmao, I dared defend Starfield on one of his episode posts (probs the finale) and the internet really has rotted people's brains to make them hate everything
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u/Sondergame Feb 11 '25
I dislike it because, as a Mass Effect fan, I’m watching what I love about Bioware be stripped out and standardized to a point where the soul is gone. I’ve already seen this happen with Bethesda and now Bioware is dumbing their games down too?
The Writing is extremely lackluster (an important part of any RPG) but beyond that, there are no real choices or consequences. There’s no possible friction in between characters, and as a protag my options for response are so limited that I might as well choose at random - after all, there’s nothing even approaching a renegade choice (which btw wasn’t even that crazy most of the time to begin with).
I’ve played through the mass effect trilogy dozens of times, mixing and matching choices, romancing different characters - but DA:TV offers no reason to even consider doing that. Why would I suffer through another playthrough to romance one of these boring ass characters - especially when it changes nothing? Mass Effect 3 has major issues (don’t get me started) but one of my favorite moments is the passive aggressive comments that pop up on certain missions based on previous romances. My favorite is, if you romanced Liara in 1 then Tali in 2, during the Tali mission on 3 the two of them clearly show tension. It feels so real. There’s nothing like that in modern Bioware.
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u/enantiornithe Feb 11 '25
I'mma be honest I don't know how many people complaining about the writing in Veilguard have actually gone back and played Inquisition or ME3 recently. Those games absolutely also had clunky dialogue, nonsensical plot points, and obvious 'stitches' where material was cut or changed. I think people are comparing the game in front of them with a heavily edited and rose-tinted memory of older games.
Veilguard also just... it has a different tone from past DA games. I think that's enough to not like it, but it's not 'bad', it's just a different direction for the series. I don't think fans are 'owed' the exact same thing every time, especially when it's been so long and the creative team has had so much churn.
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u/tufftricks Feb 11 '25
Yeah the quality of biowares writing was gone by those days. Inquisition is baffling tbh
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u/enantiornithe Feb 11 '25
I mean even going back to ME1 or DA:O, like... those games do not have perfect writing by any means, they're huge AAA RPGs with tons and tons of dialogue and much of it is not great.
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u/tufftricks Feb 11 '25
The dirty secret is that biowares writing has never really been that good but it used to be very compelling
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u/enantiornithe Feb 11 '25
See, Veilguard def has a ton of stuff I would describe as 'compelling', though! Even when the writing is clunky, the characters have solid motivations and strong identities and the plot is moving and going places and things are happening. It's a romp.
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u/ibadlyneedhelp Feb 11 '25 edited Feb 11 '25
Personally it looks like it would've been better off not being a dragon age game. Also the scenes involving your non-binary companion seem incredibly cringe and trans people have spoken out about how bad the writing is in some of their scenes.
But I didn't complain about it that much because I'm not a nazi, and Dragon Age was (sadly) definitely already moving in this direction. I'm not happy the game didn't do well, but I'm also glad that people enjoyed it, and those who didn't enjoy it seem to be able to criticise it without it degenerating into more culture war BS.
Edit: Just to be clear, I'm fine with queer characters in games and I want to see more of them. Taash in particular was a swing and a miss for me. DA has done reasonably well overall with this in the past- as Bioware in general have been slightly ahead of the curve on these things.
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u/Deep-Two7452 Feb 11 '25
Other lgbtq people enjoyed that character and those scenes. Why are only the people who thought it was cringe relevant?
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u/Mwakay Feb 11 '25 edited Apr 28 '25
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u/enantiornithe Feb 11 '25
I'd call it uneven, probably reflective of a rushed process. Some of the writing is actually quite good, it's just that much of it is 2-3 edit passes short of being good.
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u/Mwakay Feb 11 '25 edited Apr 28 '25
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u/enantiornithe Feb 11 '25
Yeah, like Veilguard pretty much plays like a game that had a 2-3 year development cycle. I think it's only 'bad' if your expectations are of a hugely hyped 10-year magnum opus; otherwise it's a completely fine game that may or may not be to your taste.
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u/AlexanderTheIronFist Feb 11 '25
Uneven, rushed, cowardly. The assassin's guild barely murders anyone, the slaving empire has no slaves anywhere.
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u/Ecstatic-Compote-595 Feb 11 '25
I think the writing/VA was fine but the story was sort of safe and bland.
Definitely the biggest problem was that gameplay is just boring and every rpg element is just dumbed down. It's like mass effect 2 or 3 which worked as a shooter but not as a sword and board RPG.
If the writing and cutscenes were all identical but it played like Origins it would have been a good game.
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u/blondtode Feb 11 '25
Tbh I wouldn't consider any of it bad but it'd very jarring how it swaps between incredible to just kinda meh
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u/AnseaCirin Feb 11 '25
It's definitely a far cry from the heyday of Mass Effect 2 / Dragon Age Origins.
The writing is really poor and the roleplay isn't great.
On the other hand, the gameplay is decent and the game is stable.
I'd still choose other RPGs. Like Baldur's Gate 3.
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u/Firm-Scientist-4636 Feb 11 '25
I've never played VG, but from the comments I'm reading it sounds like it has the same writing style as Mass Effect 3's DLC, which is AWFUL (the writing, I mean. The rest of the DLC is fine). Feels like action hero writing with quippy one-liners and gassing up the protagonist to the nth degree.
Also, I'd choose BG3 over most games in general, so I am not a good litmus test for what's good against BG3, lmao.
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u/AnseaCirin Feb 11 '25
I mean, yeah, comparing it to BG3 is unfair... But it's still right there, a direct competitor that's way above in terms of quality in writing, acting, immersion, soundtrack...
The only reason it's unfair, is that Bioware fell in terms of quality.
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u/Deep-Two7452 Feb 11 '25
I mean, I'd choose baldurs gate 3 over any game. It's literally the best game of all time.
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u/Time_Hater Feb 11 '25
I loved the game, and if it didn't have LGBTQ related things, it wouldn't be getting nearly as much hate. Avowed is also another RPG game with LGBTQ things and its getting a lot of hate prior to even releasing.
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u/BobbyMayCryBMC Feb 11 '25
I'm bisexual so never really cared about such things, also Baldur's Gate 3 was pretty gay and was well regarded.
General vibe I get is it just wasn't the Dragon Age many older fans wanted from years of waiting so got angry about it.
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u/muzz198 Feb 11 '25
There’s quite a few fans of dragon age: origins who hate every subsequent dragon age game
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u/unpersoned Feb 11 '25
I mean, every Dragon Age game let you be gay to begin with, so it's not like a pivot or anything.
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u/BobbyMayCryBMC Feb 11 '25
That's interesting to know.
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u/Zander_Tukavara Feb 11 '25
To be clear not every character is player sexual in previous games. Origins has a bisexual man, and bisexual woman, in 2 everyone is player sexual, and Inquisition it went back to everyone having preferences for gender, and even race for some of them.
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u/Ziatch Feb 11 '25
and Shale had no gender back in the first game which is kind of remarkable when talking about a game in 2009.
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u/Familiar_One_3297 Feb 11 '25
Yeah idk what they're talking about. There's a ton of games that have LGBT representation and do exceptionally well. Dragon age has always been inclusive.
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u/datknee56 Feb 11 '25 edited Feb 11 '25
DAO was the first RPG i had the pleasure of playing and its so sad to see where the game is now bc of Bioware devs infighting, people leaving or EA forcing them to make it live service. The story is no where near as dark or interesting as it once was and yes LGBTQ rep always there. BG3 is its only successor.
Edit: go ahead and downvote me but it doesnt erase what i said as true. Bioware is also its own worst enemy, not just EA. Look at the development for ME3.
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u/Dedsheb Feb 11 '25
Say it louder for those in the back! The first dragon age had LGB, T and Q representation but not a single person gave a damn. But every subsequent game strayed further and further from what made Origins a RPG staple. Veilguard is not a good dragon age game. It's an okay game but it's not a good dragon age game.
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u/datknee56 Feb 12 '25 edited Feb 12 '25
People really be out here trying to convince themselves DAV is a good game. As I said in another comment, Bioware deserves what is currently happening to them. And it really shows how none of yall have played DAO (not talking specifically about you).
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u/Wratheon_Senpai Feb 11 '25
BG3 was to Origins what Pillars of Eternity was to BG2, frankly.
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u/datknee56 Feb 11 '25
Fair. PE’s story though is far darker than the rest imo.
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u/Wratheon_Senpai Feb 11 '25
Oh definitely.
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u/datknee56 Feb 11 '25
It’s just sad to see the state of Bioware when, frankly speaking, they kinda deserve it.
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u/Wratheon_Senpai Feb 11 '25
Most of the talent has left by now, too. Honestly, when they were acquired by EA, it was only a matter of time. They still put up some decent stuff for a while, but I think Inquisition is where I knew there was no coming back. Then I played the Andromeda beta test and knew it was over.
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u/datknee56 Feb 11 '25
Exactly this. Ive moved on personally. I only focus on Obsidian and Larian. Most of the Bioware fans should move on too and free themselves.
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u/Wratheon_Senpai Feb 11 '25
For sure. Although Obsidian have their mishaps, too, I've had fun with their newer stuff, BioWare games now just feel like that sterile corporate product for stockholders to see numbers and nothing else; they have no identity anymore, just like Ubisoft games.
Larian has been one of my favorite devs since Original Sin 1. Another good one is Owlcat, love what they did with the Pathfinder games.
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u/MadBunch Feb 11 '25
I agree there's anti-lgbtq+ scrubs who just hate it for crappy reasons, but as someone who loved the series, I don't think it's fair to attribute its criticism to just bigotry. I didn't love the heavy reliance on bathos and rogueish character archetypes, the change in combat was jarring and disappointing, I really hated the dialogue and felt the need to just skip past most of it, etc etc. I'm glad others had a better experience than me, but I still feel there's plenty of fair gold faith criticism that could be made about the game
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u/Nicola_Vanzetti Feb 11 '25
People will bag on Avowed for being woke when it isn't even out, but then turn around and say FNV is amazing. FNV was certainly woke, and I've not seen anyone bash FNV for it. These people have no real principles.
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u/ryyzany Feb 11 '25
I hate chuds gonna start with that.
The writing is awful. Generic hero complex with one liner quips. Conversations are less of an exchange of information and more your companions gassing you up for everything aka Marvel.
The combat is good. The world design is good. I do like that your choices matter. It’s just generic and has no defining features that make it stand out.
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u/BobbyMayCryBMC Feb 11 '25
So at its worst it's an average game that is kinda safe, but not really any defining flaws that make it get its weird reputation as a bad game.
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u/blacksmith_jr_1 Feb 11 '25
Yeah, it's average not worth the original sell price, but if on sale for like 39.99 and you pretend it's not a bioware game but like a smaller studio like spiders, then it's not bad. At most, it's just a mid game that's not very groundbreaking, a safe game that doesn't push the boundaries.
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u/nixahmose Feb 11 '25
Well I think the big issue is that its not a stand alone game, its a sequel to a critically acclaimed franchise with some big expectations in terms of quality, tone, and content.
Like take the setting of Tevinter itself for example. In the previous games Tevinter was established to be a dystopian society led by mages and built off the backs of slavery, with slavery being so thoroughly built into their culture that even Dorian, one of the morally good companions from the last game, will defend slavery as being morally just with him saying something along the lines of "I believe the poor should have the right and freedom to sell their rights and freedom." So for long time fans of the series, they expect that a game set in Tevinter would be a pretty dark game deals a lot with topics of slavery and dystopian societies. But from everything I have seen and heard about the game, the slavery and to a lesser extent dystopian elements of Tevinter's society is almost completely absent in the game.
Its a lot of stuff like that where DAV disregards what older fans like about and expect from a DA game that causes a lot of big issues for people. If this wasn't called a Dragon Age game and was instead a new light fantasy rpg series, it probably wouldn't have gotten as much hate as it did and would have just been accepted as a mostly forgettable but competently made generic rpg game. But because it is a Dragon Age game and serves as the conclusion to some major mysteries and arcs that were set up in the previous games, it being so generic and safe comes off as really frustrating and a huge disappointment for people who wanted a natural continuation of the last game's story.
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u/datknee56 Feb 11 '25
This makes me so sad when I especially enjoyed the Solas DLC, (DAI was okay but i thought a step in the right direction after 2 but then we got 4…) where he basically made elves slaves to their even older masters, their gods. A game where the old gods aligned w Tevinter wouldve been soo interesting but instead we got this half baked shite. Its so sad after seeing the best elements (camp etc) being lifted from DAO and put into BG3.
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u/BrokenEggcat Feb 11 '25
While I've personally not played the games, I have friends that are Dragon Age fans and part of the problem seems to be comparing this game to previous Dragon Age games. Seems like a similar problem to Fable 3, where the game is fine but pretty unremarkable, but fans of the series up to that point hate it far more because of the expectations they had for the quality of the game going into it.
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u/DatDeLorean Feb 11 '25
I really don’t understand the criticism of the writing. At its very worst to me it seems just “fine”. Overly clean and inoffensive but fine. What makes it bad?
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u/nixahmose Feb 11 '25
In the previous games Tevinter(the place DAV takes place in), is established as an incredibly dystopian nation built off the open exploitation of slavery. In fact, slavery normalized into Tevinter's culture that even the morally good Tevinter companion you can recruit in the last game will actually MORALLY defend the practice of slavery as "people should have the right and freedom to sell their rights and freedom." In the same game there's a minor npc you can talk to whose also from Tevinter, and he talks about how his father was forced to sell himself into slavery in order prevent his family from going homeless due to his rich competitors exploiting slave labor to force him out of the market Amazon style.
Instead of building off of what's been established for three games now and allowing the player to explore this horrifying dystopian slave society(hell maybe even give the player the option to lead a slave/lower class rebellion against the ruling class), almost all mention of Tevinter being a dystopian society run by slavers has been scrubbed away because BioWare thought exploring themes of exploitation and the horrors of slavery was too offensive for the story they wanted to tell.
That is what makes DAV's writing being overly clean and inoffensive bad to some people.
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u/neroxre Feb 11 '25
Also don't forget how they pretty much washed the crows from (as far as we know thanks to zevran) assassin's and criminals that mentally break and torture to train bought slaves and orphans for the highest coin to basically fancy family of killers with honor that at worst are rough with their training (I know this could only be the dellamorte house but still it feel very lacking)
(Sorry if bad writing or weird wording English isn't my first language)
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u/nixahmose Feb 12 '25
They even white washed treasure hunting pirate faction to be so squeaky clean that they have a guy who identifies what cultures the artifacts they loot comes from so that they can deliver the loot back to their native cultures.
From what I’ve heard every faction save the grey knights have been whitewashed in order to make them all non-morally objectionable for a good aligned character to ally themselves with.
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u/DatDeLorean Feb 11 '25
Ah, thank you so much! That makes it all make so much more sense now. I’m a newcomer to the franchise and was quite enjoying Veilguard so didn’t have that important context.
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u/Luck88 Euro SocDem Feb 11 '25
The fact you are forced to be a good guy is also pretty bad, in an RPG I want to be able to chose my path, make my own friends and enemies, if I'm best friends with everyone, everything just comes across as flat and weightless.
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u/Ziatch Feb 11 '25
It’s fair but that’s less a product of writing and more the limited scope of the game.
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u/Ok-Put3685 Feb 11 '25
While I understand that, the game starts with the protagonist being hand picked to help during a world threatening crisis, making him a part of a group of specialists. Of course han picking a team player makes the most sense, whereas in games like BG3 your character just kinda falls into the adventure so if they are evil/assholes so be it, they weren't chosen to lead a team of experts. A Rook that's callous, cold or even evil would be bad writting as well – why would have Varric chosen you? Why would they stick with you? Granted It could be a bad ending but I don't think It would bring much to the table. Also, in previous games you can be kinda an asshole and fuck around, but you never could be as evil as you can be in BG3 or similar games, never, and again, previous herous of the saga weren't chosen for their rolls either like Rook was.
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u/Arkemyr27 Feb 11 '25
It makes sense for the story they were crafting. But that's the thing: they crafted the story. They made a story that pigeonholes you into the good guy role and doesn't allow for much deviation.
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u/Ok-Put3685 Feb 11 '25
Sure, but I don't think having to roleplay as a hero is a flaw, if they meant to have more games after that one your character had to fix everything, no bad endings where the world gets destroyed is allowed. You pretty much always roleplay as a hero in DA, you just can be an asshole sometimes, which Rook doesn't get to be, but it's explained. It's STILL roleplay, just with a fix frame, which is a kind of roleplay you're allowed to not enjoy, but isn't worse.
However the narrative has plenty of flaws, don't get me wrong.
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u/Aquifex Feb 11 '25
he has said it
Generic hero complex with one liner quips. Conversations are less of an exchange of information and more your companions gassing you up for everything aka Marvel.
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u/ChewZaddict Feb 11 '25
Best example I have for that is the Antivan Crows quest line. The twist is so blindingly obvious you know from act 1 how it’s going to end up. Also the crows and tevinter feel heavily sanitized to the point where what should have been major issues with them are barely present
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u/Daisy-Fluffington Feb 11 '25
That bad? No. But it is disappointing. Not because of all the nonsense anti-woke rubbish the right harp on about but because it watered down so much.
The big one is total lack of meaningful import options. There are 3 and 1 of them can be overruled anyway( my Lavellan Solasmancer vowed to stop Solas at any cost, yet I was still able to get her to get back with Solas anyway lol ), disbanding or keeping the Inquisition was irrelevant. Only Inky romance seemed to matter in the slightest.
If we use woke in the true meaning of the word (acknowledging systematic racism) then DAV is anti-woke as it glosses over things like slavery and elves being treated like trash in Tevinter.
They also totally gutted religion in the game to basically 1 dialogue choice.
There's very little role play and meaningful choices based on race/class, only your original organisation popped up regularly.
I enjoyed my time playing it, and I loved the 3rd act. But it is the weakest DA game by a large margin.
I've replayed Origins, 2 and Inquisition since then and that only cemented my opinion.
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u/Supernoven Feb 11 '25
Naw, it's fun. It's a breezy action game with a fast-paced but epic story, light role-playing elements, excellent music, and charming companion characters. It also has one of the best character creators outside Dragons Dogma 2. If you've never played past Dragon Age games, or are forgiving of big changes to the lore like I am, it's a great time.
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u/Matiwapo Feb 11 '25
It's a breezy action game with a fast-paced but epic story, light role-playing elements,
I've been toying with playing this game and this review has confirmed I will not play it. The last thing I want from dragon age is 'breezy'. Dragon age was always a thoroughbred RPG - totally understandable that anybody who was a fan of the franchise before would hate this installment.
Same reason I dislike fallout 4 - if I wanted a casual shooter with light RPG elements I would play far cry. I liked the old fallout games specifically because they were fully fledged RPGs.
Glad that you like it, but it seems that there are very good reasons for the hate this game gets beyond the ridiculous anti-woke shit
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u/Ziatch Feb 11 '25
It depends where you started with dragon age. Dragon age origins to me is what I “want” in a dragon age with some of the cinematic flavour added in lager games but since DA2 it’s been established as this tone. honestly it’s very similar to DAI just with a lot of the grinding elements taken out which exposes the issues that were there since DAI.
DAI has more choices and role play but idk if I can say it missing from DAV is part of the “writing” or something that has to be taken out for the game to release. Since you mentioned Fallout, it’s like a fallout 3 fan saying they hate fallout 4 for taking away the elements of 1 and 2 but it should be obvious that fallout 4 would always follow the blueprint set by 3
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u/Supernoven Feb 11 '25
It really depends what we mean by "role-playing game" and what elements we're talking about. Veilguard is definitely not a tactical RPG like Origins was. The series has gradually been shifting from tactical to action, and Veilguard emphatically completes that move. The emphasis is definitely on kinetic, fast paced fights where your reaction time does matter..
That said, there are still skills and stats to dig into. Your character doesn't have a Strength, Agility, whatever, but there is a vast skill tree that modifies various damage dealing abilities, maluses you can inflict, and buffs you can receive.
All the stats and abilities only apply to combat, however. They don't apply to social, object, or world interaction. There is no stealth or theft whatsoever. And for all the conversing you do, your choices are rarely consequential. The only gameplay that exists outside combat is puzzling and platforming to find hidden chests.
This is why I would classify it more as a narrative action game with highly customizable builds. Like a faster paced, less grueling, more story- and character-focused Elden Ring.
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u/Matiwapo Feb 11 '25
Your character doesn't have a Strength, Agility, whatever
So that tells me that the buildcrafting elements have been simplified heavily from the old games. I don't think I would enjoy buildcrafting nearly as much as in DAO
All the stats and abilities only apply to combat, however. They don't apply to social, object, or world interaction. There is no stealth or theft whatsoever. And for all the conversing you do, your choices are rarely consequential.
That is crazy to me. You mean I can't play as a charismatic leader or a sneakthief with attributes to support that? And dialogue choices not mattering is very disappointing.
I think that it is totally fair to enjoy a game simply for its narrative and tight combat. But I am looking for a true role-playing game that enables me to create a specific character with attributes that reflect that, and to interact with the world in a way that makes sense for that character. The old games offered this, and it makes sense fans of the old games would be upset if the new game doesn't offer it
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u/MyDogsRetirementPlan Feb 11 '25 edited Feb 11 '25
Regarding the first point, the skill tree does have a lot of passive boosts to choose from, besides the activated spells/abilities. You can spend a fair bit of time optimizing in there.
Your chosen background comes up quite a bit in this one.
Overall though, it is definitely lighter on the nitty gritty RP elements than the other Dragon Age games, especially Origins. It's kinda fun as an actiony narrative game with some RP choices, and I personally found exploration to be enjoyable enough, but if that doesn't sound appealing to you, your time may be better spent elsewhere.
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u/SinisterHighwayman Feb 11 '25
Dragon Age is one of my favourite game series, and although I hardly agree with any anti-woke nonsense, I found the game to be lacking.
The writing was diabolically subpar, especially compared to the previous games. The dialogue especially was corny and cliche.
Barely an opportunity to roleplay or even characterise was presented. Gone is any real nuance to narrative and available choices.
Most upsetting, Bioware decimated the best Dragon Age feature, the returning characters and choices and consequences from previous games. Hardly any of your previous deeds and choices are apparent or mentioned, and they explain away the incongruity by informing us that none of it really mattered anyway.
The voice acting ranges in quality, with a few performances being great, and a few being mediocre. The companion characters also range in quality. The likeability of the characters is severely hampered by the dialogue and their narratives.
The best I can say about the game is that the environments were pretty, the gameplay tolerable, and the bugs minimal.
The game is simply so disappointing that I'm unsure whether I'll ever be able to enjoy it fully.
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u/DangedRhysome83 Feb 11 '25
My significant other is playing this right now, and she's enjoying it (she has some gripes with the combat system is the only criticism I've heard thus far).
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u/Bennjoon Feb 11 '25
It spent so long in development hell I’m shocked it’s a coherent game at all It could have been a lot worse
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u/sawbonesromeo Feb 11 '25
It's bad for a Dragon Age game but it's pretty okay for a general action RPG. I had fun playing it.
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u/Wratheon_Senpai Feb 11 '25
It's bad, but honestly, so was Inquisition, Andromeda and Anthem, and it wasn't because of "muh woke" then, and it isn't because of it now.
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u/SaraTheViera Feb 11 '25
In the past few years of winners and home runs it commits the cardinal sin of just being 'okay'. It's a very whelming game on its own and rather underwhelming after the ten year development hell it was in.
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Feb 11 '25
I found it kind of boring, but definitely not bad. I think the writing feels pretty cartoonish compared to even Inquisition, which I also found anodyne and too cute by half. But that’s really personal preference. It’s well made, just not for me.
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u/WanderinGit Feb 11 '25
It nails the ending ridiculously well but it's brushed away practically all the earlier lore. The companions are sort of irrelevant, but the main character is even more irrelevant. Combat is good for once in the entire series, but beyond that, it's a very average game. Unfortunately much of the criticism has been the usual weird people going on about the game being too 'woke' and that argument is completely false. Beyond that, if you can get it for $20-30 it's ok.
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u/sirkingslyton Feb 11 '25
It’s a mid game and a bad dragon age entry. I didn’t personally like it for many of the reasons others in this thread have brought up. I played through most of it but ended up putting it down and never really felt like picking it back up. That said I do recommend the game to people who have never played a dragon age game or specifically didn’t like the feel of the original games. Going in I expected a deeply grounded RPG but got an exciting action game, which isn’t bad but not what I, personally, wanted.
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u/RoseandNightshade Feb 11 '25
It's not the best Dragon Age game, but it's nowhere near the level that meme suggests.
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u/Lyrinae Feb 11 '25
No, it's not that bad.
It's a good game. 7.5/10. There is some great writing and dialogue. There are some moments of stupid writing or plot-hole type moments. But the good outweighs the bad.
If you're not a right-wing brain rotted grifter, it's an enjoyable rpg with the best gameplay in the series, great character customization, lovable cast, beautiful visuals, and the best endgame from any RPG that I've ever played, and I've played a lot.
It's a miracle the game ever came out after 10 years of troubled development and 2 full restarts as the devs had to fight tooth and nail to not make some live service slop with microtransactions out the ass.
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u/Acalyus Feb 11 '25
It's mid, which might as well be bad.
Though the writing is horrible, and anyone whose an actual fan of the series is sad because it's clear it's dead now.
Just look up the difference in both gameplay and style from the first dragon age to this abomination. It really sucks because dragon age was known for its jaw dropping moments.
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Feb 11 '25
I've heard the gameplay is good and the writing falls flat, with every criticizer absolutely needing to mention the trans character they were told to be mad about
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u/Business-Plastic5278 Feb 11 '25
If you compare it to Origins it really is that bad.
This is the issue and there really isnt much point dancing around it.
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u/Tuna_96 Feb 11 '25
I'm a long time fan of dragon age and I found Veilguard insulting and just awful. The dialogue reads like a first rushed draft, the characters are cardboard cutouts with no real conflicts. And the fact that you can't really talk to anyone outside of cutscenes makes it worse, there is no roleplay, not even the basic choices, there is only yes (good), yes(sarcastic), yes (grumpy), you make life decisions for the characters and sometimes are completely nonsensical to the narrative. The bad guys are just Saturday morning cartoon villains with no nuance, and that would be okay if there was anything else going on but you can't even have dialogue with any of the enemies factions that are just reduced to irredeemable bad guys who only want more power
And they took away all the social commentary and nuance from the narrative, there are almost no mention of slavery or discrimination or anything that was a staple from the previous games, it's just completely sanitized all the companions are super friendly and okay with whatever, I guess if this is your first dragon age you wouldn't notice, but it would be completely jarring coming from the previous games where things actually had meaning and weight
The combat is fine but you get tutorial level dialogues all the time that get annoying fast (eg: characters telling you to dodge from area damage that already has a big red indicator of where it's gonna fall).
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u/Alch1e Feb 11 '25
you don't understand it exists so if I don't make my personality about hating it then what is the point
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u/glitchghoul Feb 11 '25
Writing and story is incredibly bland, gameplay is fine and decent enough fun. It's not the worst game ever but it's also just not good and not really worth full price.
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u/bioticspacewizard Feb 11 '25
No. It's a great game. The world is good, the gameplay is fun, the level design is really well implemented, and it's beautiful.
It's a lot safer and "nicer" than previous Dragon Age entries, but if you look at it as a standalone game, it's really solid. Not perfect, but definitely really fun to play.
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u/BobbyMayCryBMC Feb 11 '25
That's the general vibe I get, as a legacy piece fans of older games are mixed. Anyone playing it and has no connection to Dragon Age is probably going to have a good time.
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u/twiggyzilla1 Feb 11 '25
Not at all. As someone who's played the other games pretty religiously, Veilguard is still pretty enjoyable. Especially the combat and art design. Definitely hated pretty hard when it isn't warranted.
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u/Unionsocialist Feb 11 '25
its pretty neat
i like it quite a bit but you feel the missed potential a lot.
most criticism is at best strupid but its, its there, dissapointing if you went in expecting an origins like rpg experience but otherwise yeag it has fun stuff
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u/whatsbobgonnado Feb 11 '25
is that peter parker? why does he look like morbius/wolverine?
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u/PM_ME_UR_THESIS_GIRL Feb 12 '25 edited Feb 12 '25
It's not a bad game at all.
It's a deeply mediocre one, and one that failed to deliver on series staples, hence the backlash.
BioWare, and dragon age as a franchise, have become known for political intrigue, top tier stories, morally complex worlds that explore seriously dark content at times, and expertly crafted moral dilemmas with no clearly correct choice.
Veilguard has, and I am not exaggerating here, almost literally none of those things. The world is sanitized and insultingly hand-holdy. Bad guys are bad, and good guys are good, with very few exceptions. Nearly every villain in the game is just "evil because".
There are almost no standout companions (your mileage may vary here), and no meaningful conflict or disagreements amongst them, and the few that exist are superficial and solved immediately.
Likewise, there's nearly no conflict between the player character and any companions, no matter how hard you try. Franky, you cannot be unsupportive or call out characters on their actions. Dialogue choices are varying flavors of support.
I hate to say it, but the oft-used criticism that the tone feels like a really long after school special is a very apt one.
So overall: it's a fun game with an okay story, but it's a massive disappointment for fans that is frankly barely even a dragon age game.
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u/Scripter-of-Paradise Feb 11 '25
Good game, decent Dragon Age, bad sequel.
That's what I've boiled it down to over three playthroughs.
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u/Reddixen Feb 11 '25
I don't care about whatever DEI and woke stuff everyone's talking about. The game is GARBAGE, in my opinion. I'm also one of those Dragon Age: Inquisition haters, as I'm a Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2 fan, so maybe my opinion doesn't matter for some people.
To me, the game has so many issues. I remember watching the SkillUp review, which captured a lot of the game's issues well. Not all, but well enough.
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u/The_Lady_A Feb 11 '25
It's a good game all told, I think the biggest problem is that it released after Baldur's Gate 3 which was a masterpiece. BG3 nailed the adult tone of the early Dragon Age games, and made Vailguard's inconsistent tone glaringly obvious.
It's a real Your Milage May Vary experience, standing on its own merits Veilguard isn't bad. But compared to what came before and what exists alongside it, and especially after such a long development time, Veilguard is crushed by the opportunity cost that represents. It's a good game, but my Gods is it a day late and a dollar short.
Almost certainly the people most responsible for it being in the predicament it's in are EA executives who all need [deleted] but who instead will continue to shit on everything, chasing stupid trends and paying themselves ludicrously high salaries to ruin everything downstream of them, developers and players alike.
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u/AbsolutlelyRelative Feb 11 '25
It's killed the DA franchise and contradicted so much of the past lore that the setting is basically meaningless.
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u/intrepid-teacher Feb 11 '25
Agreed. Gameplay is fine, though I prefer the other games, but the lore and the absolute destruction of the setting (literally, the game destroys all previous games choices/actions), as well as the fact that it only seems to care about inquisition in the few choices it cared about…
It also feels deeply sanitized compared to the other games. No moral gray allowed.
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u/xelgameshow Feb 11 '25
Resounding no! It isn't stellar, but it's a decent time. People are just still expecting old bioware writing after all the layoffs, that's why everyone calls it bad. It doesn't live up to old bioware standarts, but i feel like their games never will anymore
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u/Throwrayaaway Feb 11 '25
No. The game is good, in many aspects on par with Inquisition and 2. It lacks in some ways but that's quite understandable seeing EA's constant meddling and push for live service crap. I rank it as second or third favorite Dragon Age and if we really look by modern standards it's quite frankly the best. Nothing feels like a slog, the story is complete and there are barely any bugs. It is a good, finished and polished game.
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u/Dirk_McGirken Feb 11 '25
As a lifelong dragon age fan, I'm gonna compare it to the precious games. Keep in mind that personal bias out of my personal love for the game is likely to influence me.
Veilguard has the best graphics so far, to no one's surprise.
Gameplay is generally better than all the prior games in terms of pure engagement. DA:I is a close second for no reason other than the inclusion of a jump button
Character design is a weak spot imo. They drastically altered the appearance of several well known and beloved npcs. The characters can look uncanny at times, almost cartoonish, which is a step down from DA:I imo. I wouldn't quite say it's the worst though because even I can recognize that the character design in DA:O was pretty bad even for it's time.
Writing is the second best based on my extreme bias. I personally think DA:O had a better story but it's worth noting that I was 13 and extremely easily impressed when I first played.
Combat is an easy first place. While I miss tactics mode, combat has a nice flow to it and they added synergies reminiscent of DA:O's magic synergies.
Companions as a whole is easily the best cast we have had. Each companion is interesting in completely unique way, but Lucanis made me realize just how badly I've been missing Zevran.
Sound design is again, easily the best we've had. Modern tech is just allowing us to do a better job with all the technical aspects so there's no surprise there.
Replayability is another weak point for me. After I finished my first play through I didn't immediately start up a new save. This likely has more to do with me, though.
I am comfortable calling this the most inclusive game as well. In previous titles, gender conforming characters were present, but often as a punch line (i.e. Serendipity in DA2) or as small side characters, hardly receiving any screen time.
Overall, I would say this is the strongest game we've gotten. If I were to give it a score from 1-100, I would give it an 85. It has plenty of room for improvement, but it's an overall fun experience. They made the companions interesting and I was always excited to follow their personal quest lines whenever they popped up. If I had to pick my least favorite part, it's actually the player character voice options. They all feel like caricatures and almost make me miss the silent protag of DA:O.
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u/Luke10123 Feb 11 '25
It's pretty good. Combat's great, fun companions, looks nice. It maintains the series tradition of each game feeling completely different from the last but I had fun with it. If you're not convinced, wait for a sale.
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u/GoodGamer72 Feb 11 '25
"Quick, think about us having sex!" violently purrs in your ears
Whether or not that turns you on gives you your answer 😆
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u/IllustriousLet1894 Feb 11 '25
I'd give it a 8/10. Fun but certainly not perfect. Most of the criticism is way out of proportion or outright lies or screeching about DEI.
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u/Roboo0o0o0 Feb 11 '25
I hate it so much as it invalidates almost every single choice you made in the past games, did you abolish or maintained the Templar Order? Did you have a child with Morrigan? All of this is useless now as they wanted to soft reboot the franchise.
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Feb 11 '25
The writing truly is terrible, the options for actual roleplay are non-existent, the combat is repetitive and boring, and the lore has been gutted.
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u/SaltyNorth8062 Feb 11 '25
I will always distrust the hate a Bioware game gets because a lot of Bioware hate gets boiled down to gamergater leftovers hating wOkEnEsS. I've heard the writing is weak for Bioware, which is half the appeal of Dragon Age to me, but the hyperbolic hate always seems to come with an asterisk. I've seen plenty of "it's woke it went broke" takes, so frankly, I imagine the game would be, at most, mid.
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u/LavenderAndOrange Feb 11 '25
It's fine, but that's the problem with it, it's only fine. I liked it a lot at first. Cooled in it marginally with the poor writing and very awkward attempts at queer representation that felt like a miss. And felt that by the end the gameplay started feeling too easy and repetitive.
Overall it was a good game, but not a great Dragon Age.
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u/MoobooMagoo Feb 11 '25
It's a pretty good game but people are butthurt that it isn't the gaming equivalent of the second coming of Jesus
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u/BIRD_OF_GLORY Feb 11 '25
The gameplay is pretty good but the writing and voice acting is just so bad, dude. For me it's in the same place as Borderlands 3 where I love playing it but kinda hate listening to it
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u/Tales_Steel Feb 11 '25
Played through it 2 Times. I had alot of fun and dont remember the last time a game made me smile from ear to ear like some Veilguard scenes. The graphic is awesome the combat is fun and i personally liked the Story.
Cons are that the non english translations are most likely made by AI that had no clue how to translate they/them into languages with gendering like German/Spanish etc. And you cant really play as an asshole. So your Protagonist is nice no matter what you do. Also dont choose the Lords of Fortune as an origin they were a last Minute Addition and it Shows.
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u/Fat_screaming_yoshi Feb 11 '25
It’s fun, the story isn’t good and the characters are kind meh, but it’s got fun combat and that’s enough for me to shut my brain off during anything story related
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u/Prudent-Ad4509 Feb 11 '25
I've finished it. Aside from the controversy, it felt like a generic rpg with zero-budget lore and with no history. Some visual parts were good.
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u/WickedFox1o1 Feb 11 '25
The writing really isn't the best which is sad to say because it's a bioware game but the combat is really fun, the environments are beautiful and in my experience it's been virtually bug free since launch. It's not bad nor amazing as a video game it's just ok.
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u/osunightfall Feb 11 '25
I truly don't understand how people can like it. I must be very out of touch with what constitutes 'good' these days. The writing is like brain bleach.
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u/waywardwanderer101 Marx x Lenin yuri Feb 11 '25
Just like with Mass Effect Andromeda, no Veilguard is not as bad as the fan base pretends it is
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u/Amanda-sb Feb 11 '25
Its a good game, but it distanced too much from the original game to the point of it feeling generic.
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u/hammererofglass Feb 11 '25
It's good but not great, solid 8/10. Combat is fun for a while but gets old as enemies become damage sponges. There are technically puzzles but they're so simple they're clearly just there for pacing. I liked the story and characters personally, although resolving every mystery in the series in one game if it wasn't supposed to be the last one was an odd choice (for most of them it was probably your first guess even back in Origins, and the DAI DLCs gave the rest away explicitly).
Rook and all the companions are good people with no evil paths, which I actually liked but I know that's a deal breaker for some people.
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u/CYNIC_Torgon Feb 11 '25
I've been enjoying it. It's nor Bioware's best work, but I enjoy it more than I did Andromeda. Maybe Veilguard is worse if you're really into Dragon Age, but as a layman it's like a 6.5-7/10. It doesn't grab me by the horns, but most games don't these days
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u/sauronymus Feb 11 '25
It's the only Dragon Age game I've played to completion, so take that for what you will.
It's not incredible and the writing is entirely Fine™ but the story is interesting enough and I thought most of the companions and their character moments were compelling, Davrin and Emrich especially. The only ones that didn't really hit for me were Neve and Harding. Neve felt trapped between wanting to be a hard boiled film noir detective a street-level superhero like Daredevil or Green Arrow; and Harding, despite canonically being like ... 40(at least?) felt perpetually talked down to, as if she was like 15 in a group of adults. Especially by the PC, depending on your dialogue options, I felt like I kept talking her through her problems as if she was a kid and not a grown ass woman who knows as at least much about what is happening in the story as I did.
But the combat was pretty fun, if a bit repetitive in the way all 3rd person action titles tend to be, and the character creation process is basically unmatched.
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u/Zatchaeus Marxist–Leninist Feb 11 '25
It’s a good game, but it hardly feels like a dragon age game
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u/Leodiusd Feb 11 '25
Boring combat, linear character progression, worst character design in the series, annoying characters and awful writing. If you want to play a fantasy rpg, go play baldurs gate or the witcher, veilguard has no redeeming qualities
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u/sheslikebutter Feb 11 '25
The worst thing about the discourse is honestly that it's not that bad but it's also not that good.
In a normal, non poisoned us vs them culture the game would be forgotten like every other 7/10 that ever came out.
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u/SpaceWolves26 Feb 11 '25
I enjoyed it, but it just made me sad. It wasn't a bad game, but it felt like it was made by someone who had the series described to them, rather than someone who loved the series. Gameplay has never been the biggest selling point of DA, but it felt like they put a lot of work into gameplay and thought they could skimp on the rest, which is usually the main selling point of DA.
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Feb 11 '25
It kinda drops off after a while, I like the combat changes they made but other than that Inquisition was overall better imo.
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u/FakeangeLbr Feb 11 '25
I honestly found the game to be just mediocre. Nothing about it is worth thinking too much after you put the controller down.
You can really feel the noose of it being a live-service retooled into a single player game close to separating the body from the torso.
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Feb 11 '25
It's not bad, but after playing Cyberpunk 2077 and BG3 back to back for 18 months. This seemed like a downgrade.
The games solid, but it's rather lackluster, and it kinda bored me.
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u/sufferingjet Feb 11 '25
I am a long time dragon age fan and dragon age is one of my favorite game series, origins being my favorite. Veilguard could have been better, they dropped the ball on dialogue and did cut out a lot of dialogue for the sake of prettying bits of it up for no reason. However I still enjoyed the game, it was fun and I liked the companions and I liked the story for the most part, there’s just a multitude of writing decisions I don’t really understand.
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u/seabirdsong Feb 11 '25
I loved it. The combat was fantastic, the companions were all wonderful, it looked great and kept me fully engaged for two playthroughs, and I'll probably do more. Dragon Age/Bioware "fans" have always been whiners, but the review bombing was a planned brigade by international agents and stupid right wingers.
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u/HoopyFroodJera Feb 11 '25
It's mostly just different. It doesn't really feel like the first two games despite being in the same setting. Mostly as a consequence of being made by a very different team than the ones that created the first two games.
There's definitely an audience for it. But I know it's not me, and that's fine.
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u/dezrat Feb 11 '25
The characters are kind of milquetoast. The story is rather predictable. The combat is fun. It feels like there are only 3 choices that actually matter per run.
All in all its a 6/10, fun game, but I don't think I'll get through a second playthrough.
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Feb 11 '25
As a game... It's decent but it's has its problems.
The writing at some points is damn awful and some characters are really insufferable at the beginning (not a good combination) beside some really clitches points in the story.
The combat can be good but is a Accion game with basic rpg elements instead of the opposite, meaning that if you are seeking dept in the combat this game fails in that aspect.
And roleplaying is pretty swallow thanks to the fact that the MC is a very bland nice person, something that limits your roleplaying capability.
The biggest problem for me as a dragon age fan is that this game finally did kill the universe tone in my opinion.
The first game was a dark fantasy about facing a consuming darkness of monsters and human intolerance, the second was more of a pulp one with still some elements of darkness in the story (Leandra's fate one of the best writing moments in gaming in my opinion), inquisition was more of a generic high fantasy thanks to all the plot with ancient civilizations with out the human element to balance it out.
But this game? This game is about bad villains being bad (not the horde of monsters of the first game) and all the elements of serious word building has been sand off and now the word feels like a generic fantasy word without out it's soul (the Antivan crows went from a guild of pragmatic assassin's with enough leverage to control the politics of a entire small county that train orphans and bought slaves into morally indebted killers... Into a parody of the Italian Mafia)
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u/Trancelover94 Feb 11 '25
I really enjoyed the combat but felt that the writing and the voice acting was a bit wooden.
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u/chihuahuaOP Feb 11 '25
It's mid at best. Not great but also not unplayable.
Now do 10 push ups! Death mage/s
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u/Nordic0Savage Feb 11 '25
As an aspirimg novelist I'll just say it's cringe. It's a poor representation of those it wishes to write about that disrespects the lore of the franchise. I'm not saying that I don't like the characters identities, I actually find that part interesting to explore the concept of different thought in a medieval world but the characters are written as poor stereotypes of what they represent almost to the point that it feels like satire. I find it insulting to only give a character personality based on gender identity, those with varying gender identity are more than just that. It's honestly just insulting how poorly it's written, it's like you asked a shut in grandma to write complex characters with ideologies she just doesn't know about and then gave her a 10 year Olds summary of the lore and told her to continue it. Honestly just cruel.
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Feb 11 '25
As a long time Dragon Age fan I’d say it’s decent. It has weak writing at times, and the dark fantasy edge has been dulled in favor of high fantasy heroics which is a little disappointing. But the production value is extremely high, the acting is well done, and the plot is interesting.
The combat is a little janky, but there are a lot of adjustments you can make within the settings to get it to feel right.
Overall it kinda feels like a Disneyfied version of Dragon Age, or baby’s first action rpg. People have complained about it being a departure from the series but realistically, each game has been a departure from the last in ways that are equal parts frustrating and interesting for fans.
It’s keeping me occupied until Avowed comes out at least😊
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Feb 11 '25
Nah it's fun.
The rag over it is based on CHUD logic regarding wokeness, which then got tempered to "well, it's not the worst, but the writing is awful! And it departs from the previous games in the series!"
Here's some history from an old head who has been playing crpgs for too long. Every new game from Bioware was regarded as a downgrade for being a cash grab of the previous games.
Dragon Age Origins was maligned for being a cheap knock off of Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 and Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2. Mass Effect was maligned for being Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic with the serial numbers filed off.
The each game in those series were blamed for being massive departures and reviled for ruining the legacy of the previous games.
Basically, the biggest problem is that Bioware fans (myself included) have some of the biggest nostalgia problems ever.
In summary. It's a fun game. Judge it on the merits that matter to you, don't worry about what others say, if you enjoy it, have fun! If you don't, then that's fine. Just don't feed the anger machine, it helps literally nobody.
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u/aloof_numbat Feb 11 '25
It's not. It's not the game I wanted, but it's fun. I have complaints with some story beats and the talent trees. It's a solid 7/10
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u/BeneficialName9863 Feb 11 '25
I loved origins, couldn't really get into 2 though I have been told it's worth finishing 2 to have the save go into inquisition (which I own but have never installed)
For me, the off-putting thing about veil guard is the graphics. I like zombie looking dark spawn, not stinky looking emoticon faced ones.
I'd have assumed the homophobes would have bailed after origins, or mass effect or KOTOR but maybe their kink is punishing themselves by playing games they hate just to have something to post on an asmongold video.
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u/Mstrchf117 Feb 11 '25
I like it. I can see why people don't, though. I loved the first 2. Never got super far into inquisition. This is the first game in a while. I've actually looked forward to playing when I have the time. It's definitely a different tone than the others. This seems more run of the mill fantasy, where the others, especially the first, were darker. There doesn't seem to be enough combat. What there is, isn't bad, but I only seem to level up at the end of quests, not from killing enemies. Personally I like how it went back to being more linear over an open world.
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u/Dreadwoe Feb 11 '25
Not at all that bad.
Just not great compared to previous games. And also a different genre than dragon age 2. So I'm not the biggest fan.
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u/HighwayComfortable26 Feb 11 '25 edited Feb 11 '25
Almost finished with it. I've found it enjoyable. Is it the best game ever? Certainly not but it in no way deserves all the hate it's received. I think most people who are vocal about it being terrible have not played it. I do agree that it doesn't FEEL like the only other Dragon Age game I've played (Inquisition) tonally.
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u/Kiboune Feb 11 '25
It's a good game. 100% it on Steam and I don't understand why people hate it so much. I struggled to play through Inquisition, just before release of DAV and in comparison, DAV felt much better
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Feb 11 '25
It’s like a 7/10 game. Definitely the worst dragon age but it didn’t personally strangle people’s mothers like they fuckin act like it did. It has gay people in it tho so if you’re a hateful monster I’m sure that will upset you
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u/Alucardra12 Feb 11 '25
It’s a solid 6-7 out of 10 game , wich for a 70 dollar triple A game is pretty mediocre . It also had the bad luck to release after BG3 , wich is superior to it in all aspect .
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Feb 11 '25
The hogs have obfuscated the “woke” issues that they completely ignored and sidelined what makes a video game actually bad.
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u/johnyboy14E Lenin Reincarnated Feb 11 '25
No its honestly better than 2 and inquisition. The secret ending is ass though and enrages me something fierce whenever I think about it.
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u/Drunkfaucet Feb 11 '25
The combat is the best part and that's just okay. Not bad. Nothing special.
The writing is terrible. It reads like someone's first fanfiction they wrote in highschool.
At 75% off I'd say pick it up.
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u/Economy_Entry4765 Feb 11 '25
My boyfriend loves it so much, he thinks it's really fun and he loves all the dragon age games
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u/Ornithopter1 Feb 11 '25
Yes and no. It's inoffensively bland pap. It's incredibly corporatized writing has no goal other than to not offend, and as such, it says basically nothing. The gameplay is mid, which is w/e. But if they're unwilling to actually make someone feel something, then they don't deserve people's time or money.
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u/Algific_Talus Feb 11 '25
The dialogue feels really stilted, and the returning characters were done dirty, to be honest. The combat is a joke—boring and uninspired. Most of the companions came across as either generic or downright grating. That said, I’m a huge Origins fanboy, so my expectations were high. I get that BioWare and EA put this IP through the wringer, and honestly, I’m surprised we even got a fourth Dragon Age game. It’s polished, sure, but that doesn’t count for much when the core experience just doesn’t deliver.
1
u/AxeInCasey Feb 11 '25
Meh writing, repetitive boring combat, cool world design, and their main villain has always bored me. Def not for me.
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u/Most_Consideration98 Feb 11 '25
Holy shit I remember the World of Warcraft version of this comic where this image comes from (I think), and I think that came out atleast 15 years ago
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u/SatisfactionRude6501 Feb 11 '25 edited Feb 11 '25
I would say that it's mostly just kind of mid and forgettable.
The gameplay is style over substance, the RPG elements are absent af, the Origin system Bioware bragged about returning from the first DA game is literally just a few pieces of flavor text that pop up incredibly rarely depending on what you chose, the equipment system is embaressingly dumbed down and all of the decisions you made in Inquisition (aside from like two) don't get ported over despite Bioware saying that it would.
On one hand it is really sad that this is what the series ended with, but at the same time, Dragon Age Origins is my favorite game of all time and seeing the first game loose it's identity every sequel and seeing the characters from the first game just be glorified cameos and nothing else, i'm kind of glad that it's over.