Dragon Age: The Veilguard Review

Making the best out of a bad situation.

What is Hope?

At the end of my Dragon Age inquisition Review I stated, "I have hope in BioWare" and now I no longer do. I thought Mass Effect Andromeda was fine just lacking in memorable companions (which is critical in these games) but I wasn't disheartened about BioWare. Anthem was a mess, but I didn't have any faith in that game anyway, so I wasn't disheartened just surprised that they would pump out something like that. But Veilguard... I was excited for it, and it drained me. I lost my hope in BioWare but yet I'm still excited for the next Mass Effect, Why?

Story Bits

Now that the preamble is out of the way, Dragon Age the Veil Guard is a tale about overcoming great forces through teamwork and doing whatever it takes. There are also interesting ideas about regret and moving forward that don't exactly land, but I appreciate the attempt. You play as your created character known as "Rook" who gets recruited by series favorite Varric to stop the Elven god Solas from destroying the Veil. The Veil is what protects the world from the spirit realm, which is home to demons and many other nasties, especially the elven gods who are even worse than Solas. You must assemble a team to defeat the elven Gods and save Thedas, twists and turns occur that didn't really land for me but I appreciate the effort.

Best Bits

I did not play the game at launch but when I did spend 60 hours in Thedas for the final time, I was pleased with the performance. That is really just about it. I think everything else was either passable or bad. The team at BioWare however should be very proud that the game ran well, this is a large game with many moving parts and it was fantastic to not have any glitches or bugs that I could remember.

The Bad bits

I played as a warrior class and wow was the gameplay extremely repetitive. I felt like I was just stuck in a loop of defeating damage sponge enemies that were never difficult but always tedious. The combat animations never felt weighty or like they had any meaningful impact. I'm sure the magic user playstyle offered more variety, but RPGs are meant to be based in player choice, and I want to use a sword damnit!

The characters are also a major issue for me; the companions are seriously lacking. There are only a couple of companions that were cool specifically Emmerich, as his companion quest actually felt like something you would help a friend with, overcoming a fear. The other companions were plagued with bad writing and didn't land with me. The days of getting BioWare Companions like we did in Mass Effect 2 are long gone. That aspect of these games is the most important part to me; I can get through bad gameplay if the characters are worth it but lame characters makes any game drag.

The Worst Bit

It's Rook... without a doubt the worst part of this game is you, you aren't a real character and instead are just the hero archetype. The game doesn't let you be mean or be seen as anything other than the savior of the world. Not only does this ruin a renegade style playthrough but it also ruins a paragon playthrough. Without the option to be bad, being good isn't remarkable, it's the only road you can travel. The only way to do genuine good deeds in this game is by doing side quests, it doesn't offer a choice outside of ignoring it. Games like Dragon Age Origins, Witcher 3, Baldur's Gate 3, Fable, these are games that focus on crafting unique scenarios that put you in roleplaying scenarios, you craft your character outside of the character creator. I don't feel the same at all about Dragon Age Veilguard. Rooks doesn't develop outside of one twist that as previously stated didn't land for me because I had no interest in Rook. When going through the original Mass Effect trilogy I was extremely attached to Commander Shepherd and wanted to leave the galaxy in a hopeful place, I wanted Shepherd to be respected not feared. Rook from the very beginning is the person with all the answers and knows the way, it just doesn't have any impact.

Verdict

I struggle to recommend this game to anyone, fans of the series may want to see what it's all lead to but would struggle with the lack of competent character writing, new fans would lack the connection to the series and may not want to see this game to the end. I will probably play it again whenever I feel the need to playthrough the entire series, but this will likely be the slog to get through. Bur why do I still have hope in a new Mass Effect? Because it's better than having none and I think what is left of BioWare will take the game persevere.... hopefully.

4 Damage Sponges out of 10