Dragon Age: The Veilguard - Review Overview

I'll review the game by playing it myself, as everyone is full of shit around EA/BioWare in both directions (or as many directions anyone can come up with). I rather spend some cash than allowing anyone with an agenda decide what's good for me or how I should spend my time.
 
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I too will review by playing it.

It's pretty sad how game reviews have become such a lightning rod for other discussions. For some games I decide whether or not to purchase them based upon what I see in reviews, but at least for those games I know to wait until a) the game is actually released and watch more reviews and b) I see specifics from reviews which point me in a direction.

Months ago I saw plenty enough to know that I would purchase Dragon Age The Veilguard at launch, partly from enjoying the previous games a lot and also after seeing enough specifics about the game. So I don't care what reviewers say this week. I'm pretty darn sure I will enjoy it, and whether or not I enjoy it greatly remains to be seen. By contrast, for the recent Avatar game (a game I was looking forward to despite not being a fan of the movies) I looked at a bunch of reviews and decided that there were too many things I didn't like about the game.

Since I look for specific things about games, not just scores, I'm hoping that for a future game all of the political shit influencing some game reviews won't affect me, but it's still sad to some degree because game sales are affected by review scores and that could affect whether or not more games of the same type are made, including sequels.
 
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Personally I am going to wait for more user reviews or a demo.

From what I've seen, it's a game for "modern audiences" and it has to be a very good game to offset that.
Yup, completely with you on that. Just the little footage I've seen of the dialogue is not very promising though. Using Disney / Pixar / "being in the room with HR" are the best descriptions I've heard so far, and they're completely right. It feels so childish and condescending, and unsurprisingly, a little preachy. I've heard several reviewers say you literally cannot be rude, firm, or disagreeable to any convincing degree, if role-playing is important to you.

I think once entertainment gets away from politically-fueled lecturing, we'll be in a good place again when it comes to writing. That's just my two cents.
 
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The fact that reviewers from both sides of the political spectrum often inject their personal beliefs into game reviews not only highlights the diminishing credibility of gaming journalism but also raises a larger issue: politics has no inherent place in gaming. Games are part of the entertainment industry, and at their core, they are designed to entertain. Their primary purpose is to provide players with an immersive escape—a way to unwind, relax, and enjoy themselves. It’s unreasonable to expect people to pay $70 and dedicate their limited free time only to be proselytized.

When reviews focus more on a critic’s worldview than on the game's quality, story, mechanics, or artistic value, it detracts from the medium’s intended purpose: to offer fun and enjoyment.
 
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I'd actually prefer to hear from several RPGW members and look forward to their thoughts. Despite the sometimes-venom here between this odd, misshapen family, I ultimately respect your opinions.

I haven't entirely ruled out buying DA:V, but it's really hard to get over how atrocious the combat looks to me.
 
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but it's really hard to get over how atrocious the combat looks to me.
Yep. If this wasn’t a DA game, I’d never even consider playing it. Since it is, though, I’ll probably play it and if it’s bad enough I won’t bother with the next one.
 
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but it's really hard to get over how atrocious the combat looks to me.
When I first saw that it borrows from Mass Effect's companion system, I felt pretty excited, and still am I think. But I can't help thinking it's a downgrade from past entries. The ability to pause and coordinate tactics and positioning for your party members is what determined whether I won or lost a fight.

In this game, your companions' skill trees are tiny, and don't resemble the full skill trees you'd see for a player and their respective classes. I think I'm going to miss fully tuning their builds. There were times bringing 2 mages along with completely different focuses (healing vs. DPS) was optimal.

The other sad part is, there really aren't any other action-oriented RPGs that let you do that. Dragon Age's combat was its own animal, and partly what made it unique. GreedFall is the closest I've seen, and I remember even it didn't feel quite right compared to DA:I.
 
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Yep. If this wasn’t a DA game, I’d never even consider playing it. Since it is, though, I’ll probably play it and if it’s bad enough I won’t bother with the next one.
I think to me it's more that it's an AAA RPG than a Dragon Age per se. The name is mostly legacy now. I've played Horizon or Starfield for similar reasons, just a good looking high budget RPG is something I'll play, regardless of the source.

I know well it won't be a masterpiece, people saying it's a 10/10 game are overselling it and people saying it's 4/10 flop are haters with a bone to pick with EA/Bioware, or just transphobic/whatever because that's how the world turns these days.

For the game itself, I'll play it with an open mind, and willingness to enjoy, which is all I need. I will never understand why people set themselves up to dislike something, it's clearly better to enjoy something than not, but to each their own.
 
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I will never understand why people set themselves up to dislike something, it's clearly better to enjoy something than not, but to each their own.
I think the bone to pick is valid though. We're seeing a completely different BioWare 10 years past its last release in the series. While unsurprising it would take a completely different form, few (or none?) of the original writers/creators are on the project, and what people are reacting to is what they perceive as a bastardization of a series they love.

Put another way, it's trampling on sacred ground, just like any other franchise. There's a certain level of respect needed to honor a cherished series, and a brand new team lacking its veterans have a slim chance at representing it well -- at least in a way that pleases the most diehard fans, and not without enormous amounts of feedback along the way (this game had no early access period like Baldur's Gate 3 did).

"It's not for you", they say spitefully. Yes it is. My response would be: "Go start a new fantasy universe and make it to your liking, and see who it attracts."

I think this perfectly demonstrates what I was describing earlier, with regards to its Pixar-esque presentation -- which is something the previous games specifically avoided before, because they were billed as "dark fantasy". It would be an oxymoron if anyone attempted to label this game the same way:
View: https://fixvx.com/Burnouts3s3/status/1851368756821573987
 
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I think to me it's more that it's an AAA RPG than a Dragon Age per se. The name is mostly legacy now. I've played Horizon or Starfield for similar reasons, just a good looking high budget RPG is something I'll play, regardless of the source.
Just being AAA hasn't been good enough for me for a long time now. And besides the combat here, which normally by itself would be enough to make me uninterested in a game (if it wasn't Dragon Age), the tone of these DA:V trailers/clips just seems way off (the post above mine is a great example). Kind of looks/sounds like a game designed for ADHD 15 year old Marvel fans. I don't know anything about Horizon, but at least Starfield's trailers had a mature and serious feel to them.
 
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With so much backlog, I do not know why would someone even try to play game that was just released. Wait few months or a year and check it after real reviews or when it was properly patched or after it is definitive edition.

Most of new games are unfinished and only after heavy patching and few DLC/addons they start to be fully enjoyable.
 
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With so much backlog, I do not know why would someone even try to play game that was just released.
What do you know about my backlog? ;)
 
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I admit to some fomo about waiting many months to play a game I'm looking forward to.

Ideally it would be good to wait many months for a pretty big sale and also for early issues (bugs) to be worked out but for a small number of games, such as Dragon Age Veilguard and Star Wars Outlaws just to mention two recent ones, I gotta have 'em right away. Over the decades I don't think I've ever regretted it since when I've very much been anticipating a game and get it day one I think I've always enjoyed it a whole lot. I think the last exception was Lands of Lore 2 in the 1990s.
 
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politics has no inherent place in gaming. Games are part of the entertainment industry, and at their core, they are designed to entertain.
I respectfully disagree with this. While having games that are meant to be 100% escapist and entertaining and free of any politic bent is good, and we should have those, we should also have games that include political and social topics of all stripes.

The video game industry has always aspired to be on the same footing as more traditional entertainment and art forms like film and literature. Those mediums produce content that is 100% escapist with no other agenda, but they also produce works that tackle deep and serious issues that affect our world—and it's good they can do both. The world needs entertainment but it also needs works that challenge people to think and re-examine their beliefs and place in the world (and frankly, the best works, imo, can both entertain and make you think and question at the same time).

If the video game industry ever wants to be on the same footing, it needs to produce games across that entire spectrum.
 
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"I don't want politics in my games/movies/comics/whatever" is usually code for "There's too many black people in this movie" or "This is an unrealistically capable female character for this time period/genre/place."

I don't like being lectured to either, and there are definitely entertainment products that are overly ham-handed and didactic. But "politics" in the sense that it's used in these discussions is just a reflection of society (not our society, the concept of society), and the only games you're going to get without that context are games with no people in them. Like Pong.
 
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Some games have some sort of ideological influence, but in general games, like most things in life, are a bit of a Rorschach test. If you constantly see politics in games, especially in a way that bothers you, it tells much more about your mindset than it does about the mindset of the developers.

This is truer the bigger the game is, as they are made by dozens of different people with different ideologies, ethnic origins, backgrounds, genders, etc. Of course, if your problem is with diversity, tough luck, since big companies tend to have a diverse staff.

One can of course convince oneself of whatever suits them best, as with everything, the issue is definitely always everyone else doing everything wrong.
 
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