2.5/5 ★ – bialenko's review of Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

yeah i didn’t really like the game much. i think it’s easily the weakest DA game, which i consider a pretty big failing since i am not someone who thinks inquisition is good. i had a lot of problem with inquisition’s main story and open world, but somehow veilguard’s story is. Worse. i don’t even have the energy to get into supervillain evil blighted elvhen gods, turning the old gods as stupid little dragon thralls, because obviously, again, nothing pagan or elemental matters, they’re not real, they’re not godly or saintly or divine, just stupid animals. making the antaam breakaway into this crazed faction you keep fighting cos they absolutely had zero ideas or interest in tying positively into qunari culture you can have a relationship with, it becomes an easy excuse - “they’re not reeeeaally qunari teehee” first of all, crafting both the antaam and venatori into easily siding with supervillain elvhen gods who want to bring the blight to the world is fucking weak and pathetic excuse for it cos it doesn’t even make sense with their goals/ideologies. a very, very cheap entry into the lore, i think lazy and diminishes the world as well the utter thinness of companion background and conversations. i know there’s no dialogue wheel, but to me that’s a basic aspect of getting to know in-depth background lore about factions, status of the worldstate, different parties’ political ideologies and leanings, in standard video game infodumps cos yes this is still a video game, you need to write for it rather than focus on the realism of how conversations play out…. u can’t even call solas a monster without morrigan attempting to school you like you’re 5. this game wants you to suck solas’ dick so bad as if the rest of us from inquisition didn’t already peg him as a person who wants to cause genocide. veilguard only told us he already caused it once and now wants to do so again, but in 2 entire games, he is constantly made to be this sympathetic and deep figure that i’m supposed to be enamoured and intrigued by and want to save. why would i want to save this thousand plus year old mf who eradicated a race knowingly!! this game doesn’t even give me the opportunity to kill him, i was so disappointed by my 3 choices in the end with him, of which 2 are literally functionally the exact same. there’s no way i was gonna redeem this piece of shit even though i had mythal’s essence peacefully or whatever the fuck yeah this other abuser piece of shit is also a hero now that morrigan carries lmafoo give me a break. all da2 did was demonise anders over and over again, and again in inquisition. these chars are not even in the same universe of “crimes they’ve committed” and yet, the disparity in writers sucking one dick and trying to get u to hate the other is crazy. i hate white liberals soo much fuck all of you!!!! bitchass mfs which brings me to why i think this game is so thin and written so childishly - it’s desperate to be liked. it wants to be liked by the masses sooo bad, that it becomes nothing to me. everyone is sweet, everyone is lovely, all factions are uwu heroes, even antivan crows, who torture and abuse children but hey nvm they’re cool heroes now with no nuance. i loved all the crew, but the game makes it exactly so. no difficult stances to combat, nothing akin to any previous DA game, where there’s at least a companion or 2 people would find their nerves fray over, which is the point. this is the only game that feels so typically found family where everyone loves each other, because it’s deliberately made to be that way. a child’s idea of big threats and saving the world and everyone happy in traditional hero centric journey with a team. BUT EVEN THAT… it doesn’t commit to it fully, because it so desperately also wants to teach u a lesson on how not everyone can survive this. so… yeah… harding died in my pt, and u know what? i felt nothing until the credits rolled. cos i straight up thought it wasn’t real and we’d just get her back later. like she got stabbed and fell into the pit and i felt zero emotion cos i was like o okay she’s injured we’ll wait for this cutscene to end and next bit we’ll look into a new sub-quest for finding her or something cos ofc i had already completed all personal quests, there’s no way she would die unless the player didn’t do it. and until the credits rolled i didn’t believe she had cos i was just so stumped this game even pulled that… imagine the heartbreak and betrayal players who romanced her would have felt? it’s soo shitty wtf… no idgaf how “unrealistic” it is everyone survives. this is a video game built off fun rp-ing and romances, which is a core bioware feature. you don’t write romances and entice people on that front and then turn around and pull this shit. my god i’d have been livid but by then i was ready for the game to end so i already found myself semi-exhausted by the experience since i was maxed out at level 50 and already clocked in over 120++ hours taking my time with it slowly. certainly not something i binged through it’s not a horrible game… i do think the linear playstyle and the no death toggle was critical in my getting through it. i love the deviation from open world, and obviously, the lucanis romance really carried me through cos i adore the character and very much fell in love with him and the romance… and while like i said, i do love the crew as a whole, i can’t shake the feeling away that it’s an empty game void of classic DA mannerisms of choices and conflict of prior entries that i have strong memories of. i don’t hate it and i’ll still replay it in future if i do a DA run, but it hasn’t captivated me enough. i may sound very angry in this write up but honestly i’m pretty chill in my explanation and thoughts about disliking this game. it’s nothing to me. this DA game feels so bitchless and sauceless with no identity apart from “wow i hope everyone loves this game i’m making this as palatable to for mass consumption as possible” from hero to weak basic story to lack of imports from earlier games to classic hack-n-slash combat. definition of mid.