Dragon Age: The Veilguard Marks a Return to Form for BioWare, First Reviews Say

[Tsing]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard, the new fantasy RPG from BioWare, marks a return to form for the Canadian video game developer that won the hearts of gamers with Baldur's Gate, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect, and other RPGs before spoiling its reputation with more recent projects that include Mass Effect: Andromeda and Anthem, according to positive reviews for the game that have been published today.

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[Dan_D]

No, it isn't. Anyone who has eyes and watched any of the gameplay footage can see that this is far from a return to form for BioWare. Not only that, but very few reviewers got review codes to have day one reviews available for this game. Meaning, the people who did get them were cherry picked for a reason.

After having seen a lot of coverage on the subject prior to this, there are tons of red flags on this one. The character creator, art direction and a few other things already tell us what we are in for. This will make Inquisition look like an absolute masterpiece and I couldn't make it more than three hours into that one.

 

[MadMummy76]

I've watched a pretty unbiased review of it yesterday and here is the gist of it:

• Worse pacing than ME:Andromeda
• More boring than DA: Inqusition
• Repetitive combat (same from beginning to end)
• Easy to get OP which breaks what little combat mechanics the game had
• Unlikable, inconsistent, annoying companions
• Weightless player choice (you can't be mean to anyone)
• Low quality, or outright cringe writing
• Bad VO sometimes it sounds monotonous like it was made with text to speech software
• No save import from previous games, your past choices are made irrelevant

The key takeaway is that veilguard makes ME:Andromeda and DA:Inqusition look good.

And the reviewer was careful to avoid even mentioning the countless DEI injections:

• One of the companion quests is helping them come out as non-binary they/them
• top surgery scars and androgynous shapes in character creator
• Dialogue options for coming out as trans

And who knows what else that hasn't leaked yet.

 

[Dan_D]

I've watched a pretty unbiased review of it yesterday and here is the gist of it:

• Worse pacing than ME:Andromeda
• More boring than DA: Inqusition
• Repetitive combat (same from beginning to end)
• Easy to get OP which breaks what little combat mechanics the game had
• Unlikable, inconsistent, annoying companions
• Weightless player choice (you can't be mean to anyone)
• Low quality, or outright cringe writing
• Bad VO sometimes it sounds monotonous like it was made with text to speech software
• No save import from previous games, your past choices are made irrelevant

The key takeaway is that veilguard makes ME:Andromeda and DA:Inqusition look good.

And the reviewer was careful to avoid even mentioning the countless DEI injections:

• One of the companion quests is helping them come out as non-binary they/them
• top surgery scars and androgynous shapes in character creator
• Dialogue options for coming out as trans

And who knows what else that hasn't leaked yet.

I think I saw the same review. That guy probably only got a review code because his impressions and comments from the 6 hour preview experience was generally positive. Anyone that was negative or offered criticisms of that demo weren't given review codes.

He's often been accused of being a shill (if its who I think it is), but even he can't excuse the missteps in this game.

 

[MadMummy76]

I think I saw the same review. That guy probably only got a review code because his impressions and comments from the 6 hour preview experience was generally positive. Anyone that was negative or offered criticisms of that demo weren't given review codes.

He's often been accused of being a shill (if its who I think it is), but even he can't excuse the missteps in this game.

It was MrMattyPlays, I know nothing about the guy, never seen anything from this channel before it just popped up in my recommended.

Later I learned that he was also dragged into a mini-drama, because an anti-DEI post on X had a screenshot with his custom character, so the "inclusive, tolerant" ones wanted his head immediately. But it turns out the post was made by his editor, not him.

 

[Dan_D]

It was MrMattyPlays, I know nothing about the guy, never seen anything from this channel before it just popped up in my recommended.

Later I learned that he was also dragged into a mini-drama, because an anti-DEI post on X had a screenshot with his custom character, so the "inclusive, tolerant" ones wanted his head immediately. But it turns out the post was made by his editor, not him.

Yeah, its the same one. He's not the most critical of reviewers. I'll put it that way. For example, his review of Starfield was one of the more positive ones out there. However, his review of Shattered Space was overwhelmingly negative. I think he's a positive guy by nature and simply more forgiving than other reviewers generally are. But he'll still call out bad designs and issues with games.

 

[Brian_B]

I was mildly interested before the first batch of reviews hit.

The first review I opened up talked about how it made trans people feel so much more welcomed.

I thought. Hmm.... well I guess their HR department was fist deep in GBTQ+ in the writer's room, but let's see what the rest of the review says.

Then I saw no more blood splatter - that was it for me - I'm out.