Dragon Age The Veilguard Criticism Thread (formerly Skepticism Thread) [Spoilers]

Some reviewers have said it is boring for the first 50 hours. I suppose it depends on whether you are doing a speed run or not. The main thing was that one reviewer, I can't remember who, said it was boring for the first 66-75% of the game and then the last bit of around 5 hours, was when it got really interesting. So far as I'm concerned even if it is only 20 hours of slog, that is not appealing to me, particularly as they said that the game play was really repetitive in how you approach and resolve battles and, as I had started to suspect from watching earlier game play videos, most of the fighting is just endless repetition of long drawn out battles against regular opposition interspersed with long drawn out boss fights.

Now I have to admit I tend to regard battles as a necessary inconvenience that I have to overcome to get to the next bit of the story. Thus, I put thought into how I can reduce the amount of time I spend on them. It is really satisfying if I can sneak up on an enemy and surprise them with an area of effect spell that takes half of them out of the fight immediately. Then send in the tanks to finish off the rest. Job done and on to the next problem.

Something that also concerned me is that one reviewer spoke about spawning enemies that sounded reminiscent of DA2. Surely not? We didn't have that in DAI. You scouted out the battlefield, counted the number of enemies you had to deal with and then did so. Occasionally I would finish a fight only to be mauled by a passing bear but I accepted that as a peril of being out in the wilderness, even if it was annoying. So, I don't know whether I should believe that reviewer or not.

I think what seems to have happened is that the lengthy Act 1 is what would originally have been the multi-player game. The other more interesting stuff was likely originally intended to be issued as additional "live service" content. Then when they switched to single player, they had to decide whether to include it in the main game or as DLC. (They mentioned having had this discussion in one of the earlier Dev videos). Likely they realised that people would feel really cheated if the best stuff was kept back for DLC, so they added it in as the final 5-6 hours of the game which is much better than the rest. It remains to be seen whether that is just because of the combat, the narrative or the decision making you can do. However, it is possible there will be some sort of assignment of forces, a bit like in the Battle of Denerim or ME2, so you go off with two companions and opt for other people to perform tasks as you think appropriate. If that actually affected the outcome that would redeem the game somewhat in my eyes. Getting the party composition and assignment of tasks right in ME2 at the end was one of the aspects of the game I did find most satisfying.

I just saw the pic. Man I'm not even an Isabela fan and I think she was done dirty.

I've chosen to look at the bright side: I'm getting tons of entertainment, completely free of charge. No need to buy the game.

At this point I'm absolutely certain that I have seen enough to decide that this weird game is not for me. And that's totally alright because there's still lots of publishers and dev studios that make games that I love and enjoy a lot.

Though the response to it sometimes gives me a vaguely disturbing feeling like being one of the last few people that the genestealer cult hasn't gotten to yet.

What did they do to Isabela?

Well if you start a new playthrough for God sakes get out of the Hinterlands as fast as possible.  Really just stick to the main story and companions you like and it's a good game.  I largely ignore the areas not relevant to plot or companion threads.  If you don't have any of the DLC's only Trespasser is really necessary (lol I was about to say for DAV....ahhhh!)  If you enjoy difficult combat then JOH definitely steps things up...and it has an interesting story...lots of good loot and high tier crafting materials as well...some good lore stuff too...you can also pickup several levels.  Didn't much care for Descent but some good engagements and loot...story was okay...weak final boss.  It's one of those games that you have to learn how to play "right" to fully enjoy.

One or two of the latest posts here has the link to her DAV iteration (and Dorian's). I think the better question is "what they didn't do to her?"

I want to burn cities to the ground, quell mages or templars, learn Blood Magic, have threesomes with a pirate queen and a redhead Orlesian bard, sell a child's soul to a demon in exchange of demonic sex, massacre Dalish clans and befriend werewolves, visit brothels, decimate Qunari armies, recruit traitors and allies that hate each other, avenge controversial yet necessary fallen orders, fight evil with evil, make heinous choices in the name of the greater good... pity DA is no longer that

I want the OPTION for all that. Because even if I don't do it in one playthrough, I might want to in another.

And that's why we continue to play those older games and forever put away MEA and soon DAV forever after a single one. At this point my best case is for EA to shutter Bioware and sell off the ME and DA IP's to a developer that understands RP games are about storytelling and player agency.

Can you imagine what Saber or Larian could achieve with these IPs? Obsidian? Untapped potential there. At least there's Exodus to look forward to. 

Or Owlcat. They let your character become an actual demon (or angel) in Wrath of the Righteous.

Remember the 2020 trailer and how it ended with "Demons, dragons, darkspawn, even the Dread Wolf". Duh, Duh, Duh.   Mind you, we did speculate that those two figures hanging upside down might be two of the Evanuris/Old Gods.     There is just the possibility that old blue eyes may be the ultimate boss.    I'm sort of a mind to let him destroy the world now.   Nuke 'em, Wolfie.