Veilguard Gameplay June 11th

Yeah, I didn't want to be as nitpicky as some people are, but there was a lot about this opening scene that just felt... stupid, to me. As extensive as many nations' and organizations' spy networks are, you mean to tell me that only a rinky-dink group of 3/4 were the only ones to be able to trail Solas' to his ritual location? And that even knowing his power as an ancient elven god and his plot, that no nation brought their entire power to bear against him? And of Solas himself, where are all the elves he recruited to help him? You'd have imagined him to have had a legion of elven guards protecting him as he enacted his ritual instead of just performing it alone. Obviously we're missing scenes that were cut from the footage, but somehow I don't think they'll be able to explain all my questions away.

agree with the 3. But I believe if we didn't see something like this in this demo, I would immediatly remeber those Anthem and Cyberpunk "Gameplay" reveals with "everything fluid and perfectly working". Maybe it sounds weird, but a "small glitch" like this gives creditibility to the gameplay they are showing, in my opinion

really agree with your 4.

and I noticed something weird with Solas' face, too. It looks different from DAI and James McAvoy face 

The adding of the bow huge improvement. Looking forward what option a mage gets and a warrior

Not loving the demon design but they were slow moving in dai etc so I’m on the fence

Size of combat areas- seemed small and not seeing any tactics strategy etc. maybe it’s a zoom issue but I’m worried

Everything is super bright (monsters especially) and feels like a flashy shooter

Might just me but I was a little lost on what was going on in beginning but it’s been a while


Hopefully we get specs needed soon

OK I'm one of the few conflicted people here. I'm not sure how I feel about it.
I didn't hate it. But there wasn't anything I found particular exciting either. It's... fine. Which is a much better impression than I expected, mind you. So I'm not opposed right now to giving the game a chance but not day 1, for sure. I need to see a lot more of the storytelling and companion interactions to know how good the writing actually is. Action packed intros are not good indicators.

There was no cringe dialogue as I had feared so that's a great relief. Already makes me hopeful it's way better than Andromeda. But I remain wary.

The first thought I had: this is like the ME3 prologue! LOL
Seriously, it's so similar I chuckled. I did NOT like the ME3 prologue however. Worst part of the game too me. Worse than the endings maybe, hot take I know. Way too rushed. I still wish the game didn't start with the reaper invasion and it's the same for the veil here. I do not like this rushed push into crisis mode within a minute of starting the game. Before ME3 released I imagined we'd be assembling allies for half of the game before the invasion, everybody still in denial, growing sense of doom, not while it's already in full swing. Sure, looks cool all this action but I didn't like it and this is disappointing here too. I wanted veil action in the third act. Doesn't mean of course the plotting can't still be good. I loved ME3 overall. Just a negative association for me right off the bat.
I also wanted the veil coming down to be a choice at the very end of the series. So I'm setting myself up for disappointment having something very specific in mind as any ideal ending. Never a good way to approach a story. Because I won't get that 100%. What little hope I had for it died with this showcase.

I agree with people that they should have shown combat from mid game. Tutorial combat is always boring. If they'd shown the beginning of ME3 just rushing through enemies with a crappy gun and like one power I would not have been very impressed either. My friend in his 50s who is a huge Mass Effect fan and also likes DA turned the stream off after a few minutes, bored. Went back to playing BG3. As omg the world is ending this was visually there's nothing really interesting happening aside from Solas at the end gameplay wise.
So no, I'm not excited about the combat after this video. It just looks... OK. Again I expected awful so OK is still reassuring. I was really horrified by the gameplay leaks suggesting a complete abomination, so I'm happy it looks inoffensive. I always enjoyed ME combat a lot more than DA combat so importing the power wheel and 3 powers button layout thing doesn't have to be a bad thing. My fav combat style was DA2. Hated DAI. So it can only get better in my book.

As for the visual presentation, it's still kinda ehhh. Not good, not bad. I do not like all the neon, especially the UI looks so generic modern game flashy. I do not like it for Dragon Age. DAI already had very colorful spells, visual overload while being extremely boring at the same time. So just trying to wow me with special effects is not gonna work.

The sound design seems very boring. Very generic. It's like they all download the same sound effects from a library. All AAA games in the past five years sound the same to me in the combat department. Andromeda already had very disappointing sound effects. Killed the biotic boom, that was unforgivable. Don't remember what I thought of DAI.

I think what irks me the most about the visuals of this game is that it feels even more Disney than before. I don't need grim dark, I thought DAI was so very pretty and I had so much fun just drinking in the beautiful landscapes. But where is the blood? The enemies just dissolve into dust like in a Nintendo game. I know, they're demons but still. Why are demons just neon glowing things now? They don't look scary. The city is appropriately dark and menacing yet again like Andromeda it looks a bit sanitized. There is definitely a kind of kid friendly cartoon vibe to everything that I dislike a bit. But I might just need to get used to it. I'm not as in shock as I was seeing DA2, lol. And in the end if the narrative is good I won't care too much about the art style. I hope...

So yeah, very conflicted right now. But leaning towards somewhat hopeful now that the game could be decent. I don't expect great but right now I don't expect a complete disaster either.

Sorry for the wall of text.

Now I'm curious to see some mage gameplay.

Though judging from the UI, I suppose it's magical boomstick long range attacks and up to three spells? That would be a bit sad, but that's gameplay for modern audiences I suppose.

Also since the potion limit is still there I'd love to know if the barrier spam is still around too.

EDIT: also, fights against big non-humanoid creatures please. Did they fix those hitboxes?

Brigaders are so blatant with this video.

Half an hour ago, it was 35k likes to 15k dislikes. Now it's 36k likes to 33k dislikes.

Seems ignorable to me. I don’t know why people would care about the likes/dislikes ratio when that’s never ever been a good way to judge interest anyways.

My question is where does the red lyrium idol fit into this? Also, did anyone else notice that one of the elven god symbols were missing from the statues?