Dragon Age: The Veilguard Review | NoobFeed

NoobFeed editor Ahnaf Tajwar writes - We were really hoping Dragon Age: The Veilguard would be the big, satisfying comeback that would remind us why BioWare was once an RPG powerhouse. But it just doesn’t make the cut. Instead, it makes us wonder if BioWare can still create games like the Mass Effect trilogy and the early Dragon Age titles as they did. If this is what the future of Dragon Age looks like, maybe it’s time to give the series a break.

[Armaggedon]

I know people miss their rpg mechanics, but people really don’t know to embrace what is instead of what they want.

[CrimsonWing69]

I’m still trying to figure out how this combat is bad. I hear games get praised like Godcof War and to some degree it gives me a little FF7 Remake (first part) vibes, sans ATB). You even get synergy type skills for doing specific combos with party members.

[Armaggedon]

It is a strange phenomenon that I still dont know the answer to. This game shares alot of similarities with modern AAA games: presentation, narrative focused, combat that is approachable and flashy. Those games get stellar scores for these traits, but people seem to get amnesia when reviewing this game.

“Buts its not dragon age origins!!”
My response: And God of war ragnarok isnt god of war 3, people still like it though. Crazy

[MeteorPanda]

because it's the same thing? the combo seems to be the same thing. The enemies seem to be the same variety.

It's got too many issues so its' under hard scrutiny. I wont touch the pos cause of the writing and kiddy gloves it forces on the player.

[CrimsonWing69]

@MeteorPanda

Can you do me a solid? What Dragon Age game had the best combat and why? Also, while we’re at it, light, heavy, dodge, parry, run heavy, run light, jump strike and a sh*t ton of skills to choose from… how are other games more varied, exactly? I’m legit asking.

[Christopher]

***because it's the same thing? the combo seems to be the same thing. The enemies seem to be the same variety. ***

All things I can say about almost all games nowadays, including GoW Ragnarok. People are choosing to call it out here and not in most other games. I'm level 25 in the game, and the diversity of enemies seems on par with the other AAA games.

I'm really trying hard to figure out how many people here saying what you are saying are just parroting what others have said without experiencing the game yourself, though. This is definitely a game where you hear very specific negative talking points made over and over and they all stem from Skill Up or the like. It's hard to argue against people who haven't even experienced the game and just ramble on based on the opinions of others.

[CrimsonIdol]

Perhaps not EVERYONE likes the status-quo like 3rd person action adventure game combat. Like if you do that's great but not everything has to be that same thing. Inquisition walked a fine line of tactical and action where you could kind of do either, depending on your mood. It wasn't as nuanced as origins but it was there. Sort of looks like that's all but sidelined here. Personally I liked the old school tactical D&D based gameplay from the first ones. The games that made BioWare the household name it is. Though I accept that's not what I'll be getting from BioWare anymore, luckily Larian has taken up the mantle and is making BioWare games like they used to be (and being a whole lot more successful doing so)

[Armaggedon]

@meteorpanda

Elden ring? Souls games have the most basic, cut my arms off and blind fold me, dumb combat in a combat based game. Yet people love it. God of war reboot to some extent fits this bill as well.People are championing certain games for specific traits, and crucifying other games for doing the same stuff. Favoritism maybe?

[Armaggedon]

@christopher

Well said. In fact, that is exactly what I just posted before even seeing your post. Im saying this with love: People are ignorant of their own blindness. I get that people want their dragon age origins, but we cant celebrate other games for executing something, and then doo doo on dragon age for executing(pretty well I think) the dame traits that those celebrated fames possess.

[Alos88]

Why should people embrace things they don't want?

[Armaggedon]

Because thats how things are here. If we allow our selves to be bound by what we want, the attachment can cause sickness and frustration. Aim for what you want, but dont be bound by it. Someone who is bound by what they want is screaming at BioWare right now for not creating a “true” rpg. Someone who is not bound, is playing BG3 or pathfinders.

[Pedantic91]

@Armageddon

Someone not bound by wants and needs would rightfully vote with their wallets and play whatever the hell they wanted, not something by mainstream popularity.

[neutralgamer1992]

Vote with our wallets. Yes every game isn’t meant to be for all gamers but existing game franchises there is a certain level of fan service especially when it’s a RPG

If we can’t vote with our wallets than we have no right to talk. End of the day publishers only care about the money they generate.

[gleepot]

@Armaggedon well I'm also not bound to support garbage like this. Thus, they will not get my money.

[Inverno]

Or they could simply make a new game, not call it Dragon Age, not say it's an RPG? If I'm being told it's one thing, I expect that one thing, why should I then embrace something that was sold to me that turnt out to be the complete opposite? They also insinuated that it was on the same level as BG3 to further hype people into believing it had depth, but it isn't at that level at all. That is false advertising, and it should be embraced with disdain if at all.

[Extermin8or3_]

I mean it is firmly a dragon age game and it is objectively an RPG. In exactly the same way the mass effect games are an RPG. Some of the dialogue namely for a few specific characters is awful. The overarching story, gameplay, graphics, presentation, and various other mechanics are genuinely good though. Is it slightly more streamlined in some areas than previous dragon age games. Yes, is that a bad thing - in some ways yes in some ways no. Would I personally have preferred inquisition part 2 essentially? Yeah probably. Am I enjoying this and is it's combat a marked improvement- yep.

Also anyone saying it's just a linear fantasy game is full of shit. It's less linear than FF7 remake was. There is actually quite abit of exploration Todo and loads of side activities and some are quite interesting and the character building for the companions is good even if a couple of them have terrible dialogue and are annoying.

[TheNamelessOne]

RPG fans play RPGs for the roleplaying elements. If you want to just make a linear, high-fantasy action game ... make a new series. Don't just gut an existing series, make it something highly different, and then sell it on name recognition.

It's not like this is even a reboot/spin-off. This is a direct sequel to a series with three games before it that, seemingly, has no respect or interest in what came before it; or what was put in place to even bring Veilguard to fruition in the first place.

[SoloZelot90]

False claim.

People don't dislike it because it's not what they want. It's disliked because what is there isn't liked. We already knew the game wouldn't be like origins....that's blatantly obvious by looking at inquisition. They've been changing it for a while.

Every single other metric is just plain worse than in previous dragon age games. So something that is worse in every way is obviously being disliked more.

[gleepot]

Why would we embrace something we don't want, something we didn't ask for, and something that didn't need to change? Sometimes change is good, even when think we don't want it. This game is in absolutely no way good change.

[darksky]

The combat is similar to DA Inquisition which is fine by me. This review is far too negative. The game is at least a 7/10. The preset character designs are weak but you can customize quite a bit.

[Armaggedon]

Fair

[Ristul]

I always felt that the combat got dumber by the time we hit Inquisition, guess they went even furter in that direction with Veilgard.

[repsahj]

I'm a fan of Dragon Age, so I'm very disappointed with Veilguard. I waited many years for this game, but this is the only thing they will give us? The graphics and the way the characters talk is like playing a next-gen Immortals fenyx rising. It's a shame because we will have to wait many years for the next one. And I hope they go back to the old, mature theme.

[Armaggedon]

Well, Im sure there are other games that are the way you want them. I like Veilguard, and I am a hardcore fan of dragon age. Origins is still the game I have replayed the most. They just are moving things in a different direction.

[gleepot]

and it's a direction that most people don't want.

[Armaggedon]

Whelp, BG3 exists. Master yourselves people. If things arent going our way, there is a way to handle it without negatively effecting others or ourselves. Larian has done a excellent job with the turn base combat, and may have well surpassed bioware in that regard. Not every game is for everyone, and thats okay. I think…

[andy85]

In fairness I thought fenyx rising was good I might like it then 😂

[TheNamelessOne]

At this point I'm expecting the next Mass Effect to be little more than Gears of War, in space, with some romance options lol.

[Extermin8or3_]

I don't really get how this isn't mature themed. The second mission literally takes you to a village where the occupants have all been killed and left in mass graves by dark spawn. This isn't the only time stuff of this nature occurs....

[Armaggedon]

Spoilers aside for onlookers, I noticed that too just now. Pretty grizzly stuff, almost surpassing even origins with how twisted it is Goes to show that people are focusing on very specific things in the game to skew perspective. A shame.

[LordoftheCritics]

It's the execution of it.

Monsters can look like straight out of an Aliens film or Ghostbusters.
Here they went for the latter

Drama can pull at the darker threads or just surface good vs evil.

Also did you notice there's barely any blood.
That is again distancing from reality.

In simple terms, the visceral is lacking.

[RiseNShine]

Guess who didn't get an early review code...

[gold_drake]

see, having played it myself, a 4-6 score rings more true to me personally than a 9 or 10 lol

[Christopher]

I'm sitting at about a 7.5 at level 25. I can't see how you can give it a 4 unless you rate certain things way more valuable than others. I mean, we're talking Redfall bad and this game definitely isn't that.

[gold_drake]

mmmh, its definitely not redfall bad i agree.

[Elda]

I disagree that this game is a 45/100. I've put in several hours this weekend & I'm enjoying the game so far.

[lukasmain]

So what would be your honest rating so far? And please don't add any cream on top lol

[Elda]

I would give it an 8 out of 10 so far.

[anast]

It's a 5-7 game depending on taste. Even if 'you' love this game, there is no way it gets higher than 7.

[franwex]

What? Why?

[anast]

It's on rails like a mobile game, there is no enemy variety, poor level design. All of this would be a 7 if you liked the writing, the art, and are a fan of action games when they are supposed to be RPGs.

[franwex]

Isn’t that like saying that even if you love your wife, she cannot possibly be better than a 7. Like, who made you the authority on games?

[Extermin8or3_]

How is it on rails? How many hours have you put in because I just spent 2 hours or so exploring a woodland map area finding loot and solving puzzles and doing side quests I stumbled upon. None of it was linear, there was plenty of exploration and some puzzles (which aren't all that complex but that's not necessarily an issue imo ).

[Armaggedon]

This game is not on rails. It is quite similar in many regards to say, God of war. There certainly is a way the game is higher than a 7. People screamed at inquisition for not being focused enough, and now we scream at veilguard for being focused. We gotta make up our minds people.

[Asterphoenix]

I can understand there are people who dislike Veilguard a lot despite them wanting them to push to catering to a certain audience.

But mainstream review outlets feels like they were payed off to push a narrative I say from what I heard it's around 6 or 7.

Doesn't have the gritty/dark setting of their older titles and has other criticisms with character design,customization is disappointing,aspects of the story,bad dialogue and aspects of the combat.

[Christopher]

*** But mainstream review outlets feels like they were payed off to push a narrative I say from what I heard it's around 6 or 7. ***

So genius they'll pay IGN for a good review but so dumb they don't do the same with SkillUP.

People, no one is paying people off for reviews. The bigger news for a site would be that anyone tried to buy them off, not the paid off review.

[anast]

Skill Up has got too big. There's nothing they can do. If they avoid him, it's admitting you think the game sucks. Skill Up used to shill for Warframe back in the day. People got to get started somehow.

[Christopher]

SkillUP is too big, but IGN isn't? C'mon now.

[Extermin8or3_]

Skillups review is pretty disingenuous tbh. I'm level 22 and I've put many hours into the game so far. I'm quite enjoying it. Firstly bioware games main characters facial expressions aren't ever very good primarily because they need to be fully customisable and animated. He compares a companion in DA:I to his character in DA:Veilgaurd which isn't a fair comparison. He complains about the combat despite it actually generally being fun, there's an argument that it might actually be the best, most involved (from a moment to moment perspective) combat to date in a Dragon Age game. Then you have his complaints about the story - again I don't see an issue with it's tone at all. It's lighter in some ways but also not really. The threat level is very similar. The actual storyline writing and lore all fits perfectly and feels very dragon age. Some of the companions are irritating and have terrible dialogue - others don't. Bioware games have always had some truly cringe dialogue anyway. No one is as irritating as fucking red Jenny in DA: Inquisition. Every dragon age game has been quite different to every other entry - this one is no different in some respects. In terms of game design and level design I think this is the one with the most in common with Dragon Age:Origins. Or does everyone like to forget that, that was actually really quite linear. With the exception of some hub worlds. This game has more areas to freely explore than 1 or 2 did.

[Christopher]

***The way you develop relationships with the other characters in the story feels awfully out of date. You are given to do long quests that do not feel connected to the main plot at all, villains who you have no doubt will be beaten, and the same old settings and enemies you’re used to seeing in other fantasy RPG worlds.***

What nonsense is this?

1. Neve, Lucanis, Taash, Davrin, and Emmrich are all opposing the same BBEGs and those working with them in their stories. While there might be a personal note to each of them, they all involve the BBEG.

2. Lace and Bellara represent lore of the game itself and are very lore specific elements that don't have to be about BBEG but evolve lore from past games.

3. What's with the smug ass 'villains who you have no doubt will be beaten'? That's the whole point of every game? Beating the villains. We know it's going to happen. But what about those who aren't villains or what will the choices you make mean for the world you leave behind. Is everything important? No. But this whole thing is about characters and you get characters. Kind of like how none of the characters in ME2 mattered to the BBEG. But somehow having characters with their own things to do is a problem? Now? As if all of us want to just go all ham in on one story when exploring characters. What's that? "Oh, screw who you are and what you want to do, we only care about how you support us in the BBEG. So shut up and get in line. We're not doing side quests around you!"

4. That same old settings? Really? This world doesn't look like those others ones, but it's similar in big city, norther wilds, etc. But this game gets that criticism and not the thousands before? This is where the line is drawn?

[dmonee]

Perhaps it’s because im older and have been gaming since the atari 2600 felt like a great machine. Games are starting to feel stale to me, including this one. Im a few hours in and dont think its bad per se. However, its not grabbing me like I hoped it would. Just another game and just another $70 down the drain. It might be time to take a break. Idk…..