Dragon Age: the Veilguard — reviewed!

It is time — time to regale you all with my review of Dragon Age: the Veilguard.

Straight off the bat I would like to admit that generally I am a Bioware fan-girl. I love Jade Empire, KOTOR, SWTOR, the Mass Effect trilogy and Andromeda, and the previous Dragon Ages.

My favourite Dragon Age is Origins. Next favourite is Dragon Age 2. And I can honestly say that I like the Veilguard better than Inquisition. Inquisition is last on my list. That's not to say that I don't find anything wrong with this new Dragon Age, because I do, but I find it a lot funner and more rewarding to play.

It feels like Dragon Age 2, but with less enticing companions and more exploration and adventure.

Let's begin upon our Journey of Babbles!

First of all: the character creator.

This is possibly one of the best character creators I've ever played around with. A lot of the presets are ugly as sin, but thankfully you can customise every aspect of your Rook's body and face.

In a new effort for Bioware, even the hair is nice! There are several fantastic options available, both long and short, and I am pleased that I have absolutely no need to download character enhancing mods to make my character look better.

Of course there is the ye olde diversity factor included in the character creator -- but, of course, you can ignore it if you so wish.

The graphics are freakin' gorgeous.

Like many people, I was concerned when I first saw various trailers for this game. The companion reveal trailer in particular was goddamned awful and looked like something out of Fortnite.

Thankfully, however, the actual game is nothing like that. The graphics are gorgeous -- in my opinion, possibly the best graphics in any of the Dragon Age games, including Inquisition.

There are so many different environments, the lighting is phenomenal, the characters are well-animated, everything is just stunning. I lose myself often taking in the scenery, pausing to check out the photo mode, admiring all the details that are on often. It's a truly beautiful game.

The map is sizeable with plenty of locations to explore. Each of the locations have secrets to discover, treasures to find, and ancient altars to activate for additional health and free skill points.

There are a couple of cities, a beach, forests, the deep roads, the fade, crypts, tombs, dungeons, swamps... we visit Weisshaupt! The Grey Warden fortress. Even better, all of these areas actually look different and exude a different atmosphere.

While there are beautiful regions, there are also dark and creepy regions. Blood-drenched. Blight-ridden. Skeletons, corpses, deceased everywhere. An Elizabeth Bathory Woman bathing in blood. Murder, massacres. A lot of reviewers are saying that the game doesn't feel 'dark'..... how much darker can you get?

I mean, sure, it's not like in Origins where you bear witness to dwarves being raped by darkspawn to become Mothers in order to bear new darkspawn. That was pretty dang dark. But it's still dark.

The combat is SO MUCH FUN. I love it.

In previous Dragon Ages, for me anyway, the combat was just 'there.' It was something I HAD to do to progress the story. In Inquisition in particular it was so very tiring. All the enemies were damage sponges and they were just in my way.

In this... you have your three active abilities and your ultimate, and you also have six other abilities thanks to whichever companions you have with you. The companions aren't really there to do immense damage, but more to help your character whether it be by taunting the enemies for a few seconds, healing you, making you invulnerable for a time, or helping to set up powerful detonation combinations.

They don't get injured or die, only you can. So you don't need to worry about keeping them alive, only yourself.

My character is a mage and as a mage you have two weapon choices. The typical staff, or a dagger/orb combo that makes you a Spellblade. I chose the Spellblade and there is so much dodging, dashing, take-downs. I focused on lightning damage, which, thanks to the skill tree, also burns my enemies, and I can put arcane bombs on enemies to explode things. It's great! Fast-paced, active, and so much fun.

The combat is so good that I literally want to make another character and play through again, just to test out what a rogue or maybe a warrior has to offer.

The dialogue wheel is basically the same as Dragon Age 2's. The good persona, the jokester persona, then the harder persona.

Some reviewers are disappointed that you can't be evil in this game... well, truth be told - you couldn't be evil in Dragon Age 2 or Inquisition either. You could be hella evil in Origins!!! But Bioware abandoned that path long ago.

That's not to say that's not disappointing. I would love to play a dark and evil character, but at the same time... a dark and evil character in this story would be helping the antagonists, and that's just not Rook's story. Just like it wasn't the Inquisitor's story to help Solas destroy the world, as much as I would've loved to have done that too.

The companions... this is where things start to get a bit weak.

None of the companions are particularly notable. Neve and Bellara in particular have quite awful voice actresses - Neve is monotonous but her voice has slowly grown on me. Bellara is a hyperactive chipmunk and I can't stand her voice or quirkiness.

Harding seems younger and less confident than she was "ten years ago" in Inquisition, whereas Varric seems like he's aged a good 30 or so years during this mere ten.

Lucanis could be interesting, if the demon inside of him wasn't basically a tantrumming child.

Davrin, the Grey Warden with a griffon friend, just seems like a typical black guy. He's supposed to be Dalish, but he might as well just be a human with pointed ears.

Actually, all of the characters may as well just be human. Dwarves don't feel like dwarves, Dalish don't feel like elves. Hell, I haven't even heard one derogatory 'knife-ear' comment and I'm certain Northern Thedas would be just as racist, if not more, than the South.

Of course, there is Taash. Everyone has heard of Taash. The non-binary Qunari she-he who will apparently make you do push-ups if you're mean to her. It. All of her dialogue is based on her identity which is freakin' annoying. But then, I remember, I'm almost 40 and games like this will always be marketed towards 25yr olds or so.

If/when I play through this again, I'll just be ignoring her. Easy solve.

It does suck though. I normally love Bioware Companions... but I actively couldn't care less about these people.

One saving grace that is a nice improvement though: if companion banter starts and then is interrupted by a nonsense NPC, after the unimportant drivel stops the companions resume their conversation. YAY! Too bad I don't care about them.

Story-wise... without getting into specifics: I like having a follow-up to the events from Inquisition. Just knowing what's happened since Solas did everything, and it's nice to learn more lore, too. The main story beats are on point, and although there are minimal things that my Rook seems to influence, I'm finding that I don't really mind.

It's more like Mass Effect in that regard. An interactive movie, basically, with very basic choice on offer.

Your 'choices' affect the companions more than anything else. Like "you have encouraged Harding to think of her newfound magic as a gift", or "you have made an enemy of the First Warden due to your actions", or "Taash has decided to embrace the Qun thanks to your words."

If you trade barbs with Solas, he remembers your spiteful words and reacts accordingly later on down the track. Taash's mother is horrified that you encouraged her daughter to embrace the Qun. Just stuff like that.

I am disappointed that none of my previous choices have really done anything in the game. For example: who did I make Divine? What outcome did that have on the mages/templars? The only choices that get carried through are your Inquisitor, who they romanced, and if they disbanded the Inquisition or not.

I don't really care about events in Origins/DA2 being alluded to as much, though it would be interesting to see Faynriel the half-elf 'dreamer' since he got sent to Tevinter to learn more about his magic. Or even Fenris, since he could be taking his revenge upon the Magisterium. Nothing huge that would've required a lot of world saves and tonnes of background data, but, just a few tiny tidbits.

Overall it doesn't bother me though. It's been years since previous events. My Warden and Alistair are probably in the Deep Roads now, suffering their Calling, Hawke is in the Fade, eaten by a ginormous Fear demon. Just make up your own head-cannon, I guess.

TL;DR:

It's an enjoyable game with fun combat, interesting story, with additional Dragon Age lore to learn which I found quite interesting!

I love the graphics, the music, the combat, the 'Dragon Age 2 Feeling' and the main story woven through the game.

I do not love the companions and several aspects of the dialogue. That doesn't sound like much, but I usually love Bioware Companions so it's so very disappointing to me that I have no care for these Friends of Rook. I like the Andromeda companions more than I like these people, and that's saying a lot.

I would ignore the majority of negativity you may read about this game - it's hyperbolic and won't make that much of an appearance in your game unless you CHOOSE it. Unless, of course, you try to talk to Taash. Big. Major. Eyeroll. I recommend not talking to it at all.

But, do I recommend the game? Yes. Yes I do!