I’m a huge dragon age fan but I agree this game is not like the others. The gameplay is very dragon age 2 like but its not fluid and feels choppy sometimes.
I’m playing a rogue and when I just want to hit a wooden crate my character jumps up and down and almost falls over edges… The tactical part of fighting in this game is not there, inquisition had it perfectly. I could pause the game, fill up potions, play as my other companions if I died. You can’t do any of that.
The dialogue seems very AI like, short conversations and the start of the game is very rough, cant tell if the tone is suppose to be serious or not. Bellara seems to be a quirky funny not so serious character but I can’t tell if I’m suppose to be serious or laugh, when the world is falling apart and she is making weird jokes and doesn’t seem serious at all.
The writing is bad, combat seems choppy and its more of a hack and slash game rather than having to be mindful of your company ions health, gear and abilities.
There is no crafting at all in the game, there are a set number of weapons that you just keep upgrading by getting points for completing quests… Its just not that fun, I loved going through quests and wondering what weapon I’ll pick up or what schematic I’ll pick up. Maybe I’m just an old fart but this game has not been what I hoped for.
I’m hugely disappointed in this game and it really leaves a big sour in my mouth after waiting since 2014 for this game…
This type of disconnect is what happens when the media is more concerned about being in their sponsor’s good graces than complying with their obligation to their audience. Next time, politely decline Disneyland tickets and other freebies, ya know, like the code of journalistic ethics dictate…
Now, queue accusations of misoginy and whatever a loud minority of idiots does, while the overall message, that traditional outlets should not have these huge conflicts of interest undisclosed, gets drowned in the shit flinging by those with megaphones, vs the silent majority.
Veilguard didn’t fail because it had post op scars as a character option (but man, drama youtubers cashed in hard on that one), it failed because, apparently, nobody in the development team was as worried about shipping a good, well written and entertaining game, as they were with trauma dumping.
Edit: For the record, the laugh is for hyperbole, I’m pissed because this broken system results in further layoffs of people who were just caught in the meat grinder. UNIONISE yesterday!
I made fun of the games ratings when it came out because it had the same ratings as Starfield, and was downvoted. Some people just can’t accept publishers basically pay for reviews.
The 7th time harding yelled “BAD GUYS” was when I turned it off.
Good writeup
The writing was so bad. It sounded like children arguing rather than fantasy world characters.
Bad game is bad, shoking news!
Opencritic average is 79 and Metacritic across all three platforms is 81. How is this a bad game?
Did you not see the article this post is for?
It’s extremely repetative and boring, you use the same 2-3 skills, your “companions” can’t stop yapping, dialogs are cringeworthy. It wouldbe a bad game even if every random rating said it’s 10/10 blessed by the god and pope game.
How about instead of the very obviously paid for (in one was or another) ‘professional’ critic scores you look at the user scores? Because very apparently the players have a very clear opinion about whether or not the game is good (also reflected in sales numbers).
Now I haven’t played the game and I never had any intention to, I also haven’t played any other Dragon Age game but from the player reviews I’ve seen the game:
- deviated too much from previous Dragon Age themes, in the process (allegedly) massively disrespecting characters
- had highly repetetive gameplay
- too limited player choices (often critizised: no way to kill/kick out companions up until the very final unlike how in bg3 you can just flat out kill your potential companions if you so wish to)
- incompetent (ally) AI masked by invulnerability and high HP pools (plenty of video proof here) -and as the cherry on top: a very thorough venture into gender politics implying that said politics were more deserving of dev time than the above issues
Are you seriously suggesting that in the age of rage-fueled campaigns against any game that even dares to show a non-male in a positive light or permits the player to change pronouns user scores are reliable?
You yourself are bringing this culture war bullshit up as if it was valid criticism, which means I have a hard time taking anything you’re writing even remotely seriously.
You can’t accept the reality, it’s a bad dragon age game (low bar) and just bad game in general, it’s not because non-male characters and pronounces. Also making elements of the game as obviously rage-batey as they could instead of getting a clue that alienating your customer base is a self-fulfilling prophecy of bad sales and deserves lay-offs.
it’s a bad dragon age game (low bar)
Hey!
just bad game in general
You’ve never played anything with a metascore of less than 70, have you?
If that’s how you decide which games to play you’ve been having a bad time.
I never even check what rating someone wiser than me assignes to a game. Most of the time, I would watch a trailer or gameplay video.
In the case of a new dragons age it was gifted to me, to be honest I thought that there won’t be new one after inquisition so it was a surprise without any negative expectations.
It feels cheap in general. Story is bad, your companions are bad as in they aren’t really companions more like speaking one shot abilities with long cooldowns, world is pretty actually, there is no role play in a game where you create your character. Also you need to read a wiki if you by chance forgot in the last ten years who the bald elf is, or the gnome guy, if you never played well, your bad.
The evil gods are disney princess’s evil step-mother evil, it is straight up heroic fantasy world (compared to prevous less heroic titles, where the world is pretty dark and post-apocalyptic) with pg filter, there is nothing in the story that can discomfort you. Dialog options don’t even allow you to say something that may disturb someone, the strong worded option on the dialog wheel turns into heroic and very polite words that are said. There is no choices between bad and worse or bad and bad, there is no moral ambiguity to anything, and everything in the game is child friendly.
There is no conflicts, no one becomes angry, everyone is happy or a bit snarky at worst. Every problem between “comapnions” is resolved in one dialogue, and everyone return to their happy state.
You use the same 4-5 skills for the duration of the whole game (probably, first 10 hours at least), enemies are the same and there is a very small number of enemy types and they never end.
I’m enjoying the game. Yes, the dialog misses the mark sometimes, and yes, the combat isn’t as deep as other arpgs. I’m still enjoying the overall game, 7 out of 10 for me. It comes across as a laid-back, easy to play game, which fits my playstyle right now anyway. I think the companion side quests are the highlight so far.
They made another Dragon Age?
News to me.
Well, at least they’ve got a full team for the next Mass Effect? Until they get hit in the next mass layoff, that is.
I wonder how many writers they actually keep b/c it feels like none
Who needs writers when you can hire one underpaid editor with no real experience to turn LLM slop into a somewhat readable script?
Script??? Think bigger, friend, you don’t need developers, just tell the AI what you want and compile.
If you don’t have a script, what are the Generative Vocal Algorithms going to speak for the game? Or mass text word dumps to put on the screen for either no where near enough for an average person to read or so much longer than it actually needs to be?
“Oh, don’t worry, we’ll just have the Generative Vocal Algorithms start reciting the Bee Movie script. And for text, how about a 500-page dissertation on the philosophical implications of loot boxes? It’ll either be avant-garde brilliance or the perfect cure for insomnia. Your move!”
–ChatGPT (for realsies)
Well…that certainly puts my mind at ease!
How many studios are going to be closed because of this?
I imagine they will buy some more just to fire all the people and do nothing with the IP.
“Great idea, Johnson!” -ea
Fuck, is 1.5m players not sales, that could include free trails, EA play, Gamepass, Geforce thingy, etc.
Bummer. Played it. Liked it. Grab it on sale, I bet you’ll like it too.
Most of the intense (non-Nazi) criticism seems to come from people who didn’t play it.
