Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Discussion
I'm a little surprised there's not a thread for this already (or if there is it doesn't show up on a search)!
The 4th instalment of (in my opinion) one of the best gaming franchises there's been. A number of changes have been made since Inquisition a decade ago so it sounds like it's not as bloated as DAI (good thing) but still 80+ hours of gameplay possible and with a more action oriented combat style.
All sounds great to me, I love a good story driven single player RPG. I can't wait to get my hands on it in a couple of weeks!
The 4th instalment of (in my opinion) one of the best gaming franchises there's been. A number of changes have been made since Inquisition a decade ago so it sounds like it's not as bloated as DAI (good thing) but still 80+ hours of gameplay possible and with a more action oriented combat style.
All sounds great to me, I love a good story driven single player RPG. I can't wait to get my hands on it in a couple of weeks!
Giving this one a miss. Played through Origins and Awakenings many times. DA2 twice and could only bear the slog of Inquisition once. Turned it into a cartoony big headed ARPG - so no thanks I prefer my dark high fantasy rpg to be gritty and not a Marvel wannabe (I don't mind Marvel as Marvel - played though Guardians of the galaxy and generally enjoyed it for what it was - a linear un-serious action game). The deliberate choice to move away from the history of the other games stinks more of laziness than a real direction change. The art direction and from what I've seen of gameplay this is not a game steeped in Dragon Age law but another game with Dragon Age cynically slapped on the top to cash in on the name.
It's controversial....check out page 4 & 5 of the Assassin's Creed thread
At the moment, best thing to do it wait for the dust to settle, there's a lot of intentional review trolling in both directions, but some of the later reviews (that, is, ones who didn't have early keys) and very much that it's just "OK" for an action RPG, but the writing/characters are poor.
It's a £20 sale game in 12 months for me, but I would like it play it at some point as I've played all the others.
I'm...disappointed.
Gameplay-wise it's actually pretty good. It took me about half an hour to get the control settings the way I wanted them as it felt too slow for the action on screen but I'm now mostly happy with it and enjoying the gameplay. I'd argue the upgrade-Tree is too large as it feels as though I'm "wasting" points to get to what I want currently but that's not a game-breaker.
What is fast becoming a game-breaker for me however is the dialogue and story-telling. What has been one of DA's strengths is, frankly, awful here. It's like the game was written for 10 year olds with ADHD and the literary depth of a Sunday cartoon at the bottom of the litter tray.
The exposition is constant and is laughable and not a single character can take anything seriously. "Oh the world is ending, let me tell you how I feel about how the world is ending in an incredibly one-dimensional way and always, always end on an insufferably bad little quip or comment", because god knows we wouldn't want to have anything approaching real negative emotions.
I a currently slogging though it to see if it gets better after you find all the characters but man, I was coming downstairs for my coffee this morning and thinking about getting a session in and all I felt was...irritation about having to.
I *love* the DA franchise, I'd just completed another run of all 3 to get ready for this game and the tonal-shift is immensely jarring, last game there wasn't enough chat, here it's all I can do to stop myself shouting at the TV to tell them to shut up!
Gameplay-wise it's actually pretty good. It took me about half an hour to get the control settings the way I wanted them as it felt too slow for the action on screen but I'm now mostly happy with it and enjoying the gameplay. I'd argue the upgrade-Tree is too large as it feels as though I'm "wasting" points to get to what I want currently but that's not a game-breaker.
What is fast becoming a game-breaker for me however is the dialogue and story-telling. What has been one of DA's strengths is, frankly, awful here. It's like the game was written for 10 year olds with ADHD and the literary depth of a Sunday cartoon at the bottom of the litter tray.
The exposition is constant and is laughable and not a single character can take anything seriously. "Oh the world is ending, let me tell you how I feel about how the world is ending in an incredibly one-dimensional way and always, always end on an insufferably bad little quip or comment", because god knows we wouldn't want to have anything approaching real negative emotions.
I a currently slogging though it to see if it gets better after you find all the characters but man, I was coming downstairs for my coffee this morning and thinking about getting a session in and all I felt was...irritation about having to.
I *love* the DA franchise, I'd just completed another run of all 3 to get ready for this game and the tonal-shift is immensely jarring, last game there wasn't enough chat, here it's all I can do to stop myself shouting at the TV to tell them to shut up!
Mannginger said:
I'm...disappointed.
Gameplay-wise it's actually pretty good. It took me about half an hour to get the control settings the way I wanted them as it felt too slow for the action on screen but I'm now mostly happy with it and enjoying the gameplay. I'd argue the upgrade-Tree is too large as it feels as though I'm "wasting" points to get to what I want currently but that's not a game-breaker.
What is fast becoming a game-breaker for me however is the dialogue and story-telling. What has been one of DA's strengths is, frankly, awful here. It's like the game was written for 10 year olds with ADHD and the literary depth of a Sunday cartoon at the bottom of the litter tray.
The exposition is constant and is laughable and not a single character can take anything seriously. "Oh the world is ending, let me tell you how I feel about how the world is ending in an incredibly one-dimensional way and always, always end on an insufferably bad little quip or comment", because god knows we wouldn't want to have anything approaching real negative emotions.
I a currently slogging though it to see if it gets better after you find all the characters but man, I was coming downstairs for my coffee this morning and thinking about getting a session in and all I felt was...irritation about having to.
I *love* the DA franchise, I'd just completed another run of all 3 to get ready for this game and the tonal-shift is immensely jarring, last game there wasn't enough chat, here it's all I can do to stop myself shouting at the TV to tell them to shut up!
Your comment over the dialogue has been repeated in many reviews (even the positive ones) and re-inforces my decision not to buy. It could be a mobile game from the gameplay I've viewed online (things you need to interact with are brightly coloured and shiny) and maps seem totally linear (whilst DA:O was fairly linear this was more forgiving as a limitation of the technology at the time). Looks like the first trailer was an accurate depiction of the game and whilst EA back tracked after the fallout - the latter trailers now look like gaslighting. Oh well. Have just bought the liberty city DLC for cyberpunk so that should keep me occupied.Gameplay-wise it's actually pretty good. It took me about half an hour to get the control settings the way I wanted them as it felt too slow for the action on screen but I'm now mostly happy with it and enjoying the gameplay. I'd argue the upgrade-Tree is too large as it feels as though I'm "wasting" points to get to what I want currently but that's not a game-breaker.
What is fast becoming a game-breaker for me however is the dialogue and story-telling. What has been one of DA's strengths is, frankly, awful here. It's like the game was written for 10 year olds with ADHD and the literary depth of a Sunday cartoon at the bottom of the litter tray.
The exposition is constant and is laughable and not a single character can take anything seriously. "Oh the world is ending, let me tell you how I feel about how the world is ending in an incredibly one-dimensional way and always, always end on an insufferably bad little quip or comment", because god knows we wouldn't want to have anything approaching real negative emotions.
I a currently slogging though it to see if it gets better after you find all the characters but man, I was coming downstairs for my coffee this morning and thinking about getting a session in and all I felt was...irritation about having to.
I *love* the DA franchise, I'd just completed another run of all 3 to get ready for this game and the tonal-shift is immensely jarring, last game there wasn't enough chat, here it's all I can do to stop myself shouting at the TV to tell them to shut up!
Looks like a few of the old employees of Bioware are working at a new studio:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iX0eEZvCJcg
Think I'll keep an eye on this one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iX0eEZvCJcg
Think I'll keep an eye on this one.
It's topped out at 89,418 players on steam, Baldurs Gate 3 hit 875,343 on release, Cats the interactive cat clicker had more players on launch.
Underperforming and not selling enough to even get close to their money back (budget was $250m)
Underperforming and not selling enough to even get close to their money back (budget was $250m)
Edited by FourWheelDrift on Wednesday 6th November 16:17
FourWheelDrift said:
It's topped out at 89,418 players on steam, Baldurs Gate 3 hit 875,343 on release, Cats the interactive cat clicker had more players on launch.
Underperforming and not selling enough to even get close to their money back (budget was $250m)
Hardly suprising as its yet another game ramming gender politics down the players throat Underperforming and not selling enough to even get close to their money back (budget was $250m)
Edited by FourWheelDrift on Wednesday 6th November 16:17
Well, I'm really enjoying it anyway!
Playing on XSX on Performance, and it looks pretty enough to my eyes. I vastly prefer the new style of combat, and although it's a bit more hack and slash than I was used to on the older games (all of which I played to death) that suits me just fine as a more casual gamer these days. I find it odd that your companions are basically invincible and it's only you that can take damage, but again that fits a more casual style of game. I quite like the story and haven't found the dialogue too jarring or simple, although I'll concede that picking the comedy option every time seems to get the best results. The amount of auto saves and before-decision saves are also excellent, and very helpful.
I do wish the combat combo system was a bit more well thought out, as finding out what combos with what seems very trial and error to me. Also nice that anyone can romance anyone with no gender bias any more: Unrealistic from life sure, and pandering to a subset of people yeah, but at least I'm not locked away from options because of that. Bioware games have always been very LGBTQ friendly and this is certainly an extreme version of that, but I can't blame them for giving more options. I'd say I'm about 50% of the way through so far, and the level design is very well structured with places either easy to get to or obviously locked off until later.
Not perfect by any means, but it's very enjoyable for me. I'd give it 8 Jaffa Cakes out of a packet.
Playing on XSX on Performance, and it looks pretty enough to my eyes. I vastly prefer the new style of combat, and although it's a bit more hack and slash than I was used to on the older games (all of which I played to death) that suits me just fine as a more casual gamer these days. I find it odd that your companions are basically invincible and it's only you that can take damage, but again that fits a more casual style of game. I quite like the story and haven't found the dialogue too jarring or simple, although I'll concede that picking the comedy option every time seems to get the best results. The amount of auto saves and before-decision saves are also excellent, and very helpful.
I do wish the combat combo system was a bit more well thought out, as finding out what combos with what seems very trial and error to me. Also nice that anyone can romance anyone with no gender bias any more: Unrealistic from life sure, and pandering to a subset of people yeah, but at least I'm not locked away from options because of that. Bioware games have always been very LGBTQ friendly and this is certainly an extreme version of that, but I can't blame them for giving more options. I'd say I'm about 50% of the way through so far, and the level design is very well structured with places either easy to get to or obviously locked off until later.
Not perfect by any means, but it's very enjoyable for me. I'd give it 8 Jaffa Cakes out of a packet.
Getting to the end of this now (I think), so tidying up the last of the companion missions to max them out, and get all side missions done. Gameplay I've already spoken about, but here's a few other things worth mentioning.
QOL: Honestly, I really appreciate the thought that has gone into this game on this. The spawn points are plentiful without feeling stupid, and the ability to fast travel from anywhere to anywhere is lovely. Also worth saying that the amount of to-ing and fro-ing that can happen on games like this where you pick a mission up in one place then have to travel somewhere else, and then immediately back again afterwards is absent. There's no painful long treks to get to places/people thanks in part to the spawn points but also it's easy to spend time in one place tidying stuff up, rather than back and forth all the time. As an example, ME Andromeda was spectacularly bad for this, to the point I really hate going back to it even though I love the ME games.
Also, it flags on the global map screen where new missions are so you don't even have to load in and check the local map screen to find out if something new is available. Simple, but clever.
Length: I've done 55+ hours now, and I feel like I've done about every quest available and picked up every chest I've come across barring a few which I suspect will be grabbable in the last few missions I have left. Seems a reasonable amount of playtime, basically a cost of £1 p/h of game time. Not quite the 100hrs+ we can get from Bethesda games, but certainly good enough.
Missions: Y'know, I've never found myself bored of the missions yet. There's a great variety in what you do and how it's told so it never feels like "Oh this is a search quest/kill a bad guy quest/fetch quest", and whilst the story telling might not be the best in the genre it keeps it feeling fresh.
Difficulty: Now this is probably my error, but I've got it set on easiest as I have a busy life and don't have the time to faff around at higher levels. At the start this still provided a reasonable challenge where you had to use your powers properly, but at the mid-way point I'm so powerful now with a hammer that deals so much stagger that two hits and I can finish any enemy outside of a boss, so I don't even use powers now. It's become more hack and slash, which may or may not be a bad thing to some. I don't think this is a flaw, it's more by design but any battle isn't scary any more. My bad, I should put the difficulty up I guess.
Romancing: I love how it is made very clear whether a dialogue choice will commit fully to an exclusive relationship, break off any chance of a relationship, or is harmless flirting (which, according to Mrs Ekona, doesn't exist
). You're never left in any doubt as to the result of any choice, and as per the QOL comments it allows you to explore the choices without worrying about locking in/removing the option in the future.
Very much enjoying this, it may be dumbed down from earlier games but it's fun above all, and that's all I can ask from a game.
QOL: Honestly, I really appreciate the thought that has gone into this game on this. The spawn points are plentiful without feeling stupid, and the ability to fast travel from anywhere to anywhere is lovely. Also worth saying that the amount of to-ing and fro-ing that can happen on games like this where you pick a mission up in one place then have to travel somewhere else, and then immediately back again afterwards is absent. There's no painful long treks to get to places/people thanks in part to the spawn points but also it's easy to spend time in one place tidying stuff up, rather than back and forth all the time. As an example, ME Andromeda was spectacularly bad for this, to the point I really hate going back to it even though I love the ME games.
Also, it flags on the global map screen where new missions are so you don't even have to load in and check the local map screen to find out if something new is available. Simple, but clever.
Length: I've done 55+ hours now, and I feel like I've done about every quest available and picked up every chest I've come across barring a few which I suspect will be grabbable in the last few missions I have left. Seems a reasonable amount of playtime, basically a cost of £1 p/h of game time. Not quite the 100hrs+ we can get from Bethesda games, but certainly good enough.
Missions: Y'know, I've never found myself bored of the missions yet. There's a great variety in what you do and how it's told so it never feels like "Oh this is a search quest/kill a bad guy quest/fetch quest", and whilst the story telling might not be the best in the genre it keeps it feeling fresh.
Difficulty: Now this is probably my error, but I've got it set on easiest as I have a busy life and don't have the time to faff around at higher levels. At the start this still provided a reasonable challenge where you had to use your powers properly, but at the mid-way point I'm so powerful now with a hammer that deals so much stagger that two hits and I can finish any enemy outside of a boss, so I don't even use powers now. It's become more hack and slash, which may or may not be a bad thing to some. I don't think this is a flaw, it's more by design but any battle isn't scary any more. My bad, I should put the difficulty up I guess.
Romancing: I love how it is made very clear whether a dialogue choice will commit fully to an exclusive relationship, break off any chance of a relationship, or is harmless flirting (which, according to Mrs Ekona, doesn't exist
). You're never left in any doubt as to the result of any choice, and as per the QOL comments it allows you to explore the choices without worrying about locking in/removing the option in the future.Very much enjoying this, it may be dumbed down from earlier games but it's fun above all, and that's all I can ask from a game.
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