Dragon Age: The Veilguard was released on Halloween after almost a decade of this franchise’s fans getting little snippets about this game. It is now finally out, being the 4th installment in the series, it had begun development in 2015 initially being titled Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. It is available now for all platforms bar the Switch.
The Storyline Isn’t Up to What BioWare Is Known For
The storyline this time involves a brand new character who we can create named Rook, we play as Rook to traverse the Veil, a gateway through which the darkspawn are coming from. Our job is to find out a way to close it, at least that is the general idea of it without spoiling it.
What has divided most people are the side quests and character design choices that were taken. Almost everyone who played the game early had criticized the character designs, saying that the characters look like they belong in Pixar movies, too cartoonish for this day and age and from a season developer such as BioWare.
All in all the general consensus being that this character design aesthetic is a step back from Dragon Age:Inquisition. Another point of debate was the awkward facial animations plaguing every scene in the game. The facial animations cannot convey any of the emotion that the voice cast is masterfully delivering, at times the characters look like they are being forced to smile while you the player would hear anger.
Look How They Massacred The Qunari
One of the biggest points of criticism with the character designs is how the Qunari look now compared to the previous Dragon Age games. In the previous games they looked distinct either having horns or being without and always had a commanding presence in any scene they were present in.
But here it seems crystal clear that they were an afterthought, the horns were just copy pasted in after development had ended. These character designs are so off putting that sometimes it gets difficult to follow on what the conversation is which then gets more frustrating when the characters try to show emotion.
It’s All Chill, Nothing Serious Happening Here
The tone of gameplay from the beginning has this vibe of unseriousness, like no one in your party seems worried or even the slightest bit concerned that a demon army might spill out at any moment. BioWare’s choice of direction here is baffling to say the least considering how dark, grueling and engaging the previous games were.
Another baffling choice here is that the character will never disagree with each other, in the previous games at any time the player would be forced to make a decision that makes them side with one party member over another, and both these choices had different consequences, opening the door for replayability.
In Veilguard, however there is none of that, no one is at each other’s throats or has fundamental disagreements with each other on anything. This takes away the interest for the player to converse with them and understand their point of views individually which would ultimately help in making later decisions.
Some Steps Forward, Many More Steps Back
One reason that many are speculating is the cause of Veilguard being this way is the fact that core BioWare writers, designers and producers who had worked on the previous Dragon Age games had left the studio because Veilguard was rumored to be canceled in 2017. When the project was restarted in 2018 it only had 1 or 2 veterans left who had worked on the previous titles.
While the game has many design issues and problems that bring down whatever story the game was trying to deliver, it still has been generally received well. What is a plus is the fact that it runs smooth and well over 100 FPS with no DLSS, a quality that is quite rare to find these days, along with that it is Steam Deck verified on launch day.
Here’s to hoping that BioWare moves the tone of this franchise back to the dark, unforgiving, apocalyptic environment that it was known for along with the thought provoking writing that isn’t afraid to make the audience uncomfortable and we may get an inkling of the era where the mere mention of Dragon Age would get everyone hyped.
