Dragon Age™: The Veilguard

Having only joined the Dragon Age Fandom with Inquisition, 2 years after that game's release, at that, I don't really understand the hate against Veilguard. I will admit that in terms of the story development, Veilguard is a slow burn/slow start, but the storytelling really picks up after Weisshaupt. One thing I absolutely support BioWare having done is drastically reducing the side mission onslaught that you get to experience with Inquisition, with the side missions in Veilguard feeling much more meaningful and not just a hamfisted attempt to add in arbitrary and meaningless missions to artificially increase your playtime. The graphics are amazingly stunning and I appreciated the action RPG elements more than most. My least favorite part of Veilguard is arguably the UI, but I am biased since I absolutely loved Inquisition so your mileage may vary in that aspect. Generally speaking, I don't consider the argument using "wokeness" as the reason to label any game bad or dismiss it as a valid argument. Especially when it comes to BioWare games. The same arguments being used in 2026 to criticize Veilguard in many a reddit comment section were the same ones being used 10+ years ago regarding Dorian, only for them to pull a complete 180 on those opinions in 2024. That being said, Taash arguably has the weakest character writing of any of the companions, and I can understand the hate surrounding discussions of Taash. It feels as though the writing surrounding Taash was done by committee and the result was a very infantilized character that is very easy to dislike given the rather superficially written personality that is attempting to be politically correct while simultaneously being the most abrasive character and failing at both. The locations you will go to are amazing and feel appropriate given that the 1st three games took place in Southern Thedas. Treviso was my favorite place in the game. The twilight atmosphere happening in the city were the sun has just set and the streets are dark but the sky is still partially sunlit is beautiful. I would argue that Veilguard is not really a spiritual sequel or successor to any of the 3 previous games but is more of a spin-off of the series whose events happen adjacent to the events of Inquisition. If you pick up this game as a first-time enjoyer of the series and go into the game with that mindset, you will have a much better time than everyone else who is going into this with the preconceived notions of what Dragon Age is supposed to be.

I really enjoyed this game. The story and side missions are great too! Story: 9/10 Visuals: 8/10 Gameplay: 9/10

A fun game with enjoyable combat set in beautiful landscapes, but as a conclusion to the well-written and thematically dense series that is Dragon Age it is intensely disappointing because of its poor writing and boring plot. The game's story relies on prior experience of the series to create any sense of investment in the player, being an ending to the story of Solas, Mythal, and the other elven gods; but the worldbuilding and writing have been so dumbed down to allow new players to get on board that established players will enjoy what's narratively on offer. I find it strange that the game is so clearly catered not towards fans of the series but to a wider, more general audience. Rather than staying true to the dark, historically-inspired fantasy setting that fans loved, The Veilguard goes for a modern writing style that bounces between Marvel-movie-esque quips and touchy-feely therapy speak, and which is totally unsuited to the atmosphere established by the previous games in the series. Some of the dialogue is so glaringly modern and anachronistic it rips you right out of the world; for example, having Rook say they are "trans", or Taash saying they are “non-binary”. To be clear, I'm not complaining about the ability to play as a transgender character—I welcome anything that adds to the kinds of characters you can effectively roleplay as in an RPG, and one of my own Rooks was a trans man. What I am complaining about is the writing. The phrasing shouldn't be copy-and-pasted from our world; there should be some euphemism tied to an in-world folk tale, or a poetic turn of phrase in keeping with the world built in the previous games. Everything about the storytelling feels safe. Conflict between companions is superficial, always based on misunderstandings and never deeply political and unresolvable. The player character always plays the mediator; they have no choice to disagree with their companions on anything, only to guide them gently in one direction or the other. The choices you make in quests are about influencing the companions personalities, not the world, and so it mostly feels a bit floaty and inconsequential. There’s also no opportunity to make the kinds of morally grey decisions with unforeseen consequences – or ends-justify-means decisions that make some of your companions hate you – that were present in the other entries in the series. In fact, the game doesn’t want anything dark to be present in its world; it’s never willing to flesh things out in case it introduces something that might be unsavoury, and actively removes those things where they pre-exist in canon. For example, the Antivan Crows, previously a cold, ruthless guild of assassins who buy and train up child slaves, have been ret-conned into a friendly mafia family. This is a Dragon Age that has had all the grit, all the conflict, scoured out of it. It has nothing to say, because if you don’t say anything, you can’t offend anybody, and your game can be unproblematically consumed by the largest possible audience—which I’m sure is what the meddling executives who demanded the game be reworked part way through development wanted. It’s not all negative, though. Although I enjoyed Inquisition, I felt it was incredibly bloated and I appreciate the return to more linear levels and a tighter story here. The environments are beautiful, and traversing them is fun. The combat is where the game is at its best. Equipment and inventory management are also well done; there’s no faffing around with weight limits or separating useful items from valuables to be sold. Each companion gets a small range of equipment with different stats and bonuses which unlock and upgrade as you level the piece up; the selection available to Rook is much wider, allowing you to tailor your equipment to your playstyle. In the end, this is a fun enough game that could have been great, surely sabotaged by the executives forcing a reboot during production, to the point that it is ultimately a frustrating, disappointing experience. Established fans won't enjoy the dumbing down of the worldbuilding and characters (something done to help ease new players in), and new players will not connect with the narrative which is the final act of a story spread across four games. This game should have been allowed to be the conclusion to the series that was originally envisioned by the developers, dense in lore and expecting the player to know what has gone before in its dark, historically-inspired setting. The new player entry point/reboot desired by the executives could have been the next entry—but because of the tepid reception to this game, that next one will likely never come. A terrible shame.

Glad i didn't listen to all the opinions around this game and just tried it. Absolutely amazing !!!

I get the hate behind the game. There is really an agenda in this game that loses some of that OG charm of Dragon Age. Taash has to be one of the worst characters ever written. With that being said the game is still great. I found the combat to be the best out of all the games. There is still a lot of enjoyable characters that I grew very fond of and didnt want to lose. Your choices matter, more so than any other game in the series. I picked the game up for 20 bucks and dont regret it. Seems to be a lot of hate by people who were just really into the first game and they hate every dragon age after it, so take it with a grain of salt. If you liked the others its a solid game.

I have hundreds of hours in this game on my Xbox, playing it on PC and having it so much closer and with so much more detail/quality is amazing. I absolutely adore this game, and I plan to put time into playing it on here too. Absolutely worth buying twice.

I loved every minute of this. Of course there are things to gripe about. The story is a bit all over the place, and the maps are rather small and get recycled often. But it was just pure joy to be allowed to return to Thedas again and bask in the glory of the lore. Once again, even though the old Bioware is no more, the characters are amazing, well written and with voice actores who do a stunning job. I am up for another Dragon Age any day.

i really enjoyed it tbh, it has flaws but overall a great game