Dragon Age Veilguard: A rook can only move horizontally or vertically

[MrBrown]

70 hours, finished the game.

Seems like there's some differences in ending, I think I got the best one, but not sure.

Overall, I liked the game. For me it was probably the worst in the DA series, but it wasn't a bad game overall. Can't really compare it to modern AAA games since I don't play that many.

Worst part was the writing. The overall plot was fine, and the ending too, but the more minute details weren't that good (the baddies were uninteresting, dialogue was often bad, quests were really repetitive etc). Or as good as previous DA games, anyway. A lot of Bioware fans seems to like the games for their writing, so maybe the game won't score that big with them. No real knowledge, haven't googled to find out.

Exploration was good, but they started running out of gimmicks later on, and it got a bit repetitive. Thankfully the game ended soon after that.

Combat grew on me. It's very actiony and flashy, so that might be turn off for older players. Maybe modern AAA games does it better and ignorance was bliss for me.

Builds and stats seemed great, there were a lot of options and I could come up with lots of different ways to build my character. Buuut, since I really only played one, I have no idea if it's really that balanced. DA:O and DA:I were quite bad at that part (DA2 much better) so can't really claim it's Bioware's forte.

The game tied up most of the plotlines from previous DA games, so it felt like they intentionally made it the last one... buuut, then

Spoiler

in the end they put in a big teaser for a new baddie.

So it seems they're keeping their options open.

Edited November 10 by MrBrown

[Sarex]

1 hour ago, MrBrown said:

The game tied up most of the plotlines from previous DA games, so it felt like they intentionally made it the last one... buuut, then

  Reveal hidden contents

in the end they put in a big teaser for a new baddie.

So it seems they're keeping their options open.

Spoiler

They literally just copy/pasted the BG2 ending. I found it kind of funny.

 

[MrBrown]

I went to check on the Bioware fan forums what everyone there was thinking, and my main takeaway is that they like to call the game "DAVe".

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

15 hours ago, Sarex said:

  Reveal hidden contents

They literally just copy/pasted the BG2 ending. I found it kind of funny.

 

It's pretty much nothing. Oooh an ancient gang of ring-wraith knockoffs have been behind it ALL ALONG.

[Sarex]

6 minutes ago, PK htiw klaw eriF said:

It's pretty much nothing. Oooh an ancient gang of ring-wraith knockoffs have been behind it ALL ALONG.

My friend is telling me that it's not a shadow council but the forgotten gods, but he is also certain that the whole story was written before DA:O development even started.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

10 minutes ago, Sarex said:

My friend is telling me that it's not a shadow council but the forgotten gods, but he is also certain that the whole story was written before DA:O development even started.

I hate to **** on your friends, but that's giving Bioware too much credit. To say nothing of how the writers room has had complete turnover a fea times now.

[Hurlshort]

David Gaider probably had a long term plan, but I doubt that exists anymore.

[MrBrown]

3 hours ago, Sarex said:

but he is also certain that the whole story was written before DA:O development even started.

I got that impression from DAVe. Mainly because the big plot seemed much more interesting than all the details.

[Sarex]

6 hours ago, PK htiw klaw eriF said:

I hate to **** on your friends, but that's giving Bioware too much credit. To say nothing of how the writers room has had complete turnover a fea times now.

I was biting my tongue too when I heard him say it. He heard somewhere that they spent 4 years building the lore, before they even started the development. Seems far fetched to me too. Especially considering the ME ending fiasco.

3 hours ago, MrBrown said:

I got that impression from DAVe. Mainly because the big plot seemed much more interesting than all the details.

Who knows... It very well could be the case, but I personally have little faith left in Bioware so I doubt it. My theory is that the main quest is what didn't change much and everything else is what they had to rush when they shifted back from the MMO plan.

Edited November 11 by Sarex

[Zoraptor]

2 hours ago, Sarex said:

I was biting my tongue too when I heard him say it. He heard somewhere that they spent 4 years building the lore, before they even started the development. Seems far fetched to me too. Especially considering the ME ending fiasco.

Fairly sure I'd heard similar. I think it was DGaider? on his blog or in an interview saying that they'd developed the setting prior to DAO via pnp rpg or similar? Can't find a reference with a quick search so can't be certain I'm not mixing it up with something else though.

[bugarup]

Yeah, with the world's name Thedas (aka The Dragon Age Setting), one of the towns named Lothering etc. it does look more like something that evolved from D&D session that took 4 years. Thing is, the world made  sense and had enough verisimilitude so that if I had questions of how and why something happened, it was easy to find explanations without breaking game's inner logic and it was fun to play (still is). Second game had this too if you squinted at the story through tacked-on decisions like "We need boss fight either way!" or "No time for too different branches", but it was buried under the pile of stupid. By the third game pile of stupid turned into mountain of stupid, and from what I read about the last one they pretty much threw everything away and now's it just generic high fantasy.