My thoughts on Dragon Age Veilguard: 6/10 (spoilers DATV)

It’s a polished, fun game. If you know nothing about dragon age, you’ll love it. If you’ve been a fan since Origins and know all the lore your opinions may be… mixed. I know my feelings on the game are mixed.

DATV obviously went through development hell and the people who worked so hard on the project for years should be applauded for their efforts. But oh my goodness, the writing is bad in some parts.

I’m so grateful to be back in Thedas. The levels are so beautiful and full of detail. Docktown and Treviso remind me of how my Hawke in DA2 ruled Kirkwall and it was so much fun to have large urban environments to explore. I could imagine Hawke and the Kirkwall crew running around Docktown and raising all kinds of glorious hell. It was hard to really care much about what my Rook was doing, but it was nice to see the cities, those levels made me feel so nostalgic for past games.

The battle at Weisshaupt was legitimately cool and a great mission. All the content with the wardens was great. I was a fan of the Last Flight and it was neat to see the return of Isseya as the Gloom Howler.

It was neat to see Heir now working with the Crows, and to get little tie-ins with other NPCs from past games. RIP Keeper Hawen.

Isabella, Morrigan, and Dorian felt out of character.

The NPC claiming to be my Inquisitor felt like a mannequin with no clothes on. I tried my best to look beyond this but it was disappointing.

I was legitimately disappointed that the only imported choices were about romancing Solas.

Most of the companions were interesting enough, and the annoying ones were not any worse than Oghren.

Depending on your choices, 4 of the companions will pair up into two couples. One of the couples has great chemistry while the other couple is pretty cringey and has a romance that feels like it fits in a made-for-tv teen movie. Both of these couples have more romance content than Rook gets with their partner.

The combat is fun. I really enjoyed playing a spellblade mage and using the orb and dagger!

The companions personal quests are almost all entirely about stopping rituals. So it feels weird that all these urgent, really bad rituals are happening all at once but somehow Rook can arrive just in time for them all.

It was great exploring the necropolis and learning some about Nevarra!

Rivain was beautiful but I didn’t care for the Lords of Fortune at all.

Solas turning into a giant wolf and having a kaiju battle was neat, tricking him and locking him in the fade at the end felt satisfying.

It was hard to believe Rook cared for Varric. We are told Rook and Varric spent time together just as we are told about Rook’s background. Being told these things without seeing and experiencing them makes Rook feel hollow. This game would have greatly benefited from an Origins-style intro section where the player can get to know their Rook and understand why it all matters.

I had a lot of fun when I played this game while stoned. I skipped through cutscenes fairly often, which is something I’ve never done in a dragon age game before. Unfortunately the whedon-style writing and humor is just so played out and boring now that I lost interest in it.

Wish there had been more dwarven lore and we could revisit Kal Sharok after the one mission we get to go there.

Overall, the game was really polished and had no bugs.

It was fine but i dont see much replay value to it, personally.

I uninstalled it after completing it (81 hours played) and will return to playing BG3.