I pre-ordered Dragon Age: Veilguard, and started playing it as soon as it downloaded after release.
First impressions? Quite positive! Some initial thoughts:
- I’ve been a long-time BioWare fan since Baldur’s Gate, but was massively disappointed with Mass Effect: Andromeda, so much so that I didn’t even bother playing Anthem.
- I do like the setting and the characterisations in the Dragon Age series, and thought it was worth pre-ordering this game just in case they didn’t totally mess it up.
- Happily - it appears they didn’t!
- As a lot of reviewers have already noted, the game is “worlds away” from the start of the series in Dragon Age: Origins. This won’t please some people.
- Turn based combat is completely gone. The tone is much more light-hearted and upbeat, there is no dark blood dripping from our adventurers faces, instead there are a lot of light jokes and quite positive chit-chat really, considering the situation the characters are in.
- The dialogue so far hasn’t been amazing, but it’s entertaining and enjoyable, and dare I say - fun.
- The tone is nothing like wading through the serious darkness that is ‘Elden Ring’ or ‘Dark Souls’. I would compare it more to the dialogue in Neverwinter Nights II, which is one of my favourite games, although it doesn’t appear to be as good as the dialogue in that game.
- Actually, there are a lot of negatives in my work and personal life at the moment - so I’m absolutely enjoying a light-hearted adventure with the camaraderie and banter that I found mysteriously absent in Baldur’s Gate 3.
- The graphics are amazing. Playing in Ultra settings on my 1440p HDR monitor in a dark room is epic.
- The audio is great. There is a ‘dynamic range’ setting so that you can make the most of high end audio equipment, which I’m lucky enough to have, and a 3D audio setting for headphones.
- Gamers moan at BioWare for being ‘woke’ - but as a fully card-carrying member of the ‘woke’ club myself, I see this as a benefit rather than a drawback.
More to come as I get more into the game.