Review: Dragon Age The Veilguard Does Not Deserve All The Hate It's Getting
I played over a hundred hours of Veilguard. While I see the differences between it and the old Dragon Age Games, I don't understand the hate.
I finished Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and I have thoughts. I did not play half the game and assumed some things about it. I played it until the end, then started another run and finished that, too.
Before we go any further, this article may contain spoilers about companion quests and the main plot, but I won’t spoil the ending. Still here? Great!
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So, with that out of the way, let’s dive in to talk about Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
The Dragon Age World
Let’s start with the obvious: this world is beautiful. I could spend hours just walking around and taking in the sights.
My gaming computer, which is 3 to 4 years old, ran the game on Ultra mode without problems.
Rook and the players also react to what they see around the world. If they see blight, they call it out. If they see something beautiful, they mention it, too.
There’s a clear consensus that the Veilguard’s scenery is excellent. But it’s the quests and companions where opinions start to differ.
Your Companions
Dragon Age: Origins had companion conversations in the camp, around the fire, or out and about when you clicked on your companion. Those were great. The less great thing was not knowing when they were triggered. I could spend hours of the entire playthrough just clicking on my companions at camp and seeing that they had nothing new to say.
Bioware worked that feedback into The Veilguard, letting you see when your companions wanted to talk to you. Or, you could find them and see what they have to say as you approach. But now you can't learn more about them. Sure, the storytelling is great, and every character feels well-rounded, but I wanted to hear their “extra” stories, the things not directly tied to the main storyline, so we feel like we bond more. That no longer exists in the Veilguard. I am pretty satisfied with how things work now, even if that part is missing.
The companion quests have also become richer and longer. You go on a journey with your companions. Both Lucanis and Neve hunt deadly foes. Taash, Harding, and Emmrich go on journeys of self-discovery, and Davrin and Bellara go on a journey to rediscover the past. All of them are good stories on their own. Combined, they enrich the overall main plot, too. And the consequences of completing them are felt throughout the ending sequence.
Let’s use this segue to talk about the main plot, too.
The Main Plot
The main plot felt a lot like Mass Effect 2. Let me explain. The best part of Mass Effect 2 was the companions, their stories, loyalty, and drive to see the mission through.
Veilguard told the story of the Dragon Age equivalent of the Suicide Mission: defeating the elven gods.
While the primary mission was to recruit them, it was on YOU to gain their loyalty. And that felt like a missable part of the game. There are only a handful of occasions in the game where Rook will mention a companion by voice and say it’s a good idea to check on them.
In my first playthrough, I did not realize the lighthouse map would show you when companions wanted to speak to you. That’s how I reached the Treviso and Minrathous decision without advancing any of my companions’ quests.
And if we’re talking about that decision, it’s a huge one that affects the entire game and the ending. But to put it right after recruiting Davrin and not giving you the ability to influence or even repair the city that falls, I think, is a huge missed opportunity.
In a side quest, we discover a Blight “eruption” in the Hossberg Wetlands. Why not find the one controlling the blight in Treviso or Minrathous and destroy that, too?
While abandoning Treviso makes it blighted, abandoning Minrathous seems to allow the Venatori to seize power, but no blight appears to take hold as it does in Treviso. This is a significant change, but not one I expected to see. I thought each city that falls to blight would become blighted, but that seemed more apparent for Treviso than Minrathous.
Now, let’s talk about one part of the main plot that deserves its own little section, and that is…
The Inquisitor
I liked playing through my Rook’s storyline; it is fully fleshed out. However, My Inquisitor is the culmination of every decision I made in the last game and perhaps even the games before.
Veilguard added The Inquisitor as a supporting character to my Rook’s story. But given the ability to travel anywhere with the Lighthouse Eluvian, I would have expected to visit and see what the gods are doing in the south, too. Harding even takes Emmrich on a Trip to Ferelden at some point in the game, so we know how to travel there. It’s just never shown.
For the very little influence the inquisitor has in this game, I’d choose to have a female inquisitor who was in love with Solas and vowed to save him from himself.
That Inquisitor seems to have the most effect on my Veilguard’s playthrough and none of the other options represent my previous journey as a player.
What do you think? Did you recreate your inquisitor in Veilguard? Were you satisfied with their role in the game? Let me know in the comments below.
Now, let’s talk about…
The Villains
Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain.
I don’t remember Ghilan'nain being mentioned much, but I remember Elgar'nan being mentioned in Dragon Age Origins and even by our companion Merrill in Dragon Age 2.
The villains were fantastically written. They were cruel yet enticing, and they seemed to have moral compasses that guided their actions instead of just being chaotic and evil.
However, they were also blighted. While Ghilan'nain seemed blighted from the beginning, Elgar'nan did not. And I expected them to be crazy. Everything we encountered in previous games that was blighted was also partly or wholly insane. And since the Evanuris are not gods but spirits of the fade made manifest, I’d say this could be explained away. Still, them being blighted but still so regal seemed a little off to me.
The voice actors for the gods did a fantastic job. I felt for Ghilan'nain after we had slain her Archdemon. I felt Elgar'nan’s tyranny when Solas confronted him to help me escape and save the elves.
Overall, they were great villains who got the job done when we confronted them in the game’s ending, which we’ll discuss next.
The Ending
The ending sequence is on a different level than the rest of the game. I won’t spoil it, but you must make gut-wrenching decisions you never had to make during the game.
The fights are amazing and have some interactive elements that make them more than just killing, stabbing, and detonating on repeat.
The game also makes a good cutoff point for the ending. You get the final mission in your journal to meet with Morrigan in Minrathous, and it has a warning that this will trigger the game’s ending. But storytelling-wise, the game says you have a month to prepare until the event that triggers the ending. This is an excellent opportunity to insert DLC content if they return to Veilguard.
So, as long as you avoid activating that quest, you’re free to complete more companion quests and side quests to turn more of your team into Heroes of The Veilguard and help the factions achieve Excellent status.
I highly recommend you do as each part of this ending will test your progress and your companions’ resolve. They might not make it if they’re not a Hero of The Veilguard.
Now, I want to talk about what comes next after the ending.
Post-Ending Gameplay?
There is no post-ending gameplay. There’s just nothing. Once you finish the game, you get the slides and the consequences of your actions in broad strokes. But you don’t get to return to the game and see the world post-ending. And that frustrated me a bit. If we drew so much inspiration from Mass Effect 2, why not allow this too?
In Mass Effect 2, after the suicide mission ends, you can roam the planets for however long you wish. The DLC Lair of The Shadowbroker and Arrival is recommended to be played after the main plot line is finished.
I would love to visit the different factions and just be in this beautiful world. There are some puzzles you might have the time for now. The moment after finishing all the side and companion quests before the ending feels hollow to me. And because you can’t talk to your companions unless they have something to say, it becomes lonely.
I skipped many side quests in Origins, but it was good to know they were there because it meant more play time, money, or information about things in the world. There were also many side quests in Dragon Age: Inquisition and the Inquisition was also an organization with fortresses and power. Something I personally very much enjoyed building. Rook did not have that.
So, if I had to change something in Veilguard, it would be the ability to visit the world post-ending. I don’t expect it to happen because Bioware has started working on the new Mass Effect. Still, If they ever return to Veilguard with DLC, I’d love the equivalent of a Citadel DLC for Veilguard, too.
Thank you for reading!
Ok, that’s all I have for you today. If you liked my review of The Veilguard, please share this with your friends. If you want to see more from Geek Peek, please subscribe to our free newsletter.
What did you think about Veilguard? Let me know in the comments below!
