Its great. You meet treasure hunters who share artifacts with the cultures they're from so that those cultural leaders can decide what to do with them. You help a character come to terms with their gender identity. You encourage people to build community in more than just a "we can win with the power of friendship" kinda way. I'm only on the first half of the game too.

It reviewed kinda mid but honestly these touches have totally sold me. It's actually feels like the writers of this game were a multicultural group of people who put thought into making it inclusive.

Is anyone else playing? Is this the experience others are having? Is all this based-ness why people are review bombing it?

  • PM_ME_YOUR_FOUCAULTS [he/him, they/them]
    ·
    11 days ago

    Glad it's inclusive, but it also doesn't look great

    Just because all the reactonaries are review bombing it doesn't make it good. Bioware these days has an amazing talent for turning everything they touch into shit

  • socialnuju [she/her]
    ·
    11 days ago

    I'm playing it too rn, and I agree with the stuff you said. Also, yes, the review bombing is all-out based-ness for the most part (~90% from what I've seen). But there are other criticisms that I think are valid.

    I'm personally not enjoying the game, to put it mildly, for multiple reasons:

    • the writing: the dialogs are flat, the lines are so repetitive that at some points I'm just zoning out, bc I don't want to hear again that "dwarves don't dream" or that "Elgar'nan and Ghilan'hanin" escaped their prison. I got the impression that there's little love or even interest in the stuff they've been writing. It feels heartless and lifeless, which is incredibly sad given how interesting the plot actually is (bunch of guys trying to prevent the end of the world)
    • the lore inaccuracies: it's as if they started writing this game and went like "All that lore we created for and in the first 3 games? Shredd it, we don't need that". One instance would be the "dwarves don't dream" thing. Dwarves sleep and dream. They just can't enter the Fade in their dreams. (That's just one, but there's so much more.)
    • the (voice) acting/tone of the game: I'm blaming this mostly on the dialog, but some voice lines are delivered in such unfitting tones of voice. Like, guys, how tf are you so cheery, you're trying to stop the end of the world? That's not per se a bad idea, but given that dragon age has always been so dark and sarcastic, it feels so out of place for all these characters being so annoyingly cheery. (Maybe I'll get used to this, Idk)
    • Bellara: perfect example of how to butcher a potentially amazing character. First of all, this character feels like a horrible stereotype of someone with ADHD, like "omg, sorry, I'm rambling and so random", like fr, this is not how it works. Second, her backstory is actually great which really doesn't shine through enough. And third, whoever decided to give her the Garrus line ("calibrations")??? It feels so out of place and not funny at all.

    I like the combat system, it's somewhat refreshing to see an action rpg setup in dragon age, so that your mage finally doesn't die immediately in close combat scenarios. I'm also madly in love with the hair animations. I keep entering the character creator to swoosh around the hair lol.

    All in all, I wouldn't recommend (buying) the game, but it definitely has its moments.

    • whatnots [he/him, it/its]
      ·
      11 days ago

      for voice acting i really recommend setting the audio to a dub in a different language and using english subtitles. I haven't tried the french audio but I've been using the german one and I've found that the voice acting and tone is much more appropriate and natural sounding in most of the contexts.

    • Infamousblt [any]
      ·
      11 days ago

      I find the Bellara criticism funny. As someone with ADHD she's one of my favorites. A bit off putting at first but honestly I think she's great.

      Overall the writing isn't great but I think it's pretty consistent in tone. It feels a bit lighthearted and I don't mind it.

      • socialnuju [she/her]
        ·
        7 days ago

        I decided to continue playing before I reply to you, and now after roughly 60 hours and progressing Bellara's story, I agree with you, my criticism was funny. i-cant She turns out quite alright and becomes very intriguing after a few more hours.

        I honestly have to say tho, they really butchered the beginning of the game, and the more you progress, the more it seems to find it's footing, or dare I say, a Dragon Age-esque tone.

        • Infamousblt [any]
          ·
          7 days ago

          Yeah the start is kinda rough but I think it finds its form. Glad it's growing on you!

  • Infamousblt [any]
    ·
    11 days ago

    They actually added specific conversation options in specific moments if you're trans or non binary. I couldn't believe it. Like they explicitly call out that's why you have those conversation options.

    And then they didn't fuck up the execution of those options.

    I'm just amazed a TRIPPPLE AAA GAME could manage something like that

  • whatnots [he/him, it/its]
    ·
    11 days ago

    i'm really really loving veilguard. i'm not that far into it (i think i just got past the tutorial sections??), but i just never played an rpg that allowed me to choose how my character views his trans-ness and his relationship with that part of his identity. I just really like that they gave multiple avenues and you can genuinely tell that trans and genderqueer people were involved because of these choices.

  • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
    ·
    11 days ago

    I'm waiting for it to go on sale/get an ultimate edition*, but my understanding is a lot of turds don't like it for usual turd reasons.

    It's probably for the better there's no reverse review bombing that happens. But it's the usual thing: hateful people are focused and dedicated, everyone else is not so much.

    *Though I did read no dlc/expansions are planned

  • Babs [she/her]
    ·
    11 days ago

    The trailer made it look like a marvel movie mixed with overwatch. Is the game good though? I have not played a dragon age.

    • Infamousblt [any]
      ·
      11 days ago

      I'm definitely enjoying it. The gameplay is pretty simplistic but honestly I think it works

  • lorty@lemmygrad.ml
    ·
    10 days ago

    There's a lot of bad reviews because of "woke". But honestly the story isn't that interesting or well told, and the companions are bad (In a BIOWARE game no less). So what you are left with is baby's first actions game. After all, why would you play an RPG if the story is bad?

  • ZeroHora@lemmy.ml
    ·
    10 days ago

    I was a fan of the series I pretty much hate this game, but it's good to see people happy with their representation I hope they do the same thing with ME5 but make a good game in the process this time.