Poll: What Review Score Would You Give Dragon Age: The Veilguard On Xbox Game Pass?

Still ain't gotten around to playing the game yet but I will soon it looks very good!🙏
I've really just been enjoying gears reloaded and Helldivers 2 so much since they launched I haven't played anything but those!✌️

I've completed it 100% and it's great fun. Another game hated just for the sake of being hated.
I'd say it's a solid 8 for me, maybe even a 9.

Never played a dragon age game. Really want to. So much anymore to play, watch, read, plus life too.

I played this at launch & I think the game got an undeserved kicking from folks pushing various agendas.

The overwhelming sentiment I saw from folks who actually played it rather than watched youtube was that its a good time. It isn't pushing gaming boundaries in any way nor doing any thing spectacular. What it does do is give you a good time if you give it a chance.

Sometimes good enough is well good enough & perfection is overrated (A solid 8 if you need a number.)

It’s a damn good game and let’s be real: we all know why it got mixed reviews from the public... A bunch of people (mostly close-minded straight cis men, you know the type) barely even played it but still wanted to hate it because some youtube haters screamed « omg its wok guyz were gona loose our straight card if we dont publicly spit on it!!!! ». Like… please. The world isn’t just black and white.

I'm enjoying it. After all the bad reviews, I imagined it would be much worse.

It's true that there are some strange scenes, they're a bit forced and even a little unintentionally funny. But they only make up 1% of the game and don't prevent you from enjoying the remaining 99%

For me, it's a 7/10, and I hope the poor reception doesn't scare EA away from making more games.

It killed BioWare so can’t go above a 1.

It's a very good game. Got it at the beginning of this year very cheap and played it for a good amount of time. Sadly I'm not yet finished.

This is a good game. Is it the best dragon age game? No but its far better than the you tube crowd would have you believe. As others have said its a solid game has some issues but it enjoyable

Confused by the title. Would the game have a different review score now that it's on GP?

@Sindayl 👍

Good game, just for me the gameplay loop wore a little thin - it's really just moving through some very good looking combat arenas and having conversations with the various members of your party. I started to find it boring after about 40 hours but intend to go back to it at some point.

Personally, I didn't see any particularly 'woke' elements to it. Always baffled me that so much of the criticism centred on that as it really isn't a significant part of the game unless you're hyper focused on it.

@Valhura I’m honestly impressed we made it through seven whole comments before someone dropped the classic « wok is 💩 » take on this game.

At least it seems that Pure Xbox has a rather nice community 😏

They gave this game away via PS Plus a few months back.

It still remains the only game I’ve never claimed.

@Sindayl Too bad we only made it five comments in before someone preemptively accused people of disliking it for those reasons.

@Scrubchub I know right. It can take about 80 hours to 100% the game. The gender / "woke" bit is maybe one hour at most & its essentially one companion story arc that you can skip entirely.

@dskatter just read the reviews on the Xbox store… half of them are saying the game is trash because of « woke »… This has been the gaming internet’s drama for weeks. Even my mom knows about the « woke dragon age scandal »…

Was a fan of DAO as a (inferior) successor to Baldur's gate but the sequels weren't great, and Skillups review of this one was enough for me to know I can safely pass

It feels more like god of war than an rpg

@Valhura you prefer asleep trash?

I played and finished it earlier in the year and unfortunately it is not good. Combat is boring and grinding. All characters are dull and after 10/15h I could not stand the dialogues any longer. Dragon age 2 still is the best in the series (not kidding 😅)

It's the game play that kills it for me

Then again I kept hearing that dragon age used to be better it used to be better, and so I went back

I still didn't like those, so maybe it's me

@FrenchVaniIIuxe I dare say Bioware was on the ropes way before Veilguard. Mass Effect 3's ending, Mass Effect Andromeda and Anthem all saw to that.

Exactly the same, @Lup. 100% and I gave it a 9. I really enjoyed it, and still believe that the majority of the hate came from people that did not even play the game...

I started playing as mage and really wasn't feeling it as you get the 4th party member. On a friend's urging I rerolled warrior and it's better. Still not as engaging as Avowed

In a void, Veilguard is a about 6 or 7 out of 10 due to the fun combat and general pace of the game. But as a Dragon Age game, it is about a 2 or 3 due to not respecting the previous games, not incorporating personal save files, sub par writing, mostly boring companions, bad lore additions/retcons, and just not advancing the world building standards that were expected.

@GrapTops my experience too, except I stuck it out as a mage.

Can't understand what the hell they were thinking with 60 second cooldowns and 1 spell using the whole mana bar. Plus dodge, block, basically every move either stopped mana regen or used mana. It's obviously supposed to be like Mass Effect, except in ME I have a gun and short cooldowns, also I could control my squad. The combat gets much better but the first EIGHT HOURS sucked as a mage, just basic attack and dodge spam. I had chosen Mourn Watch Necromancer in character creation, but quickly realized that was pointless and I had to become a generic mage spellblade. Not a good RP experience. No idea why they give specialization choices at creation when you can't unlock them until level 20!

The game never seemed to care that I was a mage either. My character knew and understood nothing about magic in conversations. Right from the first cutscene where I "accidently" chose the "strong" dialogue option and then my diminutive female elf mage started headbutting and brawling all those goons into submission. I had to restart.

Really had a lot of similar design choices to Avowed but inferior in almost all aspects, companions, dialogue, lore, story, choices, roleplaying, combat, setting, exploration, etc. Veilguard is more polished, maybe prettier, that's it.

@Grodax55 agree, decent game, bad Dragon Age. I think it would have been better as a shorter, linear, action spinoff game.

The action is great 10/10! The story has grabbed me but not on a top tier level 8/10. The world is beautiful and varied with loads to do 10/10.

@Sindayl what's funny is that I'd not heard much about it other than it was mediocre until a friend came to stay and revealed to me what you had said. I'd no idea that there was an anti-woke brigade against the game at all, and still don't understand the reasoning behind it (maybe because I don't feel that non-heteronormative pronouns or gender are massive deals at all, but some cis men clearly do).

This is a long walk to say that, based on what I have seen, the game was fine and would have been seen as fine but some loudmouth bigots screech into the ether and put a stink on an otherwise okay game.

@Jenkinss there's a marked difference between disagreeing with someone's opinion and actively saying that elements of a game that allow gamers to feel more inclusive and included are unwelcome.

It's akin to saying that you don't like baseball vs. saying that minorities should not play baseball. One is an opinion. The other is bigoted.

I played in on PS and it was a really good experience. The story is good and I though all the charcters were fun and had their own stories which worked into the large narrative, and party chats. The combat and world design was a clear improvement over inquisition, but I do feel the combat could still be improved a bit more past the 3 abilities limit.

8.5 / 10 seems about right and I look forward to seeing where they take the series next. Hopefully with more people getting to play it on a service they will see the game for what it is and not the 20s snippet they where sold on social media

@Titntin absolutely gaming should be about enjoying the hobby and sharing your excitement for whichever game makes you happy plus being happy for other folks who might have that same joy with other games.

Sadly these day discussing games often feels like navigating a minefield in the dark while wearing a blindfold with someone actively trying to put a mine under your raised foot.

Its all a bit sad really.

It's a decent game. It's probably tied for the worst DA title along with DA2, but it's still good. 8/10 from me.

The game is available to buy for less then £20 now in the UK, so i might give it a look see.

I bought it, so I can’t really review it on Game Pass, but I thought it was a pretty solid 8. The story is somewhat vanilla in comparison with the earlier games, but the combat is really good, apart from that flipping dragon that electrifies the ground. He took some killing.

I give it a 6. For me DA origins was a great game. I really dislike all my companions in this new game. I feel like they have better relationships with each other then myself. Not a fan. Sometimes I feel like I'm playing a skateboard game with the dumb slide actions and zip lining. Fun combat but it can also be annoying.

This game sucked out the last breath out of Dragon Age. The intro was strong, but what followed after was an insult to the original idea of Dragon Age. The cartoonish blight monsters, the overly sanitized enemies, the diversity that replaced cultures. Everything needs to be explained and talked out, the main characters who can't be bad and sounds more like chatgpt playing therapist, and worst a bland story with a MMO like gameplay which hooks at first but gets boring real quick. Biowares worst game ever.

@Misa
Totally agree, the main character is like a bystander somehow, and can't have strong opinions anymore. His true class is being a "Therapist".

@Titntin it supposed to make people happy, until developers started implementing political views into it. It's not necessarily hate against the ideas, but deep discomfort because seeing the threads above the puppet and knowing the purpose behind. Dragon Ages deserved better than being propaganda material.
Luckily there are games we still all enjoy because they stay out of politics. Polish and Czech developers and also Japanese who will stick to their vision.

@Blkmage Origin was amazing at it's time. It aged now quite a bit (was nevera graphical spectacle), but with mods it's still good to play nowadays. It was a the best of it's kind until Baldurs Gate 3.
DA 2 was interesting still, more action oriented and the environments turned a bit lackluster.
Inquisition felt forced to continue but still interesting enough to play through.

Veilguard is something entirely different. Except for Varric and other characters it doesn't look, sound or feel like dragon age. And all wouldn't be an issue if it's at least a good written story.

If you like shallow, samey gameplay and a story with zero agency and predictable plot lines, go for it. If you never played a dragon age game you won't be disappointed, but you should play the older ones to see what was totally missed in this one. It is a disgrace to classic DA games. From combat to story "choices" it's severely lacking. Self insertion into the game by the writers is so obvious it takes you out of the game.

Not only is this my favorite Dragon Age game, but it's also my favorite RPG and favorite combat of all time. I really don't understand why people bash this game. I absolutely love it. I finished it three times

@outswimmingtheflood I think the point is that quite a few folks will be playing this via GP (giving the game a new audience) and as such, it's neat to have a place to chatter for newcomers.

I haven't played yet, but I will no doubt get round to it when I've finished re-running E33.

Honestly would have liked it if it was more like Dragon Age 1&2 and was able to import my saves from them changing the story it lacks the life the previous 2 had and could really have benefitted from the past games not sure if it was a bug or not but after 1&2 I wasn't able to import my previous game's but anyways I'm sticking with 1&2 in the series had fun finding the different options through each playthrough

@RiverGenie The main problem people had with it outside of the stupid character motivations, was that it didn' treally follow dragon age. It did it's own thing. Another complaint that the characters are all written to have literally no conflict which is boring. I'm going to give it a shot to make my own decision, but it wasn't just the woke stuff.

Back on topic - I'm really enjoying the Veilguard. It's an all round fun rpg and good escapism even if the writing is a bit straightforward. I haven't played previous entries in the series so I came in with no expectations. For reference, Witcher 3 is my favourite rpg of all time.

@Grippie I appreciate you might be going on 2nd hand information but Veilguard literally continues and brings to a conclusion the story set up from the previous game along with having returning characters from said game.

How someone can say it has nothing to do with Dragon Age just tells me they either didn't play the game or didn't pay any attention if they did.

You have the right idea in playing it your self & making up your own mind. Hope you enjoy your time.

It's neither the dumpster fire some claimed it to be nor a great RPG hidden by the YouTube algorithm.

Going from Inquisition(a game that also had some attack it due to politics) to Veilguard is quite a rough ride.

I feel bad for the developers that had to abandon the multiplayer slop it was almost destined to be and somehow salvage what little was left after the 180 sharp right turn dictated by those in upper management.

@16BitHero Witcher 3 is not really an RPG

8/10 for me. Maybe a 9 honestly. I'm really enjoying it. I've been playing since Origins. I enjoy all three original games for different reasons but Origins and Inquisition are my favs. I like the companions too, especially Lucanis It's not perfect. It maybe doesn't really live up to the hype we've had for 10 years. It feels kind of generic sometimes and some stuff is repetitive. Overall I enjoy it. I would love to get a Dragon Age sequel that's a totally new story. We need to make up for the lost time pls EA/Bioware.

Played it on release.
Got bored after about 15 hours or so.

@jesse_dylan na just dont want tre gaming industry destroyed with pandering ***** like the movie industry has been. If you guys are happy to support that kind of ***** you do you. I will vote with my money and time

@Lup it was not hated for the sake of being hated it was hated for a very specific reason there are many youtube videos going into great detail about the ***** stuffed into this entertainment product. Remember a really nice sandwich with a turd hidden with in is still a ***** sandwich

@jesse_dylan na I prefer games that are not trying to push mental ilness as a life style choice. We dont tell anorexics that it is ok not to eat or rhe morbidly obese that one more large pizza is a great idea, those with gender disphoria do not need people reaffirming there delusions, they need treatment yes but not surgical or sterilization that is nazi level *****. There are hermaphrodites that is a separate thing. Anyway we are bombarded with this stuff every where else I would like to keep itvout of video games

@Lup it's not "hated for the sake of hated"
The game has many huge flaws and frankly terrible writing that treats the player like a child.

Just because people don't agree it doesn't mean other people are trolling

@RiverGenie it literally retcons the previous games and one of the developers who did the qun'ari lore even admitted they hadn't done their homework. The antivan crows are meant to be a horrible organisation that uses slaves and kills it's own members for failure, but they got turned into a happy club full of nice people.

@AverageJoseph Witcher 3 is an RPG. It may not be sandbox like Skyrim but it has meaningful choices that change the entire ending and various other outcomes. Even if Geralts story is largely set in stone aside from the ending, you are still roleplaying as him.

@Blastfemur if you don't understand why people bash at veilguard I suggest you watch one of the many insightful YouTube videos about the game. Some people claim they are just trolls or haters but I've found that not to be the case at all, with the majority of videos being very insightful, neutral and fair.

Comments 4 and 5 are the usual "people just being bigots". Like the majority of reviews aren't people being intolerant. They are fair reviews that justly criticise the writing, character development, and gameplay decisions. In short, the game itself.

@Will46 yes but my statement still remain true they concluded the Solas story arc set up from the previous game

@RiverGenie yeah, the Solas story is one of the ones they gave a satisfying conclusion. I know there are some things the game did alright

@Will46

That's subjective, but very well.

Was hated most of the time for stupid reasons, and sometimes was fairly criticized.*

There.

@Will46 it's action adventure with RPG elements. The term becomes meaningless if every game with alternate endings and a skill tree is labeled RPG. Especially when people say it's the best RPG of all time, which means that it defines the genre, and Witcher 3 most definitely does not.

You can't play the role of Geralt differently in any meaningful way, just like you can't play Master Chief as an outgoing party animal. If you replay the game, you can make different narrative choices, but you will always play the same Geralt. The narrative choices are also mostly an illusion anyway.

The same applies to character progression systems and the implementation of those systems as a determining factor in gameplay outcomes. He has largely the same spells and abilities no matter what you choose. Regardless of what school armor you're wearing, or what skills you've chosen, he plays almost exactly the same, and whether he succeeds in combat is based on player skill, not character build.

Witcher 3 is much like the Origins-Valhalla ACs. Maybe they should be called RPG-lite.

@AverageJoseph what it "maybe" should be called is irrelevant. It is still, nonetheless, an RPG. The very title, role-playing game? Yeah, sure, your choices are Geralt are limited, but you're still playing a role. As a witcher. You are playing a game, as a role.

A game does not need to have a plethora of builds, nor does it need to have a vast array of decisions which each shape the game world in a drastic way in order to be classed as an RPG.

Regardless, the decisions available in the Witcher 3 have a fair bit more impact than 'illusion'. Your choice can determine, for in stance, whether a village is destroyed, or whether a bunch of orphans are eaten. Your choice of who to advocate for the throne of Skellige guides the future of the nation. You can also inadvertently release the catriona plague on an entire nation. And ultimately, your choices lead to Ciri's fate.

Choices in a game do not need to have drastic gameplay or game-world consequences to be meaningful. They can, for example, simply affect the epilogue, or result in certain characters showing up (or otherwise).

He does not play 'exactly the same' no matter what build you pick, but I will admit there is very little variation. A sign build may elect to use the sword infrequently and instead focus on laying Yrden traps and spamming Aard or Igni, or perhaps turning foes into puppets. There's also a build where you turtle with secondary Quen and let the reflective damage do all the work. These aren't huge differences, as your core gameplay loop is still swords, signs, and the occasional bomb or potion, but again, this does not detract from the reality: That it is an RPG.

Witcher 3 is no less an RPG than your typical Bethesda fate where the narrative is bare-bones and it is largely a case of "off you go, do stuff, explore!". One is simply a more sandbox-style and the other is a more visual-novel with gameplay elements style.

Anyway, on the topic of Veilguard: What I find most ironic here, is that you're typing all this to me, when Veilguard is one of the LEAST suitable examples of a game that respects your choices. Even if you want to actively be mean, the game won't let you, because the writers have decided to take the non-offensive option. You can literally only play the protagonist in 3 slightly-different flavours of 'nice parent figure'.

@Lup I mean duh, of course it's subjective? That's what opinions, and reviews, are.

I am telling you, if you actually go onto youtube and watch some of the video reviews of this game, you will quickly realise that the vast majority of them are fair and unbiased reviews where the reviewer is criticising elements of the game such as writing, story, gameplay.

I am in no way denying that there are a lot of reviews that are just going "LOL Woke" et. al, but please, for your own sanity, do not take Steam or Metacritic reviews seriously. Go watch an articulate and intelligently presented video which makes fair points.

It is up to you as an adult to decide which reviews you think are being fair and balanced, and which ones are trolling.

@Will46

I don't use Steam nor visit Metacritic. It was precisely YouTube which flooded my feed with a lot of "woke/trash game/worst game of the generation".

What I meant to say was that for each fair review there were five that were BS.
What I also meant to say is that even those fair critiques are subjective.
I enjoyed the game's narrative and I enjoyed its writing and characters.
That's why it's subjective.

And when I used the "hate" word I wasn't referring to the fair reviews which I don't think are hateful. Was referring to the vast majority of comments or reviews simply hating the game for its "wokeness" and because it wasn't Dragon Age: Origins, something that Dragon Age 2 and Dragon Age: Inquisition weren't, so beats me why they expected that.

@Lup

Agree with you up to the end...

DA: Inquisition was a return to form. Even Dragon Age 2 still had more tactics/party mechanics than DA:V, I'd argue.

The players' party members felt like they had little effect compared to previous game. To me anyhow.

I'd argue the gameplay was better than DA 2(since they are the most alike) and for a game to turn into more of an action RPG, I'd argue they did accomplish that. Gameplay was great and fun, just less "Dragon Age-ish."