shikamaru317 on 11 June 2024
Just watched the Dragon Age demo. My thoughts:
- The tone of the game seems to be nothing like the trailer suggested. It feels like proper Dragon Age writing instead of the childish quip fest the trailer suggested it would be. The marketing team failed massively when designing that trailer for the Xbox showcase, did the game a great disservice.
- Combat is way faster paced than earlier games in the series, quite hack & slash in terms of speed.
- A set number of healing potions, with breakable healing pots around the maps that replenish them.
- Map design appears to be linear again like the first two games, instead of open world like Inquisition, which we previously heard from the playtester leak a year ago.
- They seem to be trying to bring it closer in line with Mass Effect, we've heard that party size has dropped from 4 members to 3 (same as mass effect), the ability system seems to be designed the same way as Mass Effect
- Graphics were pretty good. I know that the art style change has proven divisive, with some saying they made it look like Overwatch or similar hero shooters, but I think it looks fine. I honestly thought Inquisition's character designs were kind of ugly, look at the massive glow-up that Lace Harding got over Inquisition for instance.
- Though not on display in the demo today, Bioware revealed yesterday that the Origin system from the first game will return (minus the tutorial zone changes), with players being able to choose 6 different faction origins including Antivan Crows, Grey Wardens, and Shadow Dragons (a Tevinter faction). Your origin, plus choices made in previous games, will have small effects on Veilguard it seems.
All in all it looks pretty good, though I'm sure some will be unhappy with the gameplay changes, which seem to have made it less RPG, more action/hack & slash.
Last edited by shikamaru317 - on 11 June 2024
