I thought I hated Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Now I love it

digitaltrends.com:

When I started Dragon Age: The Veilguard, I was sure I’d only play it for a few hours before moving on. I try to play as many major releases as I can during a year, but the enormity of that task often means that I need to pick my battles. The early moments of Dragon Age painted a picture of a boilerplate modern action RPG with hokey writing, generic action, and a lore-driven story that would be lost on a newcomer like me. I just wasn’t in the mood for another long fantasy story that had nothing real to say to me.

Two weeks later, I didn’t want it to end.

Though it may go down as one of 2024’s most divisive games, Dragon Age: The Veilguard won my heart in ways I never could have predicted. What began as a flat tale about taking down Elven gods quickly warped into a familiar, human story about troubled companions who so desperately need to get their lives in order before moving on to much grander battles. Though it may not be the “game of the year” in a traditional sense, no game better encapsulated the struggles of trying to stay alive and keep fighting on in 2024.

• Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s best sidequest puts gender identity front and center
• Good news, PC gamers: Dragon Age: The Veilguard won’t have third-party DRM
• Dragon Age: The Veilguard combines the series’ best qualities into one

Doing a 180

In retrospect, my initial problems with The Veilguard stemmed from some poor expectation-setting. I had never played a Dragon Age game before and barely seen any game in action. All I had heard about it was through word of mouth, which can be unreliable. From what I could gather, Dragon Age was a dark and serious high-fantasy series filled with deep RPG systems. I didn’t expect something as mechanically dense as Baldur’s Gate 3, but I’d gathered