[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Okay, I wasn't 55 hours in (not sure what Steam was doing but it's showing 52 hours now) - and I've finally got the "this quest will begin the end of the main story" prompt.

It's still flawed, although it has grown on me significantly as I've gone further. The lore stuff is its greatest strength by far but the problem with that is it probably only lands with diehards who've played the whole series, so I'm not sure how that fares for wider appeal.

The personal quest lines have improved the party characters no end as well, you actually get some depth and a bit of darkness in there (still nowhere near what it would have been in an earlier game, but I appreciate it nonetheless).

I am reliably informed that the final act is where the game really shines, and as I'm enjoying myself a lot already I'm looking forward to starting it over the weekend. I've still got personal quests to finish and quite a bit of side stuff (some of which you have to do to progress the main story) so I suspect the average of 60 hours if you aren't trying to do everything is probably about right.

[Garak]

Finished the game. Have to say I really had fun and loved it. I still rank Inquisition higher but this was great as well.

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Garak, on 12 November 2024 - 06:57 PM, said:

Finished the game. Have to say I really had fun and loved it. I still rank Inquisition higher but this was great as well.

I'd say that's where I'm sitting after finishing it too. Which ending did you get?

I got (spoilered in case you don't want to see):

Spoiler

The redemption ending with Inquisitor going with Solas into the Fade. It's the one I wanted and I thought the scene played out beautifully.

Inquisition is still better for me - it has its weaknesses but I found the character writing and dialogue much stronger than Veilguard. However, Veilguard's final act was superb and there is an awful lot to like about it. The slightly YA tone and the companions feeling too nice and happy all the time just stopped it being truly great for me. I was longing for a Vivienne or a Dorian to inject some sass.

[Garak]

Oooh nice.

Spoiler

I used the fake dagger to trick him in the end. I also lost Harding. But better that than the possibility of seeing Assan get killed.

Some writing tweaks probably would have elevated this higher but I'm good with it. I hate the crap that is thrown at the game, it's just to stir up outrage.

[TheRetiredBridgeburner]

Garak, on 13 November 2024 - 01:00 PM, said:

Oooh nice.

Spoiler

I used the fake dagger to trick him in the end. I also lost Harding. But better that than the possibility of seeing Assan get killed.

Some writing tweaks probably would have elevated this higher but I'm good with it. I hate the crap that is thrown at the game, it's just to stir up outrage.

Ah nice!

Agreed. There are genuine well-founded criticisms to be had, but a lot of it is just baity nonsense about "woke" (I hate the word)

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Thinking trying a speed run of Inquisition and the DLC to distract me from fasting... from this evening to Monday morning. When it first came out I bought a new laptop to play it, spent days worth of hours exploring, did all the side quests, then got annoyed by the main plotline and never bothered finishing. Got the "Game of the Year" edition for free last year which I think includes the DLC. What's the fastest way to get through with minimal gameplay (without console codes if they exist)? Story mode with main fire rift mage and Dorian as lightning necromancer for the fire immune? Or maybe I'll finally get around to doing Pillars of Eternity: Deadfire instead....

[Cause]

I saw veilguard was out and despite a terrible trailer thought I would check it out. I love the idea of BioWare even if they have been letting me down a lot and I heard they redid the trailer after the backlash and the game isn’t really like that.

Well I have only done some skimming through some reviews and some videos and the number of people who say something along the lines of the combat gets receptive so I lowered the combat difficulty or enemy health to just move forward is too many. That to me is a red flag but perhaps it speaks to the fact that people at least lenjoy the story enough to want to finish.

Also more of the weak, fragile male ego trashing a game because it has trans and gay representation. Get a life. I really despise these people, they have become addicted to complaining and some are just stirring the pot to make a living. Still… I saw a clip of the main character being lectured too about not misgendering a NPC or a companion and I have to agree, I don’t want to live a real life HR lecture about pronouns in my video games. Something had to break through the glass ceiling but I’m pretty sure that’s not the right way to do it. Video games are meant to be fun.

All in all it sounds like a miss sadly. I felt like dragon age 2 tricked me with a bait and switch, I loved the demo only to find out the demo sequence was a part of the game where your overpowered because it’s being told as a heroic story. The actual game was very different. I had to put down dragon age inquisition out of boredom when I crated an arcane knight who was unkillable but combat always felt like a boring slog and the open world was too massive with too much pointless side content. I heard veilguard was closer to ME than a true open world and thought that sounded promising but not if people are turning down the difficulty just to finish faster.

Please BioWare please find a return to form and don’t blow ME4

[the broken]

The game is okay. Not brilliant, not awful.

One of the pitfalls of trying to be representative is that it won't ever be perfect, and people who aren't represented effectively will be upset. But if we demand perfection from every effort at inclusiviity, it's just easier for writers to not try and do it at all.

I didn't finish any of thge companion quests because I got bored with the repetitive encounters, but the main story missions are pretty good gameplaywise, even though they have story flaws,

Spoiler

I got the 'everyone dies' ending, and I'm fine with that. I think I prefer it to the others.