After BioWare bid farewell to the Forgotten Realms following the modders' playground that was Neverwinter Nights, I—a fantasy-obsessed 19-year-old—was beyond excited to hear that it was building its own fantasy realm. The first screenshots of Dragon Age—which bore no resemblance to the game we eventually got—instantly became my desktop wallpaper. It took a long ass time, but when Origins finally materialised, it convinced me that it was more than worth the wait.
I was 24 when I at last got my hands on the RPG I was sure would reveal the future of the genre; the same year I decided to stop trying to find a real job and instead embarked on my questionable career as a videogame critic. Dragon Age: Origins was everything I'd hoped for, but I would have perhaps been less enthusiastic had I known that it served more as the conclusion of an era of exceptional CRPGs.
Every BioWare game since then has shifted further away from the design philosophy that had initially enthralled me. Dragon Age 2 with its rushed dungeons and action-RPG combat; Inquisition with its big open-world-inspired maps and reduced character agency; and of course the second and third Mass Effect games, which existed in a completely different RPG space.
I loved them all the same. Hawke's misadventures featured some of BioWare's strongest, boldest writing; Inquisition boasted an epic scope, companions I couldn't help become smitten with, and a brilliant extension of BG2's strongholds as you became the leader of the titular organisation; and while Mass Effect may have been a million miles away from the CRPGs of yore, Shep's quest to save the galaxy over and over again absolutely gripped me.
So as I mourned the loss of the old design, I still accepted that things had moved on. People didn't want CRPGs anymore, I kept being told. So I just accepted modernity and found plenty of things to love about the new games. These were still, ultimately, BioWare RPGs, after all.
With Andromeda, though, that all changed. I genuinely could not tell you a single character's name. I can't even be arsed looking them up. I just do not care. From a combat perspective, it was a decent shooter, but that's as much faint praise as I can muster. Dull story, forgettable characters and choices I didn't give a hoot about—it was the first BioWare game I didn't bother finishing. Until Anthem, anyway. I put maybe five hours into that multiplayer disaster before I just ejected forever.
So I was simultaneously excited and extremely worried when BioWare announced that it was finally returning to Thedas. What changes were in store for us this time? Unlike Andromeda, this new Dragon Age was a direct continuation of Inquisition, as we hunted down our treacherous pal, Solas, the titular Dreadwolf—at least until the game was renamed as The Veilguard. This connection to a game that, while not reaching the heights of Origins, had so many brilliant qualities reassured me. What an idiot.
I really tried to enjoy myself. God, I tried so hard. I attempted to find nuggets of joy within its hamfisted dialogue, one-note companions and the flashy but soulless fights. But I just couldn't do it. Every time there was a glimmer of hope, it was dashed against the rocks of infinite disappointment.
Honestly, I'm amazed I finished it. There was certainly a point where I was starting to feel like I'd rather do anything else than listen to a hot Grey Warden talk about his big dumb bird for the hundredth time, or play therapist to a giant dragon slayer who just wants to moan about how their mum doesn't understand them. These should have been great characters. A veteran knight reclaiming his order's lost legacy, a proud warrior wrestling with their cultural and gender identity—there's so much good stuff to mine here. But nope, they're just plain boring. All of them.
I'm beating a dead horse, I know. I've already said my piece. But it's just a real shame. When I got to the final cutscene that teased what we can expect from the next Dragon Age, it really sealed the deal. I'm out. BioWare just isn't telling stories I care about anymore. Instead of moping around, I'm moving on. BioWare had an exceptional run, but that developer is long gone. What's left is just an EA studio that makes middling games I'm not really interested in.
The silver lining, of course, is that all the claims about nobody wanting CRPGs proved to be complete nonsense. We've got plenty of them again, not least of which is Baldur's Gate 3. Waiting to find out what Larian's planning for us next, I feel like I'm that eager 19-year-old again. So instead of being bummed out about The Veilguard, I choose to be excited about what other developers are doing. I'm choosing optimism, it's just not directed towards BioWare.
