tl;dr - I enjoyed the overall experience and give it a 7.5/10. It's definitely a good game, but it has it's flaws.

I would like to state that I have played all 3 previous Dragon Age installments, with Origins and Inquisition being my favorites. I have put quite a bit of hours into Veilguard, completing 2 playthroughs so far, with exploring and doing everything that the game has to offer. Here are my cons and pros.

Cons:
- Dialogue can get annoying/cheezy. A lot of it is found in the First Act with it improving over the course of the game. It's also worth to note that there's a good bit of dialog that is the opposite and delivers very well.
- Gender identity scenes/dialog do appear, 99% being tied to one companion. That percentage is avoidable by simply ignoring that companions' questline if the topic bothers you.
- Can feel a little slow starting off. The beginning portion of the First Act is where a lot of areas aren't opened up just yet and you are still recruiting all your companions. The pace definitely picks up once you have them all but, depending on how much side quests/exploring you do along the way it can feel like a very long time. This doesn't mean that nothing exciting happens though.
- The MC is locked into a 'hero' role. Meaning a lot of your dialog options are between nice, joking, straightforward, and frustrated. You can't be outright evil. It also might feel like you are babysitting your companions during certain moments but, the mc is the team leader, and I found some of those scenes to be enjoyable.
- The companions. I personally like all the companions, but I can't deny the fact that a few of them are lacking in terms of writing and quests compared to the others. A few of the romances also seem to have also fallen short. My first playthrough I happened to pick the best romance in the game so I got lucky lol.
- World state doesn't carry over. The only past choices that impact the game is what you chose to do with your inquisitor in Inquisition. It could be argued that there isn't a need to have the world state stuff due to the fact of being on the opposite side of Thedas and 10+ years later in the timeline (makes sense for me), but that's up to you to decide.

Pros:
- The game is visually stunning. I found myself often looking around, even using the photo mode. Which the photo mode itself is also a pro.
- Good performance/optimization. I rarely had any problems running this game. Crashed like twice and that was it.
- Character creation. I have a couple of nit picks about it, but overall, it's amazing. Don't even get me started on the hair physics!
- Music. There is quite a bit of music in the game where I was blown away. For some combat specifically, I would open the ability window just so I could listen to the track.
- Side/faction characters. There are quite a bit that were just a joy to interact with. A lot ppl online are loving/thirsting them lol. There are even a couple characters that were written well in a way you want to punch them in the face.
- Factions. I only played Grey Warden and Mourn Watch, but just based off of those 2 alone gave so many changes in dialog/interactions throughout the game. Even one choice surprisingly.
- Grey Wardens and the Blight. I was happy to see them return in Veilguard, and it did not disappoint. In fact they have one of the best set pieces in the story. There are critiques about the design of darkspawn, which I can agree with, but they address this in the game and it wasn't entirely game breaking to me.
- Companions. There are a few companions that have pretty good writing and quests. Emmrich is also one of the best Dragon Age companions to come out of this game. His writing, side banter, quests, and romance is on another level. This is coming from both negative and positive reviews everywhere. There is a huge following just for the character alone, and his side kick too lol.
- Combat. Outside of Origins being a different style of combat entirely, Veilguard shines on this note. There are critiques here and there but it's the most polished, fun, and engaging. Between all 3 classes and skill trees, along with having combos with your companions and their skill trees, it was an experience. Higher difficultly can also be challenging.
- Lore. This is a debated subject on how it's handled (personally I loved it overall). I can say though that there is quite a bit of references, dialog, and easter eggs for all 3 previous Dragon Age games. It was such a treat to run into these things. The library/codex is also a good addition to the game that helps long time and new fans learn about the world.
- It can get dark. Despite what others say, this game definitely has it's dark moments. Yeah there is a lot of lighthearted tones throughout the game, but the dark elements are without a doubt there. From the environment in certain areas, a good bit of the story/companion missions, side quests, cutscenes, to even conversations. Some things that popped up made me feel uneasy, in a good way of course.
- Choices. There are choices and they do matter. I say this because this is also a debated subject. For sure there are some choices you make that have minimal impact later on, but there are ones that do have major impact. Choose carefully lol.
- Story and companion missions. There are quite a bit of missions that delivered well to the point you are going through a roller coaster ride of emotions and/or adrenaline. This game also has a few of the best setpieces/missions that I have seen from all the Dragon Age installments. The Final Act alone is a masterpiece with zero to little flaws. Even with all the negativity the game gets, almost the majority of those that I have seen also like/love the Final Act.

There is still a lot to be said for both pros and cons concerning Veilguard, but these are the ones I felt matter the most. All I can say is to give it a try, and if you don't that's okay too. The flaws of this game are not be overlooked and are important to criticize, and everyone has their own way of enjoying video games.

I hope this helps out others looking into the game <3

The game's an embarrassment to the Dragon Age franchise. Bubbly shallow companions, sanded off lore and characters, no real choices from previous games carry over and boring world building are just a small part of this thing's problem.

Shocked at how bad the writing is here. A lot of, "well THAT just happened." and "did you just shift reality?" level dialog is in play here. I just came off of a play-through of Disco Elysium and jumping into this game felt like a genuine insult to the concept of character depth. There's no Mordin Solus, no Viconia DeVir, no HK-47, really no engaging characters at all. Of the world itself; everything metal is shiny and clean. Sometimes the areas you go into are like the intro areas in bioshock infinite, it just seems... off at times, like everything is too well maintained. In addition the characters look very well groomed; suspiciously so given the setting and story. Every eyebrow has been plucked into line, every eye is faintly smokey and every cheek and jawline you see is cut, raised and contoured to high heaven. I just dont know why the developers felt they needed every character yassified to that degree. It's weird.

Anyways i got to a point where i think i have access to all of the characters and when i realized that i didnt feel any internal debate over who i reeeallly wanted on "the main squad" i put the game down. 3/10 it's not as bad as Andromeda.