Play it: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Current goals: Kill a god or two
Veil Guard It took a long time to hook me. For the first dozen hours or more, it all felt like a video game, an amusement park, to me, and the area I was in was rather small, designed so far ahead of its time, filled with little caches of gold coins and resources. So I never go more than a few seconds without getting some dopamine-boosting reward. It still has these problems, exacerbated by the familiarity of the structure, so clearly “Mass Effect 2-But – let it be a fantasy. It’s so strict and tightly controlled that it can feel lifeless at times. but i still like it concept Some of its characters were enough to keep me going, even if the characters themselves took some time to become deep and complex enough to hold my interest. I mean, Nev, a fantasy private eye and political rebel who uses ice magic and wears a dwarf prosthetic to replace her lower right leg? That’s awesome!
Yes, now I have a lot, many A few hours into the game, I actually felt connected to these characters, not just to their thoughts but to the stakes of the conflicts they faced. (I just played through the second act siege sequence, which was pretty exciting and helped remind me how serious of a threat the escaped elven gods actually are.) In some way, every party member has some problem they need help with. A fact that feels very contrived. “Oh, I can’t focus on something that threatens the whole world if we don’t solve my personal problems first!” Again, that’s all very mass effect 2which felt very compelling and contrived to me in a way. But if surrendering to this structure helps me understand Neve better, so be it. You get what I mean, game. Ya got me. —Caroline Pettit
