While Dragon Age: The Veilguard managed to garner positive reviews amongst a good number of critics, there has been a particular criticism floating around since the gameplay reveal. Unlike previous games in the series, Dragon Age: The Veilguard leans into a more stylised, cartoonish art style, which has some fans worried about potential art changes for Mass Effect 5.
Fortunately, Mike Gamble, the project director on Mass Effect 5, has already gotten out in front of those concerns. He released his own statement, saying that as long as he's running the project, Mass Effect will retain its realistic visual style.
“Lots of people asking me about Mass Effect now that Veilguard reviews are out, and Oct 31 is close. Both are from the studio, but Mass Effect is Mass Effect. How you bring a Sci Fi RPG to life is different than other genres or IPs…and has to have different kinds of love.”
One fan replied to this initial statement asking Gamble not to ‘Pixar' Mass Effect in the way BioWare did with Dragon Age, to which he responded by saying: “I'm not sure I agree with the Pixar thing, but Mass Effect is photorealistic and will be as long as I'm running it.”
The issue some fans are having with the new-look for Dragon Age stems from the fact that Dragon Age has always been a more mature title. The new art style is so drastically different that certain returning characters are almost unrecognisable.
Interestingly, Gamble does not push back on the criticism of the Dragon Age art changes much. He may have been being polite, but it wouldn't surprise me to learn that the stylistic changes in Veilguard was controversial within BioWare's offices. It isn't badly done, everything looks nice visually, it just doesn't fit with what fans expect from a Dragon Age game.
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KitGuru Says: What do you all think of Dragon Age: The Veilguard's art style change?