Seems like IGN is now criticizing Veilguard more openly. A few days ago they published an article:
Dragon Age: The Veilguard Is at War With Itself https://archive.ph/fLWxN
>The sequel to Inquisition’s Dread Wolf story is trapped in an action game with no interest in the past.
>While ultimately it really doesn’t matter what this game is called, the more I play The Veilguard, the more it feels like it’s awkwardly in conflict with itself, torn into pieces that reflect two very different intentions – one a sequel to a decade-old RPG, the other a fresh beginning with no ties to what came before.
>The overall result is that Dragon Age: The Veilguard isn’t the golden era BioWare game that I had hoped it would be. Torn between continuing its traditional role-playing legacy and starting afresh as a modern action RPG, the end result is an awkward sequel trapped in a cage made of reboot ideas. After years and years of faltered steps I understand why BioWare landed on this particular, very mainstream AAA formula, but I wish it had been inspired by the undying mass popularity of The Witcher 3 – a full-on nerdy RPG – rather than veer closer to Sony’s palatable RPG-ish approach for modern God of War. But that ill-defined shape is often what uneasy development cycles get you. Thankfully The Veilguard’s launch has seemingly gone well for EA and BioWare, which hopefully means Dragon Age will continue. Let’s just hope next time it’s not just the name that’s got a bit of Baldur’s Gate in it.
As you can see, the journo openly admits the game is not BioWare's best, that it is an ill-defined and awkward game. Of course, he does not directly address the laughable pandering to extremist gender ideologies and other anachronistic real-life topics. Or the horrendous voice acting. In fact he cites Taash as the most engaging character to talk to.
>It was only after unlocking the dragon-hunting Taash that I was presented with a conversation in which I was able to cycle through multiple tiers of responses at every stage of the dialogue.
Along with the fact that they are still pushing the unsubstantiated idea that the game had a great and financially successful launch, our buddies over there still seem to be missing the point. And I doubt they'll reassess their 9/10 score for the game.