One of the best game storylines in recent history. Utterly compelling. Yet - I did get a little lost with who was who and who did what etc. Maybe, that's just me. I think some sort of diary, or journal entries that get updated when plot details I'm supposed to have garnered are revealed would have helped.

What held me back from this game initially was the fixed camera angle aspect of the game. The game is a combination of fixed camera angles, and a third-person view with no freedom to move the camera yourself. While - I think I get why it was done - ultimately it's the games biggest downfall.

Limited perspective - inability to judge object positions at distance, mean you continually get stuck on environment detail. This when you're trying to run though a maze from a monster - frustrating. I'd cut the fixed camera honestly - and make the game classic third person. Having worked with the classic Third Person with free camera perspective myself - I think this game would have been better served by going this route. Fixing the camera, and then not allowing any camera control while in third person view - steps me *out* of the game world - making it more like a limited control cutscene. A story unfolding largely independently of whatever I do. I'm really just pushing 'play' by making Marianne move. As a PC player - this is too limiting. Too simple. If limited camera control *must* remain for future games, then tone it's use back to certain situations.

The presentation of the spirit world, and material worlds at the same time via splitscreen is just pure genius. I'm guessing doing that had its challenges, as two environments need to be rendered at the same time. But to see Marianne interacting with a spirtit personality in the spirit world - and then gesturing at nothing in the material world - just an awesome idea. The design of the spirit world is also spot on and very convincingly presented. A real highlight of this game.

I played on a modern PC 5900X CPU, RTX 3090, 64gb system memory. It's clear there are optimization issues. I have 100FPS, and I step a little further forward and chunk to 14FPS. Obviously the game is trying to do too much somewhere. Perhaps level-streaming too much into the game at once in these locations. Again - with the spirit world in play as well - even when you don't actually see it presented - I guess it needs to be running in the background in some capacity, so it can appear when needed without a sudden performance hit. Walking across the pool in the resort was one place performance was terrible. Exiting the resort and heading to the old ruins, near the telescope was another place.

However, the visuals are stunning - and I can see a lot of work went into them. At many times, I just took in the views - or stopped to appreciate the environment that had been created. Despite getting a little lost in some story plot points - I did enjoy the gradual realisations of some major plot pieces. Very solid writing. In fact, this story could easily be a film, or a book. I'd not be surprised at all to find out if either of those were true.

I'd certainly recommend this game if you want a great storyline with a compelling mystery to solve.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard collected a *lot* of criticism. Bioware themselves seemed to abandon it - sending it into heavy discount territory very soon after release. However, after 126 hours I can easily say it is one of the best games I have ever played. Each to their own I suppose - but there it is. It's deeply disappointing the world reacted so negatively to it. From where I sit - it didn't deserve the panning it got.

That's not to say the game is without fault however - it certainly does have them. Is any game faultless? Truly? I think not.

So, the Frostbite engine. I have to admit I groaned when I saw Veilguard was another outing for Frostbite. Mass Effect Andromeda felt very, very constrained by it - and I think the choice to use Frostbite there ruined that game. I tried mightily - but Inquisition also felt brutally shackled by an engine that just couldn't give the desired world the freedom it needed. Bioware's struggles to get Frostbite on the level for its games is well documented - and plain to see in those games.

However. It seems Bioware has finally been able to get
Frostbite on the level - or close enough to it to get a decent job done. I was very impressed by the scenery and environments they have been able to create in Veilguard. So much so I had to double-check the game really did use Frostbite. Some very, very nice world building here. Great lighting effects and ambient detail to really make the scenery pop.

The cartoonish art style was a big criticism by many. And that's a criticism of mine as well. A pity. Maybe we hit a Frostbite limitation there, who knows. But the game absolutely cried out for more realistic looking textures - particularly on the game's characters. Oh well - I got used to it in the end I suppose.

The storyline did stumble on the huge chunks of time dedicated to getting your companions ready for the final battle. Sorting out their inner demons, conflicts.....home life.... Gah.... a little much. Still, I found the overarching storyline compelling enough to keep me interested though all 126 hours. Taash's whole non-binary story arc *did* feel a little forced, but I don't have the damning judgement on it that many seemed to have.

I *did* mod the game. Sue me. I gave Bellara & Neve long flowing hair, got rid of Neve's stuffy outfits, and also gave Taash an outfit that I liked. Having the freedom to build and present the games characters the way you want is just gold to me. Nexus Mods.... thankyou. Doing that made the game *much* more enjoyable for me. Strand hair - known as grooms in Unreal Engine - is just *Divine*. The way long strand hair just falls and slides of the characters shoulders has to be seen to be believed. GPU heavy though - but the payoff is worth it.

My ageing 5800X3D and 4090 combo did..... OK. But the old CPU is starting to show it's age here. I did suffer some choppiness. Not enough to ruin things - but noticeable. I did have the settings switched up fairly high without any framegen activated. Overall though I did ok on performance. 3 or 4 game crashes to desktop, and from what I read of others experiences, that is about the norm.

I really liked the character creator. The *first* time my character looked the same in-game as in the creator. I remember Inquisition being utterly *dismal* for me in that respect. So a lot of kudos for Bioware there.

I really liked a lot of the environmental detail. The water effects and the raindrops in the puddles. The lighting and god rays etc were also A1. Arlethan Forest and places like the Necropolis were just a joy to explore. Major set pieces like the Siege of Weisshaupt were also something to behold. Really, really nicely put together. Pity there weren't more of them. Again...... in Frostbite!

There were a few areas that did a smack a bit of slightly rushed. Less detail. Seemingly time-consuming set pieces that went nowhere... But thankfully these areas weren't common.

The voice acting I had no problems with. In my opinion *really* well done. Awkward situations felt awkward. Anger and pain were all very nicely performed. A *few* lines were a clear misshit - but only a small few.

A lot of people thought the combat got tired quickly. I don't know..... for me I gelled with it. But I had to put Dark Souls and Elden Ring down - just far too hard for me. My timing sux and quick key combinations on a dime just defeat me to hell. So for me - I really liked the combat dynamics. Finally - something that's not Elden Ring difficult. Though - the chance to upgrade armour etc and keep the characters progressing into new skills and abilities *is* an aspect that's missing. You slowly fill out the ability graph for yourself and your companions and it's *really* hard to misstep. Good...for the simpler gamers out there.... but could have done with an extra element.

So I think if you're sitting on the fence with this game because of the reviews........don't. Play it. I don't think the game deserves a large part of the criticism it got. I live in hope to see another like it.

Just my opinions.