Dragon Age: The Veilguard Standard Edition PS5 | VideoGame | English

Pleasantly surprised by this game. The accessibility features made it playable and enjoyable for me as an older gamer with slower responses and less nimble fingers on the controls. I didn’t think I’d get into this game having played the first few minutes and met some of my “companions”, thinking it seemed a little too “Disney”, but I was so wrong. The open world is fantastic, so many wildly different regions to explore, interesting puzzles to solve, good storylines. Having set the difficulty to story level, the combat wasn’t too difficult for me, though I did get killed a few times trying to take on adversaries at too higher level than me. They were more manageable after levelling up.There are a lot of hours of gameplay (I played 76 hours start to finish), lots of side quests, I’m a bit sad I’ve completed the game now, I would happily have spent even more time on new quests. I hope they bring out some DLC for this game, I’ll happily buy some expansions.Very few negatives, there are a lot of characters, factions and names to remember in this game. On a couple of occasions I’ve had to choose the fate of one or more characters I’d only briefly encountered and couldn’t remember who they were. Watch out for deep water too, Rook can’t swim and can virtually drown in a puddle. The game graphics seemed a bit clunky at first, but changing the setting to “performance” resolved that issue. Some folks have criticised the game for one of the companions being non-binary, I didn’t find this an issue, live and let live. If this is an issue for some gamers it says more about them than the game. I’m really glad I ignored negative reviews of this game.The fight dynamics are more hack and slash than skill, but I’m not bothered about that, my elderly fingers aren’t up to complex fighting techniques involving multiple and complex button presses. I didn’t use any of the features that allow me to use fancy fighting techniques or to control my companions during battle so just let them get on with fighting their own way, which worked for me. Maybe you need to master these different techniques if you play at a higher difficulty level.The companions were all very different personalities and it was fun getting to know them and getting involved with their own personal quests and battles, you need to be a positive leader to get your team working well together. I never did find all the treasure chests, some are hidden behind mind boggling puzzles, but it didn’t matter, the game was a good entertaining romp and quite funny at times. If you like vast open world games and no longer have youthful reflexes or nimble fingers, this is a very playable game. There is even an option not to be killed, but I didn’t need that particular accessibility setting.

Summary: great story line (might be challenging to follow for anyone completely new to the series), good dialogue and characters. Beautiful locations and interesting gameplay.The story follows our hero "Rook" trying to prevent a pair of corrupted elven gods from spreading the blight across Thedas following their release from their prison behind the Veil as a consequence of a ritual being performed by Solas (of Inquisition fame) being disrupted when Rook and Varric (a DA perennial) try to stop him from tearing down the Veil to undo some of his regrets from the past.As usual for DA games and others of the genre, you can choose the backstory, race and class of Rook as part of the introduction and learn to use the controls and skills through the introductory chapter. You will gradually recruit 7 companions into the team, although only 2 of them will accompany you at any time (usually).I have always enjoyed the Dragon Age games and was slightly concerned, when I saw trailers and reviews of the new real time combat system, that EA were moving away from something that set them apart. While it is different, it's a brilliant evolution rather than a completely different way of working. You can't directly control your companions as much as previous chapters but, as your main character is the only one who takes damage, it is not so much of an issue. You can still direct them to perform specific attacks or heal/buff as long as they aren't in "cooldown" but otherwise they just get on with it. And, while fighting smaller foes gets pretty easy after a few levels, the boss fights are more demanding, as you'd expect.Typical mix of main quests, side-quests and companion-specific stories. Plenty of interesting loot and a variety of upgrade mechanics: skills, companion skills and item level can all be upgraded respectively via XP, companion "bond" increasing (by completing quests together) and using the workshop at your home base "the Lighthouse". Item "rarity" (common, uncommon, rare, epic and legendary) can also be increased if you can find the same loot item in the world or at vendors. These are limited to the number needed to get to the highest upgrade so thorough exploration is required to get there.Good fun and pursuing all the side-quests should be enough to keep you occupied for a long while.