Recent reviews by Sona

Stop letting tourists grift on your anger for a buck and choose to enjoy video games again, ffs.

I've waited 18 years for this game and it is everything I hoped it would be. I've played every AC game since the beginning and this one has easily achieved a spot in my Top 3. It perfectly blends the old style assassin stealth and the modern RPG elements. Using shurikens to take out lights, nightingale floors, icicles dropping off roofs and alerting enemies, storms muffling your sounds or impairing visibility, being able to go prone, and more details add to the immersion of being a true assassin again.

The graphics are absolutely stunning, the outfits and weapon customizations are great, combat feels smooth and satisfying, I love the black/white/red effect on abilities, and I actually want to do the main story for once. I'm playing immersive and canon mode. There's no discernible pauses where a choice would be and the Japanese VA cast is star-studded with familiar quality actors.

I've so far encountered no bugs. My nit picks are few; there's not enough finishers, treasures are hard to tell how far away they are, selling takes too long, facial animations feel off, and I wish you could freely place items in the hideout instead of one item per grid slot.

Performance:
- 7900 XTX gpu, 14900k cpu
- 3840x2160 Resolution, Upscaler 80% minimum, Frame Gen Off, RT GI Diffuse Everywhere
- A blend of Medium to Ultra High settings to achieve a rock solid 60 fps
- Discord overlay caused stutters

- No Story Spoilers -
I've gone into this game completely blind and haven't read any reviews. I'm having a lot of fun and look forward to playing more.

Performance: I'm running it in 4k, max settings, no ray tracing, no resolution scaling, with an older GPU and a 14900k CPU. I crashed once on initial startup when it was compiling shaders but have had no performance issues otherwise.

Camera: I hate the over-the-shoulder style cameras as I get nauseous very easily, especially in tight corridors when the camera is zooming in and out and has a free will of its own. I am extremely surprised that I can say that I have not yet gotten dizzy or sick. There is a FoV slider, at least.

Combat: As a mage player I find the combat to be the most engaging out of all the Dragon Age games. Being able to switch from a slow staff to a quick dagger/orb changes up the gameplay in a good way. I thought I would miss the tactician mode but the action wheel is super quick and easy to use. Nothing about combat feels clunky and is rather satisfying once you unlock all the moving pieces and get into a flow.

World: The game itself is gorgeous. I like that they did not go for a huge open world this time. There's still areas off the main path to explore. Puzzles, treasure, gear, and lore are still scattered around. I often find myself walking around, just being immersed and taking in the scenery.

Character Design: I don't mind the art direction they took with this one and the hair is actually amazing 10/10 but, for some reason, they made all the heads too big. It is less noticeable if you wear something that covers your neck. The creator is also missing some sliders and options that I wish it had. Like you really can't change the shape of your eyes or lips much. You're introduced to the mirror of transformation and wardrobe very early into the game, thankfully.

Dialogue/Voice Acting: I'm trying to stay away from social media but I can't help but see the complaints in this department. Personally, I haven't noticed anything egregious yet. Maybe one scene where I cringed. Sometimes the dialogue can seem a little bland or straightforward. Between that and quests being relatively short, it honestly makes the story easy to understand and follow.

Story: So far so good. I've played all the games, recently did a 100% replay through DAI, and I read every note and codex entry, but at the same time I don't remember every minute detail and haven't finished the story to see their reasoning behind certain decisions so I can't say if they've really retconned anything or not.

Very good game.

I cannot recommend this game until they release performance patches. Since launch day I have upgraded my whole PC (except for the gpu) and my crashing is gone, however, people with even better PCs (see: MoistCritikal) were crashing despite being far above the recommended specs. Here is my experience:

Launch week: RX 6900 XT gpu and 5600x cpu. (Above recommended specs)
- 25-40 fps in cities. Horrible stuttering. Crashed randomly either within 5 steps or 30 minutes. Crashed 100% of the time at the vocation screen. I tried every single suggestion I could find and nothing completely stopped the crashing. Reinstalling my gpu drivers was the only thing that seemed to do anything.
- Rendering Mode Interlaced. Setting to Progressive caused instant crashing. Other than that, graphics settings had no impact.

After upgrade: RX 6900 XT gpu and 14900k cpu.
- 60+ fps with very few dips to 55 in the cities. No stuttering. No crashing.
- Rendering Mode Progressive. All settings maxed at 1440p. 4k caused too much of an fps loss.

I can't wait to see what else they add to this game. It's already addicting.

Simply put, it's a good game.

There's three main things that stick out to me about this game; the writing, voice acting, and the insane depth to the world.

I've played through a good chunk the first Act several times trying to figure out a character I want to stick with for my second playthrough. Even though I make a lot of the same choices, somehow, every single playthrough has been unique and has had different outcomes. Every time I think I've seen every branch of a quest, something ends up being either slightly or completely different. 300 hours and I feel like there's still so much to see.

It's Banished on crack with poly graphics.

If you like Civ games and old Norse vibes, this game is awesome.

One of the better games of the series. Makes me just want to play a pirate simulator.