I have spent 26 hours trying to play this game -- having to restart 3 playthroughs due to this error. It happens with auto saves, it happens with manual saves, it happens at different points of the game. It corrupts ALL the saves on that character once the error occurs and I have no idea what triggers it.
My first error occurred after accidentally setting the graphics to ultra (they are currently set to medium). The game crashed and I was unable to load any of my saves after restarting. 12 hours of my first playthrough -- gone. I decided to be safe and verify the game files, they were fine.
Second happened after dying on the Crows Road in a fight. I loaded my last save (an auto-save), saw the mini-map, environment, and Rook load in - the the load error screen pops up. I uninstalled the game and reinstalled it.
My most recent character was no where near as far into the game, nor near the same locations as the other 2. I loaded my manual saves, my autosaves, the decision saves...nothing.
This game has ONLY ever been installed on my 5TB SSD. I have 3TB available AFTER Veilguard's installed -- there's plenty of space and it's on the appropriate hardware.
I don't know what to do anymore other than request a refund. I'm at a complete loss. These technical issues paired with the lackluster story so far -- which has some pretty significant plot holes already, and so little nuance and so much hand-holding that I feel like I'm being spoken at like a 5 year old, but that's all besides the point -- this save/load issue literally renders the game unplayable. I'm tired. We waited a decade for this game there's no excuse for these kinds of technical errors.
UPDATE 11/5/24:
It took me over 30 hours of gameplay, plus who knows how long for testing, trial and error, re-installing multiple times to get this game to function properly — but I got it to work, not sure if it will help everyone — but hopefully it will help someone.
My PC is just over a year old with all drivers up to date. I purchased and play Veilguard through Steam.
As stated above, my original install was onto an external 5TB SDD and no matter what, at some point during or after the first Veiljumper Camp visit, my saves would corrupt without warning or recognizable triggers.
My fix was installing it onto my internal SSD and verifying the game files BEFORE opening it for the first time after install.
