DonJorginho
Banned
2020 has been a rollercoaster year in many ways, from the obvious worldwide implications of COVID-19, to the hectic political scene and launch of the next generation of consoles with huge things to still come in the form of Cyberpunk 2077, this is definitely a year to remember.
When I was looking through the releases of games for the second half of 2020 I was always writing off one title, AC Valhalla. It looked uninspired, janky with no sense of what made the original games so special, I was one of the people who mainly hated the way they transformed the series into another RPG franchise, I liked Origins quite a bit but didn't enjoy the tacked on RPG aspects and I despised Odyssey and still now can't get into that slug fest. So when I saw this game coming out I laughed at it, would judge people who were acting like it was going to be something special and told myself I would never buy it regardless of price drops.
Flash forward to today and I have put multiple hours into the game and it is hands down one of my favourite titles of the year and a real return to form for the AC series in my eyes. I have to thank the lack of next gen launch titles as after blasting through Miles Morales and Astro there weren't many titles to look forward to, I was intrigued by WD Legion but that ended up being a pile of shit and I decided to cancel my order of Cold War in the eleventh hour due to the lack of multiplayer content on day one which left me with a cross gen sized hole in my to-complete list. And in came Valhalla.
This game is magical, the soundtrack is gorgeous and the story for an AC title is enthralling enough to keep me going, the environments you traverse within are simply stunning, the gameplay loop is as addictive as ever and the RPG mechanics for once don't feel like an afterthought! Eivior is a great protagonist and I feel the option of having a bigger say in what happens in the narrative with your player choices really helps boost the connection between the user and the game.
Is it all perfect? Not at all, combat still feels like a weightless mishmash of fancy animations and awkward hitboxes but none the less I have been able to enjoy it enough due to the way it makes you feel powerful, the animation of you beheading an enemy doesn't have that same oomph as the first time but it is enough to make me want to go straight back into the fray with my axes in each hand to make them pay.
I love the sense of exploration Valhalla offers, each area feels like it was crafted with care and littered with interesting trinkets to find, it also helps that the side quests have been given a refresh to feel more organic and more importantly, entertaining! I hated the constant fetch quests of the past two games and so far I have not ran into nearly as much of those styled side stories.
I was so ready to hate this game, to laugh at it and declare it yet another uninspired Ubisoft release, but as I sit here typing the final few lines of my post, I can see the menu of Valhalla, it's embers of flame brewing into a hellish smoke, crackling alongside the serene soundscape with it's sense of adventure egging me on to play some more, and you know what? I think I may just do that.
When I was looking through the releases of games for the second half of 2020 I was always writing off one title, AC Valhalla. It looked uninspired, janky with no sense of what made the original games so special, I was one of the people who mainly hated the way they transformed the series into another RPG franchise, I liked Origins quite a bit but didn't enjoy the tacked on RPG aspects and I despised Odyssey and still now can't get into that slug fest. So when I saw this game coming out I laughed at it, would judge people who were acting like it was going to be something special and told myself I would never buy it regardless of price drops.
Flash forward to today and I have put multiple hours into the game and it is hands down one of my favourite titles of the year and a real return to form for the AC series in my eyes. I have to thank the lack of next gen launch titles as after blasting through Miles Morales and Astro there weren't many titles to look forward to, I was intrigued by WD Legion but that ended up being a pile of shit and I decided to cancel my order of Cold War in the eleventh hour due to the lack of multiplayer content on day one which left me with a cross gen sized hole in my to-complete list. And in came Valhalla.
This game is magical, the soundtrack is gorgeous and the story for an AC title is enthralling enough to keep me going, the environments you traverse within are simply stunning, the gameplay loop is as addictive as ever and the RPG mechanics for once don't feel like an afterthought! Eivior is a great protagonist and I feel the option of having a bigger say in what happens in the narrative with your player choices really helps boost the connection between the user and the game.
Is it all perfect? Not at all, combat still feels like a weightless mishmash of fancy animations and awkward hitboxes but none the less I have been able to enjoy it enough due to the way it makes you feel powerful, the animation of you beheading an enemy doesn't have that same oomph as the first time but it is enough to make me want to go straight back into the fray with my axes in each hand to make them pay.
I love the sense of exploration Valhalla offers, each area feels like it was crafted with care and littered with interesting trinkets to find, it also helps that the side quests have been given a refresh to feel more organic and more importantly, entertaining! I hated the constant fetch quests of the past two games and so far I have not ran into nearly as much of those styled side stories.
I was so ready to hate this game, to laugh at it and declare it yet another uninspired Ubisoft release, but as I sit here typing the final few lines of my post, I can see the menu of Valhalla, it's embers of flame brewing into a hellish smoke, crackling alongside the serene soundscape with it's sense of adventure egging me on to play some more, and you know what? I think I may just do that.
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