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Assassin's Creed: Valhalla after 160+ hours. A Wonderful Journey!

Did you love Assassin's Creed Valhalla?


  • Total voters
    265
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Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
One thing that I love: way less fake accents, it drove me insane in other AC games, everyone used to talk like a dumb racial stereotype, here it’s toned down, a lot.
Gotta love how the one game they didn't even try that shit in was the one set in France :messenger_tears_of_joy:
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
Really, really enjoyed it. Definitely in my top 5 of the year, but I also adore the setting and time period, so that did a lot of the heavy lifting towards giving me a favorable impression.

Biggest negatives for me were:

- The raids and assaults sucked. They really needed to make the number of NPCs finite. Having NPCs just constantly respawn off screen (or sometimes on screen!) ruined it and made you just rush to whatever the objective was instead of engaging with the battles.

- Stealth abilities got crippled compared to the last two games and your bird was useless. Fine given the setting I suppose, but still disappointing.

- Heavy penalties for killing non-combatants. How ridiculous is it that you can't slaughter priests in your monastery raids as a fucking viking? Pure blasphemy and they didn't even attempt to explain the restriction in the story.

- Parkour felt buggier than previous entries.

- I liked that there was less equipment, but at the same time I felt extremely restricted in terms of armor due to the lack of upgrade materials. I rotated between a few different weapon sets throughout the game, but never had enough materials do really play around with different armor sets.

Everything else I really enjoyed. The visuals were absolutely outstanding and breathtaking at many times.

I agree with all your points, infinite NPC's during assaults was immersion-breaker to me. Also stealth is useless due to being too easy for me. Also had problems with non-combatants with my poison clouds, that's annoying. Parkour was good overall though.

And yes, material is so strict, and I'm one that grinded the fuck out of the map, collecting every chest, and yet can't upgrade 40% of my loot. So you are forced to choose a narrow selection of gear/weapons until you hit max in all of them. And yes, visuals are wonderful and I'm looking forward for their current gen only game.
 
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Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Ubi games are my comfort food.

This thread got me hyped. Think ima jump in tonight. First new game of the year and first true test for a new GPU. Should be a lovely weekend.

What new GPU did you get?
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
Gotta love how the one game they didn't even try that shit in was the one set in France :messenger_tears_of_joy:

I think they've been following the natural illuminate form, going from Palestine, then Italy, then France+UK, then USA. Somehow I think they are trying to discredit the Assassin's now and shift the focus from Templars/illuminati into this goofy "The Order" shit.

Now it's just a generic set up, they are even ridiculing Assassins as they should be called now "The Hidden Ones". Most generic names ever.
 

CatLady

Selfishly plays on Xbox Purr-ies X
But heard some people say that Deathmarch on The Witcher 3 was hard? So I don't know, it's a problem you have with RPG's if you love exploration you end up being overpowered. But on AC Valhalla I killed a legendary beast at 400 while me being at 190. Which is good and gave me nice challenge. Some bosses at level 340 and me at 157 (mythical boss, witch) was very hard though.

I was enjoying the difficulty early on, but then I got pretty overpowered with all the abilities, upgrades, etc.

Yeah I have that problem with RPGs too. WRPGs are my favorite genre and one of the reasons is I LOVE exploration especially in AC and Bethesda RPGs with leads to being way too OP once you've been playing for a while. Both studio's games have enemy scaling but once you get to a certain point you're pretty much invincible.

I will say at least for me, the Atlantis beasts and to a lesser extent the legendary beasts still offered me somewhat of a challenge in Odyssey. In fact Medusa was hard af.
 

Brigandier

Member
I enjoyed the game but i felt it was needlessly bloated, I liked the Valhalla/Jotunheim parts.

Combat was decent enough, Eivor was decent char, Settlement upgrading was good.

Should have had the option to kill "that person who is sending you letters"

Enemy AI still thicker than mud, Good game overall enjoyed it mostly.
 

M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
Very nice write up, we should have this sort of GAF reviews more often. I am not really interested in this game, but it's nice to read the actual gaffer opinion : )
 
I loved it but I wouldn't give it anything above an 8/10, I didn't go as far as finishing every side quest and loot every chest, but I did finish all of the alliance map and the Asgard stuff and killed all the order members, took me 69h to complete it and immediately uninstalled it until the DLC comes out. I disagree with your traversal praise, if anything it's utterly boring, hold a and press forward, Unity had the best traversal in the whole series, Valhalla (or should I just say Origins and onward) was just a huge step back. Story was good enough to keep me intrigued until the end but it's not mindblowing. As said, I enjoyed it a lot but definitely not a masterpiece.
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
I loved it but I wouldn't give it anything above an 8/10, I didn't go as far as finishing every side quest and loot every chest, but I did finish all of the alliance map and the Asgard stuff and killed all the order members, took me 69h to complete it and immediately uninstalled it until the DLC comes out. I disagree with your traversal praise, if anything it's utterly boring, hold a and press forward, Unity had the best traversal in the whole series, Valhalla (or should I just say Origins and onward) was just a huge step back. Story was good enough to keep me intrigued until the end but it's not mindblowing. As said, I enjoyed it a lot but definitely not a masterpiece.

Yes I don't think it's a masterpiece, and 8/10 is a solid rate as well. Traversal is easy, and yes I think Unity system is more challenging, even the combat was much harder in Unity which is the best in that regard (difficulty). I enjoyed Valhalla a lot, but understand your approach as well.
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
Yeah I have that problem with RPGs too. WRPGs are my favorite genre and one of the reasons is I LOVE exploration especially in AC and Bethesda RPGs with leads to being way too OP once you've been playing for a while. Both studio's games have enemy scaling but once you get to a certain point you're pretty much invincible.

I will say at least for me, the Atlantis beasts and to a lesser extent the legendary beasts still offered me somewhat of a challenge in Odyssey. In fact Medusa was hard af.

Yeah Odyssey gave me some hard times at some bosses, and even Valhalla started decently and only needed to have that scaling system on very hard as optional. One of the main reasons I didn't like RDR2 that much is because it was "insultingly" easy, unlike the masterpiece RDR1.

I prefer a toned-down RPG like Ghost of Tsushima and Horizon Zero Dawn, not spoiling the game and making it easy because I like exploring and enjoying the map and the side quests. Although both are not very hard, with Horizon Zero Dawn being much harder than Ghost of Tsushima which is much harder than AC Valhalla.

TLOU2 had a decent difficulty as well. God of War had a punishing difficulty that was so rewarding. I like a difficulty like in WD:L which is not overwhelming but challenging enough. But if you played WD1 was wonderful to play it in "Realistic" difficulty. If you don't take cover it's a maximum of 3 seconds standing still and you're dead.

I liked Vinland map because it forced me to use more stealth.
 
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Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Yes I don't think it's a masterpiece, and 8/10 is a solid rate as well. Traversal is easy, and yes I think Unity system is more challenging, even the combat was much harder in Unity which is the best in that regard (difficulty). I enjoyed Valhalla a lot, but understand your approach as well.

I'm actually going back and playing a bit of Unity and it really still holds up in my opinion. The parkour is the smoothest in the series and the animations are amazing.

The character models and lighting (baked, I know) are still absolutely incredible and easily the best in the entire series.
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
I'm actually going back and playing a bit of Unity and it really still holds up in my opinion. The parkour is the smoothest in the series and the animations are amazing.

The character models and lighting (baked, I know) are still absolutely incredible and easily the best in the entire series.

I gave Unity 9/10 back then and everybody was laughing at me. I had no serious bugs in the main offline game but online was buggy as fuck especially when playing with US friends with a massive distance between us. Unity forces you to do more stealth, which is the whole idea about Assassin's. I think a smaller AC game but well-crafted would go well with AC games, and probably going back to the true conflict between Assassins vs Templars.
 

j0hnnix

Member
tired 90s GIF

I had to take a break from it.
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
tired 90s GIF

I had to take a break from it.

For busy people, I can see that. I've been pouring nearly 10-12 in a daily basis and wife kinda pissed and took me nearly a month. 6-12 hours daily doesn't boil down to actual gameplay time though.
 
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j0hnnix

Member
For busy people, I can see that. I've been pouring nearly 10-12 in a daily basis and wife kinda pissed and took me nearly a month. 6-12 hours daily doesn't boil down to actually gameplay time though.
I agree. I dropped 50 hours, and haven't even scratched it, was giving me Persona 5 PTSD but on the other threads I did find parts of it enjoyable. it's just so much that I had to refresh my pallet.
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
Welcome back mate :) you always have generous takes for games most overlook, glad to hear that this game has some things going for it after all.. wonder what it's like on PS4 pro..

Yeah after playing it on PS5, looked at PS4 Pro version of my brother and it looked dirty. Looks nice though on PS4 Pro, but it's so clean and smooth in performance mode on PS5. You gonna enjoy on PS4 Pro as well ;)

Glad like my takes on games. Wanna talk about Watch Dogs Legions, this game is very unique and it's been butchered by critics. Not a masterpiece but a very funny and fun game with great innovation. Playing Immortals Fenyx Rising now!
 

Kenpachii

Member
Is the story really that good? I heard lots of people thought the ending wasnt that god.

The problem is most people didn't saw the entire ending because they rushed the main story and did nothing else.

anyway 100% it myself and frankly the game is absolutely fantastic. It has some room for improvements but the amount of content for its money is just amazing.
 
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CatLady

Selfishly plays on Xbox Purr-ies X
Yeah Odyssey gave me some hard times at some bosses, and even Valhalla started decently and only needed to have that scaling system on very hard as optional. One of the main reasons I didn't like RDR2 that much is because it was "insultingly" easy, unlike the masterpiece RDR1.

I prefer a toned-down RPG like Ghost of Tsushima and Horizon Zero Dawn, not spoiling the game and making it easy because I like exploring and enjoying the map and the side quests. Although both are not very hard, with Horizon Zero Dawn being much harder than Ghost of Tsushima which is much harder than AC Valhalla.

TLOU2 had a decent difficulty as well. God of War had a punishing difficulty that was so rewarding. I like a difficulty like in WD:L which is not overwhelming but challenging enough. But if you played WD1 was wonderful to play it in "Realistic" difficulty. If you don't take cover it's a maximum of 3 seconds standing still and you're dead.

I liked Vinland map because it forced me to use more stealth.

What are you saying, RDR2 was hard as hell ....................... to deal with the shitty controls, the game itself not so much. :messenger_beaming:

My favorite part of good WRPGs is when you first start out and you're weak as hell so any and everything you loot is great. I just did another playthrough of FO3 (awesome on the new consoles btw) and even though it's super easy even on the hardest setting, when you first start out a freaking mole rat can kill you. It makes exploration, discovery and looting exciting and rewarding. Once I've been playing FO3 for 100+ hours I don't even bother to loot half the time.

I thought HZD had a fairly decent difficulty throughout the game because you don't really level up all that much to become super OP. Sure it got a lot easier as you got better skills, weapons and armor, but it was still fun to come up with strategic approaches to killing the big and dinos like thunderjaw or rockbreaker or wiping out the corruption areas. There was a thread the other day hating on HZD and a lot of people saying how bad the combat was and although fighting humans was kind of meh, I really, really liked the the dino combat. Plus if you were into to learning more of the story through the things left behind like data pads, which I was , exploration continued to be rewarding through end game.
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
The problem is most people didn't saw the entire ending because they rushed the main story and did nothing else.

anyway 100% it myself and frankly the game is absolutely fantastic. It has some room for improvements but the amount of content for its money is just amazing.

Yup, it feels like a $100 game to me. What a bargain it is! Ubisoft generally have good stories, but they have problems with storytelling. God of War is my most perfect game of all time, but if you dig in deeper the main story is pretty generic, same with The Witcher 3 has a very generic story. What makes both games so impactful? Storytelling style, character build up (ACV has good character buildup though). Most of the stories in the main story mission are well thought and feel different. I really appreciate the stories collectively and think they deserve 10/10, although acting itself and storytelling was like 7/10. Also facial animations aren't good. I hope they nail it in the next AC game when it releases only on current gen consoles and PC.

Nice write up. Still not getting it..... maybe...

Thanks! Give it a try when you got no games to play or find it in a good discount price.
 
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Laptop1991

Member
I did complete the game and i did enjoy it, however i didn't love it, apart from the bugs in the game, which there has been quite a few, hopefully future patches will improve the parkour, stealth and combat,

There is a lot of frustrating gameplay also, which the cynical side of me thinks it's tied to the store which was added a month after release,

Stealth was almost completely invisible in my playthrough, i was spotted through walls and the cloak has never worked once, i didn't bother using it in the end much.
The parkour at times is as bad a i remember in Syndicate, running along walls instead of just jumping off them and Eivor jumping where ever he wants instead of where i wanted him to and,
The Combat was frustrating as well, it felt like i wasn't in control of the fight half the time, the game was playing itself, and i wasn't as fan of the Dark Souls like boss battles either, parry and evade button mashing to get an attack in at lower power levels and once i got to mastery levels i was too overpowered, but still had to miss and be hit by the game before i could win with a single blow with enemies,

i still enjoyed the game though and i'm looking forward to the new game + mode to use Mjolinar more, as by the time you get it, the game is almost complete.
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
What are you saying, RDR2 was hard as hell ....................... to deal with the shitty controls, the game itself not so much. :messenger_beaming:

My favorite part of good WRPGs is when you first start out and you're weak as hell so any and everything you loot is great. I just did another playthrough of FO3 (awesome on the new consoles btw) and even though it's super easy even on the hardest setting, when you first start out a freaking mole rat can kill you. It makes exploration, discovery and looting exciting and rewarding. Once I've been playing FO3 for 100+ hours I don't even bother to loot half the time.

I thought HZD had a fairly decent difficulty throughout the game because you don't really level up all that much to become super OP. Sure it got a lot easier as you got better skills, weapons and armor, but it was still fun to come up with strategic approaches to killing the big and dinos like thunderjaw or rockbreaker or wiping out the corruption areas. There was a thread the other day hating on HZD and a lot of people saying how bad the combat was and although fighting humans was kind of meh, I really, really liked the the dino combat. Plus if you were into to learning more of the story through the things left behind like data pads, which I was , exploration continued to be rewarding through end game.

Yeah I built some muscles on RDR2 mashing X to gallop across the near-empty map. Controls are clunky as well but serviceable. Map was nice to explore but being too easy didn't help me to get more joy out of it.

HZD was one of the few games that I've read every piece out there. It's the lore and setup that stole my heart in HZD, it's a very unique experience. Actually combat is pretty fluid and fun to me, and difficulty is pretty decent with good challenge most of the time. The massive ones were so fucking hard in the beginning but got easier (not easy) later. I think HZD made a very good formula to keep the game challenging and fun, because exploration isn't fun if it's too easy. I loved exploration in TLOU2 on the highest difficulty because of that. But due to cheap "difficulty" attempt of having extremely low resources I had to change the difficulty of resources to normal and keep the rest at the highest as it makes no since to stealth kill a person then get zero bullets out of his/her gun!!

Yes FO4 every early tool felt so rewarding, but after 4 days I couldn't continue. The game feels so old and clunky. The game is 4/10 but I know many love it. I love the concept, but not the game itself and it's outdated engine.

It's only 39.99 at Walmart right now and I should have it and be playing it by next Tue. or Wed.

That's so cheap that I feel sorry for Ubisoft. I end up buying the season pass for WD:L (wonderful game), ACV, and now Immortals Fenyx Rising. Their store content is very understandable because their main games are screaming with in-game content.
 
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Malakhov

Banned
Story 10/10. Stopped there, this game doesn't have a story for the most part of it. It's stupid generic story to create alliances
 

Tschumi

Member
Yeah after playing it on PS5, looked at PS4 Pro version of my brother and it looked dirty. Looks nice though on PS4 Pro, but it's so clean and smooth in performance mode on PS5. You gonna enjoy on PS4 Pro as well ;)

Glad like my takes on games. Wanna talk about Watch Dogs Legions, this game is very unique and it's been butchered by critics. Not a masterpiece but a very funny and fun game with great innovation. Playing Immortals Fenyx Rising now!
I'm still meaning to complete Andromeda! The main PS5 game I'm interested in getting for my pro right now is Sackboy, actually!
 

Mahavastu

Member
I'm still meaning to complete Andromeda! The main PS5 game I'm interested in getting for my pro right now is Sackboy, actually!
Sackboy is definitly a fun game. There is a DF video and the cut backs for the pro are not really much beside resolution.
Free upgrade to the PS5 version too
 
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Jokerevo

Banned
Hello guys!

I've been pouring so much time on AC Valhalla that took me around a month to finish. I know that Ubisoft is some kind of a villain to some, like EA and others, but they've did a wonderful job with Watch Dogs Legions, AC Valhalla, and now playing Immortals Fenyx Rising. I've opened every single chest in the game (I believe) except one in Norway (normal loot, not the main ones) and one that is locked because a side boss is glitched and can't fight him/her due to latest updated so can't collect his/her tool to open a secret entrance to special loot. Also there is another broken side mission in the new Yule update that I can't finish. 2 side quests broken.

I'll try to be as direct as possible, and no spoilers at all. This is a PS5, performance mode review:

Positives:

Combat
: 8/10, combat is nice, not the best, but with great variety of weapons. Lacks a regular sword though which is strange.

Traversal: 10/10, great amount of fast travel points and fluid parkour gives the optimal satisfaction.

Loot: One of the biggest changes that I loved about this game is the uniqueness of the loot. I've spent most of my playthrough with specific weapons that fit my playstyle (bearded hammer+light shield).

Exploration: 10/10, it's so addictive, and most of the maps are so well made and feel organic. Odyssey and Origins had problems with copy-paste caves, it's not the case anymore. At the edge of the map there are some signs of copy-paste rocks but it's an extremely tiny spot and probably due to deadline rush.

Side activities/missions: 9/10. The side missions are mostly short, and many of them are extremely cringy, but they don't drive you out of the region or so which is a great thing. Some of them are very good and give you nice rewards. But other quest that are tied to exploration most if not all of them are very enjoyable and have unique rewards, even your regular fortress as all loot are now. Legendary beasts, bosses, tricky caves exploration missions, standing stones challenges (one of the best!), glitches (side mission, puzzle that is engaging the Animus "Layla"), and many other great missions. Hunting down Order members is satisfying as well, and looking for intel.

Puzzles: 10/10, one of the best things about this game. Not talking about glitch missions alone or caves, even the very ordinary things of finding your way into a house to take the loot is rewarding! This makes exploration so satisfying.

Graphics: 9/10, they simply nailed HDR here, along with lighting being so great in most cases with some bad examples here and there, but overall it can get really photo-realistic in many occasions. Pop-ins are there though, it's not as smooth as Spiderman MM of course, no game on that level yet in LOD management. That's until we get rid of this shit LOD system 2-3 years from now in many games.

Story: 10/10, so wonderful and I successfully had the perfect ending due to carefully choosing my decisions. It's not very dramatic, but it's more of a series. Every region has some unique feel of it with a unique plot and twist. They really made a great job here.

Multi-maps: Won't say more, but the game feels like a base game+DLC's. Devs been pretty generous, and they deserve credit here.

Music: 9/10, the OST of this game is just gorgeous. Odyssey has better/perfect OST but this one is so close to it!

Negatives:

Screen tearing: Although it happens in very few occasions, or tied to some cities, it's an immersion killer and would take frame drops instead. Although performance seems solid at 60fps.

Difficulty: It starts as decent, but enemies are so slow, so dumb for the hardest difficulty setup. Enemies should be attacking instead of being so observant and so much hard attack sounds/visuals that makes things even easier. At level 190 I've killed a legendary beast at 400! I don't like RPG BS overall and think they did a good job with that, but the hardest difficulty is "normal" at best, or easy. Would have loved it if enemies keep upgrading with me like on Odyssey (it was optional). 51-levels gap isn't good enough. So I never use stealth like 1%, although I love stealth a lot, I just go to a fortress running and crushing them like superman. I love to be forced to use stealth.

Broken levels: Had one mission broken in this latest Yule Festival update that I can't finish, and another side mythical boss that now after the update I can't fight to collect his sword out of 3 to open a secret vault for special loot. Once they drop the next update I'll check again.

Arrow capacity bug: After the latest update, all arrow capacity upgrades are not applied so you only have basic capacity for all bows.

Verdict:

My opinion on the game overall: 9/10 (deserves 10/10 if not for the technical issues, easy difficulty). This game is indeed one of my best games ever, and it's my 3rd best game of 2020 after Ghost of Tsushima and TLOU2. It's now sold for ~$41 on PS Store, if I would give it a price I think the base game alone deserves $100! Getting the season pass later indeed! WD:L is so much fun as well, it's so much fun that after buying the game for only ~$41 bought the season pass, and give it 9/10 although it's much more solid technically vs AC Valhalla. Now playing Immortals: Fenyx Rising and bought the gold edition for $66.9 during current discount on PSN (until 9th of January).

Anyway, the game is fucking massive and I might have forgot things, might update it later. I really think the game deserves more credit. Note that the game starts slow and was like 7/10 to me but it gets better and better the more you continue and the story starts maturing. I've collected every possible stuff in the game, except the glitched one and one minor chest in Norway that I will collect later!
I've been wondering about this fame since it released but I played origins and odyssey and got bored real fast because the game was copy paste and too easy. If valahalla has overcome this I'd consider it.
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
Sackboy is definitly a fun game. There is a DF video and the cut backs for the pro are not really much beside resolution.
Free upgrade to the PS5 version too

It was Sackboy vs Immortals Fenyx Rising. Sackboy at $60 and IFR at $41 for base game and $66.9 for gold edition. Went for Gold Edition and getting Sackboy later!

I've been wondering about this fame since it released but I played origins and odyssey and got bored real fast because the game was copy paste and too easy. If valahalla has overcome this I'd consider it.

I think you'll get bored even faster with Valhalla. It doesn't grab your attention enough in the early stages, even when you go past Norway to England you still feel like it's all over the place. If you are the kind of gamer that has plenty of spare time then you'll love it as the game progresses. It took me like nearly 1 month to fully complete everything (not platinum hunting, it's not my thing and I'm actually 73% in total trophies of the game).

It is definitely as boring as all ubishit games

Get it later in a discount, you won't regret it ;)
 
It was Sackboy vs Immortals Fenyx Rising. Sackboy at $60 and IFR at $41 for base game and $66.9 for gold edition. Went for Gold Edition and getting Sackboy later!



I think you'll get bored even faster with Valhalla. It doesn't grab your attention enough in the early stages, even when you go past Norway to England you still feel like it's all over the place. If you are the kind of gamer that has plenty of spare time then you'll love it as the game progresses. It took me like nearly 1 month to fully complete everything (not platinum hunting, it's not my thing and I'm actually 73% in total trophies of the game).



Get it later in a discount, you won't regret it ;)
For me, it looks like a pre alpha God of War
 
Still slowly working my way through this game (rotating between this Cyberpunk, Yakuza, and Dragon Quest). But I love the hell out of it. I think Black Flag will always be my favorite AC but this will probably be a close second when all is said and done.
 

itsArtie

Member
I dropped it after 30 hours, game is simply boring. Sure the world is pretty, I enjoy raiding and doing those funny side missions but the most important part which is story is missing. The game doesn't make me care about any of the characters, they all feel bland and boring. I loved Vikings tv show and seeing the familiar names was fun but that's about it. I didn't enjoy the combat in the slightest. It takes way too long to kill a basic enemy + it's too easy. Haven't played AC game since Black Flag but the quality dropped drastically.
Overall 6/10. If you are looking for Assassin's experience you won't find it here. In my 30 hours of playing, I managed to kill 3 people by assassination.
 

Rex_DX

Gold Member
Bo_Hazem Bo_Hazem started this last night!

Not sure I see the problem with difficulty you mentioned though. I'm playing on Drengyr and Assassin difficulty and it took me almost two hours to kill Eric in the cave. Are all the mini bosses this tough?

Edit: I get the feeling maybe I should've come back later? Kinda like in FROM games where they give you a harder enemy at the start to signal it's okay to skip challenges and come back ...
 
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Alan Wake

Member
I'm just a few hours in so it's too early to tell. I love the environments and laugh about the bugs the AC games always has. I'm enjoying it so far but I've heard the game is far too long so I suspect I won't finish it.
 

Tahj

Member
Nice writeup, OP.

I picked AC: V up on PS5, & have dumped probably 120+ hrs into it. For me, it's about a 7.5 overall (that's pretty good on my scale), I def enjoyed it, actually much more than expected :)

As for issues...for sure another six months, a year, idk, would've done the game wonders. Cutscenes varied in quality, weird camera angles, & for sure the screen tearing - wasn't too often for me, save for one city where it was the worst I've ever experienced in a game.

From a story perspective, I wanted to like Eivor (male) better. Didn't hate him by any means, & sometimes really liked him...but I suppose I had a hard time connecting w/ him, not sure.

As for the good!

The exploration is absolutely fantastic, & my favorite part of the game, just roaming around, no destination other that 'that looks interesting, lemme check it out'. All the little puzzles, I never got sick of em! Def in my top 3 games of all time on this category.

Music, damn! Occasionally, OST's do better in a game than listening out of game, for me. Was thrilled that Valhalla's OST was wonderful outside of game...very mysterious & just gorgeous.

This is probably the first AC I've really enjoyed a few of the side characters to the point I was emotional about them (be it positive or negative). For example:

I'm sure he's not everyone's cup of tea, but I fuckin adored Ivar, wanted him as my constant companion, & tho I knew things had a 99% chance of not ending well w/ him, I was still legit upset when things played out as they did.

Combat was OK. I used daggers throughout, but did try other weapons, albeit not extensively. Focused on being light & fast. Biggest gripe there w/b the enormous jump away from target when using dodge.

Lastly, something I started doing early: I'd only upgrade only after every main mission...for me, that made the 'upgrade times' feel impactful, as there'd be tons of hours & side questing in btwn main missions, so I'd have lots of gear to check out, test, or upgrade, & gobs of points to spend, usually a new ability. I'd leave camp feeling like a whole new Eivor pretty much every time.
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
Bo_Hazem Bo_Hazem started this last night!

Not sure I see the problem with difficulty you mentioned though. I'm playing on Drengyr and Assassin difficulty and it took me almost two hours to kill Eric in the cave. Are all the mini bosses this tough?

Edit: I get the feeling maybe I should've come back later? Kinda like in FROM games where they give you a harder enemy at the start to signal it's okay to skip challenges and come back ...

Same difficulty. Yes, early on that boss was pretty tough and killed me around 5-6 times before killing him. Problem is when you get more abilities and perks and get higher upgrades when things shift from challenging to cruising. Challenge totally faded away after like the 70-hours mark, and still enjoyed every moment in the game. If they brought the level-matching like on Odyssey it would've been much better, as It's been a 51-level gap between me and the rest after that mark.

Overall, you'll have most of the challenge early on with those bosses and The Order zealots, then it get more of enjoying the story when you become invincible. This is why I hate RPG's, although I still enjoy them. Ghost of Tsushima, even though it wasn't very hard most of the time, it gave me so much fun with the bosses and even with those challenging straw-hat fighters. It was sad that the new higher difficulty came after I've beaten the game.

As many say, Ghost of Tsushima is more Assassin's Creed than Assassin's Creed.
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
I dropped it after 30 hours, game is simply boring. Sure the world is pretty, I enjoy raiding and doing those funny side missions but the most important part which is story is missing. The game doesn't make me care about any of the characters, they all feel bland and boring. I loved Vikings tv show and seeing the familiar names was fun but that's about it. I didn't enjoy the combat in the slightest. It takes way too long to kill a basic enemy + it's too easy. Haven't played AC game since Black Flag but the quality dropped drastically.
Overall 6/10. If you are looking for Assassin's experience you won't find it here. In my 30 hours of playing, I managed to kill 3 people by assassination.

Yeah, it was around 6-7 early on to me, to the same mark. I nearly dropped the game. Same feeling about the story as well. But listen to me, you need to push forward, and you'll connect very well with all the characters in the game like never in any AC game, trust me. Every character in the game becomes meaningful.

I can see the game never appealing to someone shifting to other games constantly. I spent around one month only playing AC Valhalla, you need to have focus on one game to fully appreciate it. If you can push yourself further I'm more than sure you'll like the game, because yes many might drop the game in the first 30% of the game. The more you push, the better it gets and even new kinds of side quest appear.

I'm just a few hours in so it's too early to tell. I love the environments and laugh about the bugs the AC games always has. I'm enjoying it so far but I've heard the game is far too long so I suspect I won't finish it.

Yeah it's too long, but I really loved it so much. can see that being a problem to people with tight spare times.

Nice writeup, OP.

I picked AC: V up on PS5, & have dumped probably 120+ hrs into it. For me, it's about a 7.5 overall (that's pretty good on my scale), I def enjoyed it, actually much more than expected :)

As for issues...for sure another six months, a year, idk, would've done the game wonders. Cutscenes varied in quality, weird camera angles, & for sure the screen tearing - wasn't too often for me, save for one city where it was the worst I've ever experienced in a game.

From a story perspective, I wanted to like Eivor (male) better. Didn't hate him by any means, & sometimes really liked him...but I suppose I had a hard time connecting w/ him, not sure.

As for the good!

The exploration is absolutely fantastic, & my favorite part of the game, just roaming around, no destination other that 'that looks interesting, lemme check it out'. All the little puzzles, I never got sick of em! Def in my top 3 games of all time on this category.

Music, damn! Occasionally, OST's do better in a game than listening out of game, for me. Was thrilled that Valhalla's OST was wonderful outside of game...very mysterious & just gorgeous.

This is probably the first AC I've really enjoyed a few of the side characters to the point I was emotional about them (be it positive or negative). For example:

I'm sure he's not everyone's cup of tea, but I fuckin adored Ivar, wanted him as my constant companion, & tho I knew things had a 99% chance of not ending well w/ him, I was still legit upset when things played out as they did.

Combat was OK. I used daggers throughout, but did try other weapons, albeit not extensively. Focused on being light & fast. Biggest gripe there w/b the enormous jump away from target when using dodge.

Lastly, something I started doing early: I'd only upgrade only after every main mission...for me, that made the 'upgrade times' feel impactful, as there'd be tons of hours & side questing in btwn main missions, so I'd have lots of gear to check out, test, or upgrade, & gobs of points to spend, usually a new ability. I'd leave camp feeling like a whole new Eivor pretty much every time.

With that spoiler, he really reminds me of a reckless cousin of mine. Always bringing problems, and still feel connected to him. Had to send him to Hel though after that nasty shit he pulled.

I can see the game being from 6 to 10 out of 10 for many, it depends on your perspective and respect that. Eivor is a nice character, but didn't like him like Alexios nor Bayek. With Altair being the best to me. But overall he did good, and gladly I finished it perfectly especially had my in-game crush sealed in the perfect way. :lollipop_tears_of_joy:

Combat is ok, fun but arcadey. I can see that different people prefer different play styles. I didn't like daggers, started with bearded axes and finished hammers, especially a hammer that is poisonous and has a unique clapping sound:

Mournful-Cry.jpg


Bought it with Opal currency from those random store items. But was using this:

maxresdefault.jpg


They have devastating stun advantage and this one is pretty agile and fast with great damage and satisfying sound.:lollipop_tears_of_joy:

When I go for a region, I start with side quests then go to main mission. But the other way around would be fun as well.
 

Krappadizzle

Gold Member
It's a solid 7.5/10 kinda game. Not gonna change the world in design or narrative, but it's still a good waste of time. I've played worse games for longer. I do wish they'd just drop the AssCreed shit at this point. I'd rather just have a solid open-world game in unique historical settings telling cool stories than kind of forcing this Abstergo/Alien/Brotherhood storylines into the setting and trying to make them make sense in context. At this point I just don't care anymore. I look forward to a China setting and maybe a Civil War setting. Fun game, worth playing.
 
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Bo_Hazem

Banned
The shitty standing stones puzzles and tattoo sheets you chase round only to fall off something can both get to fuck though.

Well the tattoo sheets are dodgy as fuck but I rarely miss them. Sometimes you can catch them right in the beginning. The standing stones puzzles are so much fun yet some took me like 10+ minutes or even more like 20+, but so rewarding and satisfying to do!
 

Nitty_Grimes

Made a crappy phPBB forum once ... once.
I suppose if I want the plat they constitute 100% completion of each area?

Have done 3 stone puzzles so far :(
 
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kittoo

Cretinously credulous
I've been wondering about this fame since it released but I played origins and odyssey and got bored real fast because the game was copy paste and too easy. If valahalla has overcome this I'd consider it.

I also felt exactly the same about Origins and Odyssey (or any Ubi open world game in past few years) and first one hour of Valhalla felt the same too. But then, something clicked. Its different. Maybe it's the setting, the graphics, the story....not sure. But I am loving it now. I haven't played last 4-5 assassin's creeds combined as much I have played this, and I have barely scratched the surface.
I suppose it's possible that I get bored later on, but its great so far.
Try at least to reach England and spend a few hours there. If it still doesn't click then maybe its not for you. Do try to play with HDR on a good TV. They have done a fnbtastic job with HDR here.
 
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