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[GooseMan69]

I just can’t do it anymore. The game showed me everything it had to offer in the first 20 or so hours and then decided it would be cool to stretch it for another 80 hours. And frankly, the game took a nosedive after Norway.

Let me back up for a minute and say this is my first Assassins Creed since Black Flag. I’ve enjoyed every AC game I’ve played. Even the first one. I decided to get back into the series with Valhalla. It was great...at first. It had all the things I wanted in an AC game, with some added RPG and open world stuff. I loved exploring Norway. I wanted to see and do everything. The soundtrack was amazing. The story had me mildly interested.

Then you reach England and the game comes to a screeching halt. I was overwhelmed by side content and map markers. Eventually I gave up on all the side activities, because most of them weren’t worthwhile.

The mission/quest design is completely brain dead. The devs obviously didn’t have time or resources to make memorable quests so they just copy and paste some radiant style quests into random areas. If the game is feeling spicy you’ll fight some endlessly respawning enemies in a fortress until you complete the extremely scripted and linear objectives. What a blast.

I haven’t even mentioned the game is janky as absolute fuck. Every two seconds there’s some goofy shit going on. There was a patch that completely fucked the lip syncing so characters would frequently talk without opening their mouths during cutscenes. They recently fixed that with a patch. So they needed a patch to fix the patch.

I was lying to myself until tonight. “No, the game is fine, just a little janky!!” Then I loaded up Ghost of Tsushima on PS5 and realized it’s better in literally every way. It’s polished. The combat is top tier. Despite being 50 ish hours, it’s downright concise in comparison. The story gets better as it goes on instead of trailing off into fucking nothing. If nothing else, Valhalla gave me a newfound appreciation for Ghost, even though I liked the game before.

Fucking hell Ubisoft, just make shorter games.

 

[Arun1910]

You should have bought Origins. Has a better shorter story, a great protagonist/VA, smaller more digestible world... and it's Egypt.

I've played every AC and I think even the majority of the AC Reddit agrees that Valhalla and Odyssey were too big for their own good.

 

[Reptars Revenge]

Hit up that YouTube video for the ending and call it a day.

 

[GooseMan69]

You should have bought Origins. Has a better shorter story, a great protagonist/VA, smaller more digestible world... and it's Egypt.

I've played every AC and I think even the majority of the AC Reddit agrees that Valhalla and Odyssey were too big for their own good.

I keep hearing Origins is better but I have such a sour taste from Valhalla that I don’t even want to touch a Ubisoft game for awhile. Maybe down the road when/if it gets a 60 FPS patch for PS5.

 

[kikkis]

Well if you got 30 hours of entertainment, I call it a success. Sure not finishing story sucks but still.

 

[Bramble]

I didn't even got to 30 minutes, respect! The audio is so bad, I couldn't continue. The bad combat and even worse AI didn't help either.

 

[balls of snow]

Im heading to the big major city in England and cant wait. The rolling fields and small towns are a bore.

 

[Juza]

Sounds like the last two AC games.

 

[Rean no Kiseki]

You should have bought Origins. Has a better shorter story, a great protagonist/VA, smaller more digestible world... and it's Egypt.

I've played every AC and I think even the majority of the AC Reddit agrees that Valhalla and Odyssey were too big for their own good.

Odyssey is the best out of these new AC games, blyes it's too big but the story, characters, quests, loot and The Cult of The Cosmos made it in my to 3 games of that year, Origins is great too, it has the best world to explore and good combat and good loot but it’s story and characters especially the main ones aren't that good, now Valhalla..... Man to think i chose this instead of going with my gut and getting Immortals, since it's reveal i thought it's a step back from the greatness of Odyssey and the improvements it made on Origins but now that I've installed Origins again and played it for a bit HOLY SHIT does it seem like Valhalla was made before Origins and not the other way around, Norse setting has been done to death in recent years and that maybe why i feel this way, but Goddamn i'm like 10 hours in and I've lost all interest, I made to England and did the army of summer missions but I've stopped, Eivor is BORING, the main characters are boring and unlikable, the VA is surprisingly mediocre to bad, theres hardly a plot in this game, no goal to chase NOTHING, Baek wanted venegance for his Son and to reunite with his wife, Alexios/Kassandra wanted to find their mother and reunite their family while also fighting off the cult.

There's no one to care about like Phoibe, the leveling system is uninteresting, i'm 10 hours in and i'm still using the starting armor and Axe you get in the first 10 minutes of the game!

I might come back to this game some time later maybe an a couple months/years and like/love it like I did with Black Flag which i didn't enjoy on release but enjoyed it's cast, setting and sroty things that are very much missing in Valhalla.

Edit: Also fuck woke Ubi, why the fuck did you give me a choice between Alexios and Kassandra and simply ignore it and decide that Kassandra is the cannon Eagle Bearer? Even though more than 2 THIRDS OF ODYSSEY PLAYERS CHOSE ALEXIOS? you could've just said the Eagle Bearer and left ambiguous.

 

[Negotiator101]

You should have bought Origins. Has a better shorter story, a great protagonist/VA, smaller more digestible world... and it's Egypt.

I've played every AC and I think even the majority of the AC Reddit agrees that Valhalla and Odyssey were too big for their own good.

Origins is exactly the same thing, grind, rinse and repeat. This franchise needs a serious revamp!

 

[xrnzaaas]

Well if you got 30 hours of entertainment, I call it a success. Sure not finishing story sucks but still.

For me it's always going to be a failure when the game becomes so boring, grindy or repetetive that a lot of people won't even finish its main storyline. And with newer AC games you can't just focus on the main quests, because there's the leveling aspect you can't ignore.

 

[TonyK]

I'm in the last region of Valhalla and yes, it's way too long. Long in the bad way. But I will finish it.

I want to add something about Origins being better. I played all Assassin's creed in order of appearance, except Rogue, so I have a personal opinion about all of them. And for me, Origins is not better (not worse) than Odyssey or Valhalla, it was simply the first to introduce the change towards a light The Witcher clone in the franchise. If you play Origins after Valhalla it will probably seem worse.

 

[Kupfer]

Thanks for the thread, you sum up pretty much exactly why I can't stand and therefore don't buy Ubisoft games no more.
To be fair, I was unsure whether to buy Valhalla or not as I just miss ps5 games on the ps5. But I'm glad I didn't and threads like this continue to encourage me to stay away from Ubisoft.

 

[GymWolf]

At least you endured for 30 hours, i was done after less than 20.

 

[archangelmorph]

Origins was great but Odyssey was amazing!

Looking forward to try out Valhalla at some point. I am a glutton for Ubisoft open world tedium though I have to say.

 

[midasmulligan]

Yep, sounds like an AC game to me

 

[Zheph]

Completely agree
It gets so bad, I managed 40h and now just thinking about it makes me sick.

I was already overwelhmed and they drop Asgard on you, awful area.
Despite Odyssey being longer, it kept me in much much longer and I agree with Tsushima, maybe a little too many camps but so much better than those bloated AC games.

 

[Troozi]

I was the same. I recently finished the game after about 75 hours, I reckon I started skipping dialogue around 50 hours because I was just so bored with it all and just wanted it to finish.

The world is stunning, but the story just wasn't interesting, and it it didn't help that every zone just felt like the same rinse and repeat formula.

Don't even get me started on the stealth...

 

[whyman]

Only 70 hours left to 100%. It's worth it. Best game of 2020 imo.

 

[Nico_D]

That's the modern Ubisoft experience for you.

 

[KungFucius]

I finished it. It was a good game, ran reasonably well on PC with an RTX 3090 and a lot of the gameplay was fine, there was just way too fucking much of it. I clocked in at 90 hours. Some of that was me leaving the game running on the menu screen and going off and doing something else for a while, but it took well over 75 hours of gameplay to do the story and a boatload of side quests and still see a million fucking things left to do that basically told me my time was not valued.

I played on Ubisoft + and did Fenyx after it. That was a much more focused and reasonable game, but with the Free Watchdogs, playing AC and then Fenyx and a free copy of FC6 waiting for release, I probably wont want to play another Ubisoft open world game ever. .... Until the next AC game comes out and I get sucked in for 40 hours and bitch and moan about there still being 40 hours left, and bitch about it after that until the next one comes out. Wash, rinse, repeat.

It's stupid because if they released half the game every year, I would still play them. No way in fuck am I playing DLC on a game that had what felt like 3 major DLCs on top of a long game.

 

[packy34]

The ending is bonkers.

I also struggled to finish it; I put it down about 60% through and eventually forced myself to push through to the end. I think I'm glad I did? It depends on where they're taking all these weird story arcs.

 

[mxbison]

That's most open world games for me.

 

[The Cockatrice]

You know this may come as a shock but ACVal is the first AC game I dropped and I played them all from start to finish. It's no way near as bad as AC3 or Unity but jesus fuck the story/progression is so FUCKING BORING. I dont understand why. Maybe I'm just getting tired of their games.

 

[Spukc]

OP just described every fucking ubisoft game ever made.
once you notice the damn game is a 1 trick pony you are usually done with it.

do not buy that french ubisheit

 

[Rean no Kiseki]

Origins was great but Odyssey was amazing!

Looking forward to try out Valhalla at some point. I am a glutton for Ubisoft open world tedium though I have to say.

Don't get Valhalla anytime soon, trust me it's a BIG downgrade coming from Odyssey and even Origins! Only get the base game if it's on deep sale or for around 40$ for the complete edition.

 

[Zheph]

I got excited by that "camp" feature but it is really not that deep
The story is going through every medieval aspects we saw so many times

that's more personal also but Egypt and Greece are so much better eras

 

[YeulEmeralda]

Remember Dragon Age Inquisition? LEAVE THE HINTERLANDS

Open world games are bloated like that.

 

[Halo0629]

Game is pretty ok but after 100 hrs in and still having tons more to collect I got so exhausted with the game that I just decide to focus on the main campaign just to finally finish it. The game is too bloated for my taste.

 

[Arun1910]

Origins is exactly the same thing, grind, rinse and repeat. This franchise needs a serious revamp!

Not anymore its not. They added an update where enemies scale with you rather than being 20 levels on top. Reduced the grind and made breezing through the game quicker and more accessible.

 

[Javthusiast]

Sure sounds like modern Assasins Creed to me.

 

[iorek21]

Valhalla made me like Odyssey and Origins even more.

It’s not a bad game, but it’s janky and filled with useless content. Valhalla is too damn long and unable to keep you interested after the ~40h mark, even Odyssey had better ways to keep you interested.

You just can’t have a 100h game without the quality to back all those hours.

 

[Iced Arcade]

I'm struggling to stay interested in the game as well. Just finished the Asgard area and that was the most draggy shit ever.

Feels like the dev watched the show vikings and played RDR2 at the same time but forgot to make it fun/interesting.

Why we get this and not a splinter cell game for a whole gen is beyond me

 

[Aion002]

Odyssey did that to me and probably killed my interest in the series as long as they keep focusing on those aspects.

 

[King_Mandu]

I didn't even got to 30 minutes, respect! The audio is so bad, I couldn't continue. The bad combat and even worse AI didn't help either.

The audio is so weird in these games and has been the last three (although I haven't played Odyssey but heard it's the same). They've got thousands of people making these games and not one person said, "Hey, the audio is kinda shit."

I like Valhalla but agree with everyone who says it's too much. I think I got 60% of the way through before Cyberpunk released then I dropped it. No urge to revisit the game at all.

 

[Negotiator101]

Not anymore its not. They added an update where enemies scale with you rather than being 20 levels on top. Reduced the grind and made breezing through the game quicker and more accessible.

It's still the same old formula though even if you take out the grinding. OP has basically confirmed that, surely you must admit AC needs a new vision?

 

[Xtib81]

I'm 20hrs in, and so far it's much better than Odyssey. The Map isn't as large, it's divided into several short stories that are easy to follow, there are way fewer markers on the map and combat even though mediocre is better than Odyssey's. I'm only focusing on story missions cuz' I know I'll be bored after 40hrs and it works well so far.I still prefer origins by a wide Margin but I think they're going into the right direction.
Oh and thank fucking god for the disappearance of endless loot, I couldn't stand it.

 

[Zok310]

Ubisoft and this shift to bigger empty worlds caused me to drop AssCreed after Origins. For me their open world have become hit or miss

 

[VFXVeteran]

Same here OP.

 

[Fbh]

That sucks.
Even though it's flawed I enjoyed Odyssey so I was looking forward to playing this once it was $30 or less. But I've seen so many complains about unnecessary length and padding that I've completely lost my interest in Valhalla.

Hopefully they change things moving forward. Focus on smaller worlds and games with less but better content. Why even make it so long, don't most people not even finish games anyway? Making it 20-40 hours seems like it would be perfectly reasonable.

 

[TheMan]

I put maybe 20 hours or so into it, conquered a few of the low level territories in England and then I just kinda fell off. It's still installed on my HD but I can't muster the motivation to play it. I don't hate it, I just don't care anymore I guess? I'll probably get back to it someday.

 

[OmegaSupreme]

All that content though!

 

[ToTTenTranz]

I started to lose faith in the franchise the moment its creative director said that making an Assassin's Creed in feudal Japan or Egypt would be boring. This was at the time they had released 3 games in a row set in XVI century Italy and decided to go to the colonial US next, for AC3.

After that they released yet another 4 yearly "main" titles set on western countries during the late 2nd millennium, completely losing sight of the Indiana Jones-esque archeological mysticism that was provided by the first game.

After Origins, I thought they had corrected their course, but with Valhalla it looks like the franchise's creative directors really can't help themselves from deviating too much out of Europe and the US.
Which is such a waste. The world is so much bigger and more interesting than this..



Valhalla specifically sounds like the directors were fans of the recurring Vikings TV Show back in ~2015 and they thought AC fans would like this as much as them.
Meh..

 

[drganon]

That's about as much time as I put into it before I gave up on it. Orgins and even Odyssey were much more enjoyable to me.

 

[Elcid]

Same with me and Witcher 3 and other open world games like that. Too fucking big and too long. Look at a game like Maneater or Spider-Man. Those are good open worlds with just enough side content and length. This new craze or neverending open worlds is mind boggling. Too much!!!

 

[GametimeUK]

I've come to the conclusion I just prefer shorter games now. Diminishing returns kicks in when it comes to my enjoyment. Maybe it's due to my adult life and shorter games suiting my schedule more.

Gears Hivebusters, Spider-Man Miles Morales, Astro's Playroom etc just seem to suit me perfectly with how they are paced.

The thought of 30+ hours on a game knocks me sick especially Assassin's Creed. I think it's only story games because I can sink hours upon hours into games where I'm not keeping up with a plot like Skater XL.

 

[GymWolf]

The problem is not having a ton of contenents but the lack of good gameplay to support them.

Why conquer 29337183 camps with the same mechanic when even the core combat is decent at best?

People play stuff like destiny or monster hunter for hundreds, thousands of hours because the gameplay is soo good that even doing the same exact thing is fun even with all the repetion.

Ubisoft games like ac and wd simply lack a good ass core gameplay.

Also story and chara are mediocre at best as usual, so the player doesn't even have the curiosity to know how the game ends or the fate of the characters.

 

[Ladioss]

I've come to the conclusion I just prefer shorter games now.

I've came to the same conclusion recently, and it's the main reason why I've gone back to playing mainly Japanese action games : around 20 hours of fun is enough for most titles, and with Japanese games gameplay is still king.

Big western open-world AAA games are just much too exhausting to play to be really fun.

 

[Hari Seldon]

You should have bought Origins. Has a better shorter story, a great protagonist/VA, smaller more digestible world... and it's Egypt.

I've played every AC and I think even the majority of the AC Reddit agrees that Valhalla and Odyssey were too big for their own good.

Yeah I bought Origins and actually finished and liked it. I got hyped and bought Odyssey which I thought would be even better due to the ship combat (which is great) and the better setting. However it is just too fucking bloated. Skipping Vahala as it seems it is the same thing.

 

[Arun1910]

It's still the same old formula though even if you take out the grinding. OP has basically confirmed that, surely you must admit AC needs a new vision?

Of course. But out of the 3 using this new formula, Origins did it best.

Odyssey fucked with so much lore and was not grounded at all and Valhalla was too long and uninteresting.