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Assassins Creed Valhalla


AndyKurosaki
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Started this a few nights ago, probably only about 4-5 hours in so far.

 

Initial impressions weren't good at all. This is the first AC game I've played on console since AC Unity in 2014 I think so there was bound to be a bit of an adjustment. Out the gate I'd selected the 30fps fidelity mode and it just looked and ran like ass to me, it doesn't help that the two previous AAA games I've played on PS5 have been the PS Studios exclusives Miles Morales and Demon's Souls which look and run sublimely well. This looked decided cross-gen after playing those, definitely felt like I was taking a step back in time almost and just playing an up-rezzed PS4 game, character animations and facial expressions were so much more wooden and the lips didn't quite sync up to the audio. The combat was another eye opener, coming off Demon's Souls it just felt terrible.

 

Once I got let off the leash so to speak the game improved quite a bit though. As usual I just ignored the main questline and went off exploring, to my surprise exploration works quite a bit differently than in Origins and Odyssey, in those games I'd use the bird to pretty much mark everything in one area of the map and then go about toing and froing between those markers until they were eventually all cleared up. Here, there's none of that (so far at least), the bird seems pretty neutered in comparison, I can hover over things and they show the marker briefly but I'm not able to mark them on my map. For infiltrating enemy settlements this can be quite annoying but for the exploration it enables you just focus on the environment and not be looking at a load of markers stretched over the horizon. 

 

I will say as well that on my second session with the game, I switched to performance mode and that made a hell of a difference. Now the game runs at a more or less locked 60fps and everything feels so much more fluid and less like you're running in treacle. The combat is still quite poor in my view (so far) but the fps definitely improves things. 

 

Already I like where the story's going as well. Two new characters have shown up really early on that have made me raise an eyebrow, without giving anything away I didn't expect things to get this entangled with AC lore this quickly, I keep thinking of the potential ramifications and connections with these two new characters and how things will play out. 

 

So, a bit of a mixed bag so far but I'm still in Norway, very early in the game so things could change for the better or worse at this point. 

 

Pics: 

 

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1 hour ago, AndyKurosaki said:

I definitely feel some of the side characters are far more interesting than Eivor, who I never really liked as much as Kassandra from Odyssey. Having gone back to that recently, I definitely feel Odyssey is the better game. 


Yeah, I’m still very early in but I haven’t warmed to Eivor yet really, she seems much more of a blank slate than Kassandra was. 

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Nah, I went female all the way through. The male option in Odyssey was so tedious compared to the excellent Kassandra that I can’t even remember his name. So I played to the end of Valhalla as a woman. 
Not that it mattered much. Eivor never really seemed that interesting as a character.

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I go back and forth on it, I picked female V cause she seemed cooler than the male one. But in AC when I saw that they randomly change it if you want I picked that cause I need to see how they try and justify that shit

 

Spoiler

I actually might have also read some spoilers about how they do it and it seems pretty interesting to me

 

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So I'm 20 hours into this now and I still don't really know what to make of it.

 

I did everything I could in Norway at this time and have then proceeded to clear everything county-by-county once I reached England as I usually do in these games. I will say the difference between Norway and England is stark, you go from these huge rocky snowy peaks to little winding rivers and idyllic English countryside, England is definitely easier to navigate as I felt myself getting a little annoyed having to climb up some huge mountain to reach an objective in Norway all the time ?. England hasn't been anywhere near as distinct though, I really like the little bits of Roman architecture you come across but aside from this it's just a relatively generic depiction of England in that time period (so far). I like it, but nowhere near as much as Greece and Egypt of the previous two games.

 

I don't know if I just need to get further into the game or not, but this seems far less focused on the Naval side of things than the previous two games as well. You get access to the Longship very early on and it seems essential to get about in Norway but as soon as you come into England it doesn't really feel like it's needed, most of the places I can get to via my horse or a short swim, it kind of feels too big for some of the rivers and tributaries I've been done so far in Grantebridgescire as well, with the little fishing boats you see dotted about a much better fit. There has been 0 amount of Naval combat so far either with no inclination that there will be any anytime soon, it seems the Longship is mainly used for getting about and Raiding and that's about it. I hope I'm wrong though.

 

As for the exploration, they seem to of trimmed a lot of the fat in terms of icons and other screen/map clutter that was dotted about in Origins and Odyssey. In those games they'd either be marked with a ? or hidden until you survey the area with your bird guide, here though there are hardly any ? symbols at all, replaced instead with glowing gold, white and blue orbs. Gold being for treasure, white for artefacts and blue for 'mysteries', this means that you aren't constantly putting your bird in the air and marking every symbol in the immediate vicinity nor seeing a ton of ?s on the map, instead you'll see a few big and small little dots of the colours mentioned above, once you get closer to them they fully reveal themselves to you so you know exactly what they are. 

 

The Gold treasure is more or less self-explanatory, you'll see it on your map and it'll ping in your L3 'Odin's Sight' as you get closer, it'll be Gold Ingots, Supplies for your Camp or Armour most of the time. The White Artefacts are usually tattoo pages (which you have to chase, similar to the feathers from AC4 - which I really like), Roman Artefacts, Treasure Maps and Cursed Symbols, the latter is the most interesting thing here. You'll come across an area that'll be cursed and have to find and destroy the symbol, nothing crazy innovative or ground-breaking but a nice addition all the same. The Blue mysteries are the most interesting part, as these are actually Valhalla's side quests. In previous games you'd get named side quests dotted all around the shop and then the forever-spawning contract style ones, here though they've trimmed this down significantly and all the side quests are quite spread out and vary wildly, a lot of them have been significantly better and more memorable than those in the previous two games as well.

 

Forts seem to be handled differently here too. In the previous two games there'd be a hell of a lot of forts dotted around an area which you'd have to eliminate (and find all the loot) to be able to complete a district. Here though there are forts as such but they don't really appear on the map and most of them can be quickly raided with your Norse colleagues. They also aren't needed to complete an area which is handy. This is probably the one aspect that stopped me from 100 percenting odyssey, towards the end I just got tired of clearing out forts, so knowing I won't have to do this for the 100% here is handy, the ones that I will have to do (as they often contain loot) can also be quickly raided with my Viking friends. 

 

The raiding is important here as you get supplies to upgrade your home base, Raventhorpe. This has been done before in loads of other games (including AC: Brotherhood) where you gradually upgrade a home base to include more and more elaborate things and other conveniences that'll help you out on your journey and it's pretty much the same deal here. You raid monasteries, get supplies and raw materials which then allow you to install new things at your camp like a Barracks, Museum, Tattoo Shop, Fishing Hut, Shipyard, Stables etc. Which improve numerous bits and pieces like making your horse go through water or enabling you to customise your Longship. The more of these installations you erect the more you level up your town, I've already gone from Level 1 to Level 3 just by harnessing all the materials available to me in the opening English area (Grantebridgescire) that I explored so I can't see getting it up to max level (6) will be too difficult at all.

 

I'm still not sure I like how loot is handled though. In the two previous games you'd collect loot with different colour grades from enemies, chests and a whole load of other places. This encouraged experimentation as I'd be using a common spear, then find a blue rare sword, try this for a bit and the combat would change quite a bit. Here though I've largely stuck to one weapon as you only really get weapons and armour from the Gold treasure chests marked on your map that I've mentioned above and none have seemed to be better than the one I've currently got and have upgraded. The way upgrading weapons/armour works seems to be tied to the gold treasure as well, as you get Carbon Ingots out of chests and doing other tasks, these are used to upgrade armour bit-by-bit and you can also put runes you find dotted about into the different armour pieces as well.

 

Combat I've gotten used to and is much better now. Initially it just felt cumbersome, unwieldy and just not very fun but now I've got used to it, it's a lot of fun. I still would like to experiment more with my weapon choices and the shield feels a little redundant as you can dual wield and also 2-hand weapons but it's still a lot of fun. I will say as well that being stealthy feels more viable here than the previous two games as you can kill harder enemies with your hidden blade (once you unlock an ability) and seem to be able to do advanced abilities like chain assassinations and the like much earlier in the game than you could in Origins and Odyssey. 

 

Also, an apology to @AndyKurosaki is in order too as the way levelling works is way different in this and I have found levelling up to be much slower. In the previous two games you'd level up every time you filled the diamond in the top right corner up but here every time you fill the diamond up you get skill points and nothing else. Only when you assign those skill points into the skill tree do you go up some levels, it feels much more akin to the light levels in Destiny than the system of the previous games. I'm still gaining a ton of skill points but without the forts the amount of XP you get is definitely reduced. I wrongly assumed things were the same as Odyssey and Origins, they're definitely not.

 

The way the skill tree works definitely seems inspired by FFX ?. You start out in the middle and can branch off into three directions (Melee, Stealth and Ranged), every node you unlock on the tree unlocks some small percentage increase like +2% health or something like that but you also reach these big nodes which unlock key abilities like Chain Assassination, Backstab, Emergency Aim etc. But, the catch is you can't see the way the tree branches out, you're largely blind to where you'll end up if you keep heading down a certain path, only seeing some of the big nodes in the far distance. Which means you may go a certain way down a tree only to realise none of the abilities from the big nodes you actually want, which is kind of cool. 

 

The story has continued to intrigue as I've got to England. It's not giving anything away to say that it largely centres on making alliances with different Norse factions scattered around England (so far at least). You 'pledge' to ally yourself to a certain region then go off doing a load of tasks to get a particular leader (and their clan) on your side through a variety of missions. I've only done one of these arcs so far but that had me looking for clues and then successfully (I believe) identifying a traitor that gave away some key plans to an enemy. It just feels much more organic, like if you're using the political angle to try to get people on side in Civ or something rather than just trying to bludgeon them into submission. I will say, I'm not convinced with Eivor still either or some of the voice acting. A lot of the kids sound American and a lot of the main cast sound unintentionally Irish.

 

A special mention must also go to Orlog. It's a tactical dice game where you have to continually roll your dice to try to attack and defend against your opponents dice. Certain pieces will attack your opponent, others will defend against their dice and another will grant you tokens which you can then use on a 'God Favour' which is a special ability that can wipe out your opponent very quickly or heal you if you get into trouble. It's incredible well imagined and is a very deep game, I've played about 3 or 4 opponents throughout Norway so far and have had a lot of fun trying to outthink my opponent, for a minigame they've absolutely nailed it, so fun and addictive.

 

Honestly, this game is massive and has so many different parts to it, I'm not sure I've even covered everything here. I'm 20 hours in and have done the Norwegian Prologue and cleared one area of England ? there is just a staggering amount to do and the sheer size of it is daunting. As mentioned above I'm going for the 100% but I'm not sure I'll get there, this game seems bigger in land mass than any of the previous two games which featured significant amounts of seas and large rivers. England's tributaries don't compare so far so it feels like there's much more land to traverse. 

 

I like an awful lot of things about it but it hasn't grabbed me in the same way Odyssey and Origins did so far for a variety of reasons. I just haven't felt like I've got lost or engrossed in the game in the same way. I am still very early in for a game of this size though and haven't long reached England so hopefully this'll change in time.

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Once you reach England, your ship barely gets used at all. I have fond memories of naval battles in Odyssey. That never happened for me in Valhalla, not once. 
 

I’ve no idea how you get the Settlement to maximum level. I’ve bought all the upgrades I can, done all the raids. Yet it’s still not maxed out, and hasn’t explained at all what I’m missing. 
 

I certainly can’t be arsed to 100% it. I don’t like Orlog, and so many of the side missions are proper tedious that I’ve no intention of doing all of those.

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6 hours ago, one-armed dwarf said:

Can you elaborate a bit on the combat, tbh it's the main reason I couldn't get on with this game but I'm sure if it improves I can find something to like about it

 

I'm a bit surprised you actually bought this, seems like such a non-dwarf game to be honest. I haven't played Valhalla yet but combat in AC has been pretty awful since the very first game and that's usually the thing you focus on the most.

 

Try Immortals instead. It's not DMC but you have Witch Time, parries that are actually rewarding, launchers, air combos, Neo's arm, bootleg Stinger and you can send your bird to attack enemies and explode on impact.

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6 hours ago, one-armed dwarf said:

Can you elaborate a bit on the combat, tbh it's the main reason I couldn't get on with this game but I'm sure if it improves I can find something to like about it

 

Cyberpunk has given me a new appreciation for Ubisoft I think, turns out open world design even when design by committee isn't all that easy


Well I switched from using an axe and shield to using a two handed spear and it just feels that I’m more effective offensively whilst being more vulnerable defensively so it keeps you on your toes more. In this game they tend to throw more heavy enemies at you which also feels like more of a challenge, then you throw in the lack of abilities (especially right at the very beginning) and the stamina gauge and it just feels like you’re a bit more on the cliff edge than previous games.
 

It’s nothing compared to the likes of DMC and Souls don’t get me wrong, but it does the job and does it well, I think a little better than the previous games due to the stuff mentioned above and at the same time a little worse as you aren’t incentivised to experiment with weapons as much.

 

5 hours ago, AndyKurosaki said:

Once you reach England, your ship barely gets used at all. I have fond memories of naval battles in Odyssey. That never happened for me in Valhalla, not once. 
 

I’ve no idea how you get the Settlement to maximum level. I’ve bought all the upgrades I can, done all the raids. Yet it’s still not maxed out, and hasn’t explained at all what I’m missing. 
 

I certainly can’t be arsed to 100% it. I don’t like Orlog, and so many of the side missions are proper tedious that I’ve no intention of doing all of those.


That’s a huge shame to me ? the Naval stuff was one of my favourite parts of the previous two games. 
 

Interesting, I just assumed once you’d got all the stalls that it would be maxed out. 
 

Yeah, that’s fair enough. I tried to 100% Odyssey but didn’t quite get there so who knows if I will in this or not. 

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21 minutes ago, Maryokutai said:

 

I'm a bit surprised you actually bought this, seems like such a non-dwarf game to be honest. I haven't played Valhalla yet but combat in AC has been pretty awful since the very first game and that's usually the thing you focus on the most.

 

Try Immortals instead. It's not DMC but you have Witch Time, parries that are actually rewarding, launchers, air combos, Neo's arm, bootleg Stinger and you can send your bird to attack enemies and explode on impact.

Even Dwarf gets bored of juggling demons with shotguns, I've barely played the Vergil dlc. There's enough stuff about the setting, characters and visuals to keep me interested it's just that the first impressions of the fighting was like a 4/10 and it seemed like you do an awful lot of it.

 

It's not that I expect DMC it's more just that it turns into something serviceable at some point. I mean I got done playing 100 hours of a russian plague sim where the combat was like what if Skyrim was in 15fps and also you die in one hit, I don't always demand perfection lol

 

Mostly I'm looking for an open world game which isn't Cyberpunk, which actually turned out to be pretty rotten the more I played it. AC is better from what I played of it

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On 17/12/2020 at 16:01, DisturbedSwan said:

In the previous two games you'd level up every time you filled the diamond in the top right corner up but here every time you fill the diamond up you get skill points and nothing else. Only when you assign those skill points into the skill tree do you go up some levels, it feels much more akin to the light levels in Destiny than the system of the previous games. I'm still gaining a ton of skill points but without the forts the amount of XP you get is definitely reduced. I wrongly assumed things were the same as Odyssey and Origins, they're definitely not.

 

I think what I said about the way levelling works in my previous post is wrong.

 

I went back to check how it works in Odyssey and it seems in that game every time you level up the XP bar, you go up a level and also gain 1 ability point, you also gain ability points by collecting various bits and pieces dotted around the map. The lower the level you are the quicker you level up (I guess this is obvious) whereas the higher the level you are the slower it is.

 

In Valhalla you get 2 skill points every time you you fill the diamond in the top right corner of the screen. You also get skill points by doing various bits and pieces (similar to Odyssey) whilst exploring the world. So in Odyssey there's 50 ability points to play for until you hit max level (I believe this is what it was at launch, they might've increased it since) and then you unlock mastery points every time you level up, as well as the other ability points you get when picking things up in exploration.

 

In Valhalla there's a seemingly endless amount of skill points on offer, you get 2 every time you level up (which seems quicker than Odyssey as it's not tied to level) which means at 'Power Level' 85 I would be the equivalent of Level 42 in Odyssey (worked this out by using 2 skill points = 1 level) already, about 25 hours into the game and having just finished the Ledecesterscire arc of the story (which is very early in I believe). 

 

Obviously this isn't a like for like comparison due to the different levelling systems and the fact 1 ability point = level up in Odyssey whereas 2 skill points = 2 power levels in Valhalla. But, yeah, you can see here that the levelling is actually quicker despite the lack of forts and other XP generators from Odyssey being changed up significantly in Valhalla. 

 

The opening areas in Valhalla (in England) are Recommended Power Level 20 (Grantebridgescire and Ledecesterscire) which does make you feel a little under levelled right at the beginning (as you are likely only PL 10/11 by the time you reach England), as well as encountering Zealots and other activities which have recommended PL's of 90-120 out the gate. But you will cross this threshold very quickly just doing the main missions, me being me I've done everything and am already way over levelled at PL 85 for the opening areas and the next one I'm now going to (East Anglia - Rec. PL 55) but still slightly under-levelled to fight the Zealots I encounter on the map and a mini-boss type challenge I've yet to do.

 

I think the reason I thought it was slower is because the level-curve if you like is more gentle in Odyssey. You start off at Level 0 in that and level up very quickly with some low level areas around you right at the beginning in Greece whereas in Valhalla when you get past the Prologue and enter England you're 9-11 levels or so under the recommended so it felt slower initially and that I'd made less progress if that makes sense. 

 

So yeah, I think that level booster that was just patched in is even more pointless in this than it was in Odyssey in my view, just doing the main missions seems to get you a lot of skill points very quickly, I think mine jumped from 6 to 23 in the Ledecesterscire arc just largely from doing the main missions there (I only level up when I have about 20 or so available). 

 

I actually think the lack of Forts is a masterstroke now too, they were the main reason I gave up on the 100% in Odyssey as I just got sick of doing them by the time I reached Sparta in that game. A lot of collectibles and stuff is still tied to them here but it's nice you don't have to go round killing every single dude then finding some loot to tick something off and a lot of them can be completed very quickly via the raids.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Now 67 hours into this (thanks Xmas break!) and absolutely loving it. Can’t stop playing it and can’t get it out of my head really, the sign of a great game. 

 

I think the biggest improvement on the previous two games is the story. Every region you go to is like an Episode of a TV series or something. You’ll go to a new region and start a new ‘Arc’, encounter a few new characters and some returning ones, get the lay of the land and set out upon your task of gaining an ally to stand with your clan in that particular area. Every Arc has been quite a bit different as the characters you meet along the way all vary wildly and give each region a distinct flavour, some feel more like side stories where others may directly tie into the overarching Order of the Ancients/Assassin’s plot line. I will say that one of the arcs in Shropshire has more twists than a rollercoaster, genuinely amazing stuff at times and the closest I’ve ever been to crying in an AC game. 


I’m just loving exploring every inch of this map, finding all the bits and pieces and completing all the main and side missions in every region I come to. England itself still isn’t as visually arresting as Ancient Egypt or Greece but it’s still a cool place to explore.

 

Lots of pics:

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just another update.

 

Now at 90 hours played. Power Level 329 and currently in Suthsexe.

Still really enjoying it, it seems to get better and better as it goes on. I have struggled on occasion when starting the game up and getting back into the swing of things after a few days off, but after an hour or two goes by I'm back into picking up collectibles sprinkled with a few story missions in that region every now and again for good measure.

I'm going for the 100% and Platinum so have been massively over levelled for most regions after the initial 20-30 hours were over. This has the unfortunate side effect of making combat incredibly easy and automatic, I don't even really have to think about it anymore unless I'm facing the Goliath-like enemies or a zealot/boss encounter really, I just hammer R1 dodge a bit (which slows down time with an ability I've got) and Bob's your uncle really.

Having abandoned going for the 100% in Odyssey I think the way the collectibles work in this has meant I find it much more achievable a feat. In Odyssey I just felt so overwhelmed having completed all regions prior to reaching Sparta that when I got there and found I had this huge mainland area to 100% now I just noped out pretty much. I think a lot of that (and I may of mentioned this in a previous entry) was the Forts, I just found them so tedious after awhile that they well outstayed their welcome for me, so that when I got to that stage in the game I just didn't want to do them anymore despite enjoying all the other collectibles and activities quite a bit. It just feels like with Valhalla they have trimmed so much of the fat, there isn't an overwhelming amount of anything, everything feels within reach and attainable. I really like the way each region feels meaningful here too thanks to the story missions, a lot of regions in Origins and Odyssey you'd have to complete without there being many reasons to be in that region in the narrative whereas here there always feels like there's a reason you're there and the story missions break up the collectible hunting and mystery completing very nicely.

I don't like the way Gear works in this though and much prefer Odyssey/Origins' system. I got one good Spear and armour set from the Twitch Prime drop right at the beginning of my playthrough and I've used it throughout, every armour set and weapon I pick up is worse than that one I got right away, so why would I use anything else? About 20-30 hours ago I got another Mythical weapon from the Contract merchant and it was so nice to have a different weapon to use after all this time, was really a breath of fresh air. I miss this experimentation, you would experiment with weapons and different shields all the time in the previous two games as they would drop all over the place whereas here it just feels like it's a bit too stingy on giving you the great weapons and armour really.

But yeah, despite the complaints I adore this game. I loved the previous two games and whilst I don't think this hits quite the highs of Origins it is a far better, more well rounded and less bloated experience than Odyssey in my view. Still got plenty more hours left to go so I will write another entry once I'm a little further in, probably got another 30-40 hours left at least I'd imagine.

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105 hours now, hit the soft level cap last night and am now just getting ‘Mastery Points’ instead of Skill Points.

 

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Getting towards the end now, just got Gloucestershire, Nottinghamshire, Winchester, Hampshire and one of the Norwegian regions to complete now for the 100%. 
 

Everything’s looking good for the Platinum too at the moment but I think the fishing trophy is gonna be a bit annoying to get, caught a few fish already through exploration but there’s bound to be some hard to catch rare fucker hiding somewhere.

 

Loving every moment of it still, I would’ve thought the loop would’ve got a bit boring by now but it just keeps me enthralled with a smile on my face hour after hour.

 

 

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