Assassin's Creed Valhalla is a Game for No One
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- čas přidán 4. 06. 2024
- With the final Valhalla update behind us, I reflect on Assassin's Creed Valhalla and some of its more misguided ideas.
00:00 Intro
02:15 The Problem
11:24 Gameplay
30:18 World and Progression
40:28 Narrative
48:13 An Endless Grind
53:48 In Conclusion
r/AskHistorians post for Valhalla:
/ we_are_askhistorians_f... - Hry
I completely removed the concept of AC from Valhalla and just played it like a Viking game. That’s where my enjoyment came out of
I do the opposite and just choose to believe Eivor joins the Assassin's before leaving Norway, and everything he does afterwards is to benefit both his clan and the Assassin's
@@cain9851 in origins I got the katana and the stealth armor and now I say bayek is a sand ninja 🤷🏾♂️😭
I played Black Flag under the same pretense. I'd get annoyed whenever my high-seas pirate adventure would get interrupted by the goofy-ass story which is unfortunately the foundation of this series.
So did Ubisoft
But you paid for ac
The old familiar phrase comes to mind.
If you try to please everyone, you will please no one
Another proverb is: A man cannot serve two masters. It roughly means the same as the metaphor you used especially in Assassins Creed. Ubisoft should either cater to legacy fans or pivot to the new RPG fans.
@@joeclaridy it was the OG fans who bought AC and alloweed ubisoft to make money the RPG fans are just people who came from fallout and witcher they dont care about the assassins or templars because the RPG games dont have any of that
@@joeclaridyIt's from the New Testament. Jesus's words.
Well, it sounds like capitalism. Games are products after all
If they actually finish their games, have good world building, good NPC's, immersion, gameplay, storytelling, etc then they'd please A LOT of people, but they do none of them right.
The games are drawn out, boring, clunky, garbage gameplay, garbage NPC's and it's been like that since AC2.
As someone who hasn’t played any AC, this video is still a great examination of why knowing your specific audience is so important in game design. You can’t make a game everything for everyone.
Knowing your audience is also important for any type of marketing. Just take a look at what happened with bud light.
@@kevinarevalo4747 Bud Light? You mean the performative backlash from conservatives followed with a useless boycott that accomplished nothing? Because honestly that's pretty accurate. Since gamers all over the place whine about Ubisoft games being boring but they keep buying them, so Ubisoft keeps making them.
@@Seoul_Soldierthe boycott did accomplished great deal and made the companies know that people are not happy with their woke agendas and shit forced on everywhere and everything.
And AC game series was historical games made of real assasins and some real historical figures and happenings at first... now its just too long role playing rpg and series has certainly lost it's original fanbase.
@@Seoul_Soldierthey had a big loss and the company said they didn't recover, you call that not accomplishing anything?
I remember a Video in the Sonic Franchise and how a lot of the sonic games introduce radically different things so it’s like each game is catering to a different audience rather than defining one and sticking with it
Dark Souls and FromSoftware is a good example of refining its fixed motion combat mechanics adding and subtracting elements and modifying some that radically change the experience see Sekiro and Bloodborne
Which is why Elden Ring as a game really bored me with how the previous games and why they were great utilizing a Metroidvania style branching pathway systems isn’t going to fit if you just intend to add a Open World aspect to your game
The developers attempted to mitigate this problem by adding loads of Grace sites that point to other Grace sites and adding the spectral steed as a Mount to compensate for the increased travel distance and adding a new form of combat where you have more speed and can whiz by bosses while landing a charged attack but lack more flexible maneuverability to dodge attacks
areas
This is one of the most fair reviews ever. I also played the heck out of Valhalla, couple hundred hours, and enjoyed my time, but felt like it was lacking almost all the way through. It’s possible to enjoy flawed games while still recognizing their flaws.
Yeah, however Vahalla is flawed in such you never want to play it again.
I just started playing it, maybe they’ve updated it even more because it’s not missing a thing at the current time
Just like Skyrim.
I was really surprised to see that this is only your third video. You already sound like you have been doing this for years I'm impressed.
Yeah. He does sound like he has been doing commentary for a while.
Yes, agree
This is only his third video I'm impressed
This is his 2nd channel thats why
@@InterForza100 what's his other channel called ?
I think my love for Assassin's Creed died with Desmond Miles. I was kinda hoping for a modern day Assassin Creed where we could play as him after he's a fully trained assassin. When the games lost Desmond they lost what tied the characters from the past together. Now there's no through story to connect the games and characters, so none of the games after the first few feel connected to the main story.
Omg same thoughts the build up during the enitre series was teasing for this moment.
lol small chance but did you also see that fake gameplay teaser after the first game showing an assassin in modern times? i remember being hyped while remaining skeptical 😂
Dude, the new games are explaining the origins of the three main parts of the AC franchise. Origins- Assassins
Templars- Odyssey
Isu- Valhalla
Yeah that's how I felt anything after revelations is just a let down usually I did enjoy unity though but story wasn't the reason
Definitely wanted a big modern day one with Desmond instead they decided make it like an attraction come relive your ancestors lives which is fine but werid
We all just grown up.. That's the point..
i have to say the music from this game is out of world. sure it doesnt have a significantly mind blowing track like Ezio family
but its music library is so huge and the viking vibe/theme is so good that i can listen for hours
man this game is my fav ever, the music in the main window is just amazing....replying it now
It has one of my favorite combat tracks in the series
Best soundtrack in the series imo
I had so much fun just being a Viking in this game, catching arrows and spears and just chucking them back at enemies.
The story and writing is tapwater, but it is at least fun
I’m glad someone enjoyed this game but to me it was more of the same AC rpg, with boring combat mechanics. It doesn’t even matter to me whether the story is good, since my favorite ac is unity, but it’s just not fun for me. Co op is the single best gameplay decision Ubisoft ever made and it’s sad they never brought it back. Valhalla doesn’t really bring anything new to the table, nor doesn’t it expand on existing mechanics like with what GOW ragnorok did. It’s just the exact same
Lmao tap water. Couldn’t have said it better. The story is quite dismal, that’s the majority of why I play games at all
You play games for gameplay dude. Open a book if you want story. Story is secondary@@OneNidim
it was fun to you, I got bored in 3 hours and uninstalled
@@eladrio2311 I like the game, but I stopped after two hours when I found out there's no NG+ and there'll never be one, I'm not going to spend 200 hours just to throw the game away or let it collect dust afterwards, I wanna be able to use all the secret weapons and armor and legendary shxt on NG+ that I spent all that time 100%ing, now that I know there no NG+, I'll be returning the game, fxck that shxt, and fxck Ubisoft!
I feel like ubisoft games are amazing if you have never played a ubisoft game before. And then the magic wears off after you realize all their games follow the exact same formula.
I like their formula that they now use for a while, but they often don't execute the formula well
Or you just play 1 Ubisoft game a year and you'll love it. Problem only arises when you play multiple games of the same type too soon.
@@zerotactix5739 1 a year is definitely too much for me.
Far cry being another great example
1. liberate the territory
2. free the prisoners
3. follow the guy
4. sneak into place and get the thing
bonus objective: collect the hidden stuff (0/5)
Finally somebody mentions the "constantly getting knocked out of sprint" issue. That drove me crazy, especially while doing all those (incredibly annoying) flying paper puzzles. The parkour in this game is fucking terrible but they make sure you have to use it in the stupidest way to collect all the garbage.
Just use rush assassinate ability and you don’t have to chase them down
Yes. And most of the time the running is so slow either way that it's often hard to even tell if you're actually sprinting or not. Especially on tightropes and such (during those flying paper puzzles). But that's why they made it so the paper would actually just stop on it's tracks for at least a good five seconds once it would reach the end of the course. So the "challenge" was ultimately meaningless anyhow.
I hate how you need to be like a mile away from a town for your horse to go full speed when you press sprint
not once have I experienced that
Never felt that way playing.
I love Valhalla. I have over 520 hrs logged (I injured my knee and couldn't walk for a long while) on the normal difficulty and I have restarted now after a break on the hardest settings. Loving it all over again. It's fun to pretend to be a Vikings!
but 520h isn't normal, most players play for 3 hours per week at best
@xdrastig_4207 I understand that. I said I had an injured leg while this was happening. I like a lot of content. It seems silly to complain that they gave us too much to do in a game.
@@joeharris9426 That's one of the dumbest things I have ever read. 50-100 hours of quality writing is infinitely better then 500 hours of garbage. I won't ever tell someone they can't enjoy something but you most certainly can have too much of something.
@Entreped That's one of the dumbest things that you have ever read? Clearly you don't spend much time reading. I like the quality of the content just fine. I have played other games that are shorter, and it is always disappointing when the game is over a few weeks after it starts. Just another grown ass adult crying about a video game.
Valhalla is a great game & idc what anyone says 😎
you know, an assassin during this era could have been a really interesting concept. first story idea that comes to mind is that eivor tries their best to be this strong and brave viking, but they're just not strong enough and struggle constantly to live up to their family's reputation (they're known for their prowess and can't be beat....except for eivor). parents finally have had enough and disown eivor out of shame, who is forced to set on their own journey and have to adapt to work with what they have. could have been saved by assassins and joined the brotherhood in search of belonging and a family, and takes on their cause. maybe the main antagonists are a group of very powerful vikings trying to screw over everyone, and are too powerful for even eivor's bio family to take down, so the brotherhood are the only ones able to defeat them due to their "dirty tactics" (can you tell I don't know much about vikings nor this game lmao). not the most original story, but it's one that really lets you play with the concept of sneaky stealthy assassins in an era and area where they're very much frowned upon and enables you to include the assassins in....you know, an assassin's creed game-
It's so hard to go back to AC for me after Ghost Of Tsushima. The combat in that game was just so nuanced and dynamic. It really lead to alot of cool emergent gameplay opportunities and fun physics-based reactions from your ghost abilities and tools. Not to mention that Tsushima doesn't limit you in anyway, no stamina meters or anything like that.
My only issue with Ghost is that once you've got the combat figured out, assuming the role of the Ghost is utterly pointless.
Playing Ghost now and about to go into act 3. I love the game and combat but exploring is not rewarding and nothing you find is valuable or exciting. I love AC games. If they had GoT combat it'd be a lot better. Also not being able to skip scenes sucks. The quests in GoT are inferior. The haikus, fox dens, and baths are just me sitting there and the fun dies pretty quick. I love both games
@@cowel8734 They did a better Job with IKI for Exploration there are more hidden things to find.
@@johnbishop2536 It's not pointless if it's still fun.
@@cowel8734 getting new samurai drip from exploring was enough for me.
I've watched a lot of Valhalla critiques over the past couple years and you are mentioning issues that I've never heard anyone talk about. Without a doubt, this is one of, if not the best, most complete and constructive critiques on CZcams. You get to the heart of nearly every issue in this game and still manage to be relatively concise. Excellent video :)
Thank you, I had a nearly two hour draft at one point and I realized I had to cut things down so I’m glad it is still cohesive
Moral of the story, “Ubisoft was lazy”.
@@magnanimae5408 moral of the story "don't waste your time or money on this crap"
I think the short and sweet explanation would be "Assassin's Creed died with Desmond in 3, but they kept using the name. We didn't know at the time but something else was wearing its clothes after."
Nah...its truly died after Syndicate. Sure that black flag make you spend more time on sea and ships but the core of AC still there, pakour, stealthy, cool story and twisted history. Rogue may not be about brotherhood but the moral and questionable motive of brotherhood is really good aspect too, unity is full of bugs for sure, story is plain, but the mechanics were there and even the best still this day. Syndicate may not be well know, being shadow by other game in the franchise but still, a AC game from the core to the core. Only thing change from origin. From origin, ac fanbase plit into two group of mindset. One really really love the rpg, other prefer stealthy and adventure. As some one who like AC stealthy, enjoy the franchise since AC2 upto Unity (those my first AC is black flag). I found Valhalla is charming in it own way, just wished it wasn't publish as AC. And all the assassin appear to be crossover contents or easter eggs like what they done with watchdog. Valhalla is a very good RPG game recently release after many failed. It didn't exceed in any but also neither bad in any aspect. It was long game so does other RPG. Grinding as much as other RPG, i see no real downside in valhalla if you really want or need an rpg. But i know, it's frustrating when it under AC's franchise. I hate it as alway, will never touch origin or odyssey for that matter. Doubt i will touch valhalla if i wasn't interested in Norse myth.
I never liked Desmond.
If you actually gave the games a chance, you have to admit the gameplay only gets better as you go.
Odyssey and Valhalla are by far the best games in history.
Unity and Black Flag are up there with them.
anything prior is too janky to go back to and believe me I have tried.
Completed them all in release order and tried to replay them on PS4 and Switch.
@@ak-nt2trDesmond was the main character of the original AC. The whole story was based on him becoming an Assassin and saving the world, until new developers came in and wanted to take the game in new directions and expand the universe therefore killing him off.
@@ak-nt2tr it's why every main Assassin character tend to have hints of Altair, Ezio and Desmond in their faces. It's the bloodline.
@@kylegardner6272 Desmond was a whiny little child and he interrupted the emersion from what makes the series amazing, the historical side. I am glad they got rid of him and are starting to make the modern not force fed.
Given how they handled stuff like social stealth an attempt to relive the feelings of the original games or even parkour as a whole has me concerned that they may also miss the mark with mirage
Hard to believe Valhalla is from the same team as Origins. Origins is still my personal favorite of the rpg AC's. It had the perfect blend of immersion, stealth and combat. Egypt is one of the most downright gorgeous and mysterious locations AC has ever had.
Origins could've used more stealth-encouraging environment design in my opinion, but at least your abilities and the story itself did lend towards practicing the subtle approach.
Valhalla more or less plasters its innate desire to have you simply hack and slash through everything on its sleeve. And the map is oversized and filled with nothing but strings of two minute distractions to check off a list, to put it bluntly. The exp scaling is also pretty horrendous even without time saves...
Would love to see a next gen remake of origins in the next 3-5 years. It would make me finish it another 10 times👍
I rate them "Odyssey, Origins, Valhalla" with Valhalla having fallen far behind the other two. I just liked Kassandra more as a character.
Origins was my last Ubisoft game to date. I grew to hate its guts after being genuinely curious about it at first, since I'm a sucker for everything Ancient Egypt. But Origin's world felt so bland and lifeless, all the side quests so meaningless and the countless copy & paste outposts so tedious that I didn't have any desire left in me to even continue with the main story, which also was stupid af. Bayek swears revenge on a cult for the death of his son WHO HE HIMSELF KILLED?! (Even though by accident, because he's an impulsive idiot. But the fact still remains.) Pathetic how that's all they could come up with in a setting that has so much more potential to give.
Unity was the very last gem from the AC franchise that had some real heart, ambition and care put into it. You can't even compare ANY other AC that has come afterwards with Unity. The drop in quality is palpable. Those are not even games anymore but a huge collection of checkmarks for the most publicly approved features and mechanics. Straight up garbage, year after year after year. And this goes to pretty much all of Ubisoft's franchises. The last decent game I played and thoroughly enjoyed from that publisher was Watch Dogs 2. No matter what someone might think of the game's setting, it was still genuinely innovative, creative and fun. A very well made piece of art that will always have a special place in my heart. That's when I still had respect for Ubisoft for their efforts and endeavors in trying out new stuff and enriching the gaming industry with new franchises and ideas. There was no other publisher out there quite like Ubisoft with such a regular and various output every year.
Fast forward 7 years later and look how deep the mighty have fallen... Corrupted by greed and narcissism of its old fart of a CEO that has lost all touch with reality. Now I actually can't wait until the inevitable happens and this huge toxic exploitative hellhole that this company's become finally shuts down and their IPs - so I hope - go into someone's more competent and capable hands. What an utter disgrace we've been witnessing, folks....
@@sacredsecrecy9620 I really wasn't much for Bayek as a main character. He came across as a patsy being manipulated by the people around him.
I love it when you said ‘these stat boosts seemingly have no changes to gameplay at all’, because the entire rpg system of this game is fake. You can have +500 attack damage and you will notice zero difference in your actual combat. They’re only there as placebos, including the skill tree. No stats you gain there actually matters.
Wait... the numbers are effectively fake? Surely they have *some* benefit.
Cap
@@AdamOwenBrowningyes they have an effect but due to the enemies being damage sponges you won’t feel stronger. Doing 500 damage more won’t matter if the enemy gets 500 more HP at the same time
@@achmahnsch I like the game, but I stopped after two hours when I found out there's no NG+ and there'll never be one, I'm not going to spend 200 hours just to throw the game away or let it collect dust afterwards, I wanna be able to use all the secret weapons and armor and legendary shxt on NG+ that I spent all that time 100%ing, now that I know there no NG+, I'll be returning the game, fxck that shxt, and fxck Ubisoft!
Uhmm...yeah that's utterly false.
Assassin's Creed Black Flag is my favorite game in the entire series. The assassin work and pirate fantasy was a fantastic mix in my opinion, managing your ship and crew was a wonderful experience. The only thing I hated in Black Flag was the hunting at times.
But I have a love for most the games, even some of the later ones.
It's sad to see what what happened to Valhalla. I hope Mirage can be better.
black flag is a fun game but it is ruined for me by 3 words: stealth ship missions
@@spaceghostmiid Yea that was pretty shit but not shit enough to bring down the game for me
As an AC "fan" who hasn't played an AC since unity and hasn't finished one since 4, I literally burst into laughter after your brief summary of valhalla's plot. Ever since killing off desmond in 3, these games have had no arc to their plots at all. It's so obvious that they just put a bunch of cool sounding settings in a hat, pull one out at random, and try to make an AC story out of it. Without the modern day Desmond plot to tie everything together, there's nothing for a fan like me to care about. I have no reason not to just play a better stealth game, or a better action rpg, or a better historical game, or a game with a better narrative, or a game with better dialogue and romance options. These games have no identity, no soul. I'm baffled that people can find anything at all to enjoy about these modern AC games. To me, this series died with desmond in AC3, and should have just ended after revelations. Without Desmond, without the animus, without the ideological war between assassins and templars, without a grounded historical setting, there is no Assassin's Creed.
YUP
This is exactly how I felt playing Valhalla, as a former fangirl of the franchise.
Ubisoft's kept _Assassin's Creed_ going for sooo long, they've backed themselves into a corner. They can't innovate further without making AC more unrecognizable from its roots, and they can't fully commit to those roots because they've beaten that formula to death for fifteen years already, so they've settled on Frankenstein-ing the two together.
As a result, for me, Valhalla ended up feeling like a case study of that popular quote: "Appeal to everyone and you'll appeal to no one."
Maybe Ubisoft should take the hint and wrap it up, though in their current state, I have zero expectations of an ending worth sticking around for anyways.
I really don't think I agree with this. They can very easily strip down the formula and do a complete overhaul of gameplay while retaining the core pillars of Assassin's Creed, it's just that they seem to refuse to want to commit to that because they know the money is in familiarity
Totally agree. And ending we can all skip.
Well, it seems confirmed now they have 7 projects in development with the aim of appealing to every splinter demographic of the franchise. Can’t wait to see how poorly this turns out .
They honestly should just reboot the whole franchise and start over. Take what works from each era and try to make something cohesive and that stays true to the pillars of what Assassin’s Creed should be, at the same time that builds up onto a blank slate with new lore and new characters.
@@SebCarrasco 7 projects at the same time...yeah that's not gonna end well
In a game called assassin's creed you should always have the option to stealth through an entire game if you want to. That's kind of the point of an assassin after all.
To be fair we’ve never gotten that in the traditional or newer games. They have always been very combat heavy
You'll love the first AC then, which I loved. There's combat here and there, but an Assassin through and through. Where you formulate how you'll have to get close to the target, and your escape.
nah, Assassin's Creed became an action adventure series in the second game. In fact, AC Unity was the first game in the franchise that actually had a proper stealth system built in (not perfect, but it was there in the core). It's the lack of the Assassin myth that is ruining the franchise for the old fans like us. In fact, AC Unity was the first game in the franchise that actually had a proper stealth system built in (not perfect, but it was there in the core).
I would still stealth my way through in Origins. Though
Although I still resent Odyssey for implementing magic and the possibility of having an entire game without assassins, I can see your points for the game (you are actually the first one I hear giving solid and good arguments for the game, so thank you for letting me understand better why people like the game).
When you realize the last 4 games have been role playing games in the AC universe, you start to enjoy the games from a new perspective
I think the thing that upsets me more is the lack of assassin focus story telling in the newer AC games aside from origins.
Its basically just become a series of generic themed games with a splash of AC added to it.
Origins doesn't have an Assassin focus either. It's a pretty standard revenge story with some superficial Assassin storytelling in the final arc.
When I heard an Assassin's Creed game that was based on Norse/viking world, I honestly laughed. I mean it's called Valhalla, a pretty big and I thought well known fact that Vikings believed you'd only go there through bravery and valor but most of all, you died in battle. So to them an assassin is a coward and a weakling, one not worthy of Valhalla. Think about it, an assassin sneaks around, kills people with out them even knowing till it's to late, not giving them a chance to fight therefore not engaging in real combat. It just really didn't make sense for them to have an Assassin's Creed game with Vikings, other than Ubisoft getting EVERY era/society to put in their new game. lol 🤣
It's just a game you literally respawn multiple times lool . And ac Valhalla was good u can still play as an assassin if u wanted to
Hard agree. Like… just go for Asia at this point, condensed buildings, grand structures, high population, etc, japan, China, India, being just a few great examples.
This vast land with little chance to blend except in the woods for the most part with assassins message that literally goes against the message of entering Valhalla is insane to me
@@ohuhokay8441 they did make ac China and India check it
@@aspirewot8408 that’s chronicles, I’m talking in terms of triple A games. Open world, 1st person, etc
*Assassin's Creed: Thog*
Im new to AC but loved valhalla. It's a big game and real value for money. I feel at times there was not enough story, lots of adhoc tasks to complete in each area to progress the game. I'm an old gamer so never bothered with upgrades,
As someone who had 160 hours on this game, I actually enjoyed it a lot, yeah it had its own little problems and animations but overall it was a fun game :)
I would also like to add to the discussion: the downturn of the Animus UI. For some reason, Origins actually has a fantastic in game animus layout, which Ubisoft somehow forgot about with Odyssey, and even more so with Valhalla. Like part of the immersion is the contextual framework that we are playing inside of a high tech, science fiction machine, so the visual and audio design should fit within this. Valhalla more egregiously than Odyssey just said, “nah fam”.
Say what you will about AC 3, Unity, and Syndicate, but the UI implementation was amazing!
I clicked on this video thinking it would be an 100k+ subscriber channel but I'm very impressed by the production quality and formatting of this video, you earned a sub
I appreciate that, thank you
I loved Valhalla, this was my favorite AC game.
Good for you
Same.
This game was just incredibly painstakingly long, it was a relief to finish so i didnt have to play anymore
My biggest complaint about Valhalla is how little Sigurd and Basim were on screen. That was a relationship I wanted to see more of in the game. Eivor consistently referred to Sigurd as his brother but then you arrive in England and he fucks off for the remainder of the game. I always felt like Sigurd would have been better as the main character and having Basim training him as an assassin would have been a much more interesting character arc than Eivors imo. Eivor was given a hidden blade told to kill Templars and he just took that idea and ran with it. Meanwhile Basim was whispering in Sigurds ear and teaching him the ways of the hidden ones. Ultimately leading him to lose himself and then eventually to relinquish his power as the leader of the raven clan. It felt like it just kind of ended after a certain point. I think Sigurds story would have been better if he was the main character and Eivor was either a side character or removed entirely from the narrative. That’s a much more engaging story imo. Overall it was a very disappointing experience and that bums me out because I played this directly on the heels of Origins which was damn near perfection.
this should be it eivor character design is so oof the chart
When basim isn’t on screen everyone should be wondering “where’s basim?”
It's a Viking game. Not AC
@@arturius9715what's the title of the game no brain
Should've just cut out Eivor and gave us Sigurd as the protagonist being indoctrined into the Hidden ones by Basim.
My main problem is that all 3 of the newer games are much longer, each being longer than the last. Valhalla is fun but im at 140hrs and just now playing the dlc, which now I might not even finish now that I know it doesn't get better only worse. The game drained all the fun I had for it by the 80hr mark and after that it felt like a duty to finish it because of the time I put in it already. Tbh I had the same problem with Odysey so Idk what I expected. As much as I love Valhalla, I just miss being able finish a game without having to take breaks inbetween them because I get bored of them.
Haven’t even finished the game yet , still on that 60+ hours mark and I left it, felt like a chore to finish that game
I am in the middle of playing. Brother bought for me a year ago even though Origins felt laborious to me. I really liked this game for 80 hours. Hate most moments after. I am 155 hours in and feel like I still have another 100(at least) to go. Way too bloated. Also, I am at level 310. Playing regions of 160-190, it is just too easy and unfulfilling. Hopefully they keep games to 70-100 hours going forward. Great value to those looking for it I guess.
I got about 100 hours in and said I was done and never came back. It's a shame because it'd be a good game if it was condensed even a little bit at all. It's so ridiculously big that it seems like they did it as a joke.
I learned to play for a few days completing a 'territory', then take a break. Obviously after the initial 'wow response' wore off after 20 or so hours. I knew I was in for a long game and the landscape of Briton is a pain in the butt. When the overall story and areas became stale, I'd do a DLC or just run around mindlessly seeing the game without a quest marker. Games of this size seem to have a problem with the story endings never being up to expectations after so many hours of player involvement.
Yep taking me about 4+ weeks playing this game. I played it for 2 weeks straight 9am-5pm and I still didn’t get anywhere.. I took breaks my 3rd n 4th week playing but god damn.. IM STILL NOT FINISHED WITH EXPLORING all the islands 😭😭😭 on Odyssey.. everytime I go to a “?” Im begging it isn’t a bandit camp or fort
If you took the Assassins Creed out of your mind, and just looked at it as just a game, Valhalla was fun as hell. That seems like the hang up about this game. You can play the game as a stealth game quite a bit. I took quite a few locations without my crew, using stealth, and then signaled the in to help bust open doors and chests. Although I also took some with my crew, because what’s not fun about beaching a long boat blowing a horn, and then storming, monastery with a group of yelling crazy Vikings.
Hey! Great video. I could not play yet another game with a gear score system, so I haven't played played AC in a while. Shame it's in such a state, I always wanted one in feudal Japan when I played the old ones.
Also, whats song is playing in the background at 23:10?
Ooooh taht would be awesoem
I’m an old school fan, but I loved Odyssey for what it was and spent hundreds of hours running through different builds. Valhalla took most of that away and left us with a very average experience that left me totally unfulfilled
Played odyssey 2500 hours....valhalla I gave up after 120 hours is too boring.
Played AC1 and 2 in before 2012 or recently?
@@iurysaraiva3411 I've played all the assassins and I find them quite boring....the most impressive is A.C odyssey and it's actually one of the most favorite games in my life...well done UBISOFT.
@@zicuvalentin2251 so ... Played before 2012 or recently?.. when played recently fist, obviously the old one is mediocre .. same with Dragon Age..
@@zicuvalentin2251 Halo, Saints Row, F.Horizon , Cod, etc... companies bring new players stepping on the old ones.. the new ones finance thinking the "soul" of the game was meant to be like this.
In my opinion biggest mistake Ubisoft made is dropping the Bayek and Aya storyline...
AC Origins was such a good settings and had great characters it made me fall in love with this series again, it really gave me that "assassin" feeling from the Altair era, and instead of continuing the story with Aya in Rome they just abandoned it for some reason...
I hope Mirage gives me that eastern "Origins" vibe again, because whereas I enjoyed Odyssey and Valhalla it really felt like some random games instead of assassins creed games
Yeah ac origins was good but atleast they are trying their hardest to return assassins creed to its former glory since they are losing millions now crazy how it took them this long to get it right 😅
I enjoyed Odyssey more than Origins, but even I thought it was stupid to do another prequel after Origins. I was really hoping the game after Origins would show the Brotherhood start to grow and expand.
They abandoned it cos no one wanted to play as her stfu
The thing that bothered me with origins is Aya saying she lost her love for bayek when their son died even though there was absolutely nothing up to that point showing that. Felt like I got M. Night Shyamaland.
@@ryanhays429 Aya was going to be the player character originally but one of the misogynistic scumbags at Ubisoft (not naming him in case his defenders find this) forced them to change her into a side character. same with kassandra in Odyssey.
Odyssey was my favorite AC tbh, liked the old ones too but something about Odyssey just really spoke to me with its setting and open world. Great video I knew I felt most of this about Valhalla but not precisely until I heard it put into words.
I don't know whats going on with resolution quality in this video but other then that, it's like someone much more competent in expressing themselves read my mind on Valhalla and made a video about it. Great job, keep it up!
As a spartan and viking game I think Odyssey and Valhalla were actually pretty good. If Ubisoft had advertised them as such instead of shoving them under the Assassins Creed title I think that they probably would have sold much better and gained a larger fanbase. They didn't though and so in the end they were just setting themselves up for obvious failure. That's just my opinion.
To be fair, if we are discussing both in terms of sales and broad fanbases, Odyssey and Valhalla blow all other AC games out of the water. Odyssey especially built up a huge following all on its own, and both made a ton of money
@@sosaysjay Tbf a lot of that money came from microtransactions
@@AFanOfCinema That is possible, I haven't seen solid numbers on it, but we do know that AC Odyssey had sold at least 10 million copies, and that number is a year or two old at this point. That puts it on par with Unity and Origins, and ahead of most of the rest of the franchise, behind only AC3 and 4. We have no confirmed numbers for Valhalla to my knowledge.
@@AFanOfCinema high micro transaction sales would be indicative of a base game that sold well. This isn’t the first AC game that included them
Nah. The Assassin's Creed brand helped them sell so well. Ubisoft knows it and that's why they stick the AC title to these games, which have no resemblance of the classic Assassin's Creed
The writing in these newer games is god-awful too. In odyssey the characters who talk about Alexios growing up on Kephallonia all mix up the story. Markos says he found him on the street, stealing food and Alexios even says that is how he met Markos to Phiobe but literally 5 mins before that we get a flashback showing Markos finding Alexios on the beach after washing up there 😩 how dumb do you have to be to mess up your own story in less than 5 mins of establishing it
that's one instance. the rest are pretty good stories. especially all of the side content.
@@brunoir283 I agree some are okay and I do like the effects of some of your choice in the game like that sick family but I had to delete the game after only a week with the game because it seemed like there was a lot more bad writing than good but maybe I didn’t give the game enough of a chance
Origin's and valhalla's stories are so deep, it actually made it worth the time for me
@@ALTAI38 Valhalla’s story is deep? I’m sorry but if you truly think that then YOU are the reason these games have been terrible. If you want to point out anything notable about Valhalla’s story then please do because to everyone who enjoys writing and story that was one of the worst story in gaming history, I’d even say it’s a worse story than the original Mario game
@@shurngirdleh3936 settle down geez
Every assassin's Creed game is missing 20% of the game that it wants to be
I was so pumped after the first raid in Valhalla then I needed to upgrade the village and gone through a bunch of raids and spending more time finding keys instead of fighting. I've never felt so miserable in any game
i couldnt get my thoughts together to say why i didnt like valhalla, and this video fell upon me like a silver ring.
i watched the rest on your videos and i can really say that they are amazing, i hope you keep going because i know that you will get places!!
I am glad it resonated with you. Hopefully I can keep this hobby up, I have been enjoying it
Roroxdadmjt: I haven't watched the video yet, but I feel you. Something about Valhalla just doesn't work for me. I love Odyssey and Origins...so Valhalla should be right up my alley, but after about 10 hours of play, I haven't been able to bring myself to load up Valhalla again. Meanwhile, I still play and enjoy Odyssey and Origins every now and then.
Feel the same as you. I mean, almost hahahahaha
My case is different in the way that, since I didn't play any AC game since Black Flag, Valhalla was my first AC in years. I liked it at first. I devoured the main story line, but after that... I quickly lost interest in the game.
It took me like 10 months to finish the Wrath of the Druids storyline, because it felt like a boring task to return to the game to finish it. I was reminded of the existence of Valhalla because of the announcement of the Siege Of Paris Expansion. Just because of that I said "oh, shoot, I still have to finish WotD Expansion"
I also hope Mirage improves on the formula. But what I hope the most is for people like Yves Guillemot and Bobby Kotick to leave the industry. They both have ruined a lot of beloved IPs and franchises, in the case of Yves, AC is just one of them.
Also, @sosaysjay, great video. You basically explained a lot of why I quickly lost interest in a game that I liked
Cuz its a big piece of dog shit
@@MrDarkAngel95 If you liked Valhalla initially, I definitely recommend you try Odyssey and/or Origins. They're similar to Valhalla, but better in every way.
What do you know? I 'picked up' the game thanks to Ubisoft making it free for the weekend of August 11-14th.
I went in with somewhat of a 'negative' perspective/not expecting too much of it after watching some reviews since it came out, and I actually found myself really enjoying it.
As I'm writing this comment, I'm debating whether I should buy the base game or not (just the vanilla, I don't really do DLCs)
It's currently on sale for 15 USD (around $22 for me due to currency exchange) and I'm, like, 60/40 in favor of doing it
I was only able to complete around 43% of the main campaign.
It is nothing to write home about and I personally enjoyed the God of War: Ragnarök reimagining of the Norse Mythology way more.
Granted, I no longer see the RPG saga as "Assassin's Creed" games but as a simple "Ubisoft turn-your-brain-off" RPGs.
With that mindset, I fairly enjoyed the Viking power fantasy.
Yes, it is as if not even more bloated than Odyssey and Origins, but I kinda liked it.
Get it on a cd site key for even lower. I got the complete edition for about 30 bucks. It's an enjoyable game to waste time on.
I've been aching to watch this video ever since I bought Valhalla in a sale.
The only AC game I ever attempted to play was the very first one and after that I watched my brother play them and enjoyed the story of Desmond through his gameplays.
Still, my brother never finished Valhalla and I got curious and...it's funny, most of the time I craved for the missions to be over so I could go right back to collecting (with mysteries being what I REALLY looked forward too).
Some missions were really well written (Villi) but sometimes (especially the main ones) felt really strange.
This video really encompasses some of my feelings and it was really enjoyable to watch. All the points are well and nicely explained and ring true, despite be enjoying the grinding section of it. As some others said, it just doesn't feel like an AC game and as such I find the ending of the mainstory really strange and it took me out of the experience even. I was so glad to get back into the Animus haha.
Love the video!
The Supideo mission was paramount to my Odyssey experience; it was the most enjoyable side mission but also demonstrated the balance between light-heartedness and heavy matters throughout the game. It was a beautifully written story. Valhalla feels like it was written by people that have never played a video game or read a book or even watched a movie.
The missions, characters and quest stories are so ridiculous in Odyseey which is what makes them so great.
You described the ubisoft writers
valhalla feels like it was written by racist seppos masturbating over my heritage.
What annoys me is how they nerf the parkour in each new AC game if they kept the Unity parkour every AC game would feel amazing
Unity is when the nerf started
I never finished the game, i got bored really fast. Btw bro i never watch a video for over 15 mins, but yours kept me engaged the whole 58 mins !
That is kind of you, thank you for watching!
In Valhalla, the actual Assassins Creed part was basically reduced to a side mission. Without a doubt, Black Flag was the best of the series.
I couldn’t look at Valhalla as an AC game for the longest time but I couldn’t put it into words exactly why. This video outlines it and brings up points I hadn’t considered.
There is a guy called Whitelight that does a lot of AC retrospectives and he made a video on the Parkour of AC, this video reminded me of it because all you talked about the game having mechanics that dont work together or had no thought put into them, the Parkour of AC suffered the same problem as well in pretty much every game.
I’ve been meaning to get to that video, I look forward to watching it
@@sosaysjay Its really good, he goes very in depth into the hidden mechanics and such, there was stuff in that video that I never saw once in my entire AC career and I platinumed all the games until I quit with Syndicate.
@@Carlisho syndicate is the one game that broke me.
If you compare the movement and combat mechanics of AC to that of Horizon: Zero Dawn, it becomes really obvious how janky they actually are.
I always wondered why this the only AC game I didn’t care to finish about half way threw and here’s my answer lol couldn’t put it better myself even after finishing it I was even more upset 😅
For any newbies Assasins creed Valhalla- 7/10
Pros-
Map- England is absolutely stunning, the english wildlife is everywhere, the ancient ruins are incredible, the rivers and hills and roads make traversal fun, as u can choose ur way to ur destination.
Combat- u FEEL like a viking, u get an insane amount of special viking abilities such as axe throwing to crush Anglo Saxons skulls, very RPG level based combat, dont travel too far from ur current section cus enemies get tough
Main characters- eivor and Sigurd are great protagonists, they are stoic yet fair and kind, the perfect leaders for your camp. The kings u meet are intresting characters and make for some fun scenes, u often give them advice through rpg mechanics.
Base building- massive amount of base options such as viking feasts, choosing your allies, picking ur army, expanding your buildings for more resources.
The order- u have to face many members of the order and many of them provide a very souls like challenging boss battle if ur into that.
Upgrades- theres an erray of armour, loot, materials, progression upgrades, armour Upgrades and special abilities to choose from including ur appearance.
Puzzles- finding the keys can be hard but u feel good once u find a way into the treasure
Cons-
Story- the story can get quite repetitive, often required to raid a castle and help the sections king to gain power. Dont get me wrong some missions are very good and the cut scenes always get a chuckle out of me. U will be required to give answers during cut scenes, sometimes not important and sometimes u will be left genuinely upset by a choice youve made, i accidentally got the wrong person killed and i genuinely felt bad.
Gods- whenever it goes into Asgard it looses me, it just goes too far off the rails.
Climbing- im glad its in there overall but sometimes i can get stuck trying to climb thru a window for ages.
Norway- lets just say u can tell all the budget went into England, Norway is made smaller and its majority just snow and water
Overall its a 7/10 game, its a good game, i reccomend it, i personally think critics were way too harsh on it. Its in the same boat as oddessey and origins for me. U will have a great time
I would rate it higher but well said
You sir, will go extremely far in the CZcams world! Your commentary and explanations are so professional and beautifully spoken
Thank you Kenner Jendall, I appreciate that a lot
I think you hit the nail on why despite really liking Origins and Odyssey i just couldnt get myself to like this one, very good video!
I got into the series with AC4 and later played Ezio games so i seen both sides of the franchise, Valhalla just isnt a very good game...
Same I loved the those two but I hated Valhalla it felt like a game without a soul
@@lexy4037😅😅😅😅😅🥴
This, after finishing it I basically Uninstalled Ubi after.
My biggest issue with this game is that England looks nothing like England. I'm from Yorkshire, and in reality, Yorkshire looks nothing at all like the mountainous icy wilderness that Valhalla claims to be Yorkshire. It was a huge disappointment to me to get to the area I grew up in, and find no rolling hills and meadows of the Peak District and West Yorkshire, but instead a ridiculous mountainous hellscape that looks more like the American Rockies than the north of England.
Valhalla is not a bad game, but why having a Viking game so focused in England instead of their homeland. I think the game would have been a lot better if we actually stayed there and not leave after the prologue. I felt a lot more immersed during the first 2 hours, felt like a real Viking.
Also the main story is kinda boring, compared to Origins and Odyssey where you really feel for Bayek and Alexios / Cassandra
this game isn't a game you look back with good thoughts, it's a game that makes your dopamine receptors hyperactive and that's why you come back and keep playing it.
Yeah I played 60 hours in a short time. That was years ago tho and haven't has any desire to play it again
Man by the time I wrapped up my 75 hour playthrough year's ago I couldn't wait for it to be over so I could play Ghost of Tsushima again lol I even tried playing it again recently and I just can't get back into it, and to be honest I hated this game even on my first playthrough.
Na, if this game gets your dopamine receptors popping off a lot after even more then 10 hours, you need better taste in games lmao
You should get your brain checked if you think it's a dopamine receptor game.
@Lum1n Otryc lol nah foreal 😂, matter of fact, during my playthrough the thought of not playing the game anymore made my dopamine receptors hyperactive.
''Ubisoft prefer removing things over improving them'' ... that should be carved in stone, because that's biggest truth bomb I ever heard in any AC video on this platform, thumbs up, and subbed, you earned new fan :)
I don't know why but I really hate playing a game where you know you are in a totally different location but the internal building or cave feels exactly the same as though it was copy and pasted and you get that alot in Valhalla. You also get it in Odysee though it doesn't feel like that as often. Even Mafia 3 did this.
For me it just totally destroys the illusion that you are going somewhere different. Some randomness would be nice rather than navigating exactly the same interior you navigated on the other side of the map.
This is a Viking Game with a cameo of Assassins
I wanted to enjoy Valhalla. I really tried but at the end of the day it felt like playing it was a chore more than anything fun and engaging
This long form content is amazing. I love how you actual put thought and effort into your videos. I hope you end up doing reviews of all the games in this series. Very impressive
That means a lot, thank you. Hopefully I can do videos on all of them in the future
I'm a big fan of AC franchise, have been playing it since 2007 when the og game came out and honestly, I have enjoyed every game since, Valhalla is great, very different from the rest, but still an awesome game. I like the RPG style to let the player play as he wants, Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla take part before the classic Assassins Brotherhood was formed as we knew, up until there it still was the Hidden Ones, a very primitive stage of the Assassins, so everything was still taking the form that we learned to love so much, and this opens these games for the players to play as they see fit, want to go full viking and destroy everything that moves? Fine, make a build for that. Preferer stealth? Fine, make a build for that. I know it's a little weird to be an steallthy viking, but then, it was weird for them to connect with different religions back then, but the are many examples of that through history, why not one that goes for a stealthy approach? RPG games are so open that you can create the version you want for the character, and I love that. Since these games take part on the creation of the Assassins and Templars orders, it is totally fine to have a different playstyle in this scenario. Classic AC games were great, but I much prefer the RPG action styled of the most recent nowadays.
This is the best most spot on review I've ever seen/heard. The parkour, empty world, and cut and paste cities with the same exact stuff in every city are just horrible. How did they manage to build such a massive game with literally nothing in it lol
I wanted to love Valhalla so badly, especially Cos I’m a huge fan of Norse mythology and Viking history and Viking tv shows but it just was trying to be too many different things. Had it chosen one path and stuck to it I think it would have been perfect
Yeah somehow what I'm looking at here doesn't align very much at all with Viking history or Norse Mythology.
Probably why you didn’t like it lmao not very accurate at all
I started playing this game recently and you will start loving this game as story progress.. Even initially I passed this game but after final content update you get always hood on option with few new missions and one of mission that has connection to Mirage this game is awesome.... This game now feels like assassin creed
@@svenkatpollachi The game is so fire fr
@@svenkatpollachi You know...if it took years for the game to get good, maybe it wasn't a good game?
Assasin's creed went from one of the biggest innovators in gaming to a contender for the laziest uninspired annual release game. One of the best examples for why gaming suffers when its in the hands of people who only see gaming as a cash cow.
Yes. If your original combat system is getting very stale, that would be a pretty good signal that the series should end. One does not simply change a thing so integral to the franchise to something totally different. Especially if the replacement is just a subpar imitation of what's popular at the moment.
I'm totally with you. That was a rough one to get through. There's only so many fields of grass or patches of woods you can run through before you get bored. There was none of the locations like past games. The historical sites like Notre dam, the pyramids,spinx, statue of Athena. The story was kind of week. At the end you don't even get to kill the leader of the cult you have been taking out the whole game.
Do you have any video with an opinion on Origins? If not, could you make one?
The biggest sin of this game is truly that it fails to deliver either an assassin experience or a viking experience. Tries to do both and ends up missing the mark for both...the biggest part where i noticed is in raids....Animus wot allow you to kill innocents.....Not a huge deal breaker but an example of how the assassins side of things holds the viking side back and same the other way around
Vikings actually didnt kill peasants etc
Sometimes they killed one or two for example but the rest of the people have been captured and sold to slavery
Human was one of the most valuable trade item in the medieval times
@@maciejpolak2458 That's fair. But you can't engage in slavery in Valhalla either, so it's not like they are accurately reflecting the "Viking" experience in that way.
My solution to the Assassin's Creed identity crisis that it seems to be having... Is to alternate.
Since it's been so long, have Ubisoft Montreal make one a game in the spirit of old school Assasins Creed, like Unity. Mostly because is the HD iteration, Unity captures the spirit of the original games best.
Then while this game is being played by fans, and being Updated regularly by Montreal, another game can being in the works by another studio, like Quebec. This game will be one of the more modern Witcher 3 style games.
This why everyone gets what they want without having to sacrifice quality with a jack of all trades game. It's not a new idea, it's something that Activision used to do with Modern Warfare and Black Ops, and nobody I ever met complained about that.
Stop it you are making too much sense
If I can say I enjoyed a few things about Valhalla, it would be the pacing of the combat, the soundtrack, and the settings you can visit in the main game and in the DLC. The combat felt like a breath of fresh air to me. It was more thrilling than any other game in the series because of the hitbox system as opposed to the counter and attack system of the older games. Adding a stamina bar only made the combat feel more intense, and the variety of weapons encouraged me to try different weapons out and see which one appealed to the playstyle I was going for. What I don't like, however, is the over the top nature of the abilities in these games. I play the AC games partially for realism and partially to explore settings in the past. While it could never be 100% accurate to how life actually was in the games we play, Valhalla still took my breath away with the way it displayed each locale. Graphics aside, the game was obviously intended to be quite beautiful -- and as much as it shows, it's disproportionate to the way the combat handles at times. I liked the animations, and I liked how combat felt more fluid than ever before. I just didn't like how the combat felt like it was too much for a game like AC. This isn't to say it's a bad system, but it's perhaps overdone. The skill tree seems impossible to complete without putting in hours upon hours of gameplay.
And I think 'overdone' is the right way to describe the whole game, really. If we want to say they tried to appeal to both camps of the AC fanbase, then we should also be able to say that what Ubisoft tried to do in either direction was simply too much. Moreover, in games like AC3 or Rogue, it didn't necessarily feel like a chore to do the missions or any of the side content or collectibles. At times, it's been tedious in past games. Who could forget the ridiculous task of finding feathers in AC2 to get a pretty meagre reward? In Valhalla, there's so much to do and see that I just don't want to play it. It's cumbersome to the point of absolute disinterest. This is the main reason why I haven't been able to finish Unity, let alone get all the gear or upgrades. I think Valhalla just overcorrected the series, and in too many ways. I'm over 100 hours into the game and it still feels like I've barely started doing anything with a character level of over 200, and Raventhorpe's renown being fairly high. To be fair, when playing these games, I often prefer to do the side content first, or to at least make it s primary focus. Story missions tend to bog down the experience and I see the collectibles and various side missions in the Valhalla to be part of that experience. My problem is really that the game blows everything out of proportion. What I used to see as a fun and enticing way to play an AC game and make the completionist in me overjoyed, I no longer see -- at least, not in Valhalla. Valhalla is one of the few games in the series in which I actively decided I didn't want to 100% it, something I used to take as a challenge as well as just something to do as I played in prior games.
So many of my new game experiences start and end with "And then the game came out."
I can sum it up this way. I've 100% completed Black Flag 3 times and it's still fun. I haven't been able to finish Valhalla's first DLC (I finished the main story before DLC began, I just can't force myself to gruel through the game more than about 15 minutes now before I shut it down and look at CZcams videos instead).
"i enjoyed it, but it never hooked me" is the perfect encapsulation of how that game made me feel. I very rarely drop games, but i dropped it after over 40 hours.
Valhalla was the first AC game I’ve played since xbox 360… I played it for a combined 45 minutes and I HATED it. It has nothing to do with “assassins” at all.
The first AC game i ever played was Valhalla because i really liked the thematic. And from there on i continued with Odyssey and Origins i really like these new gen assassins because simply i am a person who likes to get overpowered feel like god walking, exploring freely and my choices to have impact.
I personally sunk about 300 hours into Odyssey, loved that game and I would definitely play it again. Took quite a while to collect all the different glowing Isu armours due to the random type drop. Having a massive map to play on was one of my favourite parts of the game itself. Facing mythical beasts was cool too. Atlantis was also beatifully done.
yeah i feel like become a mercenary, looking for quest and do it daily, other ppl may find it boring and repetitive but i like it very much, comfy game for me..
@@Candestine It's pretty much a comfort game for me
Odyssey is my favourite game of all time, I racked up 191 hours on it
I realized a few weeks ago that I spent $120 on this game as a birthday present for myself and that in total, if you wanted the complete experience, with every gear set and DLC, you would spend upwards of $500 dollars. That is criminal. I've played Valhalla for 150 hours total, playing Wrath of the Druids right now, and I just finished God of War (2018). Good Lord the whiplash, I think I'm just gonna stick to other games
It's cringe how Ubisoft believes that in order to make a boss look like a boss they have to stretch out their height. Just leave them with normal height with the HP and battle moves of a boss.
Hight make huge difference just like in real life 5.8ft guys look goofy might be strong but short hight make you think you can beat them easy in fight
This is a perfect description as to how I feel about the game. I have tried playing it 3x and I can't for the life of me. It's the only AC game I can't bring myself to finish because of some of the things u have said. I don't feel like an assassin and I can't play it any other way because of what it's supposed to be. This might be me overstepping but I honestly feel like Ubisoft should remake a lot of the games in the AC franchise and with Unity/Syndicate mechanics as it's base. Even removing the Animus because to me it makes more sense if they just told the story of Assassins vs Templars and have you the player retelling their story, living their lives, being in their shoes until it gets to modern society like the assassin girl in Watch Dogs Legion and through that aspect they could eventually combine both games. Templars, the ones behind Abstergo entertainment and small, shady activist grps working behind the scenes and Assassins as the hackers of DedSec/the Legion. As for Odyssey, it was way out there in terms of being an assassin but I enjoyed the hell out of it. I don't mind the RPG elements to the AC games but I just want it to be done a bit better, because since origins I've been in love with the concept. I still want more AC games like Black Flag, Brotherhood, AC3, Syndicate and even Unity (when it decides to behave). But in my opinion Valhalla ain't it. It doesn't give me that feeling and I find myself going back to older AC games.
They need Animus to make people think that their story doesn't end only in ancient times. The things they need to upgrade a lot is the gameplay directions. I mean they have more resources to make the missions better, but they was too much focusing on repeating endlessly old encounter in a mission. Kill this - go talk to that - do more thing like this and repeat. Rather than having an impact on the mission like what players can and can't do in that mission. Diversity playstyle really help them if they design it to be so.
Great video, I had known about Kassandra and female Eivor being the canon protagonists but didn't know the reason behind the male counterparts being added as options, ridiculous lol. Also that dragon fight really looked like a call to Dark Souls, as you say another attempt to find ideas to find something that works. Future direction of the franchise looks unsteady at best.
As far as I am aware, this also happened to Origins - initially, writers and devs were playing with the idea of Aya being the main protagonist, but were told no by higher ups.
It was french monster hunter
je suis monte
I'm having so much fun playing this game, the only thing that sucks is the loot system other than that it's still a solid game
I am currently binging all of your videos, you are so good at analyzing these games and commentary overall
This is a wonderfully deep and concise analysis with great editing and script flow, but the touch I loved the most was the inspired use of "Candyland" as a verb to describe skill tree progression. Excellent writing touch.
Honestly my biggest problem with the RPG games is I'll play them for like 25 hours, realize I'm only like 7% done, and just give up cause I've stopped caring. I've done this in all 3, meanwhile I've beat Syndicate multiple times cause it just pulls you in immediately
I just learned how to play those AC by removing almost all the HUD, i am only keeping the life bar for my character. And it changes everything. I am using more the crow to search and explore, by not knowing what is going to happen I am always on edge and using more the notes I find in the world and my eyes than the compass and the colouring dots.And the game is more enjoyable this way in my opinion. I really love Valhalla this way.
Love to hear it. I’m about 2 hours in. Just got to England. Using the crow to check the areas and lead me places has been great. I don’t like combat at all so I go out of my way to avoid combat. Also these barred doors might be the worse part of AC I’ve seen. But overall, I am truly enjoying it.
I've played the AC series from beginning as a teen and my favorites are AC 2, Revelations, Brotherhood, AC 3, Rogue, Odyssey and Origins. Valhalla just felt like a viking game with hidden blade and it took me couple of times to finish it as it kept interrupting my immersion.
For me Valhalla was the best from serie just beauce it wasnt like all other assasins.
I see your points and agree with them but I really enjoy this game and I have been having a great time with it but anyways great video man keep up the good work also first comment of the video
I appreciate the comment. Valhalla is a fun time, because as much flack as Ubisoft gets for their formulaic games, at the end of the day the formula became so overused because of how well it can work. The cracks are just so prevalent in the game, and I wish (like with many other games in this series) that we could have gotten a game where dev the team's creativity shined through more. Still, out of my 250 hours I was more than entertained by about 170 of them.
Nobody fucking cares if you’re first, dumbass.
@@sosaysjay I play about 60 hours in and it was indeed fun. Don't know any part of the main story though and wasn't interested in it and i haven't picked it up in a year.
But did your end up finishing it? I liked it too, but got bored later on.
@@JaymeSplendid I really loved it at the beginning and the first 40 or 50 hours was really fun. I got fatigued from the grinding and I put it down for about nearly a year with the idea that I would come back to it. I finally wanted to play again some weeks ago, so that now I have about 70 hours in the game. I don’t think I’m anywhere near the end of the story.
I really like the game and themes. The more violent combat with dismemberment is great. I even love how the story missions are their own little contained story on their own, which I’ve heard criticized by many, I thought was very satisfying to complete. It’s the unrewarding upgrade system for me. Looting and finding chests is somewhat fun, but when you loot for hours and hours, only to find out you still only have a fraction of what you need to actually upgrade anything, it makes looting not so fun anymore. Then you get skill points, but the skill tree is bigger than the bloated map size and the upgrades are so insignificant you can’t feel yourself getting stronger. It all adds up to a fun experience that gets old prematurely.
Excellent critique. This video is extremely high quality I would have assumed you had dozens of videos by now!
This game was a welcome escape while my Grandfather was dying of COVID. Hundreds of hours to escape from my own personal hell. Other than that purpose it served, I have no desire to boot it up again, not even for DLC. It was fun but felt soulless. I never felt attached to Eivor like I did with Bayek or Kassandra. That was the biggest thing I noticed from the start.
I am glad that it was an escape and I am sorry that you were put in a position to need it. I appreciate you watching and I am glad that you enjoyed the video
They are just selling ”Assassins creed” logo.
AC Valhalla might be the best game I’ve seen get shit on by the internet. I was shocked how good it was when I actually played it.
I'm in my late 20s, and I've been gaming for at least 20 years, so I've definitely played many games with Bully and The Godfather being among my favourites. My older brother who had been gaming longer than I had really enjoyed the older AC games, but I didn't really like them because of the long ship sailing. But playing Odyssey blew my mind, and because I'm a big history buff, seeing Socrates and actually having a conversation with him was easily one of my best moments in gaming. So I was really happy to play the next Assasins Creed game, being Valhalla, which was something I was looking forward to. But after buying it, I played it like 5 times and I can't remember a game as boring as Valhalla
Played odyssey 2500 hours.
I agree with just about everything you're saying. 1/2 way through "Valhalla", I just couldn't wait for it to end. It was just so dull. "Odyssey" had that a couple times but then I'd discover some new thing or place that renewed my interest. "Odyssey" was long but by the time I finished it, I really felt like I'd accomplished something. "Valhalla" I never looked back. Had no desire to buy the DLC.
I enjoyed fighting the bounty hunters in "Odyssey". They were tough but fair. In Valhalla they were always way above my level. It was tiring to shave off a little heath with each hit and getting one-shotted when I missed a dodge.
I can't think of anything that Valhalla did that was better than "Origins" or "Odyssey"
Played odyssey 2500 hours....valhalla I gave up after 120 hours is too boring.
bounty hunters in valhalla? did you even play the game atleast an hour?
@@rocktheconqueror6903 played valhalla 150 hours and is about ZEALOT not bounty honters and is most boring game I ever played...this game is too easy on difficulty nightmare....
@@zicuvalentin2251 zealots are not as same as mercenaries or bounty hunters. They're like boss fights.
You may think it's easy in nightmare difficulty because of shitty odyssey and origins combat. But I'd say it's better in valhalla cuz unlike odyssey and origins there is no button smashing or enemies who are damage sponges in valhalla. Also there is no level system in valhalla so that you can finally be stealthy without having to worry about alerting enemies .
Combat is definitely one of the good thing in valhalla
It's long yes, boring sometimes but overall it's a good game but that's just me.
@@rocktheconqueror6903 Combat in Valhalla sucks. and there is a level system in valhalla. its just not called one.
This game not getting ng+ is criminal, and I’m tired of acting like it’s not
I’ve spent 250h in it already so it works for me, gaming community is trying too hard to put things into boxes and give them labels that create too many expectations instead of just enjoying what’s in front of them as is
THANK YOU!!! VERY WELL SAID!
And I have +150 hrs in AC Unity precisely because I enjoyed what was in front of me, but if anyone provided valid criticism(and trust me, there's so much to criticize Unity for, enough to make the claim that it is NOT A GOOD GAME by any means), I wouldn't try to shut it down just because *I* happen to have enjoyed the game.
*taste is subjective* (which is recurring excuse whenever someone can't cope with seeing criticism towards something they happen to like) doesn't mean jackshit other than "you're entitled to like or dislike things IN SPITE of their quality". Not that quality is relative to each one's preferences.
Why?
Because, it's the people's individual perception of the media what varies, not the media itself. The latter is always one and the same.
When you understand that, you can only come to the realization that a piece of media's quality is not defined by people's personal inherently subjective experiences, it's defined by the media's own reality, as in, what it does(own merits) or what it does not do(lack of merits), which is something that can be measured objectively to a good extent.
As for expectations... Do you actually know anyone who disliked the game and admitted to have had "too many expectations" for this game? I bet you don't know a single one.
It's precisely the fact that the expectations weren't high to begin with, and the game still came out below the standards(which for the AC franchise, are already low within the action/adventure genre) what's the real problem here.
And in any case, if you take such hits to your ego seeing people criticize something you happen to enjoy, why even bother with looking it up? Why click on a video you can tell it's going to be a negative critique from the title alone? You'd be more convincing with your point if you did not mind the criticism at all and instead kept playing the game in spite of it. But the fact that you "have" to come out and defend it speaks on itself.
@tarnishedpose you wrote an essay but it's all your opinion. None of what u said is actual fact. 🤷🏽♂️ you like the old games we like the new ones, that's fine no need for you to defend 😂
choose a viking era as a theme for AC is a huge mistake. viking warriors are known for their raw power and brutality, which is why stealth and parkour are not working in this game. it just doesn't feel right
Personally I think any era could make for a good Assassin's Creed game, and Valhalla would have been especially interesting if they committed to having to be discreet in Anglo Saxon towns. What we got, unfortunately, hit neither the viking fantasy nor the Assassin fantasy in my opinion.
To me thats why this game somewhat works we are not a assassin at most we are allied to them we are still apart of the ac world but are no longer limited to being and playing as a assassin.
I have a gripe with the canon protagonist idea in both Odyssey and Valhalla. People wanted to have choices, so I get the silly contrived mcguffin explanation. But then they jist completely make player choice invalid by saying Kasandra or female Eivor is cannon. Then they go a step further in Valhalla and say Eivor was canonically a lesbian.
What is the point of having choices like this, if Ubisoft is just going to say "Uh uh, you're playing it wrong. This is how it's supposed to go". If they want to go this route they may as well just remove the choice.
Other developers handle player choice with more respect. Bethesda is a big example. Obsidian, Black Isle, Bioware.
Because Ubisoft wants points for having a female character, but are too sacred to commit. all the marketing has Alexios and Male Eivor.