Critics' Score:

Metacritic: 80/100

Game Informer: 9.25/10

EDGE: 8/10

Gamespot: 8/10

IGN: 8/10

I hereby announce that I close my chapter with Valhalla until, I decide to pick back up, sadly this isn't the first time it has happened with an Assassin's Creed game: it took me two years to finish Syndicate and I still haven't finished Odyssey. I have written at length my problems with the game and the franchise in my status, but for those that haven't read it, I will go through them shortly.

When game critic, Jason Schreier, came to Twitter after playing TLOU2, he stated that "games are too long". He took a lot of shit, specially from people in the industry, Troy Baker with his gallantry posted a 400-word quote by Theodore Roosevelt, shitting on the critics. But that doesn't take away from the fact, Schreier was right, and Valhalla is the summit of such problems. One has to understand, when venturing specially into an open-world RPG, that he is going for a long ride. That being said, having a story that takes 60+H to complete, compared for example to the 51H of The Witcher III, goes to show that the trend of lengthening main storylines, it's becoming quite problematic. Specially, when considering that Valhalla's story could be done in 35H, if it were not for the obnoxiously boring filler episodes, qualified as main story arcs.

I am 45H into the game, and although the story has begun to start its engines, I am afraid that 45H put into this game, is quite a lot and I simply don't have it in me to give more of my time, specially as I am about to jump into Hades, before The Game Awards. As I said, having divided the story into episodic format, referred as "Sagas" -the way old Norsemen called "stories- only serves one purpose alone, to open threads which aren't crucial and suck up gameplay time. That being said, as someone that's becoming quite tired of the conspiracy shenanigans of "Hidden Ones" and "The Order" or was it "Assassins" and "Templars", I don't even know anymore and I can't give a f-. Those extra threads, usually deal with Viking stuff, which is great, but it feels what it is: unimportant "extra stuff". Gameplay is uninspired, but fun; and I am afraid Ubisoft has lost an AC consumer, I have been buying their main entry games on release day since 2007. I won't buy no more Assassin's Creed until they bring what made Unity great and what made me excited with Origins. I do not hate their change into RPG, in fact I loved it, but it feels so superficial, the game itself doesn't know what it is anymore because it isn't an Assassin's Creed game and it's afraid of becoming an RPG.

Although, I loved being a Viking, my crew and my longship, that alone can't save the game from its debacle. I heavily disliked Ghost of Tsushima, but I would take that any day instead of this. Thinking about this game reminds me of a Raven, not "Thought" or "Memory" Odin's ravens... No, I am reminded of that raven that perched upon the bust of Pallas Athena -an aptly metaphor for Odyssey- quoths: "Nevermore".

Score: 30/100

Playing Assassin’s Creed games has become a bit like a toxic abusive relationship: years ago you fell madly in love with an impossibly charismatic character, you thought it would last forever, it would be just you two, wild free runs, and air assassinations against the world.

But slowly things change. He gives you a colony but makes combat way too easy; he gets you a great engine but starts bringing naval battles home… Now when you ask where the stealth has gone he starts bugging you. He bugs and bugs and bugs you senseless but somehow you won’t leave. You sold all your looted weapons out of spite, trying to get back to him for all the meaningless hours chasing this damn loot, but the magic is gone, good scenarios and the joy of discovering a world together too. You slam the door yelling “Never again!”

But then every other year when you’ve finally moved out of the house, burned your pictures of the Animus, found love again (with Jin), he goes “Baby, I’ve changed, I love you, give me another chance, it will be different, I promise!”

And here you are. So should you ride this rollercoaster one more time?

Let’s be honest there are still a few flaws, like having too many “things” (anyone figured out what the point is of hiring mercenaries or “festive buff” yet??), or the most nonsensical outside-the-Animus storyline thus far… But it seems that Ubisoft have actually learned from some mistakes they’ve made:

• Breaking up the main story in big chunks of consistent self-contained story lines really helps keep an interest in the story
• Skills and upgrades are gated, which makes it impossible to grind the sh*t outta the open world before cruising through the main story bored out of your mind
• Micro side quests that have fun scripts make you actually want to check them out
• Thank god they got rid of naval combat!

Combine these with a fun combat system and a gorgeous map, and you got yourself probably the best episode since the Ezio cycle. Enjoy.

For the first 15-20 hours I was totally on-board. I personally thought Origins was perfectly able to blend the new RPG "like" style while still feeling like a genuine AC game. It was also the perfect length for me (50-60 hours). Odyssey was a big step down, being overly long, ditching its historical setting way too often for fantasy, and incorporating half-baked branching narratives in a universe with a strict canon.

This game solved so many of those issues and initially seemed like a return to form, but is still so overly long. It's like Ubisoft can't help themselves. AC games NEED to be 100+ hours now apparently.

The Good -A great setting. Many have been clamoring for a Viking setting for so long now. I was not one of them. I don't mind Vikings, but they've never really resonated for me like they have for so many others. This game quickly brought me on-board anyway. It managed to be wholly unique while also being slightly familiar and reminding me just enough of older games (primarily being in a European setting and several centuries closer in the timeline).

-Graphics. This game is gorgeous. A lot of attention to detail as well, particularly with snow effects. Good job, but moving on.

-Great combat. A lot of people complain about the new combat. I'm old enough to remember when the combat in AC games was the laughingstock of the entire video game industry (Just hold the counter button!). I like the combat introduced in Origins. Odyssey kind of ruined it a bit by essentially introducing superpower abilities. Those abilities are still present here, but are much more grounded in reality, instead of literally summoning a beam of energy from the sky like in Odyssey. While still not overly hard, this style of combat does make AC games somewhat challenging now. It's a good thing old AC games had such great stories because they were laughably easy games.

-The story...kind of. This is where pacing and the game's length hurt it, but the story on the whole is quite good. Both Eivor's story and the story in the modern day. I used to really be into the modern story during the Desmond games. That story has become an absolute mess since AC3 and I just stopped trying to follow along. Origins made the first step in making that story coherent again, and one thing Odyssey did well was continue that. By the end of this game, I actually kind of find myself somewhat caring about the modern narrative again, which is really saying something considering how frustrated and fed up with it I was just a few games ago.

-Eivor's story is equally good and incorporates some genuinely good subversion, foreshadowing, and subtlety. It also intertwines Eivor's quest with the Isu storyline in a way that doesn't feel ham-fisted like it sometimes does.

-Side content...kind of. Side content took two steps forward and one step back. I'll get more into that step back in the Bad section. In response to the overblown amount of repetitive side quests in Odyssey, Valhalla ditches them almost entirely in favor of 'World Events.' World Events are a great idea. Ditching side quests was not. World Events are essentially mini-side quests that only take a minute or two to complete, but many of them are delightfully fun, unique, and memorable. And some are even hard to complete as you have to really study your environment to figure out what to even do in some cases. I love that. Ubisoft really seemed to put a lot of effort into making these unique and non-repetitive and it shows. World Events are fun. They get a thumbs up from me. Raids are also a ton of fun. Definitely one of the more "Viking" parts of the game and it works well.

-Settlement Building. I loved the Homestead in AC3 and I've loathed not having that area to build and call your own in future AC games. While still not as good as AC3's homestead, this is the best they've done since. What I loved about AC3's though, was that you built your homestead by completing story-driven quests and you really got to know the characters living with you on the land. Here there is a little of that, and it's the only part of the game that gives you a few true "side quests," but the settlement eventually ends up just being a place to dump the resources acquired through raids. Still fun, though. And totally optional so it's harmless if you don't like it.

The Bad -World Events in place of side quests instead of in-addition to side quests. Despite loving the world events, I also miss fully-fleshed out side quests. The world events are over so quickly, they never have time to tell a fulfilling side story and they aren't able to build upon each other to form a full storyline. As anyone who plays open world games knows, fully fleshed out side stories are one of the primary joys of such games. It shouldn't be a case of quick World Events vs. Side Quests. Both should be in the game and having both would provide a wonderful variety to the side content. I know I already said the game was too long, but I have a solution I'll expand upon below.

-Open World Design. This is the kind of game where you don't really live in the massive open world. In this game you just run in to a region, check off everything on the list, and get out. You'll never return to that area after that. And as a result the game world never really comes to life. Games like RDR2, Skyrim, and even earlier AC games have worlds that come to life because you spend so much time in the specific areas and have reasons to return to the different regions often. And those first 2 games I listed are games where it's easy to dump 100+ hours into them without it feeling like a slog despite being on smaller maps. And that's because when you truly live in a game world, it's easy for the time to fly by. When you're constantly just running through it on the way to the next thing, well...

-Cities are Lame: This kind of ties into the above point, but none of the cities really stand out here. Even Lunden just feels like an ever so slightly bigger version of the many villages you pass through elsewhere in the world. The other landmark cities don't fare much better. For a series initially built upon urban parkour, this is really disappointing. The parkour mechanics in general peaked in Unity and haven't been as good since.

-Quest Markers: Everything in this game is directly pointed out to you and this has been a problem in AC games for a long time and it's still a problem here. Go to a region and one look on the map tells you where every single world event is, where all the loot-able 'wealth' is, and where all the collectable artifacts are. This game doesn't let you discover anything for yourself. Instead of a world full of things to do, the entire game feels like a long checklist. Honestly, I would take the approach Breath of the Wild took with the Korok seeds. Don't mark any of this crap on the map, but make sure the map is literally covered with it. In that game, collecting all the Korok seeds isn't really the point. There's so many, doing so isn't really feasible. The point is that there are so many, you will inevitably stumble upon a great many and will constantly be on the lookout for more. Instead of something to cross off on a checklist, it's now a genuine treat and surprise every time you find one.

The Ugly -I only have one gripe for The Ugly and it's the pacing. My goodness, this game takes forever. My playthrough took me 107 hours and 38 minutes. That's roughly the same as Odyssey and I thought Odyssey was overblown in its length too. Honestly, I was ready for it to be over around the 60 hour mark. That's about how long Origins took me and I thought that was perfect.

When thinking about it, though, I realized the length isn't the problem. It's the pacing and overstuffed main story that's the issue. After all, I play other RPGs and regularly sink 100+ hours into them without thinking twice. So why does this game, which I already acknowledged is really fun, feel like such a slog?

As you already know, it's the pacing and how the story is structured. The main story is essentially broken down into "arcs." There is one arc per region of the map and 22 of them (give or take one) in total. All but 3 are required. While I actually enjoyed each and every one of them in a bubble, most have nothing or very little to do with the main narrative. So what would happen is you'd play one arc that is packed full of interesting narrative content and would be super excited to see where that goes. Oh but you can't yet because you have to do these other three arcs first before you can continue with the main story. At 3-4 hours a piece, that means you have 10-12 hours of playtime in front of you before you can even continue the main story. Ridiculous!

The easy solution here is for Ubisoft to decide which arcs are actually a part of the main story (probably like 8-9 of them) and then make all the others purely optional side quests. This immediately solves the problem I had earlier about World Events completely replacing side quests. Now all of the sudden this game has a ridiculous amount of really well written, engaging side storylines ON TOP OF the really fun, quirky world events and the game isn't even any longer. The solution is so obvious and so perfect that it's infuriating that Ubisoft didn't think of it.

Like I said, the story is really good, but it's constantly interrupted by irrelevant "main story" content that would have been perfect as side content. So when you DO finally get back to the main story, you're more frustrated than anything and you may have even forgotten some of the minor plot points by then anyway. This pacing also directly weakens the narrative because there is no sense of urgency to any of the characters when there should be a TON of urgency in some situations. Why Eivor decides he/she absolutely 100% MUST complete these irrelevant arcs before rushing to do something incredibly pressing is so obnoxiously stupid and has no logic.

I haven't played the two previous Assassin's Creed. The 'RPG era' of the franchise, so my point of reference for this game is, funnily enough, Breath of the Wild.

I mean that! In Valhalla, you can climb almost anything, have a gread freedom to explore and you'll never know what you're gonna find. My best moments with this game were when I just took my drakkar and my horse and let the fate take me anywhere.

I didn't had as much fun with the imprecise combat. I was done with it after 30 hours. It just doesn't evolve enough to support such a long game. The bugs were awful. I miss full questlines because of those. There wasn't a single play session without bugs and some of them made me reload the game so I could continue.

Plot was fine too. I liked the episodc nature of the alliance system and appreciate that the modern timeline and the 'ancient extraterrestials' bullshit were kept to a minimum during most of the game. Even the 'Assassins' (here called the Occult) were almost irrelevant.

You can read my full review in spanish here.

It's a fun game, but it's just too long and the damn combat gets boring quick. Play at your own pace and you'll enjoy it.

I know, I said I wasn't going to play another one. Blame it on the pandemic.

So let's get this out of the way: This is a bad game. I don't recommend this game to anyone unless it's free and maybe not even then. It's glitchy. It's loady. It's tedious. It makes a bunch of terrible choices when it comes to the gear upgrading system (choices that they got right (or at least more right) in Odyssey, which just makes it worse). (I will say I do like the idea of the appearance of gear improving as you level it up, but the execution here is garbage.) We're back to watching our family get brutally murdered. The bird companion can't tag enemies anymore. The climbing is the worst it's been since AC2. The platforming during the Animus anomalies requires more precision than the game allows. The River Raid sub-game takes 10 minutes to load in and out of. And of course the game is WAY. TOO. F***ING. LONG.

But.

World events are cool. It's a great alternative to side quests that actually merges storytelling and movement organically—rather than a side quest arbitrarily telling you "Go there, do thing, come back," which tends to feel forced and limits the narrative capabilities of those quests, World Events take the form of "Go everywhere, find stories," and most of those stories take place in those locations, meaning they don't arbitrarily incorporate traversing the map just to give you something to do. Though there were some narrative moments I like in the main storyline, the best ones were in the world events, which were largely what kept me playing for the bulk of the game.

The 3-part Valhalla arc was actually fairly compelling, and the whole Wizard of Oz-style cross-casting was legitimately good storytelling, particularly in how it foreshadows Basim's heel turn (assuming, of course, that you do the Valhalla arc before that; but why force players to do things in an order that is narratively satisfying? Why do art when you can just give everyone a bucket of paint?)

The extra-Animus story is actually a story and stuff actually happens and it's not behind a paywall (though who knows, maybe all the good stuff is in the DLC).

They brought back assassination cut-scenes, and they're cool.

There's a minigame called flyting that relies entirely on your ability to scan rhyme and meter, and the characters who challenge you are often fun and quirky. At one point you get challenged by a squirrel. If flyting were the whole game this would be a 5-star review.

There's another mini game that's an actual game but unlike, say, Gwent it's actually fun, easy to learn, and relatively quick to play.

The child that gets brutally murdered while you're supposed to be protecting them isn't the best character in the game or even particularly close to you, so that's...better? Also his death actually has a purpose for the plot.

The photo mode is fun. Definitely the most time I've spent in a photo mode.

All of which is to say there is good stuff here. But aside from all the bad mechanics and glitchiness, there's just too much content and not enough thought. This could've been a good 60-hour or even 40-hour game with a satisfying narrative and some fun little stories around the edges, but instead it took me over 95 hours and more endings than Lord of the Rings before eventually I just decided the game was over. Assassin's Creed Valhalla is the best argument I've yet seen against the trend of AAA games getting longer and longer. I haven't spent this much time in a game since Divinity: Original Sin II, and you sir are no Divinity: Original Sin II.

Also, I said that I'd say more about music in games but the music in this game is mostly boring. I like the music that plays when you go north though.

Assaasins Creed Valhalla Review

This is honestly one of the better games of 2020 after many games i played being just okay or having stuff i don't like. Assassins Creed Valhalla has stuff i don't like either but alot of stuff i really liked.

The story of Assassins Creed Valhalla is honestly fantastic. It starts you in Norway as a kid you are Eivor your at a big viking party shit goes down you get attacked your father gets caught your people are dying the father gets held captive and surrenders begging for the attackers to spare the people hes a coward and is shameful vikings are supposed to be warriors and have honor. The attacker says yes but its a lie your father dies than your mother Sigurd comes to save you the horse gets attacked and you fall on ice get bit by a wolf this gives you the nickname The Wolf Kissed. Fast forward a few years you are grown but your captured again trying to kill the man who killed your father and you succeed. Sigurd returns who is a brother to you his father who is the Jarl the leader of the village is supposed to name Sigurd the new King as his birthright but doesnt instead he bends the knee to another guy naming him the new leader, Sigurd is furious the whole clan is they feel betrayed the Father told them nothing of his plan, They all leave to find a new home in England this is where the story begins.

The whole story of the game is building your home and building alliances and overtaken all the regions in England.

Story is packed full of so many great characters i cared for a bunch of them. This is probably the strongest cast of characters i feel everyones memorable except for maybe 3. I really liked Ivarr who is this crazy guy whos nuts and says the wildest shit and doesnt care one bit he likes War and has killed many Kings. Ceolbert who will remind you of Geoffrey from Game Of Thrones way more likable though. Hunwald who will remind you of Froto from Lord Of The Rings and just many many more characters. Than theres Sigurd who is your brother and your Jarl the leader of Vikings and hes just amazing as well. This is all i'll tell you about the story because its a great story with so much great stuff and surprises and probably one of the most creative stories in an Asassins Creed they fix a lot including the present day sections which have always been boring but they made it clever in this one and hopefully for the next Assassins Creed it will now be interesting.

Eivor I wanted this section to talk about the main character because this is probably my new favorite Assassin. At first it was Bayek from Origins, i never really liked Ezio or Altair much Connor was okay Edward was find in 4 cant say for the Assassins in Unity or Syndicate. The game has you choose between Male Eivor or Female Eivor but and this is just my opinion but you'd be doing yourself a disservice if you don't choose Female Eivor. Male Eivor he looks great but he just doesnt sound like a viking like he belongs to that world he sounds like the Male Assasin in Odyssey. The Female Eivor however is a damn viking shes looks the part, sounds the part and acts like the part. Shes tough, shes kind and she can be violent and brutal if she has to be and this is all brought to life through the voice actress who plays her she did such a wonderful job. I liked how Eivor acts in the game even though its choice based some decisions felt like thats whats she would do. She doesn't really get involved unless they want her to and if shes against someone corrupt and even than sometimes she doesn't kill the only time she feels the need is if you kill or harm anyone in her Viking family. There was this great Arc out of many great ones but this is the only one i'll spoil, but it deals with a guy named Hunwald whos next to be king or leader of his region' no one believes in him they see nothing in him he doesnt have what it takes or any experience. Eivor takes him and tries to help him trains him a bit for combat trains him to find his bravery and courage even teaches him how to insult people through Flyting which is a Viking rap battle. When it comes time for combat Hunwald fights the main enemy of that arc hes in a losing fight becoming overpowered seems like he'll die but Eivor never steps in to help him because where she comes from its a disrespect to fight someones battles its not honorable it makes the person look weak losing respect, she stands and watches Hunwald fight the guy and just believes in him this is why i love her as a character. She just has so many layers ton her.

Gameplay

The gameplay is more improved from Odyssey the combats way better more faster less methodical you still have a stamina bar but it hardly feels like an issue at all like your attention barely has to be on it. The combat is brutal and visceral you cut heads off arms, legs, smashing skulls and has brutal finishing moves. There is a block if you have a shield and there is a parry also bayonetta witch time dodges that slow down time for a few seconds which is always a plus in any game lol. Enemies have a stagger bar which is like old god of war you stagger them than finish them off in brutal fashion. The weapons you equip can be dual wielded all of them you can mix and match weapons together. Theres long swords, Spears, Axes, two handed axes, hammers, two handed hammers, Shields, Long Shields, Flails and Daggers. I used two long swords but it felt like i should have used the axes it felt like it was the viking way because your Axe is Sacred in order to go to Valhalla you must die with an Axe in your hand.

Theres a leveling system that is like Final Fantasy 7 Remake where you choose your path to go, Red is the Warrior Yellow is the Assassin and Blue is ranged i think... Lol. Think my problem with this is you have no idea where abilities are and you cant see the whole grid until you get abilities that open new paths. Everytime you get a ability or a stat increase it raises your power level and this is how your able to go to the other more powerful regions

Mission structure The missions in this game are seperated by Arcs you get a map and choose a region you want to pledge to they all have a specific power level so you have to make sure your on the same power level or you can do it and die in a few hits lol but you form an alliance, than you travel over and the arc begins most end in a big raid battle which could get old but the raids have you do different stuff to keep it some what fresh.

Exploration and Negatives

This is were i dislike the game because England itself is huge with like 13 Regions or something problem is all these fucking places look the goddamn same! This is by far the worst open world ubisoft made especially for an AC game. At first you see England and are like wow! Than like 3 or 4 regions later your like " This shit looks the goddamn same" fucking trees and grass and flowers got like ruins that look exactly the same got caves that look exactly the same and the villages the towns there is fucking churches and monasteries everywhere which look great the first 3 times than you see them almost in every region exactly the same building it is annoying. The building in towns also look the same theres always these straw houses they got like hay on them? I don't know. The game to i was looking at Odyssey even Origins they were more colorful like the environment but Valhalla looks bland most the time so much brown and gray and i guess baige colors for the hay even the water doesnt look all that great.

The stuff in the open world they removed the loot odyssey and Origins had so your not constantly getting new stuff or outfits like i didnt get a new weapon until like 10 hours in, but i didn't get one i really liked until like 40 or 50 hours in and the outfits i didnt find one i really liked until like....80 hours in. For most the game i had armor but theres an option to hide it so i had no armor just the assassin hoody it looked the best til i finally got my armor i liked  which was this blue and gold armor.

Now your may be asking what has been replaced for the loot and armor drops Odyssey and Origins had....Fucking runes and ingots. The ingots are for upgrading your weapon theres three types copper Nickel and Tungsten and i fucking hate this shit and why do i hate it? Its because you get new weapons so if you use them you know you'll get a more powerful weapon or armor later so you just wasted them and have to collect more so its a goddamn waste til you get the armor and weapon you want to stick with. The only way i like this is if your stuck with a single weapon and have to make it strong with items The Runes there fucking pointless don't like them in the new God Of War don't like them here and i will consistently mention it over and over until you know i hate this shit. I don't feel rewarded getting a fucking rune, pick up a rune that increases attack by 2.5 get another one for critical damage for 5 percent, fuck off and thats all you get in this game throught enemy bases. Lets talk about other stuff in the world theres legendary bosses and Zealots which replace the mercenaries in Odyssey and you know your reward for beating them is...a fucking rune pointless shit i literally lossed all interest in fighting them i fought some and the battles are long and i felt it was a goddamn waste when all i get is a rune i won't ever use. Theres also these skill books you get they give you different abilties these were fine to get there in the enemy camps and forts

You have a settlement which i thought i wouldn't like but its actually fun building stuff for your people getting to know them better and getting missions to help them it made them feel important.

Than theres the raids where you attack enemy locations with your people. The Raids are used to gather materials to build stuff in your settlement. These are fine they get old after a while though.

Bosses aren't great there bullshit Dark Souls bosses there easy but of course they do heavy damage so spend 20 minutes to die by 2 attacks sound fun?  Side missions there are many of them there called World events but there not anything special most arent memorable there funny at times and heart felt but forgettable. Theres mini games Orlog which is a dice game its fun but luck based and it took to long so i stopped playing it its fine though. Theres a mead drinking game racing to out drink somebody than theres flyting the viking rap battles and i enjoyed these a lot just to see what Eivor comes up with, a person would rap and you had to pick a rebutle.   few other things theres glitches and crashes, i had to have 3 glitches and 4 crashes a day but it did stop after a while because i think it got patched.  The Soundtrack can't remember one track except the Norway exploration song other than that i cant remember. Theres relationships in the game like people to sleep with but theres no sex scenes or nothing special it just fades out lol when you see Witcher and Mass Effect or Dragon Age you expect to see more there is however people that you can be with and constantly go and be able to kiss them that was nice.

Final Thoughts

Okay so it seems like a lot of negatives but i really liked the game it is carried by Assassins Creeds strongest story and strongest cast of characters and a fantastic main character seriously Eivor (Female Eivor) really added so much to the game just wanted to hear what she'd say next how'd she react shes great. The Story is the most creative in Assassins Creed it fixed the present day stuff, it fixed so much and it has a bunch of awesome stuff i didn't mention. I will mention one thing it is extremely important to do two side missions in your settlement they are very important to the story and making the story make sense and there missable it should have been a main mission. The ending itself seems like an abrupt end the issue is i think the placement in it was wrong. Sure the world and items in it sucked the story was just so damn good didn't care to much. I was collecting the stuff until i hit the 120 hour mark than i gave up. My score for Assassins Creed Valhalla is a 9 it should be a 8 but to me its a memorable game made me care about Norse Mythology and Vikings more than God Of War did and like i said it has some surprises and twist its just great.

My final review for AC:Valhalla, the base game

This is an amazing game, i did not regret a single minute of it. The additions they made to the franchise work very very well, and make the world feel more alive. Some people say this is too different from the root AC games to be franchised as AC, but i disagree, i think there are still enough AC elements in the game to ship it as such, they just added a whole bunch o stuff around the core principles

The story is very good and well written for the main quests, the 'side quests' (map objectives) could still see some work in future games, as most of them are not that interesting and can feel a bit grindy when going for 100% completion. But at the same time the roaming around for them emerges you in the beautifully crafted world.

Throughout my playthrough i encountered a few bugs and had to reload a few times, but nothing major, and this can happen in an open world game of this size. As far as open world games go, it's not at the level of an RDR2 or H:ZD yet, but it's getting close. If they work on making the side content more engaging in the next title, it could be the perfect open world game.

Assassins Creed Valhalla is the one game in the series that fails in all aspects, to a point where it's almost amusing. There is so much potential in its gritty feel and the harsh, rich beauty of Norway and almost all of the British Isles. Yet it's hard to immersive myself in a setting when simply moving my character feels janky and unsatisfying. Your character moves like he/she shat himself and climbing up a mountain makes Death Stranding feel polished to perfection.

In a series where parcour is THE thing about it I actively tried to avoid it as much as possible because it just looks extremely stupid... I won't even start talking about the combat, ugh.

And still I found myself playing it because there are also good things about it; the music for example is amazing, varied and beautiful. Hearing a solemn nordic voice sing to you while you stand on the peak of tall mountain in Norway, looking out unto the vast expanse of sea, valleys and miles of snowy tundra while the northern lights dance above you feels mesmerizing...until you start doing...well, anything. Because every single animation in this game is complete crap and it's a damn shame that this is the best open world viking simulator we have to date.

Finally, after about 110 hours, it is done. Or as done as I can be bothered. 100% this would be more than a chore. I don't buy into the "there's too much... game!" argument, but really, I'm not compelled to go beyond finishing anymore than just the main storylines. And you're not forced to do everything so I fail to see the problem.

Valhalla got off to a slow start for me. Origins was set in spectacular ancient Egypt! Odyssey in magical, mythical Greece! Valhalla is set in muddy old England. It's not as immediately charming. It doesn't help that you start in the fens, which really is wet and muddy to this day! After a short time in Norway, you arrive in Grantebridgescire, which is actually where I live in real life! Not that I would have known without the map. It doesn't look like this now!

The vistas improve once you get out of the swamps and it really is a beautifully to look at. I enjoyed the story and characters, even if all the Isu stuff is incomprehensible these days. I was also annoyed that there isn't really a proper full stop on the story. Does it end when you defeat Basim, or when King Alfred is revealed as the leader of the order? Or when Sigurd makes you leader and you conquer all of England? not sure....

Fighting becomes too easy about halfway through. I made things more challenging by forcing myself to stealth sections of the game even where it's not necessary. This is more satisfying than just flailing around at everything.

It is just an epic adventure overall. I don't know how they craft these games, but it's a grand undertaking where all the annoyances that come with it don't quite add up to enough to remove you from the immersion.

I started this game shortly after my son was born in April. He's 8 months old now and it's going to feel weird not using what little spare time I get to travel England with Eivor. But all good things must end.