• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

AC: Valhalla |OT| From Nordic runes to English ruins

Mossybrew

Member
And the game needs to be more clear about certain things, like the stats of the weapons before you buy them, previews of the cosmetic stuff and letting us know the level of the zealots without having to be chased by one of them.

Honestly its baffling and feels amateur hour. By design you find world events (or are they "mysteries" as the game seems to have two names for the same thing) that are bosses well above your level, yet hovering over that discovered icon on the map gives you zero info about the encounter for later. Buying a weapon or cosmetic item at a Trader? Good luck because you cant see any detailed info before you spend silver. This is just poor design and Im surprised these things slipped through.
 

VFXVeteran

Banned
This is the best AC game to date. I am really getting into the story and the graphics and combat are the best in the series. Ubisoft really did a great job with this one. I like the combat way better than before. Let's hope that there is little redundancy that would make me bored and move on to the next game.
 

Södy

Member
Honestly its baffling and feels amateur hour. By design you find world events (or are they "mysteries" as the game seems to have two names for the same thing) that are bosses well above your level, yet hovering over that discovered icon on the map gives you zero info about the encounter for later. Buying a weapon or cosmetic item at a Trader? Good luck because you cant see any detailed info before you spend silver. This is just poor design and Im surprised these things slipped through.

Yeah I also miss a simple stat comparison to my current weapon like in Odyssey. Just show me where this weapon / equipment I am currently looking at is better than what I currently have in this slot.

Other than that I absolutely love it. I just did a lot of side stuff, raiding, etc. yesterday just for fun. Never did this in an AC game before, I usually just chased the story.
 
Last edited:

scalman

Member
But it doesnt really matter for stats if yours upgraded and new one is just basic, it will be better with upgrades. I found that those numbers of weapon doesnt mean much they all work still good even those kinda weaker ones.
In loving to explore every white yellow or blue dot in map to see what i could find there. And it never dissapoints meating funny people finding good loot. Lots killing.
 
Last edited:

j0hnnix

Member
I've made it a bit into england and now going through asgard. I forgot how much a time sync this game was going to be. I'm enjoying the story so far , no issues personally with combat but the bugs hitting enemies that cause them to go flying off is pretty comical. It's so beautiful, I did jump and got the wolf mount , I just had to. I am enjoying it so much but I should of held off playing this because my demon souls game is calling me. pretty much have enough games to hold me out until start of 2021. That's not counting cyberpunk.
 

TheKratos

Member
Honestly its baffling and feels amateur hour. By design you find world events (or are they "mysteries" as the game seems to have two names for the same thing) that are bosses well above your level, yet hovering over that discovered icon on the map gives you zero info about the encounter for later. Buying a weapon or cosmetic item at a Trader? Good luck because you cant see any detailed info before you spend silver. This is just poor design and Im surprised these things slipped through.

I think the region level counts for all the missions/events/raids in that region.
 

scalman

Member
guess who else is good boy there... you just hug them
3PoVZsk.jpg
 

cormack12

Gold Member
20 hours in now. Cleared Grantebridge and heading off to Ledecestrescire, then going to East Anglia. So agree with a lot of comments, some parts seem really half baked while the rest is amazing.

The small towns I spent 40 mins with no assists and the cloak stealthing round to get treasures. Of which there was no point because the next missions was to raid it which was annoying. Speaking of which when you get sent on your first proper assassination in the monastery why have I got someone with me who's running out in the open? Let me solo it, and if I need help I'll horn. It is really struggling to find an identity between full out raids and assassin.

The skill points are a nightmare, I can't see what options branch off where to plan a build. I guess raven is stealth, bear is warrior and wolf is ranged. But then does the Raven armour have stealth buffs in addition to the perks, and if so what are they? It's meaning I'm just hiking +stealth, +assassin, +crit but I can't see the ones down the paths of the others.

Also, selecting shit with the down d-pad is terrible. The actual selection is too definite, it needs to be lighter. Selecting a torch shouldn't be this difficult especially when burning shit is such a big seller. And the torch throws are lame. The cloak seems pretty pointless as well when they cluster guards in 3/4's with the door behind them. Fall back to whistle and assassinate all the time.

But yeah aside from the niggles, I'm having fun with it in general
 

scalman

Member
whistle its just too easy so not using it , making it more fun for myself, and then from time to time chaging weapons like now using only long sword upgraded its just amazing with it. then im using lots bows sometimes till moment that arrows are gone and cant find arround them in some areas new enemies there just not using arrows so its more hard to find . over 92 power lvl now its pretty good ,still cant do nothing to some beasts that are 160 power lvl. so need to wait. clearing all 90 power lvl areas around now until will go to next main mission. and like doing everything on map, just all points .
there can be area 20 and there walking those hard dudes with large shields that are like over 90, or then area 90 , but there are beasts to fight that are 160 so you cant do much to them for now. all enemies normal poeple there yes they will be just on lvl what area has.

another thing how i beat now 2 of those hard dudes , i moved them to my raid area , and then all my raid vikings will fight that one badass dude , so thats how you can beat them if you cant do it alone. it was not easy still. like they really using those shields a lot , im not shield guy so i just use 1 long sword or 2 axes.
 
Last edited:
This is the best AC game to date. I am really getting into the story and the graphics and combat are the best in the series. Ubisoft really did a great job with this one. I like the combat way better than before. Let's hope that there is little redundancy that would make me bored and move on to the next game.
I was thinking the same but I don't trust my memory so I re-downloaded Black Flag just to be sure and yeah, Black Flag for me. I dropped Valhalla and I'm a pirate now.
 

xrnzaaas

Gold Member
Goddamit the game is bugged as hell, reminds me of Kingdom Come's early versions. I've killed
The Vault
in Jorvik by accident and got a series of corrupted saves because the game wants you to identify and kill that person in one of the main quests. Couple of hours lost, would've been more if I weren't making manual saves.
 

lefty1117

Gold Member
I was thinking the same but I don't trust my memory so I re-downloaded Black Flag just to be sure and yeah, Black Flag for me. I dropped Valhalla and I'm a pirate now.

Yeah Black Flag was just on another level. Everything came together, including a fresh setting that just made the experience so memorable. I wish that game had a remaster in the works. But after Black Flag, I'd have to say I'm torn between Valhalla and Odyssey as my two faves. I really like the more Witcher-ish direction the game design has taken in the last few iterations, really starting with Origins. And with Valhalla it just feels like a lot of lessons learned about not overwhelming people with the map clutter. So while the game may feel a bit rough at times in terms of bugginess, animations, etc., it feels more evolved in terms of design in flow. All in my own opinion of course
 

sobaka770

Banned
Yeah Black Flag was just on another level. Everything came together, including a fresh setting that just made the experience so memorable. I wish that game had a remaster in the works. But after Black Flag, I'd have to say I'm torn between Valhalla and Odyssey as my two faves. I really like the more Witcher-ish direction the game design has taken in the last few iterations, really starting with Origins. And with Valhalla it just feels like a lot of lessons learned about not overwhelming people with the map clutter. So while the game may feel a bit rough at times in terms of bugginess, animations, etc., it feels more evolved in terms of design in flow. All in my own opinion of course

Black Flag had maybe the worst missions in the game. Those endless boring follow-the-target missions were crap, assassinations were meh, cities were tiny and as first game after AC3 finished the original arc this is the first entry where modern story just jumped the shark hard. It was a nice pirate game with ships and stuff but assassin-y stuff was subpar, I wonder why that game even gets so much praise for having a gimmick overtake the whole gameplay and then being shoved in every other entry where it doesn't even feel that good. The best old-school AC is still AC2 or Brotherhood.

Valhalla is shaping up to be best new-AC yet, Valhalla > Origins>>> Odyssey.
 

VFXVeteran

Banned
Black Flag had maybe the worst missions in the game. Those endless boring follow-the-target missions were crap, assassinations were meh, cities were tiny and as first game after AC3 finished the original arc this is the first entry where modern story just jumped the shark hard. It was a nice pirate game with ships and stuff but assassin-y stuff was subpar, I wonder why that game even gets so much praise for having a gimmick overtake the whole gameplay and then being shoved in every other entry where it doesn't even feel that good. The best old-school AC is still AC2 or Brotherhood.

Valhalla is shaping up to be best new-AC yet, Valhalla > Origins>>> Odyssey.

Yea, I didn't even want to address Black Flag in that post. Nowhere near what I would call AC at all. Valhalla is definitely the best in the franchise (aside from Brotherhood/AC2 as you mentioned).
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Just finished East Anglia. I am seriously enjoying the quest lines in this game. Not a single one has bored me at all. Great stories.

I just wish the game was less janky and the combat a bit better. Feels like it needed another few months in the oven.
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Black Flag had maybe the worst missions in the game. Those endless boring follow-the-target missions were crap, assassinations were meh, cities were tiny and as first game after AC3 finished the original arc this is the first entry where modern story just jumped the shark hard. It was a nice pirate game with ships and stuff but assassin-y stuff was subpar, I wonder why that game even gets so much praise for having a gimmick overtake the whole gameplay and then being shoved in every other entry where it doesn't even feel that good. The best old-school AC is still AC2 or Brotherhood.

Valhalla is shaping up to be best new-AC yet, Valhalla > Origins>>> Odyssey.

Yeah, I'm right there with you on the assessment of AC game quality.

Black Flag was neat for how it integrated the ship gameplay into traversing the map, but the journey (both the historical and modern parts) were completely forgettable. The story felt completely disjointed, like you were just playing bits and pieces instead of going through a cohesive narrative.

And, yeah, that "follow the dude and don't get caught" mission design was just awful. Glad they finally got rid of that nonsense.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

scalman

Member
Hug a Saxon instead
Same smell

Vr5pslJ.jpg
wow see how he looks at you to side like yh we friends since childhood

i wonder about armor do you guys changed to another? im finding now some huntsman armors and then some other , but whats point to try new if im invested all into first armor and upgraded it so much now . do you change armor ?
 
Last edited:

betrayal

Banned
For me it is the best AC in a long time. But unfortunately it is also way too easy. Stealth is absolutely pointless and the bow (especially with the slow-motion skill) makes every encounter a breeze, if you want to use it. The only real challenges are enemies like zealots, events etc. that are far above your level.
 
Nope, there are world event bosses that can be much higher level than the region.

Definitely. I'm still finishing off Leicestershire and have come across a couple of 'zealots' that were way above my power level, like 90 and I'm only late thirties. Tried to take them on a few times and the resorted to hiding and skulking around them. I reckon they are killable if you engage with a Dark Souls seriousness but you've got to be pretty flawless and take next to no hits. The damage I was doing was minimal so I just couldn't be arsed.
 

TheContact

Member
bought this last night, only watched the cinematic intro and haven't gotten into the gameplay yet, but it runs pretty well on my laptop with a 2060 (around 55 fps on high settings). the intro really hooked me though. I'm hoping to have a great time with this game.
 

cormack12

Gold Member
For me it is the best AC in a long time. But unfortunately it is also way too easy. Stealth is absolutely pointless and the bow (especially with the slow-motion skill) makes every encounter a breeze, if you want to use it. The only real challenges are enemies like zealots, events etc. that are far above your level.

Where do you get time slowdown? Is it a skill or a rune? The bows fire way too fast imo and the small quiver makes them moot. It's also really sensitive when zoomed in, there's no weight at all to the aiming. I like the 'cloak' mechanic but it's still too easy to be detected, and if you do then its all out chaos. I think after having played 25 hours now and doing some temples, camps and towns it's the encounter design. Sometimes it's superb but others it's shocking. Origins had more consistent encounters imo. The game looks beautiful though, really well done. The artstyle is really good.

The parkour is definitely shit though. The amount of times I've fucked something up beause he runs in a wild direction or failed a simple jump because you have to hold 'X' for small jumps instead of auto-running is substantial. It pisses me off because it's the thing they tweak every game and Origins and Odyssey both had a really solid balance. Here I feel I'm back to ACIII after seeing Black Flag also improve. Disappointing.
 

VFXVeteran

Banned
Played more of this game last night.

Definitely ONE of the best looking open world games to grace this new generation. GPU usage is damn near 99% all the time! Lots going on, very detailed world, high res textures and normal maps, excellent use of tessellation, great animation, incredible foliage, and excellent PBR shaders! All shots taken with a 3090 4k/60FPS @ Ultra settings!

uV9KfqU.jpg


Excellent approximation of SSS used IN GAME and not just in cinematics like most games.

B15XcfM.jpg


Hair shader with PBR materials AND amazing water in the same screen at the same time! Find another game that can do that and look stellar with each of the items shown.

FSn3kyw.jpg


Demon Souls isn't the only game that has real dynamic shadow lighting. This torch goes a step further by actually rendering the animated fire texture instead of an invisible white ball centered at the character.

kTMjmsi.jpg


Beautiful DOF, volume fog, and volume light shafts + foliage, excellent water, and nice detailed ground.4
 
Last edited:

VFXVeteran

Banned
Here is the VERY common reverse normal backscatter shader that nearly every game uses for simulating light propagation through foliage. It's a great trick and feasible for just about any platform.

F8R7008.jpg


More water and excellent use of PBR materials. Look at the detail on the clothing! Also the color palette is nice and VARIED as opposed to a limited color palette like some medieval games.

UPGvniN.jpg


In-game HIGHLY detailed character and NPC (the bird)! Holds up really really well at this range.

KVU8HIc.jpg


Excellent pose with PBR clothing, back-scattered lit leaves and beautiful natural lighting. Next-gen visuals that are unmatched for this type of game!

7tDDKU6.jpg
 
Last edited:

sobaka770

Banned
These screenshots look ace, but I feel like it's a bit of a shame they went with AMD on this one. A bit of RTX reflections like in Watch Dogs+DLSS as well as Hairworks for fur would be awesome especially with those capes.
 

VFXVeteran

Banned
These screenshots look ace, but I feel like it's a bit of a shame they went with AMD on this one. A bit of RTX reflections like in Watch Dogs+DLSS as well as Hairworks for fur would be awesome especially with those capes.

Disagree with the reflections. It wouldn't be noticed much and the GPU requirements would be through the roof. The game just has so much fidelity with what it has now that pushing it further would bog it down a LOT. I can NOT run this game at a locked 4k/60. Just too much going on and 99% GPU usage proves it's maxed out the 3090. Hairworks? Mmmm.. maybe. But they have a gem already.
 
Last edited:

GymWolf

Member
Well damn, i unlocked the grit skill and the skill that let you use 2 2 handed weapon at the same time and the game become super easy even on very hard, don't unlock this stuff if you still want some challenge.

Jesus why the fuck nobody in the business can make an open world that doesn't become a piss easy cakewalk after 15 hours...

Also, does anyone here have the same bug i'm having now? Even when i open a big chest during a raid, sometimes the icon of the gold bars still remains on screen and i can't finish the raid (whe you finish the other times there is a message on screen that you are done with tha place).
 
Last edited:

Armorian

Banned
This is the best AC game to date. I am really getting into the story and the graphics and combat are the best in the series. Ubisoft really did a great job with this one. I like the combat way better than before. Let's hope that there is little redundancy that would make me bored and move on to the next game.

Yeah I'm in love in this game! ~10h in

The Prodigy quest... :messenger_grinning_smiling:

OMvum07X_o.png
yv8O5sW2_o.png



Unlock abilities to swim for horse and roll...

ACtC-3ed5chxRB-tLjJdGMJ3njA9vz73npKsQ95fJvXb7L3XnKRS8inabqN6PLuvIdLgHft89GugzoNR3UN7SW9zfx-u6s8Yo990GUieAXAYZvVy5e3lTfPRfu_fL0wgtgmHqlGt6ruF7ABd6kimP1l3uLwl=w901-h380-no
ACtC-3eELyEl36MTFyzPvXEUmuu8JsJc38Vi1XLFzmyoWZpWLO-aCG4pQHbzn1SuAJMYKBbDQSXFNHukQrwIkpzhr4tzI9vUL5L5oHPgV1ztZaQv7ATqL4O9-1xAevmkJPUE9gwEWRttBf1FwmgzZuXOxXU6=w953-h402-no
 

VFXVeteran

Banned
Well damn, i unlocked the grit skill and the skill that let you use 2 2 handed weapon at the same time and the game become super easy even on very hard, don't unlock this stuff if you still want some challenge.

Jesus why the fuck nobody in the business can make an open world that doesn't become a piss easy cakewalk after 15 hours...

The might change that in a future patch. This is the first time I actually love the combat! And since it's better than the old combat system and Witcher 3, it's a big PLUS in my book.
 

scalman

Member
how its too easy if you go to harder areas and your weapons dont do shit to them. dont have probs , im on 40 hrs plus now , upgraded everything, i think those weapons would kinda kill another person with 2-3 cuts , so if its takes longer its kinda not cool to me, harder enemies still needs more , i dont think difficulty changes that a lot im on easy tried normal no diff.

roll after hard jump is cool, still you die from VERY high places. i thought why my horse is such pussy afraid to swim.
 
Last edited:

GymWolf

Member
I was thinking the same but I don't trust my memory so I re-downloaded Black Flag just to be sure and yeah, Black Flag for me. I dropped Valhalla and I'm a pirate now.
I always wanted to try black flag with all the praises it receives, but then i remember that he has the same ultra shitty combat of any old ac and i lost interest :lollipop_grinning_sweat:
 

GymWolf

Member
The might change that in a future patch. This is the first time I actually love the combat! And since it's better than the old combat system and Witcher 3, it's a big PLUS in my book.
The combat is ok for an ac game, being better than the old ones is not really a great achievement, combat in the old one was dreadfull.

Dubious about the patch to improve the challenge, i think they never did something similar before and i'm pretty sure that the mass play kn normal to feel empowered sl they don't give a fuck about challenge.

But really, don't buy the grit skill, it's basically the bloodborne mechanic where you get health after being hit by an enemies if you hit them again but with with a noob spin (aka a gigantic window time to hit them back) basically if you are a bit skilled it's pretty hard to die because you can just regain the health you lose in a very easy way.
 

GymWolf

Member
The real combat in this game is naval combat. And it's magnificent.
I tried the naval combat in origins and odissey and it was cute at best.

You still have to fight a shitload of enemies on foot with a dreadfull combat system .

It's the reason why i chuckle everytime i hear about black flag or ac2 being these incredible masterpiece etc. Etc. Well not in my book, not when a big part of these games is complete trash, these games were stealth games only in theory, you still fight A LOT.
 
Last edited:
I tried the naval combat in origins and odissey and it was cute at best.

You still have to fight a shitload of enemies on foot with a dreadfull combat system .

It's the reason why i chuckle everytime i hear about black flag or ac2 being these incredible masterpiece etc. Etc. Well not in my book, not when a big part of these games is complete trash, these games were stealth games only in theory, you still fight A LOT.
I find hand-to-hand combat in newer AC as lame as in the old ones. It's just something that is not as important as the setting and story for me.
 

GymWolf

Member
how its too easy if you go to harder areas and your weapons dont do shit to them. dont have probs , im on 40 hrs plus now , upgraded everything, i think those weapons would kinda kill another person with 2-3 cuts , so if its takes longer its kinda not cool to me, harder enemies still needs more , i dont think difficulty changes that a lot im on easy tried normal no diff.

roll after hard jump is cool, still you die from VERY high places. i thought why my horse is such pussy afraid to swim.
Because i only go in places that are on my level or slightly above my level, of course you get wrecked if you fight enemoes with 100 levels more than you, that is kinda playing like a moron and searching for a fast death.

Before it was still challenging enough, mostly because you are surrounded by enemies all the times, but when you get the grit skill, you can regain health just by slashing around in a group, and if you are against a single boss, you just have to hit him after he hit you to get almost if not all your health back, and this not bloodborne where the difficulty is balanced well enough...
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom