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

I do miss those big blue seas and sunny skies of Odyssey. Valhalla's environment is just kinda drab and dark a lot of the time.

It is but it is. There is also an element of pathetic fallacy in play. Ancient Greece was this time of enlightenment and discovery. This period of British history, the tail end of the dark ages, 500 years from Pax Romana, still the Normans to come, violent and chaotic, non-stop invasions, it should be cold looking, uncomfortable and murky. I love it. But very much a preference thing.
 

Exentryk

Member
After playing the last three ACs, I am now less impressed by these visuals. I think the biggest offender is the low quality foliage. Really hoping that next gen can improve in this space.
 

Denton

Member
A game for romantics

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As someone who loved Origins yet hated Odyssey, will this be worth the pickup?

Was gonna pick it up on launch but decided to get the opinions of some Gaffers first!

Yes, it feels like a proper sequel to Origins and not a bloated mess like Odyssey.

I'm playing on one difficulty higher than normal and I feel like the base combat feels somewhat better and weightier than Odyssey, but it comes at the huge cost of the abilities being completely uninteresting and a boring as-fuck skill tree, making the progression feel rather meaningless for the most part.

Odyssey's combat felt pretty weightless, but at least it was fast, frantic, and allowed for a variety of builds and playstyles. This one? Not so much.

Also, the Assassin route in this game is just not worth it at all. The stealth gameplay feels like a complete afterthought in this one.

I'm still having a great time, because I love the setting, visuals, and atmosphere, and the characters and story thus far have been interesting to me, but I think it fails to live up to Odyssey's gameplay.

Some of the best skills are not in the skill tree, but must be looted.
 

SinDelta

Member
I'm reading very polarizing stuff on this game. Some people say its amazing and an improvement on Odyssey, or terrible and a downgrade from it.
 

Exentryk

Member
I'm reading very polarizing stuff on this game. Some people say its amazing and an improvement on Odyssey, or terrible and a downgrade from it.
So far (chapter 4), my thoughts are below:

This game's gameplay is worse than the previous games, but story and the world events (side quests) are better.

So yeah, I can understand these comments.
 
I'm reading very polarizing stuff on this game. Some people say its amazing and an improvement on Odyssey, or terrible and a downgrade from it.

For my money, it's one of the most fun, engaging games I have played in years. I have a real issue with getting bored and dropping games early. Not really intending to but just never going back to them and doing something else instead. Very rarely do I get that 'can't wait till this evening so I can play x' feeling. But I have it with this game. I'm not going to say it's the best game I've played in that time, maybe it's like a really good burger as opposed to a Michelin starred dinner, but it's fun and that's what matters.

That being said I am pre-disposed to it because I'm already quite interested in the period and I live in England, grew up in Leicester (ledechester), now live not far from stonehenge in a place where there are several local markers and legends about King Alfred's life and his battles with the Vikings and I've always been an Arthurian nut, which is a good while before this in terms of time but still feels like a connected part of the story. So this is the perfect game for me. It's thrilling finally being able to experience even a very broad facsimile of what those times may have been like.

I also haven't had many bugs. Just an event marker that won't resolve and an assassination target that turned out to be a dummy somehow.
 

SinDelta

Member
So far (chapter 4), my thoughts are below:

This game's gameplay is worse than the previous games, but story and the world events (side quests) are better.

So yeah, I can understand these comments.
Interesting to hear about the story and world events. Gameplay can be fine tuned via good patches and Ubisoft can always add a tracker for the events (*hint hint*)

I could not get into Odyssey. Felt way too bloated (even by Assassins Creed Standards, and to think I once thought Assassins Creed 2 had a lot of padding). :messenger_grinning_smiling:

Origins was near perfection (while Ghost of Tushima took the AC formula and perfected it.)
 
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So after playing 20 hours I gave up on it. This is coming from someone who thinks Odyssey is an 8.5 game and has played every single AC game. The first thing that completely ruined my mood of it was the combat. It's janky, heavy, and shit to be honest which is so weird considering I liked Odysseys. It feels like a complete step down, the exception being the violence and brutality of it which is cool. The second is the focus on combat and departing from stealth almost completely. Even getting the assassins blade was a joke to them. Anyway, raids are shit. You literally don't even have to participate in them and you can just run to the treasure and it automatically ends the raid. It's so bad seeing the AI fight like holy shit. Also the fact that I have to find all over the fucking map SKILLS is a joke. The talent system is meh but whatever.

The second major issue which pissed me off because some youtubers praised it, is the audio on PC. Not sure if the issue is on consoles as well but the audio is absolute garbage quality. Like they either forgot to put in the higher samples in the game or they just didnt bother recording with good setup. All voices are echoing and the sound quality feels like below 20khz. You can't even hear your footsteps at times.

The third are the bugs. Well that was to be expected but whatever.

Main story is meh and the only redeeming quality are the mysteries. It's also not a very serious game as I was lead to believe. Every single thing that has happened was light mooded/a joke/a reference to other stuff. YOu can literally find a one punch man quest. It's clear the game has no idea what it wants to be. Also theres a setting which you can enable or disable for nudity. There's no nudity in the game. Theres even a quest with nudists and they all wear clothes. Even the sex "scene" is just you in full clothes and then it ends. What the fuck is this shit game? A Viking game made by the people who made Black Flag and the focus is not naval combat? What?

I will return to it in a year when all the dlc's are out and maybe some issues will be redeemed but I doubt it. For now 5/10.
 

bati

Member
The first thing that completely ruined my mood of it was the combat. It's janky, heavy, and shit to be honest which is so weird considering I liked Odysseys.

It really is weird, there's not that much difference in how they handle. I played Odyssey for about 30 hours to finish the main story the week before Valhalla launched so my memory of it is still fresh. Maybe you're just misremembering things?

Note that I'm not discounting your opinion about the combat, I'm just saying that if you're comparing it to Odyssey that imo can't be it.
 

j0hnnix

Member
I needed to step away from this game. I ended up getting the "is this ever going to end feeling". Jumped into ghost of tsushima that I got on sale and waited for ps5 to come out and what a huge change. At least for myself these huge time syncs with huge maps - it's fun when I step away and come back - but damn this is huge, I thought origins/odyssey was huge but it kept me in with the loot.. I just feel bored with valhalla after 40hours.

HUGE!

 
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Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Some of the best skills are not in the skill tree, but must be looted.

What are your favorites? I've looted a ton of Ability books, but haven't found any that affect my general approach of charging in head first and slaughtering everyone.

I think my biggest problem with a lot of the Abilities in this game is due to how janky/buggy the overall experience is. Feels like a crap shoot whether something is actually going to connect with an opponent or not.
 

THEAP99

Banned
sooo.. with how cyberpunk is gonna be running the ps4 version on ps5 next month for release which be a disaster, i am wondering if i should just get this while i wait for the cyberpunk next-gen free upgrade...?

i got odyssey and really didn't like it. gave up after 20 hours due to the bloat and horrible ship combat. combat was solid though but the story was not interesting and it all felt chory.

People say this one improves on all of that? Is that the case? MY one buddy said this game is basically just the witcher 3 and I loved the Witcher 3's world & story.. So what's up?

I would be playing this on a ps5, how's the dualsense implentation?
 
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Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
I feel exactly opposite. Notable skills in the tree make a huge difference to how the combat flows, even some "I'll grab them if I'll have spare points" skills that I was initially skeptical about, like throwing a discarded weapon at an enemy or missile reversal.



While stealth being optional is true, assassin tree still has a lot of notable skills that are very, very fun to use and nicely enhance the general playstyle.

Overall the combat is a huge improvement over ACO, mostly thanks to these passives and conditional skills. ACO was basically jus spamming attacks and parries until you built up adrenaline so you could Overpower or Hero strike your way to victory. Here I'm literally using all the tools at my disposal because the devs had this brilliant idea of allowing us to grab everything on the tree - normally I'd be soooo against something like this in an RPG but it works so fricking well here that I still can't believe it. Earlier I wrapped up the Essex arc storyline that concluded with a battle that lasted about 10 minutes, and I was dodging left and right, parrying, swapping my main and offhand weapons based on the enemy I was fighting, grabbing missiles midair and shooting them back, throwing weapons that were dropped by dead enemies, liberally switching between melee and ranged without feeling like I'm gimping myself, using abilities for both playstyles, managed some tougher elites with carefully timed CC (harpoon ability etc). It ended up being 10 minutes of some of the smoothest combat flow I've ever experienced in a game of this type, and just nonstop carnage and gory executions. I fucking loved it and cannot wait to get more. I'm actually playing for the fun of it and trying to go for some flashy moves instead of just worrying if I'm squeezing the maximum out of my character at every opportunity. Fuck that shit.

Fwiw I'm on highest difficulty, currently power level 318.

Valhalla is so far ahead of every other AC game in every way imaginable that it still blows my mind how good it is.

I will agree that Missile Reversal is about the only "game changer" I've experienced thus far. I just wish it didn't fail so often (the object or arrow you reverse hitting some part of the environment and not connecting with the foe). The throwing discarded weapon ability is cool, too, but again bugs, make it not feel very good. Often the prompt won't even show for me and again, a lot of the time the thrown object doesn't connect.

I called stealth an afterthought, because I don't think I've encountered a situation yet where it is even remotely the best option. In Odyssey, you at least got lots of abilities that made that route worthwhile.

I'm 40 hours in (around power level 150) and messing around in Cent, and while I agree that the brutality of the combat sets it apart from past AC games and is the saving grace, so to speak, I just haven't had any fun with the Abilities or loot that really defined the combat experience of AC: Odyssey.
 

Nymphae

Banned
I just feel bored with valhalla after 40hours.

I can't think of too many other games where almost every year you see people going "well this year I put in 60 hours and I find it really boring", like at what point do people just go no, enough of this busywork game design. I stopped buying after Origins. I should be literally having fun for 40 hours not getting 40 hours in and going, man this just isn't getting better is it.
 
What are your favorites? I've looted a ton of Ability books, but haven't found any that affect my general approach of charging in head first and slaughtering everyone.

I think my biggest problem with a lot of the Abilities in this game is due to how janky/buggy the overall experience is. Feels like a crap shoot whether something is actually going to connect with an opponent or not.

Of the lootable ones, Dive of the Valkyries, Harpoon and Rage of Helheim. At power level 90 I have 4 adrenaline bars and combine them with missile reversal and throwing discarded weapons. I just chain badass moves until I have to refill the adrenaline bars.
I still don't understand how bosses work. It's not clear who and when can be targeted with Helheim and I don't understand what the yellow bars above their health are.
 
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Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Of the lootable ones, Dive of the Valkyries, Harpoon and Rage of Helheim. At power level 90 I have 4 adrenaline bars and combine them with missile reversal and throwing discarded weapons. I just chain badass moves until I have to refill the adrenaline bars.
I still don't understand how bosses work. It's not clear who and when can be targeted with Helheim and I don't understand what the yellow bars above their health are.

The yellow bars are their stamina basically. If you break it (usually by hitting weak points with arrows) you can get in a stun attack for big damage.
 

j0hnnix

Member
I can't think of too many other games where almost every year you see people going "well this year I put in 60 hours and I find it really boring", like at what point do people just go no, enough of this busywork game design. I stopped buying after Origins. I should be literally having fun for 40 hours not getting 40 hours in and going, man this just isn't getting better is it.

I understand that getting to that 40 mark some think , like wth, it should of been known at the beginning this was a time sync. In all honesty there is some attractive parts of the game that keep me coming back and ranking up hours. I don't despise the game by any means.. Though there is portions of it I find it to be reptitive which bores me. I have enjoyed ac games for awhile and they bring me in and the idea of vikings lore is fun but it's so large I tend to step away cleanse my pallet and continue the story. I keep looking at the order kill list and I'm like wtf I haven't even started the game.
 
It really is weird, there's not that much difference in how they handle. I played Odyssey for about 30 hours to finish the main story the week before Valhalla launched so my memory of it is still fresh. Maybe you're just misremembering things?

Note that I'm not discounting your opinion about the combat, I'm just saying that if you're comparing it to Odyssey that imo can't be it.

Maybe. It's been a year or so since I played it or maybe I'm just remembering it was more fun due to skills being cooldown based so theres more variety even early game or maybe it was just the dual wield I was using. Honestly I dont like any of the melee skills and I just ended up being a ranged character in ACV. This is sparta and charging at enemies was so fun in Odyssey.
 
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Skifi28

Member
I really want to buy and like this thing, but there's something that really, really bugs me. Now, I know it's kind of silly, but hear me out:

Cloth physics is one of those things I really like in games, it makes me feel so immersed and it's great seeing new tech in action. AC was always good in that regard and I was looking forward to what they'd do with a new generation, like really excited.

I was disgusted. There's no cloth physics to speak of. Your cape is basically stuck to your back and there's no bits that move independently. What year is it? The first two AC games probably have better cloth physics than this. What the hell happened? How could they have possibly dropped the ball like that? Just why?
 

Night.Ninja

Banned
Great game, ive reached Cenf and started running out of steam, 54 hours in so may just need a break though.

I often think it should have been called AC:This door is barred from the other side simulator 🤣

apparently heavy attacks can break the lock on the other side
 
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Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
apparently heavy attacks can break the lock on the other side

I've tried that so many times! The game is so janky otherwise, that I was hoping a bit of weapon clipping would be easy, but no such luck so far.
 

scalman

Member
Kinda wish they had fishing and not with bows.
you does fish but with just rope holding in hands not like other more civilized ppl around there.. sadly. still its fun non less and not hard , so you can catch lots fishes. looks like you fish for some sharks with that thick rope, i mean you ready for anything there.
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scalman

Member
I've tried that so many times! The game is so janky otherwise, that I was hoping a bit of weapon clipping would be easy, but no such luck so far.
just run around look up too and youll get inside easy. they locked from inside for reason. some houses had angry guard dogs inside even..
 

cormack12

Gold Member
Fishing takes too long to reel in. Pisses me off. The rope is only 10 feet away and he's reeling in for five minutes, then a fish fucking runs off with it in his gob.
 

Kenpachii

Member
Haha yeah it was weird:



quest is bugged in my save, people teleport everywhere with endless loop of a cutscene that repeats then cuts and repeats is a mess lol

Fishing takes too long to reel in. Pisses me off. The rope is only 10 feet away and he's reeling in for five minutes, then a fish fucking runs off with it in his gob.

Just use a bow and shoot the fuckers.

I really want to buy and like this thing, but there's something that really, really bugs me. Now, I know it's kind of silly, but hear me out:

Cloth physics is one of those things I really like in games, it makes me feel so immersed and it's great seeing new tech in action. AC was always good in that regard and I was looking forward to what they'd do with a new generation, like really excited.

I was disgusted. There's no cloth physics to speak of. Your cape is basically stuck to your back and there's no bits that move independently. What year is it? The first two AC games probably have better cloth physics than this. What the hell happened? How could they have possibly dropped the ball like that? Just why?

Looks fine to me tho, lots of things moving on the body.

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Bitmap Frogs

Mr. Community
I'm reading very polarizing stuff on this game. Some people say its amazing and an improvement on Odyssey, or terrible and a downgrade from it.

It depends on what you liked about Odyssey. The whole RPG thingio got neutered HARD. Several systems have been either removed or stripped so much they're mere shadows: remember your crew in Odyssey? Well you won't remember your Valhalla crew - and the mercenaries? They're now just static bosses, no more chasing you and making your adventures oh so extra spicy. Territory control and battles are gone, as well. And naval battles, too.

On the other hand the story is miles better since it doesn't rely on those systems. Tons of Odyssey quests and missions involved just doing the area's systemic stuff like kill the area governor or change the territory's allegiance or take a fort - now you get proper story missions. However Valhalla is way, way more hammy than Odyssey was when it came to dialogs and performances.here. Oh and there's actual, proper bosses.

The world design has taken a step back, as well. Where Odyssey was a massive open world that gave you the proper fantasy of being in Greece, in Valhalla you have a main area that's way, way smaller and other areas split from the main scenario - which is rather disconnected, and to make things worse, they don't interact with each other they're like separate pockets and arguably two of them are very, very controversial due to spoilery reasons.

This, of course, is my opinion. Your mileage may vary.
 

Kenpachii

Member
Progress so far as i try to 100% it as much as i can. ( as the game has a lot of bugs in smaller quests that simple can't be finished right now but also in systems that if you do things the wrong way u won't be able to complete it )

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Basically still got 1 zone in england that needs to be completed, 2 zones in norway that need to be finished off and main story still needs to be completed and all the seer quests.

Got max level now, max settlement level.

Next few days will finish off the zones ( probably 2 days ) then move into the seers quests as i skipped them all in order to do them all in one go ( 1 day most likely ) . Hope this gives me some more content.

Then when done will do a little review about it.
 

SinDelta

Member
It depends on what you liked about Odyssey. The whole RPG thingio got neutered HARD. Several systems have been either removed or stripped so much they're mere shadows: remember your crew in Odyssey? Well you won't remember your Valhalla crew - and the mercenaries? They're now just static bosses, no more chasing you and making your adventures oh so extra spicy. Territory control and battles are gone, as well. And naval battles, too.

This, of course, is my opinion. Your mileage may vary.
Yeah I could not get into Odyssey.

Origins, yes.
 
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