Assassin's Creed: Valhalla

I have been waiting for this game all year and I'm sorry to say I'm very disappointed with it. It almost feels as though it's release was very rushed. The game is full of a lot of "nearly" moments. It nearly meets expectations with various features but falls short. Sadly, the combat is not great. Very clunky fighting. I was a huge fan of AC Odyssey and had high hopes for this game. Sadly it falls short. The worst thing is that there are so many things in this game (raids, battles...) that are so promising but certain things take away from it. The audio during battles is not great. When raiding a village, you expect to hear loud metal clashing, shouting from panicked civilians and war cries. However, the audio during battle scenes is very underwhelming, which detracts from the concept of raiding. Overall, this was a "nearly" game. With such great concepts and things to do, it "nearly" achieved them, but fell short.

AC Valhalla starts well. Norway is a gorgeous frozen wonderland and the story is given a strong start. Travelling to England it gets even more beautiful. And that's the games best feature, it's beauty. But you soon learn that it's going to be a long slog, and here's why:

The story arcs (or counties) all have the same structure. A few quests and then an assault on a castle or monastery at the end. It gets a little monotonous especially since there are over 15 arcs.

Due to the nature of the game, it struggles to character build. I never felt invested in any of the characters.

For a game that relies so heavily on swinging axe and hammer, the combat is outdated, lacks impact and never feels intuitive. It got a little better as Eivor progressed, but never felt good.

The skill tree is confusing and convoluted. Getting skill points never felt exciting because the upgrades are meaningless.

The game is stretched thin by forcing the player to search for materials for upgrades. Materials which are in a locked chest, behind a locked door, which you need a key for, which is behind another barred door 30 meters down the road. Frustrating.

I did enjoy the ending to the main storyline. It's last few hours were were fun, even if they didn't give a satisfying conclusion.

Verdict:

A decent start and a good ending aren't enough to save this monstrous games bloated mid section.

There are parts I enjoyed, but a lot I didn't. It's nice to look at and if you enjoy spending vast amounts of time exploring sprawling vistas then go for it. But I just feel neither the story or the gameplay are good enough to sustain the enormous length of time it takes to beat.

I fell completely in love with this game despite the few tiny bugs that I encountered. The gameplay is on point and it a beautiful game. Everything was peachy until the last time I continued the game and ended up loosing 7 hrs of progress due to their save glitches. The game in my opinion is unplayable with it's current bugs.

I like it so far don't get me wrong, but this game is lacking something for it to be an actual assassins creed game. The equipment all the same, none of it has "special qualities" and if you equip a pointless rune it may or may not trigger that special rune ability, you are dependent on if you have ability stamina for abilities which yeah good luck,. Not very good really. Definitely not loving this version at all, and the DLC content, no meat to it, not worth the extra you pay for it.

So far it's ok.

To be honest it's a little boring and I dont think it's sets a good example for "next gen". I have it on Xbox Series X and I have come under multiple bugs were certain missions are unplayable. Npc animations are not the best I have seen arms moving the wrong direction, objects floating in peoples hands and arrows stuck in characters face during cut scenes. There has also been alot of sound synchronisation issues. The polish contrary to what review companies are saying is not there!

The story so far is also not the best I would have liked greater character depth.

Dont get me wrong I like the assasins creed universe I think the world they have created is good but so many other open world games are available and for a £60 price tag I expected a bit more.

I think ubisoft like other companies should have delayed this project rather than use it a opportunity to be one of the only launch titles on boths consoles.