Assassin's Creed Valhalla

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For a game that relies so heavily on swinging axe and hammer, the combat is outdated, lacks impact and never feels intuitive.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 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.

Decent gameplay, buggy at times. Butchers the history.

This was a beautifully made game. Amazing graphics, good ideas, brilliant design and colours and textures. I was happier with this instalment than the last as it is actually related to the assassins creed world. There were assassins, hidden blades, templars, a big alien temple and an actual ending of sorts with a lead into the next game.

While I did enjoy this game and its story The downsides to this game were extensive. This game was way too long, by the time I had finished my gameplay hours had reached over 200. There was still absolutely no story outside of the animus, they appear to have just given up with that completely now which is a real shame. I'm still sick of this optional choice gameplay. It's meant to be a reenactment of history, a story that's already happened but there giving you choices on what to say and do on every interaction. They also still let you choose the gender. Can't you just write in two characters like with syndicate? Or make a game centred around a woman for once? But my biggest complaint is, when I started this game I had no idea what was going on. This is because I hadn't bought the overly priced optional DLC for the previous game which actually has the games ending in it. And after completing over 200 hours of gameplay on this game I discover there's another £50 worth of add on missions to buy. Well no. It wasn't even that enjoyable anyway.

I also got annoyed by all the over the top outfits. I attempted to play this game while keeping my character looking consistent to the setting and timeframe while Ubisoft are changing even the basic characteristics of an assassins creed game. I'm missing the original hooded costumes and the easier stealth mode. For the last 3 games including this one there more focused on loud over the top combat and less on what made the AC games unique, which was the stealth gameplay.

Some more positive notes:

• The controls themselves were pretty easy to use.

• I enjoyed the era and the location
• a diverse and choice of weapons and outfits despite my personal dislike for a fair few of them
• enjoyed the cameos of some more historical figures.

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.