Multiplat Assassin's Creed Valhalla

~130 hours in the end. Nearly 100%. Just have to fish a bit for those stupid offerings, get Mjolnir and Excalibur and do the treasure hoard maps. Undecided if I'll go for Platinum as there's some really stupid trophies.

Ending was pretty underwhelming. That last battle just wasn't fun. Easy enough, but more annoying than fun. Then meeting Aelfred, having a friendly chat and leaving him alone ... I wanted (and tried) to hack his face off. Especially as revenge for Ubbe.

I took way too long to click that Basim was Loki. It's not like they have the same voice actor and character model or anything! It wasn't until half way through fighting him that I realised. Even that arc is a bit weird. Am I meant to be Havi? Or just a descendent? Not that bothered about Layla getting stuck, never really liked her much anyway (though surely that gets resolved in the DLC). Anyone else think she looked like a crack addict every time you did a fragment and it cut to her?

Overall I enjoyed it, though it's probably not as well rounded as Origin and Odyssey. Dragged out a fair bit, they could have cut like at least a third of the arcs.

Liked the easter egg about Haytham Kenway probably being named after Hytham.
 
Feb 23, 2009
32,141
45,744
Melbourne
AFL Club
Richmond
Other Teams
New York Jets
Yeh there's a fine line between good value and just making it long for the sake of it. I haven't quite finished- 2-3 areas left but already it's too long. You could easily cut 30% of the territories and lose nothing from the story line. Most of the side characters and their arcs are insignificant and not memorable.
 
Jun 25, 2011
26,795
37,643
Victoria
AFL Club
Richmond
I don't mind bloated open world games that I can pile 100+ hours into as long as there is a reward. I liked everything about Valhalla except there was no point to do anything. The only reason I didn't wear the same weapons and armour the entire game was because I got bored of them and changed. Nothing was an upgrade. Odyssey was bloated but it was a constant loop of finding new stuff, upgrading it, finding gear sets and making a build around it, upgrade them etc. Valhalla has no loop. It is just Open World Grind: The Game.
 
Odyssey was bloated but it was a constant loop of finding new stuff, upgrading it, finding gear sets and making a build around it, upgrade them etc. Valhalla has no loop. It is just Open World Grind: The Game.

The thing with Odyssey's bloat is that most stuff outside of the main story you didn't have to do. You could easily finish the game in about 50 hours and then come back and play for a couple of hours every now and again exploring and doing side quests if you want to.
 
Jun 25, 2011
26,795
37,643
Victoria
AFL Club
Richmond
The thing with Odyssey's bloat is that most stuff outside of the main story you didn't have to do. You could easily finish the game in about 50 hours and then come back and play for a couple of hours every now and again exploring and doing side quests if you want to.

Yeah that too. In Valhalla you were made to do a minimum grind for your power level and not entirely optional.
 

Dancing Potato

Premiership Player
Jul 7, 2015
4,412
8,132
AFL Club
Melbourne
I don't mind bloated open world games that I can pile 100+ hours into as long as there is a reward. I liked everything about Valhalla except there was no point to do anything. The only reason I didn't wear the same weapons and armour the entire game was because I got bored of them and changed. Nothing was an upgrade. Odyssey was bloated but it was a constant loop of finding new stuff, upgrading it, finding gear sets and making a build around it, upgrade them etc. Valhalla has no loop. It is just Open World Grind: The Game.

Agree with this. It felt like there was no reward for the grind. At least Odyssey rewarded you with weapons and armour with increased stats. Even if it was negligible it at least felt like a reward. I absolutely hated the loot and upgrade system Valhalla.
 

dirty2

F*** the southern power
Nov 6, 2016
15,790
24,448
Bar Rossa
AFL Club
Port Adelaide
Other Teams
Arsenal
Just downloaded the game last night on epic... Now just tried to play it... Wouldn't launch followed a few instructions and now got a 30gig update ffs
 
Finished Wrath of the Druids. Not bad, but probably the weakest AC DLC in a fair while.


On another note, for fans of Orlog, there's a Kickstarter for it:


Ooh tyvm. Mate and I are looking into board games to play at the moment so grabbed this.
 
Feb 23, 2009
32,141
45,744
Melbourne
AFL Club
Richmond
Other Teams
New York Jets
I've finished all the story stuff, but it's such a waste and has no satisfying or obvious end point.
-Pacified all the regions on the map, nothing really happens when you do except it just says "Well done, continue your journey"
-Beat Fenrir and finished the Asgard arc, okay cool, but then what? You see the end and ragnarok but never have to face anything after binding Fenrir up.
-Beat all the order and then spoke with Aelfred and went to his study. What a massive let down for the final order member outcome, it should have been an epic finish, not find him in some village baking bread and you have a friendly chat and walk off.

Waaaay too long a game unnecessarily for such an unsatisfying and weak story.
 
Back