I Gave Assassin's Creed: Valhalla Another Chance... 

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The thing I love about Valhalla is the amount of variation in the storylines. For example, there's the story about how you meet a naive boy-king who needs to toughen up and learn how to be a leader. Then there's the story where you meet an immature adolescent ruler who needs to learn how to take life seriously and command his people. And then there's the story where you meet an inexperienced young monarch who needs to learn how to be strong and run his kingdom. Radically different stuff!

"It's fine, there's content here." -Assassin's Creed summarized.

The most off putting thing for me about valhalla is the lack of iconic historic locations. There are a couple of them but they just felt so underwhelming, objects, vegetation and buildings throughout the world just felt like they were copy pasted

I went back to Origins after Valhalla, and 100% Origins with a smile on my face - yeah it lacks the combat from Valhalla, but the story, characters and writing really felt like an AC game and was captivating

I remember playing this and enjoying it until it got to the point where I was doing the same thing over and over when taking territory. Then I just wanted to grind the game just to see the ending which sucked. At this point the only good thing about these new assassins creed games is the history you learn

My AC thoughts: my biggest disappointment with Valhalla was how unrealistic it was. I thought this game was going to be one of the best medieval games in a long time (the last time AC had a medieval era setting was the first game). Even with a "Viking fantasy", they could have done so much to keep it grounded and accurate to the time period. Instead, we got plate armor, furs and leathers, huge axes, cities out of place and historical figures that made no sense. It took them until the Discovery Tour mode to give us an accurate Norse/Danish maille and tunic set! And don't even get me started on how long it took them to add correctly scaled one handed swords... That's my biggest gripe. With how much Ubisoft bragged about their historical accuracy for years, it was a real kick in the gonads.

I never understood the logic of a game in which you finish the game and discover the most powerful fighting tools (sword, armor, incantations, etc.) at the end of the game but the story is over, you have no enemies

Personally, I love AC Valhalla. It suits my casual and relaxed play style perfectly. I can spend my time exploring and finding treasures or if I want more action I can do raids or jump into one of the many quests that I have ongoing. So much to do, never bored. I can see why some people don't like it to but for me, who likes to spend a lot of time in one game at a time only, its great!

I can agree with that, despite the change in style, i loved Origin's and Odyssey before Valhalla but something about Valhalla pushed me away after playing it for a bit, it didn't grab me like the other 2 in the new RPG trilogy :)

This game was genuinely exhausting. Valhalla put the final nail in the coffin for me. as I huge AC fan since AC2 I honestly couldn’t care less about the series anymore

Ok here is the reason why I still like playing Valhalla even 40 hours in. It is a game that i call “RU-vid games” which is a phrase i like to use when describing games that have repetitive gameplay that is fun for mindless entertainment that you can just listen to some RU-vid, music, or podcasts and just chill. I actually found this game pretty conducive to my mental health and allows me to just chill out after work just to do something interesting for a little bit while also not wanting to focus on a really intense and engaging story. Once im done fucking around ill play the story and of course im noticing flaws such as this being the third time in a mission where i throw a drunk person in cold water to “sober” them up and get information from them. As funny as i found it the first two times it was old fast . Also its a pretty looking game and something about the environment of Saxon England is just cool.

I am playing again after a break, and to be honest am loving it. I find the way to best enjoy ac games is as a history simulator, with stuff to do inside it. I’m really loving discovering their recreation of an important part of English history.

If a game has a "massive open world" to explore...you already know what your going to get. A checklist of repeatable quests and collectables and MAYBE some RPG mechanics.

So glad to hear you say that about Syndicate. It's in my opinion the most underrated gameworld ever crafted. It's so dense and alive and such fun to traverse. Absolutely adore that game.

I totally agree with you on the lack of big cities! That is one of my main compaints about the current state of the franchise, in addition to the microtransactions, heavy reliance on level gating and the insane amounts of filler.

I actually really liked Valhalla. I enjoyed the characters (for the most part) and I felt as though each of the sections in the game were unique enough to prevent things from getting stale. Of course, there's just so much, and a lot of that stuff wasn't super distinct. I forgot who people were from time to time.

20:33 the thing is, naval combat between these types of cultures was largely just boarding. i dont think there was alot of firing of projectiles between ships (especially not with respect to damaging the ship), maybe javelins, but thats short range... so it would just be an on boat, fighting game, still.

For me Origins was the last good AC game. It didn't have the stiffness of the older ones (Black Flag is still the best of the entire series), and it doesn't have the crazy fantasy of the newer ones.

I’ve beaten Skyrim over 20x and every single time I start a new file I can’t wait to explore… even if I’ve already seen the location before.. the awesome items you can find make exploration so much fun even if you’ve done it a bunch of times.. Valhalla is just a fat nothing burger with the AC game title… Odyssey is one the best games I’ve ever played, why are they doing this??

There is a reason why there are no "big" cities its because there were no "big" cities in this region at this time and Naval fighting makes no sense in this setting too.

I like how you can add "like, for example, what they did in Elden Ring" to a lot of the suggestions Luke makes in this video.

My AC thoughts: People meme on the Ubisoft formula and the handholding and say "it's just a checklist of things to do" and I can't disagree, but I actually don't mind that, as long as I enjoy the gameplay and get a story that grabs me. Valhalla never really did, except for very brief moments. I adored Odyssey and Kassandra, Valhalla and Eivor mostly left me cold. I don't know how much of that is about the quality of the storytelling or my personal tastes, but to me Odyssey felt like an epic adventure while Valhalla just seemed like a bland Viking simulator.

I really like Origins. It has the open world rpg elements but Instill feel like an assassin stealthily moving around the world taking out targets. I thought it was a good mesh of old and new. I'm playing it right now on Game Pass.

Just completed the game today. Yes I know I'm late. TBH apart from the "Assassin's" not in the game anymore controversy I pretty much liked the story. A Viking coming with his clan to settle in England, then met a lot of people and made them lords in their respective regions. Yes it was a bit repetitive but some characters stood out like Oswald, Hunwald. Yes King Alfred being the Father of the Order was predictable but the confrontation was extremely anticlimactic. The actors of Male Eivor and Sigurd were great, and their dynamic was beautiful too. Overall, if this was a different title without the Assassin's Creed banner, it would have lived up to its name.

I dunno. I liked my time with Valhalla. Really enjoyed raiding and playing as a Viking. 😊

Assassins Creed 2 and Brotherhood for me personally were the best games in the franchise. Origins is easily number 3 the story was cool the environment was cool and the change in formula was awesome. Odyssey was wayyyyy to long for my liking and I haven’t even given Valhalla a chance cuz I know it won’t be as fun as origins

I think what you’re looking for in difficulty is really just engagement. You mentioned a lack of enemy types. It just seems to me like the problem is just how they’ve over tuned the player giving them all of these options while keeping the enemies at the same

I may be weird but i kinda love when the map marks every little thing because sometimes open world exploration is too tedious as I find myself getting lost, accidentally looking in the same place and aimlessly walking around and wasting time when all I want is to get that collectable and continue

My AC thoughts: When Valhalla was first announced I must say that I was genuinely excited for it. Darby was in charge of the story, game looked gorgeous and they really sold it as a game similar to Black Flag in the terms of journey of a Main Character. I liked the idea of a viking that meets the assassin's and is influenced by them in their story. I was imagining many different directions the story can go. I felt similarly to when I was imagining the story for AC3 as a kid. However when the game was released, I started playing and looking for all the cool Assassin's creed content they hinted before the launch. I've never been more disappointed with a game in my life... Assassins? Sure they exist within the game but they have no business being assassins. They might as well be regular vikings for raven's clan and it would've changed nothing. Their presence do not influence anything. Personally it almost feels patronizing from the developers to answer the long demands of assassin's creed content within an assassin's creed game with merely a hint of them existing. The main focus of this whole franchise is treated as an easter egg here. Barely mentioned information that "these people are assassins and they are all sneaky and mysterious". "If you look closely within the main cities of England you can find Assassin Buraus :o. You can solve a riddle like any other in the game to unlock an armor piece and a note that main character canonically cannot even read". Hidden Blade? It's finally here in all its glory. The problem is that it cannot kill guards unless you change the option/ level a skill because we don't have enough quick time events in our game. It's not a reliable tool to quickly and stealthily get rid of a guard and move to the other one. Now it's a viking weapon so Eivor will take a solid 3 seconds to perform a clunky animation and then take a big telegraphed swing with a *hidden blade* to kill an enemy. Social Stealth? Another crowd's favorite. Unfortunately it's barely any useful and carries little to no meaning of "being a blade in a crowd". What you are is a extremely wide viking with a blanket on your head. You can pretend you are doing dishes ore some other bullshit that looks really cool indeed but is sluggish does not let you perform a quick unnoticeable kill but rather a one free kill (only if the AI will work correctly) and then you are forced to a brawl. The hood comes off, you take out your axe and start dicing people. Time for pretending you are an assassin is over - It's epic Viking raider time. What? You want to play stealthily? No, no, no... You want to fight as an epic Viking and we will remind you of that every time an enemy detects you through the wall. In previous games, social stealth was a tool that in right hands could save your life and create an opportunity. Here it's just another thing where ubi just says: "See? It's from another game see? We do care about you , old ac fans. Please consume our product. Please, please, please.... This whole game is a example how Ubi is toying with fans that deeply cared about this franchise. Every assassins related content in the game is disposable at worst and unnecessary at best. The fact that Eivor deliberately retcons themselves with an explanation why they won't join the brotherhood is pathetic and really shows how the fans of good writing in these games don't matter to Ubisoft. With every another news about this franchise that came out after Valhalla's launch I more and more lose hope for them to even acknowledge how much they made a completely different game, but they won't give up Assassin's Creed brand for that because how else will they sell their rushed 60$ boring grindfest full of mockery toward fans and fake promises. I hope I'm wrong. I really want to see this franchise back at the top but for the right reasons but at this point it's for sure just lie to myself. I don't know whether you will cover """"""""""""Assassin's Creed""""""""""" Infinity when it will come out but if yes I will gladly see what they did to it without giving them another dollar.

I'm pretty sure this game was ubisoft seeing how much "content" they could throw in while being as lazy and quick to push it out as possible. IMO, origins was the perfect size open world, with the perfect amount of side content. Yes a lot of it was meaningless crap, and it would've been way better with more thought out stories, but still wasn't nearly as overwhelming as odyssey or valhalla

Loving your content brother! As a dad of 2 (soon to be 3), I love RPG's and AC series has a special place in my heart; But with very little time to play, I like to see these kinds of reviews before I commit and sink my time into these games.

I love Valhalla. I had a lot of fun playing the main game which I finished at over 140 hours completing everything on 100% (yes, even collecting those smaller chests). I came back to it after a year to play the DLCs and I still enjoy it. I just really like the world, Eivor, the fight mechanics and just exploring. There is ONE thing though, that I dislike about Valhalla. There is too many side activities to do. Since Odyssey I like to do everything on the map so doing that in Valhalla was very tiresome at the end. I couldn't stop doing that though because I just wanted to have my map cleared as much as it can be. Now when I play Dawn Of Ragnarok I find myself just doing all those side activities automatically like a robot, to the point where I don't even focus on the beautiful surroundings, instead I just focus on where I have to go to find another chest. It kinda breaks the immersion for me but I'm just used to clearing the map before I start another story quest that I can't play any other way. I prefer to do everything beside the main quest, to have the main plot as the only thing that's left for me.

Ive decided to quit literally 110 hours in. I've had family members get married and pass away in the time since I started this god forsaken video game that won't end

Yo I literally just got done watching your 3hr video on Valhalla, to find out 3 hours ago you released this 😂

30:00 I think the reason for the freerunning downgrade is some system has to be built in to climb up and down every object in the world, this was probably done more manually in the older AC games with smaller maps, then some automation was introduced for Origins and Odyssey with likely manual adjustments, and then Valhalla was so over-sized they probably went full automation, hence the downgrade.

I think about going back to finish this game like once a month and when I do I almost always regret it and end up dropping it again within an hour. It’s a beautiful game but it’s just such a damn chore to play. I hate feeling like I wasted money by not finishing a game but I just can’t force myself to do it. I’m downloading AC Odyssey now since I want to know what it’s like to enjoy an AC game.

I honestly know I'm in the minority but I actually enjoyed the game. I understand I'm more of a casual player so I wasn't really in a rush to finish this game which is where I think most of the critiques come from. If you play this game for too long without taking any breaks you start to see the cracks & the repetitiveness, which, by the end, were even affecting me

The first time I played AC Valhalla I was intrigued by the settlement system. Having an upgradable home base can be really fun in games, I'm into that shit. So I looked up a wiki map with all the raid locations on it, and proceeded to do all of them in order to fully upgrade to a level 6 settlement. After I beat all the raids, I found I had just enough materials to get almost to level 6 but not quite, it seemed like I needed one more raid. I went crazy thinking I missed one, spent extra time circling back to ALL of the raid locations double checking I completed them. I come to find out, the last raid to get the materials is locked until the end of the game... I was so PISSED. Why would you do this to me ubisoft??

I've only played black flag and Origins. Both of them appear to be slightly different from the original formula, but for me they were just great, especially the first one. I mean, I really enjoyed those navy combats and the environment. With Origins I had the best experience as I enjoyed very much the sensation of really being in Egypt, beautiful.

I will say the 1 thing i LoVE about valhalla is the Hidden ones ruins that are mostly hidden on the map

I enjoyed Valhalla, played it for many many hours to completion. Mainly enjoyed it because it was set I'm my home country and county I live in.

I played Valhalla last year and I had hear so much bad about it. I got it as a gift and figured I played all the other AC games I might as well. Surprisingly I loved it and had a blast playing it. I respect that others don't like it but my experience was positive. Its actually my favorite AC now replacing Origins. I finished Odyssey right before which was fun but for some reason Valhalla I had a better time with. One thing I really liked was dual wielding any weapon. For a lot of the game I had a big axe in one hand and a greatsword in the other just cutting through enemies. Maybe I just liked the Viking Power fantasy, IDK.

32:05 , im playing odyssey and let me tell you, this is the third time i try to get into the game and i'm simply having a blast, i discovered the difficulty setting and boom, i'm playing on nightmare and i just turned assassin's creed into a souls like with 1 click

I played 60 hours and got extremely bored after the first shock of seeing how beautiful the landscapes were. After that, I remember how much I liked Sekiro and that there was not challenge or fun in playing Valhalla

It is also kind of sad to think that with games like this, Valhalla specifically for example, if the amount of work that went into making the land and trying to fill it out, if they were to cut out 30 percent of that space. Imagine how that 30% of work could've helped bring more life into what they kept in the game. I know game design isn't easy. We are lucky anything gets made to any level of completion or polish. But Valhalla seems like they had the time to create so much for once and just went crazy with content for content's sake. It is important for games to be "full" but not overstay their welcome. Though even after saying this, at least Valhalla is a game where when you have a desire to act sort of like a Viking, you have a good possibility of experiencing a quest or collecting an item you haven't seen yet. Assuming you haven't completed the entire game already.

The only reason I kept grinding out the repetitive zone capturing was to get all the Thor armor so I could pull Mjolnir out of the stone. Also, I really liked the weapon Easter eggs like that one, Odins spear, and Excalibur. Shame I didn't play the game for the story

I love AC Valhalla. I am playing through it again currently. I am finding things that I missed the first time through. The only thing that I would change is that spiriting was default. I am challenging myself to limit myself to 200 skill points in the skill trees to prevent myself from becoming OP. I have not played Origins or Odyssey yet, but I would like to.

I remember being so hyped for this game and everything when the cinematic trailer dropped Then I played the game, had several crashes and ended up having it become by far my least favorite assassins creed game. Was absolutely disappointed by the story and technical performance at launch, absolutely ridiculous. I literally forced myself to finish the game

I personally believe, gameplay-wise, AC Syndicate was the best gameplay experience in the franchise. It was smooth, fast-paced in combat and really made combat a viable and somewhat balanced option not really seen in previous AC games. Also, IT DIDN'T DO AWAY WITH THE ASSASSIN ELEMENTS. I hated the full revamp of AC with Origins and its only been diminishing since with each game after.

I must say I like all the new AC games - Odyssey, Origins and Valhalla. They all have something interesting to offer.

I actually thought Valhalla was pretty great. It has its down sides but I was engaged with that whole story, it was good nothing revolutionary. The side quests and activities were actually pretty fun. The side quests mostly were very unique to me. You find a question mark and it turns into this short interesting quest that isn’t a fetch quest. I’m sure a few may have been, but the side quests were confined to a small areas around where the player starts it, and they’re all something different. Also the world is very pretty with great visuals. I liked the big shadows from the clouds too when looking at distant things. Really adds depth. I feel AC gets unfair criticism because it isn’t focused on stealth or mainly because it is a Ubisoft game.

I was playing ac odyssey again and brought the complete edition for ac valhalla and honestly I love it, fantastic game

Valhalla was a looooooong game but I did finished it. There are definitely games that I enjoyed more but I think I got my money's worth. The raiding was pretty satisfyingly I thought but it was pretty buggy at times.

They've either got to return to traditional grassroots AC, or double-down on an Origins/quasi-Odyssey experience. Most of it comes down to the era/time period Ubi choose as the next title card for the series, but a major overhaul in EVERY category MUST be in order. Rift is just a joke to me. As for potential settings, I'm really hoping for a game either set at the collapse of the Second Triumvirate/fall of the Roman Republic, or in India.

They said that they made the gear loot less to make finding it more rewarding, but all they did was keep the same amount of lootable stuff (to bloat the game) and just make it less rewarding because you get “supplies” instead of any good loot

Moved over to pc when the new gen consoles came out. Saw this game was on sale and was considering buying it since I fell off at about the 60 hour mark on my Xbox. Thanks for saving me my money, I’ll just catch up on the lore through RU-vid videos!

Hey Luke, thanks for the video. I'm a game animator in the game industry. I think for Valhalla, Odyssey and Origins, the decision to "get rid" of many of the free run animations and systems just aligned with the new creative vision for the games. As you said at the begining of your video, AC games are now more focused on traversing wide open, mostly flat landscapes with the occasional climbing - as opposed to traversing dense, packed with roof tops cities. Even though they "already had" this great free run system and, animation bank, I think it simply didn't fit the design of the new AC games. Therefore this aspect was simplified- and other aspects (such as combat) expanded. This is only my guessing from my knowledge so far in the industry, and what I could hear there and there.

If you don't like the dots on the map turn them off in the menu. It gives you the option.

Ac valhalla isn’t a bad game It’s just A bad assassin’s creed game

my Ac thought: I feel like ubisoft has been taking systems like the parkour, combat, and ship sailing out, or toning them down to the point of non existence because of budget. Taking things out triming things down here and there to save money, what's to stop them? They feel they can get away with it because there's mostly little to no friction. I loved the parkour in unity, I'd go as far as saying it was one of my favorite AC games because of the freedom it afforded the player. Unity also has a way smaller but much more dense in, terms of complexity, in the game world for the said players to stretch their legs with the improved parkour. Unfortunately ubisoft has been falling from grace faster and faster. They put out games that are entirely too big, basically the same, and have artificially extended grind making players tire and burnt out. Making choices like XP and resource booster packs more enticing to players those players fed up with the grind in the process in hopes they make more money off of one game so they can turn around and make another even faster for more gains. Instead of making leaps in improvements they make marginal ones. I admire all the work it takes to develop games on these ridiculous time scales, and the amount of talent they have as a studio. I wish they would let them breath, refocus and refresh their creative juices so that the next game in the franchise blows us away.

This game came out after I had just finished Odyssey and Orgins and all their DLC simultaneously. The Viking setting does nothing for me. Greece and Egypt carried so much more history and intrigue.

I fail to see how the coloured dots make the open world a load of fetch quests where you’re constantly marking stuff but the million question marks around the previous 2’s maps don’t

Coming from Scandinavia I love Valhalla just knowing this is how my ancestors lived and being able to play as them

I've said it once and I shall say it again, Bayek deserved a trilogy. I loved Bayek and origins so freaking much. I would paid for all 3 if they had my Boi Bayek. They did him kinda dirty. But I might be alone on that

I played all weekend and am having a pretty good time with it. Male Eivor is a pretty cool guy.

Commenting as I watch. Interestingly enough, that armor piece around 16:00 can be discovered through a mystery where Eivor gets drugged and wakes up in that cave and has to get out of it.

I feel like the few things they did right in this game were the combat, and all the different weapon and armor types. I had a lot of fun fighting in this game with all the special abilities and the ability to dodge with heavy/light attacks. I also loved getting new armor and trying different kinds of weapons. But this game was also so exhausting with how massive the map was with endless markers on them. So much to do and very little reward. A lot of the map just seemed like something you do just to check it off. The story was also SO long and I honestly couldn’t wait to finish it. Also with all the other worlds like Asguard and the dream state worlds, it was just to much. This game was just way to massive.

15:39 see THIS is what I'm talking about, thank you for pointing this out Luke. The problem with western game design is they're always micromanaging everything and taking away the reward for exploring by letting you know where everything is on the map! They really just have to do away with all these map markers.

I finished Valhalla, can't believe I spent money on it. I wanted Vikings, I got the most historically BUTCHERED experience ever. Gay Vikings, dressed like bikers covered in tats and weird haircuts. As a Viking enthusiast, it genuinely gives me pain.

I wish they added a botw or shadow Colosus climbing mechanic, maybe optional in the menu. It would definitely improve decent traversal, just letting go of the button to drop down quicker.

Another thing I noticed while playing, is the dots on your compassion dont appear in the map Like in your compass, you can see a HUGE dot and your like "oh that must be super close" and then you move compass onto it and it's like 5000 meters away or something and it's like....why are you telling me about it?

I've been playing valhalla for a while. Due to some lost save files I had to start the game from zero again and, honestly, it didn't feel good at all. Playing odyssey and origins more than once felt rewarding, there was always something to see and sidequests where interesting. Making different decisions in odyssey also motivated me to replay it. But Valhalla feels like a chore, something I play just for the sake of finishing the game rather than playing it to discover more about the world, because, on the other side, the cities in valhalla are so damm small and boring. Nothing like athens in odyssey or alexandria in origins. This game falls flat, Odyssey was way better and I'll never understand why they took away all the things that made it so good. Not even the npcs work well, when Eivor is talking to them they look up or any other way instead of looking at Eivor, it just breaks every sense of immersion... and that's just some of the issues I find in this game. The fact that one gets so many useless peaces of armor until you reach the high level areas is also stupid, at least in odyssey you get rare items in the early game and it fealt good to change equipement here and there to try out, but it does not happen here, the only usefull armor for the first 60 hours of game is the one you start with unless you buy something from the helix store. It's just boring

I wanted to love this game until the 200th hour, but..started with Unity again

I think the reason why it doesn't increase enemy health is that it wouldn't make the combat more fun; it would just turn it into a number game and slows everything down to a crawl. As you level up, the enemies shouldn't feel just as tanky as before if you are trying to do an RPG system.

For me AC 1 8/10 AC 2 7/10 AC BH 9/10 AC R 8/10 AC 3 7/3 Odyssey 9/10 for me im a big Spartan fan and diving into this world was satisfying. and i was fortunate enough to play it during the Pandemic. Vallhalla 8/10 i miss the stealth , but i do love the Norse Mythology.

I love Valhalla! It convinced me to get back into Skyrim by being so bad!

This is like exactly what people asking for more "accessibility" from Elden Ring are looking for. And I feel like releasing all these updates and adding all these options really speaks to the "vision" that started Valhallas development. I appreciate exploration in games, that sense of finding the thing and telling your friends about it is part of the fun. And its the same with challenging difficultly you get the same level of reward from beating that hard enermy/boss and you get to wear that achievement with honor knowing that you and everyone else were on the same playing field. If I find a really cool item even though i turned off map markers thats awesome for me. But I'm not running to tell my friends about it, I followed a map marker. I didnt earn it.

I’m so confused by your complaint about the hud. The game literally lets you turn it off and play how you want. Or is your complain that others don’t mind those icons and don’t want to play the way you want them to.

I consciously turned off all markers in the game, and it was one of the reasons I enjoyed it so much. I don't get the argument that the game holds your hand through everything. Sure, there could be even less of that hand-holding and the exploration system could be better but you have a choice of how you want to play the game.

Out of the last 3 , Odessey is still my favorite. 100 plus hours over the course of two weeks off from work. Ran through story and all dlc. I missed Origins , so it was amazing to me. I passed on this one though. Looked like a carbon copy.

The giant empty maps and the dumb dots all over the map are 2 problems that would solve each other. If they made smaller, better made maps, you wouldn't need those stupid dots to tell people where to look for things. If they made a city that was actually interesting to explore, you would find those points of interest by yourself. Atrocious level design.

I'm sure there is an option in the setting where you can turn those markers off so it becomes more of an exploration mode

It's perfect when : You activate insta assassinations, hood always up and Unlock Bayek's Hidden Ones outfit (in Ubisoft Connect {100 units} ) .

I didn't play an AC since Unity but the whole Viking setting got my interest. This game burned me out so much when i realised how long i would have to repeat the same thing. But i have this horrible thing with open worlds where i have to clear the map of all sidequests etc (aside from finding armor sets). But the gameplay/characters i really liked. I don't think of it as a bad game, just repetitive

I’ve been binging the entire series from 3 up to Valhalla, except I skipped Black Flag and am currently playing it right now. The games that I personally feel are worth playing today, I might include Black Flag I remember loving it when it came out, are Unity & Origins. I got really, really bored of Odyssey, and Syndicate felt very shallow compared to Unity & Origins.

I was playing the main storyline and reached a point where the level gap just jumped significantly. So much that I had to donthe shitty sidequests and I was barely getting xp to reach the power level to progress in the main storyline. thats when I stopped playing

Thing about it for me was that i kept getting one shotted by basically everything no matter what level, i know it was early game but with each boss i was just being taken out in a few hits, this got annoying so i just stopped, i was even dying when using the tips the game itself was giving me

My thing with checklist open world maps is.......you can turn the map legend off and explore on your own if you want. This is basically what Breath of the Wild and Elden Ring do for you, since if you take one look at their respective interactive maps, they are both filled with icons, they just chose not to actually show it in game. Hell Breath of the Wild alone has 900 icons dedicated to Korok Seeds.

Hey Luke, just dropping in to say I really enjoy this type of videos with some light commentary over gameplay. I'd like to see some more in the future, keep it up :)

Honestly even after having so many old AC elements it bored me. I enjoyed Odyssey more than this one.

One of the best games I've ever played. Definitely in my top 5

The problem with all the critique towards ACV is the same points people bring up to trash ACV, they simply ignore in other games. As well, the same points brought up to praise other games, they simply ignore in ACV. Admittedly many things wrong with ACV, but overall, for the size and scale of the world, there are many things that are polished and fine tuned. I feel people like to single out Assassin's creed because it's an Ubisoft game.

I took the methodical route after 120 something hours I finally collected everything on the map except for stuff that's quest locked I 100% the original DLCs And now I'm just almost ready to start working on the story

I reached a quest where I have to clear the rats infestation by releasing the neighbor cats ... at that point I closed the game and deleted it. WTF ???

My AC thoughts: I don’t mind the markers on the map because people look up guides anyway. At first finding so many ingots instead of armor really bothered me then I realized that in odyssey I didn’t put on many new armor anyway. I always dismantled everything and even to change my “look” I used the canon look cuz it helped with my immersion. I personally don’t like a mixmatched look and feel like a lot of it is ugly anyway but that’s my opinion. My only two BIGGEST gripe with this game that I wish you had touched on was the lack of a wanted level. I have ZERO incentive to be stealthy because nothing will come after me. At least in odyssey even civis attacked you. The other gripe being that the bird is absolutely USELESS. Cant mark enemies or even mark loot when putting a waypoint on the map uses the same. Also you mentioned the combat is boring but I honestly feel that the combat for odyssey is even worse. Most enemies have a very similar parry timing but in valhalla the parry timings are just so off but in a good way. The enemies won’t always do the same attack twice and some even spam the unparryable attacks especially the daughters of lerion

My AC thoughts: I've come to a surprising revelation over the past few days in trying to identify which of the 3 newest AC games I actually enjoy. I have my gripes with each of them, and overall I'm worried about the direction of the franchise. However, what shocked me about some recent playthroughs is the fact that I honestly found myself best able to enjoy playing Odyssey. I wouldn't have believed myself if I made that claim shortly after its original release. As an Assassin's Creed game, it's kind of abysmal. A very unserious tone, a heavy RPG formula and floaty, damage-sponge based combat. On paper, I shouldn't like it (My deep fascination and love for Greek history notwithstanding), yet of the 3 recent games, it's the only one I can shut my brain off for and simply enjoy the addictive gameplay. The repetitive yet satisfying gameplay of exploring, reducing a region's security level, and looting new gear to create effective builds... just works. Ironically, despite criticisms of it losing the AC identity, it at the very least seems the most confident in the identity it's actually striving for. It's not trying to be AC, it's just a ridiculous greek-demi-god fantasy. It's a game, and so it chooses to be fun. I wish it was more consistent with the quality of its storytelling, and I certainly think many of its systems could have been refined to have more depth. For example, choosing sides in the war should cause changes to some sort of reputation meter for Sparta and Athens. The greater your favour with one, the more disdain from the other. This could unlock unique faction quests and gear, as well as increasing access to otherwise restricted areas. Sadly, the game is quite shallow, but it's still fun. I tried going back to AC Origins (the one I thought was my favourite) but I can never play it for more than 10 - 15 hours without getting bored. Going back to 30FPS certainly doesn't help, but overall it's just not as fun to play. The world of Egypt is breathtaking to explore, but doing so is slow and cumbersome. The combat, while having more weight in its animations, is unbearably bland. Having more tools for stealth is nice, although the inventory system of only equipping one at a time is needlessly restrictive. It's fine, but sadly it's already showing its age and its limited scope as the first step into the RPG style. As for Valhalla, it's my least favourite by far. Not only is the world boring to explore, but the gameplay is repetitive without ever really feeling satisfying. All of the games are repetitive, but Valhalla makes you really feel bogged down by it. The story is too long, the combat tedious, and everything seems designed to be a grind. Access to gear is limited by the area it's in and the recommended power level, so each playthrough will likely have a very similar progression route in terms of what gear you find and when. And as you said, the combat doesn't really feel fair, in more ways than one. On one hand, it's too easy, but on the other it's filled with ridiculous unfair mechanics, like how Zealots will randomly counter you during your attacks with lightning speed. Seriously, you will be performing a combo on a Zealot and then they will suddenly smack you with their shield with zero warning. This turns combat into a slog in which it's not hard, you just aren't allowed to perform long enough combos to cause significant damage in rapid succession. Cities are very boring to explore, and also tedious due to them being high alert areas requiring a hood and slow movements. This would be fine if rooftop parkour felt viable, but it usually isn't. Despite what I've said, I'd prefer a return to something more familiar to the Assassins of old. Something that doesn't stray too far from the likes of Unity (in a more ideal state of course). However, if we are stuck with this new formula (which we most certainly are), they clearly can't seem to balance the experiences of old and new. As such, they should focus on what's actually fun, not on providing as many things as possible in the hope that just one thing will resonate with each type of player.

My AC thoughts: I enjoyed every game up to Odyssey, thats where it lost me because it was so big but boring, there was no AC story except the little Layla crap, and the characters didnt really have any, well, character

I wish there was some non boring way to finish it, i still haven't even 2 years later

Call me crazy. But I enjoyed Valhalla. The main game was alright, but the DLC was, for me, where that game shined. That coming from someone who has played almost all Assassins Creed games. Odyssey was my favorite to date as I love Greek mythology. Also to your comment. Valhalla is 100% a grueling sludge to complete. I got the platinum trophy, which took almost 300 hours of game time