Assassin's Creed Valhalla

I enjoyed the Lunden arc a lotThe area is really good and atmospheric and the mission and gameplay in them is great.

Talking about the way the game splits itself in to arcs you choose to follow. I really think it is excellent. Possibly the best effort yet at making an open world game still have a focused, cinematic story.

Edit - I'm in a new area, won't spoil where and my God some of the textures are appalling!
 
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7.5h and still in Norway, some pretty beautiful sights and I like how the world is significantly less cluttered with cookie-cutter stuff, I hope England is like that as well.
 
I'm a little disappointed with this so far though I'm only 10hrs or so in and just made it to England. Its the first AC game I've had to play with a controller as it's too clunky otherwise. The raids being the same thing each time, the desync if you kill civilians doesn't feel particularly viking. Cut scenes feel rushed and little things like long boat feeling too fast in the water irritate as well.
 
Vidar said:
I'm a little disappointed with this so far though I'm only 10hrs or so in and just made it to England. Its the first AC game I've had to play with a controller as it's too clunky otherwise. The raids being the same thing each time, the desync if you kill civilians doesn't feel particularly viking. Cut scenes feel rushed and little things like long boat feeling too fast in the water irritate as well.
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I suppose the trouble is, that raiding, stealing innocent peoples wealth, raping the women, killing women and children, viking "behaviour" , wouldnt really fit with being a follower of the creed. So they couldnt really have the viking you are playing behave that way. I'm hopeless with controllers so I've played it all with mouse and keyboard, its a touch annoying in places but still playable for me. Cutscenes are quite iffy in terms of appearance and I've always wished that the boat speeds were realistic. I also said the same about the boat speeds in Origins and Odyssey, which were also too fast. However I think most gamers would probably say that a realistic boat speed would be enormously boring (given the ADHD-like nature of the average gamer)
 
Cobra-UK said:
Yeah its pretty bad. Played about 6 hours and seen enough. I reinstalled Origins just to have a wander about, origins looks far better.
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If you've been following my posts in the thread then you'll see I was pretty much the same as you after 6 hours (I had the rating for the AC games as Odyssey > Origins > Valhalla at that point), after 40 hours ingame I now have the rating as Odyssey > Valhalla > Origins, and part of that is my big bias toward the Odyssey era :)

Still havent quite put my finger on why the early part of Valhalla feels so much weaker than the early parts of Origin and Odyssey but I'm finding the midgame to be much better than Origins and Odyssey's midgames
 
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Yeah ive seen the posts. I think for me ive just seen enough in the time ive played (Its actually 8 hours, i didnt realise.)

The raids are so bad, just the same thing over and over. I would rather infiltrate the area on my own. The graphics / water look quite average to me (3440x1440 High / V High Settings). Combat is basic, too bigger window when the enemy is about to attack, also the dodge distance is too far which doesnt give a slick experience.

I could go on. Glad that i did the Connect+ thing for £12.99 to try this and Legion (which is also bad).

Im downloading Odyssey again to replay.
 
Cobra-UK said:
Yeah ive seen the posts. I think for me ive just seen enough in the time ive played (Its actually 8 hours, i didnt realise.)

The raids are so bad, just the same thing over and over. I would rather infiltrate the area on my own. The graphics / water look quite average to me (3440x1440 High / V High Settings). Combat is basic, too bigger window when the enemy is about to attack, also the dodge distance is too far which doesnt give a slick experience.

I could go on. Glad that i did the Connect+ thing for £12.99 to try this and Legion (which is also bad).

Im downloading Odyssey again to replay.
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Cant fault you on those points, those are valid.

Still probably my favourite game that I've played this year though :D , whether thats an indication of how poor a year its been or my inherent AC bias, I couldnt say lol
 
spent 38 hours on this now & enjoying for the most part.
wish there was a tiny little bit more weapon variety. (drops) even if it was double sided axes or somthing.

Apart from that best AC since I can remember. Best news is no Animus So far either.

i liker oydessy & origins but combat was to spammy & disjointed, this feel bit more grounded & hits feel like they hurt. (with a hammer at least)
 
Not sure if this will help the "should I buy or not?" crowd but I read the updates from the folks in this thread - very interesting and honest self-reflection resulting in a change in opinion, which I mean with respect - and goodness knows how many reviews and overviews etc. Caveat - only 8 or so hours in so far.

For me, all of the things I expected to add a bit of turbulence to the beginning of the game just haven't materialised. It's the same engine - cool, looks good. Slow burn - well, we're not here for Space Invaders, are we? Combat is 'floaty' - nope, not getting that, although the bow seems slightly off, having come straight from Origins. Sound is a bit wonky - yeah, I'll give you that. The short version is that I'm enjoying it, it feels massive in scale already but also has a sense of purpose which was lacking in the fodder parts of Odyssey (hello mid game!). I'm actually interested in the story and not just because I can follow it. I haven't even got to the supposed 'better' parts of the game (or just 'the game' if you read too many reviews, like I did, and which is not fair IMO) and that's fine by me. Happy to see where this one goes but it's already 4/5 for me.

I'll add updates as I progress because as one of the more useful comments from a youtube review pointed out: these games consume time, and there should be a balance between time spent and fun had. So far, I've spent relatively little time but am having a lot of fun.
 
My thoughts so far:

  • Goes without saying, stunning scenery. HDR in some scenes is mind blowing. They’ve nailed the lighting.
  • At times much closer to the earlier titles in feel, can’t even put my finger on it, certainly the early combat and distrust areas
  • I like the arcs and also side quest presentation, keeps the story very structured
  • I like being able to fully assassinate high level targets
  • Much tidier loot system, much less of a chore
  • Love dual wielding, especially of bigger weapons, always liked this in ac3
  • Raids seem a little repetitive
  • The music and sounds are spot on
  • Feels less of a grind so far and most points of interest can be visited on your way to a quest
  • Voice acting is varied
  • Still no physical disc, PayPal dispute unanswered so far. Fine by me, easier if they don’t respond in time.
 
Has anyone else got to the new area across the sea (trying not to spoil it)... Honestly it's like they let some guy off the street make it. The textures are awful and there's so much clipping it's ridiculous

It is nowhere near the same level as the rest of the game presentation-wise!
 
Really loving the mysteries in this game. Odd at first not going into log and can make you forget some bits, but overall some of them have been damm good. Hate the hunting ones, fortunately made easier by taking a horse into the water and going wild with arrows then fishing for ages.

Dirk Diggler said:
Can anyone make sense of the skills system, it just seems to repeat itself endlessly?
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Makes sense, you keep adding to health, damage, crit chance etc. On you main inventory screen there is a tab you can view all our stats.
 
TBH, I'm liking this more than I expected. England looks really beautiful at times, the engine is rough around the edges but still does the trick when it comes to vistas and lighting.

The map was instantly better than Odyssey for me. Less bloat and less copy&paste so far and the quests are handled better. Great music and atmosphere.

It's different than both previous games but feels closer to Origins, which is good for me.
 
There are so many wierd oversights in this game. In the new area I went to, I spent ages grinding for the armour there and it is a cool looking armour set that I was happy with...when you return to England it is gone and you can't equip it. Makes no sense!
 
About 75 hrs in, almost done with map allegiances but I like it a lot. Feeling conflicted about putting it at the same level as O & OD so I won't, but it's clearly a step-up in many areas. Too bad the writing around the Sigurd storyline is so disjointed that it really pulls the game down, same for the overall Vikings good guys spiel. Fantastic atmosphere though and it sorta fulfilled my dream of an open-world Ryse-stylised game. Close enough in any case. And God, it feels intoxicating to finally play AC and have smooth & stable 60 fps, the frametimes are rock solid now. It's really a huge deal.

Overall very pleasantly surprised with how good it turned out. Will probably wrap up the main story then shelve it for spring as I'm on ubi+ and with CP 2077 around the corner the 100% clear will have to wait. Gonna take another month later and finish it & WDL dlc and also see if Fenyx is any good.
 
Mine been running very well but has suddenly started lagging, when going in a shop for e.g. I click to see the goods then get a 30+ second blank screen with the loading icon, the same happens in the story when talking to a character. sometimes it takes over 1 minute to resume. Same happens when I get killed.

Out and and about I can run or gallop full speed and it runs fine with no lagging, it just happens when talking to a character or loading a story event, sometimes you have to click on the actual character, other times as you approach it triggers the event and then I get a black loading screen.

Both my drives are SSD, Win10 is on one drive and the game is on the other one, both drives are less than half full.

I verified the files but it made no difference, other games run as usual. I don't know if this is a hardware or software problem, I will need to post this on another board but just checking if anyone else has a similar problem
 
@Usher sometimes when a loading screen looks like it's taking too long I just press a key on the keyboard and it triggers it to finish. I can hear a change in the volume when I do this and when I move the controller stick for the first time afterwards I hear it again.

The game is overdue a patch.
 
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