Assassin's Creed Valhalla - News Roundup

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Push Square reports that Assassin's Creed Valhalla does not use the Origins or Odyssey loot system. RespawnFirst talks about the plan to avoid time wasting moments by eliminating fetch quests. Windows Central looked at the setting, story and characters.


Based on the words of narrative director Darby McDevitt, it sounds like Valhalla won't be adopting the randomised loot system found in Assassin's Creed Origins and Assassin's Creed Odyssey. McDevitt tells the publication: "Every piece of gear is unique in the game and [can be] upgraded extensively so that when you find a piece of gear, you're excited and you celebrate it, and that can stay with you for quite a long time."

He adds: "It can be viable for quite a long time. So it's quite a different approach than the previous games took."

[...]

Ubisoft's Darby Christopher McDevitt talked about the upcoming game (Official PS Magazine) and he mentioned that Assassin's Creed Valhalla is not going to waste the player's time with fetch-quests. He talked about how everything is going to be important. The following is what he had to say regarding the matter:

The story structure is a little bit different in this game and I'm really proud of it. The goal again is to feel like you never have a wasted moment. We wanted to make sure that the character you meet in this game are more memorable than that (characters that vanish after fetch-quests), you are more likely to remember them for a long time.

[...]
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Thanks Farflame!

More information.
 
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I can't understand why these journalists who falsely advertised Helix store and microtransactions as a must to avoid grinding now don't ask questions about that.

Of course the scammy Helix store was not a must and of course both Origins nor Odyssey didn't need any kind of grinding. But it's those journalists who claimed they do, so how come they deliberately avoid the "hot potato"?
 
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I had very good fun with Odyssey, completing every optional bit of content and the hidden bosses/titans, etc, and I do not remember the game being grindy, but indeed the option to "shortcut" through it by paying extra to start with was rather painful to see. I avoided that menu like plague just so I could tell myself it did not exist and enjoy the game fully.

I am pretty sure I will enjoy Valhalla much the same way, but it does bother me too, that there may be "pay extra to be look cooler/grind less" features in what is a 100% single player game that you already paid full price for. I wish there was something that could be done at legislative level or through consumer organisations, because as long as they can they will keep doing it, and in my mind it's downright scamming to ask people to pay extra to enjoy features of a game they paid full price for and were ready and loaded into the game itself at the time release.
 
Nereida said:
I am pretty sure I will enjoy Valhalla much the same way, but it does bother me too, that there may be "pay extra to be look cooler/grind less" features in what is a 100% single player game that you already paid full price for. I wish there was something that could be done at legislative level or through consumer organisations, because as long as they can they will keep doing it, and in my mind it's downright scamming to ask people to pay extra to enjoy features of a game they paid full price for and were ready and loaded into the game itself at the time release.
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Unfortunately for us players this (bad) practice is old and I don't know if anything can done at Legislative level, or *IF* the noble Congressmen/Congresswomen want it to be done. That would be excellent, I agree. The most obvious response would be that one that I've read countless times: "answer with your wallet", but I am not naive and I do know this sometimes don't work so effectively as we expect to.
 
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I stopped playing Odyssey because of the grind. I could not proceed the main quest several times due to being under-levelled and had to go off and grind again... and finally grew bored of that.

Anyway, that's not to judge grinding one way or the other (as I like grinding sometimes). Just to say that in my experience Odyssey does require grinding to keep up with the level requirments for the main quest.
 
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Sounds good but one little problem that makes me wary.:(

The studio developing this one was the one who made Origins not Odyssey.

As Ubisoft's develop method has many studios working to make each game, but a different studio makes each new game with the others supporting it's development.

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I got to level 35 or so in Odyssey and I never once had to grind. I play it on Normal difficulty with the level scaling at Normal. My problem with the game is that it's just too big and I got bored of it. A tighter story mode would be better, and then implement some system where other, smaller stories could be played out in the same world.

Overall, I was happy with Odyssey, and I still go bak to it now and then. But they nee better writing. So much of the dialog is just terrible. And it relies too much on hammy voice actors with bad "funny" voices. It's very similar to Witcher 3 but with terrible writing.

I'm sure I'll get around to Valhalla, but frankly I'm sick and tired of ice, snow and Vikings. I guess EA knows what sells, and apparently Viking shit sells.
 
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Edit: Double post in-case anyone missed my forum post.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla is basically Ubisoft's own Witcher 3 - Tweaktown
In the footage we see a castle siege culminate in a bloody and chaotic battle. The combat isn't as fluid as Geralt's acrobatic style, but Eivor has some tricks up their sleeves. The Spartan Kick is back, and this time we can dual-wield and deftly dodge attacks. There's siege engines and battering rams that you can actually interact with, complete with destructible environments like gates. There's beheadings and fatality executions too. A hefty boss fight punctuates the siege, complete with monstrous wolves.

The RPG interactions like NPC questing and dialog are very fluid and also bring Witcher 3 vibes. The characters are well animated and feel grounded in the world around them, and Eivor probably has dialog choices this time, but we didn't see any. Some of the NPC scenes discussed unions of the Saxons and Danes, underlining the game's core focus on political unions.

The skillpoint system is kind of a constellation setup like Skyrim with a ton of passives, similar to Path of Exile.
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Damn this game looks good.:excited:
 
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Video unavailable
This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Ubisoft.
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I have no idea if a scene or the whole vid is problematic, but those interested can check working links on reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/assassinscreed/comments/hlsscq/ac_valhalla_gameplay_is_leaked/

It does look fun and I'm buying definetly.
What doesn't look good is ABXY rubbish, but well, that same bullshit in previews didn't ruin Odyssey on my PC.

If I see the scamware called helix store inside or something similar, once again it won't get my goty vote even if it's the best game ever made.
 
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Yes, it seems to be down on the different links. Ubisoft are quick :O

I'm still curious why they chose Eivor as the name of the protagonist. Why not have two different names? Maybe they just think Ivar and Eivor are similar enough to have the name pass as unisex? In Swedish (and I'm gonna guess Norwegian and old Norse) the pronunciation is quite different, but maybe not when spoken in English? Or maybe they chose to have a traditional woman's name, since it's often the other way around?

To me it just seems strange to hear the name aimed at a guy since my mom had a friend named Eivor, whom we always called aunt Eivor. Maybe I'll play as a woman this time around just to not feel weird when the NPCs call me that.
 
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If I could have a game development dream team, I'd definitely have the Ubisoft environment artists. It's a pity they have to make essentially the same game over and over, but those artists can really capture the feel of a place. They've nailed the atmosphere and the light of the East Anglia countryside.
 
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