Assassin's Creed Valhalla - Review Roundup

Some reviews for Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Additionally Polygon talks about how the combat was fixed.

Playstationing 4/5

Eivor on the other hand is a great character, and there's a really good story within Valhalla for him. Which is good considering you could easily sink 100 hours into this Assassin's Creed without breaking a sweat, so having an interesting protagonist is important. The biggest issue with how long the game is, is that it takes a long time for you to really get into it, roughly 12-15 hours. That's probably been the problem for every Assassin's Creed game since Assassin's Creed 3, and it's still an issue now. There are some very memorable arcs and overall the pacing is good, but the beginning of the story is very slow and focused along a few specific things you can do. Once you get past a certain point, things open up and you have more choice on where you can go and what you can do. I can't help but think this is intentional, perhaps because many people have in the past complained that there is too much to do initially and no focus.

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Entertainium : No Rating

Gold ones indicate actual treasures you can get, like new armor and resources for your home camp, while blue and white ones indicate sights to see or special world quests to partake outside of the main story. These are enough to draw you in and get lost in its world, but are thankfully not nearly as much of a handful as they were in the previous two games. The color change might feel minor, but it helps you decide whether or not it's worth going for it, and even then, if you do run towards one, it serves up a rewarding time since it's not as straightforward as you might think given the variety. For instance, you might be out for a gold one anly to find out it's underground, but how do you get to it? Oh, a locked door, hm, where's the key?

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Ready Player Gone 8.9/10

The gameplay of Valhalla is brilliant - apart from a few bugs and some repetition - I cannot really fault it. Repetition is almost unavoidable in a game like this - it isn't that bad but after a while you will notice it in the gameplay. Minor bugs and clunkiness that I have encountered includes glitching clouds, dodgy raiding AI among other small things. But enough about the small negatives because this game packs an incredible amount of awesome positives.

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Gertlush Gaming 8.8/10

The Assassin's Creed games have had a lot of ups and downs over the years including a triumphant return following a short break with Origins, then immediately followed up with Odyssey but I felt like Odyssey was too soon and too similar to Origin and I eventually burned out. I came to Valhalla hoping that wasn't the case, for the first few hours it did in fact feel like it had done an Odyssey and I was gonna have to drag myself through it. I did what I always do which is to trek across the map and get as many synchronization points as I could so I could fast travel to main missions and I dabbled in a few side quests. It was fine but it hadn't grabbed me, the story was one I felt I've heard a lot over the years, and whilst the snow looked fantastic I yearned for more variety and fun. Then it happened... What I thought was the area of the game you play in turned out to just be an appetizer as the main course was a banquet!

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Game Freaks 365 4.5/5

There isn't really a standard level in Assassin's Creed Valhalla though. Filling up the level bar or completing world tasks rewards players with skill points they can sink into a huge skill tree. The skill tree has three branching paths that ultimately all connect to each other, but you can spec out Eivor however you want as you play through the game.

The skill tree in Valhalla is actually one of the few things I dislike about the game. It kind of looks like the sphere grid from Final Fantasy X, but most of the tree is covered by a fog that gets revealed as you hit certain points in the branch. It isn't ideal for figuring out a build for Eivor tailored to your playstyle, but the main theme of Valhalla seems to be discovery, so maybe that was part of the decision process here. As you sink points into the tree, Eivor's power level goes up, replacing a traditional leveling system with one based on unlocking stat boosts and skills.

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Thanks Farflame!

More information.

Got it for my bday. Just saying as I wouldnt get it myself at this point. I think my last AC game for full price was second one. Nevertheless I spent already 19 hours in game and it does have some charm.

First thing I did was disabling most of the game HUD as the default setting is completely over board for my liking. I only left compass and quest icons. Im thinking about setting those off as well, but Im afraid that quest description is not really designed for this way of playing. But I will most probably try it anyway.

This setting changes the way how the game looks, plays and feels and I recommend it for anyone interested in playing, rather then clearing lists of chores.

Apart of HUD, one of biggest cons for me are moments that show how much open world is just a facade. Places you already raided are revived in story campaign, etc. Would strongly vote for smaller, but much more hand-designed world myself. But I could say that about most contemporary open-world games. It seems quantity wins it over quality these days.

Anyway, contrary to my expectations, the game hidden beneath the heavy HUD is quite good and I enjoy it. My own choice would be waiting for some discount on GOTY edition, but I can carefully recommend it.