Assassin's Creed Valhalla - Review @ Goosed

Goosed checked out Assassin's Creed Valhalla:

Assassin's Creed Valhalla Review

Assassin's Creed is back with the latest addition to one of gaming's most iconic series. Assassins Creed Valhalla is less stealth and speed and more smash and destroy as is the Viking life, taking place during the Viking raids of England. You play as Eivor, the male or female main protagonist while you pillage your way through the lands in a gorgeous open world landscape.

Generally speaking the two biggest issues with Assassins Creed titles is that the games are two big and two repetitive, while these issues still slightly carry, your main man Eivor is soooo far away from the traditional assassin of games gone past. Unlike games gone past Eivor's main story arc really has to do with the Viking life with intermittent Animus interruptions. As I said Valhalla is a bit of move away from the traditional Assassins Creed games and with more combat and gore than ever before, it's time to raid!

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SUMMARY
Sure look here's the deal, if you like Assassins Creed already or general open world RPG's you're going to love Valhalla, yes it's more guts and gore than some of the more stealthy previous titles, but that should be expected when you're a Viking. Oh and if the rest ain't a selling point for Valhalla in early spring 2021 'Wrath of the Druids' will be the first expansion pass of the game, where players will get to journey to Ireland to uncover various myths and legends of our little island.

Score: 4.1/5

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More information.

Mild spoilers:

I'm enjoying it. But the first two World Events (side quests) that I ran into were completely bugged for me. The first one is a note you find. Apparently, you are supposed to run into a hunter near the note in the woods, who takes you to another side character. I found the note, but could not find either of these characters. I searched and searched. Finally looked it up online to see what was supposed to happen. Completely broken.

Second World Event was I ran into a guy who wants to be a skald, or at least a minor hero. In this case, you are supposed to help him hunt some dangerous wildlife (wolves I guess) because I was soon after attacked by a wolf. I killed the wolf, looked around. The guy was just swimming around in the ocean nearby with a talk bubble over his head (like I am supposed to talk/interact with him). Nothing. He does not respond or do anything except swim/walk around in the shallows of the sea. Completely bugged.

Literally the first two side quests I ran into are completely broken.

Plus, the sound is a mess in general. Some NPCs sound like they're coming from a distant radio station. Some of the voice acting is weirdly flat and dull. You're in a king's gathering where the king is giving a rousing speech. He sounds like he had too much Xanax. I was laughing at how dull and flat the whole thing was. Plus, there's this weird whispering noises as if the group of listeners is talking, but it makes it seem like the room is ignoring the king's speech altogether. And overall the sound mix is just bad. Amateurish, really.

All this in about 6 hours of playing. I've had other issues too, minor ones, but lots of them. This game is really rough at release. It's not finished.

FizzyShellfish said:

Mild spoilers:

I'm enjoying it. But the first two World Events (side quests) that I ran into were completely bugged for me. The first one is a note you find. Apparently, you are supposed to run into a hunter near the note in the woods, who takes you to another side character. I found the note, but could not find either of these characters. I searched and searched. Finally looked it up online to see what was supposed to happen. Completely broken.

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Are you talking about the Warlock world event?

I'm not flat out saying that you're wrong. Maybe those were bugged for you. But I can say from my own experience that the ~15/15 I've done have all worked fine. The world events in general don't tell you exactly what to do, or where to do it. As an example, one I've done is about an archer, his cleaning habits, and his put upon family. The solution to forcing him to clean himself is logical, but the game does not tell you exactly what to do.

I suspect, for now, that your issues are more because of this approach than being broken. But who knows? Maybe when I fire up the game later today I'll promptly run into a bugged quest.

Yes, the warlock quest. I cannot find anyone at all in that area. Did you find the would-be skald guy? Did that quest work out for you? I mean... it's bugged. The game tells me I can talk to him, but I simply cannot. And for some reason, he's just out waist deep in the freezing ocean.

FizzyShellfish said:

Yes, the warlock quest. I cannot find anyone at all in that area. Did you find the would-be skald guy? Did that quest work out for you? I mean… it's bugged. The game tells me I can talk to him, but I simply cannot. And for some reason, he's just out waist deep in the freezing ocean.

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I found the guy hunting him, and I found the warlock. Where the note pinned to the tree is, there's a road that goes off to the left, and one that goes straight. Take the one to the left, and there's a hut on the left side of the road not terribly far from there. Yes, it worked fine. Like I said, they all have.

And I did the skald one too, I think, if it's the one I'm thinking of. Talk to him, fought wolves with him, and the wolves killed him. Which was not at all a bug. There was a Eivor dialogue line referencing it.

Perhaps you've just been unlucky. It doesn't sound to me like there was anything bugged whatsoever about the warlock quest, but the guy wandering into the ocean was obviously not intended. I've done several since I posted earlier and all of them have also worked fine.

More minor spoilers:
Combat is still... not great, and feels a step down from Odyssey. It just doesn't feel as reactive to my inputs as Odyssey's combat. Still, it's an enjoyable game. People have been posting some pretty funny glitches on Reddit, like the longship crashing into things, flipping over or throwing warriors high into the air. Falling through terrain, etc. I'm staying away from spoilers but there's some pretty wacky glitches out there.

FizzyShellfish said:

Combat is still… not great, and feels a step down from Odyssey. It just doesn't feel as reactive to my inputs as Odyssey's combat. Still, it's an enjoyable game. People have been posting some pretty funny glitches on Reddit, like the longship crashing into things, flipping over or throwing warriors high into the air. Falling through terrain, etc. I'm staying away from spoilers but there's some pretty wacky glitches out there.

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Of course those are not really bugs of the game, those are all just Animus glitches.

As usual, though, we basically crowdsource bugs and glitches, which always makes it seem like every 30 seconds you're going to be falling through the world or whatever. Any one individual's experience is going to be a lot less fraught. For my part, I'm at 25 hours and have had minor audio issues (footstep sounds disppearing after the menu, which I get back by dodging) and that's about it. This happens with pretty much every game. "It's the buggiest game in history" and then I play it and see like two in the entire game.

Well all I know is I had the same audio issues in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. So nothing new to me it was never patched either. I solved the problem by restarting the game.

I'm starting to think it's a memory usage or engine error.

FizzyShellfish said:

More minor spoilers:

Spoiler

Well, I'll say this�I got to England and the game has been working better for me. The story certainly got more interesting and you can go back to Norway if you want. I guess I got unlucky in my first two World Events as the others I have since encountered have worked fine.

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