Assassins Creed Valhalla Review "Buy, Wait for Sale, Never Touch?" Viking Geek

sup everybody this is carrick with acg in assassin's creed valhalla you play as avor in the year 873 in a world where men are i can already tell how this is going to go uh let's try that again so yeah in assassin's creed valhalla you play as avor in the year 873 in a world where men are men women fight alongside men and sheep are in constant danger so they use some kind of stealth you and your clan have decided to take your chances in a little place called england this is carrick with acg this is a review for assassin's creed valhalla or at least my preliminary review because i've spent a bunch of time with this but i've also been checking out the ps5 valhallas from ubisoft comes out the next day or so and is the sequel or well let's just say the continued growth of the assassin's creed franchise as always if you liked the video maybe subscribe let's get to it graphics are up first oh by the way check out the channel for a ps5 review as well as my xbox one when you turn on valhalla i think this is a bit of a trip compared to origins and odyssey profoundly probably because both those games had that golden huge sun dappled kind of look to it with the fields that replicate the cinematic feel of movies like gladiator and troy valhalla doesn't have that well it does at least at the starting for a bit there's this reflection of snowy mountains and the cold bleak north that sets in like a stiff breeze especially when you're sliding in behind some enemy clan member and sending them to the hall of heroes and momentarily there is a decidedly skyrim-like feel to everything as you're trudging around these first sections learning the history of your people and their trials and their inevitable tribulations that are gonna send you and your tribe packing for more interesting places here though in valhalla above everything else the location is what works for me it's not necessarily as exotic as the other places but if there's an [ __ ] of the world which is probably somewhere near calcutta this place had got to be the taint it's not horrible right at the starting but if you go the wrong way you are in the [ __ ] and due to how the story works out the wrong way pretty much directly from the starting that's where you're going at times you're like it's not so bad at other times you're trucking through a swamp for like 15 other unwashed dudes with blood splattered everywhere on you from a previous battle and you're like damn man this would just suck to be anywhere near here that's one of the strengths of valhalla that the other titles have not done it's an unabashed representation of what it would be like to live in a place where infection probably is scared to spread because it doesn't want to get sick even at the best of moments when you're tearassing on the back of some wild horse you just tamed across the field it's usually a field that ends in some nasty-ass kool-aid green looking bog or runs up to the gates of some castle that looks like sewage handling is a suggestion and not at all a requirement from the creeks to the glens to the bogged out rivers to the people themselves and my god the people you know a land is rough when this is like the haughty of the village this chick is so older vagina probably has an egyptian curse written on it and i think it's requisite for me to mention that the verticality feels like it's actually back in this game though it wasn't necessarily gone in origins or odyssey sometimes it could feel forced here that never happens due to the atmosphere there's a spookiness going into some of these locations especially underground where you're not quite exactly sure what you're going to see if anybody's seen 13th warrior you know what i'm talking about if you haven't go check out that movie because it's a good representation of what you're gonna see in valhalla from start to finish including some of the roughness for example the animation and the bugs there are a lot more than i expected first in many of the cutscenes especially in the first couple hours of the game but even progressing through the midpoint of the story there were a number of broken animations or oddities that shouldn't be there in cut scenes from people's hands smacking around during the discussion to characters clothing jutting out and around the bodies to different stuck poses this is also reflected in some really poor collision detection and weapon impacts in the combat which i'll talk about in the gameplay section it never really looks better than acceptable now color use i do want to talk about that each one of these games does have a color used to it we've seen that in the prior titles an overall filter if you will and the way everything is related when it comes to atmosphere here that filter would just be [ __ ] brown gray and then verdant green and i dig it there's something about it that works so well to give you that feeling of stretching across a different landscape now each of these games has done something different for better or worse origins reflected the hidden beauty of the nile and its people and i dug that odyssey replicated much of greece and valhalla aims to reproduce england many other locations as well but i'm gonna leave those out for spoilers what you have here is a title that while i enjoy the overall world and the location there are enough glitches that you notice a lot of oddities right away there's almost a low rent feeling to valhalla from some very muddy textures some really weird graphical issues with fire not necessarily looking good but then you'll jump in your longboat and you'll start sailing and the god rays come through the trees and you're just like damn that looks sweet it's just that it can't seem to consistently offer that and speaking of consistent that's gonna bring us to performance so i got to play this on the pc the xbox x and the series x on the pc the game comes out in about the same shape as prior ac game 2080 ti with a current i7 at 4.7 and 32 gigs of ram will not get you 60 fps at 4k adjusting some settings will get you close and the game does have a dynamic rendering setting that i would suggest you absolutely do not use because the moment i said it it always made my performance tank speaking about the xbox x first it hits 30 fps at variable resolution the game currently has some wicked screen tearing though time i checked on two tvs and a monitor just to verify ps and i certainly noticed that here but what about the promise of hitting 4k 60fps on the xbox series x it does it's also got a couple random moments of screen tearing that definitely did pop up which surprised me it was rare though and in fact rare enough i thought i was just seeing things at first it does actually hold to that frame rate most of the time looking at how the game is drawing out and what it's displaying and the larger number of characters and elements in the battle scenes it's actually insanely impressive to see the consoles hit that kind of fps with few drops well all the versions have some noticeable pop in the ability to aim for a particular target like the xbox series x hardware has actually paid dividends despite some shortcomings i was not able to play the ps5 version because that version was not available for review let's talk about the sound itself the game doesn't offer as many available options for sound as i would have actually liked i think though environmentally the audio when it plays is pretty pristine rowing your compatriots to the next hotbed activity for a raid is awesome with the swish ores and surrounding sound effects and the audio is pretty good with adequate separation at the very least giving you somewhat of an indication of the presence of the enemies around you while visually many enemies do have cues for attacks their audio cues are far less often so the sound isn't as usable as a combat tactic to help you out weapon sounds are good they're not exactly deep or varied the crack of a shield is pretty cool you send an enemy flying backwards when you smash it but let's talk about something that i do adore can't believe this the music i don't just [ __ ] love it i adore it it is nowhere near orchestrally or classically music based in its presentation as some of the other games nor is it as instantly discernible as say syndicate's musical tracks with their upbeat tempo mixed with some haunting motifs what valhalla does is it sits down in the middle of this musical fireside and weaves a tale that sounds like what mystery would sound like if you could spell it with music [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the first time you synchronize in this game there is a mixture of wind chimes church bells and some haunting voice over in the track in the background that actually relishes its time with the moment it doesn't fade out this establishes that synchronization is less of a singular event in the game and more of a pulling of the thread of this massive blanket of exploration it doesn't just fade out instantly that is a small thing but my god doesn't matter i rarely ever get chills listening to music and open world games anymore especially more than once when you hear it valhalla is exactly what i wanted and didn't know i did it's an auditory reflection of that mysticism and the natural ways in which the main character experiences the world somehow offsetting that brutality of their chosen lifestyle the idea to have some patience with some of the fading and track in is awesome and that brings us to voice and that's less awesome but still not so bad i picked both the female and the male voice to sort of check what was going on and as i chose i think magnus braun's portrayal of avor is probably the best that could be due to his time playing canoe in the last kingdom true strength to me are the side characters in valhalla which are incredible and for the most part there's only one or two misses but it's their reaction and his reaction to them that i like where this is felt the most keenly are the world event missions where things go sideways for the main hero and the sense of incredulity that he can lose despite being the face of things that don't seem possible plays off the actors who are there in those experiences for want of a better term those experiences also are bat [ __ ] insane valhalla's themes of playfulness in these side stories they're so surprising i thought for one or two would just be one-offs just there to sort of offer a bit of levity but instead there are a ton there and there to reflect and shine a light on the viking's odd sardonic humor not bad and the main stories not too shabby themselves despite the bugs and those things are all supposed to help gameplay and that's supposed to talk a little bit about story so let's begin i think it's best to begin at the ending the future's crumbling and those in the modern times have found that it's possibly a saving grace of humanity buried deep in the dna of a viking name named avor and that's pretty much it doesn't make sense doesn't matter boom let's start this up what starts as this sojourn for avor on a trail of revenge and blood turns into this land spanning trip pretty damned quickly and that's good because that first area and the rough jumps in weird pacing and timing do the game no favors for the first couple hours none at all it's disjointed and odd with a number of issues like the game at one time telling me i killed a bunch of guards in a cut scene later which i for sure did not do avor and his dude from another brood and their smallish clan pretty quickly decide to take their fates in their own hands and they travel to england and that's when the main part of the game really starts to open up and i'm sure you've heard or maybe you haven't heard and this will be the first time people say that valhalla doesn't have side stories well valhalla does have side missions and side stories but it mixes them together in a way that is for sure unique for any of these titles this is something that i assure you regardless of the consistent complaints that ubisoft has had in the past for not changing things up they certainly do in valhalla many things for example consider the side quests now as sort of an amalgamation of main questions side quests mixed together and instead of always following side content without really connections to this story prime consider valhalla as a set of stories three main stories with side elements usually connected to one of those three as well as world events which i'll talk about in a second does this work yeah in many ways it does we also see a change in the very core of valhalla when it comes to the sense of character and community those are things origins and odyssey really did not do very well for instance you find a spot almost instantly you create your settlement you build your first buildings as you build out each building created from the raided treasures of enemy lands you see more and more people in town you watch as a success of your endeavors it's aided by everything visually in the game major stories many side stories as well as upgrades are reflected somewhere and they all begin and end within the settlement major decisions are made around a table taking into account information that your clan gives you about locations and their people and you can go out and make strategic alliances to further keep your people and your settlements safe then you return to doing the next one it's somewhat like dragon age inquisition if dragon age inquisition had been good and speaking of good as a viking a good majority of what he does is raid and you can do this by either taking your longboat or running around on foot or by horseback and calling in your friends and going into battle combat is somewhat adjusted from odyssey and let me be clear personally nowhere near as enjoyable the basic combats like this you have a normal health and stamina bar both of which you need to watch out for if you either die or you can't swing your weapon enemies have a health and a stun bar both of which you can attack in particular ways depending on your weapons and what you do you can counter someone stun them enough and then pull off a finisher or just cut them down quickly you can attack with power attacks or fast attacks or a mix of both as you want to as well as utilizing a parry button that for reasons i can not fathom is also on the left trigger with attack and with block resulting in this weird dual-wielding feeling it's not very precise now luckily most of the enemies can actually be killed with assassinations though some are high enough level that you'll need to increase your skill points or you will need to actually just kill them in the normal way now when you look at the combat i would say the reason why it doesn't feel as good as it's nowhere near impactful like odyssey was which wasn't perfect on its own even when you start getting special weapons from the world events and collectibles half of the time a lot of the weapons just pass through enemies you can unlock a huge number of passives though and a lot of them are just 2.4 extra damage which to me is ruthlessly boring because what they've done is they got this destiny style system they add up all of your items their power levels and that becomes your power level and it sort of identifies where you can go in the game world the thing is is seeing 2.5 percent extra damage half of the time you just look at a screen and you're like who gives a [ __ ] because it really doesn't end up impacting very much in the first place there's no real reflection of power and momentum that the rest of the game world including its narrative is trying to portray you can perform those finishing moves and stuff like that the weird thing is that'll suck you across the battlefield and it makes it look like avor is just ice skating over to kick someone in the face like this is aggravated too by some weird ass poor animations in the fights with a number of attacks that look like they're triggering a quarter of the way into the move while we saw some of these issues in odyssey and of course in origins make no mistake it just feels and looks worse here because of the way the combat is set up and the groups in which you do fight it feels a little bit like you're just society of creative anachronism in your way through a weekend in july also i love that ubisoft has gone away from having a ton of weapons in valhalla there are not a ton at all so be prepared things like armor are also based around a clan type that they represent and they can be upgraded to add more slots for damage as well as their look you're not just getting a ton of items everywhere you go but when you mix all that in together it doesn't feel as satisfying what's interesting to me is when you look at what they did with some other places they made some huge improvements for example when you're moving around the game world markers on the game world indicate whether it's a world event or it's some kind of collectible they are larger or smaller depending on the difficulty so you can just see it graphically and know exactly what you're heading for and while the settlement system isn't incredibly detailed it does have some cool stuff like you can make a viking companion much like a pawn and dragon's dogma you outfit them and they can end up going into a friend's game as recruitable soldiers with you getting money when they return you also have the ability to adjust which clansmen go on different boats with you for raids it's never really fully developed but it's their ability to build out your own settlement works it's trespasser syndrome at its finest when it comes to the prior games but in valhalla that is really not there another place where they shook it up is uh yeah it's bat [ __ ] insane at times we've all got that friend who tries to tell you a pot has no effect on him but then they spend like the next seven hours talking about the stars that is like day one in valhalla valhalla just shoots above its weight when it comes to being not afraid to flex that mystical side and that's a lot there that's going to be spoiler material for some people so i'm not going to talk about it but just be aware it really does it well and it does it usually wrapped around some kind of mystical thing or spirit quest or a random mushroom that you grab off the ground and shove into your gullet the way everything is presented the story elements how there really isn't side missions in the way that a lot of people expect them to be that change is palatable in theme and presentation and in the loadouts in that side content and in exploration and growth and seeing all the side content having full cut scenes and just feeling very fleshed out even compared to odyssey which i feel did an okay job as well really ends up elevating the entire experience what brings it down though is some bugs i did have a number of very typical open world bugs we can expect from these games ai not triggering weird collision issues characters sliding around and just odd moments and cut scenes let's crash this party with a microtransaction discussion much has been said about valhalla's microtransaction system however i will say this due to the way the game now tracks power via that destiny-like power level which is upgraded via resources you can get easily i feel like the micros are much more cosmetic than expected they are for sure there and for sure the typical ubisoft stuff so none of us really want to see them in the game but as i continue to play that i'm gonna watch to see what patches we get because in the past ubisoft has patched things up and made it worse speaking of worse let's talk about fun factor so to me there's no denying that the changes that needed to occur in valhalla and still do we see a lot of them showing up i love that i think that when you fall into the line of the spectacular way the stories actually start to work in the unique locations and i mean insanely unique by the way it's crazy the odd npcs and the theme of vikings and mysticism feel like a breath of completely fresh air but like putting a [ __ ] jet engine on a tricycle you end up with something cool that breaks something else and that's what we see here there's no denying that the combat is just not that great and it's made all the more noticeable due to the other changes in the game and in that way valhalla is less fun to me than it actually should be and that'll bring us to well the rating at least a preliminary rating we'll do a preliminary rating right now i am definitely hedging towards weight for sale if not wait for a deep deep sale for a couple reasons i just man i just don't enjoy the combat i know i've talked to a couple people who love it and a couple people absolutely hate it i'm in the middle i just don't love it it doesn't feel as impactful as a viking game feels like it should when you take into account not as many items or weapons that you get just upgrading the ones you have that all feeds back into the story proper which i dig i like that i love that settlement and i love the feeling that avor and those people around him are making an impact in the game world however due to the odd combat and the lack of items and so forth you see that repetitiveness sort of pop up a bit and yeah it's just not making me feel it right now anyway that's it for me i hope you guys liked the video if you did give it a thumbs up if you didn't give it a thumbs down join patron check me out on twitter or reddit peace out oh ps5 review coming soon as well as a bunch of other videos peace out [Music] [Music] wow

Channel: ACG

Views: 825,329

Keywords: geek, acgreview, angrycentaurgaming, gameplay, angryreview, ACG, nerd, review, videogames, gamereviews, ps4, xbox, reviews, ps5, assassins creed valhalla review, assassins creed valhalla combat, assassins creed valhalla, assassins creed valhalla gameplay, assassins creed valhalla acg, acg assassins creed valhalla, assassin's creed valhalla, valhalla review, ac valhalla gameplay, assassins creed valhalla review ps5, assassins creed valhalla reddit review, valhalla patch 1.1, ac valhalla review

Id: teX3reR6uvI

Length: 18min 44sec (1124 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 09 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/tecedu]

So basically like all AC, new idea and a very good world but buggy asf. Im waiting for for a sale with all DLCs, hoping it would have more of something like the Atlantis DLC which was great in own right.

I really love AC but don't really get the urge to buy this day 1.

[u/AlwaysBrowsingOnly]

Not even just for AC, but really ALL Ubi games. Watch Dogs Legion is no exception. Always a fantastic world, cool idea... and then the rest falls short in nearly every area. The games are always “ok” or mediocre, but sadly always fall short of how great they could be.

[u/TheMightosaurus]

Anyone got any details on the PC performance?

[u/Lazer_beak]

they really should have change the name to something else, its not a game about assassins anymore really is it? its a historical fantasy action game

[u/alganthe]

wait... the sound is fine ?

Is this a joke I'm not getting or did standards drop that much, the audio mixing is absolute garbage based on half a dozen streams I've watched with the worst one being the french VA which is unintelligible half the time.

[u/JOEY_DIAZ_COCKSUCKAS]

It still baffles me how many bugs are in AAA-games on release, these days. It's like QA testing has just vanished.

[u/PersonBehindAScreen]

I know this one is unpopular but I miss multiplayer. I could spend hours upon hours on manhunt. But I know the community overall wasnt receptive to that anymore

[u/[deleted]]

Like every Ubiworld game- get the Gold edition when it drops to $12.

[u/[deleted]]

Press Y to Raid.

The bugs and glitches showcased in this video sure don't disappoint. Well done, Ubisoft!