Video Game Review: Assassin's Creed Vallhalla

 146.5 hours of game play, peeps.

That's a lot of time. Less than the number of hours I spent on Skyrim, but close to how many I played Witcher 3.

I have a lot of feelings about Assassin's Creed Valhalla, but I have to say that, although parts of it are redundant, this type of game play is my favorite, so I did enjoy most of the game in general. 

Let me split this up in sections:

Story: The story was a little depressing, to tell the truth. It felt like I wanted to do the right thing, but somehow, something bad happened anyway and people blamed my character. At some point I thought the story would end where I was banished or killed by a mob or something. On the other hand, some where difficult decisions to make, and although I don't like stressing out about those choices, I liked that not everything was black and white.

The story also had a few supernatural elements. Although some were because of the animus or because of mushrooms (the character got "high" on them), there were a few other things that were pure fantasy. That wasn't bad. In fact Origins and Odyssey also had their share of fantasy. It's fine. Just saying.

I liked it that I got to be Odin for a bit on Asgard, and that I visited Jotunheim. There were plenty of locations (maps) to visit.

Gameplay: Gameplay was similar to Skyrim and Witcher 3 and those kinds of games. You could equip a sword/ax/spear and shield (unless the weapon required two hands. You attacked with your melee weapon or with arrows (and sometimes with fists). Arrows could eventually turn explosive. And as with the other Assassin's Creed, much of it you can do while on stealth mode, hiding in the bushes and assassinating people one by one. The character is able to climb 90% of all surfaces, which allowed me to explore pretty much every single inch of the map. You also have the same ability to summon your horse from mostly everywhere on the map. You also have a crow to look from above and Odin vision, to help you spot things like bad guys or treasures.

Experience: You gain experience when you finish quests and when you kill people and things, mostly. Experience points can be traded in the skills tree which give you neat abilities. The number of arrows and how many "hearts" you can have is decided by things you get from chests. 

Treasures: Treasures are represented on the Map as yellow dots of light. Some treasures are just there, on plain sight. Others are inside houses that you have to figure out how to enter. Others you can't reach until you advance the story. 

Finally, there are special treasures that you need help opening. These are usually in monasteries that you raid with your clan. These big chests give you what you need to grow your settlement.

World Events: World events are some of the white dots of light in the map (not all). They are the "side quests". They are different because they don't show up as side quests and you don't get any kind of marker to tell you what to do. So I needed to pay attention to the problem and then try to solve it on my own (I could solve them 90% of the time). They give you experience points if you complete them and some can have more than one outcome that don't really affect the quest or main story.

Settlement: You start in Norway, but soon move to the bigger England map. There, you start a settlement. You grow it after you do raid on monasteries and get supplies. There is an Assassin's Creed house, where you can deliver things about the creed you find in the world. There is one where you can deliver masks you find. One where you deliver fish or animal parts for prizes. Things like that. You also build houses for people you know or get to know who come live in your settlement. The main house there is when you get updates on the main quest.

The Order: Just like in the other Assassins Creed games, there is an evil order that wants to control everything. You find clues about them around the world and you can go kill them. Some you get to kill automatically as a part of the main quest. I didn't find clues for half of them and I thought I was very thorough... I guess I can't be a completionist. 

Stone Formations, Mushroom Challenges and Altars: Some of the white light spots are not world events. Some are a bunch of stones (A bit like Stone Henge), that shine with shapes with your Odin Vision. Once you stand in a certain position you can assemble the bigger picture and you get experience points for it. The other one that you can find in a white light spot is the mushroom challenge. You eat mushrooms and you get "high" and you must figure out a puzzle or kill some bad guys. The altars require a donation. Sometimes it's something you already have. Sometimes you get to hunt around. I only didn't finish the ones that required fish because fishing is hard (and most of the time annoying in games, at least to me). You also get experience for those. 

Anomalies: Another of the white spots of light could be an anomaly. I think there was once per territory (I may be mistaken). You can easily spot these places walking around became they look like the game is buggy, but really it's an anomaly in the animus. What happens is you become Layla (from the present time) and you have to climb up some computer generated obstacle course. You get experience points for this too. Oh, and you get to see some visions of the future or something.

Special Battles: Throughout the game, you encounter special battles. These are events where you must stay inside a certain area and battle a beast, a witch, or a warrior. You deliver beast trophies to your settlement for rewards, when you kill the three witches you can go get a special armor, and the warriors give you weapons and such.

Papers and Rock Challenges: These got on my nerves. The paper ones (white light spots on the map), are some floating leaves that move around and you have to follow. And if you don't catch up, you have to start all over. Annoying. The other one can be just as annoying. You have rocks that you can move and you have to stack them into a tower of a certain height. At first they were ok, but when they started moving the goal higher and higher, I didn't think it was worth it. There was one that was required for a quest, so I had to do that one... but no more!

BUGS: Yes. This game had several bugs. One in a monastery that didn't let me finish the location. It was a chest under in the dungeon and no one ever came to help me open it. I tried it several times, asking for the boat right next to the door of the dungeon. No one ever came.

There was another one where I pushed a crate, destroyed the box that was blocking it and I couldn't hold the crate again to move it again. Twice I was left without a quest. So I had to restart the game to be able to see the quest and the marker (annoying). I have the feeling I'm missing a bug, but I can't remember right now.

Overall, a repetitive, and yet still fun game to play. I give it 4/5 stars because it's till relaxing to play, but it does get a bit tedious when you feel like you're only going after yellow and white spots of light on the map.

I can say I would play another Assassin's Creed game if they made another one. Although, I don't enjoy playing the DLCs.

Cheers!

 

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