Things that ruined AC Valhalla

[Littlefatcat]

-minimal loot. It took forever to find new weapons and armor.
-clunkiness and annoying controller vibrations in some locations.
-that annoying kaching sound when you are detected.

Something that already bothers me about AC shadows:

-the kill effect where the screen turns white. It’s more cinematic when there are no effects like this but that’s just me.

Feel free to add onto the list of things you didn’t like in Valhalla, mirage and other AC games

[werwolfgaming]

The thing u said about shadows should not be an issue since they already stated that effect will only occur when assassinating important targets

[Zopheir]

Just the design overall. When you strip away the initial excitement of playing in ‘X’ historical time period, what’s left?

For me, the core issues are

-Unimaginative, bloated open-worlds. Massive maps filled with checklist-style content that feels more like busywork than meaningful exploration. Instead of organic discovery, you're often just clearing icons off a map.

-RPG-ification. Enemy scaling and gear systems often make progression feel like a grind instead of an achievement.


It’s not that these games don’t have great moments as they do, but quantity over quality makes the experience lose impact over time.

[AILAD]

It was insanely long and bloated.

[Littlefatcat]

Publicado originalmente por werwolfgaming:

The thing u said about shadows should not be an issue since they already stated that effect will only occur when assassinating important targets

That's good to hear. I also saw that they added synchronization panoramas back.

[Littlefatcat]

Publicado originalmente por Zopheir:

Just the design overall. When you strip away the initial excitement of playing in ‘X’ historical time period, what’s left?

For me, the core issues are

-Unimaginative, bloated open-worlds. Massive maps filled with checklist-style content that feels more like busywork than meaningful exploration. Instead of organic discovery, you're often just clearing icons off a map.

-RPG-ification. Enemy scaling and gear systems often make progression feel like a grind instead of an achievement.


It’s not that these games don’t have great moments as they do, but quantity over quality makes the experience lose impact over time.

AC shadows seems a little bit more authentic than Valhalla as far as the setting and gear. I can't find a single piece of gear in AC Valhalla that makes me think oh yeah that's how vikings dressed because everything is so over the top. I think as long as the combat is good and I don't go 30 hours wearing the same armor set like in Valhalla it should be okay.

[Littlefatcat]

Publicado originalmente por Daniel:

- Runes were totally useless, only attack speed runes made a difference.

- Stats in general, were pointless, just efectless numbers.

- Stamina bar, why? Eivor gets tired after rolling 2-3 times but not when climbing a never-ending mountain. Some Sync-points were so high that you could climb for 5 minutes or more.

- More than 630 Helix items (armors,weapons,cosmetics) were locked behind a paywall, +74 seasonal items. How do we know that? Cheat engine tables. It's insane.

- 95% of set bonuses are trash. There is only a few with unique effects, Fallen hero, Thor armor, Paladin, the unarmed electricity punchs and some i can't remember.

- Few weapons have unique enjoyable effects, Excalibur, Mjolnir, GaeBolg/Odin Spear, and most of them are endgame weapons. What am i supposed to do with Odin's spear (it's amazing) now that i have completed the game?

- Stealth, non-existent, and that's fine, you are a viking not a hidden one, but then, why did they tried to add it to the game? for the sake of the hidden blade?

- Increasing the difficulty does not make AI better, just tankier. Does it make sense to impale an human enemy 5 times in the chest with a spear and not die?

- Empty world, similar to far cry 6. Huge map filled with same trees, snow, and empty roads.

- Dialogue options, check youtube videos, it does not matter wich of the dialogue option you choose, Eivor answers are scripted to be the same. So, there is no replayability at all and not adding NG+ was a good choice.

- Decisions does not change the outcome of the story, only the ones related to Sigurd. Sigurd is unbearable. Most characters act like 7 yo kids.

- Players deserved NG+. They justified the decision based on "unique chest items" lol, yeah, Far cry 6 has unique chest items and they just replaced the items with a bunch of coins. So i guess, no NG+ was a greedy decision to keep some dollars in the pocket.

- Story was okish but hard to understand for someone that barely knows anything about norse mythology.

- Layla, i f hate that character. Desmond was an interesting protagonist, Layla is unbearable, worst videogame Karen ever.

I agree they should have just dropped Layla and limited the modern day until they figure out how to write a better character. Her story feels so dry that I skip through all of it.

Personally wish there were less "decisions" I just want to explore and get new armor sets and weapons and assassinate people like Ghost of Tsushima. Fingers crossed we get way more gear sets than Valhalla. Thats actually a major reason why I can't finish the game. The flow of new items and prospect of finding a cool new outfit or mask was part of what kept me playing Ghost of Tsushima. Dialogue options were not an incentive to play. You only get choices at major story moments in GoT like deciding to be an honorable samurai vs being a dishonorable assassin in the end.

[Zopheir]

Publicado originalmente por Littlefatcat:

AC shadows seems a little bit more authentic than Valhalla as far as the setting and gear. I can't find a single piece of gear in AC Valhalla that makes me think oh yeah that's how vikings dressed because everything is so over the top. I think as long as the combat is good and I don't go 30 hours wearing the same armor set like in Valhalla it should be okay.

Yeah It’s one of those cases where the design choices leaned a bit too much into spectacle rather than staying true to the authenticity of the era. I think if Shadows can avoid the loot grind and make armor feel like a reflection of the character’s journey (both narratively and through gameplay), that would be a step in the right direction.

[katzenkrimis]

The Viking theme came out of left field. That's the only thing that ruined it for me.

Otherwise, it was another visually stunning game out of Canada.

Wait until people get a load of this one. Asian-themed games destroy Viking games in popularity.

The only reason that Vikings became more popular recently was because of the television shows. The film industry boosted their popularity.

Nothing can compete with Asian-themed combat. This is a license to print money.

Valhalla's sales record is in serious trouble. Shadows will be breathing down its neck in no time.

[Littlefatcat]

Publicado originalmente por katzenkrimis:

The Viking theme came out of left field. That's the only thing that ruined it for me.

Otherwise, it was another visually stunning game out of Canada.

Wait until people get a load of this one. Asian-themed games destroy Viking games in popularity.

The only reason that Vikings became more popular recently was because of the television shows. The film industry boosted their popularity.

Nothing can compete with Asian-themed combat. This is a license to print money.

Valhalla's sales record is in serious trouble. Shadows will be breathing down its neck in no time.

It had nothing to do with it being about vikings. It's the authenticity of presentation. AC Valhalla was overly concepted because they wanted to make it "more badass." In the end we get a game where your axe triples in size when you unsheathe it. Compare that to Ghost of Tsushima where you can manually sheathe and unsheathe with a realistic looking sword that doesn't change size to accommodate for lazy animations. Thankfully we have control over sheathing in Shadows.

Any culture and time period can be badass if presented properly. GoT was based on Akira Kurosawa's Samuarai films which are Japan's version of the Sergio Leon Cowboy films. Got nailed the quiet peaceful world with wind blowing in the background as your character brutally but also gracefully kills people. So right from the get go the tone and movement of the world draws you in. Valhalla seemed lazily done and features a very boring protagonist whom no one asked for and overblown combat that feels repetitive, clunky and not fun. Just imagine AC Valhalla but the combat was similar to Ghost of Tsushima and AC Unity, and the characters didn't look like Germanic Forest Barbarians from the late Roman Era but instead dressed and looked like actual Vikings.

Imagine if Eivor had a better name and the female character looked like Gertha from the vikings show instead of an 8 foot tall man because some HR guy in a hawaiian shirt who got put into a dev position and ignored the pleas of actual artists said "durr she's baddass. It's all about badass chicks now" That same guy then said "Oh and let's use the same greek statues we used in Alexandria in Asgard becuase gamers are dumb! Who'll notice?"