Table of Contents 64q43
The tradition (which occasionally takes a break) of annual franchise releases Assassin's Creed remains firm in 2020 with the brand new game Assassin's Creed Valhalla. This time, the formula rich in RPG elements, seen since the slight “reboot” that the franchise suffered in 2017, remains. vikings they sought alliances and fought for their people. 624z4s
And amazing, because there are two strong titles in less than a month: this is the bet of Ubisoft, the same developer that also put up for sale Watch Dogs: Legion less than two weeks ago. Beside Valhalla, we have both open world games, profitable franchises and with unique and cautiously immersive scenarios.
Because just as happened in 2013/14, coincidentally there were other titles from the same series, Assassin's e Watch Dogs, which faced the obstacle of changing the generation of video game consoles. Now in 2020 we open the doors to the powerful PlayStation 5 e Xbox Series X | S, inaugurating a high level of expectation regarding the power of the new machines. Does the game live up to the news?
Fortunately, I was able to spend dozens of hours (over 60, until I finished the main story) with Assassin's Creed:Valhalla running in one Xbox Series X and I report here in the review my journey into unknown lands, of this franchise that has surprised me for more than a decade. All the images below were captured by me in the game's Photo Mode, without editing.
Historical context and narrative structure 4z1a4f
No Assassin's Creed Valhalla you are in the skin of Eivor, who can be either a man or a woman (you choose, or let the game choose), a warrior responsible for leading Vikings out of Norway, into new lands to conquer and become stronger. Most of the game takes place in England, in the 9th century, in kingdoms/counties very well delimited by powerful forces.
Your main task is create alliances, help kings and civilians, gather resources and return to the main base strengthening it at a pace you dictate. This is what we consider the main story, with quest RPG classics. However, instead of the Valhalla fill the player with a flurry of side quests, it's up to the player walk around the map and interact with people to carry out tasks through dialogues.
Each main “group” of quests is divided into a arc, which encomes unique tasks and characters, acting as interconnected chapters in the story. As much as it seems that the game gives you freedom of choice, it's just a bad first impression: when you open the map, you notice that each region receives an indication of the level of enemies. In practice, if you are 30 levels below the indicated level, one hit in Eivor is enough for you to die. Therefore, it is recommended to be at least 10 levels below your opponents.
A big surprise comes in the first dozen hours of the game, when we discover two other territories that are not part of the domination of England. No need to spoilers, the pure intuition of those who know Norse mythology is enough to “connect the dots” and understand what kind of fantasy awaits you in Valhalla.
A cool addition to the formula: from the first chapters of Assassin's Creed Valhalla, you can investigate and make choices to define future quests. If you blame a wrong traitor, for example, you may be met with hostility by those who once trusted you. Due to the fact that Valhalla allow saving the game manually, I was able to test three finals to a single part of the story and each one was quite different – I chose the most beneficial to be the definitive one. Even so, those who lack the patience can be content with a single decision, as the end of the journey itself (the end of the game) does not change.
To some extent, the approach to conquering territories intrigues and motivates you, but it is mere illusion. After completing half (about 20 realms) everything becomes repetitive. In the first installment, the story boils down to meeting the “head” of the region, arming enemy soldiers and invading a castle – no more, no less. The game's purpose was never to reinvent the structure of these viking arches, however, particularly there could be larger lands with fewer arches.
By the way, in Assassin's Creed Valhalla, each “chapter” takes at least two hours of gameplay. With that, without skipping diateractions or cutscenes, are about 60 hours to finish the story. In this, we exclude collectibles scattered around the map, secondary arcs and other activities rich in the nordic atmosphere that we will explain in the sequel. Anyway, Valhalla has by far the greater territory explorable of the franchise so far (at least, on foot).
world exploration 703821
A attention to the details in this rich game deserves all the recognition. This scales from both the micro scale (Eivor physically stores weapons close to his body when he's not using it) to the landmark scale (Gothic architecture and subtle biome changes). We also see the reflection in the gameplay, when you just hold the directional pad to call your mount and, if you keep it pressed, Eivor mounts it as soon as it es close. Useful shortcuts like this eliminate holding down another button, making the game dynamics even better.
Happily there is more land than sea on the english map. Rivers cut through regions, which you can cross with boats or the longship, Viking boat. It even automatically lowers the mast (to under bridges) and opens the sail (in rough water) on voyages. On land, we can ride a horse, a form of locomotion identical to the previous ones in the franchise.
On the longship or on horseback, you can activate the auto navigation mode to fate, which in other games was done in a more casual way - both in Odyssey , the Origins. In this mode it is still possible to activate the film camera, an immersive experience when exploring lands and enjoying the landscape. Here, you can choose whether to ride a horse with companions (plus dialogue) on the road with cinematic camera, or take a quick trip and go to the objective on your own.
Sometimes, that fixed cinematographic camera is not as attractive as the physical manipulation of the joystick, when we don't have any animation or special framing. In practice, it's just a different angle, as in GTA V. Speaking of games Rockstar, at this point Ubisoft could have learned something from Red Dead Redemption 2 to animate the cameras into something more in keeping with the wild beauty of England.
Eating fruits and mushrooms allows you to regenerate health and/or adrenaline, an interesting new addition to the series, which explicitly takes influence from other popular RPGs. Other in the same vein are the World Events, more informal side quests, which require the player to pay attention to the dialogues and the scenario, almost always without “activating” the status of mission. Therefore, this certain casualness serves as a complement to the well-done atmosphere.
Ironically, on more than one such mission, I had to guess what to do – the game didn't give any clues. In one event, I assumed I should burn a silo (a nearby torch, where I lit an arrow and fired) to settle a financial dispute between brothers. Are sidequests random and confusing like that, which can either please or scare away players. In my case, it was the second option.
A good-humored novelty are the sudden, true impromptu battles and rhymes against opponents scattered across the map. You interact, wait for a sentence to be said and need to get the cadence, theme and final syllable right as change. Even with the effort of the translation team, many of the options in Portuguese that meet all three points (they are multiple alternatives, where only one would be ideal) penalize you – this means that in the original, the option would be the correct one. The tip then is to play with English subtitles, if you have mastery of the language.
In addition to the territorial invasions of history, with the raids you lead your traveling partners to attack rival bases – as long as your level is high enough not to die in one hits – and open chests with all kinds of riches. This may later unlock new quests, including the grand side story of the of the Order, a list of leaders of unknown identity (displayed in descending order of influence) that you must assassinate until you reach the “Father” of all.
RPG too much? 634i5x
With a variety of things to do, we have to question how much the evolution in the direction of RPG can hurt the Assassin's Creed formula, which is refined with each edition. Without “deconstructing” what makes up a game in the franchise, everyone must agree on one point: as an adventure game, for the most part, Valhalla bet on the right pillars of RPG.
The skill tree (skill tree) segment playstyles in three directions, so it's likely that a balanced mix will appeal to all players. Meanwhile, handling items just got better, as you can wield the same weapon the entire game if you choose to do so. Unlike the predecessors, who still learned “how to RPG” with dozens of useless items carried by you, now there are fewer and better.
Who played a game of the more “modern” genre, like the last God Of War, you will find familiar weapon modifiers: they are gems that give hit points, attack, critical hit chance, and the like. when doing upgrade Collecting metals around the world unlocks more sockets to put them in, making combat easier.
On the downside of this mix, we have new attacks unlocked, called skills. They are obtained from books scattered across the map, which forces you to explore every corner of the massive map to unlock different fighting moves. This may not please those who have a contrary style of play, or who just want to see the end of the narrative without having to go out blindly looking for hidden items in 20 kingdoms (in my case). To combine skills ive to customizable skills should be more homogeneous.
At this point, Assassin's Creed Valhalla could learn from other titles like Path of Exile ou Borderlands, who knew how to do it much better. And in what reduces the number of weapons, the game exceeds in the number of modifiers (runas), of which at least 20 were completely expendable (because they changed little) throughout the game. Could have more interesting options for combination.
Whether with the bird or with your own eyes, the points of interest they are like beacons shot into the sky: there is a band of colored light (each color corresponds to a type of marker) to help with the location. In particular, the map doesn't “lock” the navigation cursor on the icons, which happens in most open world games and helps you select travel points.
Fast travel spots, on the other hand, are few and far between. For better or worse, this forces you to explore the lands on foot, not caring too much about the classics. Sync Points that mark the franchise. The logic of climbing to the highest point of a city just to facilitate travel in the future, like in other games, doesn't apply so much here.
talking about the weapons itself and the style of combat, Assassin's Creed Valhalla it's more brutal. At the same time I felt much slower than Odyssey, for example, which gives a better rhythm. This time we have an arsenal consisting of axes (double or single), shield and a hammer to dictate your attack with “strong” and “weak” commands – R1/LS and R2/LT buttons on consoles. Arrows are still great, especially with certain skills unlockable.
There is even the option to activate break-ups, a new spice added to the Assassin's formula. However, in multiple fights with weaker enemies, in the final blow hands and arms flew (even though they barely made with my axe). The ending animations are repetitive and recurring as well, something that in other games was reserved only for the final victim of the group. In the middle of the fight, seeing Eivor perform a stunt to cut the throat of a poor guy can be pleasant, but only the first 8 times in that fight.
As previously mentioned, another factor that Assassin's Creed Valhalla The take on RPGs is the narrative structure. Even if you mix arcs divided into territories, eventually you get to a point where you lose track of what the quest primary. Much of what is in feed of missions is expendable to reach the end of the game, but he doesn't warn you about it in any way. Anyone who doesn't want to stop playing will love it.
The long story isn't a big issue, however, the lack of guidance is. The final ending, without "up the credits", also doesn't help much to understand that you've reached the conclusion of the game - I had to reaffirm with friends and online forums that this was the absolute ending of Valhalla. I feel that they wanted to follow the path of The Witcher 3: it's 60 hours of main game and triple the time to do 100% of the game. the difference is that The Witcher until today, 5 years after its release, it has become a reference in the genre.
Following in the footsteps of predecessors 553q39
…for good 286i6y
For those who don't know the franchise's stories, a simple way to sum it up: a curious human being, usually in the present time (ours, in the real world), enters a simulation with the help of a machine and goes back to the past in search of answers. It's like it's Matrix, only it takes a little more science and mysticism to work. Since the last two games, we have followed Laila Hassan inside this simulation called animus, is at Assassin's Creed Valhalla we continue with the same.
Within map exploration, collectibles mark the franchise. In this one there's the possible collection of relics, including the disheartening chase of magic pages, which you have to follow over rooftops and between trees - identical to some previous games. Fortunately, the reward is more fun: instead of pages of an almanac as in BC III, you win tattoo designs.
In evolutionary , it's amazing how sea navigation has evolved since Assassin's Cred IV: Black Flag, from 2013. Even though we don't have (finally!) sea combats anymore, water physics and longship voyages appear as an addition, not a “must” of gameplay. Raids and interactions with NPCs are also a bonus.
The verticality of the scenarios, marked since the Italian Assassin's Creed II, reappears in Valhalla more naturally than its predecessors, whose context was Egypt and Greece in the times of Roman influence. As far as you can imagine, desert and islands don't open many doors for tall architectural buildings, so to speak. Now, in England, the parkour in Gothic castles and building ruins, much more fluid.
…to the bad 2t1vn
In the story formula of the entire franchise, we have the division between the real world and the Animus. Somehow, Assassin's Creed Valhalla wrong badly for needing to tie much of the current trilogy with the weight of the previous narratives. Inevitable pillar of this title, they tried to fix the protagonist with cliché solutions – many choices are left vague. Betting on nostalgia to revive themes was a shot in the foot.
An essential part of a good story is the interaction between players and non-controllable characters, such as Leonardo Da Vinci in the ACs that starred Ezio Auditore. Rarely in recent games do you interact with historical figures (Egypt and Greece had their icons, of course), this time we don't have very strong names to talk to. Following NPCs to carry on conversation still remains boring gameplay, ironically a staple of the franchise. This kind of mission based solely on being a walking simulator it's an idea that no one likes anymore
A terrible tradition has haunted the franchise since Unity (2014), because no matter the context and scenario, glitches take over the game. Sometimes funny, sometimes frustrating, most of the time they are just aesthetic flaws that come from the Nordic atmosphere. Of these, most will perhaps be fixed in updates shortly after launch, i.e. by the time you are reading this post. Anyway, there are mechanics and gameplay bugs that it's hard to predict if there will be any. Update so soon, so I deserve to mention them here.
Your companions' animations are frozen if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time (away from the interaction trigger); crosshairs can miss melee fitness attacks; several times hair and furry textures appear to float as if underwater; following the river on automatic with the longship can result in a much longer path than it should; dialogs are interrupted out of nowhere by events that are not under your control; the game just quits out of nowhere (crash).
When we tested it, there were still hilarious mistranslations, such as the menu indicating the vibration of the control as “light” (from and, too, which means light) and in one of the subtitles like stand beside be translated as “staying still” – and not “being by the side”, in what would be synonymous with trust/companionship. Probably the menu bug will be fixed soon, but I find it difficult to correct all the potential mistakes in the subtitles.
Even activating the English subtitles in the bursts, you can get confused with the text translations because the cadence is not translated well. And for the multiple dialog choices, you must also have the entire interface in English to fully understand the dialog. Knowing the basics of the foreign language, you won't be lost. However, this detaches some of the immersion by causing strangeness and being more of an obstacle than a help.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla performance in the new generation 105p2y
As stated in the introduction of this post, I had the pleasure of testing Assassin's Creed Valhalla in a powerful Xbox Series X, in its supreme 4K/60Hz. It runs well and is almost constant while maintaining the fluidity of frames per second, even if there are drops - and the game has closed by itself four times during all my play. Details are eye-catching and the beautiful landscapes practically force you to take screenshots every 10 steps.
Fast Travel is even more enjoyable than the previous generation, as it is even faster: among various points of interest on the map, I had an average of 8 seconds on the screen of loading. The longest of these was 22 seconds. In past experiences, with the last two games on the PlayStation 4, time almost never reached that fast – it usually approached twice as fast. A friend who could test Valhalla on PS4, for example, commented that the loading sometimes it reached absurd 1 minute and a half.
One of the graphic limitation em Valhalla can be noticed in the game's particles, something I started to notice more after playing the spectacular Ghost of Tsushima, this year. Elements of leaves, water and snow, for example, fall towards you, but just activate the photo mode and you'll see that the particles only exist at a very short distance from the player. They just hover a sphere around the third-person camera.
In the routine of the game, the atmosphere may seem dense, however, in reality it is a camera trick that unfortunately will happen even in the powerful new generation. Even on board the longship, the snow only falls where the camera is. It is disappointing to know that something limiting at this level happens right in the first title that opens the transition between consoles, especially when the game itself gives you the “photo mode” to enjoy the beautiful landscapes.
Conclusion 60664y
With a repertoire loaded with literally every Assassin's Creed released so far (including the bad sidescrollers and the portable ones, which did their best on the respective consoles), I can say without hesitation that the experience of Assassin's Creed Valhalla needs to be distinguished from others. Things like evolving your base, traveling through lands rich in mythology, forming alliances, and being a part of the Vikings' English Gothic drama easily wins over any player who gives the slightest opening to it.
At first glance, the recently polished interface and gameplay of the two recent (Origins e Odyssey) makes you believe that this is “just another” in the franchise. Otherwise: instead of orange tones and iconic regional buildings, we have a legitimate curiosity for the unknown. In chronological order, this is the third game among the main ones, taking place between Origins and the first game, from 2007. In of “ranking”, in particular, it is just below the narrative quality of the trilogy with Ezio and the predecessor Odyssey.
In this franchise where hits and misses are positively unbalanced, Assassin's Creed Valhalla carries the weight for the better, with a milestone in the “RPG trilogy”, starting the new generation on the right foot. More adventures like this to come!
Assassin's Creed Valhalla is available for PlayStation 4 e Xbox One (R$299,90) with free updates for PlayStation 5 e Xbox Series X | Srespectively.
