Putzing Around in Merry Ol' England (..and also Ireland)

The season of sweet, sweet holiday shopping deals has fully arrived in all its consumerist glory.  I fully indulged in this tradition by snatching up Assassin's Creed: Valhalla (Gold Edition).  I've also briefly glanced at my Steam wishlist to see if there's anything begging to be bought (I've got one in the cart, but there's nothing else jumping out at me).  Interestingly enough, Cyberpunk 2077 (a game that I quite enjoyed) went on sale for 50% off and it seemed to spark an uptick in people buying, playing and then leaving positive reviews.  Maybe, just maybe, it will be gloriously redeemed?  If you're a fan, like me, we can hope!

The bulk of my Thanksgiving break has been dedicated to cleaning my house (boring) and clumsily guiding Eivor, the Viking protagonist of Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, on adventures throughout dark ages England.  AC is one of those franchises that releases frequently and you can generally expect a consistent experience--as I've been playing, I've been chalking up my current likes and dislikes about the newest entry.  Overall, I'm having a fun time and am happy with the sale price I paid.

Eivor, in her ruined childhood village.

Deep Thoughts about Valhalla:

1.) I was fairly confused when the game started and I wasn't immediately presented with the option to choose a gender for my Eivor.  Waiting through an introductory cutscene that illustrated the origin story of Eivor (*side note:  can we get a happy origin story...just one time!) finally presented the option to choose.  Of course I picked female Eivor (duh), but there was an interesting third option that I don't remember from the other games--you can play as both (at least, I think...I was confused by it) at certain points in the game.  I am a bit boggled by this option and personally feel like it would slightly ruin the sense of immersion from having one character.  But, I guess it's there for people who don't want to choose or who want a more varied experience.

2.) The first few hours of gameplay take place in Norway--an icy, rocky, Viking wonderland.  There are tons of jagged, snowy peaks just begging to be scaled.  However, I immediately noticed that one staple of Assassin's Creed gameplay was missing...the leap of faith.  Dammit, if I'm going to force poor Eivor to scale a huge mountain I want to be rewarded with a graceful dive into a suspiciously well-placed body of water, pile of leaves, or wagon of straw!  (**Sort of dumb spoilers here) Eivor does eventually learn the "leap of faith" as part of the more assassin oriented storyline, but I cannot remember any earlier game where you couldn't immediately leap of faith.

3.) I also have some lore-related questions (even though the lore of AC is a complicated, nigh-impossible twisting pathway) that may or may not be cleared up with more focus on the main storyline (something that's lurching along at a snail's pace thanks to my desire to do all the glowy dots).  It was strongly implied in the DLC for Odyssey that the line of assassins was all from the same bloodline--originating with Bayek and Aya, moving to Kassandra/Alexios (controversially) and then through their descendants.  I was confused when early on in the story a couple of foreign looking fellas turned up and promptly offered Eivor the signature assassins blade.  Maybe they decided to back off the bloodline concept after the Odyssey DLC backlash?  I don't think that's a bad thing, but it just adds to the confusing lore narrative.

4.) There's less stealth than in previous games...and I don't feel like that's necessarily a bad thing.  I'm enjoying the fact that certain camps (the ones located close to rivers) can be raided with your crew of Vikings.  Of course, if you're feeling particularly sneaky, you can always sneak into the camps yourself.  That's not to say that there aren't plenty of other stealthy opportunities (there are many other locations where you can be stealthy).

5.) No bounty system or bonfire alerts.  As someone who, in previous games, would almost always mess up stealth areas and wind up in a pitched battle with five bajillion guards, I'm happy about this change.  There was nothing more irritating that screwing up, being chased by all those guards, and then, to top it all off, a nasty bounty hunter turning up to hunt you down.  I'm sure some AC purists will bemoan this seemingly less difficult change.

6.) So...many...cosmetic items.....it's a bit nuts.  But, I seriously have to question some of them--namely tattoos.  Remember those fun (or is it?) parkour sequences from Black Flag where you'd have to chase a floating piece of paper?  They decided to bring those back, but now instead of sea shanties, you find tattoo designs.  The designs themselves are Viking inspired and are actually very cool.  However, even if you ink your Eivor up from head to toe, very few of those cool tattoos are actually visible.  Sure, it's an opportunity to make your Eivor feel more unique (*you can also purchase additional hair and beard styles) but what's the point when you can't even enjoy the fruits of your parkour-related labors?

The Viking longship is a transportation staple in Valhalla.

7.) Eivor =/= Kassandra.  Yeah, I said it.  I've grown attached to my gravelly voiced, imposing Viking warrior, but I still like Kassandra more.  Kassandra seemed to have more of a personality and the other story characters were just more interesting.  

8.) **Minorly spoilery thing here!!!** It's one of my video game pet peeves that in games that present "relationship/romance" options there's always a strong imbalance between the number of male and female choices players are presented with.  So far, my Eivor (who is female) has encountered three potential female options and only one male option.  Since AC relationships seem to have zero (or very little) impact on the story, I generally opt to let my characters bang their way across the ancient world.  With that said, Eivor was presented with a very troubling romantic option...namely Randvi, the wife of her adopted brother/best pal Sigurd.  In this situation, I just had to say no...I mean, Eivor's already had a vision that implied that she will betray Sigurd...and what better way to add to that betrayal by sleeping with his wife!  But, back to my pet peeve...devs, please add more male options!

9.) There's an awful lot of drug-induced situations--munching on some mushrooms and then completing odd puzzles (with the un-helpful prompt "observe the clues to solve the puzzle"); drinking odd concoctions to have visions; or breathing in some strange gases and then chasing a mysterious, talking white elk.  I am enjoying these situations and the levity they bring between bouts of head-smashing.

10.) And, I will finish up my deep thoughts with my personal enjoyment of the wide variety of absurdly violent finishing moves.  I love an overly-violent finisher and Valhalla adds in some great ones--grabbing a spear from a downed enemy and then impaling him with it or grabbing a shield and using it to separate an enemy head and body...or grabbing a sword and shoving it through someone...there's a whole violent buffet to chose from...and they bring me the darkest, most horrible joy.

UPDATED:  *Because I forgot to mention it!

11.) Something that's definitely worth mentioning as a big dislike is the number of random crashes that I have experienced.  I had zero problems with Odyssey!  I have no idea what is causing them--at first I thought they were mostly happening during raiding sequences and potentially caused by the amount of fire, smoke, and action all taking place at the same time.  Unfortunately though, they also occur when I'm doing noting more taxing than riding through the countryside.  They're a minor inconvenience, but nonetheless annoying.

I plan on spending many, many more hours chasing down all the glowy dots (they replaced map symbols with glowy dots...but there's still a ton!) and barely progressing the main story.  It's just how I do things.

Glutton for Punishment

After a particularly stressful pre-Thanksgiving break week, I've found myself trying to engage in a mixed bag of coping mechanisms--some are healthy (rage deep cleaning my house...which desperately needs it) and some are not (I feel a strong urge to shop...at the most consumerist time of year with all those sweet, sweet deals...).  What does this have to do with gaming?  Well, my impulse buys tend to be largely gaming related.  So, last night I found myself grabbing the gold edition of Assassin's Creed: Valhalla (*it's on sale, plus there's a promo code deal for up to 20% off) and then gawping at the 137G download (ouch....).  It's downloaded and just waiting for me to dive into a world of Viking fantasy.

Viking energy!

My feelings about Assassin's Creed are complicated and I've been warily side-eyeing the newest entry for a number of months.  I love the historical settings and attention to detail in the game world, but man oh man, have the newer iterations of the series become the poster children for open-world bloat.  I know myself and I'm a sucker for a map covered in all those beautiful symbols (and I can't resist my own completionist nature to COMPLETE EVERY GD ONE even though the logical part of my brain fully understands the futility of this task).  It's a weird relationship and I'd call myself a fan, but with some wishes for a more streamlined and meaningful experience (that isn't really Ubi's can o' worms...so it's a dream on kind of situation).

I've also been puttering around with Hades and I've finally managed to finish the "main" story and make it to the credits.  Man, is Hades a great game!  I do not feel like I've had a great amount of success, but it has kept me coming back to lead poor Zagreus to his untimely demise time and time again.  A few relationships have started to play out in an interesting way--apparently, you can "romance" several underworld denizens (namely Dusa, Megaera, or Thanatos).  100% team Megaera here...there's just something weirdly hot about Meg.  Maybe it's the voice?  Maybe it's having to frequently fight to the death?  Hell, maybe it's the whip and general "punishment" vibe she gives off (...okay, this is getting weird).  I'm interested to see how things will play out in the Zag/Meg dynamic.

I'm looking forward to spending my week off needlessly stabbing a lot of video game people in dark ages England (and maybe periodically trying to escape the underworld).  Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Cozy....Killing?

I guess that sometimes you just want to be cozy (last week I wrote about how my internal gaming clock draws me back to the ol' familiar, heartwarming kind of games during the colder fall and winter months) and sometimes your brain does something weird and tells you that you really just want to rip, tear.  For some odd reason I found myself downloading Doom: Eternal and deluding myself into believing that I was fully in the mood to merrily demon-punch my way through multiple levels.  This delusion was fully-formed and also included thinking that I could raise the difficulty level and have some success (something that I've never been able to do in Doom).  It's no surprise that I quickly found myself floundering and regretting the 80G download.  Since the Doom failure, I've been flitting back and forth between Two Point Hospital, where I'm trying to do a full re-play with all the DLC included, and Hades.

In my TwoPoint re-play, I've discovered that I am truly not a fan of the wave-based levels.  There are several sprinkled throughout multiple DLC's and I weirdly found myself struggling with them this time around.  Some of them are relatively simple--increasing the percentage of patients that you cure during each wave--and some of them just throw random goals out during every wave (like accumulating so many research points or upgrading machines).  Beating them requires players to pause and plan at the beginning of each wave and also not to over hire staff (financials on wave levels are very wonky due to the fact that you run out of patients at the end of a wave and won't make much money--it's very easy to bankrupt yourself if you aren't careful).  I think I've finally beaten them all...and I am relieved.

Check out some cool Hades art featuring the goddess Artemis.

Being drawn back to Hades has made me re-realize what a great game it is.  I'm no fan of roguelikes, but Hades manages to make the repetitious nature feel worthwhile.  Since I hadn't played it in over a year, I'm pretty rusty and my first few escape attempts haven't gone well.  My first iota of success came last night when I managed to finally full clear with the damn Coronacht (my least favorite weapon).  I don't think I had played Hades since its full release and I'm noticing some features that I don't remember.  Currently, I'm having a ball with Hades and plan to continue trying to unravel the story of Zagreus and his underworld pals.

Fall Means Relaxing with Cozy Games

The weather where I live has transitioned into rainy, cold fall weather.  This means that outdoor activities are out and its time to cuddle up in the indoors.  What better way to stay cozy than with some soothing, comfy games that are perfect for sipping a hot beverage and relaxing?

There's one new game that has my cozy radar piqued--it's called Unpacking and it's a casual puzzle game that takes one of the least enjoyable real-life experiences (moving) and turns it into a challenging and fun experience. I'm a bit hesitant to pull the trigger on it due to the fact that many user reviews (it's currently sitting at "very positive" on Steam) have mentioned the short length (many reviewers on Steam have less that 10 hours).  It is priced at $19.99 which feels a bit steep for a short game, so I'm going to wait and hope that it goes on sale during the autumn/holiday sales.  Here's the trailer, for your consideration:

My favorite comfy, fall games are Two Point Hospital and Stardew Valley.  Two Point Hospital is a silly, management game that features a reverse difficulty curve (the beginning of the level is always the most difficult part) that eases into a relaxing, managerial experience.  I like it because you can turn off the in-game music (and DJ's) and throw on your own music (or podcasts) and try to manage the chaos.  The especially nice part about Two Point is the fact that you can pause the game at any time.

Stardew Valley is the perfect fall/winter game.  Even if you've played hundreds of hours, there's always some way that you can improve your farm.  Not to mention the fact that a somewhat recent update (if you're like me and haven't played in awhile) added in the ability to randomly mix up the bundles required to rebuild the community center--a nice way to offer some variety for players who want to return to the game but have played through it a few times.

There's also some good news on the horizon for fans of Stardew Valley--Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone, the creator, announced that he's working on another game and released a short, early gameplay video.  The new game is called The Haunted Chocolatier and gives off some serious Stardew vibes.  Since I (and so many other people) adore Stardew, it's something to look forward to. 

Here's to wishing you a cozy, fall day playing your favorite comfy game!