A Worthy Time Sink? Assassin's Creed: Valhalla Review

First off--Happy holidays to everyone out there!  I've spent my time over the holidays hanging out with family and trying to complete Assassin's Creed: Valhalla.  After 191 hours (yikes!!!!!!!!), I've adequately wrapped up the adventures of Eivor.  Trying to wrap my mind around my entire Valhalla playthrough is a bit mind numbing, but I will do my best to sum up my thoughts.

How did I play?  Like the stupid completionist that I am.  I did ALL the damn glowy dots (there's about 5 billion--just kidding, but there are a ton), completed the main storyline, completed the Order storyline and assassinations, upgraded my settlement to max level...my completion % is sitting at 99% (I have no idea what the last 1% is....I didn't put much effort into completing the hunting and fishing deliveries though, so it might be that).  Since I purchased the "Gold Edition" my playthrough also included both DLC's ("Wrath of the Druids" and the "Siege of Paris")--both of these probably added another 60-80 hours of gameplay.

Pros:

+ Like all the past AC games, the world is big, beautiful, and just begging to be explored.  The story starts off in the snowy wonderland of Norway and then proceeds to the lovely green forests and hills of Dark Ages England.  My poor GPU needs a break after straining through almost 200 hours of gorgeous landscapes.

+ There's no nautical combat in Valhalla, but my personal favorite part of the game (and something I wish they had developed a bit more) was cruising Eivor's longship around the multitude of English rivers (are there really that many rivers in England?) and looking for targets to raid.  Certain bandit camps, military camps, and, the absolute highlight--monasteries--can be raided by Eivor and his/her crew of Viking warriors.  Blowing the horn, storming off the ship with your crew and then plundering the riches of the unfortunate Christian denizens of fake England is an absolute blast.

+ Ravensthorpe starts off as a tiny Viking settlement and then can be gradually improved throughout the course of the game.  It's fun to see your settlement grow into a fully fledged city.

+ Less stealth.  Yeah, I said it, and it's something that not everyone will agree with.  There's considerably less sneaking in Valhalla, which made sense to me.  The Vikings in the game are all about brash combat and pillaging...sneaking and stabbing just doesn't fit in well with the general vibe.  That doesn't mean that you can't do stealth...you definitely can, but it does feel like they put much less of an emphasis on that particular playstyle.  I appreciated the fact that I could sneakily assassinate some people, but that if I messed up (which is almost inevitable) that I didn't have to waste a bunch of time fleeing from guards and trying to hide--I just had Eivor pull out her handy axe and smash some heads in.  There is a very low risk of alarms/signal fires being lit (there aren't many alarms in the game) and getting absolutely swarmed with enemies.  I know that AC purists have bemoaned the de-emphasis on stealth in the more RPG oriented versions of the series.

One of the best looking armor sets in the game.

+ Do you like shiny, sparkly things?  I mean, who doesn't!  If cosmetic items are your jam, there is a virtual Viking banquet of items to help make Eivor feel like your own, customized Viking raider.  Personally, I got a lot of eye joy from the many armor sets in the game--they're (mostly) beautifully detailed and give off a fun, Viking vibe.  Lighter sets have a more stealth feel, while the heavier stuff consists of plate armors and chainmail.  Eivor's look can also be further customized by purchasing differing hair (and beard) styles (which includes the option to change hair color) and with tattoos (designs can be found throughout the world by completing the parkour sequences to chase down the floating pieces of paper--like in Black Flag).

If customizing Eivor isn't enough, you can also unlock new decorations that can be placed at certain locations around Ravensthorpe to give it a unique look.  Eivor's longship design can also be altered by finding new longship plans scattered around the world.

+ Each region in England has its own story arc and some of the stories are fun.  Eivor gets to meet many influential figures from Viking and English culture.  There are many colorful characters to befriend (or kill...depending on how things play out).

+ There are some choices to be made--many revolve around choosing specific characters as leaders and they could possibly impact some minor story outcomes.  Some choices are better than no choices, right?  (I will say, it's a bit hard to tell exactly what impact your choices have)

+ I'm a sucker for mythical settings and Eivor gets the opportunity to spend some time meandering around Asgard and Jotunheim.  It's fun to see mythology recreated and retold through the game.

+ No bounty system.  Depending on a choice you make during a certain story sequence, you can avoid being chased down by the big baddies of the Order.  I greatly enjoyed not having to flee at inopportune times (like while stealthing through a military camp)

+ There's a great built-in photomode and it's easy to access your screenshots.  I wasn't as enthralled with England as I was with Greece or Egypt, so I took fewer screenies this time around, but it's nice to have the option.

Lighter armor has a stealthier feel.

+ Finishing sequences are fun and don't get old.  There's nothing as fun as impaling an obnoxious pikeman with his own pike.

Cons:

- Inexplicable crashing to desktop.  I experienced more of this with Valhalla then either Origins or Odyssey (which I believe I had zero problems with).  Basically, I was guaranteed one random crash per play session.  Sometimes I could play for hours with no problems and other times I would have one crash and then another 15-20 minutes later.  There was no clear pattern as to when/why this happened and I had hoped that the recent big "optimization" patch would fix it.  The crashing is mostly a minor inconvenience as the game autosaves frequently, but it can be quite annoying if it occurs in the middle of a combat area, raid, or story mission.  (I was playing on the graphics setting that my GPU defaulted to--if I were to go back and play again, I might turn down the settings or cap the FPS to see if that helps). 

- The question that everyone seems to be asking these days is whether the Ubisoft formula is getting stale and their games have become overly bloated and/or intentionally designed to steer players toward microtransactions and other cash grab schemes (Ubi has expressed some regrettable interest in the obnoxious field of NFT's).  I enjoy the AC games, but I always find myself walking away from them with a sense of relief--I'm just glad to be done with them.  I think that the games that are truly great are the ones that leave you wanting more--I've never felt that about the AC games and Valhalla has made me feel like I should throw a party to celebrate completion and that I don't want to play for a very, very long time.  It always feels like there are a million things going on in the game, but those things rarely feel worthwhile--for example, at the end of my playthrough Eivor had enough leather and iron to construct her own version of England from it.  What exactly was the point of gathering all of that (it was crossing some glowy dots off a map...that's it)?

In a perfect world, I would like to see an AC that was trimmed down and more focused on a few core storylines (like assassinations) rather than its current sprawling, bloated form.  (*It has been interesting reading articles about the number of creatives leaving Ubi--I've seen it described as an "exodus"--and wondering if maybe new blood could mean changes?  I guess it remains to be seen and I'm not holding my breath for any major changes...after all, they've already announced ANOTHER DLC for Valhalla)

- While some of the storylines and characters were memorable, the size, scope, and scattered nature caused me to forget who or what exactly was going on.  Each region has its own story arc, there are Order members to be assassinated, and then there's the main storyline that revolves around Eivor and Sigurd...oh, and there's also a few sequences related to the modern day story.  There's just too much going on and the main story in particular suffers from huge gaps between sequences.  It's hard to care when you can't remember who people (and, I suppose you do have your handy-dandy codex) are or what happened 50 hours prior to the events.

The modern day story is, of course, just as confusing as it always is.  Fortunately, there's quite a bit less of it than in previous games (something I've weirdly seen a few people lamenting).

- The "Grand Magister" of the Order was completely predictable.  It has been this way in every game and I wish there was more of a twist or greater mystery around your #1 target.

- I applauded the options for customization, but found tattoos to be a cool, but disappointing feature.  Unless you're planning for your Eivor to run around naked, you can't even see all those beautiful tattoos.  

-Playing as a completionist negates the need for any "builds."  I had ALL the talents + 29 points of mastery in each "class."  

Recommendation:

I think that if you're a fan of the newer iterations of the AC series that you'll find something to enjoy in Valhalla.  I found the combat and raiding to be quite fun.  I do think the game has become too bloated and that playing it in a completionist style (like I did) is almost guaranteeing that you'll burn yourself out on it--maybe my experience would've been better had I focused on the main storyline more and less on pointless gathering tasks.  If you're comfortable with a 100+ hour adventure, go for it.  If you want something shorter and more streamlined...give it a pass.