Assassin's Creed Valhalla is a Game for No One

I completely removed the concept of AC from Valhalla and just played it like a Viking game. That’s where my enjoyment came out of

The old familiar phrase comes to mind. If you try to please everyone, you will please no one

I feel like ubisoft games are amazing if you have never played a ubisoft game before. And then the magic wears off after you realize all their games follow the exact same formula.

As someone who hasn’t played any AC, this video is still a great examination of why knowing your specific audience is so important in game design. You can’t make a game everything for everyone.

I think my love for Assassin's Creed died with Desmond Miles. I was kinda hoping for a modern day Assassin Creed where we could play as him after he's a fully trained assassin. When the games lost Desmond they lost what tied the characters from the past together. Now there's no through story to connect the games and characters, so none of the games after the first few feel connected to the main story.

I was really surprised to see that this is only your third video. You already sound like you have been doing this for years I'm impressed.

This is one of the most fair reviews ever. I also played the heck out of Valhalla, couple hundred hours, and enjoyed my time, but felt like it was lacking almost all the way through. It’s possible to enjoy flawed games while still recognizing their flaws.

i have to say the music from this game is out of world. sure it doesnt have a significantly mind blowing track like Ezio family but its music library is so huge and the viking vibe/theme is so good that i can listen for hours

I love it when you said ‘these stat boosts seemingly have no changes to gameplay at all’, because the entire rpg system of this game is fake. You can have +500 attack damage and you will notice zero difference in your actual combat. They’re only there as placebos, including the skill tree. No stats you gain there actually matters.

In a game called assassin's creed you should always have the option to stealth through an entire game if you want to. That's kind of the point of an assassin after all.

As an AC "fan" who hasn't played an AC since unity and hasn't finished one since 4, I literally burst into laughter after your brief summary of valhalla's plot. Ever since killing off desmond in 3, these games have had no arc to their plots at all. It's so obvious that they just put a bunch of cool sounding settings in a hat, pull one out at random, and try to make an AC story out of it. Without the modern day Desmond plot to tie everything together, there's nothing for a fan like me to care about. I have no reason not to just play a better stealth game, or a better action rpg, or a better historical game, or a game with a better narrative, or a game with better dialogue and romance options. These games have no identity, no soul. I'm baffled that people can find anything at all to enjoy about these modern AC games. To me, this series died with desmond in AC3, and should have just ended after revelations. Without Desmond, without the animus, without the ideological war between assassins and templars, without a grounded historical setting, there is no Assassin's Creed.

I think the short and sweet explanation would be "Assassin's Creed died with Desmond in 3, but they kept using the name. We didn't know at the time but something else was wearing its clothes after."

Finally somebody mentions the "constantly getting knocked out of sprint" issue. That drove me crazy, especially while doing all those (incredibly annoying) flying paper puzzles. The parkour in this game is fucking terrible but they make sure you have to use it in the stupidest way to collect all the garbage.

It's so hard to go back to AC for me after Ghost Of Tsushima. The combat in that game was just so nuanced and dynamic. It really lead to alot of cool emergent gameplay opportunities and fun physics-based reactions from your ghost abilities and tools. Not to mention that Tsushima doesn't limit you in anyway, no stamina meters or anything like that.

I had so much fun just being a Viking in this game, catching arrows and spears and just chucking them back at enemies. The story and writing is tapwater, but it is at least fun

I love Valhalla. I have over 520 hrs logged (I injured my knee and couldn't walk for a long while) on the normal difficulty and I have restarted now after a break on the hardest settings. Loving it all over again. It's fun to pretend to be a Vikings!

The writing in these newer games is god-awful too. In odyssey the characters who talk about Alexios growing up on Kephallonia all mix up the story. Markos says he found him on the street, stealing food and Alexios even says that is how he met Markos to Phiobe but literally 5 mins before that we get a flashback showing Markos finding Alexios on the beach after washing up there 😩 how dumb do you have to be to mess up your own story in less than 5 mins of establishing it

Hard to believe Valhalla is from the same team as Origins. Origins is still my personal favorite of the rpg AC's. It had the perfect blend of immersion, stealth and combat. Egypt is one of the most downright gorgeous and mysterious locations AC has ever had.

This game was just incredibly painstakingly long, it was a relief to finish so i didnt have to play anymore

I don't know whats going on with resolution quality in this video but other then that, it's like someone much more competent in expressing themselves read my mind on Valhalla and made a video about it. Great job, keep it up!