Assassins Creed Valhalla (Vikings)

EoinMcLovin

Title Update

https://www.ubisoft.com/en-gb/game/assassins-creed/valhalla/news-updates/9aSl6vtuqJlmqrs0XmXxx

PATCH SIZES:

• Xbox Series X|S: 25 GB
• Xbox One: 20 GB
• PlayStation 5: 6.75 GB
• PlayStation 4: 4.55 GB
• PC: 20.31 GB

NEW CONTENT

TOMBS OF THE FALLEN

Added four new Tombs of the Fallen to the game.

• Four puzzle-focused tombs are waiting to be uncovered across England. Did someone say Odin Rune?
• Unlock two new trophies/achievements upon completing one or three Tombs of the Fallen, respectively.
• Access requirements: This content is available upon unlocking the settlement through the main storyline.

OSKOREIA FESTIVAL - ODIN'S WILD HUNT

Added in-game support for the Oskoreia Festival to the game.

• Available from November 11 through December 2.
• New quests and activities, including horseback riding and a tournament against spirits.
• New spooky rewards.
• Access requirements: Players must reach England and complete one of the first two narrative arcs (Grantebridgescire or Ledecestrescire) and have a settlement at Level 2 to participate in the Oskoreia Festival.  

NEW SKILLS

• Perfect Parry: Parry LB/L1/Q in the nick of time to deal additional damage to the attacker.
• Master Counter Roll: Adds a Hidden Blade strike while executing a Counter Roll.
• Improved Bow Stun Finisher: Initiating the Bow Stun Finisher will now shoot arrows at all stunned enemies in view.

GAME IMPROVEMENTS

Main Quests, World Events, and Side Activities

Addressed:

• Unable to interact with AxeHead.
• Unable to escort convey in quest "Old Friends," marker did not move.
• Cavalier/Heavy Cavalry stopped fighting when the player was mounted on a Horse and was further away.
• Basim and Sigurd didn't follow the player in Brewing Rebellion.
• Quest NPC could be beneath the world in The Thegn of Lincoln.
• Cordial Invitation couldn't be started due to a dead NPC.
• Orwig Neverdeath didn't spawn in Hordafylke.
• Couldn't interact with NPC during Edmund's Arrow world event.
• Couldn't defeat boss in Binding Fate due to them spawning underground.
• "New Avenge Quest" celebration repeatedly appeared on the screen when looting or interacting with objects near the avenge corpse without picking up the quest.
• Unable to pick up Arc of Elan in the longhouse.
• "Exploration Area" did not disappear when tracking another quest.
• Discovery Tour: Viking Age - Quest objective didn't update in A Barter for Peace.
• River Raids - Removed fish to balance ration availability.
• Wrath of the Druids - Unable to interact with letter in Flann Sinna's tent during Courting the Kings quest.

Gameplay

Addressed:

• BattleCry didn't affect alpha animals during fights.
• Missing vibration or haptic feedback on PS5 after version 1.3.2.
• Level 2 Axe Fury did not receive intended ability modifiers.
• Numerous NPC behavior issues.
• Weapon perks not activating correctly or activating outside of their intended conditions.
• Numerous clipping issues.
• Some 1H swords could cost more to upgrade than others.
• Animals didn't go into the stunned stance emptying their defence bar with melee attacks.
• Fish could be seen teleporting when fishing under certain conditions.
• Helmets could still be displayed during some cutscenes, even when not intended.
• Eivor was unable to perform a forward roll when jumping from a height using M&K.
• Players can now toggle walk/run state during auto movement.

UI/HUD

Addressed:

• Numerous Menu Narration issues.
• Numerous UI/HUD issues.
• Constant New Quest alert since Title Update 1.3.1.
• Discovery Tour: Viking Age - The Playtime in Discovery Tour is displayed as 0hrs in game menu.
• Discovery Tour: Viking Age - Discovery Sites and Behind the Scenes pop-up is present during the intro cinematic in Seaworthy.
• Level scaling options did not show the correct values for the River Raid section in the quest log.

Graphics, Animation, and Audio

Addressed:

• Numerous graphics, texture, animation, or lighting issues.
• Numerous Colorblind mode issues.
• Improvements to some raven textures.

World

Addressed:

• Instances of misplaced or floating objects or textures.
• Instances where Eivor, NPCs, or the longship would get stuck.

Performance and Stability

• Improved performance and stability

EoinMcLovin

https://youtu.be/Ikn1a_IMeS4

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OmegaRed

The tombs were ok. Felt a bit like old school tomb raider in places.

Missed all the artefact as I went so had to go back and grab each one again

EoinMcLovin

Year 1 Achievements

Mr.Fantastic

Just digging into this, not really grabbing me in around 8 hours and finished the grantbedshire arc...

Seems like a huge amount of filler in it the combat is cool and the raids are a nice touch, it seems like Ubisoft Viking simulator rather than AC , enjoyed odyssey more than this.

Might try go a bit further but from reports and reading the forum people got burnt out fairly quickly.

EoinMcLovin

https://twitter.com/assassinscreed/status/1468626450546937858?s=20

The upcoming Title Update consolidates the game files, resulting in a smaller overall game size on all platforms. Additionally, performance should improve with this data restructuring, with faster loading screen times, improved world data streaming, and overall runtime performance

Download size from 1.4.0 to 1.4.1:

PC ~78 GB

PS4 ~67 GB

PS5 ~40 GB

X1 ~62 GB

XS ~71 GB

Disc space used after installing 1.4.1

PC ~77 GB

PS4 ~75 GB

PS5 ~77 GB

X1 ~63 GB

XS ~72 GB

Disc space saved after rebase:

PC ~34 GB

PS4 ~30 GB

PS5 ~13 GB

X1 ~30 GB

XS ~44 GB

Zero-Cool

I get a taste for this every once in a wine but never pull the trigger. I really want to play an assassin's creed game but the bloat reported on here puts me off. Nothing worse than filler in games. After a year of patches, has this changed much and worth getting at sale price?

CatInABox

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118296468#Comment_118296468

Go with Odyssey instead, it's a much more interesting game.

Cordell

Or Fenyx Rising for something similar but quite different made by the same studio that made Odyssey.

Mars Bar

I started Valhalla during the week and I am not digging it at all

Zero-Cool

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118296943#Comment_118296943

I got bored of Odyssey after about 12 hours which doesn't fare well for this. Fenyx Rising gameplay didn't intrigue me at all. Think I'm better off going with the Ezio Collection maybe.

Perseverance The Second

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118296468#Comment_118296468

I would recommend you go back in the series and start off with something like AC 2, Black Flag or even Unity.

I would avoid Odyssey at all costs. It's easily one of the worst games in the series.

EoinMcLovin

https://twitter.com/VGC_News/status/1469626482800611330?t=aI8CxM-WJlnByyDaoILtjg&s=19

The following is Google Translate：

The story takes place in the magnificent Nine Realms in the mythology of North, and here has been threatened by the invasion of the kingdom of frost and flames. The kingdom of dwarves in Wat Alheim is now falling apart; during the war, Odin's beloved son Badr was also unfortunately taken away by the immortal fire giant-Surut.

"Assassin's Creed: Valhalla"-Dawn of Ragnarok" is the most ambitious expansion pack in the history of this series: this time, Aivor must personally experience the fate of Odin, the war of the North and the destiny of the god of wisdom. The world of mythology, shouldering the urgent task of saving children, unleashing the brand-new supernatural power of the thunderbolt. After this shocking Viking legend, save your own flesh and blood before the gods are swallowed by the catastrophe.

The release date is March 10 , 2022

I passed on the DLC on sale as it was still over priced so I'll likely pass on this aswell. It's annoying as they have history as far back as the Ezio days of putting major plot points in DLC.

How I've gone along with this charade of an over all plot since AC 3 I don't know and how they have gotten away with it lol probably because of me buying the games every time.

Even Immortals felt like an assassin's creed plot after thought. Did they ever release that game shown at E3 that was basically just the the sailing bits from AC black flag?

Potential-Monke

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118300513#Comment_118300513

Wow... no. Odyssey is one of the best, it's just not the AC game that people wanted. I've said before, and I'll say again, the current AC games are exploring the lore of the First Civilisation and how they affected history. Odyssey does an amazing job in that regard, as long as you don't expect it to be yet another same AC that came before Origins. Odyssey has gotten the most hours out of me, and I enjoyed nearly every minute of it.

But I couldn't get into Valhalla at all. Tried twice, and gave up after around 6 or so hours. Feels like a step down from Odyssey. I had also played the amazing Fenyx Rising inbetween, so that probably marred my opinion a bit, as that game is just fun to play, and better suits this massive open world style they have going lately. I think mainly because it was fast to traverse so didn't feel like too much of a chore, and side quests/activities had actual variation and rewards, instead of just go here and find where you press X.

I'm waiting for Valhalla to be included in Now/+, and I hope it could be an launch title for the expected Spartacus service update. But that new DLC sounds fun at least. I got the physical gold edition of this for the same price as the standard thanks to Ubi points giving me a discount at the time, so I only need to buy/get the base game to have everything anyway.

Ridley

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118297234#Comment_118297234

The Ezio Collection probably is the best intro to the franchise although I would have said Origins-Odyssey-Valhalla as an alternative.

Can't fathom what Valhalla would be like for the first time AC player the way it juggles franchise celebration but keeps the Assassins somewhat distant.

Zero-Cool

I've played all of them except Rogue and Unity. Like mentioned above, i think Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla are such a leap a change from the games before, they can be considered a new franchise somewhat. I'm craving an AC game but don't think I'll get that from the new ones.

I like the idea of the openness of the new games but i just get so bored and yearn for stealthing from rooftops and double killing enemies with the wrist blades.

Ridley

Ah, I read it as first-time AC player beyond dabbling with Odyssey.

Someone on Twitter a while back just wanted the hunting of the Ancients side stuff to be a full game. Dunno if I'd want that - maybe a spinoff - but it feels like that's what Rogue could have been (except chasing down Assassins) if it hadn't been such a cynical quick release to see out the older console generation.

Perseverance The Second

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118311242#Comment_118311242

Not only is it a bad attempt at being an Assassins Creed game but It's also an aggressively average RPG.

I think parts of the main storyline and some of the characters have some merit. However it is absolutely buried by the mountains of grind needed to even begin the next stage of the journey, which is only compounded further by some of incredibly weak story elements such as the Cult of Kosmos. I cannot get over how the game made it blatantly obvious as to the identity of the head of the Cult, to the point it felt like the game bashed me over the head about it.

The only narrative element that has ever stuck with me from that game was a small sidequest called Flowers of the Dead.

Combat was incredibly dull with sponge enemies utilising an an incredibly poor level scaling system focused on increasing the enemies health bars rather than offering any particular new combat challenges like an good RPG would do. It has an incredibly bad mercenary feature where you can tell the AI blatantly knows where the player is rather than following the promise made by the game that their search area were only focused on where the player has been.

From an AC standpoint the lack of areas for freerunning and the lack of stealth orientated assassination gameplay opportunities for a number of the prominent enemies really let's the game down. I don't see how anyone can spec into some form of specialist stealth build whilst also wanting to take on some of the sidequests such as the Daughters of Artemis questline.

The world very much embodied the notion of being "As wide as an ocean, as deep as puddle" where you would see the same temple copy + pasted across a huge number of different towns and cities. Athens and Sparta being huge let downs when compared to cities like Paris, Constantinople and even areas in AC 1 such as Acre.

I will also say that i still can't quite get over why random people in the villages decide to pick up brooms and start fighting with the main character.

I think Valhalla is actually a step up on what a lot of Odyssey offered whilst also offering a better olive branch to veterans of the series. Although i still maintain that the series should have built upon the stealth gameplay systems introduced in Unity.

Sephiroth_dude

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118312437#Comment_118312437

Not played rogue but you should definitely play unity, don't mind the haters it's not as bad as people say it is.

Potential-Monke

Each to their own I suppose, I thoroughly enjoyed it for what it was.

Rogue, iirc, is actually not bad at all, if you can get over the Oirish accent. I remember enjoying it at least.

Zero-Cool

Speaking of the old ones, i just saw this list from Kotaku ranking all AC's. Lists are subjective but this looks subjectively ****.

https://kotaku.com/lets-rank-the-assassins-creed-games-worst-to-best-1844019813/slides/2

Dr. Bre

When is the next AC coming out?

Markitron

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118313127#Comment_118313127

Normally I would expect it to be the end of next year after it's year off, but it seems they are building some kind of live service thing this time so it will probably take longer.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118313118#Comment_118313118

Brotherhood at #10 and AC2 at #5. Yea those are some straight-up incorrect opinions right there. At least they got Unity and Revelations suitably at the bottom

martyos121

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118313118#Comment_118313118

Thanks for that Zero, needed a good laugh to get me through the day.

Origins at #1 and three of the top four just flat out wrong. 😂

Black Flag is the best for me, but I can accept three other games that might also deserve it based on differing tastes. None of which are included in that top 4.

EoinMcLovin

https://youtu.be/35asWSp49qM

https://youtu.be/k2F1-CTyPPU

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JimBurnley

Odyssey has a free weekend 16-19 Dec. Think I'll dive back in (traded in a while ago after finishing the dlcs) so can give this cross over story a bash. I loved Odyssey but couldn't take to Valhalla, this might give me a taste for it again

Penn

As much as I enjoyed Odyssey, I'm sure as sh*t not redownloading it again to play the crossover thing. Also, how have they dealt with how some people would have been playing as Alexios? Do they just play as Kassandra for this thing regardless?

Markitron

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118318319#Comment_118318319

Kassandra is the canonical character, which means that when they release marketing materials like this that is who they refer to. You can play as Alexios as normal. They have done the same with Male/Female Eivor as well.