Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Review (Uplay/PC)

Become Eivor, a Viking raider raised to be a fearless warrior, and lead your clan from icy desolation in Norway to a new home amid the lush farmlands of ninth-century England. Find your settlement and conquer this hostile land by any means to earn a place in Valhalla.

Pros:

• Beautiful graphics.
• Download size.
• Uplay achievements.
• Controller support.
• HDR support.
• Colorblind mode.
• Sensitive settings-assassination sequence, blood fx, dismemberment, and nudity can all be individually turned off or on.
• Toggle settings for crouch, aim, and quick wheel.
• Benchmark test option.
• Ubisoft Connect rewards.
• Ubisoft Connect challenges.
• Graphics-fullscreen, a field of view slider, fps cap, window mode, aspect ratio, resolution, v-sync, refresh rate, resolution scale, graphics quality preset, adaptive quality, anti-aliasing, world detail, clutter, shadows, volumetric clouds, water, screen-space reflections, character textures, depth of field and motion blur.
• MSI mystic light support.
• Tobii Eye support.
• Tutorial pop-ups and tutorial areas.
• Controller settings-Invert axis and sensitivity sliders, rebind buttons, and swap sticks.
• Can rebind mouse and keyboard.
• 3 exploration difficulties-adventurer, explorer, and pathfinder.
• 4 combat difficulties-Skald, Vikings, Berserker, and Drengr.
• 3 stealth difficulties-apprentice, assassin, and master assassin.
• Male or female character choice.
• Save when you want.
• Play how you want.
• Open world.
• Odins sight-shows all interactive points nearby for a short time.
• Raven-call at any time to scan the area from above and highlight key details and set your own markers which help with planning.
• Orlog-dice rolling mini-game. Roll dice and pick to keep 3 and invoke the powers of the gods to deal damage or earn gains for an advantage.
• Flyting-mini game involving poems and creating a flow, winning a Duel wields more charisma that opens up new dialogue options with people.
• Drinking mini game-rhythm action game controls with a button for steadying yourself.
• Find treasure maps.
• Main quest lines along with side quests. You have full control over what to do and what to pin.
• The compass at the top shows icons and distance.
• Blacksmith-used to upgrade equipment rarity.
• Massive hunt activities where it’s a face-off against huge animals and feels very Monster Hunter like.
• Loot/gear has rarity levels.
• Can pick up and hide bodies.
• Crazy details like footprints in the snow and using Odin’s sight to see animals weak points.
• Hunting of wild animals for materials.
• Gear can have slots and you attach runes.
• Basic crafting and upgrading can be done in the menu but a blacksmith is needed for higher-level gear and higher leveling options.
• The overall power level of your character based on your gear and the power level is used to give areas difficulty scores.
• A lot of puzzle elements.
• Book of knowledge-find these to unlock new abilities and you can equip up to 8 at a time. Duplicate ability books increase the power of that ability.
• Living breathing world.
• Longboat-can be customized and called upon from any docks, set the sail to go fast or press a button to have it follow the current.
• Focus button. Usually to show a point of interest.
• Synchronization points to uncover the map and show icons and act as fast travel points.
• Strong Assassin’s Creed wall climbing as always.
• Cloak-used to disguise yourself and blend in.
• Handy quick select dial to call your horse, ship or cloak, etc.
• Armor sets with unique buffs and appearances, you can further the buffs with the skill tree.
• Amazing snow effects.
• Panoramic and cinematic camera angles when on a horse or in a ship.
• Respec your skill tree at any time for free or even do each unlearn each skill individually.
• Multiple choice interactions.
• Settlement-get materials from raids to build up your base and unlock new shops, vendors, and options including gear creation and buffs, and new abilities.
• Monastery raids-raid all loot chests to get supplies and raw materials for your settlement.
• Boat-can listens to a song and even change the song or listen to a random story.
• Stables-train up your horse to increase stats or get new abilities. Choose animals/birds you have or change their appearance.
• Alliances-use the map and pledge yourself to other clans in order to get rewards.
• Find ore deposits all around.
• Animus Anomalies are self-contained platforming puzzles where you need to use reflectors and beams to navigate to the lost packets.
• Atlas-use this to travel to other countries.
• Each area has a power level and 3 bars of activities-wealth (loot), mysteries, and artifacts.
• Unlock new activities like fishing and hunting, return them to the settlement for rewards.
• The order-you find clues to the identity of Order leaders. You then must assassinate them which marks them off the Web of players but also grants a cool confirmed kill video and then some dialogue about them.
• Daily contracts to take for bonus rewards and currency to buy rarer unique items and cosmetics.

Cons:

• The game loves to restart after every graphics change it seems.
• Robotic movements in places.
• Stutter with scripted events about to happen.
• Odin’s sight looks low quality and pixellated as it sweeps across the land.
• Cutscenes can have awkward silences.
• During fights, the enemy and indeed your Ai can just stand still or look like they are fighting but in fact, are not.
• Long initial load time.
• Part of the beginning got me at first as one part was in an area that was over 250 power le els above me and I thought it odd. Eventually, I realized you could easily sweep in and trigger the scene but it wasn’t clear.
• The bird/raven is not as good as other games as it doesn’t trigger/mark enemies or points of interest straight away.
• Bit of a lull in the middle when you have to do a load of side quests and activities in order to push the next story mission.
• Skill tree unlocks over time so you cant see what you can get so there is a lot of u learning skills or resetting overall.
• Loot chests are not as rewarding and luxurious as before.
• Feels like you are too sticky and navigating ledges can have you stuck longer than you wanted.
• Combat can get sloppy and kinda messy.
• In raids, you need an Ai partner to help you open doors and chests and that doesn’t always work.
• Still not a fan of the out of the Animus sections.