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Assassin's Creed: Valhalla - Review Thread

Warnen

Don't pass gaas, it is your Destiny!
still runs fine on gtx 1060 on 1080p thats more then good enough for all those that has those gpu laptops. looks good too


thanks I have a 1660ti at 1080p. I did can my preorder on epic but depending on how fast I get thru D2 might still be interested.
 

Hostile_18

Banned
Unity would like to have a discussion with you.
Once it finds its characters faces

Haha well sadly most franchises will eventually have a weaker entry you dont enjoy as much and from then on approach with caution 😉.

If Naughty Dog made a game about Kittens doing homework in Space, based purely on how much I have liked their previous work I'd give it a buy! 😁
 

VFXVeteran

Banned
Am I the only one that think this game doesn't look good at all ?
I'm playing on PC and it's uglier than Origin imo:

0qrMJe.png
0qrYek.png
0qroxx.png


Fully maxed out, it look ok but nothing more, and it surely not looking next gen. Am I missing something ?

What does a 'next-gen' game look like to you that's come out already?
 

VFXVeteran

Banned
Yes you are missing something. Assassin's Creed: Valhalla was never touted as the true next-gen Assassin's Creed game. It is the Black Flag of this new generation, a cross gen game that is stuck in the past due horrible outdated hardware such as the PS4 and Xbox One. We stress this in our review specifically and you have to accept it for what it is. We are not sure how it is a hard concept to grasp that this is a cross-gen period and you won't see true next gen titles of your favorite franchises until way later down the line at 2 years at most.

PC iterations are completely independent of 'next-gen' visuals as they already run modes in games that next-gen consoles can't even begin to run. Any 3rd party game can have next-gen visuals on the PC. There are several now that display as such (FS2020, Avengers, Crysis REmake, GodFall, Control, Metro, Cyberpunk, etc..)
 
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Isa

Member
Unity would like to have a discussion with you.
Once it finds its characters faces
My girl and I were cracking up over the bugs in your review. Loved those two warriors dancing in circles haha!
Maybe I'm just easy to please but Unity and other games with bugs like that, say bugs that break only immersion and not necessarily game breaking, I find kind of enjoyable like a movie that's so bad its good. I'd hope that Ubisoft would be better in releasing polished experiences, but my time with Unity was a laugh riot, my best friends and I still joke about how my buddy was trying to pick a lock in front of me but his model was like 30 ft away facing the other direction, and his arms were glitched like Stretch Armstrong behind him pulling a Dhalsim from Street Fighter. God his little hands were fiddling away with the lock! HAHAHA ah man.
 

devilNprada

Member
I never get fans who have played every entry enjoyed them but will pass on the latest title. You'd think after however many games they would have earned your trust.

I don't know man after origins and Oddessy, those games were huge I am about AC'd Out...

Also after playing GOT it's tough to go back to AC..... I have Valhalla Pre-ordered but those load times better be F'N fast....
 
Unity would like to have a discussion with you.
Once it finds its characters faces

:D:D

that game made a huge comeback within the fanbase once the biggest bugs were ironed out, time passed by and they changed the formula and is now weirdly enough often considered "the last good AC" by a certain part of the AC scene.

What struck me was how random the appearance of the bugs was: i never encountered anything close to the well known monstrosities in my playthrough at launch apart from the "usual" AC stuck in parcours that happens occasional and some technical difficulties in terms of framrate. but as said nothing too major. Storywise it was between interesting and predictable, in the end it was a love story (not mentioning the stuff going on behind the scenes at ubi about whether she should´ve been a playable character) and played out as such, what else do you expect from a story set in paris ;)
 

KyoZz

Tag, you're it.
What does a 'next-gen' game look like to you that's come out already?

FS 2020, Control, RDR II, Teardown are those who comes to mind right now. I'm of course only talking about the PC maxed out version of those games.
But I don't expect AC Valhalla to look like a full next gen title as I say before, but at least better than Odyssey. That's not the case and maybe I was expecting too much on the technical side.
 
I never get fans who have played every entry enjoyed them but will pass on the latest title. You'd think after however many games they would have earned your trust.

Nothing wrong with having a discerning eye and not blindly leaping on a game. I generally enjoy their games, but that doesn't mean I'm in love with them and am willing to overlook their many flaws.
 

TrainedRage

Banned
Just reported Uplay to the BBB and FTC. Fucking disgraceful.

They are selling games telling people they will be available, when they are clearly having issues. They are NOT telling people about the issue BEFORE they pay for it only after.
So you can pay for the game but cant access it due to "problems" sorry gotta wait 24 hours!!!!!11!!!
 

Arachnid

Member
I never get fans who have played every entry enjoyed them but will pass on the latest title. You'd think after however many games they would have earned your trust.
In situations like that, it's just fans trying to recapture the magic of some previous golden entry (Final Fantasy Syndrome). I've played every AC myself, but a lot have been super spotty. Syndicate, Unity, and Odyssey brought me almost no enjoyment. On the other hand, AC2, Revelations, and Black Flag (Black Flag especially, was the pinnacle of the series) were all fantastic experiences. Origins was also up there, though it never hit the same narrative heights.

Same reason I played all the Silent Hill games besides 1-4. Just trying to recapture those Restless Dreams.
 
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It’s unfortunate, in fact, that despite all the painstaking recreation of customs and costumes in Valhalla, most of the laughs it conjures are accidental. There’s a slapstick looseness to the way Eivor, NPCs and the world itself behave, giving many scenes the feel of Monty Python like spoof. Events jolt into motion without introduction. Bystanders get stuck in looped animations or deliver lines inappropriate to the situation. Eivor’s unwieldy parkour might see her prance gracefully as a gazelle or bound through sets like a disoriented kangaroo.
 

Hostile_18

Banned
In situations like that, it's just fans trying to recapture the magic of some previous golden entry (Final Fantasy Syndrome). I've played every AC myself, but a lot have been super spotty. Syndicate, Unity, and Odyssey brought me almost no enjoyment. On the other hand, AC2, Revelations, and Black Flag (Black Flag especially, was the pinnacle of the series) were all fantastic experiences. Origins was also up there, though it never hit the same narrative heights.

Same reason I played all the Silent Hill games besides 1-4. Just trying to recapture those Restless Dreams.

Theres a few series/developers I'd buy every game from until they fuck up once and then I'd do my due diligence before I bought a new installment. I just think sometimes you have to give things a fair shake, especially when they have a track record of success. Obviously peoples affinity for the Creed games varies wildly so my comment can't be applied to everyone. If anyone had franchise fatigue absolutely hold off.
 
The glitches in ACG's review are hilarious.

I'll take the advice and wait for them to fix the game up and for it to go on sale at a later date. No doubt it will be 50% off within the next 3 months.
:messenger_tears_of_joy: you weren't kidding, I decided to watch it and the dude running in circles made me lol
 

Dogman

Member
In situations like that, it's just fans trying to recapture the magic of some previous golden entry (Final Fantasy Syndrome). I've played every AC myself, but a lot have been super spotty. Syndicate, Unity, and Odyssey brought me almost no enjoyment. On the other hand, AC2, Revelations, and Black Flag (Black Flag especially, was the pinnacle of the series) were all fantastic experiences. Origins was also up there, though it never hit the same narrative heights.

Same reason I played all the Silent Hill games besides 1-4. Just trying to recapture those Restless Dreams.
Black Flag really was an incredible game. Kicked off the last gen for me
 
In situations like that, it's just fans trying to recapture the magic of some previous golden entry (Final Fantasy Syndrome). I've played every AC myself, but a lot have been super spotty. Syndicate, Unity, and Odyssey brought me almost no enjoyment. On the other hand, AC2, Revelations, and Black Flag (Black Flag especially, was the pinnacle of the series) were all fantastic experiences. Origins was also up there, though it never hit the same narrative heights.

The one golden entry in the series which seems to be AC2 which is great in its own rights and ezio is the best character (partly because he got the most airtime, three games and the most memorable theme which became the franchise theme) but the game has quirks as has every entry in the series. Still i think brotherhood is the better game, revelations had the most emotions, black flag was shite because of all sea combat in ac it is the worst and the grind with the jackdaw tedious (apart from the ship stuff its of course very good. edward is great, the narrative perspective and lore as well), Syndicate had an somehow addicting gameplay loop that caught me off guard and sucked me in (no homo), unity was ambitous in graphics and odyssey somehow is my second favorite after the ezio trilogy.

At some point the question should also be allowed when does nostalgia and personal circumstances at the time of the first playthourhg kick in.
 

sobaka770

Banned
Played the game for the first hour. The beginning is kind of choppy and jumps around a lot but I think there's great potential here.

1. Graphics look great. It's not in-your-face kind of beaty like Kephallonia but a slightly underrated hues of green and blue, very well done.
2. I don't know what ACG is smoking but combat so far is absolutely awesome. I HATED combat in Odyssey: too many weapong, armor, skills. It was a mess and it doesn't help that leveling curve was flat out broken. Every level is making your gear almost obsolete. This is slower but more visceral. I put difficulty on max and die in 1-2 blows which makes it more strategic and defensive while parry timing window is quite small. The results so far are great and enemies don't seem too spongey, worst case Ican break their posture. I hope this continues throughout the game because I really dig this experience for now.
3. Male Eivor voice actor is good so far.
4. You can still climb everywhere but for the first puzzle or two you had to find the proper path or get blocked. I hope this also continues.
5. There are separate difficulties for combat, stealth (guard awareness) and exploration. Cranked all to max for now, will see if balanced.
 
Benchmark does not work as intended. It must be caching shaders in the background. Make sure you run it multiple times. I suppose game performance needs a couple of minutes to stabilise.

Averages for 1080p on a 970, i5 9600k and 16GB RAM, max settings except shadows and clouds:
1st run - 19fps, a lot of stuttering
2nd run - 32fps
3rd - 22fps
4th - 37fps
 

Stuart360

Member
Benchmark does not work as intended. It must be caching shaders in the background. Make sure you run it multiple times. I suppose game performance needs a couple of minutes to stabilise.

Averages for 1080p on a 970, i5 9600k and 16GB RAM, max settings except shadows and clouds:
1st run - 19fps, a lot of stuttering
2nd run - 32fps
3rd - 22fps
4th - 37fps
Make sure your vram isnt topping out. I put everything on max settings with my 980ti, and the benchmark was running at an average of 15fps lol. I noticed the vram bar showed a full 6gb being used. I turned down Environment textures down once, the vram bar dropped to 4 something vram used, and the benchmark was at a full 60fps at 1080p lol.
Never seen vram topping out effect a game as bad as that.

Anyway i was playing Odyssey earlier today, and just been playing Valhalla now. Good news is cpu usage has gone down considerably for me, from 40-55% cpu usage on Odyssey at 60fps (Ryzen 2700x, 4.3ghz overclock) to amazingly 25-45% cpu usage. Looks like they finally listened to gamers after the moaning over cpu usage in origins, and especially Odyssey.
Gpu usage has gone up slightly compared to Odyssey, but not as much as i was expecting. I was basically able to use the same settings as Odyssey more or less, for the same 1080p/60.
Ryzen 7 2700x at 4.3ghz OC
32gb DDR4 Ram
GTX 980ti.
 
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Kenpachii

Member
Testing the game right now and frankly there are way less settings in the game for visual changes then before.

Setup:

1080ti 11gb 2000mhz
5,1ghz 9900k
32gb 3600 ddr4
3,5gbps samsung ssd.

Ultra settings at 1080p benchmark 60-70 fps
Low settings at 1080p ~85 fps.

Barely a change in performance at all and no its not the cpu that's even bottlenecking its the gpu.. maybe its just the area tho and just the most brutal spot that u can visit.

Anyway, at ultra if you experience microstutter and fluctuations in performance, lower volumetric cloud to high, disable depth of field and motion blur that will solve it.
 
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Karak

Member
My girl and I were cracking up over the bugs in your review. Loved those two warriors dancing in circles haha!
Maybe I'm just easy to please but Unity and other games with bugs like that, say bugs that break only immersion and not necessarily game breaking, I find kind of enjoyable like a movie that's so bad its good. I'd hope that Ubisoft would be better in releasing polished experiences, but my time with Unity was a laugh riot, my best friends and I still joke about how my buddy was trying to pick a lock in front of me but his model was like 30 ft away facing the other direction, and his arms were glitched like Stretch Armstrong behind him pulling a Dhalsim from Street Fighter. God his little hands were fiddling away with the lock! HAHAHA ah man.
As much as I fucking hate bugs and was disappointed to see so many reviewers discussing them prior to review and then NOT cover them in the reviews themselves I do feel Valhalla has some cool stuff there and the stuff they did Right I REALLY like
 

Isa

Member
As much as I fucking hate bugs and was disappointed to see so many reviewers discussing them prior to review and then NOT cover them in the reviews themselves I do feel Valhalla has some cool stuff there and the stuff they did Right I REALLY like
That's a good point. Of the few I watched(I didn't want to spoil much), yours is the only one that mentioned bugs at all. I appreciate the honesty and openness.
 

Karak

Member
That's a good point. Of the few I watched(I didn't want to spoil much), yours is the only one that mentioned bugs at all. I appreciate the honesty and openness.
Ya I saw a couple that did, but I was privy to a couple conversations where some of the bigger reviews discussing all kinds of bugs glitches and then magically none reported. Same with Spiderman and the crashes and graphics oddities that could popup.
Just really disappointed in that. I feel like somehow people are just letting down gamers and then letting them suck it up due to refunds. I have ever heard "well we don't know if everyone will have these bugs and people can refund" That just makes 0 fucking sense to me.

All that being said. We see games like Valhalla where there is good stuff in there but because people don't mention it when they should then the discussion from normal gamers is ALL about that. There is no expectation tempered with knowledge about what might occur.
 
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SinDelta

Member
How does Valhalla stack up to the rest of the series?

And if this is only a "interim" gen title like Black Flag was, then holy crap Valhalla certainly looks like a full fledged mainline game in scope and ambition. I wonder if the next one will be like the rumored Rome conclusion to Origins/Odyssey or something set in Russia/India/China/Japan.
 
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Stuart360

Member
How does Valhalla stack up to the rest of the series?

And if this is only a "interim" gen title like Black Flag was, then holy crap Valhalla certainly looks like a full fledged mainline game in scope and ambition.
It is a mainline game, just like Black Flag was (it was called AC 4 remember).
What people mean is that the first AC game on current gen was a cross gen title in Black Flag, like Valhalla is a cross gen title at the start of next gen.
 

ManaByte

Banned
How does Valhalla stack up to the rest of the series?

And if this is only a "interim" gen title like Black Flag was, then holy crap Valhalla certainly looks like a full fledged mainline game in scope and ambition. I wonder if the next one will be like the rumored Rome conclusion to Origins/Odyssey or something set in Russia/India/China/Japan.

The only "interim" games were Revelations and Brotherhood and then Rogue, which was released on the previous gen consoles and remastered on the current gen.

It goes:
Assassin's Creed
Assassin's Creed II
-Revelations
-Brotherhood
Assassin's Creed III
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
- Assassin's Creed: Rogue
Assassin's Creed Unity (V)
Assassin's Creed Syndicate (VI)
Assassin's Creed Origins (VII)
Assassin's Creed Odyssey (VIII)
Assassin's Creed Valhalla (IX)
 
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SinDelta

Member
It is a mainline game, just like Black Flag was (it was called AC 4 remember).
What people mean is that the first AC game on current gen was a cross gen title in Black Flag, like Valhalla is a cross gen title at the start of next gen.
The only "interim" game was Rogue, which was released on the previous gen consoles and remastered on the current gen.
Ok.

Going back to my first question - How is Valhalla? Loved Origins, can't get into Odyssey.
 
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Stuart360

Member
And it was AMAZING
Fight me people
So its worth playing then?. I have owned it on PC for years , but never played it. I couldnt get out of my head the idea that it was like developed by the c team, while everyone was working on Unity.
 

Kenpachii

Member
Playing it now and frankly holy shit at the intro that was good.

Also the game looks absolutely stunning, no clue what people were talking about on ultra settings.
 

Karak

Member
Did you enjoy it more than Black Flag?
WAAAAY more.
For me Black Flag was fan fucked for weeks and was good but no where near the flawless victory a lot of people pretended. Where Rogue was no where near as IN THE SHADOWS of Black Flag pretened.
But I will take Rogues more interesting story and protagnist and cultivated open world with less filler than Black Flag any day of the week.,
Just imho
 
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ManaByte

Banned
Did you enjoy it more than Black Flag?

Black Flag had a bigger world to explore in the ships.

But Rogue is basically set at around the same time as ACIII. The main character in ACIII is initially the son of the main character in Black Flag and then the grandson.
 

Senua

Member
WAAAAY more
I may just have to pick it up, slipped under my radar good n proper

Black Flag had a bigger world to explore in the ships.

But Rogue is basically set at around the same time as ACIII. The main character in ACIII is initially the son of the main character in Black Flag and then the grandson.

I never even played ACIII properly as I get so bored of it about an hour or so in. sounds cool tho
 
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Karak

Member
I may just have to pick it up, slipped under my radar good n proper
ya one of the best parts of it is it had almost every bit of activities and stuff as Black Flag but without the typical ubisoft filler, or as much at least. It felt like true exploration versus just a padded out icon fest that was there to trigger gamers collection boners
 
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