Until recently, I was under the illusion that I would return to Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and finally finish this game. I’ve already tried several times, reinstalling it after removing it from the disk. But it’s time to stop fooling yourself. With this text, I admit to others – but also to myself – that Valhalla has beaten me. However, I believe that the problem is not with me.
I can barely remember the fascination I felt after playing Origins , the first part of an ancient trilogy. It was an authentic breath of fresh air, and finally bold and successful changes: a bit of a move towards RPG, an emphasis on collecting equipment and, above all, stunning Egypt. I was so charmed by the new direction of the series that I completed all the expansion packs for Origins.
And then Odyssey came. Seemingly still good, but with a less charming world, and a map more full of activities that were not fun, such as “bring, serve, sweep” missions. The charm known from Origins escaped somewhere and after playing all the DLCs to the previous part, I didn’t even feel sorry to abandon the game in the middle of the story.
Meanwhile, Ubisoft was just getting started …
Valhalla improved the situation a bit, because Ubisoft changed the approach to side quests. They were quite interesting, and most of all they were short and played in a small space, so they didn’t require too much running. However, even that wasn’t a remedy for the main complaint I have about this game – and the series in general. My stats in the trilogy are as follows:
- In Origins, I’ve killed 3006 enemies and committed 625 assassinations;
- In Odyssey, I killed 1,498 enemies and committed 315 assassinations;
- In Valhalla, I killed 3,875 enemies and committed 488 assassinations.
This is a total of 8379 homicides and 1,428 assassinations. My fights are so sick in my nose that the very thought of returning to missions in which 30 people are killed each make me sick . These games simply have too many opponents to defeat, and since each major fight lasts at least a few minutes, the game drags on mercilessly. If we divide the number of enemies by three, wouldn’t we get a more condensed, less tedious experience?
Perhaps I would have survived longer, if the fight in the trilogy had not been so painfully loud, exaggerated, and devoid of weight at the same time. It is rather reminiscent of anime scenes such as shonen or Korean MMOs, rejecting any hint of realism. I do not feel seriously treated by Ubisoft when Kassandra kicks the opponent several meters away, and colorful lights flash from the Eivor ax with stronger attacks . There are many things that can be said about the combat systems in the parts released before the ancient trilogy, but at least the matches looked relatively real, and we saw more than a few enemies on the screen less often.
I must point out here that I am completely exhausted from the fight despite reducing Valhalla’s difficulty to the absolute minimum. I did it about halfway through the game, so that the enemy bars would run out faster. Now I can’t imagine playing on a normal or even – olabog – high level. The challenge is fine, but with such a curiously high number of enemies, extending the fight is more of a psychological challenge .
I thought that the remedy for Valhalla weariness would be the next additions, but what about the fact that they offer quite interesting locations, when at the same time they invite you to the fight again, at the sight of which I roll my eyes. Only the enemy character models change, which doesn’t help.
Read Also: [Retro Review] Assassin’s Creed II – the best game in the series
I do not know what Ubisoft is planning in the context of the next installments of Assassin’s Creed, but I keep my fingers crossed that the fight will be bearable enough to be watched for many hours – because I do not think that the absurd number of enemies to defeat will be abandoned. Meanwhile, I’m saying goodbye to Valhalla and uninstalling it from the disk for good .
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