Assassin’s Creed took several years to change, but it is finally a full-blown RPG game.
With the 17 November launch of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla on PC (UPlay, Epic Games Store), Xbox One, PS4, and Stadia, it will be completing the transition that started with Odyssey and Origins. In this new title, the franchise saw a sway from its sneak and stealth mechanics to open-world gameplay and fans are not too happy with the changes given the past trends. Find out what exactly went wrong.
Thanks to Ubisoft Forward, fans got a good look at the all-new Valhalla, the next-gen game from the Assassin’s Creed series, and turns out it isn’t an Assassin’s Creed game.
As more information about the story and gameplay is released, it turns out that there are little to no arcs regarding the struggle between the Assassins and Templars.
The only hints we got are that there is a hidden blade, and it isn’t technically hidden, go figure! Here’s what we think will be all the things Valhalla got wrong, and you might not like it.
1. All Aboard the Historical-Action-RPG Train?…Meh
The Assassin’s Creed franchise is one of Ubisoft’s highest-grossing titles, but given the recent releases, it is clear that the developers are done with the franchise.
But the game giant is not done extracting the revenue from it and is keen to milk the historical open-world setting.
With AC: Odyssey, it was all too obvious how it didn’t fit in the franchise, and the fans felt that the husk of a large map combined with unnecessary RPG elements didn’t fit in the Assassin’s Creed Universe.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is no different; the game seems to have been a Viking kill and raid simulator rather than playing the silent assassin taking down people higher up in the ladder to pave the way for the greater good.
Not to say that this is all bad gameplay, but doesn’t exactly fit the AC universe.
Maybe a stand-alone like For Honor? For Honor was on its own complete and didn’t need to rely on any major title’s tagline.
This is not something new, going back as far as to BlackFlag, arguably one of the top games in the series gameplay-wise was also the least connected to the actual storyline.
This could have been a great point to pivot to a non-assassin related franchise, but alas, they didn’t go that way, and here we are.
But the storyline not containing enough assassins is not the only problem; the change in combat doesn’t bode well too, let’s see how.
2. Death of Stealth Combat
The combat in the new Assassin’s Creed is quite the cornerstone for the new direction the franchise is taking.
Earlier games had the combat such that a failed assassinated attempt would alert the nearby NPCs that would come close, causing trouble, but were easy to dodge.
The assassin could sneak out of a botched attempt virtually unhurt. Ezio could blend in with a large number of baddies and still come out the other end alive.
Ubisoft decided to make it a bit harder and evolved the combat mechanics to include more large scale battles than stealth assassinations. But how does it affect it, Valhalla, a new-gen title?
In Valhalla’s trailer, the first major fight is shown to be a large scale battle, and it is clear what kind of combat players can expect from the game. Even the ‘hidden blade’ is not exactly hidden.
Ubisoft had two major options to choose from, evolve the fighting or to make stealth harder altogether.
This led to the large scale battles of Odyssey and the death of stealth as we knew it. Maybe this was all made up for with the better graphics, but did they?
3. Breathtaking World Graphics but Not the Characters
Those who played the demo for the next-gen Assassin’s Creed all agreed on one thing that the game landscapes are breathtaking. The game seems to be a staple for high-end PCs and next-gen consoles.
Though how optimized it is for medium spec machines, only time will tell. Almost everyone was taken aback with those sky graphics; the clouds look as voluminous as in real life with light rays filtering through the available space in between.
Lightning in the middle of the night looks almost life-like, and the water particles make use of clever wave technology to appear as real as possible.
Still, the same cannot be said about the character design sadly, and this is not something you can ignore while playing.
The character face rendering is not at all on par with the landscape graphics. Yes, the trailer’s footage looked picture-perfect, but that is only a cinematic trailer, and it’s a far cry from actual gameplay.
Older AC titles had many historical references and the assassins vs templars subplot to balance it out, but the same is not the case with Valhalla.
The new RPG elements such as open-world side quest even though sound good on paper, but do they make the gameplay interesting, let’s find out?
4. Witcher Like Gameplay But Does it Fit?
Valhalla focuses on providing witcher style gameplay so those wishing to play while wall climbing and using the assassin techniques will be disappointed.
Even though those options are still available, most of the major fights throughout the game will not be focusing on that.
This can be seen in one of the many boss fights in Valhalla, which was not seen in the AC series before; maybe tactics from Dark Souls are flowing over.
The new “raids” expect you to rush the enemy and fight through their fortifications, and the enemies around you are increased from a couple to nearly a dozen.
Even though it sounds like an epic battle, the bodies dropping around are not properly programmed to make it feel so.
Maybe this would be fixed in the stable release, but who knows? And with the high number of enemies around you, majority of the time, you don’t know who and what you are hitting that diminishes the combat gameplay by a large factor.
All this boils down to whether the game is worth it or not? Read on and decide for yourself.
5. So Should I Not Buy it?
Granted, the game has not been exactly the assassins stealth game that you wished it to be, but those of you who enjoy open-world experiences and want an AC game with fewer assassins and more epic battles, then this is exactly for you.
The Viking’s backstory is the added advantage; this title would nothing be short of epic battle montage. For players who are looking to charge into battle and take down the Aristocats to start their settlement, this game is going to be right up in your alley.
For the gameplay mechanics, they might be polished in the actual releases next month, and for any new information, new blogs will roll out, so stay tuned.
6. About Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
Valhalla is Ubisoft’s next Assassin’s Creed game, all set in the Viking Era, where players will be playing as the leader of a Viking Clan when the game comes out on November 17, 2020 and take on the Saxons as they establish their place in England.
No Comments on Why is Assassin’s Creed Valhalla so bad?