|
So I've been playing this game (I haven't played any AC games since...I think the first one? the one with Ezio?), and it's a lot of fun! I really like the boat stuff, and it's really letting me make good use of my new PC, which can play it in 1440p. I've been specializing in Hunting/Assassination (the bow in particular seems very strong; I can cheese most fights by just running away and popping people with poison/fire arrows). Couple questions: - When things first "open up," is it possible to align yourself with Athens instead of working with the Spartans to get access to your dad? I get the vague impression from the map that I could be attacking the Spartan camps instead of the Athens ones. - Is there any real downside to stealing a bunch of poo poo and killing dudes? I haven't noticed any GTA-esque "you get swarmed with cops and die" response, even when people notice me. My bounty increases, but that doesn't seem to really have any negative consequences unless you go crazy with it (since it's actually helpful to have mercenaries come after you, since you can get their gear and advance the Mercenaries thingy*). - Similarly, is there any advantage to knocking people out for situations other than recruiting them to your ship (or it being required for a quest)? Is there something like Dishonored where stuff changes in the story/setting if you kill more? - Is there any reason to board ships instead of just sinking them? I'm guessing you get more loot? - Does the size/appearance of the boat change as you upgrade it, or can you only do stuff like change the sails and masthead? * I was doing some early "kill 5 Athenian ships" quest, and it resulted in 3 mercenary ships coming at me at once. Took a few tries for me to beat them all. Then a mercenary 5 levels higher than me showed up and I paid off my bounty Ytlaya fucked around with this message at 18:50 on Jan 15, 2019 |
#
¿
Jan 15, 2019 18:47
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 9, 2024 23:58 |
|
|
So I just got to the part where the plot sort of opened up, and I love how goofy this is, with all the cults and bizarre alien poo poo and what have you. I don't really understand what the point is of the Assassin tree skill upgrade that reduces sound from movement/assassination. I don't think I've ever had an enemy notice me in a way that wasn't through direct sight, even without that talent. Maybe it only really helps at higher difficulties? I'm playing Normal (or whatever the default non-Easy option is). The one that makes enemy corpses disappear when assassinated is great, though. The only fight I've had genuine trouble with so far was the fight against the giant boar. I had to temporary respec to combat to beat it. The giant deer I just recently fought wasn't nearly as hard, since it didn't have other deers helping it.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 23, 2019 19:53
|
|
|
This is the only AC game I've finished (and one of only like 3 I've even played) and I liked it more than I expected. I thought that the whole thing with (basically end-game spoilers)Odin being terrible and Loki actually being pretty justified in everything he did was actually pretty clever. Particularly the way that the Loki/Fenrir situation completely changes when you realize that Fenrir was actually a regular person. So in "real life" Odin basically imprisoned Loki's son - who hadn't committed any crimes - because of a prophecy. I also somehow did not pick up on the Basim = Loki twist, even though their faces/voices being the same probably should have clued me into it long before. Basim's wolf and moon shirt at the end was funny. I also like that you can (also end-game spoilers)reconcile with Sigurd. Gameplay-wise, I really like the change where there's a limited number of weapons/armors instead of having a zillion that you constantly have to replace like in Odyssey. bike tory posted:I don't think I've ever lost one, what do y'all find difficult about it? I had a hard time the first few times, but then I got the hang of it and almost never lost. IMO the hardest ones are the ones with fewer cups, since the drinking speed can increase more by the end of the cup and it's harder to get into a rhythm. All the ones with many cups are easy though. Sakurazuka posted:Not much point now Tsushima is out and has better combat than every AssCreed put together Yeah, playing those games back to back make it extremely obvious how much more polished Tsushima's combat (which is generally the same sort of thing at its core) is. Everything just feels dramatically more smooth and fluid. Ainsley McTree posted:I'm still mad about how stupid the Dag storyline was, it almost feels like they cut out big chunks of the middle and didn't bother to write around it. The core of the Dag stuff is fine because he hated you from the very beginning because he originally wanted to be Sigurd's right-hand (a role you took) and was just looking for an excuse to declare you a bad guy, but the writing doesn't do a good job of presenting this (I think it might actually be hidden in the glossary?). FAUXTON posted:I just thought it was slicing off a finger or an ear or something, with various ragdoll jankery making it look like she's occasionally adjust slicing a filet off their asscheek or stealing a nipple or what have you The real reason Dag turns on you is that he came across your secret book full of hundreds of nipples you've removed from defeated enemies bike tory posted:I put the game into animus mode for the gender select and the forced ~gruff~ voice for sheivor got annoying after the second bit of dialogue so I think I'll switch to heivor for now I prefer male Eivor in this. Kassandra is dramatically better than Alexios in Odyssey, but I feel like male Eivor has much more personality and a good voice and stuff like the Eivor/Sigurd dynamic feels better with him. Ytlaya fucked around with this message at 21:51 on Dec 22, 2021 |
|
#
¿
Dec 22, 2021 21:01
|
|
|
I like when Eivor goes "Dwolfg, so nice to see you!" He just sounds so happy to see the pet wolf.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 7, 2022 11:20
|
|
|
TjyvTompa posted:Totally agreed, I much prefer Kassandra as the antagonist as she just works so well. Alexios is also a really chill dude to play as. I initially assumed something like this was the case, but found Kassandra to fit better. I think it's partly that the Odyssey protagonist is pretty morally dubious as this mercenary who just freely murders people on both sides of conflicts, and Kassandra seemed to fit that better for me (and Alexios seemed to work better as Deimos partly because Deimos is supposed to be socially/emotionally stunted). But with Valhalla my feeling is the opposite - I like male Eivor far more. His voice acting really sells the idea that he's this extremely charismatic viking dude. Female Eivor isn't bad, but just isn't quite as good IMO.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 7, 2022 10:40
|
|
|
Rinkles posted:gently caress, I hate when games do this. I spent half an hour trying to figure it out legit. I spent a long time confused about this. The game is generally good about avoiding stuff like this, which makes the few times it happens even worse (because you're not expecting it). bike tory posted:In case you don't care about spoilers: gently caress, I wish. It's actually (in case you don't case about even more spoiler) Ivarr, and believe me by the time you get to that point in his quest you'll be legit conflicted over the decision. ? I was not even remotely conflicted over the decision lol, gently caress that guy.
|
|
#
¿
May 21, 2022 08:38
|
|
|
bike tory posted:I mean obviously he's a psycho, but that's why it was conflicting imo. He was the epitome of the same dumbass nihilistic murder-battle-glory thing that Eivor subscribed to. Why should she deny him Valhalla for being better at it than anyone else? Ivarr always made sure the people he killed along the way made it to Valhalla. Eivor doesn't really subscribe to the same thing, though. He/she's generally pretty consistent about being a trustworthy ally and acting in the interest of their village, etc. Still a bad person since "people outside of allies" don't really register, but Ivvar definitely crosses lines that aren't acceptable by most other people in their culture (as portrayed in the game anyways).
|
|
#
¿
May 21, 2022 21:16
|
|
|
bike tory posted:Overall like I said, it's a very similar game. Unfortunately it doesn't really do anything better than Odyssey (the gear improvement system is more tolerable?), it does some things just as well, but it does a lot of things worse than Odyssey and seems a lot more generic. I drastically preferred the gear system in Valhalla, because it was a pain dealing with constantly changing gear in Odyssey. I also like how the gear you have is more visually detailed and it's kind of fun seeing its appearance change as you upgrade it (though I kinda wish you could sometimes leave the weapons at the second to last upgrade, because the final one would give a lot of excessive gilding and what have you).
|
|
#
¿
May 22, 2022 19:10
|
|
|
I wish they'd make a China AC game (like an actual one, I know there's that one side-scrolling thing). So much stuff to work with in that setting. Probably won't just because there's less for your average American consumer to be familiar with (since they're taught the broad strokes of European/American history in school and recognize figures/locations in all these games).
|
|
#
¿
May 23, 2022 21:27
|
|
|
KirbyKhan posted:
I haven't played the new DLC, but one thing I genuinely liked about the main plot was Odin basically being a piece of poo poo, even though you play from his PoV, and Loki being a sympathetic figure. Much better than I expected from an AC game.
|
|
#
¿
May 28, 2022 04:51
|
|
|
Looking forward to these new games. Valhalla was a very good time-waster game, even if something like Ghost of Tsushima is unquestionably a better game overall. I liked its general approach to gear significantly more than Odyssey (because I don't really enjoy gear management/upgrades and was thankful for how simplified it was in Valhalla). Valhalla also benefited from me genuinely liking the stuff with Sigurd (more than expected, given I usually don't care much for characters or plot details in these games). CAR CRASH CRACKERS posted:I like how it lets you deny him Valhalla and then lie about it to everyone. The most Odin option, more Odin than Odin even! I denied him and then said something like "Eh" when asked by his brother about it (IIRC there was some answer choice where you sort of dodge the question and say something like "he made his choices"). This apparently had a good outcome in terms of not pissing off his brother.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 7, 2022 06:16
|
|
|
Goa Tse-tung posted:funny, I always agreed with Ivarr and when the moment came he just said something like "you knew this was coming" Tricking a guy who trusts you so you can murder him in a not-fight to trigger a war seems like the opposite of a "berserker" way to go about things. I'd have more respect if he just directly assassinated the other king guy.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 7, 2022 09:15
|
|
|
I wish they'd make a China AC game (an actual one, I know there was that one side-scroller thing). Or India for that matter. Both giant countries with extremely long and eventful histories that don't come up much in Western games.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 8, 2022 05:23
|
|
|
ilitarist posted:Mario & Rabbids sequel looks rad. Assassin's Creed: Rabbids
|
|
#
¿
Sep 14, 2022 10:10
|
|
|
Cyrano4747 posted:Ubi really wants all their games to be platforms that everyone interacts with (and thus buys cosmetics for ) forever and ever and ever. It's really weird, because both Odyssey and Valhalla (the only AC games I've played since like 1 or 2) had these weird mechanics that encourage you to do MMO daily quests, but nothing about the structure of the games really encourages them being played in this way. The only multiplayer element I'm aware of is sending off your guys so they can be added to the mercenary crews of other people in Valhalla.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 5, 2022 03:06
|
|
|
Earwicker posted:its true, i've seen a pretty wide range of opinions about Valhalla but exactly none of them have been "this Basim guy is cool they should make a game about him". disliking that guy is one of the few nearly universal opinions about the game. I liked Basim! Though I'm kind of curious how this Basim prequel thing will work, since a big part of Basim's characterization in Valhalla stemmed from the whole reincarnation of Loki thing, which would be weird to work into a story in Baghdad.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 14, 2023 18:16
|
|
|
Here's what I want - an AC game set in Alabama in 1991, where you play as an employee of a local Dollar Tree store named Arnold Boon. You discover that everything is not as it seems at your church, and are forced to learn and adopt the ways of the Assassin to make things right.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 5, 2023 21:27
|
|
|
Buschmaki posted:Make a game set during the Imjin War that has 3 different protagonists, a ninja, a Chinese general, and a guy in the Righteous Army and make their playstyles correspond to hard stealth, combat, and social stealth respectively While this would be cool, I feel like mainline AC games are doomed to always fit into one of the following categories: - Europeans/Americans - Middle East/North Africa (a familiar setting that is mentally associated with the concept of an "assassin") - Japan (the Asian country normies are familiar with) I doubt we'll see something like a mainline game set in China, Korea, West Africa, India, etc because these games are very expensive and aim for a huge audience and it would be seen as too risky.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 8, 2023 19:48
|
|
|
Earwicker posted:Three Kingdoms era China is one of the most popular video game settings there is That's a good point if the game has a big portion of its audience in those countries (which I was not aware of if it's the case). But the vast majority of Americans are absolutely not familiar with Three Kingdoms-era China. It would definitely be a choice made with the assumption that increases overseas sales would offset any issues in the US/Europe. I really hope you're right since I would absolutely love to get a game like that, but *gestures at entire history of AC games up until this point*
|
|
#
¿
Jul 8, 2023 20:15
|
|
|
Dapper_Swindler posted:I don’t hate Valhalla but I haven’t beaten it yet. I like a lot of the little stories but eivore is just to stoic compared to bayek and kass. I like the various stories but it’s perpetual wheel spinning. I think Eivor (or at least male Eivor, who I prefer somewhat to the female one*) works well as a sort of charismatic "warrior poet guy." His voice actor is a huge part of this. I also like how he's primarily motivated by his personal relationships (with Sigurd being the biggest one, but you also have other people from his village, like Sigurd's wife). * this is unusual for me, and I unquestionably preferred Kassandra in Odyssey (and usually prefer the female protagonist option when there's a binary choice like that)
|
|
#
¿
Jul 20, 2023 09:54
|
|
|
I'm still waiting on my rural 1950s Alabama AC game, where a member of the Templars stole the protagonist's pig from their farm.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 6, 2023 21:32
|
|
|
For whatever reasons, Valhalla was the only one of the last 3 "mainline" AC games that I've been able to finish. I think a big part is that I hated the way gear worked in Origins/Odyssey. I very much liked Valhalla's approach of just having a relatively limited set of gear that you only need to upgrade a few times. I also found Valhalla's core emotional drama with Sigurd surprisingly compelling for some reason, and generally liked the way its "chapters" were often these relatively self-contained mini-stories. It also pleasantly surprised me with the core takeaway from the "you're Odin's reincarnation" stuff was "Odin was basically a huge piece of poo poo who everyone correctly ended up hating."
|
|
#
¿
Dec 29, 2023 08:20
|
|
|
^^^ I think this would be ideal, but I don't really trust them to do it very well.Valentin posted:the aliens are the best parts of the game because no one really wants them and no one seems happy about them. extremely check a box-rear end poo poo. it's "part of the brand identity" except they never figured out a way to integrate that felt normal and real and, for all that it's part of the brand, they have never ever ever been stupid enough to use it in marketing, lmao. I like the goofy ancient aliens poo poo! Can't tell you why exactly, though. I think part of it is that I expect more fantastical elements to these games. I don't really mind "mystery box" nonsense in a game that I'm mainly just expecting a pulp thriller plot from.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 30, 2023 11:38
|
|
|
Oldstench posted:Well I just "finished" base Valhalla. Still have some river raids and the roguelike crap to do, but I think I'm gonna put it away. Turns out I really enjoyed it. I was able to turn my brain off for 140 hours and it was a good time. I don't really analyze games or think about them in the greater context of the series they belong to, so most of the criticism that it got just misses me. Being a dumb is so relaxing sometimes. I can't imagine getting mad about a video game (except Sekiro). Yeah it's a fun game. I'm actually playing it a second time since it's on gamepass right now (which gives me a good excuse to play it in 4k/120fps on my PC), and it's very relaxing traveling around Good Graphics Land and checking off dots on my map while doing violence. Doing it on Hard this time, since I remember my first play-through feeling too easy. I also unironically like some of the story beats. I think everything they did with Sigurd was a good idea, because it gave me some investment in the plot. I had trouble in Odyssey because I just couldn't bring myself to care about the situation with Kassandra and her brother (and the rest of the plot didn't really do anything for me either). But I think Valhalla does a good job of selling "Eivor cares about Sigurd," and this makes the ending where you can reconcile with him very satisfying. And also kind of surprising, since I was expecting Sigurd to just flat-out end up as an antagonist (probably with a redemptive death scene). So it was a nice surprise when "he stays alive and continues to be your friend/adoptive brother" was an option. I think male Eivor works better for this for some reason I can't quite place. It helps that male Eivor has very good voice acting (especially compared with the radical difference in quality between Kassandra and Alexios in Odyssey - in favor of the former obviously). There were also a few decent stories mixed into the various "regional plots." One thing I've been reminded of is how bad I feel when killing animals in this game. I just fought some polar bars, and I feel like such an rear end in a top hat as my character brutally murders these beautiful creatures with an axe. Same with the various wolves I fight, who make "hurt dog" squeals/whines as you brutally axe them to death 
|
|
#
¿
Jan 12, 2024 17:47
|
|
|
One thing I only really have negative things to say about in Valhalla is the platforming. Can't count the times I've tried to leave me ship and jumped up the mast. It took me a while to realize that there are times you specifically don't want to press X, because it'll make you jump up anything you brush against. After a while you get a feel for it and can mitigate the annoyance, but it's still pretty ridiculous. edit: Unrelated, but when you do the one side quest about "the guy who constantly wins in fist fights," there's a document inside one of the nearby houses showing that he had fought and won against, among others, Fulke and Ivarr the Boneless. Valentin posted:valhalla is kind of incredible because you can feel a sort of vaguely (vaguely) interesting idea in there that's just crushed beneath the weight of everything else. I think male Eivor works well, largely carried by the voice acting. I tried both for a while but ended up settling on him. He's portrayed pretty consistently as a guy with the following attributes: - Cares about his brother - Generally enjoys just doing things and interacting with people (the voice actor is very good at conveying his amusement/joy at interacting with various weirdos) - Generally doesn't really give a poo poo about moral causes. He helps Hytham with the Order people mainly because it coincides with his own goals of "gain power/influence in England." He'll help individuals he comes across, but he has no interest in "devoting his life to a moral cause." - Is mostly disinterested in the weirdness surrounding him and Sigurd. He wants to understand more about himself (and particularly the whole "betraying Sigurd" thing, which is part of what drives his focus on "being loyal to Sigurd"), but doesn't take any of the Isu stuff serious. (One thing I actually liked is how, only late in the game, Eivor is forced to be like "okay Sigurd the insane poo poo you were going on about was actually true") The game is generally pretty good about showing (rather than telling) when characters are flawed/wrong. Like at the very beginning for example, where Sigurd's dad is basically correct and likely would have solved the problems with Kjotve via joining Harald. Or Odin being a piece of poo poo, but in a way that was hidden somewhat via making him a PoV character (plus the player's general inclination to think positive about the god your character is obviously the reincarnation of). Ytlaya fucked around with this message at 23:58 on Jan 14, 2024 |
|
#
¿
Jan 14, 2024 23:55
|
|
|
Cyrano4747 posted:Some Valhalla Thoughts: I feel like the core issue with the gameplay is that (as far as I can tell) everything can be dealt with via regular dodge, with zero concern for direction or anything. And the regular dodge becomes especially powerful with the "slow time on dodge" ability (IMO this and the "recharge recent damage if you don't get hit again" ability are the two most important things to pick up early - the latter also effectively removes fall damage, since you'll just regenerate it). All of this being said, I dislike stealth gameplay, so "you can just wade into large groups of guys and own them" is a selling point for me.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 15, 2024 09:38
|
|
|
Cyrano4747 posted:Yeah, the dodge mechanic is hilariously OP. I had entire boss fights that just went look for red flash > dodge > chew off 1/10th of their health bar > repeat 9x Parry is very good against normal enemies because it frequently stuns them, which is a one-hit kill (and at least on Hard, enemies have enough HP that killing them with regular melee attacks is slow). When normal enemies are attacking, it's generally fastest to just parry them followed by doing the stun kill. Also, it seems like you actually can parry some red attacks, though I have no idea what determines this. Like when spear guys do their red attack, I can definitely parry it. Actually, I think I can parry most "normal enemy" red attacks, with the exception of certain things like the big hammer guy's attack. I don't really know what's going on there. Maybe there are different kinds of red attacks?
|
|
#
¿
Jan 15, 2024 22:18
|
|
|
Ouroboros posted:So I haven't played an AC game since the Ezio ones and inexplicably had a jonesing for some AC. I had a brief look and am I right in guessing that Origins and Odyssey are the two best options for recent-ish titles? Should I start with Origins first or skip to Odyssey? The Greek setting maybe is a little more interesting to me but am I going to be lost storywise if I skip to it? I started playing a bit of Origins and I'm liking it okay but I'm getting the distinct feeling that its one of those games I am going to get bored with well before I run out of content. While most people seem to prefer Origins/Odyssey, it's worth trying Valhalla (particularly if you have Gamepass since it's currently on that). I personally liked Valhalla more for a few reasons.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 17, 2024 04:57
|
|
|
I just came across a very funny/weird bug in Valhalla. I'm riding with Ubba/Ivarr/Sigurd/Coelbert for a main quest, and just randomly on the side of the road is my longship, turned on its side with everyone in it. Not even very close to any rivers.Regensburg? Edit: lol my game crashed soon after, and the second time around there are two flipped over longships in the same place! Ytlaya fucked around with this message at 06:25 on Jan 17, 2024 |
|
#
¿
Jan 17, 2024 05:46
|
|
|
Speaking of stealth in Valhalla sucking, I just did what I assume is a Mirage tie-in quest with a lady with a smoker's voice. I tried to stealth it because the lady implied I should. I have no idea what the gently caress is up with the "use a disguise and stop at these various points to blend in" mechanics. At most, the disguise appears to marginally slow down enemies aggroing you. I frequently found myself completely trapped at one of the "blend in nodes" with some enemy looking right at me and never leaving. And the instant I stopped blending in he'd aggro. I was able to (sorta) get through the whole thing undetected, but it required a lot of save-scumming at various points, just hoping guys wouldn't aggro me. And even then, I reached one point with no blend-in places or other places to hide, and one enemy was a heavy who couldn't be assassinated. I was able to duel it out with him without getting detected elsewhere, at least. It wasn't good! I feel like the whole "wear a hood to disguise yourself and blend in" set of mechanics was some vestigal thing they had plans for but ended up mostly abandoning.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 17, 2024 10:04
|
|
|
When I show games like this to my dad, his main reaction is about the main character being a "monkey man" because of how effortlessly he scales everything Edit: I wonder if there are any sickos who don't name the wolf "Dwolfg" Eivor always sounds so happy when he runs into Dwolfg and goes "Dwolfg! So glad to see you!" Ytlaya fucked around with this message at 23:03 on Jan 18, 2024 |
|
#
¿
Jan 18, 2024 21:07
|
|
|
One other thing I actually like about Valhalla (that I think many other people specifically dislike) is the way it's structured as all these mini-plots. I think that most of those mini-plots are actually pretty decent/memorable? They usually have a decent hook and one or two memorable characters. It at least succeeds in making me curious to find out "what the deal is in this new place." And if you don't spend time wandering around removing ticks from the map, the "region stories" are usually very concise and have very little padding. You go there, meet the relevant characters and learn about the situation, and then the situation is pretty quickly resolved. This structure also keeps the main plot pretty straight-forward and devoid of padding, since it only progresses with major events spread out across the various mini-plots. Part of the issue I ran into in Odyssey is that I just didn't care much about its main plot, and if you remove that you're basically just left with a lot of wandering around and engaging with systems. I think one of the biggest differences might be that I have zero real knowledge of or attachment to "the original series," so the complete absence of "stealthing around and plotting/executing actual assassinations" doesn't bother me (though I can easily understand why it would bother someone who has played earlier games in the series). But it's not like Odyssey is good at this either, and I feel like Valhalla is a better implementation of "AC game that is basically just a hack-and-slash action-RPG" than Odyssey.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 22, 2024 23:44
|
|
|
I had a funny bug during the scene where (the second chapter with Ivarr/Ceolbert in it) Ivarr slits the throat of the Briton king's brother. Ivarr's model became paralyzed, such that he just shuffled around like a chess piece without moving his arms/mouth. It looked very silly. Ivarr sliding behind the king's brother and Ceolbert being like "Ivarr no!" Speaking of that chapter, the area its in is very pretty and definitely one of the better ones among the otherwise generally lackluster Valhalla environments.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 23, 2024 19:05
|
|
|
The thing that bugged me about the Odin stuff is that I kept trying to figure out "what actually happened," since you're basically seeing Eivor's "Norse mythology" interpretation of all the Isu stuff. Like Fenrir is presumably a person, etc. It just feels a bit muddled in a way that's hard to explain. The Odin areas are visually very pretty, though.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 29, 2024 05:33
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 9, 2024 23:58 |
|
|
Want Kiryu to have his own AC game...
|
|
#
¿
Jan 29, 2024 05:47
|
|