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Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Review — It’ll Get You Hooked But Some Refinement Needed
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Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Review — It’ll Get You Hooked But Some Refinement Needed

by November 26, 2020
Positives

+ A game for the open-world lover
+ Decent combat system
+ Plenty of content to go around
+ True RPG elements

Negatives

- Bugs are common in the game
- AI not the smartest
- Quests can be repetitive at times

Pokde Scoreboard
Pokde Rating
Value
8.0
Gameplay
7.9
Visuals
8.4
Replayability
7.0
Storyline
7.0
Bottom Line

Assassin's Creed Valhalla has improved on its recent predecessors while still being original on its own. While it's fun and would probably take countless hours from you, there's still some improvements to be made.

7.7
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We’ll be taking a look at Ubisoft’s latest game from the AC franchise in this Assassin’s Creed Valhalla review. If you’re wondering whether you should get the game or not, we’re here to help you. Let’s get started.

This is a spoiler-free review of the game

What is Assassin’s Creed Valhalla about?

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is an action RPG and it is the 22nd entry in the franchise, with the previous title being Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. The game is set in 873 AD, where you play as Eivor during the Viking invasion of England. If you’re familiar with the game franchise, there’s the conflict between the Assassins and the Templars.

In the game, it is just a simulation that’s done through the Animus system, with the real character behind Eivor being Layla Hassan. Join her in the quest to prevent the apocalypse of the world.

Prepare to Spend Countless Hours

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The previous two games from the franchise, Origins and Odyssey, have provided a huge open world for you to explore and with Valhalla, you will be getting the same treatment here as well, with plenty of side quests to do. If you’d rather save your time, you can simply opt to do the main quests, no harm in that. We would however advise you to the former however to farm your gear and experience to make it a smoother experience in the game.

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Personally, I feel that the game started off rather slowly. Not going to lie, I thought it’d be a bad experience for me. I mean at the end of the day, you want to be straight at the heart of the action. As I dive deeper into the game, that opinion changed. I was hooked by the story, which I would say is decent enough but some parts were rather predictable.

On the matter of gameplay itself, I found myself encountering several bugs in the game. I thought to myself to try the game both on PC and PS4 Pro, and straight away on the console, I found an issue. In an early cutscene, the game showed Eivor to be invisible. It didn’t stop there though as I continued on (after the cutscene), I was still playing as a kid Eivor, which I was supposed to be an adult already by then.

The worst out of them all is when I literally got stuck in snow and rendered completely helpless. The only thing that I could do was restart the game by loading my most recent save. My experience on PC however was different. While there were still bugs, it’s definitely not game-breaking or as severe as what I’ve experienced on my PS4 Pro.

Flexibility in Gameplay

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If you’re a big fan of the combat system from the previous two games, you wouldn’t be disappointed with Valhalla’s version. It’s easy to get the hang of it and there’s nothing overly complex. As usual, you can perform light attacks, heavy attacks, and dodge your enemies.

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Though the AI in the games offer a decent challenge, I find them to be… not really smart. As you can see from the screenshot above, a horde of enemies were chasing me. I ran to a house and shut the door. To my amusement, they didn’t continue to hunt for me. I thought they would after I open the door but instead the opposite happened. I could simply shoot them down with my arrows.

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Here’s the Inventory section of the game. It’s where you get to customize and adjust your loadout according to your liking. There are a handful of weapons in the game but I personally find that dual-wield fits me best as I prefer the faster DPS instead of a weapon that uses both slots and hits slower, albeit with more damage.

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They’ve changed the skills and talent tree in Valhalla. As you can see, the ‘talent tree’ is basically filled with nodes. As you level up, it points where you can unlock stats and skills. The red nodes focus on normal combat, yellow nodes are for stealth and the blue ones are for ranged bonuses. Somehow, this system reminds me of the sphere grid system from Final Fantasy X, but maybe that’s just me.

Despite that, each of them do offer other stats from their category to balance it out. The big nodes will unlock special abilities, which you can then use in the gameplay to your advantage.

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One of the things that I like in Valhalla is that you can build up your settlement. Being seen as invaders of England, you’d definitely want to get a foothold on the land. Not only are you able to create buildings, but there are also diplomacies to take into consideration with your neighbors in fighting the English. Of course, you’d need to do certain quests and tasks to upgrade your settlement to its best condition.

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So you might be wondering how exactly can you get materials to upgrade your settlement. Well the answer is rather simple and appropriate for the game; raids. Befitting of the Vikings, you can raid other areas with the help of your crew to plunder for treasure. Though I certainly appreciate it being a part of the game, it can get a bit repetitive.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Verdict

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At the end of the day, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla ranks well with its previous two predecessor. If you’re someone who enjoys open world action RPG, you’ll most likely enjoy the game. Aside from the bugs (which is quite common with open world games), I didn’t have any issues with the title. In addition to that, it could be solved by patches and updates. It’s worth noting that I got an early copy, so bugs would be more apparent compared to now.

Personally, I’d be willing to spend the RM189 (standard PC version) price that Ubisoft is asking. If you’re not, you can probably wait a little while longer for a sale. It’s definitely a worthy game if you’re looking for one that you could spend hours on. For that, I give Assassin’s Creed Valhalla our Silver Pokdeward.

Pokde-SilverA big thanks to Ubisoft for making this Assassin’s Creed Valhalla review possible.

About The Author
Raja Idris
The name's King, Kingky King. Likes to keep it simple and straightforward. A person who games regardless of what platform. Need value for money performance? Get AMD.

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