I just want to say that with how awesome Odyssey was, I didn't expect you'd ever beat it. But there are many things changed, that were improved upon during Odyssey's time and I cannot fathom why they weren't in from the beginning in Valhalla.

General changes that make the game feel really bad:

• bird doesn't mark anything, and thus doesn't need "perception increase" from viewpoints which makes me not even care about doing them most of the time. This also makes fights absolutely horrific, as it's already unclear half the time when an enemy is going to strike especially when you're engaged with another enemy or 3 already stunlocking you. It makes me have to keep pressing Odin's site (because it can't be held in like Odyssey's could) to see where enemies even are
• it is such a chore to try and get something new to use; I've turned the game off multiple times because I'll get somewhere and after playing puzzles for 10 minutes, trying to move around with the awful parkour system that is the slowest thing I've ever tried doing, I'll get to the chest and it'll have "locked" on it. Like... I get that the rate Odyssey dropepd stuff may have been excessive, but my goodness. It takes forever to get some of these and you just never know if it's going only be unlocked via a quest, or there's a key, or if you can even get the key. There's a bandit camp near Grantbridge with one of these and despite seeing the key on the heavy, it doesn't loot it and I can't open the chest. It's just not fun never getting anything new to try
• the runes system seems like it was developed as a checklist at the last minute, did anyone try using one rune that's on a piece of gear on a different piece of gear? LoL. It's the worst thing about the gear system by far. You have no clue what is installed where until you mouse over, read, and hope to have memorized what the piece of armor you wanted it on was called. Why? Why isn't there an Odyssey-like system where you just "unlock that engraving". Because that sure seems to be what the UI was made for. You can't even uninstall a rune without finding which exact one it is and uninstalling it. Then, of course, if you have more than one of the same (-1.0 weight) installed on the same piece you'll end up having to add another layer of clicks to find out whther you're going to have them swap places or un-socket it. Just horrible. Not to mention they're also very vague and usually not even worth it. 5.0 damage to Elite... okay... is that 5 total? 5 percent? 5 percent additive before "critpre" ( <- what) or...
• Having stamina, and adrenaline, and health, and maybe block, and dodge but sometimes not enough, and "finishers" (which ironically don't finish much of anything), and stun... it's all just too busy. Odyssey felt so good. You felt strong. You felt like the Demi-God you were and you felt yourself getting even better. This whole combat scene is either the easiest thing you'll do in 10 minutes, or so frustrating that it's impossible to enjoy because archers that can walk backwards faster than you can run forwards and connect a blow, or pike men that are actual demi-gods and avoid all of your attacks, or this guy/that guy that do this or that by reading your inputs, or anything not 2 handed feels like it doesn't have enough reach.

I could go on but this is already really long. So here's some stuff I already miss from Odyssey, so much that I'd rather go back to it than keep playing Valhalla:

• the bird not marking things
• gear dropping
• ability menu, and abilities, feeling like they're worth using
• viewpoints having more meaning than "fast travel"
• gear transmog
• scroll speed of menus making sense
• no stamina; so always running without having to worry about other buttons
• real chain assassinate
• "confirm kill" characters *always* dropping something good
• gear sets with actually good and descriptive bonuses
• engravings; abiltity to move gear traits from one item to another
• bodies vanishing after assassinating so you don't have to hide in bushes/carry bodies if you want to play stealth
• more than 2 songs on the boat
• craft able arrows (cannot fathom why this isn't possible... it's not fun... 15 arrows isn't enough for 15 enemies when one single enemy takes 3-10, if they don't read inputs and move)
• animal companions
• a nice world that is usually nice weather, doom and gloom just isn't great. Location accurate or not.
• Appropriately priced packs in the store... we're up to $20 now for a good pack? Not cool. I thought Avengers was bad at $14.00 for a skin. Way, way, way too high. Regardless of them coming maxed out already - most of the traits are in line with other outfits in game (crap and doesn't feel good to get)

Sorry this was so long, and sorry if any readers disagree. I just wanted to take a minute to express how change isn't always good. I went from Origins (pretty good), to Odyssey (10/10), to Valhalla (wait... what? It's Syndicate + Origins). I don't know. I really hope you guys can make some quick changes as I didn't even cover the incredible and almost unreal amount of bugs nad game breaking issues and crashes in this. It's bad, really bad. Which is a shame because so far the story-telling is great too.

For now though, I think I'm going back to Greece.

@droid8apple it's just generally a bad version of Odyssey. That whole killing a boss to get no reward is such a huge downer IMO.

@droid8apple
they also removed the feature that npc civilians turn against you when u kill several of them.
just make it a de-sync so less programming?
very inaccurate for a "viking" game

the bird doesnt need to mark anything you can mark everything with odins sight theres also an ability you can get that automatically highlights all enemies nearby when you crouch for a few seconds

@roxxai - The Odin's sight only works at close range and disappears after 10 seconds. The bird sight in Odyssey had much greater range so you could spot enemies in the distance and could plan your strategy much better with that and it permanently marked them or at least much much longer from what I remember. The bird sight is basically useless in Valhalla.

@droid8apple - I feel your pain man, but I am still moving forward playing this game as it is still good but yes there are so many areas where Odyssey is better. I also find that the Odyssey Story line was much more interesting and compelling as it was about the protagonists family. In Valhalla the protagonist has no family and he is just motivated by glory and fate and greed.

@droid8apple -

@droid8apple - I feel your pain man, but I am still moving forward playing this game as it is still good but yes there are so many areas where Odyssey is better. I also find that the Odyssey Story line was much more interesting and compelling as it was about the protagonists family. In Valhalla the protagonist has no family and he is just motivated by glory and fate and greed which is basically the same for each and every Viking that ever existed. In Odyssey the protagonist is god-like, legendary and so much more interesting. Also another main weakness is that the raids are few and far between so there is too much story and too little combat. I would add to your list below:

Summary of Additional Complaints

1. Story is weak and uninteresting compared to Odyssey
2. Protagonist is un-godlike and pedestrian compared to Odyssey
3. Too little combat and too many boring cut scene/dialog interactions compared to Odyssey
4. Weapons are uninteresting and way too similar to each other compared to Odyssey. For example, Odyssey had cool and unique weapons like Poseidon's Trident for going under water without having to breath.
5. Runes are weak upgrades
6. Upgrading weapons to mythical status requires very rare resources such as Tungsten. I do not want to have to fish and trade fish to get tungsten to upgrade my weapon. How many hoops do you want me to jump through???
7. Order of Ancients and the targets are barely introduced with not much background or mystique. It appears they assume we all played Odyssey and know the background of the Order of Ancients which is a big flaw.

Its a total downgrade. The camera is WAY to far back, giving you the feel of controlling a man and not yourself. And because your so far back in a fight , it feels disconnected and there are far less details on you and your fight.

To me just the camera being to far away breaks this game.

@mr-dastone - Yes I noticed the camera issue as well, makes my character feel small and weak and less immersive.

@droid8apple If the games were switched around and Odyssey had been released AFTER Valhalla then it would have been believable and a definite improvement. It's unusual to see a downgrade to a game rather than a improvement and it's very noticeable.
Or if Odyssey had never been released then Valhalla might have seemed to be a improvement.

@droid8apple I can agree with most of your points regarding the gameplay in comparison to Odyssey. We should be mindful though that Valhalla is a successor of Origins (this is the same team). You can see in Valhalla the impressive world building which I think was also the advantage from Origins over Odyssey for example.

Odyssey and Origins have been developed in parallel as far as I am aware. I do wish the team would have taken more inspiration from what the Odyssey team did well.

If we follow history, maybe in a year or half a year we will see a release from the Odyssey team that will bring back its stronger features.

@droid8apple
While I respect that everyone has different opinions about the game, it would like to give my opinion about some of the topics of your criticism (partially agree, partially disagree)

• The bird not marking things (in camps) from my point of view only adds to the immersion. This time around you can't just fly over a camp, mark everything and now at any given time where every enemy is. Sure this is still possible with Odins sight, but this requires you to be way closer. The bird in ACV serves more the purpose of exploring and, so very fitting for a bird, providing you with a bird's eye view of the camp etc. that you are scouting.
• Gear drops in Odyssey was in my opinion, one of the worst things (gameplay-wise) in Odyssey. So often filled up inventory because every small bandit camp gives you 20 random generated, and in 99% of the time useless, items. I appreciate the new way with making gear rarer (it is really rare) which gives a whole new level of excitement WHEN you finally get a new piece.
• Abilities I do partially agree. Of the maybe 12 abilities (combined melee + range) I have unlocked so far, I only use 2. It seems that some just are stronger than others.
• Viewpoints in ACV highlight POI's, which you could also do in other ways. The increased perception was, for me, never a primary motivation as I found the synch animation + the fast travel motivation enough.
• Gear transmog, completely agree. Really miss this feature. I remember to have heard somewhere that this was planned? (Correct me if I am wrong)
• Scroll speed on PC is perfect. If you scroll on the "Scroll bar" its super-fast, and slower if you scroll "on the items", meaning you have the option depending if you just want to get to the bottom, or if you are looking for something specific. No idea how this is on console.
• Stamina I have mixed feelings about. I think it is nice that we have it in fight - prevents the infinite dodge cycles from previous games. If we would have stamina while running, we should probably also have it while climbing. This I really don't like (even though it might be considered more realistic)
• Chain assassination, well we have the axe throw. But I agree, frequently it doesn't work if target two e.g. is too close. 
• Gear sets, I agree. Bonuses are not the strongest (what I have seen so far). I'm not entirely sure if I think this is good/bad.
• Lack of engravings - fine by me. Engravings without gear bonuses like in Odyssey maybe doesn't make sense?
• Bodies vanishing was in Odyssey an ability if I remember correctly. Don't mind having it or not having it, I see advantages in both. Now you can use bodies to draw attention to something.
• I am absolutely crazy about world design. Yes, it is not as colourful as Greece, but I don't see that as a bad thing. It is huge an filled with stuff to do if you ask me (35h'ish in).

• The writing, especially in the smaller world events, is really amazing. Frequently I find my self laughing in front of the screen about some of the problems/stories you encounter. This goes both for the story, as well as interesting characters you meet along the way.
• As mentioned before, I really love the new gear system. It feels like a reward and not like spam when you find gear.
• Love the focus on Lore you encounter in hidden ones bureaus!
• I am very intrigued by the reveal of the new "truth" (aka. the one Ezio encountered) through anomalies!

In conclusion. While I wouldn't say that the game is perfect - I think it is a major step up compared to Odyssey (which I also really enjoyed). This goes especially from the lore/story aspect.

My two cents on some of the mentioned points.

@droid8apple

... I agree. The bird perception is really bad, the worse out of the three games : Origin, Odyssey and this one.

• it is such a chore to try and get something new to use; I've turned the game off multiple times because I'll get somewhere and after playing puzzles for 10 minutes, trying to move around with the awful parkour system that is the slowest thing I've ever tried doing, I'll get to the chest and it'll have "locked" on it. Like... I get that the rate Odyssey dropepd stuff may have been excessive, but my goodness. It takes forever to get some of these and you just never know if it's going only be unlocked via a quest, or there's a key, or if you can even get the key. There's a bandit camp near Grantbridge with one of these and despite seeing the key on the heavy, it doesn't loot it and I can't open the chest. It's just not fun never getting anything new to try

This a thousand times. I am at the point where I dread seeing a house with a yellow ping because I know I will have to spend ten minutes trying to get in. So freaking annoying. Does EVERY house have to be a puzzle????

I'm ok with the bird- I felt in odyssey it was too easy to locate things. This at least gives you an idea where you need to search, and once you get close it usually updates quickly. In odyssey it did kind of seem like a constant thing of "Can't find it? Bird up- there it is. Back down."

As for the loot system- I think they just need to get to an in between area of Valhalla and odyssey. ACO had way too much loot and became a chore just constantly selling or breaking down crap I wasn't going to use. I like Valhalla's system, but I wish there were slightly more gear options. I'm at a point where I have upgraded all my mid tear gear at power level 90 or so, but I have to wait until level 220 I think before I can even find tungsten ingots? And no cool gear from boss fights? kind of a let down. I actually am still wearing raven gear from the beginning of the game, because it suits my gameplay style. I just wish maybe there were one or two more tiers of upgrades in between to give me something to look forward to gear wise.

@mitsunari3 omg this, yes, I forgot about that and how stupidly annoying it is to deal with in 2020. Either make them invincible (probably don't trust themselves not to mess that part up, understandable) or stop the idiotic "de-sync" stuff.

Also, I still get PTSD when near a bunch of chickens lol.

@aloninor Lots of really good points here! Thanks for the reply. I can't hit all of them, but I do agree with your point of view as a different kind of player on the immersion and stuff.

• The bird marking thing I guess comes down to accessibility, I do play on PC and hitting the V button and not having it repeat when held is difficult for my hands, and I already rebound dodge to MMB because it's the same story for ALT.
• Gear drops yeah honestly I do agree it was very excessive and made Odyssey feel like a Borderlands, but at the same time for me it was awesome because there were times I needed +Athenian +crit damage when full on a Warrior build when I did nightmare playthrough, so putting this together with engravings it all allowed for an extremely in-depth system if you wanted it, or of course just rock shadow of Nyx infinite build if you wanted as well... either way you're 100% correct, it was too much. But Valhalla is too little (for me personally)
• Scroll speed, I'm embarrassed but honest nonetheless, I didn't realize there was speed changes depending where the cursor was- going to try this today and if it works then yeah, I'm an idiot lol.
• Bodies vanishing yeah, that was an ability from Legends of the First Blade I'm pretty sure. Either way I super loved not having to hide bodies (PTSD from Hitman?). I could see people either liking or disliking this I suppose. But the "traps" only take about 1/3 health from enemies so I don't use it often unless I can pile a few up.
• Despite the gloomy weather, you're right and I do agree on that aspect; the world itself has much more fidelity and feels so real and different. Even places that are similar are notably different here. So I don't hate it by any means, just, wish it was sunny more often xD
• Bang on for the writing and other stuff though, story and especially side quests had me going [censored] quite frequently, and that's so much better than "let me guess, go here, kill them, get this?"

@kmansp31 so glad I'm not alone on the loot-puzzle thing lol. I felt like I was whining, but it really is infuriating. I mean, the least they could do is denote whether something is locked loot (needs a key), locked loot (needs a quest, then a key), and whether it's a weapon or a armor piece. So many times now I've rage-quit because I'll go and do all these things kill all these enemies that were +150 levels over me or something, collect a key, and the key doesn't even unlock the chest. Like... come on lol. It's a shame I have to think this way, but history, so I partially wondered whether some decisions were made by the suits to entice people into buying new stuff instead.

I've noticed the bird thing being the most odd choice for me to write, suppose I'm the outlier there lol.

And the gear, exactly, a nice middle ground would have been fantastic. Like, a nice share of world drops instead of all locked/unlocked/puzzled chests everywhere would have made it feel good.

@california_dude Yep, the loot fairies are gone in this game. I do think they moved to far away from loot but in general it was not a bad idea. Most loot in Odessey just got DCed or sold.

The god like power in Odessey was fun, but a bit off from a lot of assassin's creed games. Also it is still very early in Valhalla, we may yet get more power. Remember in Odessey we didn't start out god like.

@california_dude Agree on all those points of additional complaints! I loved actually being and referring to myself as a God lol, that was great and felt right. The cutscenes thing, it is a bit excessive at points that's for sure, but I think the thing that makes it even worse for me is all the steps required to change a tattoo or buy a few arrows (because I can't craft them... thanks Ubi). They should allow pressing ESC to get out of these "conversations". So it would be more like: buy stuff > esc > esc... whereas right now it's: buy stuff > esc > space > 2 > space (with esc sometimes thrown in there out of habit from every game I've ever played which leads to pause screen).