@bogthebuilder Such an excellent post and one I was thinking about myself as I was playing the game myself last night. I guess it was within the first 20 minutes I was presented with gear that was vastly superior to what I had started with, both weapons and armor. Plus the whole jumping back and forth between Layla and Alexios/Eivor just ruins it for me, but that's another topic.

I think the reason behind it is the generation we're living in. Seems most players want instant gratification without putting in much effort, it's been that way for awhile now and I see it in a lot of other games (looking at you Destiny). Not sure what can be done about it because I'd venture a guess that most of the devs for AAA game companies are of younger age and they probably feel the same way.

There are some games though that don't need the rush to godliness like COD, Fortnite, and others, do. Games like AC, The Witcher series, Skyrim, the old Fallout series, all of them are meant to be played for hundreds of hours, allowing one to be totally immersed in both the story and the gear, abilities we pick up and acquire. I wish game companies would get back to respecting the values of item rarities, as you mention in your post. We're powerless unless more of us demand it of game devs, unfortunately. Great post though.

@boabh Could not agree more. I hate that every single damn (why does Ubi censor out the word [censored]) time I went into the map in Odyssey I had to turn the damn community photo's off. I've been playing valhalla since launch and have yet to find the option to turn off. When you say you can "hide" each one, you mean I have to actually bring each one up and then hide them individually, seriously??!!

Like you, I'd really like to hear any of the devs logic on this. NOBODY CARES ABOUT ANYBODY ELSE'S RANDOM PHOTO'S IN THIS GAME!!!!! Thanks for bringing this to light.

@nickucz Not at all, not compared to Odyssey. I play as the male Eivor and I played the same in Odyssey. Alexios had a tremendous personally and my wife swooned over his looks, hahahahah! Poor Eivor in Valhalla has zero (0) personally, so far, and neither one of us care for his looks, with a beard or without. We're hoping his personally somehow shines through as we know his looks will stay, unless I can find a plastic surgeon somewhere in England.

I'm convinced that Ubi, and other AAA game companies make these characters to be as baseless and bland as possible due to the vast number of gender choices that are out there. I mean, there's already been an uproar over the whole "let the game chose the gender" when you first start it. It's another baffling dev choice that was made to have an option where depending on where you are in the story, that one or the other gender could somehow be "stronger". In my mind that's just dumb, pardon my bluntness, and should not have been a "thing".

@kreutzgang When I found out about the kitties I started looking for them, and yes, it was amazing!

Not sure what game OP was playing as I had just as much fun with Valhalla as Odyssey. I mean we are talking about different time periods and locations. I finished the game late last week and have just been doing the Thor quest the last few days. In the end I put a bit over 250 hours in and loved every minute of it.

@wombles-_ I think all AAA game companies should learn a lesson from the last 5-10 years. Never, ever give a release date until the game is 100 percent complete and fully tested. Putting crap out and then patching it to death all through the games life, including DLC, is just plain ignorant.

@longjohn119 I played for a few hours last night until I had to give up due to the game freezing on my Xbox One X, 3 times! I didn't even have time to see if they fixed photos because I was spending most of my time looking at a frozen scene or dumping out to the dashboard. Sad.

@dbgager But he IS a viking, and as such, should be allowed to kill as a viking would. This is why Ubisoft should stop making AC games, as much as I love them. I understand the premise that this is the origin of the Assassin as we know them in the AC series, but Eivor IS a viking in this case and NOT an assassin early on, so the ability to kill innocents/NPC's as part of a raid should have been included. It makes no sense, just like not having one-handed swords in the game.

@lucien_aus Again, nicely said. My guess is that some of the people commenting watch the news on TV about people getting killed and immediately blame it on violent video games and the people that play them, somehow thinking we imitate what's in the game in real life.

@animuslover Excellent review of the game. I've only got 40 hours in and I think I'm nearing level 100.

I share your frustration about the aspects of the game you mentioned, especially about the map, the skills (which don't work half the time for me) and the raven mechanics.

I say this far too often wrt AAA games, but it's as if there was NO testing done prior to release. I've also said this, the "games as a service" formula is an epic fail on all counts.

Devs will hate this but it is a lazy way to dev and release a game. Take the extra time you need to fully put together and play test the damn game BEFORE release, is that really too hard?! I realize its all about the $$$ but you're losing your player base when you do this. Why can't you understand its seriously frustrating to wait for a game release to find out its really not ready to be released yet. I long for the days of the game cartridge I guess, where games had to be 100 percent completely finished prior to stocking store shelves. The age of the internet ruined gaming in a lot of aspects.

I also pre-ordered Cyberpunk 2077 and I was glad to see it was being delayed to ensure a smooth release. I also fully expect the game to be released and I'll be saying once again, "it's just too early". Sad.

@longjohn119 No, it's actually Ubisoft just giving a flying FU to the fanbase who actually paid for the game. Let players who bought the pre-order play at the same time you release it and authorize it for play to the content creators and problem solved.

@asgardian02 I wanted to progress in the river raid so I spent a couple hours yesterday messing around. My goal was to get to the mini-bosses you had described.

I explore the hell out of the rivers and just don't seem to find all the documents/gear that I need to in order to complete the 3 quests. I look at the map after selecting the quest and see unexplored raid locations, but when I get there I find nothing new, only normal large chest supplies. I use vision to search and nothing. I can't do it anymore. It still torques me that I can't use my raven.

I seem to go to the same monasteries, forts and small camps over and over and over again. The 8 Vikings that accompany me die like its nobodies business, my health gets stripped to revive them, if I get to them in time, and to me it's just a hot mess.

Last night I just went back to Fenyx Rising. Ubisoft needs to explain why river raids were designed this way and how they felt we'd enjoy it.

@yesin069 I had those same concerns and thoughts while playing wrt why we can't do certain things we CAN do in the main game. It's like Ubi had a group of brand new devs who focus on anything other than game dev do the work on river raids. Do you think Ubi will actually make gameplay changes to it, assuming content was left out on purpose or by mistake? The worst part for me is the raid locations along the rivers look exactly the same and are typically over before I engage anyone. It's such a departure from the main game on so many levels.

@asgardian02 Thanks for that. I guess I'll keep playing it to face the mini boss and then hang it up again. I was an idiot and already bought the DLC so I'll let you know how it plays once I get it.

@asgardian02 So, I hate not being able to complete new activities and I love Valhalla so much. I decided to go back into the river raids to see if there was anything new. I did 7 more raids last night over 3 hours or so. In-between doing the raids I was trying to figure out how to increase the new raid settlement buildings, so I managed to do that. No matter what raid I go to, it's the same layout, confirmed from my initial river raiding on the day of the release. This is very frustrating. To make matters worse it seems I only get to fight 1 or 2 of the enemy before my team takes care of them and I locate the chest. Hell, sometimes I get the notice that the raid is over the second the chest is opened!

Before I waste anymore of my time, is it like this for the other river's/quests that need to be completed? If so I'll just move on to one of my other games until the paid DLC's come out.

@yesin069 Yes, and I posted on the Technical part of the forum to explain it.

I play on Xbox One X and ever since the River Raid update I've started being kicked back to the dashboard after I complete a river raid, go to Reda to get his missions, then fast travel to an area near one of the missions. Has now happened 3 nights in a row, same sequence.

This didn't happen through my entire 300 hours of playing the main campaign so it has to have something to do with this latest update. I guess it says something that its across both console and PC.

I've moved on to other games until this is addressed.

@asgardian02 Agree, I guess we can combine all those media and then decide on our own before rewarding game companies before they release their product. I think we've all seen how most of the last year's AAA titles have launched and it leaves a lot to be desired. It needs to stop.

I play on Xbox One X and am on an ethernet broadband connection.

My issue only came about after I downloaded the RR update. It's happened the last 2 nights in a row, 17/18 February 2021. I ran my first RR and filled up the ship. I came back to the settlement to unload and then went back out to collect more goods. I came back and upgraded to barracks. No issue up to this point. I visited Reda and got 3 missions from him. I fast traveled near to where the first mission was to take place, somewhere up North, can't remember exactly where. I never actually got to the fast travel point, instead the game kicked me out to the Xbox dashboard. I re-launched the game and completed the Reda missions with on issue.

The same exact thing happened last night where I ran a couple river raids, decided to visit Reda and got his missions. Never made it to the fast travel point before I got kicked again to the dashboard.

At that point I gave up and continued playing Fenyx Rising. Anybody else have this issue?

@brucehillracing What system are you playing on @BruceHillRacing? Besides no 1 handed swords or repeatable content, and sluggish gameplay, what else is an issue with you with Valhalla? Didn't Ubi say no 1 handed swords were part of the original release? Did you complete the main campaign, and if so, were you happy with that content? I'd be interested in knowing the type of bugs you've experienced as well. The only ones I've noticed are graphic/audio related and only a few of those through my 300 plus hours.

I have noticed my game crashes to the dashboard ever since I loaded the RR update and I'll report that in the technical section.

@asgardian02 True, but my point was to actually "watch" the gameplay, not focus on the content creator. It's probably how I end up deciding whether to buy most of the games I get. You are correct about some of them being paid by the game dev's but the gameplay doesn't lie.

@netspook I finished Valhalla and I'm probably 8-10 hours into Fenyx Rising. I loved Valhalla and am also loving Fenyx Rising, but these types of games are what I really enjoy. I tried RR and got through maybe a total of an hour and just couldn't do anymore. It's really pointless. I got my $60 worth out of the campaign. I'm wracking my brain to figure out what people want from an AC game. I mean if they're experiencing game breaking bugs/glitches, etc., I can understand. My playthrough was clean, and like I mentioned in another comment, I'm glad for that as it's usually not the case.