Finished Valhalla yesterday and I had a good time, but as others have pointed out, a frustrating time. I’ll give a ranking/ score at the end.

I cleared every zone, did all the deliveries (that the game allowed), and got all the mythical weapons. So here are my thoughts.

This was a fun game, I had a good time for the most part. 

POTENTIAL SPOILERS (no story details)

Good:

- Setting. I loved the English country side, running through ancient Roman ruins. See the Viking architecture. I would sit and imagine how things looked back then.

- World events (zone side missions) - I think these were the star of the show. I loved almost all of them. I think how they made sure they were short and could be finished right in the same area was perfect. The stories were fun and I didn’t have to run all over the place. I’ll play again just to do these again.

- Weapons - they looked cool and I tried them all out for several hours. All the weapons are viable. Daggers are quick and darty. Spears give range and are quick. 2handers are impactful and brutal. I would change up weapons depending on my mood and didn’t feel disadvantaged.

- Main story - The Sigurd storyline was good, I became invested in pushing that through and discovering the mystery.

The Bad

- Stealth - it’s cool that they brought back insta kill, but it doesn’t really matter, the enemies seemed to always alert everyone. Whole outposts would know where I was if I took someone out with an arrow from a haystack. And as another posted commented on, by the time you’re at mid game, stealth is pointless cause you can walk through entire forts and never worry. You can’t assassinate zealots, so no challenge or fun trying to sneak up on them.

- Skill tree - this thing is pointless. First, you can’t see and plan skills cause it’s all hidden. Second, skills are scattered everywhere. I started down the assassins skill tree cause I though that’s how I’d play, but then I would find ax stats or range stats, so I started wondering if I was going down the right tree. Then some of the abilities made no sense in the sections. Like getting adrenaline for sneak stealing, but that was in the ranged (wolf) section?!? Lastly, in the end it didn’t matter, sense I was clearing every zone as I went, I maxed my skill points 3/4th of the way in, so I had everything anyway.

- Storylines - The main Sigurd story was fun, but the pledging story and Asgard and Vineyard storylines felt so disjointed or disconnected. By the end I was just pledging zones so I could get back to the main story and they make you do EVERY zone! Not like Odyssey where there were whole regions to explore later outside the story. Asgard and Vineyard just served to pull you out of things for no good reason. They would have made good DLCs or something but added little. 

- Endgame - if you clear every zone as you go, there is no endgame. There is nothing left to explore, unlike previous AC games. There are no mythical creatures to take on, no bounty hunters to kill and no zones you haven’t been to. There is some equipment to finish up, but since there is nothing left to fight, they serve little purpose.

- Weapons (legendary) - this was disappointing cause by the time I got the coolest sword or hammer there was nothing left to fight. Thor’s hammer is awesome, but I didn’t really get to use it which is a shame. In Odyssey you’d get Achilles armor or Agaminnons helmet and feel cool or more powerful midway through the game. I could upgrade armor to mythical, but you’ve been with that armor almost all game, so it never really felt special. I know a lot of games save the best for last, but most of the time there is hard content to go use it on in the end. Medusa. Omega Weapon, etc.

- Hunting/ Wild life - the hunting deliveries are doable but are time consuming. There is only one spot I found black bears, and there are only two bears with about a 40% drop rate for their fur. You need 11 or so of their fur, so you have to keep traveling around to respawn them, then run back to them. Dog teeth, no just any dogs either, only enemy dogs and I only ram into 3 or 4 enemy dogs the whole game, so same as black bears. Wolf Fangs, except it’s not wolves or don’t look like wolves, it’s a white fox looking animal in Norway, but there is no clue that they are wolves. I just by chance noticed fangs dropped by them. I ram around for hours trying to figure that one out. The reward for all this sucked also, I got a bow, another bow I won’t use cause it’s so late in the game. Didn’t even trigger an achievement.

The Horrible

- The bugs/ glitches - this is one of those games that is really good, which makes the bugs and glitches worse and exhausting (many have pointed this out). This isn’t like FO76 where you know the game is broken to [censored], but you expect it and it’s almost comical. No this game works well most of the time, so bugs and glitches frustrate you. Why did Eivor stop climbing for no reason? Why did I get stuck in the snow with no way out? Why did I just randomly jump backwards while climbing a mountain etc. 

  - Fishing! - I couldn’t complete the last two fish deliveries because the fish either never spawn (flat fish and mackerel) or they would all disappear literally while I was looking at them. I spent an entire day trying to collect fish only to find out this part of the game is bugged to [censored]. I can’t believe this hasn’t been patched or patched out as a requirement for now.

 - Asgard! - so I had an astrik next to finished because I saved Asgard for last, like very last and I am glad I did. I did my typical clear the zone as much as possible and then do the main quest. Well, if you do that in Jotunhem (sorry for spelling), you break the game and can’t continue that portion. I went into a cave to get wealth chests, well apparently you can only go into that cave once, cause the game locked the entrance. So when the story led me there, I could no longer go into the entrance. No work around, no reloading to fix. Just blocked. So glad I waited to do Asgard.

- No New Game+ - why can’t this be included on release day? I don’t get why it has to be patched in later. I want to play through as female Eivor, I definitely don’t want to go collect all the equipment or fish again.

Overall I enjoyed the game, as can be seen by the desire for New Game+. But this isn’t close to the best AC. Of the new ACs (Origins/ Odyssey) I rank it 3rd. Both Origins and Odyssey felt smoother with better flows. Yes, Odyssey’s story could drag on at times or you had to grind, but at least new equipment kept things interesting and you didn’t have to go to every single zone/ island. Same with Origins. Of all the ACs, I’d probably put it below 5th or 6th.

I want to play more (and did start a female Eivor last night to kill time till Cyberpunk) but that’s probably more of me just wanting more AC.

You’d think they would do some quick patches for the quests that are broken and game stoppers before most everyone migrated over to Cyberpunk. Gonna make people wait an entire month before they can progress the story.

mentioned in my final review post about the weapons. In odyssey, like you said, we got cool legendary weapons through the game. Poseidon’s spear or Agamemnon helmet, etc and we got to use those for a good chunk and feel powerful in them. In Valhalla I didn’t get any truest legendary weapons like Odins spear or Thor’s hammer till the very very end. There was nothing left for me to kill and use them on.

Spot on with the hidden chest. EVERY. SINGLE. Chest. I have to find some stupid crack to unbar the door or go find a key. Or even worse, find 3 keys. Most are so arbitrary too, like it’s sitting in a well right outside, so I just had to waste 5min looking and climbing. Why can’t some of them just be available?

mentioned in my final review post about the weapons. In odyssey, like you said, we got cool legendary weapons through the game. Poseidon’s spear or Agamemnon helmet, etc and we got to use those for a good chunk and feel powerful in them. In Valhalla I didn’t get any truest legendary weapons like Odins spear or Thor’s hammer till the very very end. There was nothing left for me to kill and use them on.

Spot on with the hidden chest. EVERY. SINGLE. Chest. I have to find some stupid crack to unbar the door or go find a key. Or even worse, find 3 keys. Most are so arbitrary too, like it’s sitting in a well right outside, so I just had to waste 5min looking and climbing. Why can’t some of them just be available?

@mitsunari3 yah, not that I want to massacre civilians, but if I am playing a Viking during a raid, I want to slaughter everyone.

the other issue is, if you happen to get into a fight in a city, you better avoid all AOE attacks. Can’t count how many times I almost de-synced cause fire started to kill civilians.

@killgore1981 that’s a bummer. I read this stuck posts all over the place. This should be a priority. Even if it’s a new patch everyday that’s singularly focused on a quest fix.

I was fortunate enough to finish everything and not have Asard stuff be a story block.

You’d think they would do some quick patches for the quests that are broken and game stoppers before most everyone migrated over to Cyberpunk. Gonna make people wait an entire month before they can progress the story.

Finished Valhalla yesterday and I had a good time, but as others have pointed out, a frustrating time. I’ll give a ranking/ score at the end.

I cleared every zone, did all the deliveries (that the game allowed), and got all the mythical weapons. So here are my thoughts.

This was a fun game, I had a good time for the most part. 

POTENTIAL SPOILERS (no story details)

Good:

- Setting. I loved the English country side, running through ancient Roman ruins. See the Viking architecture. I would sit and imagine how things looked back then.

- World events (zone side missions) - I think these were the star of the show. I loved almost all of them. I think how they made sure they were short and could be finished right in the same area was perfect. The stories were fun and I didn’t have to run all over the place. I’ll play again just to do these again.

- Weapons - they looked cool and I tried them all out for several hours. All the weapons are viable. Daggers are quick and darty. Spears give range and are quick. 2handers are impactful and brutal. I would change up weapons depending on my mood and didn’t feel disadvantaged.

- Main story - The Sigurd storyline was good, I became invested in pushing that through and discovering the mystery.

The Bad

- Stealth - it’s cool that they brought back insta kill, but it doesn’t really matter, the enemies seemed to always alert everyone. Whole outposts would know where I was if I took someone out with an arrow from a haystack. And as another posted commented on, by the time you’re at mid game, stealth is pointless cause you can walk through entire forts and never worry. You can’t assassinate zealots, so no challenge or fun trying to sneak up on them.

- Skill tree - this thing is pointless. First, you can’t see and plan skills cause it’s all hidden. Second, skills are scattered everywhere. I started down the assassins skill tree cause I though that’s how I’d play, but then I would find ax stats or range stats, so I started wondering if I was going down the right tree. Then some of the abilities made no sense in the sections. Like getting adrenaline for sneak stealing, but that was in the ranged (wolf) section?!? Lastly, in the end it didn’t matter, sense I was clearing every zone as I went, I maxed my skill points 3/4th of the way in, so I had everything anyway.

- Storylines - The main Sigurd story was fun, but the pledging story and Asgard and Vineyard storylines felt so disjointed or disconnected. By the end I was just pledging zones so I could get back to the main story and they make you do EVERY zone! Not like Odyssey where there were whole regions to explore later outside the story. Asgard and Vineyard just served to pull you out of things for no good reason. They would have made good DLCs or something but added little. 

- Endgame - if you clear every zone as you go, there is no endgame. There is nothing left to explore, unlike previous AC games. There are no mythical creatures to take on, no bounty hunters to kill and no zones you haven’t been to. There is some equipment to finish up, but since there is nothing left to fight, they serve little purpose.

- Weapons (legendary) - this was disappointing cause by the time I got the coolest sword or hammer there was nothing left to fight. Thor’s hammer is awesome, but I didn’t really get to use it which is a shame. In Odyssey you’d get Achilles armor or Agaminnons helmet and feel cool or more powerful midway through the game. I could upgrade armor to mythical, but you’ve been with that armor almost all game, so it never really felt special. I know a lot of games save the best for last, but most of the time there is hard content to go use it on in the end. Medusa. Omega Weapon, etc.

- Hunting/ Wild life - the hunting deliveries are doable but are time consuming. There is only one spot I found black bears, and there are only two bears with about a 40% drop rate for their fur. You need 11 or so of their fur, so you have to keep traveling around to respawn them, then run back to them. Dog teeth, no just any dogs either, only enemy dogs and I only ram into 3 or 4 enemy dogs the whole game, so same as black bears. Wolf Fangs, except it’s not wolves or don’t look like wolves, it’s a white fox looking animal in Norway, but there is no clue that they are wolves. I just by chance noticed fangs dropped by them. I ram around for hours trying to figure that one out. The reward for all this sucked also, I got a bow, another bow I won’t use cause it’s so late in the game. Didn’t even trigger an achievement.

The Horrible

- The bugs/ glitches - this is one of those games that is really good, which makes the bugs and glitches worse and exhausting (many have pointed this out). This isn’t like FO76 where you know the game is broken to [censored], but you expect it and it’s almost comical. No this game works well most of the time, so bugs and glitches frustrate you. Why did Eivor stop climbing for no reason? Why did I get stuck in the snow with no way out? Why did I just randomly jump backwards while climbing a mountain etc. 

  - Fishing! - I couldn’t complete the last two fish deliveries because the fish either never spawn (flat fish and mackerel) or they would all disappear literally while I was looking at them. I spent an entire day trying to collect fish only to find out this part of the game is bugged to [censored]. I can’t believe this hasn’t been patched or patched out as a requirement for now.

 - Asgard! - so I had an astrik next to finished because I saved Asgard for last, like very last and I am glad I did. I did my typical clear the zone as much as possible and then do the main quest. Well, if you do that in Jotunhem (sorry for spelling), you break the game and can’t continue that portion. I went into a cave to get wealth chests, well apparently you can only go into that cave once, cause the game locked the entrance. So when the story led me there, I could no longer go into the entrance. No work around, no reloading to fix. Just blocked. So glad I waited to do Asgard.

- No New Game+ - why can’t this be included on release day? I don’t get why it has to be patched in later. I want to play through as female Eivor, I definitely don’t want to go collect all the equipment or fish again.

Overall I enjoyed the game, as can be seen by the desire for New Game+. But this isn’t close to the best AC. Of the new ACs (Origins/ Odyssey) I rank it 3rd. Both Origins and Odyssey felt smoother with better flows. Yes, Odyssey’s story could drag on at times or you had to grind, but at least new equipment kept things interesting and you didn’t have to go to every single zone/ island. Same with Origins. Of all the ACs, I’d probably put it below 5th or 6th.

I want to play more (and did start a female Eivor last night to kill time till Cyberpunk) but that’s probably more of me just wanting more AC.