Assassins Creed Valhalla PlayStation 5 Standard Edition

I am a longtime fan of the assassin's creed series. I remember getting my brother to buy me the first one back in 2007. I have not played all of them but I've loved every single one I played. My list of these games includes: AC1, AC2, AC Brotherhood, AC3, AC IV Black Flag, AC Rogue, AC Unity, AC Origins, and this being the latest addition to my list. Never got the chance to play Odyssey unfortunately. The mechanics began to change in later Assassin's creeds beginning with Origins. A bit different but didn't take much to get used to, actually felt like it added a bit more challenge. Valhalla brings you to the age of the Vikings, one of the most violent cultures ever to be known in history. We see many parts of Norway as well as England. In Norway you see the Vikings way of life from their acts of pillaging to their customs and traditions. In England parts you start to see the very real, at that time in history, power struggle between the Danes(Vikings) and the Saxons(British). You will meet the sons of Ragnar Lothbrok which if you see the show or know the history then you'll know he is the very first Viking that set out for England and settled there. The world is massive and there are many arcs pertaining to the different arcs of England and Norway that you will explore. There is even a little treat Arc dealing with the Era of the Gods, won't say more than that. This is not a game you will beat in one day. If you play only a few hours a day it's well worth the money. Although, like myself, if it's hard to put down the controller when playing an AC game then you may be able to beat it in less than a week :D. Seriously though its a good game. Some negatives is that there are some bugs and glitches but I experienced nothing that prevented me from playing the game further and I'm sure any bugs will get patched as the game is fairly new. Again I really enjoyed this game and look forward to see what they have in store for the next one. Read more

I originally wasn't going to get this game, I thought it wouldn't be interesting. I was very wrong and I'm so glad I bought it. Yes, it's another Assassin's Creed game, but no, it's not just another Assassin's Creed game ;) The story was really cool and the landscape and world they created is absolutely breathtaking. You feel like you're in medieval Europe and the towns and old structures are so much fun to explore. You get to build your settlement and decorate it and recruit your crew for your long boat, which is a nice addition. I unfortunately found the combat to not be as fun or fluid as that from Odyssey, though I have to say, dual wielding axes is pretty dope and the finishing moves are great. I highly recommend this game and one tip I can give is to upgrade your weapons early, don't wait. Read more

Son loved it was a birthday gift Read more

I completed the main story a few days ago, and spent the last couple of days mopping up the Order of the Ancients and the Legendary Beasts. At some point I finished Wrath of the Druids (the best of the DLC for Valhalla, IMO) and The Siege of Paris (I did NOT like that Siege of Paris introduced new game play elements). I won't comment on how much AC: Valhalla whitewashes (Viking-washes?) history. I learned two things about the developers of this game: they love interface screws and they went all-in on the time wasting BS. I don't mind the drinking game or Orlog as diversions that I can pretty much ignore unless I'm going for a 100% completion achievement, but to quest-lock clues leading to your assassination targets behind them and not even spawn the target in the gameworld until you beat an opponent at a part of gameplay that should be optional? That earns a "Oh, that is such BS" from me. The game does it at least TWICE! Ugh. I did like Flyting, though. I'm down for the Viking Rap battles and I would have liked more of them. I did not like that almost every glowy dot of treasure on the map was locked behind some puzzle. The number of barred doors leading to houses with no one in them... how did these people bar the doors and how do they get back into their own homes? Do they Dukes of Hazzard it all the time and climb in through the windows? I had to literally BREAK some houses to get inside. Do they smash their walls every time they want to go inside? It wasn't long after I arrived in England that I decided I would NOT be hunting down every glowy dot because the sheer amount of puzzle solving just to get into doors earned another "Oh, that is such BS." Having just come off a second playthrough of Odyssey, I don't remember anything that annoying in hunting down dots on the map. Eivor is such a brute, I found it a little hard to believe this walking tank was stopped by some wooden door on a hovel (why yes, I did get the achievement for running into stuff and breaking it). And because Eivor is easily 250-300 lbs. fully armored, I didn't buy them being so good at sneaking, either, unless the game is suggesting the Saxon and other folk living in England are unbelievably imperceptive. What really surprised me is how much of the map I explored and how few of the Zealots I actually encountered. They were the last of the Order targets I ended up killing before confronting the Grand Magister (or whatever they're called). I was also dismayed to find that, even after completing the Vinland arc, you don't get your gear if you return. That's also some BS. I liked the gear customization in Odyssey better. Having to go back to a blacksmith every time I wanted to change the look of something was such a pain. Plus, I found the inventory just too cluttered with all the different weapons you can't sell or store anywhere. Maybe on harder difficulties one needs to swap out weapons a lot, but on the difficulty I was playing, I found I could stick with the same set up for a long time, and once I found armor that I liked, I never changed out of it. Same with swapping out my horse. Once you buy all the mount upgrades, there's so little reason to go back to the stables, I kept forgetting the alternate mounts I had (the big cat and the bear). I'm ambivalent about the changes in skills and abilities. That's not bad, they're just different in a way that didn't really matter to me, and both Valhalla and Odyssey are better in this regard than Origins. This game also has a lot of Awesome But Impractical going on; by the time you get a lot of the best gear, not much really poses a challenge, so it's not really that much more useful than what you already have. I didn't even find any hammers, apart from the very first one (Blacksmith's Hammer) I found. I guess the Ohkwa'ri Club counts, but since you can't take it with you... The game could have done a lot better job of explaining why Eivor is such a powerful brute. Maybe I missed it (and I haven't fully completed Jotenheim yet), but I only know they're a reincarnation of Odin from another review I read; I don't remember that being explicitly mentioned anywhere in the game. The developers sure like to obfuscate their game to the point where it's SO easy to miss a bunch of cool stuff in Valhalla. It’s like the game is ashamed to be awesome. Not like Odyssey where it's pretty evident fairly early on that Kassandra (or Alexios) is a powerful Greek demigod and the game is PROUD of that. If I didn't know what year the games came out, I could believe that Origins came first, then Valhalla, and finally Odyssey, since it seems most refined in terms of gameplay and the way the story is presented. I don't think I successfully blocked or parried more than a handful of times in this game, whereas I could do it regularly in Odyssey. Valhalla definitely feels like a step backwards in many regards, but not so much that I didn't enjoy the game. I finished it, after all, and have well over 115 hours invested in doing so. I did like the Odyssey cameo in Valhalla and the two characters got along as well as I expected. I would have been a great touch for Valhalla to pull data from an Odyssey saved game for character customization (the way Dragon Age: Inquisition would when your DA2 character showed up, even though it didn't work on my DA:I game and pulled me out of the narrative so badly that I never actually finished the game). I know I griped a lot, but I had fun played AC: Valhalla (dual-wielding flails is way too much fun). But, I'm going to have to be in a mood to revisit the game again, unlike Odyssey which sits up there near the top of my favorite games of all time. I also don't feel a burning desire to spend $30 on the final DLC (Dawn of Ragnarok?). I've read that it's just more of the same as the Jotunheim arc, yet less entertaining. I already found it a little ridiculous walking around Valhalla as Odin and entering a Restricted Area ("I'd better not be seen here" Dude, YOU'RE ODIN. Why aren't you allowed in your own realm?). It's a fun game. Mostly entertaining, but weighed down with a lot of elements that make it feel like the developers were afraid to let the game be awesome and were getting paid to pad out the playing time with a bunch of time-wasting activities that don't add to the narrative. Read more

I've played every major Assassin's Creed game ever produced. I'm a fan of the franchise. Is AC Valhalla the best of the bunch? No. The gameplay gets repetitive, as do the missions, and the scenery isn't as immersive as some of the monumental cities featured in the past (Immersion being one of the main reasons I enjoy playing AC games). That said... ...I've put more hours into AC: Valhalla than any other game I've played so far on my PS5. About 120 hours. That speaks for itself. Further, as this game is now a few years old, and can be had for a very low price (anything around $15 would be a good bargain at this time) it seems a no-brainer to recommend it. Even if you play for half the time I did, you'd still be getting your money's worth. I'll hope for a little more innovation from the AC franchise in the future (such as ship combat in "Black Flag")... ...but I was satisfied with my experience - and value - playing AC: Valhalla. Now go conquer England! Read more

excellent!! Read more