In
AC Vahalla I finished the first story arc in England (Grantsebridge). And then decided to take a pause and go around doing 100% of the side stuff/collectibles in both that area and the first half of the Norway map.
I thought it would burn me out, but I'm getting close to being done with those two areas ~20 hours in now and my opinion of Valhalla has gone from "worst AC since AC3" to "Ok, but kind interesting & boring AC game"
It was feeling kind of like Ubisoft trying to do an RDR2 life-sim clone but everything far more shallow both in gameplay & writing & narrative. But doing all the side stuff I kinda feel that is the real game in this one. It's like a big ass world with lots of little things to do that are kinda fun and kinda interesting, but because of the massive landmass between each one and real lack of fast travel locations, it's kind of boring getting to them.
I feel like this is the weirdest AC game yet. Origins was a shakeup and going for that arpg thing, but it still felt like AC x rpg-lite kinda mainstream game. You had your main story, your quests and some treasures & viewpoints and elephant super-bosses and that was about it. This AC with all the lack of hand-holding and focus on just exploring around finding weird shit and doing it for 5 mins is just pretty different from modern AAA gaming.
I'm starting to think some of the 8/10 reviews are pretty fair on this, it's got good ideas, but it's not great. While not a huge reboot of Origins/Odyssey, it does feel like a very soft-reboot of that formula to something kind of different. It actually reminds me more of Black Flag than Origins? (sailing around & doing little 5 min things).
Maybe the story will pick up, I feel like if it had a stronger lead like Bayek or more interesting story it would carry the game more. Eivor has got to be the dullest AC lead I can think of at this point. He has no personality and is just this wise well-spoken polite viking
I liked with Bayek that you could really feel his rage when he was pissed and also his humanity when helping common people. He's the kind of guy that would laugh and eat with villagers and then go fuckup the local boss.
Maybe female Eivor is better, idk. I think the character is just boring.