I decided to give to Valhalla another chance and my perception of the game has changed so far
In 2020 I got ACV on release and I was hyped. I didn’t complete the game until February largely because of the slog the game ended up feeling like. I took multiple breaks and couldn’t do it. A game crash set me back from finishing the main quests and order quest line to before finishing the last region and having to kill most of the zealots and some of the order again. That was it. I didn’t have the patience for it again. So with 4 years since then, I decided to fire it up and give it an honest chance. And i wanted to list out the things I changed my views positively on, things that are about the same, and things that are noticeably worse this time around.
Things I didn’t appreciate the first time:
The world building and world events are actually best in the RPG trilogy for me. From fighting the walloper, to talking to seer pigs, and flyting with Thor. There’s so much to do and enough variety that you can skip what you don’t like.
Flyting. I love flyting. You could put a flyting activity in the most annoying place and I’ll still go do it.
Leveling is comically easy actually. The first time I’d find myself having to back track to get leveled for regions. This time I’m sitting on 200 power and just started the 160 arcs.
The dream sequences. The power of hindsight helps here. I hated this sequence in the first go around because it felt so drawn out for a seemingly irrelevant part of the story. It felt like filler. Knowing the context now, I actually did nearly every world event in Asgard and enjoyed it.
The overarching ideas and concepts of the game. I honestly think Valhalla has a lot of good ideas with just a lot of filler and bad execution in between. The Isu story and theme of betraying Sigurd is a prime example of this.
Things I feel the same about:
The length is about the same feeling. I’m 46 hours in after a month and several breaks in between and I’m still feeling that slog feeling at some parts. Most things between East Anglia and Cent started to feel like a chore with me skipping most Sciropeshire content altogether.
Sigurd and Basim. With context applied, you can understand why they might be the way they are and why Eivor has visions of betrayal of Sigurd. In reality, I don’t get enough time with them for me to care. Sigurd is my brother in one arc, can be MIA for a whole other arc before seeing him again, where you get some bonding time. then, assuming that you keep to the level path as intended, MIA for up to 4 potential arcs (Oxenfordshire, East Anglia, Luden, Asgard) depending on how you play the game. Where upon which he’s acting crazy, not explaining anything, and Basim is encouraging him. Get ready for another long absence afterwords. I think I’ve already triggered 3 of the 4 events required for the “bad” ending (read: great ending for anyone in Ravensthorpe).
Dag. The only thing that changed is that I gave him his axe this time around. Even that’s only because Eivor’s narration made me feel a bit boxed in.
Things that I actually dislike more:
Literally everything is a puzzle. This combines poorly with a roughly 80 hour main line. But combines even worse with the knowledge of the game’s length. They’re mostly the same too. Find this key, find this window to break barred door, find ways to break rocks.
The Assassin’s story. Given how Basim ends up and how little Haytham does in the game, I honestly feel like this would have been a better Rogue game. A significant portion of the order being an entirely separate affair from the story. This especially stacks with its leader coming off as the most sane person related to either side given what they end up doing and their civility with Eivor. Hell you can argue that the Assassins are responsible for Sigurd’s insanity.
The choices. I actually like the idea of choices in AC. I dislike the illusion of choice. Outside of charisma checks, 5 choices actually matter and you’re heavily incentivized to pick the “bad” option in most of them.
TLDR: I think this game is a lot better on a second chance and with some context applied. Also think that there’s still some glaring problems. But planning to complete the game and am enjoying it more than not.
Update: Figured I’d do a follow up. Got some time and powered through Lincolnshire and Essexe. As well as knocked out some order members. This was roughly the point where I became especially aware of the length on the first playthrough.
I’ll say that world events really help. But my side content overall has dropped. Lincolnshire was okay. I remembered Hunwald going in and forget basically everyone else. I didn’t choose Hunwald for Ealdorman this time. Chose the other noble whose name I already forgot because you only get a quest with him. The other guy didn’t even get a quest to get to know him. Which feels pretty huge in an arc centered around picking an Ealdorman. Still Hunwald was likable and I got him living at Ravensthorpe.
Essexe was probably my least favorite arc. Birstan’s voice actor is the only reason to enjoy being around Birstan and honestly I’d rather have him at Ravensthorpe and his wife ruling. It’s implied that his wife holds things together and there’s some seriously unresolved underlying issues. I thought the other nobles would be more important. I’ve also begun to notice that everywhere is starting to feel like a distrust area and in this case, that doesn’t stop in the main city even after the arc is resolved.
Edit: Annnd days later, we’re in the final stretch now here’s where the rankings stand.
- Norway Part 1
- Jorvik
- Ledecestrescire
- East Anglia
- Eurvicscire
- Lunden
- Lincolnscire
- Grantebridgescire
- Asgard
- Joutenheim
- Suthsexe 12 Oxenfordscire
- Vineland
- Sciropescire
- Cent
- Glowecestrescire
- Essexe
On deck are Snottingham, Wincestre, Norway Part 2, and Hamtumscire.
Update 2: Alright yeah I just wrapped up Glowecestrescire. A lot of the old feelings are back. I’m 70 hours in and there’s still 4 vanilla game arcs left. I’d say moderate fatigue set in around Joutenheim as I just powered through. I’ve also noticed that even though I liked Jorvik that I skipped all side content there. If it’s not flyting or incredibly simple, I’m generally just powering through the story and murdering order members. Will still do raids though. I think a break is in order before starting either DLC.
All in all I think this is still a solid game. Going full Skyrim stealth archer and head shooting people is good fun. Combat is okay. Theres enough world events that you can identify what you like and do it. But the knock id give is that it overstays its welcome with the back third feeling somewhat pointless. They missed a major opportunity with Sigurd imo and to display his dissent into madness. Imo they missed this opportunity throughout the whole game, but it’s felt when he’s just camping in Ravensthorpe and you get exactly one scene that takes place before the 190 arcs even happen. Jorvik is the only thing relevant to the Order, Eurvicscire felt like a missed opportunity for more Order stuff but overall was decent. Gloucester is a waste of time. When even the game acknowledges that the person the arc is supposedly about doesn’t get much time in the spotlight, that’s pretty bad. I feel like two of the biggest sins of this game are that it often fails to connect the key points in the game or feel like the stakes are raised at all. Oh well. Onto Snotingham.