Assassin's Creed Valhalla Standard Edition - PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5

Best Assassins Creed I have played in years, I love the Viking theme of the game, and the Viking Lore, the story is interesting and the open world of the game is really interesting to, really makes you feel like your in the time period.

Awesome game!! Looks like Scandinavia and I really enjoy flying Odin's Ravens. I found the game technically very good with interesting play. Probably best Viking game out there! I know my Viking stuff!!

It’s an excellent role playing game with a very thin coat of Assassin’s Creed paint. If you are looking to a return to old school AC games, this probably isn’t it. The emphasis is mostly on action and brutal 300-style combo finishers. It makes for some flashy gameplay, but doesn’t really feel like it fits properly into the rest of the AC franchise. You can however tweak some of the gameplay settings to allow for more stealth based gameplay and sneaking. If you enjoyed Origins and Odyssey, then you are probably going to get a lot of mileage out of Valhalla. Speaking of mileage...the game world/map might not be nearly as large as Odyssey’s, but boy is it dense. There is enough to do in this game to keep you busy for 75+ hours easily. The main story can tend to drag a bit with a lot of content you are forced to consisting of “weakening enemy forces”. This typically consists of burning supplies and taking out camps spread across certain regions. That can feel like a chore, but the main story is quite compelling, even giving you plenty of choices to customize your Eivor. There is also a huge improvement in the loot system from Origins and Odyssey. You are no longer showered with thousands of pieces of useless loot to dismantle, every weapon and piece of armor has a very specific purpose, stat, and look behind it. As such, you may play a large portion of the early game in the same type of armor, which may annoy some people. Fortunately, you can purchase armor location maps from your homestead cartographer not too far into the game which will help you customize the look and play of Eivor. Fantastic game overall, and I’ve absolutely enjoyed my time in this world. Story can derail a bit and go to some crazy places, but it’s a journey worth sticking with.

I played original Assassin's Creed and Black Flag. Liked both, great game engine / mechanics. This is not just the same game with a new skin... they upped the ante and pulled off a fantastic PS5 launch title (the best launch title in my opinion). I played it first on PS4 the week before PS5 launch and its a fantastic game there as well, nearly identical minus faster loading times and sexier graphics. If you liked playing the Assassin's Creed games - buy it. If you like playing stealth, action, RPGs - buy it. If you are a fan of Norse/Viking mythos - buy it. If you got a PS5 and wondering what to play - buy it. You will not regret it.

98 hours to complete the main storyline (and some extras), and I loved every minute of it! Valhalla does a great job at bringing the Norse world and mysteries to life. I just finished it yesterday but still have tons to explore (now that I have two legendary weapons, of course!). The story end sent me for a loop, for sure. But I also didn't play anything after the very first Assassin's Creed other than Odyssey, so I'm probably missing some vital story elements. The graphics are gorgeous, the characters are endearing, and the gameplay is fun. Did have some glitches before the first patch, and it still regularly crashes during cutscenes on my regular PS4, but that could be something with my system? People who prefer stealthier games might grumble a bit about this as they probably did with Odyssey, but I love open world hack and slash games. It's all I would play if I had to pick one genre. I actually hate stealth games and like the option of being able to BE stealthy if I feel like it because I lack patience.

This is a good but not an amazing game. Alot of this has to do with me playing games like ghost of tsushima and the last of us part 2 prior to this. Those games have amazing graphics and fluid combat. This game has lots of glitches that make things look awkward or made me have to replay certain missions because an objective was glitching and I couldn't intereract with them. I'm sure lots of the gliti will get fixed with updates. But there other things like the animation in combat being repetitive, the rigid way you have to go about completing missions. For example, you can only get raw materials which are used to upgrade your camp from raides on churches and nowhere else; due to the leveling system alot of raids are impossible until you level up so there is some level grinding to progress. Another issue is assassinations must be done by the hidden blade. I had a target in a locked church loaded with enemies I snuck in unnoticed and shot the target with an arrow to the head and no one knew it was me. But it didn't count because I didn't stab the body with the hidden blade. So I had to walk in through he front door stab am already dead body and alert the guards I was there. Worse I didn't even have to fight the guards. They just focused on fighting the cpu I was with while a sprinted out of the church. Once I left the church the guards outside didn't even bother chasing me and the cpu started talking to me as though she wasn't in the church getting stabbed by a bunch of spears. It's just really jarring how unrealistic the game is. Like you can have your crew sing songs on the bait but they clearly are not singing and the instruments playing aren't being played by anyone it's like you just turned the radio on inside your viking long boat. There alot of issues like this that made me miss the mentioned games above because they put so much attention to detail. But the story is interesting; alot of likeable characters but just not a polished games and it was played on ps5. I'd get on sale or just play the two games I mentioned for a fun experience.

I am a fan of this franchise. I actually expected it to look better but maybe it is because the environmental color tones so far. Always glad to get $10 Best Buy Reward Certificates for preordering. Glad this carries over to PS5 for when and if I get that. This was the best deal to me with the best extras. I believe I ended up getting this game free because within the refund time they had a buy 2 get 1 free sale and even though I had to stand my ground and was told several different things from associates, I eventually was granted the deal. It took long though. As far as the game I am enjoying it so far but am playing on one of the hardest difficulties so it is taking some time for me.

I've been playing Assassin's Creed games for years and am very familiar with the franchise. It's always hard to keep things new and fresh when you've been invested for so long. That said, I've found this new version to be satisfying overall. It's very similar to the play style of Odyssey, so much so that it almost seemed to be a re-skinned game to me. There were a lot of glitches in the game play, which I found annoying. A franchised that's been around as long as this one has should be more polished upon its release. Of course, the narrative and story telling is as good as always, which is what we've come to expect from the series. Overall, I'm satisfied to play this game, minor complaints aside. There's a ton of things to do, but they do seem to get a bit repetitive after awhile.