Assassin's Creed Valhalla Preview - Porge Playground

For the better or for the worst, Assassin's Creed Valhalla is another of these games. After being released in England for 3 hours as Badass Warmaiden Eivor, I suspect that it will be the best exit of the series in a while. I had big fleshy problems with Assassin's Creed Odyssey, and Valhalla seems to have threaded or downright corrected just about all these concerns. Climb aboard your Drakkar, friend, let's go for Helheim!

When I dive for the first time a church roof in a haystack like Altair 13 years ago, it was a really impressive moment. Kinematics, beautiful and at least slightly terrifying. This chandelier has been considerably faded, of course, but it's always the very first thing I did in Valhalla. I wanted to understand - as I could - if this game was a fresh beast or just another tired meal. It's a bit of both, in a weird way. While Evor crouched on the outcrop of well placed wood, under an incredibly beautiful skybox, I felt at home. I crushed the synchronization button. The music and the camera, the cries of the raven of Odin, it was a great moment. But it seems very familiar, using the control diagram and many artifices of origins and Odyssey - like the absurd speed of your horse running on the main paths.

One of the most welcome changes of the last game is the operation of the hidden blade. Yes, an imposing viking and strong beef can sneak with the best of them. Where in the past the hidden blade had an attached damage value, it does not seem to be the case here. No need to sneak in front of all the guards to murder your target, only to get a meager attacle furtive and somehow alert the entire planet of your presence. Now, there is pressure on the time-based button to get a review on high-level targets and delete them at once. I totally missed it every time, but the jury is about whether the window is really tight, or the streaming service on which I played was just not reactive enough to fix the timing.

To sneak and eliminate enemies is always very fun, especially now that Odyssey's constant floating level indicators have disappeared. The resulting effect is that in direct combat, it feels like you can face any situation in any way. Without level numbers to fear, I felt like Thor himself face to face with a whole army of imposing brutes. Mechanically, things are quite similar again. RB and RT for attacks, x to dodge, while now RB or LB pulls your attacks on adrenaline. It's a fun system, full of rewards for a skillful game. Load and keeps a shielded enemy to spill it, allowing a vicious Stomp attack finisher. Or take out your bow and hit the knee from a soldier (YEP) to open the possibility of a devastating paralyzing attack. The types of weapons also seem to really change the fighting flow, the double axes being totally an option.

In a sequence, we attacked a castle. He. Was. Impressive. The previous games have had epic battles, but it felt particularly engaged and anchored. It was sometimes difficult to say how the battle was taking place at the heart of the fight, as it should be. There were inflamed arrows, boiling barrels, rams and heroic clashes between Eivor and enemy champions. Incarnation of pure and frantic pleasure, my raid on the castle of Burgh has brilliantly successful.

Ubisoft games are dense. Most of the time, you are a few seconds of dozens of card markers. Open the map and you are even more fucked. From the hot steam icon soup flows into your eyes, and it is almost impossible to know what is really worth doing. The preview of Valhala covered a substantial region of England, and yes, things were not lacking. Yet, I felt less overwhelmed here than in previous entries. The radar is less intrusive and heavy with icons, which probably contributes to stumbling on more organic things. Whether it's intentional design or blind luck, I seemed to fall more often on interesting history beats. From a battle of evil witch boss to a few northern children who had lost their parents, these interactions were often more meaningful than I expected in the series. Most of the time, I had the impression of playing The Witcher than a match Assassin's Creed.

In terms of characters, Eivor seems at least as great as Kassandra and Bayek. It is based on principles and traditional, but also wants to do good by the people it meets. The voice and writing seemed solid at all levels, which, hopefully, transmits the experience.

Graphically, the game looks nice. I hesitate to call this a generational jump, but the foliage is dense, the characters and the places are well rendered, and the sacred skyboxes are of absurd beauty. I guess we will see an implementation of 30 frames per second on the current generation console and 60 frames per second on PS5 and Xbox Series X.

What do you think of the Assassin's Creed series? Has he exceeded his welcome? I thought, but now I am looking forward to living another adventure. I want to know what Eivor do and his company in England. Where are we going to visit? We will know this autumn when Assassin's Creed Valhalla will be launched, and I'm ready to go for Odin.

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