[Megathread] Assassin's Creed: Valhalla

[Vargrik]

so more of the same shit.. now they're gonna tell us how Vikings were these noble warriors and did nothing wrong, but these evil Christians were slaughtering them and turning them into christians against their will

Sounds accurate to me.

[thilicen]

This image actively excites the fuck out of me:

[GreenJesus]

I'm thinking they've said before they won't, because it's been done to death in so many other games.

I don't want feudal Japan, anyway: I want the end of the Edo period and the Meiji Revolution. Unlike most of the other games, you start out armed to the teeth and then the sword ban hits and you can't be seen in public looking like you're ready to go to war, forcing you to get more creative in your methodology.

Maybe Commodore Perry was a Templar and forced Japan to open up for the usual nefariousness.

Assasin's creed meets Gintama.. Poggers

[Ragnarohk]

Also, i really hope this one has multiplayer. It was one of the best things back then, why did they even remove it?

[Tech614]

Also, i really hope this one has multiplayer. It was one of the best things back then, why did they even remove it?

They went to coop MP with Unity and then since Unity bombed so hard they basically tried to go in complete opposite directions of everything Unity. Syndicate was the last one still using the old AC model that could of even had MP, but Origins and Odyssey(and probably Valhalla) are all basically Witcher lite RPGs and no longer play like the rest of the series so not sure how you even do MP like the old games.

[SirCowdog]

Did they ever change XP rates/requirements?

You know, now that I think back on it, I'm not sure they ever did. I thought I read something about it, but I can't find anything concrete either. Weird. I know they quashed player generated missions that gave easy exp. But to be honest, I wasn't that deeply involved in the game, and never actually finished the game(mostly because I got sick of side missions). But a large factor was also that the story and setting just didn't grab me. And I remember being pretty irritated at the leveling system for some reason.

Expect it, there will be similar MTX to AC:Od. And while I expect they will still "expect" players to engage in some side-activities, I imagine they'll smooth things out for "main mission only" players in response to the criticism in Od. I sure hope they do for the folks that just want the main story, won't impact me but if it means more enjoy the game then /thumbsup

I hope more games in the future take the Witcher 3's approach to side quests. Completely optional, but tying back in to the main story somehow, even if only a little. On that note, it will be interesting to see how this works in Cyberpunk 2077, but also in AC: Vikings. Will they learn from previous games or not, I wonder?

[Edge-]

You know, now that I think back on it, I'm not sure they ever did. I thought I read something about it, but I can't find anything concrete either. Weird. I know they quashed player generated missions that gave easy exp. But to be honest, I wasn't that deeply involved in the game, and never actually finished the game(mostly because I got sick of side missions). But a large factor was also that the story and setting just didn't grab me. And I remember being pretty irritated at the leveling system for some reason.

Yeah, I thought there was a patch too and it just dropped before I started playing. I can get being tired of the side missions/activities, there are a TON of them and if the game isn't up your alley they'll get old fast. Thankfully, the game was super up my alley and I enjoy me some grinding.

I hope more games in the future take the Witcher 3's approach to side quests. Completely optional, but tying back in to the main story somehow, even if only a little. On that note, it will be interesting to see how this works in Cyberpunk 2077, but also in AC: Vikings. Will they learn from previous games or not, I wonder?

I'm trying to remember, but I remember a fair number of the side quests tying back to your character/main quest in a loose way. I think the whole Sokrates chain was side quests, and those were some of my favorite in the game. Because he was as delightfully annoying and obnoxious as I always imagined him to be, while also still being endearing. Haven't played any of the Witcher games so not sure how these would compare.

[Larsadius]

Only on the internet can you preface an incredibly stupid comment regarding history with "the history buff in me" and have no one call you out on it.

From Michael Pye's 'Edge of the World:A Cultural History of the North Sea and the Transformation of Europe':

"As for who they [the Vikings] were, what they were, that was easy: they were enemy. They were the others, the ones not like the rest, and their brilliance at sea brought them far too close for comfort. Their sense that voyaging was something worth recording and praising and honouring did not make them sympathetic as it would in later years. Their great stories had not yet been written down, not even told aloud, so their habits and their history were unknown. Since what they did - raid, plunder, slave - was all too close to what everybody else did, given the chance, there had to be some other dimension to make them a proper enemy: they had to be demons. Nobody expects to understand what demons do."

You can read the rest if you're actually interested in being a 'history buff', but there's something to get you started.

The vikings were not a monolith as you're trying to make them out to be, but an incredibly diverse group of people spanning from Orkney to Russia. Those kids would not be dead, but those women would likely be raped unless there were more pressing matters. Vikings weren't animals, but human beings who could feel the same emotions you can. The trope that they were demons started because the Church of England needed an enemy because that's what the religion at the time needed: something to martyr and crusade against.

The vikings were doing what literally everybody else was doing at the time (from warfare, to piracy, to exploration, to trading) but they were just straight up better at it than the competing kingdoms. Whitewashing =/= proving you wrong.

Besides, who are you gonna highroad the vikings with? The english? The saxons? The HRE? The picts? Good luck with that. Just be thankful that something undermined your base understanding of a complicated historical culture instead of calling it 'whitewashing'.

It baffles me to no end how many dipshits run around the internet claiming to be history buffs but would be laughed out of academia...

[Craaazyyy]

Sounds accurate to me.

yeah, if you're stupid

[Onikaroshi]

yeah, if you're stupid

No one was really the "good" guy back then, Christians did some extremely shitty things too.

[Craaazyyy]

No one was really the "good" guy back then, Christians did some extremely shitty things too.

i never claimed they were saints

[Corvus]

I know AC plays a bit fast and loose with history at times (making Perikles a peace maker in AC:O for starters, when in reality he was a massive warmongering dick), but having Alfred the Great and the Anglo-Saxons as the bad guys?

Resisting a colonising invader makes you the bad guy? Yeah, there are some problems with that. I'm sure next time you'll play a noble conquistador fighting off those evil Incans who just want you to go away and leave them alone.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

I know AC plays a bit fast and loose with history at times (making Perikles a peace maker in AC:O for starters, when in reality he was a massive warmongering dick), but having Alfred the Great and the Anglo-Saxons as the bad guys?

Resisting a colonising invader makes you the bad guy? Yeah, there are some problems with that. I'm sure next time you'll play a noble conquistador fighting off those evil Incans who just want you to go away and leave them alone.

I mean do we even know thats the plot or just assumptions. In the older AC Templares were in every nation being jerks.

Weren't the templars the good guys in Rogue?

Yes, you played as some assassin who turned to the Templares cause I guess some group of Assassin's were jerks(At least that was the premise).

[Xilurm]

-snip-

You just had to add that last sentence for an infraction didn't you?

- - - Updated - - -

Weren't the templars the good guys in Rogue?

[Varitok]

I really disliked the attempt to demonize the King Alfred and make the vikings look like some peace seeking family men who wouldn't hurt women or children. Wessex was literally the last kingdom left in all of England after the Viking incursion.

- - - Updated - - -

I mean do we even know thats the plot or just assumptions. In the older AC Templares were in every nation being jerks.






Yes, you played as some assassin who turned to the Templar's cause I guess some group of Assassin's were jerks(At least that was the premise).

Templars are one thing but did you not watch the trailer? It showed them farming and playing with their kids and sparing women and children during a raid. It's a pretty big whitewash for what they historically did.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Templars are one thing but did you not watch the trailer? It showed them farming and playing with their kids and sparing women and children during a raid. It's a pretty big whitewash for what they historically did.

I know, I watched the trailer. I also doubt history had people randomly at the last minute pull a hiddden dagger like your typical AC assassin. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt on this. I understand your concern, just not gonna be outraged.....just yet.

[Edge-]

It's a pretty big whitewash for what they historically did.

I mean, yeah, a lot of the viking clans did farm and raise kids outside of pillaging and all too. They weren't just nonstop raping and pillaging the countryside. As for the killing women and children...that's a bit off, but it also wasn't really unique to vikings of the era, either.

Though I don't get why people are so determined that games using history for the setting of fictional narratives stick to historical accuracy. Historical fiction, including taking quite considerable liberties with the "history" aspect, is an old genre. As long as they're not saying, "Our goal is to accurately represent/recreate history" and they're transparent that the history is just the setting, with heavy creative differences, I don't see any problem.

The vikings weren't Nazi's or anything.

[beanman12345]

I really disliked the attempt to demonize the King Alfred and make the vikings look like some peace seeking family men who wouldn't hurt women or children. Wessex was literally the last kingdom left in all of England after the Viking incursion.

- - - Updated - - -



Templars are one thing but did you not watch the trailer? It showed them farming and playing with their kids and sparing women and children during a raid. It's a pretty big whitewash for what they historically did.

I took the sparing women and children as a semi-choice thing that was in ac: o but we'll see. But this series very liberally uses history so that you can interact with past figures and run around old locations, it doesn't prescribe to be historically accurate.

[Mirishka]

You know, now that I think back on it, I'm not sure they ever did. I thought I read something about it, but I can't find anything concrete either. Weird. I know they quashed player generated missions that gave easy exp. But to be honest, I wasn't that deeply involved in the game, and never actually finished the game(mostly because I got sick of side missions). But a large factor was also that the story and setting just didn't grab me. And I remember being pretty irritated at the leveling system for some reason.

Maybe next time get your facts straight before you derail a topic with nonsense.

[SirCowdog]

Maybe next time get your facts straight before you derail a topic with nonsense.

Sigh...really? Is this where you want to go with this?

Nope. Sorry, not getting entangled. I expressed that I wanted to stay positive, and I even expressed hope that AC:Val will be better than previous AC titles. And I said that there's no point in arguing about older games.

That's not derailing a topic. That's just me discussing one topic out of many with a literal forum mod. So I'll ask you to match me: Keep it positive.