Brett Smithson

Playing on PS5, on a nice 4K tv. somehow the graphics and controls went down in quality since Odyssey. Seriously, some of the effects look straight out of a PS3 game, no joke. The combat too, has been downgraded somehow. Origins and Odyssey had great combat...but here, you’re just a big, clunky shape swinging an axe, and good luck actually trying any fancy moves. The world is a plain, mostly empty snowy wasteland. Yes, I know that eventually you go to England, but honestly the world is so butt-ugly I don’t see how it would be more interesting. The global lighting of Odyssey seems to be gone, everything is lit with a generic, flat grey. The character models are even less detailed than the characters in Assassins Creed Syndicate! (Which somehow looks much better than Valhalla despite being several years old). There’s just something that feels clunky and unfinished about this game. Bugs galore, screen tearing, etc. Such a letdown after the incredible Demon Souls remake and Miles Morales.