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Its fun but not great. Last AC game I played was Black Flag which I thoroughly enjoyed many years ago. Valhalla struggles on many fronts. Its storytelling is kinda poor. I find it somewhat boring, characters are a bit uninteresting, voice acting has moments of being not good, and the writing can be iffy--such as a character may completely contradict his choice or ideal many minutes later that doesn't really make sense during dialogues. But the story can still be passable and maybe some may enjoy it. The combat and movement mechanics...this is where its very poor. I just came from Ghost of Tsushima and can confidently say that Valhalla is a major downgrade from that game. And its saddening since I was a bit hopeful with the Viking era. Combat is a bit clunky and parkour is....kinda atrocious. You have the ability to climb virtually everything which is cool on paper and complex but implemented poorly.. Its a struggle to get your character to move in the direction you want them to while climbing. This makes for slow and clunky assassinations and exploration. Compared to Ghosts that uses a more old school parkour design where you can clearly see what can be climbed and is much more intuitive. Leading to smooth gameplay and many times, very cinematic kills. And once you become a veteran player, its super easy to do by instinct. Also tons of issues with regular combat (poor balancing, stats & mechanics broken, horribly overpowered, etc). Final verdict, Valhalla would be worth it on sale. It could learn a lot from Ghosts to improve its combat and movement mechanics which really hold it down at times. Story, that becomes subjective but I found it to be iffy. Plus, there are definitely many bugs that are sometimes a nuisance--none that are gamebreaking that I have ran into yet though.

On PS5, I would technically give this game probably a 4.5 to 4.6 stars but rounding up because 4 out 5 just seems insulting. The game has some bugs. But overall, its absolutely superb. Its much like the first except improved in nearly EVERY way possible. The narrative is solid. Characters are memorable and well done. Combat is even better and so satisfying. Graphics and physics are amazing! And my God! There is Gyro Aim! This makes the combat that much better once you get use to it. Its much more intuitive and easier to aim at specific parts quickly while moving. If GG can just clean up some of the bugs and improve a bit more the climbing and parkour elements along with maybe how scavenging works, game would be a super strong contender for GOTY. Granted, it already is. If you own a PS5, 100% worth.

The game is fun at times but only OK overall. It has potential with some unique qualities but fails to deliver in some core areas. Especially with the foundation of its PvP aspect which has a MASSIVE sustainability problem for longterm (explained further below). AI is weak--they don't react to sound very well (shoot a gun multiple times on a rooftop and they still seem lost or sprint behind them and they don't react) and their vision is way too narrow. Fairly dated stealth mechanics to be honest. They also don't engage in firefights well and are predictable--easy to get them into chokepoints and they just lack awareness. They do not flank and are linear in design (no special classes outside of "long, mid, short, and melee range"). They will improve in weapons over time of your progression but it doesn't actually do that much in increased DPS and does not impact the game much either. I believe AI is weak to compensate for player invasions which creates an extremely poor balance between the two. If you don't get invaded by a player (which can be quite often especially since player count is not very high), then you have only the AI to face. Quite simply, a reliance on PvP for a challenge. AI needed a Heavy class (immune to headshots) and a Nullifier class (immune to Slab attacks and abilites) along with maybe a combo of the two. Just needed more overall. Balancing between players can come elsewhere. Controls on PS5 need improvement especially with weapon handling. Sensitivity and acceleration are just off feeling and this is the first game I resorted to snap auto aim which I LOATHE due to it being a cheat. But I just couldn't get a comfortable feel for the handling without it and was hurting the experience. And I'm someone who plays a lot of PvP shooters and though I prefer fairly specific control settings, I also adapt well. UI could be improved (especially with maps and the layout of objective menu). 3D audio is not the best. Will have multiple times where an item may sound above you but can be right at your feet. Mulitplayer is horribly unbalanced and VERY laggy due to Peer-to-Peer connection. It's fun when it works but also quite frustrating and I expect PvP to be hard to matchmake in the coming weeks due to lack of players.. The overall game is short, about 20 to 30 hours to fully complete. When you finish the game with Colt, there's no real endgame progression (minus completing side stuff or other endings) to push for PvP. Not even a matchmaking for him to directly play against Juli players on random maps (desperately needed). This in essence kills the 1 side for creating the PvP. Thus Juliannes could be stuck in matchmaking for quite some time if not enough new players jumping in--some hardcore people may repeatedly jump in as Colt but nowhere near enough. There needed to be incentives for players to remain in Online Mode beyond the main story. There also needed to be improved "skill/progression based" MM due to how lopsided games can get. My Colt is endgame (was about 10 hours into playing sadly) and just demolishes both AI and Julianne invaders alike (assuming they actually match make into my game...). I actually don't even stealth anymore it's so one sided. Invasions is a core concept for this game with a poor foundation to operate on. It can be exhilarating when it works and both sides are more of equal progression. But that's fairly rare in my experience. Overall, some people may enjoy the game as it tailors to a much more casual player base but this does not deserve a Game of the Year rating.

This is a game that should be contender for GOTY. 1st off, it's going to be a difficult game that may not tailor to everyone. Theres a lack of save points (thats Roguelikes for you) which punishes you for dying and the game can be difficult and there are no settings to change this as that is the purpose of this game (think Dark souls style to some degree). I do think HM could do more to ease the longer runs in this regard though to allow newcomers a little more ease to take their time thus making the game a bit more accessible. But aside from this, the game is absurdly excellent. From weapon design to bosses to sound....it's a riveting experience that is unique in the industry. The controls are tight and fast leading to some awesome gameplay with the many enemy types that do well to respond to your actions. And man, the music and 3D sound design...best I've heard in a few years, easily. The sound will completely encapsulate you ESPECIALLY when you get to Biome 6 (last biome). The 3rd and 4th bosses are also some of the most memorable experiences I've had in recent memory. The freaking music choice and overall gameplay of them is outstanding. Congrats HM for such a solid game. With a few tweaks here and there, this game would have been perfect (even though it's quite close to it to begin with). Cannot wait for the next game you make.