25 hours in, did the introductory quests in England, but haven't started literally any of the shire quests. I'm completely enthralled by the expansive open world and the excellent environmental puzzles and Mysteries.
I really want that hammer! Also that was the first "glitch" swap between Eivors for me, which might put a pin in my other theory if they are all tied to Asgard stuff
I didn't turn on the switching Eivors, will be interesting to see a rundown on that
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SnicketysnickThe Greatest Hype Man inWesterosRegistered Userregular
There was a thing up on Eurogamer that apparently goes right into it but the first paragraph is a "Yo this is hella spoilers if you care" and I do so I've not read it. My current theory is that
each Eivor is a different timeline because of the breadcrumbs about that/changing the past in the last 2 games/all of Layla's laptop in this game so far.
Who have y'all gone with for Eivor's sex (and therefore voice acting)?
I went with female Eivor, and I'm really liking Cecilie Stenspil's performance of her. Gruff, raspy, hearty. Exactly as I'd expect a tough Nordic shieldmaiden to sound, especially given the character's backstory and its potential impact on their voice.
I've seen some say that Magnus Bruun's voice acting is superior, so I might try male Eivor at some point, but right now very satisfied with female Eivor's VA.
Yeah i'm perfectly happy with female Eivor's voice acting.
I'm power level ~50 but I was nearby a town across the border in a 120 zone so I figured why not wander around. Found a secret basement full of weirdos but also an armor chest and an ability book so I snuck around doing some normal-ass assassining. There's a node in the skill tree that gives you a timed button press to one-hit kill assassinate higher level enemies your sneak attack wouldn't kill outright, or if you don't want to bother with that there's a toggle in the Stealth Difficulty options to make all assassinates one hit kills regardless of level. So I had to be careful I wasn't spotted and also to hide bodies so they wouldn't be alerted, but I did it and it was pretty cool.
In the town itself I did a lot of slow walking in the middle of a group of priests and resting on benches to avoid patrols. I whistled to distract a guard from a doorway then ran around the other side to loot a chest while he was away.
Then I got into a drinking contest and got blitzed out of my mind which I only realized afterwards maybe was a bad idea in a hostile area more than twice my level.
So yeah you're playing a viking but there's still a lot of assassining if you want that.
Aistan on
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BlackDragon480Bluster KerfuffleMaster of Windy ImportRegistered Userregular
Hey! Who's playing this! I'm several hours in and haven't left Norway yet!
I've put in around 17 hours now, though I mainly post in G&T. Been branching out to SE more the last few months.
I didn't leave Norway till yesterday, round the 12 hour mark. Completed every map item in the opening region and about half of the second region to the North. Just crossed 60 power, have my settlement up to rank 3 (I've been a monastery sacking machine for raw materials since reaching Mercia) and loving just about everything about the game.
Them leaning hard into the RPG side gear and statwise, the combat is challenging without being frustrating on Drengr, the graphics are fantastic even just on an Xbox One X (prettiest enhanced HDR and effects I've seen since Gears 5), and Lady Eivor is a kick ass character, and eloquent to if you rank up your charism by doing flyting challenges.
Its my GotY so far, with only Cyberpunk looking capable of dislodging it.
BlackDragon480 on
No matter where you go...there you are. ~ Buckaroo Banzai
The things that i'm doing in Valhalla I am enjoying so much more than the things I was doing in Odyssey. So from a pure gameplay perspective Valhalla already beats that. Story-wise i'm not sure yet since i'm only 17 hours in. It's good so far so there's potential. Characters-wise... Kassandra and her buddies are a high bar to beat, so we'll see.
I haven't played much of the main quest yet, but that just speaks to how viscerally good (at least personally) the side content is. I'm on Pathfinder for exploration difficulty and I absolutely love coming across new Mysteries especially. They're all unique so far, they tell nice little memorable self contained stories, and they build the world and make it feel lived-in.
Definitely a huge improvement from Odyssey, where I remember side quests ending up feeling very samey and not especially interesting.
+1
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Linespider5ALL HAIL KING KILLMONGERRegistered Userregular
You know what? I just want more Black Flag. Skull and Bones may never come out, so just make, like, Assassins’s Creed Super Black Flag. More ship customization, hats, and a crew management system where you can level up and equip scalawags. Fill in the jungles beyond the cities, and have giant squid attack your ship like in all those old woodcuts.
I refuse to believe Viking boats never crashed into eachother so the people on them could stab eachother in the face how could that possibly not happen
I refuse to believe Viking boats never crashed into eachother so the people on them could stab eachother in the face how could that possibly not happen
Longships were too shallow of draft and keel to ram well, they had to be careful in strong cross winds when they'd get out of sight of shore in the North and Baltic seas or else roll over in heavy waves. The shallow draft let them go up rivers and estuaries that no other type of ship could at the time. They took advantage of this to avoid more robust blue water navies and raid inland once they depolulated and stole everything on the coast.
It was also real easy for an entire crew to lift and carry/portage a longship and hide themselves in sparse forest or bypass forts or cities directly on rivers and sack shit further down stream.
They had the canard that was wider and deeper of frame, but it was a cargo ship and couldn't turn worth a shit.
No matter where you go...there you are. ~ Buckaroo Banzai
I like the idea of collecting tattoos but in practice Eivor is wearing so many clothes that you only really see the face tattoos, so it's a little less interesting
I had the biggest grin on my face the first time I approached a stone bridge over the river and the crew fucking detatched the mast and laid it down so we could row under.
Viking ships would rarely try to ram ships in the open sea, due to their construction not allowing for it. Vikings did attack ships, not with the intent to destroy them, but rather to board and seize them. Vikings raided for economic rather than political or territorial gains, and so were eager to enrich themselves through ransom money and slave trading.
While naval Viking battles were not as common as battles on land, they did occur. As they had little to fear from other European countries invading the inhospitable regions of Scandinavia, most naval battles were fought amongst Vikings themselves, "Dane against Norwegian, Swede against Norwegian, Swede against Dane." Most Viking-on-Viking naval battles were little more than infantry battles on a floating platform. Viking fleets would lash their boats together, their prows facing the enemy. When they got close enough, the fighters would throw ballast stones, spears and use their longbows. Archers would be positioned in the back of the ships protected by a shield wall formation constructed in the front of the ship. Depending on the size of the defending fleet, some would attack from smaller craft to flank the bigger ships.
Like I said lets get these boats together so we can stab eachother in the face! C'mere Ragnar Fuckface we're goin to Hel today!
Viking ships would rarely try to ram ships in the open sea, due to their construction not allowing for it. Vikings did attack ships, not with the intent to destroy them, but rather to board and seize them. Vikings raided for economic rather than political or territorial gains, and so were eager to enrich themselves through ransom money and slave trading.
While naval Viking battles were not as common as battles on land, they did occur. As they had little to fear from other European countries invading the inhospitable regions of Scandinavia, most naval battles were fought amongst Vikings themselves, "Dane against Norwegian, Swede against Norwegian, Swede against Dane." Most Viking-on-Viking naval battles were little more than infantry battles on a floating platform. Viking fleets would lash their boats together, their prows facing the enemy. When they got close enough, the fighters would throw ballast stones, spears and use their longbows. Archers would be positioned in the back of the ships protected by a shield wall formation constructed in the front of the ship. Depending on the size of the defending fleet, some would attack from smaller craft to flank the bigger ships.
Like I said lets get these boats together so we can stab eachother in the face! C'mere Ragnar Fuckface we're goin to Hel today!
That would be a pretty fucking awesome setpiece and I hope something like it happens later on.
It's not a thing we can do on our own with our single little boat though.
I like the idea of collecting tattoos but in practice Eivor is wearing so many clothes that you only really see the face tattoos, so it's a little less interesting
I'm using the hide feature for the clothes, and have gone all in on the body tats. I'm playing a straight up combat character that just charges in and gives no fucks, so a bare-chested Berserkr with tats all over fits that perfectly.
Yes you can! I'm playing on PS4. On there, you go to the Inventory screen, move the cursor over the piece you want to hide, and press R3. I am assuming that there are similar ways to do it on Xbox and PC.
On PS4 it tells you at the bottom right of the Inventory screen that you can use R3 to hide the gear. Not sure if it does that on Xbox or PC, though.
I'm currently doing the Oxenefordscire arc, which is...I don't know, it's the fifth or sixth alliance chain I've started?
So...I had my Eivor start up a relationship with Randvi, because...well, I had one with Petra, and it was nice, but the Randvi relationship seems like it's gonna be a lot more dramatic and that's fun? I can also see Eivor going along with Petra until Randvi makes a move thinking like, "oh I didn't know this was an option, okay, cool." Also...Sigurd is never around anyways, and Eivor is already getting accused of trying to take Sigurd's place by friggin' Dag anyways so let's lean into this
Anyways, then I do another quest chain with Sigurd, who clearly no longer has his eyes on the prize, and Eivor's just like..."fucking hell dude, what's wrong with you," because Sigurd is a protagonist in his own Assassin's Creed adventure and Eivor is just off to the side doing all of the work and wondering if he's lost his damned mind, and Sigurd goes, "why are you being such as ass to me, do you feel guilty about something," and it was extremely fun to see Eivor go, "uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh no?"
anyways this is going to blow up in everyone's face, a+ would creed again
I am enjoying vikinging very much, but I'm about 40 hours in and so far Swedes do not exist.
It's fun to listen to the variance in the accents of the voice actors when it comes to Norse words and names, even among the Nordic characters it's a bit random if they pronounce it in a Scandinavian way or an English way.
Whats the brutal violence scale on this unit are there heads flyin off necks or what
Not constantly but there's special fancy killing animations for elite enemies, and sometimes depending on how you kill regular enemies you get a nice headchop etc. Probably varies a lot depending on weapon used.
Whats the brutal violence scale on this unit are there heads flyin off necks or what
Not constantly but there's special fancy killing animations for elite enemies, and sometimes depending on how you kill regular enemies you get a nice headchop etc. Probably varies a lot depending on weapon used.
Indeed.
One of my personal favorites is stun attacking/finisher on someone using a two-handed dane axe. You knock them on their ass, rip the axe out of their hands and then do a big overhand chop that shears into their shoulder and cleaves about a third of the way into their torso and you just leave it there and they fall backwards completely limp.
No matter where you go...there you are. ~ Buckaroo Banzai
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Why is it so dang expensive (vs PC)? Sheesh.
I think I'm done with Assassin's Creed for good
Oh if anyone wants to trade henchgoons add me on that ubiconnect thing, same name as here
D3 Steam #TeamTangent STO
D3 Steam #TeamTangent STO
D3 Steam #TeamTangent STO
I went with female Eivor, and I'm really liking Cecilie Stenspil's performance of her. Gruff, raspy, hearty. Exactly as I'd expect a tough Nordic shieldmaiden to sound, especially given the character's backstory and its potential impact on their voice.
I've seen some say that Magnus Bruun's voice acting is superior, so I might try male Eivor at some point, but right now very satisfied with female Eivor's VA.
I'm power level ~50 but I was nearby a town across the border in a 120 zone so I figured why not wander around. Found a secret basement full of weirdos but also an armor chest and an ability book so I snuck around doing some normal-ass assassining. There's a node in the skill tree that gives you a timed button press to one-hit kill assassinate higher level enemies your sneak attack wouldn't kill outright, or if you don't want to bother with that there's a toggle in the Stealth Difficulty options to make all assassinates one hit kills regardless of level. So I had to be careful I wasn't spotted and also to hide bodies so they wouldn't be alerted, but I did it and it was pretty cool.
In the town itself I did a lot of slow walking in the middle of a group of priests and resting on benches to avoid patrols. I whistled to distract a guard from a doorway then ran around the other side to loot a chest while he was away.
Then I got into a drinking contest and got blitzed out of my mind which I only realized afterwards maybe was a bad idea in a hostile area more than twice my level.
So yeah you're playing a viking but there's still a lot of assassining if you want that.
I've put in around 17 hours now, though I mainly post in G&T. Been branching out to SE more the last few months.
I didn't leave Norway till yesterday, round the 12 hour mark. Completed every map item in the opening region and about half of the second region to the North. Just crossed 60 power, have my settlement up to rank 3 (I've been a monastery sacking machine for raw materials since reaching Mercia) and loving just about everything about the game.
Them leaning hard into the RPG side gear and statwise, the combat is challenging without being frustrating on Drengr, the graphics are fantastic even just on an Xbox One X (prettiest enhanced HDR and effects I've seen since Gears 5), and Lady Eivor is a kick ass character, and eloquent to if you rank up your charism by doing flyting challenges.
Its my GotY so far, with only Cyberpunk looking capable of dislodging it.
~ Buckaroo Banzai
Definitely a huge improvement from Odyssey, where I remember side quests ending up feeling very samey and not especially interesting.
Do it. Do it NOW.
No boat battlin, boats didn't battl back then. At least not the ones vikings used.
Here the only ramming is your boat into the shore so you can jump out and BURN CHRIST'S HOUSE AND TAKE HIS SILVER.
Imagine AC: Valhalla's gameplay systems, but in the Black Flag setting. Yes please.
Longships were too shallow of draft and keel to ram well, they had to be careful in strong cross winds when they'd get out of sight of shore in the North and Baltic seas or else roll over in heavy waves. The shallow draft let them go up rivers and estuaries that no other type of ship could at the time. They took advantage of this to avoid more robust blue water navies and raid inland once they depolulated and stole everything on the coast.
It was also real easy for an entire crew to lift and carry/portage a longship and hide themselves in sparse forest or bypass forts or cities directly on rivers and sack shit further down stream.
They had the canard that was wider and deeper of frame, but it was a cargo ship and couldn't turn worth a shit.
~ Buckaroo Banzai
Like I said lets get these boats together so we can stab eachother in the face! C'mere Ragnar Fuckface we're goin to Hel today!
That would be a pretty fucking awesome setpiece and I hope something like it happens later on.
It's not a thing we can do on our own with our single little boat though.
I'm using the hide feature for the clothes, and have gone all in on the body tats. I'm playing a straight up combat character that just charges in and gives no fucks, so a bare-chested Berserkr with tats all over fits that perfectly.
On PS4 it tells you at the bottom right of the Inventory screen that you can use R3 to hide the gear. Not sure if it does that on Xbox or PC, though.
I kinda like the look all armored up on raids but that's a pretty cool feature.
Anyways, then I do another quest chain with Sigurd, who clearly no longer has his eyes on the prize, and Eivor's just like..."fucking hell dude, what's wrong with you," because Sigurd is a protagonist in his own Assassin's Creed adventure and Eivor is just off to the side doing all of the work and wondering if he's lost his damned mind, and Sigurd goes, "why are you being such as ass to me, do you feel guilty about something," and it was extremely fun to see Eivor go, "uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh no?"
anyways this is going to blow up in everyone's face, a+ would creed again
...
I'm still gonna do the other three.
It's fun to listen to the variance in the accents of the voice actors when it comes to Norse words and names, even among the Nordic characters it's a bit random if they pronounce it in a Scandinavian way or an English way.
Not constantly but there's special fancy killing animations for elite enemies, and sometimes depending on how you kill regular enemies you get a nice headchop etc. Probably varies a lot depending on weapon used.
Indeed.
One of my personal favorites is stun attacking/finisher on someone using a two-handed dane axe. You knock them on their ass, rip the axe out of their hands and then do a big overhand chop that shears into their shoulder and cleaves about a third of the way into their torso and you just leave it there and they fall backwards completely limp.
~ Buckaroo Banzai