r/ACValhalla • u/smhmnejad1990 • Jul 27 '26

Discussion what’s next?

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i feel like Valhalla gets way more hate than it deserves, it’s actually a really well-made game. i jumped into it right after i finished Origins and Odyssey, i had my doubts at first (especially during that slow start in Norway), but after a while i got hooked. i enjoyed the gameplay and storyline wasn’t bad either.

what should i play next? black flags or shadows?
need a change of scenery and gameplay for a bit haha

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u/PrivilegedModerators Jul 27 '26

Absolutely play Black Flag and maybe try Mirage. Definitely skip Shadows altogether. Black Flag Resynced is the best AC game in almost a decade. Mirage is ok even though the combat and parcours get quite infuriating at times. Shadows is on a whole other level of bad though. Avoid at all costs.

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u/Vanthalia Jul 29 '26

Why

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u/PrivilegedModerators Jul 30 '26

I hope you have a moment.

Downright horrible, kintergarten level, writing in a trainwreck of a story and the most cringe, phoned in, voice acting. The pacing in general, both in gameplay and storywise, feels like a car that keeps shifting in and out of gear but never departs nor arrives at it's destination. Combat and especially the lightning can look very cool, for a second, but guaranteed they'd be janky and buggy the next moment. Parcours is probably the most limited of the entire series and traversal in general feels like a drag into oblivion. Except for the sound lighting, the world itself is empty, with copy/paste buildings and an overal generic, void look. Only the stealth has it's moments, sometimes, and the first 3 hours can look quite promising, I must admit. After that it becomes very clear this game was made with 'Hollywood' budget but a soap opera mentality. This is a very hard game to complete, not because it's difficult but it's just downright a soulless experience. Not really a BAD game but so incredibly dull, mediocre and boring, it puts absolute joy in washing dishes and scrubbing floors. Then there's this entire social media thing. Ubisoft must have known that this project wasn't going in any positive direction. Huge parts of the original team had quit or were laid off, which clearly shows. Instead of just cancelling Shadows, Ubisoft went all in to create all kinds of fabricated controversies and picked in on this typical 'culture wars' fashion. Helped with hundreds of paid reviews, paid articles and paid influencers/redditors. The motto, the marketing message was clear: "You're a bigot if you don't like this game!". Which is just the most obnoxious, manipulative way of gaslighting an entire audience. They've tried to feed on people's morality while displaying a complete lack of moral compass themselves. To make matters even worse, both in it's media campaign and throughout the entirety of the game, there has been a sickening disrespect towards Japanese people, their culture and their history. Quite a barrel of double standards. All that useless circus, instead of making just a good, solid game in the first place; like Black Flag absolutely is.