Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Assassin's Creed Valhalla Review (So Far) - Kinda Funny Gamescast Ep. 47

Episode Date: November 9, 2020

In what will surely be the first of many Assassin's Creed Valhalla conversations, Greg, Barrett, Kevin, and Imran talk about their time as vikings! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm.../adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:07 What's up everybody? Welcome to the Kind of Funny Games cast. I'm one of your host, Greg Miller, alongside the glue, Big Kev Dog, Kevin Coelho. Greg, I'll never forget the first time I was walking around IGN and you looked at me holding your water mug, put it down and smiled and then just water poured down your face. And I was like, this man's a psychopath. I will follow him to the end of his days. I appreciate, too, you said the first time I did that. I'm getting multiple times to you because I'm a crazy human being Of course, joining you is the former in former Imran Khan. How are you, Amron?
Starting point is 00:00:43 I'm doing good. I always wonder like sometimes I drink the water And sometimes I pull it away before I like tilt it back And some waterfalls. I always wonder like, can people on video see that? And if so, do they think I'm nit yet? I hope not. I hope there's a large percentage of things people can't see on video
Starting point is 00:00:57 that we have done or due to each other on these things. You know what I mean? Like, I gave up a lot time ago. Like, you blow your nose, you're like, this is what it is now. I hope there's nothing hanging out. That's just how it's got to be. This is life now. And then for his rare on camera games cast appearance, it's the boss baby, Barrett Courtney.
Starting point is 00:01:15 Without doing it on purpose, I feel like actually hitting my mouth with liquid is like a 50-50% chance. You know what I'm saying? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're really bad at Amy. You're taking a shot right now. You're taking a shot right. Oh, okay, success. Success.
Starting point is 00:01:26 Success. The Coke Z got where he needed to be. Ladies and gentlemen, this, of course, is your Assassin's Creed Valhalla review. Parentheses so far, if you've never joined us for one of these before, obviously sometimes embargoes come around for huge games, and that means that we didn't beat it yet, and this is an ongoing thing, right? Because I'm clear, this is obviously our first time getting together to talk about it.
Starting point is 00:01:46 None of you have beaten Assassin's Creed Volholic, right? No. Okay, good, yeah, because it's a huge game, and I want to take my time with it as well, so I haven't either. So we always put the so-far review tag on there to indicate where we are, but we'll get to all of that. Let me first tell you, this is the kind of funny gamescast. If you didn't know each and every week, we get together to talk about all the things we love in video games,
Starting point is 00:02:02 and some of the things we hate each and every week on a variety of platforms. The one we always talk about those, patreon.com slash kind of funny games. You can go there to be part of the show. Give us your questions, your comments, your concerns. You can usually watch us record the show live. Of course, we can't do that because of embargoes today. But usually. And most importantly, you can get the show ad free and you can get it with the exclusive post show we do at least once a week.
Starting point is 00:02:26 I think for this, if you didn't know, I'm getting into housekeeping, this is your second, or this is your first games. cast of Monday. There is another review popping in a few hours that you can check out as another games cast. And then on top of that, there is another games cast for the second. There's a lot going on this week. This one has the post show. No, man, I don't think this one. Maybe. Okay, maybe. Maybe this one will. Wait till the end. Keep you on your toes. We all like to be on a kept on our toes. If you have no bucks to toss our way on patreon.com slash kind of funny games. It's no big deal. You can catch the kind of funny games cast each and every week on YouTube.com slash kind of funny games. Roosterteat.com
Starting point is 00:03:01 and podcast services around the globe. No matter where you get the show, please support it on the other platforms and keep your eyes peeled for multiple of them today. Because usually you put out one episode of the show does really well, right? But the more episodes you put out, views actually go down usually.
Starting point is 00:03:16 Now, sometimes that's, you know, it's a rise in a fall kind of situation of what's going on and what the games aren't yet. It's like a roller coaster. It is like a roller coaster. I wanted to say, yeah, I was saying, I want to say Rickroll. And I was like, that's not right.
Starting point is 00:03:29 I pulled me ejected. I pulled me a jack. I can't remember what I'm looking for. Some other housekeying for you, like I said, it is next gen season. Ladies and gentlemen, YouTube.com slash Kind of Funny Games is your destination for everything we are doing with it.
Starting point is 00:03:42 Of course, like I said, you have another games cast popping on Monday. That's another review that is embargoed. So obviously, I'm not going to tell you it. But you could look back at last week where we have a Spider-Man, Miles Morales review, and, of course, a review for Astros Playroom.
Starting point is 00:03:55 On top of that, you have an X-cast review of the Xbox Series X. You have a PSI-Love. review of PS5. That's not slowing down this week as more and more embargoes start to break and games start to go. Of course, catch it all on YouTube.com slash kind of funny games or the kind of funny podcast of your choice. Thank you to our Patreon producers, Blackjack, Tom Bach, ALWT Gaming, Kevin is the best Christmas elf, Jeffrey Pee, Pee, Pong, Sancho West Gaming and James Hastings. Today, we're brought to you by Honey and Hems, but I'll tell you about that later for now.
Starting point is 00:04:28 let's get into our Assassin's Creed Valhalla review so far. Barrett Courtney, I want to start with you and we're going to go around the table really quick. I have two questions for you. I guess three, actually. Let's add a third one there. How long have you played Assassin's Creed Valhalla? What are you playing it on and what do you think of it? I'm about 30.
Starting point is 00:04:50 I'm like right at like 15 minutes away from hitting hour 30 of my play through. I'm playing it on PS4 Pro. and so far I am really, really enjoying it. Yeah, of the modern AC games, like this is a standout to me. Now, when you say modern, are you starting with origins then? Yes. Okay, cool. Because, yeah, obviously, if people don't know, you're obsessed with Assassin's Creed, correct?
Starting point is 00:05:15 Yeah, if you don't know, I've replayed the entire series, at least the mainline games this year in anticipation for Valhalla. And yeah, like going from syndicate to origins, there was a huge change in the series. And origins is when they started doing like the more like Witcher 3 style RPG kind of thing. So yeah, of the three, this is definitely a standout for me. Imran Khan, how long have you played it? What are you playing on? Do you like it?
Starting point is 00:05:44 I think my saves has about 25 hours and that's probably accurate. I started on Xbox 1X. yesterday the Xbox Series X version went live so I switched to that I've been playing that since then Gotcha do you like it I so I've never liked the like okay not to say I never liked it I didn't prefer the RPG style besides the screen over the classic style
Starting point is 00:06:07 But I ended up really liking this game I don't know like what it is simply the hook about this is that gets it like for me But I'm enjoying this one quite a bit Okay Kevin Coelho, how long have you played it What are you playing it on do you like it So I just looked at the Ubisoft app and I'm at 20 hours. Okay.
Starting point is 00:06:25 I'm playing it on the PS4 Pro. Uh-huh. And I am enjoying it, but I feel like a lot of that is really, like, I have to work for it. Where it's missing that little magic that the other one have. And we'll get more into it, but there's certain elements where I'm like, ah, they've regressed in a way that bums me out. But that being said, it still has really cool, like, you know, the open world that I love to explore. And I'm all about going to run around. I've done very little story in these 20 hours.
Starting point is 00:07:01 Sure, of course. Yeah. And I think that's the craziest thing is when I have touched base with you, Kevin, when I have touched base with you, Barrett, privately. Imron and I only talk on camera. It's in his contract. It was that conversation of, all right, yeah, where are you? And then I was like, wait, I guess that's a terrible way to put this. Or how long have you been playing?
Starting point is 00:07:16 And I was like, that's a terrible way to put this because, yeah, I'm the same way of, I personally right now am 20 hour, maybe it's probably more like 22 hours in. However, it's spread mainly across us. This is where it gets really complicated. Stick with me. It is spread mainly across probably 18 hours on my PlayStation 5 save of my backwards compatible PlayStation 4 version. But I am also did some stuff with Xbox where I was playing over on their stream.
Starting point is 00:07:45 And I've been playing on the Xbox series X version of Assassin's Creed over there. and that's where the other time of it comes. So it gives me this really weird perspective, I guess, of knowing what it looks like on Xbox Series X and then knowing what it looks like on PlayStation 4, kind of, but I'm playing it through the PlayStation 5, but it is not the PlayStation 5 version of the game. And that's the whole conversation unto itself,
Starting point is 00:08:07 let alone Ubisoft Connect, which we will also talk about in this and everything else. So yeah, 20 hours across all of it with me, much like Kevin, I feel like even in the beginning, I might have done it to a detrimental effect of cool, you know, where they finally let you loose. Like, all right, do what you want to do. And I just did the normal thing where I'm running around synchronizing points and chasing
Starting point is 00:08:25 down mysteries. And then it was that thing of like, wait, what am I doing again? Who am I? Like, I'll fuck. And I started mainlining the story. And I'm in a similar situation. It sounds like to, I think more Imran where I like this game and I really like Avor and I really like the Viking setting.
Starting point is 00:08:45 And I really like building the things. I just don't feel like I'm in love with it, but I feel like that could happen at any moment because I am still incredibly motivated to play it. I still want to play more. And again, it's Assassin's Creed. It's synchronizing these points. It's fighting these things. It's getting better gear. And some of that they've changed in different ways. And I don't know how much of it is a hangover. Of course, Kevin and I were obsessed with Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Cassandra. Well, I was Cassandra, you were Alexios. But like to come into this new world and be learning who Avor is and then to be able to switch between male Avor and female Avor if you want and finding all these other customization
Starting point is 00:09:20 options. Like there's so much to it that more than ever, I feel 20 hours in this game is just scratching the surface in a way that I'm still wrapping my head around systems and what it really is going to be. And I think I need to tackle my play through in a very different way because it feels to me, and Barrett, I'd love your opinion on this. It feels to me way more RPG than Assassin's Creed. Is that fair, Barrett?
Starting point is 00:09:43 I would say this is, because Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla, in their own respects, are all very RPG in a way. And I think the systems in this game, I think, hone in definitely more on some aspects while also tearing away at some things that Odyssey did. And also to give perspective, this is the team that did. Origins, Odyssey was a different team. And so this definitely, Valhalla definitely feels like the proper follow-up. to origins to me in a lot of different ways. And what does that mean to you? When we were texting earlier, very top level thoughts, you had said that.
Starting point is 00:10:20 What does that mean you? Um, with overall systems in origins, everything flowed so well, uh, especially like who, with who you were in origins, you're like the last magi of Egypt. Uh, you're going around. You're helping people. You feel motivated to help people outside of just the main story because of your role in this world. Of course, you're going out of your way to help people because that's your job in Egypt.
Starting point is 00:10:48 And it felt like, of course, it was the first game to go. Like full RPG. There had been RPG elements in the series before, but this like went full on Witcher. And there's just something about it that like the systems wise and like how much I felt like I was grinding in that game that never felt like I was coming to a full stop and always felt fluid and always felt motivated. in certain aspects. Whereas Odyssey, I think there's something weird with Odyssey, because as I've said on shows before,
Starting point is 00:11:20 like I don't love Odyssey as much as you two, or as like, I forget who reviewed it at IGN, but I remember being on Beyond to talk about Odyssey with them. And there's just something about Odyssey where it felt like a very bloated version of origins in ways that did not feel satisfying. Whereas Valhalla seems to kind of be almost the middle ground.
Starting point is 00:11:47 Cause like to me, Origins is Witcher 3 light, whereas like Odyssey is like Witcher 3 on steroids. And Valhalla, to me, feels like a little more of the middle ground. Sure. While like scaling back on things, I think Odyssey really needed to scale back on. There was like a lot of fat, a lot of things that you needed to do to grind in that game to be able to get to the next story mission. That just never felt satisfying in its own right.
Starting point is 00:12:12 rather than like, oh, finally, I'm at the level where I can get to this next story mission and not die instantly. There's just, I think there's way more of a balance in Valhalla in level grinding and also like just world building and story building and relationship building that, yeah, I just, and also really quick. I think this is the most Assassin's Creedie game of the last. last three games, I will say. Well, I did, like, reintroduce assassination in this game, because, like, I played a decent bit of Origen's, like, 10 hours of Odyssey. And from what I remember, there's no, like, hidden blading or, like... No, there is in those games.
Starting point is 00:12:58 They're just, like, downplayed. Like, you have the hidden blade and origins. And then, like, in Odyssey, it's not even a hidden blade. You just have, like, Leonidas's spear. And it just... It wasn't nearly as focused on... and those games didn't feel as built around stealth as more as they did felt around combat.
Starting point is 00:13:21 Whereas I think Valhalla does a really good job at giving you the options to build your character how you want. There's like the three different, not to get like too into it too early. You're going to get into it, yeah. Yeah, yeah. There's like the three different, like you have one major skill tree,
Starting point is 00:13:38 but like they branched off into three different types, and there's, like an assassination branch. There's like a combat branch. And then there's, I forget what like the third one is like really. Yeah, it ranged. Isn't it ranged? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:13:50 And like as someone who like you, Amron, like I really love like the, what the original games did, I was going full on making my assassinations, uh, like, assassination tree like as built up as I can. And like, it was so fun to like unlock another cluster of stars and to see like what the main, um, kind of ability. I'll have to on me. Yeah, exactly. The main skill that I'll have to unlock next. And it's like, if I can jump in just to explain a bit on that because I don't know. So we're talking about a game. We've played a ton of it. I know other people have.
Starting point is 00:14:22 Yeah, as you earn skill points now, you go into these skill trees that are laid out to be constellations. The small like little circles on it are melee buff, you know, resistance to this. You know, more damage from your assassination is great. But then in the middle of the clusters are special moves. Like, you know, the abilities. I go into it and the abilities to, uh, uh, I go, go into it. the abilities to and then don't have it. I think like the finisher stomp and stuff like that. I just don't know.
Starting point is 00:14:46 There's like the stomp, the one that I love personally. And this is another thing that like kind of frustrated me with Odyssey and a little bit with origins as well is that like there's like the assassination skill that you can get that no like no matter how much like health a certain enemy has. Like if there's like a character enemy or something. That you would typically need to like maybe do like an assassin. to an Odyssey and then Origins, typically the rest of dealing with them would have to be a fight. Whereas in Valhalla, there's a skill where
Starting point is 00:15:19 if it's like a named character and they've got a lot of health, they put in like a little, almost like a mini game where you have to get the timing right. And if you get the timing right, you can one shot them. And it's seriously the coolest thing. And I feel badass every single time that I do it. There have been so many characters
Starting point is 00:15:35 where I'm like, I don't know if I'm going to have like the combat skill to take them on. And I've been able to take them on and just won't hit. And it's, again, I think it's a good marriage of what these more modern, Witcher 3 Assassin's Creed games that we've gotten so far and giving us the ability to have the feeling of what the older Assassin's Creed games did for the fans who have been around since 2007 or 8 or whatever. There's also just a straight up option.
Starting point is 00:16:01 And the options meant that you're too like, yeah, when I stab someone, they should die. I didn't even notice that. Like it says, hey, don't do this because the game's not meant to be played this way. But it's cool to get that option. option of like, yeah, we know how you used to play a Sasses grade. If you want to just play it that way, fine. It's not designed that way, but sure.
Starting point is 00:16:19 Again, that's the other thing, too, like, and this is in the weeds. I do want to double back to something Barrett said there, but like, one of the things that I find impressive about Valhalla are the options in the ability to really go in there and customize obviously the character, sure, the ability of, you know, there's, you can change if you
Starting point is 00:16:35 want to be male or female, Avor, anytime. You can also let the animist decide, so it'll go through because it's kind of story related that the DNA sequences are over the thing, but even in options of like, all right, cool, do you want this to be a toggle or do you want this to be a hole? Do you want it to be this? And I usually don't fuck with that kind of shit. But in a game like Assassin's Creed where I feel like I'm so in those moments, I am fucking
Starting point is 00:16:54 with them and trying to find the right thing. What I want to double back to is something I'd said at the top and I think Barrett went into where I'm saying I'm still trying to figure out the right way, in quotes, to play this game. And one of the things I brought up to both Barrett and our friend who was reviewing it as well talking about it. It was this conversation of, I don't, I love the idea of how they're doing the wealth mysteries and artifacts. If you haven't paid attention to anything for this game, the idea is that obviously you have your big story mission to go off and do.
Starting point is 00:17:24 And then littered throughout the countryside when you sink for nice points or, you know, when you use your eagle, though. Or is it a Raven? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Pro. Yeah. Raven up there to see. Rather than it be like, beat you over the head.
Starting point is 00:17:37 This is what this is. you just get one of three colored dots, which is white for artifacts, gold for wealth, which will be like, you know, obviously it could be your gear. It could be the new moves you learn because, again, you're not unlocking, even though we just talk about skills you're unlocking, you're unlocking special moves that go on your R2 or L2. That's more akin to like the combat stuff in Odyssey where you have like the big sweeping white and stuff like that.
Starting point is 00:18:02 Like it's very akin to that. And then wealth and then mysteries, which are more like side quests. And what I had been playing it, I'd been going after the blue dots, which are the mysteries, which I was equating to side quests. And not all the time, but lots of times those blue dots are super short, where it's literally, I walked up and these guys were fighting about a silo, and they walked away angrily. And I just blew up the silo and it was like, completed. And I was like, oh, this kind of sucked. And I started, I was telling bare, like, for me, you know, when I played Odyssey, I would have these side quests in the next morning when me and Jenwick a coffee, I would tell them to her, like, they were an episode of a show.
Starting point is 00:18:38 And I was like, oh, it's so interesting. And the blue dots for a lot of them have been very simple of like, oh, this is, do this thing. Or this, you know, oh, this guy's got a bunch of stinky shit in his house. Throw it out. Okay, that's complete. And it was like, oh, but what I didn't realize, I think even when I was having that conversation with Barrett, because I was kind of ignoring it, is that the way they're doing and they've talked about that Valhalla is going to have stories that are like chapters.
Starting point is 00:19:01 There'll be multiple parts to them, two to three hours. That's what you do, right? Doing those, I'm having the things. things I was always liking in the side missions of Odyssey, which I didn't expect. And I think I sold short early because I am now in the main, you know, quote unquote main quest, having the, oh, make a choice here or there. And then how does that play out? Okay, do you believe this person or you believe that person? Oh, okay. And that's the thing I'm not wrestling with. They've just changed the game enough that it's still my perspective on it. And even like building out your
Starting point is 00:19:31 settlement and stuff like that, like as you start to do that and unlock more abilities and unlock more people. It's very interesting. Yeah, really quick. That's something like I understand, like with you and Kevin, like the, there was a lot of what you guys liked of like these kind of like, Kevin, I'm not exactly sure. I know you just like playing these games for the gameplay, but I'm not sure like if you're as,
Starting point is 00:19:51 um, in love with like just like the random like side questy stuff in Odyssey. Um, but that was something that I kind of gathered as well is that like the way that they're structuring, uh, the, the side stories and the main story. I definitely prefer. in this game as well. Just because the side stuff and Odyssey always felt like a, all right, like I'm
Starting point is 00:20:11 starting this side story. Hopefully it'll help me get some XP. It's kind of interesting. Oh, it's unlocking three other side missions that I have to do. And then circle back to that one. And then I got to do another one. And like, there were stories in those side quests and Odyssey for sure
Starting point is 00:20:28 that like were cool. But like I don't feel like overall. They felt like worth it to like get like stories. your lore out of. And then with like the main quest and Odyssey, it also like, for me personally, just kind of felt weak, especially how it ends, uh, with just
Starting point is 00:20:43 like Cassandra's family quest. It never felt like this like full satisfying thing. There are interesting moments sure, like here and there and interesting relationships, uh, here and there. So talked on that for a second, Barrett. I, I had to go like playing this game. I had to go read a
Starting point is 00:20:59 wiki about what the hell happened in Odyssey because the hell it picks up right after. And it picks up after the Atlantis D.L.C. Which is like insanely crazy of the things I'm reading. Like, I don't get any of this of what's happening. And like, so just a warning for people who like, if you've never played the Atlanta DLC, you're probably going to need to read up on it a little bit.
Starting point is 00:21:18 And I haven't played the Atlanta delc and like so far like I don't feel like I'm like lost in anything though. Like I think I know what you're talking about, but I feel like I'm getting enough context clues from like stuff that has happened in other games to know like how that's relating. It's always the modern day stuff that way, right? Where you pop out and it's happening and even they are like, you can pop right back in the animus. If you don't want to talk to anybody, don't worry about it and go and be lost in Avor's world. Yeah. And really quick just to finish on my point, like I love that they shifted more focus into like the characters that you're going to fall in
Starting point is 00:21:55 love with and like randomly start relationships with and bring back to your village. That is saved for the main quest. And that was my thing with Odyssey is that like, neither the side questy stuff or the main questy stuff felt like really strong. And I like that they put all of their like storytelling stock into the main quest. Because that's how I've been playing it. Is that like I've been kind of mainlining it
Starting point is 00:22:18 doing side things around the main quest areas and then like moving on. And like those sides quest stuff like still gives fun moments and stuff like the stuff that you and I, just to give an example like when you and I demoed it, there's that like random nun in a church who's like anybody who walks on to this holy land, I must kill them.
Starting point is 00:22:38 And you're like, whoa, like, lady, are you okay? Like, there's all these dead people around. She's like, you walked on this holy land. I'm going to kill you. And you have to, like, fight this fucking nun. And it's so weird. And it's like, those are the little stories that I'm telling Alyssa. And like, the day that you and I talked, it was, uh, there was something, there was
Starting point is 00:22:55 a side quest story with a main character that I was totally optional. I went into it. And at the end, I was like, holy shit, this is awesome. Like, I immediately had to tell Alyssa about it. And yeah, like, I just think there's, there's a lot to chew on. And I think there's, I like that they've saved those sidequestsy stuff for just like the little, little random stories that like you can take or leave. There will be some that are fun for you, some that are not. But I think the meat of it is in the main story, which is where it should have been an Odyssey.
Starting point is 00:23:25 Kevin, is that mashing with you? How do you feel about that? I mean, I feel very much like I miss those side stories from Odyssey. It seems like, I mean, so far from what I've played, the world feels, like, I don't know, that made the world, in Odyssey, those side stories, I think made the world feel fuller. So, like, you'd remember an island because there was some side story you did there that was cool. And now, what I like to do when I start the game is I open up all the synchronization points. Like, that's my goal. And, man, it was so hard to do.
Starting point is 00:24:05 because I just don't feel like level progression is tied with, like, exploration in this game. Where in the last one, like, Barrett, right now, you were saying that when you, like, you had to grind to get to the next part or to the next mission in Odyssey. I never, ever felt that way. I always was way ahead. Like, when we, I remember when we did the thing that was, like, everyone was like, oh, there's this thing where you're, like, 10 levels behind where you're supposed to be. And it's like, I wasn't.
Starting point is 00:24:35 I literally just go into the next, like, went on to the next mission whenever I hit that. So, like, it's so hard to play the game the way I like, where I'm constantly, or at least while I was opening up all the synchronization points. And what I like to do there, I also like try to find little areas where I can sneak around and, like, get gear or whatever it is that is, or wealth. But it's so hard to do when everyone's, like, level 190. or 120 or 200 something. Oh yeah, I don't even leave. So when you look at the map, right, it'll show you suggested power levels
Starting point is 00:25:09 and it's broken up by region. And yeah, that's the thing of like, I'm just when I'm 77 right now in power level. Obviously, you get this by unlocking those skill points and filling out your tree. And I think your armor, as you upgrade that, I think that plays into it too, but I could be wrong on that.
Starting point is 00:25:25 Power level, it does because I don't think it overall power level. Like the little number that goes up, like, ticks up like 44, 45, that one. Yeah. So as you upgrade things, your power level will go up. Yeah. I'm 45. I know. You see, I'm one, I'm 111, and that power level only goes up when I'm upgrading skills. Maybe it was just early on or something.
Starting point is 00:25:46 Maybe it's my thing about, and I want to talk about this in a separate thing. So unless we were finished with what we're talking about. But yeah, the gear thing, remember, like, that wouldn't make sense, right, because you're putting on different gear sets if you want to. And so, like, you drop that much. Yeah, that doesn't sound like, I think I'm going. Maybe it would just, like, cause you're upgrading this gear for the first time or I don't know.
Starting point is 00:26:04 I feel like I've seen the number go up when I upgrade. Like the gear, each gear has this like own set of like, like attack, weight, defense, um, uh, dodging and stuff like that. Uh, those have like their own, uh, numbers. And then like there's two different ways to kind of fully upgrade your gear. You go to your blacksmith who will like, um, upgrade it from like, uh, no color to bronze to silver to gold. And then that'll give you more.
Starting point is 00:26:33 tiers to upgrade through so you can have essentially more times to upgrade that armor. And like right now, like most of my armor is like silver, my shield is gold. And so like when I get enough materials, I can upgrade them
Starting point is 00:26:49 incrementally and have more slots to like make them more powerful overall. I did not understand that at all. Like you just explained to me right now. I was like, oh, now I get why something like that just happened. Like I didn't understand. I guess now like I was, because I was going to say I haven't upgraded much.
Starting point is 00:27:05 Like, I've been using the same equipment basically since the beginning of the game, which like, ultimate edition. So, like, that's the one of Ubisoft gave us. So I, you know, they gave us equipment that has been working so far for me. Fine. And I just made my axe more powerful. I did not realize that like, oh, why couldn't I do this as a blacksmith? It's because they wanted me to do this, like, individually myself.
Starting point is 00:27:22 Which is, I think also kind of the complaint I have about this game is that it doesn't tell you enough. Not even not like tutorialize, but like, just basic information I want of, I'm like, okay, they're just raid on the map. What power level was this raid? Should I go check this out or am I going to get killed? And it won't tell me until I go check it out. Or the first time I saw a zealot, I was like, hey, who's that guy?
Starting point is 00:27:43 Why is he red? So I shot an error into his head and he just looked at me. I was like, shit. That's going to go badly. So like, I would like the game to be a little bit more open about these things, but this is kind of like it's, this is its mantra, is we're not going to tell you how to do these things. And that kind of bothers me to, especially when it's like,
Starting point is 00:28:01 clearly I see wealth underneath this thing or supplies or something like there's a gold light shimmering under the underground somewhere and the puzzle it wants me to solve is how do you get underground to get in like most of the time that's fine and sometimes it's just completely annoying because I just can't find it and that is what's frustrating me at this game is that okay give me a hint
Starting point is 00:28:25 or something or like allow me some way to find this out if I can't find this one entrance because it can be annoyingly difficult to figure out how to get in somewhere. With the raids, I'll agree with you. They're like, typically a raid power level is just the power level of the area. There are enemies like zealots and just like overworld bosses, like the thing that Greg and I fought in the demo that will be a way higher power level than the area it's in. Like I went to that same boss fight in East Anglia, which is like power level 55.
Starting point is 00:28:59 And I was like, oh, we did this in the demo. I'll totally be fun and I went to it. It was like power level 238. I was like fuck. No, not the nurse. There's like a whole mythical like quest line. And but with the raids, I think they're supposed to be the power level of the area. But there are some raids that are like right on the line between two areas.
Starting point is 00:29:21 You're like, all right, what area are you in? Like are you power level 55 or you power level like 300? I don't know. So there are little things like. that or I'm like, okay, you guys could have made this a little more clear. So, yeah. Imron, have you gotten a chance to go and look at the tutorial tab? Yes, I did.
Starting point is 00:29:40 That is just so fucking detailed. And they have the little icons above the exclamation marks, which drive me crazy. Because I like clearing all that shit out. Youself has to get better about that. Oh, if you go in there, if you go into that menu, you can press L3 and it'll mark them all this red. Oh, all right. Yeah. I went into that tab to like remember how to whistle because I couldn't.
Starting point is 00:30:04 And like that, that is the thing about the game is that every button is something and they're like too deep on functions. So it's like, okay, this is if you tap this, it does this. If you hold this, it down and it calls a horse. So it could be forever to like, oh, the whistle for your mount button is the same. Like it makes sense. It's the whistle at guards button. Like I get it, but also like there are times where, oh, I want to go see my quest. So I heard the quest button, but I held it too long.
Starting point is 00:30:28 So you tracked another quest. Yeah, it's something like that. That it's like, okay, this is actually getting too confusing. Oh, there's too many things on these buttons. I will agree with you on that. Like the one that's really getting me is like because I'm building my like stealth build in this game. One of the things that I unlocked is like a dead body. I can like set a trap inside of it.
Starting point is 00:30:49 So if someone discovers the dead body, it'll explode. But also and that's holding our three near the dead body. But also holding our three is like the. kind of a thing where you can detect enemies and stuff like that. So if I kill someone in the grass and I know there's a couple people around me and I wanted to try to, you know, quick detect them, I hold R3 and instead of like detecting them, I'm like setting the trap inside this body, which isn't exactly what I want to do. So yeah, there are like as several things that have almost the same control and it gets a little
Starting point is 00:31:21 frustrating, but that's really the only one that has bothered me. Hold the trigger for strong attack versus hold the trigger for abilities is one that gets a lot. Because I'm like, because you'd want to hold, theoretically for a strong attack that takes a while to charge, you hold that button down.
Starting point is 00:31:35 It's just like, I understand after enough time you just start getting used to it and you know exactly what the game wants. But early on, I'm like fumbling it. Like it's the first time we held a controller of like,
Starting point is 00:31:44 I know what you want me to do, but this is like, you are assuming that I've played the last two games and I'm like 30 hours deep into this one and I'm just bringing this game out. So have a slightly easier on-ramp for this sort of thing.
Starting point is 00:31:58 Yeah, I haven't run into that, but I turned it on, you know, screwing out here. I don't think your gear is equipped to your power level. That seems outside of it. What do we think of the gear system, though? Because this is a dramatic departure from what it was in Assassin's Creed Odyssey, right? Where in Odyssey, you had millions of chest plates and arms and all this stuff. Here you have far fewer that you're then upgrading and getting attached to. Do we like that?
Starting point is 00:32:22 I personally hate it. It's one of those things where it's like I have mostly the same gear. I have three different weapons. They're all axes. One's a big axe. And it's just like I miss the diversity from Odyssey. I have two shields. And it's just like, I don't know how I,
Starting point is 00:32:40 I guess the only way to go about going more axes is finding the little like, uh... It's the wealth that you'll find like weapons and so. I've been using the beginning axe for like the entire game. Yeah. Yeah. The axe that you got from your dad is like my name. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:32:56 But like, the thing I really miss the diversity that we used to have. I mean, it's cool that you can have multiple, like, you can hold two weapons at once, right? Yeah. Like, that's, that can be fun, but I, just, they all at the moment seem the exact same,
Starting point is 00:33:12 with the exception of the dual-handed. I mean, there are a bunch of other ones. They're, like, I would have to turn on the game, which is going to take a couple minutes, but I have, like, a bunch of different types of weapons that aren't just axes in the game. Most of them are like two-handed, though, and I use, like, I want to use a shield because pairing is like,
Starting point is 00:33:27 my main way of playing that game. So, like, it's, oh, the spear looks cool, but I can't use a spear and the shield. Like, the Claymore looks cool, but I can't do. Like, it's a lot of things of not enough stuff adapts to my play style. And it makes the, like, the gear level system in general is like, when I, I find a cool trigger chest in this, like, crypt. And it's like, oh, here's a carbon ingot. It's not a cool new piece of armor or anything like that.
Starting point is 00:33:49 Or if it is a new piece of armor, like, my current armor is already better. And I've spent so much time and, like, resources investing in to make this one better. It's like, might as well just roll with what I'm. I got. So it's not as exciting to go find new stuff or put on new things that changes my look. Yeah. And that's the one thing I will agree with you guys on is like when you were already so invested in gear, I don't think there's anywhere to sell like any of your like armor or weapons or anything like that, which I think is a huge mistake. I think you should be able to sell that to your blacksmith and stuff. Because like just to say where I'm at, like I much prefer this
Starting point is 00:34:24 system. I think Odyssey was way too, like a lot of armor again. There's a lot of Odyssey that I think is just unnecessary bloat. And just like it felt like you're constantly just trying to move on to the next thing. And for me, I just much prefer the system because it feels much more personal to, like, I'm stoked when I open up a chest and it is like the carbon ingot or whatever because I'm like, oh shit, yeah. Like now I can start like upgrading the stuff that I've been equipped with since the beginning of the game even more. I just feel like it's a little more personal and just not as, again, I'm trying to find a better word than just bloaty, but it's like, man, like just with my playthrough of Odyssey
Starting point is 00:35:07 like a month or two ago, it was just like, I just scroll all the way down through to like find like what thing I just found to equip it and all that stuff. And like none of it, none of it felt like. You not sell your stuff? Yeah, I would sell things, but there were, there are a lot. there's a lot of equipment that you can't sell in that game though like not everything is sellable in that game and there's just like a lot of the organization I think uh with how much uh um armor that you're getting and weapons that you can find it just never felt it never felt like
Starting point is 00:35:40 oh shit like this is like the the next big thing for me to to use now um it felt a little more along the lines of breath of the wild which i prefer it in breath of the wild because i think that kind of fit more and better into lighting a fire under your ass to explore to because you know you're going to find like a really badass weapon whereas like most of the things that you're finding in Odyssey are way too similar to each other. I feel like to be a lot of it. For Valhalla that's an interesting point though right because I think you're I'm more I'm with Kevin where I miss the other gear and being able to switch out not so much the I get all this crap and I'm just going to sell it part of it right but I do miss the transmog
Starting point is 00:36:21 of me i have a great i had that poison set i loved so much an odyssey but i could after the patch after launch go through and make it look like whatever i wanted it to look like and i think that's what's interesting here where you talked about it you know a more personal thing in a assassin's creed ball hollow which i get but i also feel uh painted into a corner with where yep i've committed to this berserker armor again it's the one that i think we all have probably that comes with the version of the game we got so it's great you have it and i've sunk so much into it that now when i see on the map, you know, the wealth dot, and if you discovered or talked to somebody and pay the guys who can tell you stuff on the map, when I see them turn into armor, I'm always like, oh, cool,
Starting point is 00:36:59 but I have this. And I've already invested so much in this that I don't want to, I don't even care about getting another piece of stuff because then it'd be the grind of investing back into it when I already want to save up to make my ration bag bigger, when I already want to save up to make my quiver, right? I feel like I'm, I feel like it's a sunk cost now in the armor I have, but I'm going to keep on until everything else is upgraded and then, all right, I'll screw around with it. But to the first thing, why does a ration bag upgrade take 100 stones to make? Why is that a thing?
Starting point is 00:37:28 Like that is like... You could never crafted a ration bag. I mean, just like the economy of that is like, okay, this takes 600 steel to like make a bigger bag. I'm like, fuck, it just make it. Like find a new bag. Well, I mean, like, the thing is that they want to push you to like upgrade your weapons first, right? Before you have like the giant arsenal of like, what is it, 30 arrows that it's going to be? but also like the amount of healing you can do and stuff like that like I'm on I've upgraded it to the point where I can heal myself three times now and yeah it is it has taken a while but like they every time you upgrade it it feels significant which which I do appreciate and that's just the thing like I understand sorry we're gonna say sorry I just wanted to say one more thing about it like I just feel like about the whole it feeling personal in this one it's just a
Starting point is 00:38:20 just one of those things where it's like in the last game, I don't remember the name of my armor that I ended up like having as like my cover armor where it's the, it was the crimson one. And like that felt like my choice, you know, just like Greg had the poison one. Also, anyways, I just, I miss that. No, that's my thing too. I feel like even with this one, the transmog would be great. And then also like to personalize it, the little things of changing colors on things or, you know, changing that I thought when we and maybe again I'm only 20 hours into this game I thought when we first got
Starting point is 00:38:53 to and started our own settlement there was going to be this moment of like cool what color should the flag be what should this and I was like oh I'm going to make it my own that way and that never happened and there are decorative items you can put around but even though I'm like I only like the Odin statue so my settlement's like 19
Starting point is 00:39:09 Odin statues everywhere dope as hell it's a good statue it's a good statue but it's like those little things of it's an wooden statue Big old statue Oden, man. Just get out there. Go to the weird dragon thing and say, put it down.
Starting point is 00:39:22 Yeah, I just have two. I have the arrow and I've got the well. I don't know how I have like... Wells everywhere. Yeah. All of them. All of water. All good water.
Starting point is 00:39:32 But that's the thing. And it's like, it's a weird one. Because again, I don't want to, you know, knock the game for what I think it should be, right? Like, I appreciate that they're very much like, no, this is the game and this is Avor story. and this is how we're, like, I get that, but it just leaves me wanting in a way of turning me off from going and explore those things. Like, I like getting the money, obviously.
Starting point is 00:39:53 I like expanding camp. I like, obviously, it's a Ubisoft game checking these boxes, filling in the wealth meter on all the areas. Like, I'm going to go for it. And, you know, to the other point, like, Imrod had made, like, even when I get to a place and get stumped by how I'm supposed to get, you know, 96 meters underground and get the thing, I really dig that. I do. And I think it's more interactive than ever on the amount of places where it's like, now you can shoot out, certain sections of walls or well covers and like having
Starting point is 00:40:19 that moment of like going around a building like all right there it is and like knock that out and come in and then unbar the door and go out like I really like that moment. I was say it's great like figure that stuff out like figure out how to get in the longhouses until like the game just doesn't for some like it's open and free and it'll let you go to places and there was a point
Starting point is 00:40:35 where I fought my way through a fort and just killed everybody like literally more than 100 people and then spent maybe an hour trying to figure out how to get into a long house And I just couldn't. I could not figure out how to get in. And I gave up and I came back later and it was a story request.
Starting point is 00:40:51 And you just letting it was a story request. And like, fuck that. That is so annoying that like they do. And it's one of those things of, there were exchanges that say Breath of the Wild had to make from like traditional Zelda formula to allow you to go anywhere and do anything. And this game tries to kind of have the difference. And there are parts where it just kind of breaks apart.
Starting point is 00:41:11 And those are the parts of like, you guys didn't think this out well enough. there should have been some solution or some thing to say, hey, don't bother with this right now. Yeah, that's interesting of like, I wonder like how big of a story moment it was because it felt like even just with side quests or maybe some main quests in origins at least. If you had gone to in like an enemy camp and taken it out, taking out that camp and then like found a quest item that you hadn't gone to yet and then like went to that quest later and it's like, oh yeah, I already took out this warlord over there. Yeah, it's, um, I didn't really like I haven't run into that at all in Valhalla and I'm surprised that they haven't like continued that, uh, that thing, which is, this was just like one example. Like, you know, there were some, there are things like you were saying of like, there's a time I made peace with a band of Merks. And then I ended up killing them all in their sleep anyway because they had to think I needed. But then when I, when I later like, when I talked to somebody later, they're like, oh, we should have killed them. And I ever goes, yeah, I did. don't have to worry about it. I was like, oh, it's cool that they acknowledge that, that I actually just went ahead and did that.
Starting point is 00:42:17 Really quick. One of the systems that I thought is fascinating and I don't know, I'll try not to say much just because I don't know where all y'all are, but like, if you remember in origins, there's the, the, the file lakes, which were kind of like the mercenaries in Odyssey. Oh, yeah. The file lakes and origins kind of just like went in their own territory and they're just kind of like chilling out. And you could, you could hunt them down if you wanted to, when you're, high enough level. In Odyssey, it was kind of like treated as a wanted system, if you're wanted,
Starting point is 00:42:48 depending on how much you were wanted, one or five mercenaries could be at you at the same time. Valhalla, there's a moment in Valhalla in the main story where like you get introduced to the zealots and the order of the ancients and stuff like that, which is hearkening back to stuff that was set up in origins. And you'll naturally run into the zealots and because they have their like own little territory. And there's a moment in this story and I don't know if any of you have gotten here where you talk to someone and depending on how this conversation goes with this, depending on the actions you take during this fight and this conversation after this specific fight,
Starting point is 00:43:29 the zealots that are more designed like the phy lakes in origins, I think could turn into the mercenary system in Odyssey. So did you go ahead and prevent that or not? I did go and I went into. prevented it and it was one of those things where it's like all right you have until like nightfall the next day to be able to like uh essentially destroy this like kill order on you um and it was when i destroyed that the it introduced me to like what the zealots like are about and their whole like yeah they are really hard and um they they could have all been after you i'm like holy shit because
Starting point is 00:44:06 i did this a certain way like i wonder how the rest of the game would have been for me if I was like constantly being hunted down or if there's a way to like to like have that stop in the middle of it it just like made me fascinated because like one of the big things that Odyssey introduced was like choices in conversations and all this stuff and like the relationships hooking up with people and there just seems to be a little more of a deeper thought into making choice and having it actually matter in the the overall gameplay systems in the story, which I deeply appreciate. I was going to say the opposite.
Starting point is 00:44:48 Like I didn't, I don't, I was kind of wondering while I was doing this conversation earlier, like, does any of this actually matter? Because they give me three options. I was like, what would have happened? Like, would the conversation have been different? Would this person have liked me less? Because there's no like a relationship system with these characters? Like, I didn't say, like, they're going, would the story mission have been different if I told Ivar to fuck off?
Starting point is 00:45:08 And I don't know if that's the case. And there are like exactly what you're talking about some cases where the options do allow for something. There's like one where you have to like basically do an investigation and find somebody who did something. And I still don't know even after doing all that if I was right or not. Which was kind of cool. Like I don't want to spoil too much. See what's fascinating about that is I did that too. And I know that I picked wrong because I saw it play out.
Starting point is 00:45:33 And I was wrong. Yeah. Oh, shit. And that led to a conversation at the table. because so back at your once you guys go to england you have your giant viking house you have this big old map and basically you start making alliances out and so you put a knife in it of i'm going to go to this thing and get them on our side and so what i did that obviously went and did the quest we're all talking about no spoilers picked wrong though came back got there and i was i was you know avor's like yep you know it's done but i we kind of we kind of
Starting point is 00:46:03 fucked up. And, you know, it's that thing of, we have their swords, but we don't have, or we have their swords, but it's not that they don't respect us. It's that they don't trust our judgment. Like, and they say way better than that. And the woman who's in charge is like, doesn't matter as long as we have their swords. So I'm wondering if when we get to, again, well, not, not there. Whenever we get to where I need everybody to work together, if there's going to be a thing of, that's all these, the ripples were talking about. And you're, you're leading right into something, though, Kevin, go, go ahead. I was just to say, I haven't gone back to like the headquarters so i don't know perhaps i get there and they're like that was the
Starting point is 00:46:37 stupid choice um that's leading right into something i really want to that i really love about this game is because i think odyssey and origins to an extent uh compared to uh a lot of the other assassins create games feels very daunting uh and how big they are and there's something structurally about valhalla that i really appreciate and how it lends to how People are going to naturally explore through this game. Maybe not so the crazy way Kevin likes to do it, or he's like barreling through the entire world. But like, again, like I've been more of like sticking to the main story
Starting point is 00:47:13 and like finding the mysteries and wealth like around those things, right? The way that they introduce each parts of the world makes it feel a little more organized. And this is probably just a more of a preference thing. Like I like that, you know, you look at the entire map. You're like, oh, fuck. like there's an area that's like 365, but I never felt like I'm being forced over there yet, even at level 100, 120, I think, is where I'm at right now.
Starting point is 00:47:42 The thousandized quest sent you there, and that's one of the places that I feel like is very obvious, is very bad about telling you what you're getting into. I'm like, oh, I'll take these quests, and you'll go over there and you'll see someone like, oh, this is the person they want me to, you know, confront, and then he turns out to be level 200. Like, well, okay, I wish I knew when I took this quest,
Starting point is 00:48:00 that it was going to be way too hard for me. Gotcha. Yeah, I haven't run into some of that just because the Thousandaias one is, is that the Order of the Ancient one? No, that's Redna. They're like, they give you contracts, like the shopkeepers around the world.
Starting point is 00:48:18 Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Yeah, I haven't done much of that, but at least with the Order of the Ancient side quest, like I know that's like, at least with how Odyssey worked with the cult of Cosmos, it's like, all right, I know, I'm not going to be able to get everybody until like I'm this like level up.
Starting point is 00:48:34 So I'm not even going to worry about this right now until I can start like killing them all like in a row except for like the ones that are tied to the main story. And so at least with like how it's introducing it like the world to you like following the main missions. I've really appreciated. Like all right, you're going to go to this area and it's level 55 and you don't need to really worry about going anywhere else for now because you're going to be. kind of like leveling up fastly enough like I've been cruising I feel like with with leveling and like getting up to a certain level in like the level 55 area where at that point like by the time I was at the end of that quest line all of the enemies were like green for me which means that they're they're easy for you to yeah and like I was correctly leveled for the next area
Starting point is 00:49:25 and I just think the way that I'm playing it just makes sense for me and like how the story kind of like back to what I'm talking about. I think you're playing the game correctly in Quartz. Yeah the way you're so they want you to. The way Kevin and I play and have played these games like psychopaths. And played Ghost of Sashima like psychopaths where we want to clear everything and sync everything. This is very much like, no, we want you to do that
Starting point is 00:49:48 but we want you to do it on the way to what you're doing. Yeah. So you see it over there and you ride your mount and you go bing ding ding ding. Yeah, you can see it with the way the level breakdown is set up where it's not like, oh, Okay, as you go up, the levels get higher. No, it seems random, but I'm sure if you looked at it, there's a path where you're going to follow that path. It's kind of like, because you start in like almost the center.
Starting point is 00:50:11 Yeah, and it branches. And you're like kind of just like taking over in almost like a spiral. Yeah. I was just going to say real quick, because I want to talk a little bit about the mercenary stuff because we moved away. I'm really curious. Like, sounds like I should try to avoid that mission because I loved the mercenaries.
Starting point is 00:50:30 killed a hundred and twenty eight i just checked in honestly they're all at least like what i've seen so far they're all like level 90 and by the time you take on that question you're probably like 50 or so so i i don't know like if you didn't burn it what would have happened like would they have been more to your level or would they have been a different type or whatever but like i'm really curious what does happen so if you want to if you want to be a gay one that i've run into is 90 i i i man i want to say no i guess yeah i think they're all 90 but i fought one for so long. I got so close to beating it, but I was level like 20.
Starting point is 00:51:04 So I had no chance. The one thing I will say that's frustrating about that system with the zealots is because of like the, I was talking about like the dope assassination upgrade that I got earlier. I tried to one shot one of them and it like that option didn't come up and I was like well that's kind of lame that you're like holding that back
Starting point is 00:51:22 to like there's only specific like enemy types that you can't do that with but like a main boss and like a main mission I can do that with. Like it, it It feels very selective and I do find that weird. But the last point that I wanted to make with this whole, like, the way they introduce each kingdom, like, I talked about, like, why I liked it gameplay-wise and, like, the leveling up system.
Starting point is 00:51:41 But the other reason I'm falling in love with this game is just, like, the story itself and the main story. And, like, each kingdom you're going to feels, like, its own season of the series, right? Like, I'm going into here. I'm getting invested in these characters. And, like, we're spending enough time. with this like new small cast of characters that live in this kingdom to be invested in like what they're going through.
Starting point is 00:52:06 One of their inner circles is betraying them. The other one is trying to get married to a Dane, but her brothers don't like him. Like I'm terrible with names, so especially with these complicated Norse names. Yeah, exactly. But no, you're right. Like I feel like, again, to playing it wrong, like this is the way to engage with it because I am having those exact moments you're talking about, where I'm like, oh, I love Soma or, oh, the young king,
Starting point is 00:52:34 or all these different things of like, I remember them. And I'm stoked that I had those experiences with them. Yeah. And it's cool. Like, I'm waiting for that moment. And I, again, I'm only 30 hours in. I think like Odyssey took me around this playthrough. It was a little shorter.
Starting point is 00:52:51 I think this play through was like 40. But I remember the first time I played Odyssey, it was like 60 hours for me to beat the main campaign. Origins was like roughly 30 hours. So like I'm interested to see like how long it'll like take to like roll credits or whatever. But I'm waiting for that moment or like you're bringing all these kingdoms together. There's like swearing their allegiance to you. And I'm waiting for almost that like end game moment where they all come together. And like all of these characters that you spent like a good amount of time with that you have these relationships and stories with like all come together.
Starting point is 00:53:19 And you're like, holy shit. Like all my friends are you're like, uh, um, again like I haven't. I assume they're all just going to betray me. Yeah. Yeah, it's the thing, like, with the dream sequence he has in the beginning where it's like, bro cut off his own arm. You know what I mean? Yeah, and like with that stuff, like with the family stuff, again, not getting too into it, but like there's a prophecy going on with you and your kind of sworn brother that's going on. And I just, I hit a really interesting point, not just interesting in like the relationship with you and your brother, but also interesting in like a very.
Starting point is 00:53:56 very, very nerdy Assassin's Creed lore standpoint as well, which I think this game plays with a lot with. And that's something that, like, I don't think any of these recent, like three recent games have done poorly, even though people who like to hate on Odyssey because like, oh, you're not even an assassin. It's like, barely an Assassin's Creed game. Those people obviously didn't play. Those people obviously didn't play Odyssey because like story and lore-wise stuff, like, there are some really cool implications of like, what the ECU have a hand in. And same with origins. There's just some really cool stuff that I'm getting to,
Starting point is 00:54:33 and I can't wait to see it through. I do like that since this game is like pre-ETSO and like pre-Divinci having invented a hidden blade that doesn't take your finger, like Ivor just goes, no, I'm just going to keep my fingers, put this on the front. I don't care if people see it or not.
Starting point is 00:54:46 It's not a hidden blade. That's a great. Yeah, I like that interaction a lot, and I like how they're building on that. The one question I have, it's tied up in all this that we haven't really talked about is we've talked about the gear. and how that influences it,
Starting point is 00:54:58 what do you guys think of the combat? Because it is different. And it's this weird thing where I haven't, with the exception of when I've, you know, oh, let's go see how hard level 90 is at level 25. I haven't felt challenged by it.
Starting point is 00:55:13 And I think that it plays into what the story they're building of like, your Avor, for me, it's, you know, the axe and it's the shield. And I barrel into these situations.
Starting point is 00:55:23 And in raids, right, there's tons of people, but you're usually trying to get to get the goods and do the thing. It's not about killing all them all. And so I get into these situations where I'm fighting dudes and I'm just cleaving their heads off and their arms off.
Starting point is 00:55:36 And it feels powerful and it feels cool. But then in some ways, it also feels mindless where I'm not super. I like it. And then there'll be somebody that I do need to parry and I do need to fight. But I feel like, and this is early in the game in the grand scheme of an Assassin Scream game. I'm not finding those things where I have to parry that much and really fight that much. For me, it's like it's baby Dark Souls.
Starting point is 00:55:56 Like, because Assassin's Creed has such a, let's say, generous relationship with button pressing, actually having a correlation with the action you're taking, like, the windows have to be so large. So, like, I can hit the Perry button in, like, a second later, it'll still parry. So I've just been playing, like, I really had to get, I really had to get used to that timing with the Perry. Because I feel like even Odyssey had, like, a more tight window with parrying than this one. So, like, it really threw me off where I was like, how early. or how close am I supposed to do this? Yeah, it's wild how early you can do that parry.
Starting point is 00:56:31 And it's so powerful. Like, parrying just destroys everything. Like, I think Spearmint are the only ones I actually have any problem with it. Just because I just, yeah. I've never bothered to learn how to figure them out. But everyone else has been like, oh, this guy's winding up for like three seconds for this sort attack. This is going to be real easy. It's like hit, hit.
Starting point is 00:56:48 He's out of stamina. Now it's like, it's a, the stun lock or the stun attack, which also gives me my health back. so I'm basically just never dying. Yeah, I haven't found like too much difficult. I feel like I'm close to Greg on that. But I also feel like just with how quickly I'm leveling up. Like I feel like I am taking on fools pretty easily. But it's also one of those things where I'm going into enemy camps.
Starting point is 00:57:16 Like I'm trying to play as stealthily as possible. So that's like my personal goal is to like not get into any fights at all. And like when you are like forced into fights, I do think there is a certain level of like when you're not doing a raid and you're with your, when you're with your crew and stuff like that, uh, when you're, when you are doing solo and you have like five guys coming up at you and like there's four arrow men shooting all at you at once. Like you can get easily overwhelmed. I, I do think. It's definitely about I think they're quantity.
Starting point is 00:57:46 They throw quantity at you, which again, makes sense. And again, how I'm building out my A-BOR, where I'm going full on red bear tree. which is melee damage and melee resistance. So I'm meant to be this, ah, I like, you know, in there and get them that way, which is cool when you think about it, but then gets into these situations a bit where it's like, all right, well, I'm just going to like, you know, I, for me and the stealth thing you're talking about, right, I don't have that perk. And so even when I do be stealthy, it's always, when I do be selfie, when I am stealthy.
Starting point is 00:58:14 Greg, do be stealthy, though. I do be selfie. Before this, right, I would stab them, but then it leaves that little bit of health on them. Right. So they get stabbed and they get up and then everybody's alerted and it's just like, ah, I'm just fucking tearing people apart. And it's cool. And I like where we're going with it.
Starting point is 00:58:28 It's just this weird thing of like, oh, I'm not with, you know, like I just got to where we did the demo. And there's that, uh, if you,
Starting point is 00:58:34 we talked to him before, like the fisherman who wants to go to Valhalla, but he's like Thorthorson or whatever. And he's like fucking, you know, 90 or whatever. Like, yeah,
Starting point is 00:58:41 he's crazy. He's a challenge. Those kind of like bosses are challenged. Yeah, the bosses are always fun. Like when you don't have, for me at least when you don't have the opportunity to assassinate them. Like those are always fun.
Starting point is 00:58:52 For me, at least feeling wise for people who have played a lot of the games, at least for like, there are little tweaks here and there. It does like, it is almost the same combat system as Odyssey and Origins. But stick with me. I don't know, maybe Imron will understand. It feels like a more quicker and faster version of Odyssey and almost like attuned to syndicate in a way,
Starting point is 00:59:17 where Syndicate was fast and you're taking down a bunch of dudes all at the same time. And it feels like Verocious and you like you're taking You're swiping off heads and you feel like a fucking badass with like how quickly you're taking people out And like that's like like by the time of series got the syndicate it was all about chain assassinations that like yeah You want to drop down in the crowd and just like kill one person and that just lead to everyone dying around yeah And like but like chain assassination in the way that wasn't as easy in Assassin's Creed 2 and brotherhood and stuff like Odyssey did that really well where you can
Starting point is 00:59:51 could like throw it going and keep it going. Well, I mean, I guess that was really easy because you do like four or something when you throw the spear. Yeah, you could upgrade it. You could really chain that up.
Starting point is 01:00:02 It's funny, you guys like all have a very different experience than I do where like I'm getting the shit kicked out of me, but I keep going to things, areas that I shouldn't be going to. Yeah, no, I'm playing the game. Very wrong, Kevin. Well, I mean, you know, I'm still
Starting point is 01:00:15 getting through stuff. Also, um, I set the game difficulty for whatever reason. into hard. You can't you? Yeah, you can't. You totally can.
Starting point is 01:00:26 And like, I don't know. It's also a modj door. Like you can set like stealth combat and. Well, yeah, so I was going to say, I set,
Starting point is 01:00:32 I set, I set the stealth to the hardest. And I got to say, guys, uh, it's been a lot of fun. Like, I just,
Starting point is 01:00:40 I just did a mission. And I, I've been like barreling through things. But like, for whatever reason, the mission that I just did, you're supposed to kill a priest in a monastery.
Starting point is 01:00:50 And I was like, oh, I'm going to do this as stealthly as possible. Because, like, you send your bird in there, which it doesn't mark things. I guess I can do that. Maybe, hopefully we can do it in the upgrade tree. You can, you can, it's not an upgrade. You can mark specific, like, items. You can't do the whole tagging system.
Starting point is 01:01:10 Yeah, I missed that. Like, you could in origins and Odyssey, which, again, is, like, what I've been saying with Valholla, there's more of a marriage between the most recent Witcher 3 style games and, like, what the original. assassins games did because the way you tag enemies is much more akin to to the Eagle site.
Starting point is 01:01:26 When I was doing stuff when I used to tag people and then I'd be like all right I'm going to stealth stuff that didn't actually mean like sneak in that what I meant was like I was going to quietly kill everyone and you know clean the area
Starting point is 01:01:39 and then go in and get my big kill but this time and what I did instead is like also I've been through a lot of monasteries so I was I know that like oh on the tower on the left side there's always a window you can break. So I went into that window, walked over the little catwalk.
Starting point is 01:01:57 That's not what it's called the, you know. The little rope. Yeah, the beams, the beams. And I looked down and I was like, all right, well, I'll just. And then, you know, you get at the cutscene. The cutscene ends. No one's noticed me. So I just climbed back up and I walk out, walked out.
Starting point is 01:02:11 Walked out. And it's just like, oh, that was cool. Yeah, exactly. That was the most assassin I've ever felt in any of these games. I really wish that. like on raids like they let you do that stealthily because you can't like you require an army to come with you to break open doors
Starting point is 01:02:26 and like I mean you start going in there stealthily and then you pull the rate because that's something I accidentally did in my when we demoed it like I went into the town you could raid and I did like all the prerequisite things like stealthily where I like stole the key
Starting point is 01:02:43 opened up these doors and stuff like that there are chests that require you to have like two people to open because they're so big so like when all that was prepped I was like, all right, cool, blow my horn. And, like, all my people came through. And then, like, we raided in, like, a minute. And then we got out.
Starting point is 01:02:56 And it was fucking dope. One time, they gave glitch for me and, like, they didn't come. So I just couldn't open the treasure chest at all. It wasn't that it glitched. It just, we, you know, I climbed up the wall or whatever and did something crazy to get to where we were. And then they took the normal route. So I did she, I was a female ever at the time. And I went to the door and I was like, help me with this.
Starting point is 01:03:17 You just sit there. And it sat there for like, I let it sit for like a minute. And it was like, I pulled away finally and then somebody rounded the corner to come help me. I got it. That is a frustrating thing I've run into as well. It's like they should just spawn someone right there to help you. Like that seems like a simple.
Starting point is 01:03:32 Actual characters too. Like they're, because I've been playing the game connected online. And you can pull in other people's like, Yama's Viking. Yeah. Like I don't know if they're any stronger or any different in any way, but they are actual like design characters, I guess.
Starting point is 01:03:47 Yeah, you can like, randomize or like your, your main one, which was really cool. And then also, like, people that you meet throughout, like, the different kingdom storylines, like, you'll pick up people. And it's cool. Like, I, like, went in and, like, put all of my lieutenants as, like, people I've met in the main story who I, like, felt a connection with and stuff like that.
Starting point is 01:04:06 I like that's similar to what Odyssey did. But, like, the majority of people that you picked up in Odyssey were, like, kind of, like, randoms until, like, the very end where you could, like, recruit your family as, like, your ship lieutenants. If you did side missions, occasionally you could get them to come with you and join you. But Imron, I noticed this like two, like, it was one of the last things I did before I shut down today, where I was in a random city and I met some dude. And it was like, this guy's, whatever that word is, like second in command, wants to come and work for you guys.
Starting point is 01:04:41 So that's like actual peoples? Those are actual people. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That's cool. I saw like Zoom videos, like whatever. character somewhere and like I hired them. So now they work for me and I can put them on my boat to like come around with me when I want to.
Starting point is 01:04:54 I think depending on the equipment they give them, they might be like stronger based on that equipment. Yeah. But like otherwise they're not all that different from your actual AI crew. Right. Really quick. The last couple of story things I just want to shout out. One, I love how trippy some things are.
Starting point is 01:05:11 If you know, yeah, no spoilers. No spoilers. No spoilers. But if you know the kind of like when you assassinate someone, and you do the whole conversation with them afterwards. Like, origins did it really well where you do a main assassination and like it kind of harkened back all that. Like they didn't do it that trippy since like the first game where like you start off and like you're kind of like holding them on the grounds. And like you would talk and like when they would talk like they would be standing up and like shifting all the round to you and stuff.
Starting point is 01:05:38 Like it's it's not exactly that in Valhalla, but there's still some equally like what the fuck is going on here lore wise? This is so cool. Because remember like this is before assassinations. Creed 1 they're not a called assassins yet the the the hidden ones and so there's just like a lot of like little things from like how I think I see where these pieces are coming from that have been set up in previous games like how are they going to come together here which I'm so excited for wait this is before Assassin's Creed 1 yeah about a hundred or 300 years before yeah yeah this is yeah because they're still they're still called the hidden
Starting point is 01:06:13 ones the Assassin's Creed one is during the Crusades yeah yeah Yeah, the first crusades? The last one. The last crusades. Yeah. And so... Deanna Jones in the last crusades. I was about to make it Indiana Jones joke.
Starting point is 01:06:28 So yeah, this is somewhere in between origins and AC1. And then... Oh, fuck. There was something else. Just with the mysteries, again, I'm surprised of, like, Gregi. Like, you haven't found a lot that, like, you're like, oh, cool. That was a cool moment. Like, the one that I want to shout out is, like, these kids found, like, what
Starting point is 01:06:48 they thought was a dog like a trapped in a well and I went to go help them found out it was a wolf and it was very scary for a second but then I found out though like the wolf was domesticated and it was like kind of cool and now it's just my friend and it hangs out at my uh I don't think you can't there's like three options it was whatever like the sound whatever the sound yeah yeah that one and like du wolfga and like it just hangs out at my camp and it's also nobility I have a cat where you can like oh you yeah you can like uh on my cat yeah and it's like hives and like the little like nook it's really dope but like that that wolf hangs out at your your base and it's also an ability that you can
Starting point is 01:07:28 equip where um like if you hold like l2 and like bring up your arrow abilities it's on like circle for me you can like bring your wolf and it'll like sick itself on to like whatever major enemy you're fighting and it's dope as hell like it's not just an ability like it's an ability that i have like a story with as well now did you go to the stable and change our horse out for the wolf? No. You should do that. You can write a big wolf around.
Starting point is 01:07:51 All right. Where do you find the goddamn wolf? You guys have to build the stable first. Yeah, yeah. My stable's on built up. Again, I think this is like an ultimate edition thing, but you can change your horse out for a wolf. That is dope as hell.
Starting point is 01:08:03 I don't think I got the ultimate edition. Do you have a berserker armor? I don't know. I'll have to go see. Yeah. All of our codes were ultimate edition except Kevin. Except for Kevin.
Starting point is 01:08:16 There was one more story thing that I wanted to shout out, but I'm like, it kind of blanking on it. I want you to think about it, Barry, because right now I want to give you a word from our sponsor. This episode of The Kind of Funny Gamescast is brought to you by Honey. I don't need to read this ad because I use Honey all the time. What Honey is, ladies and gentlemen, is a little extension you install in your internet browser of choice. And then what happens is when you go shop online, which I do all the time, you check out. And that little thing that says promo code, the little Honey dancing coin drops down. and he runs all the different promo codes you could possibly insert there to find you the one that'll save you the most money.
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Starting point is 01:11:29 In real time. You know, I'm kidding. Think about it some more. What I want to talk about is something we haven't touched on. That's performance. Like we've talked obviously about this game. We haven't talked about how it actually runs on either the PlayStation 4,
Starting point is 01:11:40 Xbox 1X or Xbox Series X. Imran, what have you seen performance-wise from Assassin's 3? On the 1X, the actual gameplay is fine. It runs at like 30-ish, I would say, and like it looks nice. But like during the cutscenes especially, there was just really bad performance drops, like going down a single frame
Starting point is 01:12:00 like occasionally during conversations and when people are moving around, there were a lot of people in a party scene or whatever. My Google apparently... Okay. I was very confused for a second. But like on the series X,
Starting point is 01:12:14 it was 60 frame per second. Much better. Image quality was great. Resolution's great. The Xbox 1X version... Like, obviously this feels like a next-gen game that they like ported back a little bit. But it is, yeah.
Starting point is 01:12:28 I think it's... That's been my experience. Playing on PlayStation 5, again, though, I'm playing the PlayStation 4. for backwards compatible version. So I'm playing the PlayStation 4 version. I was like, oof, like this doesn't,
Starting point is 01:12:39 it doesn't look bad, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying it looks bad, but it didn't look great. And it was that thing of like, oh man, like, all right, cool. I did a lot of messing with the lumens and whatever, trying to find the right thing to get the right attention. And then even cut scenes, especially in actual game play play in gameplay moments, it was just like, all right,
Starting point is 01:12:57 this looks not sharp. It's fuzzy to an extent or whatever. And then, yeah, playing on an Xbox series, X, I was like, holy fucking shit. Like, and it's a step up, but it is the frame rate. It is the detail. It is the textures. It is the cloth physics. It is everything you expect from the next gen. The loading,
Starting point is 01:13:13 especially. Yeah, fast travel, boom, gone. The loading on the pro, PlayStation Pro, it's not good. Things take a long time. It was, I timed it out for fast travel on the series X. It was about five seconds to like, from when you, for next gen. Kevin
Starting point is 01:13:30 we're so close. To when it, like, to when it, like, loads up like the stats of like wealth mysteries all that stuff yeah that's so cool yeah i'm fast traveling right now for another section of the city right um yeah i'm on i'm on the pro my main gripe is the loading times um yeah i haven't dealt with any like frame rate issues or anything the one time i crashed i think like right before it crashed there were some like frame rate issues and uh anything that was like really obvious um like yeah i think the game only runs at 30 right now on the pro. And like, yeah, I haven't noticed anything like super crazy.
Starting point is 01:14:05 But yeah, I had like that one really framing area. And then it was like, kicks me out of the game entirely. But for me, it's like, I think the game is really pretty. I think it's on par or maybe a little like, at least comparing the PS4 pro version, a PS4 pro version of Volhalla to the pro version of Odyssey. Like I think it's a slight step above Odyssey just with like the details and involves. environments and things like that, uh, that like really stood out to me. And like, I think the other thing that really shows how pretty it is, is that there's a much more, I think, diverse landscapes throughout this game. You start off in a snowy area. Uh, and then once you get to England, you're more in like, um, uh, woody type of area. Yeah. And then there's like swamp areas and stuff like that. And every area that I go to, it's like all really pretty in their own right. Uh, obviously like swamps are ugly and shit. But like, I was really, like, impressive like how yeah like the detail of everything I was really impressed by and I think
Starting point is 01:15:02 because there's a diversity in landscape it really shows off like how pretty the game is even on last-gen consoles it's kind of a diversion Barrett and I just I wanted to know occasionally I will like run through an area and it will get smoky and smoggy and then like I var well say something like oh this land is cursed what the hell is that oh you got to find the cursed artifacts there's cursed artifacts in there clean this cleanse the lane so yeah it'll it's like it's like this poisonous gas that comes up and like yeah there's like usually like a skull that's um like looking all evil and shit and you can
Starting point is 01:15:35 like press your R3 uh hold down your R3 to like detect it or whatever and then you like take it out with an arrow or hit it with your acts and it'll like clear the cursed area which hasn't really like built up to anything I thought there would be more explanation for it but like it's still like a cool little like all right I'm not sure but I feel like in the first in Norway like there's near your little village, there was a crazy
Starting point is 01:15:59 dude. Some guy being like, hey, there's a witch here that, like, cursed my wife or something. You go and, like, you can kill the witch or not. I don't know, because I just killed the witch by accident. Yeah. But, like, then he said something about the land being cursed, and I was like, all right,
Starting point is 01:16:15 I don't know what the hell is this guy's talking about, walked away. That's cool. And it's like, now I kind of want to go back and see if that's, it might not be that, and it might just be part of the dialogue that they had, but I'm curious if that's what that was. And I It should be. I think that's the thing where, like, that's another thing of, like, I like that the mysteries are actual mysteries.
Starting point is 01:16:33 And I don't mean, like, that specific one, but I mean, like, you don't know what you're going to get when you run up on them. Is it that? Is it to find the, you know, you'll see a symbol of sigil and then you have to make it in there to get a skill point. Or like the building the rocks and stuff like that. Very relaxing, by the way. Yeah. I would say, like, they classify flighting as mysteries, which is, like, weird. But fighting, super cool.
Starting point is 01:16:55 I really love doing that. I love fighting. And man, it pays off. Thank you. If you don't know, this is the battle wrap that they were talking about ahead of time. Yeah. So, you go to get a tat with somebody and you have to pick the right thing that has the right cadence and the right rhyme.
Starting point is 01:17:07 Yeah. And, like, some of them are, like, really obvious and easy because, like, some of them will give you options. Yeah. Some of them will, like, give you the obvious option of, like, this is the only one that actually rhymes. Yeah. But, like, I was not, when Greg and I demoed it, like, I had noticed when I had done the flighting, I was like, oh, my charisma went up. and that has actually like helped me a lot with like main quest and even some side quest
Starting point is 01:17:30 or it's like all right I'm charisma level three and like if I didn't have this I'd have to either have to like pay or fight them and the obvious answer would be to fight them but I've been able to like do some like peaceful like walking away from like a priest who has a key that has to like unlock this this prisoner and stuff like that like it's been really cool how that kind of like sinks itself into the the full on systems in the game yeah 100% and I also adore the drinking game like that like if I come when I come to a new town and you'll find somebody
Starting point is 01:18:02 there's the little Stein or whatever the horn they all drink out of and you can go there and you challenge somebody and you bet money if you can out drink them and there's a meeting game to it and I once the first thing I do whenever I found a new area I accidentally challenged someone during like a raid like as we were raiding that village for the first time so like we were drinking
Starting point is 01:18:20 and like all these people were like fighting around us that's hilarious I did one like right before a story mission, like, it was, like, right next to, like, the next quest. And, like, when you go over, like, when after it, you, like, walk around and you're drunk. So I'd, like, started this quest and, like, things were still, like, filtered, like, in and out. And it was just, it was really funny. One complaint that I have about the raids is when you do a raid at a monastery, at the end of it, it's, like, you got all the wealth. But I, I feel like sometimes that doesn't happen when I'm, like, when you're going to kill, like, I don't know, the, like, little, like, soldier
Starting point is 01:18:54 camps or just the city sometimes it doesn't give me the little like wealth acquired. I never conferred. I think maybe once it confirmed for me and everyone else time. There's specific locations that are like specific raids. You can technically raid like
Starting point is 01:19:09 any like any area I think like even like little towns that are across like the golden barrel. I think that's a raid spot. Yeah but like there's like a fortress that I did in like England like towards the top that was like level 20ish and I, once I was done,
Starting point is 01:19:27 like, I didn't know I was done. Because, like, I had done, I guess, unlocked everything. And then I was kind of like, is that it? It would be really cool if it told me that was it. Yeah, anyways. There was one raid that I just had to give up on because I couldn't find the last barrel.
Starting point is 01:19:41 Like, it was one of those, it was the underground. I just, I didn't know how to get under there. I just, like, I just give up and I guess I'll just raid this place to get. You know what's a weird thing about this game story-wise is there are times you meet Danes that are like, The game tries to position them as evil, like, less good Danes because they're, I don't know why, but like, also we're bad. We're also killing a bunch of people.
Starting point is 01:20:04 It's funny because I feel like during, not the E3, like, whatever the E3 equivalent conference was this year, where they. They did a couple of Ubisoft forwards. Yeah, right. They came in and they were like, we're going to show you that, like, people's perception of what Vikings are is off. And it's like, no, it's not. They literally came in and like, they're like, oh, we got to build our city. Let's go steal stuff. And it was like, well, how is that changing my views?
Starting point is 01:20:32 Maybe it'll change later on. They have chills. Yeah, I get it. Like the bad people are human beings with like kids. That brings me to the thing that else. Hold on. Hold on there. Like, when I raid a village, like, I burn it to the ground.
Starting point is 01:20:45 Like every. And I get that that's my choice. But like, I feel like that's what I'm supposed to do. Like, I'm throwing. Yeah, throwing. torches or lighting my arrows on fire and I'll accidentally kill well sometimes I'll purposely kill someone that's standing in the wrong place and it's like oh just it'll desynchronize if you keep killing civilians I was like that's not how history went guys
Starting point is 01:21:06 that's not how history went I've ordered and kill civilians it's like yeah she did you sure you're sure one last one last one last thing we just get this out because I meant to say this way earlier yesterday Greg you did a stream with Xbox where you played the game one of the developer videos they were saying the two-handed weapons you can get a thing skill to use them one-handed.
Starting point is 01:21:31 So Imron, what you were saying it seems like there's a solution of that. Okay, I've not seen it on my like because I've been building towards the skills basically but yeah, I should look into that. I mentioned it's like one of the like the red
Starting point is 01:21:45 red tree ones but if I'm wrong about that I'm sorry I didn't mean to be wrong. We were just talking about though like led me into the thing that I was trying to think of earlier around the ad break was the main story has me interested in Viking politics more than I thought I would be and just like the different uh clans and how they're deciding kings and the relationship to Saxons and stuff like that like I'm again very very intrigued every time I go into a kingdom and like why is this
Starting point is 01:22:13 group of Danes um uh considered worse than like our our group right they're all assholes though right like their goal was to be like hey these guys aren't as bad as history's made them out to be I feel like they're failed miserably yeah and again like I've gotten to some story beats that I think is going to maybe open up to like our true intentions of coming out to England and stuff like that which I don't want to get too into just because of spoiler stuff but like I regardless of what it is it doesn't change the fact that we got there and immediately we're like we need to rob and steal things nice to be off this boat. We found this place. Let's go get all these other places. Go to these people. And again, it's also the other thing is like the relationship between Saxons and Danes and trying to, some of them at least trying to share this land and like they're, and some of them attacking each other because of their religious beliefs. I think there's a lot of like interesting.
Starting point is 01:23:10 As someone who's not religious, I find it very interesting of like these two very different religions having conversations about like what they believe in. And there's like a funny conversation about like, you're with your Vikings and they're talking about like the cross and they're like what is he going to do like on that cross and stuff like that it's yeah why have the device that killed your lord yeah yeah that's really yeah exactly like why it's that like all you honor so good i feel like all of that is like it's all interesting stuff but it doesn't change the fact that like when they first get there they're like hey you know what they keep their money in churches let's steal from the churches you know it's you know it's not like a philosophical thing. They were just like, that's where a lot of
Starting point is 01:23:50 gold's at. Yeah. There is like the one lady who knows way too much about English politics. I'm positive that, not positive, I'm relatively sure. She's just Cassandra's model just reused again. Because it's almost exactly. That's funny. One of the things I wanted to
Starting point is 01:24:06 shout out when we're talking about this me, you know, playing on Series X now after playing so much time with PlayStation. One of the things I think amazing and I know they've talked about it but I didn't understand how it was going to work was Ubisoft Connect and how you can, you know, upload your save and share it all on, you know, cross platform. You can move it around. I had been looking at Ubisoft Connects on our things.
Starting point is 01:24:29 Obviously, we have the game before it's out. So like a few different things in like the menu and the minutia of it aren't working yet. And so I've gone into Ubisoft Connect and some of it doesn't work. And I had been looking for where you upload your save and it was no order to be found. I was like no big deal. Because when you go in and make your manual saves, there's, on PlayStation, there's the one with the little cloud next to it that has it. And I'm like, oh, so this signifies that this one that is, I was like, is this,
Starting point is 01:24:54 the game is picking which one it saves for cloud storage on PlayStation. Is it, this is the one on my, you know, that's being backed up to PlayStation Plus, is this to whatever it was. And so I was floored to turn on the Xbox Series X, start a new game. And when I went to save that, go in there and see the cloud with my save from PlayStation. Like, it's all automatic. Like that shit's all through your U. That's insane.
Starting point is 01:25:16 That's really cool. And right now, the way Ubisoft is handling it. And when I'm done with it, I save it and when I'm done with it. I don't even know if it turned it off. But once I save it, it's uploaded the cloud.
Starting point is 01:25:27 I can put it back on PlayStation. That's awesome. I had downloaded the game to my Series X a couple of days ago because I had thought it was live then. It wasn't. So like, when you guys told me it was live,
Starting point is 01:25:35 I just turned off my Xbox 1X version, then turned on my Series X where it was already downloaded, immediately booted up and that, like, there was just my save from Xbox 1X already there. Just immediately started. Like, all right, cool. Next year is so cool.
Starting point is 01:25:48 Very cool. What's next channel about, Kevin? It's convenience. That's right. One last thing about the combat that I forgot to talk about. The one thing that is constantly frustrating with the combat is the lock on system. I feel like constantly, it's very finicky. Even with like people that I do have locked on that I do want to fight like Avor will start fighting someone else.
Starting point is 01:26:09 It's, uh, it is the one like, it's like one of the few sore thumbs I find in this game is like the, Man, they got to try to update that. Maybe the day one patch will update it somehow. But yeah, that's been like the most finicky thing for me. I was mid-combo on someone today. If we're just turn around and like finish the combo on someone else. Like, no, I was trying to kill this guy back there. Yeah, I stopped using it.
Starting point is 01:26:33 But like it's necessary for certain skills, like the ones where you're throwing the axes and stuff. Or like the one where you jump up and like come dive down on them where I just like I did that to no one. And I was like, all right. I guess I'll use the thing. That feels like there must be me older in the game. Like that jump up and crash down thing? I feel like there must be like that hammer.
Starting point is 01:26:54 And then one last thing about the graphics and like how it looks on the PS5 compared to the other consoles. Watching Greg stream it on the Xbox series X. It's just like, oh man, I'm not getting an Xbox, but if somehow I get my hands on it, I'm really happy I can transfer it.
Starting point is 01:27:10 Well, again, keep in mind like that, I can't wait. to compare Xbox Series X to PlayStation 5. That's the other thing we don't know, right? And we know the partnership between Assassin's Creed Valhalla and Xbox has been there for a long time. So I'm expecting to some respect, what we're seeing. I think that is a question earlier, right?
Starting point is 01:27:28 The Valhalla upgrade will be available day one for PS5 though, right? 100%. Yeah, and I think what Imran said earlier is, I agree with that this is a next gen game that was just pushed down to PlayStation 4 and Xbox 1x. The way it loads, you can feel that, yeah. Next gen is the preferred platform.
Starting point is 01:27:43 for this. So I'm expecting the same out of the PlayStation 5 version, whether it will be or not, remain to be seen. But I think as we called this at the top, right, this is our Assassin's Creed of All Hollow Review so far. I'm far from done with this game and I'll be kicking tires when PlayStation 5 comes around. So I guess that's the question to end on here. We've talked for, we started this way, we all like it. Do we love it? I don't know. I don't know. Merritt loves it. But it was that thing. We've now talked for like basically an hour and a half about this game. Like, Imron, you're going to keep playing? Yeah, for sure. After how disappointed I was with Watchtok's Legions.
Starting point is 01:28:15 I thought I was like, maybe I'm just done with Ubisoft Open Worlds, but no, this one's fun. I'm definitely going to keep playing after I'm done with this review. Kevin, you're going to keep playing? Oh, sure. At least another 90 hours. I don't know. I'm not fair. I assume you're going to play through it all.
Starting point is 01:28:30 I mean, the entire time we've been talking about it, I've been wanting to just turn around and turn it back on and continue playing. And that's the thing about it, right? Where I like, I don't know what the difference is for me where I think Cassandra and Odyssey hooked me so much from the beginning on, wow, this is a breath of fresh air for Assassin's Creed and how they tell their stories and for this character. And Avor's story, I think, starts so well. The prolog is so good and gets you right off onto it.
Starting point is 01:28:58 But then it, you know, kicks you forward 18 years or whatever. It was a little bit of this. And then I haven't found the groove for it. But like I've said multiple times in this, I think I have now. No, it's like 12 years. I think it's like 18 months. What? I'm pretty sure I've played this opening like three times and when you go after the first guy,
Starting point is 01:29:17 he goes, how many Wizards has it been? 17, 18? When she's a kid to when she's like actual like adult A4. Oh, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. I thought you're talking about going from Norway to England. I was like, I don't think that's a new. No, no, no. No, no.
Starting point is 01:29:31 No, no. I'm talking about the real. Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, okay. A trophy pops at the end of when you become the wolf kiss. So that's what I was talking about. Like, I'm, I have an open right here and I look at it and I can't wait to still go do that stuff. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:29:44 Yeah. My thing that I'm interested in, like, I definitely, like, want to get through the story. Again, I just hit stuff in, like, my last play session playing, like, right before we started recording this, where I'm, like, really excited to see what the story, the rest of the story is with your family and, like, your specific Viking group and the lore that has been set up with assassins, with the Isu gods and all that stuff. I'm interested with some of the similar systems that this game carries. over from Odyssey if I will still want to do those things.
Starting point is 01:30:16 Odyssey, there's like two other storylines in Odyssey that you, there are available after you complete the family storyline, uh, with Cassandra. Um, and those two, those two like story beats take a while to get through because there is a lot of
Starting point is 01:30:32 grinding to be able to be level to be able to murder a certain character and stuff like that. And I'm wondering if I'll feel tired. Uh, like it, once I beat the, main story here if I'll still feel motivated to do those same systems in this game. Because like Odyssey, I had to do it for IGN because I was working at IGN at the time.
Starting point is 01:30:52 So like we needed the capture of like the actual ending of Odyssey and I was exhausted by the end of it. So I'm interested to see like yeah, I put 80 hours into Odyssey in the span of two weeks. And I think that's a big in two weeks, Kevin, in two weeks. I think I did 110 in two weeks. I had to stop myself. This isn't a convent. No, I'm just saying. It was a very addicting game.
Starting point is 01:31:18 I was staying up to like four in the morning every night. It was bad. Yeah, same. And so I'm just interested to see if like I'll still feel motivated by the end of the story with those same kind of systems of having the assassination tree up with the order of ancients and trying to like take off like each group from each tree and stuff like that. So we'll see. Ladies and gentlemen, that's our review so far of assassinations.
Starting point is 01:31:42 since Creed Valhalla. What do you think? Let us know in the comments below. Remember that this is the kind of funny games cast each and every week. You get a brand new episode of us talking about the things we love and don't love in video games. You can catch it on patreon.com slash kind of funny games where you can write in with your own questions. You can watch this record it live. You can get it ad free and you can get it with the exclusive post show we tack on when we're not doing three episodes in one week. However, if you want to toss no bucks our way, it's no big deal. You can do just that at YouTube.com slash kind of funny games, roosterteat.com and podcast service. around the globe. I'm sure we will all be playing Assassin's Creed for a while.
Starting point is 01:32:17 So you can look forward to kind of funny games daily's games casts and every other video game podcasts we do under the sun talking about it in some respect. But until next time, no, it's been our pleasure to serve you.

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