Yeah me too, I'm seriously disappointed. I knew it would be difficult for the team to beat Odyssey because I absolutely LOVED Cassandra and the whole game play and story they gave us last time. Big big fan of Odyssey! So this game which has gone in nearly the opposite direction to Odyssey has me sad.

Female Eivor, looks and sounds like a bloke. so much so that I think I might be better off playing as male Eivor. I'm in early days yet so maybe Ill get used to 'the face and voice that only a mother could love.'

Character customisation is so poor I think they should have left it out. Tattoos ok if you like tattoos, they are useful to cover unattractive faces, (meow) The hairstyles (2) are really butch, plaits and bald.

Cassandra managed to be powerful and capable but still feminine and attractive. In Odyssy every feature was done to perfection in my eyes. The armour and weapon drops, the range of looks you could create while still being protected and viable..in this game only a few armours, that you have to upgrade, really lazy design choice imo. For another studio Id say fair enough but for this studio that have the skills and the abilities Id say its being cheap.

When I loot an enemy I love getting a nice load of loot. In this game theres nothing, a little sparkle and no word of how much money or what it might have been. Exploring doesn't seem like much of a focus in this game as there is little to no reward.

Story doesnt grab me yet and it needs to grab you. I paid 100 for the Gold Edition and I am regretting it.

The long boats, huge disappointment, lacking details and the ability to level and make it nicer and more functional. Riding in the long boats feels like you are looking at a little tonka toy on the screen and graphically very poorly executed.

How about this chasing things over rooftops? I hated that in Black Flag and Im hating that now, ridiculous.

Are there going to be any useful assassination tools like poisons and blowpipes and berserk darts? Just loved using thos tools but havent seen any sign of those yet either. Plus those sidequests that have no description in the quest list, please put a description of sidequest in quest list, my husband and I spent ages online trying to find out what this npcs quest was because I was showing him how awful eivors voice is and we missed what needed to be done for the quest.

I do like the little banter skald moments. They are good fun and have a real point as far as increasing charisma cause this Eivor she needs all the charisma she can get. I know loads of people are probably loving the hack and slashy 'just kill em all' theme of this game, but I think it lacks the class, the detail and perfection that was Odyssy.

Cassandra was pretty and powerful, she wasnt some china doll that couldnt swing a stick but she was a strong and sexy kick [censored] lady and I dearly wish that Eivor was too. Her voice is manly, her face is manly and her body is manly..just not enjoying trying to customise her at present.

Some of the other Nordic women in the game look failry attractive and sound fairly feminine and in reality In real life Norwegian woman are known to be very beautiful. I think its a shame poor Eivor doesn't get to be in 'some way' attractive.

Okay here are my gripes

• No armour and weapon drops?
• No armour /weapon rewards for big kills?
• [censored] all armour designs especially light leather armours for sneaky builds
• No dismantling
• No arrow crafting
• No transmogrification
• NPC's actually have better gear
• No reward in exploring..
• No replay value
• World events incredibly lame
• Bugs crashes and more bugs
• No decent music playing
• Disappointing customisation options-hair styles are all butch, too many tattoos not enough feminine hairstyles
• Skill Tree-awful awful awful
• Raiding-repetitive...well vikings..I'm so over that, they were a nasty bloodthirsty bunch of criminals really
• Chasing things on rooftops
• Mini map compass location
• Poor bird has been downgraded
• Killing bosses for no reward (other than to make the world a better place)
• No darts-where are my assassin tools? I miss them so much.
• Awful finishers happening ALL THE TIME..hate that..
• no quiet 'Im just walking thru town minding my own business assassinations', no double assassinations..big pause when assassinating, quick time events on assassinating..
• No decent light armour in cash shop either

Its not lived up to expectations, such a downgrade from Odyssy for me..but slightly better than a couple of the earlier titles.

@max18400

Oh yes Max, I completely agree, especially about the armour, Im so frustrated that most of the armours are so huge and bulky, even the huntsman armour is really bulky on the waist and thighs, not appropriate for sneaky builds at all, but better than others mostly.

If you are playing as female Eivor and doing a little role-playing/dressing up its feels so frustrating only having those heavy bulky manly armours to choose from. In Norway that's fine cause Eivor was a warrior there but in England my Eivor learns more how to be an assasin, she finds it a great way to solve crimes and help others and she really needs to be able to use some of the lovely streamlined amours the saxons are running around in. She cant move sneakily in bulky heavy armours.

Odyssy gave us that choice in armours, to be able to roleplay our characters however we wanted, I do conceed there were many many armours which I personally loved and I wouldnt have minded them cutting back a little...but what we have now...it takes the the RP out of RPG for me.

@garbo3

Hi

I know its off topic but myself and my hubby found each other later in life as well, I wouldn't consider myself beautiful by any stretch but he loves me lumps and bumps and all and I think hes the most beautiful person in the world and love him lumps and bumps and all.

However always being a very ordinary lass, whenever Id get the chance to customise a character Id go for the oppsite of myself, I do love customising characters and Im brunette so id always create blonds or redheads and curls because I have straight hair. In my fantasy world playing a game, I want to be something and someone 'other' to what I am in real life. I love that in games you can be whoever and whatever you wish, Im definitely not a feisty strong fighting girl but I love that in games I can BE that person. So Im really glad that in AC I can make my Eivor a little more like the heroic me I would love to be especially with the help of mods.

I think its a little of 'to each his own' in games as in life. There is a lid for every pot be it big, small, rotund, slender, blond, redhead brunette...etc

@jpabenites

Yes I agree with you. Im astonish at all the amazing reviews out there.Its like Im playing a different game.

I miss terribly the loot/equipment system, funny and interesting characters, compelling story-line and the lovely graphics and gameplay of Odyssy, I probably should go back to Odyssy and give this game a chance to mellow but I have put in a lot of hours in Odyssy and needed so much a new game.

Perhaps Ubisoft might tweak things a little? I dont see much could imporve the slightly bland storyline, but they may be able to add in a few more loot drops and maybe the ability to get materials via dismantling?

Maybe I'm just wishful thinking.

Yes so sad that there is so little loot dropping, I love collecting armours weapons, mixing things up, dismantling, selling and upgrading my other weapons, armours, ships etc. Something went badly wrong with the team on this one. How can no one have noticed this was a terrible idea to remove armour and weapon loot drops?

Also wondering how can I not be able to craft my own arrows on the fly? So disappointing that I am running through tons of trees but cant gather any of them and cant make my own arrows. It just doesn't make sense. I'm sure those viking archers all made their own arrows using the resources around them. I really hope they decide to fix this or Ill be a sad girl having bought the season pass and no desire to play it.

@jfkflevoland

I understand, Im just not feeling the love for any of it at the moment, raiding for me is only a means to an end, its a way to build my village but Im reluctant to do it otherwise, running up to these momastries, attacking for no reason only supplies, feels like Im playing the bad guy here. No great weapons to be found or new armours to get excited about, no reson to do such a heinous act as murdering these people, only just to build my tattoo parlour.

For those who don't like loads of lovely gear dropping and don't want too much loot or don't love using the different skins you get from the gear drops then just dont loot the bodies. There is a middle ground from too much loot and no loot as it is in this game.

For sure if you were in a raiding situation and you killed a guy with a kick [censored] bow and it was much better than your bow, would you lug around that old crappy piece of wood or would you take that dead archers cool new hunter bow and put it to good use? Id do that and Id stash every other bit of armour and weapon I could to build up my own resources and that of my raiders. Why kill all those poor soldiers otherwise? Just sneak in (hello AC sneaky game) steal stuff from chests for base building and sneak out.

Ubi give us no choice in how we gather resources for our township. You have to raid, they have made this clear in the fact you need two people to open those doors into the churches. They darn well should have given us more reasons for all that killing that just the crappy chest at the end. If enough things in a game dont make sense and arent rewarding then you get a strong sense of 'why the heck am I doing this?' Thats what I and many others are feeling right now.

Things just don't make sense.

Hello Developers and Writers,

I just completed my first romance in the game with Tarben the bread-maker. I really loved this romance, the little quest, getting to know him and his life story and then having a little fishing date, it was the first experience with fishing in the game so useful as a tutorial too.

One thing I love Ubisoft is that I can now return to Tarben, that big cuddly teddybear for a kiss, cuddle, date or rumpy pumpy any time. It feels nice and like a real reason to return back to camp, to have some lovely warm bread and lovely warm man.

Thanks so much for this lovely romance, its my favourite thing so far.

(PS I wouldnt mind if Tarben took off some of his clothes for the romance scenes (blush) )

@firerwolf113

Yeah I loved Vili but you are right there were a lot of very interesting and powerful males in the game that were swoonworthy and interesting for romance..no shortage of possiblities as well as the ernest and very sweet Hytham, that might have been a better long term option than Tarben, the focus could have shifted to more of the Assassin story line and the pair of lovers working closely to rid England of the awful templars.

Imagine getting a kiss and cuddle as a reward each time you came back to Hytham with the medals and news of more deaths.

Also imagine Hytham training Eivor in more assasin techniques and use of darts and other assassin tools, more chances for the two to grow closer and share more of their lives and hopes for the future.

Id like to see Hytham at the table more often too, planning areas of interest for Eivor to visit and giving Eivor more directions for targets. He wasn't much help for tracking down the targets in the game and the assassin theme was an afterthought.

@garbo3 Yes diappointed there, I really felt a bit creeped out by the flirty looks my straight Eivor was giving Ciara, I went with the flirtation out of curiosity really but I cant see how people say Eivor is cannon female, someone should tell the devs because the only true romances in this game is for straight male Eivor or gay female Eivor.

I think Ubisoft have a ways to go before they are up to Biowares or even CD Project Reds character and romance development.

Oh yes and Tarben, and the creepy face my Eivor had when she would say 'I'm perfectly happy here' That 'coy' line is really weird for me. Poor Tarben, lovely fella but so lacking interest and excitement for my Eivor. just no connection there. Didnt know you could play dice with him, I thought the activities would be fishing and I seriously didn't want to go fishing with the baker. Hehe.

@firerwolf113

Im not so keen on Valhalla as I was the previous games, Valhalla just missed the mark for me in too many ways to mention here and now but I have to heartily agree with you, the males to romance are seriously lacking in this game. Tarben just felt so neglible and unimportant to the story and game, vili was very interesting and sweet and the fact they had so much history and perhaps 'love' between them, I felt sad he wasnt a potential mate for Eivor, at least he turned up to many of the important battles to support Eivor.

I have to say feeling a connection with any of the characters was really hard, I felt Eivor was away so much and had very little real and emotional moments with her clan mates for any of them to really matter to her in the long run.

But I think in Valhalla they tried to do too much, perhaps if they invested more time and energy in a few areas of the game instead of trying to make it such an 'all rounder' with a bit of everything.

I love romances in games but if you are going to do them, do them right or not at all. Otherwise they are meaningless.

@scruntinsly

Yes I agree with you that the story is VERY weak. It also kind of meanders and is too dark for my personal taste, I draw the line at young ones being killed off in games without very good reason. Usually in games you have the big baddy that you fight against, there was no black and white in this game, no big baddy, the story was mainly about making allies and then helping Siguard with some stuff at the end.

The assassin stuff was very low priority and I do believe this game should never have been an assassins creed game, just a viking game.

As a standalone viking game I might have felt differently about it. (Although I probably wouldn't have bought it as I'm so not into vikings- barbaric as they were)

I bought this game for the assassins creed experience and didn't get that.

It was a nice game lacking a soul with lots of bugs and really not so nice that I would go there again, only maybe to try out some more mods from nexus which is the only way I was able to finish it all these months after installing it.

I like it, I tweaked my settings a bit and the crashes stopped and I have enjoyed exploring more because I like building the wee shops and then going and getting the rewards with Azra, so far I got two nice armours, my favourite is the Egyptian one, finally something light and easy to move in for my assassin Eivor!

I like the characters so far, very much and seeing the familiar names and places of Ireland, how they might have looked long ago.

I would have liked a male character to romance for my female Eivor but Ill try out Ciara, she seems nice.

Yes so far this is nicer than the main game for me.

Especially finally getting something decent to wear!!

Gosh yes I know what you mean, those cairns can be really tricky and very annoying, since when did AC games become puzzle games? I didnt mind the first couple that were easy but the last few were so hard..just frustrates the heck out of me.

I hate cairns

and locked doors

and key hunting

and silly 'chasing tattoos' over rooftops

and card and drinking games

and trying to catch big fish..

@ghostagent14 Hi Im excited for the first 10 minutes Ive played, I have had 2 game crashes while in the party so Im going back for third try to see if I can progress. It does look bright and pretty and the accents are nice so far.

@garbo3 ahh yes I see that now, that's great, I can go anytime then. Lovely

@thegardener25

Oh that's a lovely video, gosh it looked so different then. I thought there might be more forests as I thought Ireland was nearly all forests and woods in those early days but maybe not. Im looking forward to getting there. Thanks so much for sharing that!

Does anyone know if you have to finish main game before starting this DLC or can you go any time?

@yesin069

Ohhh it looks pretty..I like the greeness of Ireland there, I live in Ireland so Im excited to see the locations they visit. Hope they come to Donegal!! Gosh the story sounds a bit dark and a few of those accents...lol some pretty bad fake ones but the bloke sounds legit. I'm excited now having seen that, its very pretty.