Map icons. One helpful thing to add on the map would be to change any gear or loot icon where a quest/mission is needed to acquire it to some sort of orange color or something. In a world of free roam and search out theres nothing like spending 20 mins thinking there is some puzzle way to get to a loot item when really a quest is needed the whole time. Either that or just dont indicate these items on the world map until the mission is started or if at all.

As for the compass it would be nice when your using the amature option that things like your home or quest locations would stay populated on the compass if your within say 500m. I realize some people like emersion but they should turn it off. Some of us dont like opening the map screen 100 times every 5 mins to pinmark the next thing.

Id prefer to have the crow mark boxes etc like in oddyssey then this slow [censored] odin ping which seems like its a little too long button hold to activate, cut that down by like 4 tenths of a second.

I agree the whole skill tree thing seems like its for looks its such a cluster F... half the time i cant remember where i last put points in, and i spend pounts on crap ill never want to use because its the only way to get an ability i want. I did like oddyssey for simply allowing me choose what i wanted to use without a ton of prerequisites needed, then allowing me to stash points into stats i actually want. This new system feels likes it has no meaning just there to appease some sort of rpg style stat distribution without anyone really laying them out in specific order. I dont need 2 handed weapon damage so i can get ignore hit interuption when i play with a 1h weapon.

They need to work on some stealth, there are no stealth detection modifiers besides manually putting your cloak on which turns off on its own all the time. The ability to chain assassinate is about usually because it fails when detected and your always detected it seem from even far away. Either improve detection, add stat modifier for it, or allow me to throw my freakin axe weather a guy sees me or not.

I feel the combat in this game is very clunky compared to previous ones. A couple things I think affecting it are one the over the shoulder slightly off center view angle feels like your not aiming correctly. Two is the overswing on even the light attack (1 handed axe), even when breaking crates or whatever the light attack is a huge handed swing the character practically falls forward and to the left in his mechanic. The light attack should be a decently quick swipe or chop. Its a little better using a dagger since its a short forward jab but these little issues with swing mechanic and camera angle i feel are the worst cause of it. I noticed with the camera style like it is i find my self stuck to brush or walls or accidental parkour, as well as trying to loot bodies or item i feel like im swaying the camera all over to get just the right angle to highlight the loot option.

If I may add one other gripe the timer to hold button for odins sight is uncomfortably long its like 3 10s of a second too long i find mysef releasing to early for what should be a natural pause time. Oddyssey's was much better in respect to its instant ping.

After playing 20 mins of Valhalla I seriously want my money back and cant even continue this hunk of garbage. So disappointed. Within 2 mins I was already bashing my head against the desk over the controller changes which only fueled my rage for every little thing I did at that point was now a struggle in my head over how terrible the controls were. After 20 mins i just shut the game off not even going to play it. I now I will really consider hard ever buying another AC game if they are going to stray this far off the formula for every new version of the game it wont even be AC anymore.

First thing I would do is take Valhalla and bury it in the desert with E.T.

Next I would stick to a button layout like odyssey and not try to add 40 new things that completely remap half the controller.
Most changes should be upgrades not drastic moves to reinvent the game.

The best things about AC are Story, Characters, sweet outfits, and sweet moves, and playability the games dont end in 10 hours they have tons of extra stuff to do for fun. The worst things is jacking up the controller layout to fans who played through multiple previous games. I get when the new engine came out they remapped vs the old trilogy but at least it felt somewhat learnable and natural it was actually pretty fluid except I would of used the L-joystick button for the loot scan as its easier to push while running then to reach to the D-pad with the opposite hand so you can keep moving while doing it. That one change with a few small ones to improve the feel would be better then accommodating multiple new uses for buttons that really weren't needed.

What makes most AC games stale is watching your 390th overpower attack run through the exact same combo of animation over and over and over. There's a lack of combination strikes when running through light/heavy attacks, or being able to chain more attacks together through multiple enemies would be nice. Enemy patterns are to basic, every one attacks in pretty much the same way with the same combos making it very predictable and easy to overcome. Assassination's go one of two ways they get boring cause the same animation is used 90% of the time, or the one time you get a cool different animation its 14 seconds long and leaves you detected while you jib jab the guy in the gut 10 more times when all you wanted was a 1 and done go back to stealth.

If they spent more time on making more fight animations for finishers and assassinations and less time coming up with 15 mins of Q&A to accept a quest that is literally take this letter to the guy 100 meters away. There's a little to much talky for small inconsequential missions.

Also I don't which part of the team throws darts at the map to decide where fast travel checkpoints go but odyssey had small islands with 4 viewpoints, and then large areas early on that you had to run/ride or walk 1000 meters to get to somewhere. The viewpoints vs landmass should be evaluated. Although I am glad they did away with Eiffel tower puzzle climb your way to the top viewpoints. I don't need to spend 8 mins of my life climbing to just get a waypoint.