I might not hate AC games

So, here we are again. Another year, another Assassin's Creed game. But are they really Assassination games nowadays? Especially since we're now dealing with Vikings, a group of people that television/movies at least tell us were about as stealthy as a bull in a china shop.

I'm not sure it is about Assassination, though the option still exists. This is primarily because things have changed since Odyssey. The primary change being that your raven is basically pointless. Whereas in Ghost Recon: Greece, you could fly your bird over an enemy base, tag the baddies and plot your way round to kill them all quietly, now you can only tag 3 at a time. Yes, you can get a perk to make enemies visible when crouched, but stealth is now much harder if you choose to do it. Maybe that's a good thing, and it certainly is challenging, but somehow it's not as much fun.

> Stealth is probably not as much fun because the violence in this game sure has hell is.

Melee is king in this game, because it turns out that killing people with double axes, arrows, spears, flails and cudgels is SO MUCH FUN. The animations are BRUTAL while still maintaining a (thankfully) slightly comedic edge (at least I hope so). My current plan of attack is to thin out the heard with my bow (not the predator bow because it's terrible), then to play hacky hacky with the enemies. Never gets old.

So, what else does AC: Hack'n'Slash do that I like?

Well, hands down that has to be Orlog. Such a great mini-game. To the point that when the physical release of it comes out, I will be buying it. No idea if I can get my wife to play it, but it's so much fun.

Also great? Well pretty much everything. The map is HUGE, there's lots to do and more keeps being exposed. I'm 90 hours in and apparently only 2/3 through the main progression, so the Ubisoft stats tell me. Side missions have changed to world events, and this is a magnificent idea. No more fetch quests, no more kill x people quests. Just fun little stories or events that with amuse or challenge you enough to play them and can be avoided if you don't. Personally I recommend doing them because they are just good fun.

While the map is huge, it's chunked into areas that have a relative power level so you can consider if you want to go into them or not. Selecting to pledge to an area kicks off that areas story (though they are not independent of the main arc). The area story varies nicely per area, while keeping to a relatively similar structure of a 5 mission arc. They all do a nice job of telling a chapter in the overall novel well, and given the variety they have I think they will keep people interested in exploring all the areas available.

Graphically it is of course (on the right PC hardware I assume) absolutely stunning to look at. I thought that AC: Odyssey was good looking, but this takes it that little bit further. Mainly because there is greater variation in location, weather and effects. Odyssey could get a bit samey (though I will not hear anyone else say that). This game has summer, autumn and winter locations (once you get past the prologue) on the main map. When you go to other places it changes things up enough to keep it interesting. I get that sometimes you can critique Ubi open world games for being identi-kit in their mechanics, but no one can deny the level of design and artistry that has gone in to this game.

Sound is good overall. I picked the female Eivor based mainly on the strong voice performance of the Kassandra in AC:O and so far I have not been disappointed.

There are bugs, I have mainly encountered sound issues, but I imagine the new patch has fixed a lot of that looking at the release notes.

The only issue I think I have is that if you spend time doing all the side stuff, if you explore and gain more XP to develop your character, you can end up overpowered very quickly. This makes some of the areas easier than they probably would have been otherwise. But hey, give me an open world I actually want to explore, I'm going to explore it first...

Overall, it's really good. There are issues of course, but AC:V is really good. If nothing else, it's made me take pictures of the fish I have caught. No other game has done that.

Recommendation to Buy: Yes, just buy it

UPDATE

Don't do like I did and finish off as much as possible before the last mission, especially The Order. There is a bug which renders it impossible to complete the game if you kill too many of them before the end game. My advice, don't touch the order unless you have to until after completion... Currently I have the head of the order left to go and no way to start the post-endgame quest to get them... After 122 hours of playtime, to say I am annoyed by this being the ONE bug I found is an understatement... Of course by now it might be patched, but forewarned is forearmed