Assassin's Creed: Valhalla - The beauty of its world.

By Sam Coles:  

Assassin’s Creed is often met with a resounding sigh these days, and not to say that Ubisoft don’t deserve it from time to time with certain business practices. However, I love the series as I am a history buff and I get to explore various time periods within the interactive medium. So, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla is a game that has people in two camps, you either love the game or you want to burn it to the ground because the game broke into your house and assaulted you. Sorry lost my trail of thought there. I fall into the former category, and I want to take the time to explain the game’s beauty within its world.  

Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla takes place in 9th century Norway (briefly) and England, set during the reign of King Alfred the Great during the migration of Vikings within England. Immediately the setting had my attention, as there are not many games set in this period, sure we have had countless films and television shows set in this period Vikings and The Last Kingdom come to mind. So, it only made sense that the Assassin’s Creed series would eventually visit this period, although the main character isn’t even an assassin and never becomes one.  

You take control of Eivor, with the choice of male or female selection. Eivor wants to journey out of Norway and head west, as he sees new opportunities in England and yes this does sound like Ragnar Lothbrok 2.0 and yeah it does hit similar beats. Anyway, Eivor and his brother Sigurd form the Raven Clan, as they are unhappy that Norway is falling under rule to a single king, so they establish a new clan before they set sail to England to create a settlement called Ravensthorpe.  

Ravensthorpe serves as your central hub in the game, you slowly build up a community of traders and settlers as you increase your influence within the four kingdoms of England. You have six levels to reach within your settlement, you can increase it by going on raids to gain raw materials and wealth. You can then use said materials to build new buildings to help your adventures, such as tattoo parlours, stables, a blacksmith and many more to name a few. You get a real sense of community when new settlers come to stay in Ravensthorpe, they will sometimes ask for help or just say a casual hello. It really immerses you within the world, as you feel like you are walking through a living and breathing village as you see strangers pass through and stay to tell a tale as well as your hamlet growing over time. 

The combat has never been to complex in Assassin’s Creed, but it was always flashy with its animations and Valhalla is no different. You being a Viking in this game, you would expect lots of gore and dismembering limbs and you would be correct with that assertion. You see people’s heads, legs, arms and hands fly off, explode or get chard to a bloody and bone crunching crisp. The combat is so immersive, where I would get into character yell a battle cry in my room, to then get a noise complaint from neighbours as I down a horn of mead. The sieges on fortresses are incredible, mixed with the crunchy sound design and magnificent soundtrack as you charge into battle axe in one hand and a flaming torch in the other. 

Now to get to the main event that I love so much about this game, exploring its world and just taking in the scenery. If you know me online or in person, you will know that I love taking things slow these days and just love to stop and smell the roses. That is no different with me with video games these days, as I love to slowly explore beautiful open world games, taking in the wildlife as well as watching the sun rise and set as I spend more time in photo mode instead of playing the game. Coupled with the excellent musical score, it really makes you stop, and watch nature unfold in this game, as the birds sing, and the warm glow of the sun hits your face as you are perched on a sync point. It is the more subtle moments that really captivate me in these games. When I play most open world games these days, I just load it up and explore with no goal in mind, it helps me relax and unwind as I forget my worries in the real world.  

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is a game that I will always go back to, yes it has its issues, such as the framerate on PS4 stutters like me when a stranger talks to me, and audio issues where the dialogue cuts off and then overlaps mid-conversation and just usual Ubisoft jank. However, those issues are so infrequent I can forgive it, as I love exploring this world and charging into the battle like a mad man as I am on fire. If you are looking for a good open world game to get you by in-between releases, then I recommend this game as it is super cheap and fun!  

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Dead Island 2 - Simple, Gory, Fun

By Sam Coles: 

Development Hell is not exactly a new phenomenon in the games industry, as there are many examples throughout gaming history, Duke Nukem: Forever being the most notorious. When a game is announced and then disappears for almost a decade, that should raise some red flags. Dead Island 2 was first announced all the way back in 2014, it was first handed to Yager who made the excellent Spec Ops: The Line, then Sumo Digital who made Crackdown 3 (oh dear) and then finally Dambuster Studios who made Homefront: The Revolution which was decent. Was it worth the almost decade long wait? In short, yes, as it is an example of how you can have a game that is simply fun, with nothing complex but it is well made, competent and presents itself well.  

Dead Island 2’s plot is simple; it takes place in LA or as the game cheekily dubs it “HELL-A” which I thought was a nice touch. Anyway, you are one of few slayers on a flight out of the zombie infested city, however things got predictably wrong as an infected passenger turns into a zombie and takes a chunk out of someone's jugular as she tries to get a selfie with him. The plane crashes, you emerge bleeding out as your slayer of choice and you find that you are conveniently immune to the zombie virus.  

The story is standard in terms of zombie fiction, but that is not a bad thing as it sets up the context of the gameplay. Plus, what I like about the narrative is that it makes fun of celebrity and influencer culture, which made me crack a smile a couple of times. For example, there is a side quest you take on from an influencer, this involves you getting footage for her Instagram where you must kill zombies in creative ways. It made for a funny experience, and yeah some have said the dialogue is cringe worthy but that is the entire point as influencers can be and this is coming from someone in that circle.  

Dead Island 2 ditches the open world formula to focus on gameplay, combat and extreme detail (oh boy). When they said they were not going open world with this instalment, a lot were disappointed but this means they can craft a more focused experience with less filler (mostly).  

The game’s main focus is combat, most of the survival elements have been done away, with a simple crafting system for ammo types, med kits as well as general upgrades for weapons (which I will get into later). The game’s combat is mostly melee focused, and yes it seems simple but you can get surrounded quickly but that is where the counter system comes into play and you can unleash substantial damage on a zombie that is stunned. You can grab them in this state, where you can then pummel, stab, slash or stove a zombie’s face in with a shovel or whatever blunt instrument you have on hand.  

You can make and upgrade weapons, which can be infused with various elements such as fire and electricity or acidic chemicals that can melt zombie’s flesh off. This also applies to the fire arms, which can be equipped with explosive capabilities which is great for clearing a crowd. You can make some insane combos that output ridiculous damage, my favourite combo are the knuckle dusters with acid coating on them, these were fun to use coupled with the excellent sound design as you cave a zombie’s skull in.  

There are character upgrades in the form of cards, these can range from a great drop kick move which never gets old to passive abilities such as doing more damage when you are near death. As you get further into the game you unlock more, and I found the game got easier in tandem, as I was able to regenerate health when I got a perfect block, and I was up against enemies 2 levels above me.  

Now let’s talk about the standout feature in this game, and that is the gore engine appropriately named F.L.E.S.H. You can literally tear a zombie a part, rip their skin off and just eviscerate and disembowel zombies. You can punch a zombie through their skull as you grab their eyeballs, hit a zombie so hard that their eye pops out its socket, or break their arms where they are hanging by a thread of their skin. If you are easily squeamish, then this game might make your stomach churn a bit it even got me a few times when I noticed a zombie with their guts hanging out.    

Visually the game looks fantastic, the bright sunny and blood-soaked streets of Hollywood look amazing running on the Unreal Engine 4. Facial animations during cutscenes look really good, you see the subtle expressions on character’s faces from a quick flick of an eyebrow to a cheeky smirk from the likes of Sam B.  

The only thing I can say negative about this game, is that it can get very repetitive if you play it for too long, this is why I recommend that you play the game in two-hour bursts like I did. Also, I was playing on PS4 which runs at 30 frames per second for the most part, however I did notice the framerate drop a few times especially when I started to use explosives or certain elemental weapons.  

Overall, Dead Island 2 is a very enjoyable game, if you are looking for a game that allows you to unleash havoc on a zombie population then this is the game for you. It is fun, over the top and has its tongue firmly in its cheek and I love it. The combat combined with the gore engine, makes for a satisfying experience.  

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