Should ‘Chants of Sennaar’ Win the Hugo?

I love that Chants of Sennaar is on the ballot for ‘Best Game or Interactive Work’ for the 2024 Hugo Awards. I was already playing through this game, and was likely to post about it (because it’s great!) but now I just have even more of a reason.

Not that I need a reason (after all isn’t that the whole point of this blog?) . . .

Anyway, Chants of Sennaar is a striking, almost compulsive, experience for many reasons, but I think what stands out immediately is its art style. I’ll be the first to admit that art, and art history are not really my strong suits in terms of knowledge base, and I was initially at a loss for words (ironic in a game about communication) for how to approach the description of this game’s utterly incredible art direction.

Luckily, art director Julien Moya is already talking about this over at GameDeveloper.com. In Deep Dive: The Visual Tapestry of Chants of Sennaar, he says:

“We drew a lot of inspiration from diverse building styles such as brutalist, Indian, sub-Saharan, industrial, and art-deco; we’ve also been researching the history of sculptors like Thierry Urbain and comic designer François Schuiten.”

and

“. . . we took guidance from Franco-Belgian comics masters like Mœbius, François Schuiten and Philippe Druillet. We immersed ourselves in their work, and learned how to play with radical colors, while the iconic “clear line” style of Franco-Belgian comics allowed us to emphasize simple shapes and vivid hues within a rich and familiar whole.”

Really I think we can just let the game speak for itself:

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the second element of the game which stands out is the gameplay itself in which you slowly become more fluent in five different made-up languages by solving puzzles and interacting with NPCs on each of the different levels of a giant tower (Rundisc was inspired by the myth of Babel, and while there doesn’t seem to be any connection other than the original myth, I think fans of the Books of Babel series by Josiah Bancroft will definitely love this game).

Some of these puzzles are quite difficult, but luckily you do not need to solve every single one to progress through the game or enjoy playing. I felt this was an important choice on the part of the designers, and one that makes the game more fun and inclusive. I’m a bit of a completionist, and so I went back and tried to solve everything, but I think if this had been forced on me, the game would have quickly become frustrating. As it is, you sort of make your own journey through the tower, solving what you can or want to, and leaving the rest.

As you ascend, a story begins to take shape, and the ultimate goal of the game, to unite the different cultures of the tower, becomes more clear. It is quite compulsory, with each new success hinting at the next piece of story, and making the next puzzle just a tad easier to solve.

It’s obvious a ton of worldbuilding went into creating each of the five levels of the game. Normally, I love to try and work out as much of the inspiration and allusions to real world cultures as I can, but Chants of Sennaar‘s pedigree in this respect is quite long and varied. I again have a quote from Julien Moya which lists some of the influences for the languages:

“Drawing from a wide range of graphic and semantic systems, including Phoenician, Kufic, Sanskrit, Futhark, Korean Hangeul, or Cistercian numbers”

I know essentially nothing about any of these cultures and so I won’t attempt to deconstruct any of its uses here, but if you’re curious it seems like some play-throughs (watch video 1, 2, 3, & 4) on the Save Ancient Studies Twitch channel might answer some of those questions for you (I haven’t watched them yet but am hopeful to do so someday).

Finally, the last part of the game which I enjoyed was its message which seems woven into nearly every part of the game. Again, from Moya:

“It highlights the transformative power of communication, open-mindedness, and embracing diversity.”

I would be hard pressed to think of a theme more relevant to today’s world.

Should It Win the Hugo Award?

In my opinion, absolutely. This is without a doubt one of the best games I’ve played in recent memory. The only game I can compare it to is Heaven’s Vault (which Rundisc said was an inspiration), which I’ve not yet reviewed on this blog, but IS one of my all-time favorite games.

What sets this game apart from basically everything else available, is its beautiful art direction, compelling puzzle based gameplay, and a compulsory narrative which is revealed to players slowly through their own ingenuity and puzzle solving ability.

Finally, why I think the game is important as a Hugo contender, is because of its themes surrounding diversity, inclusion, and communication.

I kind of suspect Baldur’s Gate 3 will win the award because it seems to be winning everything right now, but I sincerely hope that Chants of Sennar wins instead!

That’s all I have for now. How’d I do? Are you looking forward to playing Chants of Sennar? Which culture is your favorite? Let me know in the comments.

See you next time!

The Art of Making Games, the Business of Breaking People: A Review of ‘Press Reset’

Wow, I can’t believe six months have already passed since I reviewed Blood Sweat and Pixels. I was fascinated to look behind the curtain of game development and hear some of the triumphs and horror stories behind famous games, some of which I had played, but many of which I knew only by reputation (or not at all).

Press Reset felt like a kind of sequel to Blood Sweat and Pixels, in which Schreier picks another problem with the gaming industry and then grinds away at it with unique insight and skill.

In BS&P, the issue at hand was “crunch”, or the systematic overwork (exploitation?) of employees so that development companies can meet rigid deadlines, and make large profits. In Press Reset, we’re focused more on the volatility of the sector and how its common for large companies to shutter studios — sometimes laying off hundreds of people at once — at the drop of a hat.

There were many unbelievable stories within this book, but the standout for me was about Curt Schilling, 38 Studios and the supposed “WoW Killer”, Project Copernicus. Press Reset is worth reading just for this story alone. I don’t want to go too in-depth here, the saga is detailed in much better fashion within the book, but essentially a baseball player (Curt Schilling) founded a video game company in order to build an MMORPG. Only Schilling had never run a video game company before. He bought all the best stuff to attract the best talent, took a $75 million loan from the state of Rhode Island to pay for it all, and then eventually had to file for bankruptcy when the company failed to produce the game.

There is a lot more drama surrounding this outlined in the book but I think the moment which hit hardest for me was when folks started realizing their paychecks weren’t getting deposited. Many had completely uprooted their life, moved to Rhode Island and bought new houses assuming they’d be able to pay for them, and were consequently left in the lurch. Many were screwed twice, as they weren’t able to sell their house in Boston (or wherever they were from), and were responsible for two mortgages and weren’t getting paid.

From experience, one mortgage is already too much. If I’d lost my job randomly (management pretended everything was fine until they couldn’t afford to keep the lights on) and had TWO mortgages . . . I’m having a stroke just thinking about it.

And even worse, the game actually looks pretty fun and probably would have done well!

There’s a lot in this story that is ultimately the fault of bad actors involved, but it also gives insight into larger problems within the video game industry. Foremost amongst those problems seems to be the disconnect between the people actually making the games, who consider their work a form of art, and the bosses running the show who see little more than numbers on a spreadsheet and are happy to throw away years of work on a whim to bump their stock price for a quarter, or in the case of 38 studios, a politician willing to burn an entire company so he looks slightly better against his opponent.

Eventually, Schreier examines some alternatives to the way things are now, with what I would call a mostly unbiased view. Obviously he has an agenda for the book (otherwise it’s just news), but I thought the author did a decent job presenting alternative arguments. Some organizations are attempting to unionize, and we see the reasoning why this might be good, but also are made to understand that it will not solve all the issues.

We’re introduced to some alternate workflows in which specialized companies provide specialized services, say combat mechanics, for many different games and how this might alleviate the need for ‘crunch’, as well as provide more stable income for employees.

In all, it seems the main thrust of the book is that the current model under which videogames are made cannot be sustained. Games may be expensive monetarily, but the true cost is on the people making them. The uncertainty in so many aspects of the job, even down to where an employee has to live (some folks in the book moved several times a year after getting hired on to a new studio which was closed sometimes only months after), wears on people, grinding them down. As more and more people realize this, it becomes a less and less attractive industry to work in, whether for people already there, or newbies coming in.

I don’t think Schreier wrote this book as a warning for people looking to try there hand in videogames however, I think the warning is more for people steering the ships. After finishing this second book (and seeing a third will come out this year), I don’t get the impression that Schreier hates games and the gaming industry, but rather the opposite, and that these books are an attempt to make people aware of the problems, not to shut gaming down, but to allow for course corrections, so that the sector may thrive in a better way for everyone.

Unfortunately, I’m not sure we’re quite there yet. This book came out in 2021, and now in 2023 and 2024 we’re seeing massive layoff numbers with upwards almost 20,000 jobs lost (8,000 lost in January & February alone). Games are getting cancelled and more studios are closing (Sony Interactive Studios being perhaps the biggest surprise)

Perhaps Schreier was more prescient than he knew. Perhaps the gaming industry is ‘pressing reset’, just not in the way anyone hoped.

Give This Book A Read?

Absolutely. As is becoming habbit, Schreier finds interesting stories happening behind the games we know and love, and uses them to craft a poignant message about the state of this beloved art. The chapters about 38 studios are such a surprising and wild ride, that they are worth the price of admission on their own. That there are many other fascinating and well researched chapters just shows the quality and care with which this book was written.

It seems there are some pretty far reaching systemic problems within the gaming industry, and ones which do not seem to have changed much in the three years since this book was written. I’m hopeful, as I believe Schreier is, that things can turn for the better. That we can hit the reset button on such exploitative and unsustainable practices, and build a better industry, so that we might all have better games.

That’s all I have for you this week. Has anyone read this one yet? Or Blood, Sweat, & Pixels? What were your thoughts? (also what are your fav games?). Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Until next time.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage: Some Thrills But Some Disappointment”

Admittedly, I’ve waited quite a while to write this review. I keep thinking of myself as the type of person that is going to get 100% of the achievements in a game (this has, as of yet, never happened though GoW 2018 is at 94%; soo close!), and it just isn’t going to happen for Mirage. I’m not going to go back and explore every inch of the map, try multiple strategies while completing a single encounter, or upgrade every skill to max.

Not in this game at least.

I can already feel the tone of this post starting to dip so I’ll come out and say that unfortunately I don’t think anyone will look back and say that Assassin’s Creed Mirage is their favorite AC game.

That being said, there is a lot about this game to love (and of course some parts where I think it fell down).

The first thing I love about Mirage is that it was blessedly short compared with previous installments of the franchise, and even most other triple-A games I’ve played in recent years. I think I’m sitting at somewhere near 30 hours of game time, and I’ve completed the main story and most of the major side quests.

A lot of long-time fans of the series will thrill at Mirage’s return to stealth and parkour as primary components of the game. I generally try to use stealth as much as possible when playing, but I’ll admit I struggled with it in this game. And the difficulty of combat meant that I spent a lot of time doing parkour, aka running, aka hauling ass away from enemies.

Many of the stealth techniques the game would like you to employ may be old-hat for players who have been with the series for a while, but almost all of them were new to me.

In some ways, I think this is were AC’s legacy may have got in its own way. When it came to smoke bombs, sleeping darts, and crowd blending (ugh crowd blending) there was almost no in-game situations to teach you these skills, or even hint that they were the proper tools to use, and so I’ll admit to largely ignoring them to my own detriment.

I’m sure this is not new to the Assassin’s Creed franchise or even games in general, but I also really enjoyed Mirage‘s addition of pickpocketing. There’s just something weirdly thrilling about yanking someone’s purse and then fading away as they scream helplessly (yikes who am I right now?).

But probably the feature that I’ve come to love and enjoy most about Assassin’s Creed games, is their worldbuilding and storytelling. Mirage accomplishes these aims in a way that I will say is perhaps middling for an AC game, but still highly rewarding. I loved stopping to read all the little ‘History of Baghdad’ bits, and all of the immersive and amazing attention to detail that went into the main storyline.

I felt Mirage did an excellent job of keeping players interested in the primary quest, and I thought the dynamic between Roshan, Basim, and Nehal particularly compelling. However, much as I felt at the end of Assassin’s Creed The Golden City, I did not feel like we’d made any progress towards questions hinted at during the end of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.

This was perhaps my largest disappointment with the game. I had read somewhere that originally, Mirage had been a Valhalla DLC that just got too big, and while I don’t know whether or not this is true, it could stand as a decent way to understand why it was not more satisfying to complete.

AC’s story still seemingly ends with Valhalla and while there are tons of new AC games set for release, it is unclear to me what any of them have to do with where we are in the story thus far.

Give this one a Play?

Maybe wait for it to go on sale? I did really enjoy playing this game. In terms of gameplay, Mirage‘s return to earlier series mechanics was a fun and interesting challenge, and has me interested in playing some of the earlier games, just to see how it compares.

Of course a staple of the AC franchise is its worldbuilding and the immersion into interesting time periods and settings. Mirage definitely pulled its weight in this category and I think that for anyone interested in history for its own sake, it will be a fun way to learn about a time period that is perhaps not really top-of-mind in most modern media.

However, ultimately I was disappointed in the game because I felt like the story did not progress the larger AC narrative. Perhaps it was not meant to, but I think it was what we were all expecting.

What are your thoughts on this? Am I being too harsh? Which AC game should I pick up next?

Leave your thoughts in the comments. Looking forward to talking about this one with you all!

Until next time!

Gaming’s Hidden Stories: Insights from ‘Blood, Sweat, and Pixels’

I think it’s safe to say that with recent (ish) posts like What Gods And Goddesses I’d Want to See in a God of War Game Set in Ancient Egypt! and The LONG road to Valhalla: A Review of Assassin’s Creed that I’ve been getting a bit more into video games. Or perhaps, I’m just as into video games as I’ve always been, but I’m just beginning to see them as interesting topics to write about.

Whatever the case, it’s led me to a great book by Jason Schreier called Blood, Sweat, and Pixels. Within, Schreier takes a look behind the curtain of what it takes to make a video game, and brings to light just how much money, pressure, and heartache goes into making these games.

I fell into this book pretty hard.

As someone who has played some video games, but is mostly ignorant about how they’re made, and the culture surrounding them, this book had a lot for me to learn. Mostly, the chapters are outlined by game, and they showcase the early excitement and hype, struggles, and eventual triumph (or in a few cases defeat) of the developers of a wide range of play styles and levels of production quality. We see games being made by a single person (Stardew Valley) as well as game developers which employ hundreds of people (Bungie’s Destiny) and almost everything in-between.

My only complaint while reading was that individual stories seem to all follow the same basic formula which I alluded to a little earlier: hope at conception, delays and missed expectations, CRUNCH and then reception by fans and critics. While it made things a tad predictable, I have no doubt that this formula was used purposefully to illustrate what the book posits as the main issue with game development and the gaming industry: Crunch.

For any unfamiliar (like me at the start of the book), crunch is a kind of all out sprint towards the finish line in which game devs work unhealthy amounts of hours (sixteen or more hour days) for periods as little as a few months, but often for more than a year, so that they can meet the demands/expectations of publishers and fans, and put out the best game possible.

While this messaging deservedly takes the spotlight and makes up most of the book, what actually thrilled me while reading was all the little details gleaned from the interviews with devs, about how games are made and the ways in which they are important to our culture, and other cultures too.

For instance, did you know that Barack Obama received a copy of The Witcher 2 upon his first meeting with the Polish Prime Minister. Or that gamers generally feel that chasing someone up a flight of stairs is tedious and boring while chasing them down the stairs is exciting and fun?

The book is packed with little insights like this which I will probably think about every time I have to climb stairs in a game (makes me wonder how climbing in GoW and parkour in AC became such big mechanics. Perhaps since we’re not chasing while doing it but exploring?)

Finally, it was interesting to see all the parts of these games that could have been, had something gone a different way. For instance, a ballroom dancing mechanic in Uncharted 4, or the ability for warthogs to leap chasms in Halo Wars. The entire game of Star Wars 1313.

It’s like watching a deleted scene on the DVD version of a movie, or reading an unused chapter from an author’s manuscript. We won’t get to experience those features or that game, but it is fun to imagine what they could have been like.

Give This One A Read?

Absolutely. If you’re any level of gamer from casual to hardcore, I’m sure you’ll love getting to look behind the scenes at some truly beloved games. If you’re not a gamer, I still recommend reading this book, as I think it expertly displays some glaring issues with typical game development, and makes us question the amount of sacrifice required in making art, if it’s worth the cost, and whether or not there is anything we can do to change it.

That’s all I have this week. If anyone has read this book, please leave your thoughts in the comments below. I’m looking forward to talking about this one!

What Gods And Goddesses I’d Want to See in a God of War Game Set in Ancient Egypt!

It’s May, and while I should be doing #WyrdAndWonder things on the blog, I stumbled across an article on Gamer Rant doing a sort of “fancast” of gods and historical figures that it would be great to see in a new God of War game set in Ancient Egypt (I did something similar before Marvel/Disney’s Moon Knight came out with 9 Things We Want to See in Marvel’s Moon Knight)

And because I now talk about videogames on this blog, I figured it’d be worth posting some thoughts.

Game Rant’s 6 figures of Egyptian Mythology That Would Be Great For A God of War Game gives us a great place to start, laying out a pretty awesome list including: Ammit, Isis, Set, Sobek, Apophis, and Imhotep.

I would be thrilled to see Kratos face off (or ally with) any of those gods and goddesses, and I love the reasoning the author gave for why such appearances might make sense. However, I couldn’t help but wonder if the developers might actually stay away from these big names considering many already have such memorable depictions associated with them.

As the article mentions, Sobek and Apophis have already made appearances in another extraordinary videogame, Assassin’s Creed Origins (one of my favorites!), and Isis is renown from games like Age of Mythology (another fav!) and Smite.

Of course Imhotep will forever be immortalized in the 1999 film, The Mummy (a third fav!), and Ammit has recently come into the spotlight because of Marvel and Disney+’s outstanding show, Moon Knight.

Side note: If you’re at all curious to see how games like AC: Origins and Age of Mythology have influenced my own writing please check out my ‘influences’ posts, specifically From the Primordial Ooze.

The following list of gods and goddesses are not particularly obscure by any means, however, I don’t have any particularly strong associations with them in other media, so I thought I’d list em and see what people think.

Quick Note on the Setting

As the header image shows, GoW would look amazing just wandering around Egypt, with pyramids in the background, or even getting to explore and solve puzzles within the tombs (ala AC: Origins), however, just as we’ve explored the Greek underworld in the original GoW games, and the realms of Norse mythology which weren’t earth, I think it makes sense that much, or even most of a story set in Egypt would take place journeying through the Duat.

This Egyptian underworld was the path Egyptian souls would travel from their bodies on earth to the Weighing of the Heart, a trial which would decide whether they could pass into the heavenly paradise known as the Field of Reeds (or the Fields of Aaru), or be cursed to walk the earth as a spirit. This journey contained thousands of trials and horrible monsters, thirteen gates and their guardians, and a lake of fire.

Just imagine all the fun that would be for Kratos . . .

Anyway, here’s my list!

Horus –

Horus is a falcon headed god of the ancient Egyptian pantheon. He often has the epithet “the Avenger” attached to his name, but their are many others which can be used to describe this deity. Probably because he is one of the most important gods within the pantheon.

Perhaps the most famous myth about Horus, is how he slew is uncle Set, after the chaotic god murdered Horus’ father Osiris (the Game Rant article touches briefly on this when they spoke about Isis).

Something that I don’t see often shown in stories involving Horus (probably because it’s confusing as hell), is epithets which denote his age. Horus is known dually as Horus the Younger, a child with a single lock of hair and a finger in his mouth, and Horus the Elder, an adult form of the god who is the son of other Egyptian gods Nut and Geb (in most stories Isis and Osiris are Horus’ parents).

I think it might be fun to play with the concept of two Horuses, one the younger and one the elder. A time travel element could be cool with Kratos training the young Horus to fight Set at the direction of Horus the Elder who came back in time to set Kratos along the path.

There is already a baked in McGuffin with the Eye of Horus.

My only qualm with this whole Isis, Osiris, Horus vs Set drama, is that it may be bit played out. Also, many might still associate the character of Horus with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau who played the character in Gods of Egypt.

There aren’t many who enjoyed Gods of Egypt.

Nephthys –

If the Horus/Osiris/Isis/Set drama does happen, it would be great to see Set’s wife Nephthys take a more prominent roll. I always feel like she always gets pushed aside, even in the literal myth.

Anubis –

Anubis is just the greatest. I never get tired of seeing this god appear in fiction, no matter how many times I see him (also check out my review of Death Dogs). One of this god’s primary rolls is to help use the scales of Ma’at at the Weighing of the Heart and guide the deceased to the Duat.

Since he’s kinda a grim reaper type of fellow, it would be interesting to see Kratos on his death bed, expecting a Greek or Norse god to take him to his final fate, but instead it is Anubis who calls him into Egypt.

He’s often cited as the son of Nephthys and Set, so he would make a good player in the family drama mentioned above.

Ma’at –

A goddess and the literal concept of justice / truth. It seems like most things in ancient Egyptian society stemmed from attempting to keep this in balance with Isfet, the concept of chaos and disorder. Setting Ma’at as an antagonist would be a twist but in line with how Kratos tries to defy Fate.

Ra –

If Kratos is to go up against Apophis, it only makes sense that Ra would be at his side. Like Horus, Ra has a falcon’s head and is associated with the sun. Specifically, Ra rides the Atet Boat across the sky during the day, and sails the rivers of the Duat at night, waging war against the great serpent Apep (also called Apophis). If Kratos is to adventure through the Egyptian underworld, I don’t see how he would not run into this all powerful god.

Thoth –

Thoth is an Ibis headed god of the moon, but also wisdom. As many fans have already noted, there are definitely parallels here with the norse god Mimir from previous games.

Personally I’d like to see the two compete for Kratos’ ear, and try to prove to him that they are the smarter god of wisdom. Could be good for a few laughs.

Sekhmet –

I think Sekhmet may be the closest we come to a God of War in the Egyptian pantheon. She is a lion headed goddess (also present in AC: Origins, but not really as big a player as Sobek) primarily known for her savagery and blood drinking. There is a myth in which Ra pacifies her by dying beer red. She gets so drunk thinking the beer is blood that she cannot continue on her killing spree.

In many cults she has a connection with the goddess Bastet, another feline goddess, and the daughter of Ra.

Some believed Sekhmet and Bastet to be two aspects of a single god, while others worshipped the goddesses as sisters. I think there could be some potential for trickery and betrayal if such a character was added.

Conclusion

Well, there you have it, seven gods it would be awesome to see in the next GoW game. I think the choices above are still pretty well known, but not so top-of-mind as to be in competition with other games, movies, or shows.

Of course, all of the things unrelated to gods and goddesses mentioned in 9 Things We Want to See in Marvel’s Moon Knight, would be great to see in a new GoW game as well. There is such a DEEP well of history and mythology to pull from that it might seem a bit overwhelming, but I know the folks developing the next GoW title will take their time and use care when crafting the game.

I can’t way to see what they come up with!

How about you all? Any gods, goddesses or monsters the new game should include? Did any of the deities listed above evoke a strong association with another kind of media? What other stories have these figures inhabited that are your favorites?

Please leave your answers in the comments. I LOVE talking about this stuff!

The LONG road to Valhalla: A Review of Assassin’s Creed

We’re going try something new on the blog this week: reviewing a video game.

I’ve never tried very hard to keep the contents of this blog focused on one particular topic or medium, but I’ll admit that generally I’ve have considered this space a “book blog” with the occasional digression into movies, comics, or my own fiction (oh and I suppose that one time: radio).

However, it seems that more and more stories are refusing to be bound by their original medium, and storytellers (or more likely their publishers) are finding new ways to adapt their tales and reach “readers” however they prefer to consume their stories.

This has obviously been going on in movies and television for some time. It seems like these days a movie cannot be made which wasn’t originally a best selling novel. Or vice versa, how many successful movies or shows are released without a novelization?

This formula has seemingly very rarely found success when adapting video games to the big screen. Indeed a 2016 adaptation of the very game franchise I’m about to review an entry in, Assassin’s Creed, is generally considered one of the worst failures of all time at videogame adaptation.

However, the new Mario movie is perhaps a striking example of how success can look when a video game is adapted for the screen (I’m sure there must be novelizations or comics of Mario long before now). Of course some could argue that the OG and real trail blazer here has always been the Resident Evil franchise.

Lastly I think it’s worth noting how, The Witcher has gone from extremely popular book series, to even more popular video game series, and finally, absurdly popular television show.

Adaptations from any medium to another are interesting in a general sense, and it’s easy to spend time pondering questions like “Why did they change this?” or “That was not how I imagined that”, but I also find properties which use multiple mediums to tell one unified story interesting as well.

I remember games like Halo, StarCraft, and Warcraft III doing this back in my youth. Allowing the reader to delve deeper into the world of the game by reading novels that embellished backstory or side quests only hinted at in the main games.

It seems like the Assassin’s Creed franchise has been doing this for quite some time as well, but I guess I’m only now catching on. I picked up the franchise with the game Assassin’s Creed Origins, and have greatly enjoyed each consecutive installment but never thought it worth mentioning on the blog because it wasn’t “book related”. Well, now I see that there are books and so discussions of the games could indeed be “book related”.

So here we are . . .

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla

I’ll start by saying that while AC Valhalla is a great game, it is a LONG game. This is not really a very original assessment, but it is was the thing that stood out to me the most while playing.

After spending hours creeping around castles, assassinating some guards before eventually getting tired (or more likely caught) and blowing my horn to get the raiding party started, I would celebrate my victory for a brief few moments before immediately the next quest would arrive and I would begin it all again.

In literature, I love a doorstopper as much as the next person. I will spend a whole month, or even two, immersing myself in a world with a grin on my face because of the nuance and care an author has brought to their story. Every little detail that they could have breezed over but instead called into view . . . it’s the sweetness at the center of a pastry. It’s the reason I read the books I read.

In many ways, Valhalla has this same quality with its many side quests and mini games, items to be collected, and world events to experience. In games like God of War, the items you collect are not nearly as exciting as the puzzle you have to solve to get them. Valhalla has this quality too.

Only it never ends.

In a novel, at least you have the author setting your pace, and if they’re any good, you make all these discoveries as you move forward through the plot.

In Valhalla, you can spend days raiding or attempting to turn your camera to precisely the right vantage to view a rune which will give you a skill point. Meanwhile England remains unconquered and eventually, in order to “finish” the game, you’ll have to go forth and conquer.

I’m something of a completionist, and so the first time I tried playing the game, I thought I could find all the items, experience all the events and do all the raids. I burnt out and never reached the end.

The second time through, I stayed focused. Mostly main quests, and a couple side quests here and there. The second time? I “finished”. I put finished in quotes because what I accomplished was allying every territory in England to the Raven Clan, and I slayed each of the members and zealots of the Order of Ancients. I did the same with two of the three DLC’s (I’m still working through Ragnarök), but there is still sooo much in the game I haven’t done.

I think I have a screenshot that says I’ve only explored 2% of the map? I think that has to be an error but it still makes my point. The game is HUGE.

Don’t Judge the # of hours played lol

Despite all my complaining, there are lots of things I think the game does really well. Primary among them is its character work. Of course, there are tons of them, but each felt really fleshed out and even alive. They all have motivations, some grand in scale, and others simple but satisfying (which unfortunately does not help one stay focused on the main plot). One of my favorite quests was helping free a caged wolf for a group of kids. That wolf stayed in my room for the rest of the game, and honestly it was quite fun to return home and see him every now and again.

Another thing I enjoyed about Valhalla, which I think many more traditional gamers might not enjoy, is that it wasn’t incredibly ‘boss’ centric. There are tough fights for anyone looking for them, but this was not the main focus of the game which seems to reward exploration and problem solving more than just mashing buttons and grinding down health bars. There’s a balance here to be sure, one which I’m not entirely sure Valhalla achieved, but in general I’m happy the focus of the game wasn’t a bunch of ‘big bads’.

Finally, despite how much I complained about the game being immersive to the point of distraction, I do have to say that I’m somewhat in awe of all the research that seemingly went into creating the world. On some of the other AC games, I’ve played through the tour function and learned about the real history behind the setting. I’ve not yet completed this portion of Valhalla yet, but I think I will likely do so eventually.

Give this One a Shot?

If you enjoyed either of the last two Assassin’s Creed games, this one is much the same only seemingly a lot longer (and I though AC Odyssey was massive). And if you’re new to AC games in general, I think there is a lot here to enjoy, but just remember to stay focused. You will lose WEEKS of your life otherwise.

My favorite parts of the game were absolutely its characters and the moral situations you (and them) are placed in. I’m not sure what the lessons may be yet, but I’m sure there are some good ones to take away from the experience for anyone doing game writing, or even novel writing.

That’s all I have for now. Has anyone played this game? What were your favorite parts? Did you “finish”? Leave your answers in the comments!

Until next week!