 What's up everybody? I'm the hook and I'm the blade and together we're you know, welcome to the hook-hook blade blade and podcast about all things ghost of sushi Because you know, it's the most anticipated assassin's creed game of the year I don't know about you, but I think the ghost of sushi ma is what assassin's creed should be right now Just a just a hot take from your boy Lawson. Yeah, I've never heard that opinion before. No, it's a very I'm very original Tim look, I want you to cast your memory back to a different more innocent time. Okay, okay We were recording episode one of this very podcast Valhalla details thoughts and theories information about assassin's creed Valhalla was just beginning to come out Mm-hmm. I want you to put yourself in the headspace you were in then. Okay, what were you thinking feeling? What were you hoping in regards to assassin's creed Valhalla? What did your imagined version of the game look like? well it was really like revitalizing my interests in the series and Agreed the end result was gonna be something that's gonna like get me back in it for At least a while, you know because you've always wanted you've always wanted a medieval setting Yeah, I mean since the first game Yeah, I've always wanted to go back there and they just teased me with the prologue and unity So and like the rift missions and you know where we are able to be in medieval France Like mm-hmm that setting has always just really made me happy Right, so we're getting this information. We know that like okay ash wrath is back Darby is back. Mm-hmm, you know well, it really seemed like it really seemed like things were Like coming back to normal Yes, because even though Ashraf isn't Even though I'll talk about that in a second even though Ashraf isn't behind every like my favorite games this series He always represented someone with a lot of passion Yeah with especially Darby because Darby has written my favorite game the series Yeah, so Darby coming back to me I felt he was gonna breathe like a like a Classic air into the series, you know because we've had such a departure in the last couple games I still think there's hope, but I don't know about you. It's looking kind of bleak. No, I yeah, I mean Well, the first the leaks came out. Yeah, so Before we get too deep into this A couple notes at the top of the show for you guys first thing I'm in a different environment than I usually am so for giving me audio quality Changes that may be a part of that. Also, Tim, would you believe me if I told you I'm still sick? No Well, I'm not I just wanted to see if you'd believe me Five five four episodes later many weeks to between Yeah, the last episode and then I do think that we would be remiss to not bring up and touch on Like what's actually going on at Ubisoft cuz I do think that we're in this really weird sort of interesting moment where at one Time you have Ubisoft doing this big old balls out press conference Ubisoft forward. Here's everything It's happening Ubisoft and then it's actual absolute chaos behind the scenes Yeah executives being fired Eve is like The CEO of Ubisoft Eve Guillemot is really it seems like he's trying to contain the situation Yeah, I'm trying to actually make some positive changes I know that one guy who is essentially the chief creative officer at Ubisoft the the main dude who you know with a word He could green light or cancel any video game that Ubisoft was developing He was at the center of a number of allegations Everyone thought he was untouchable. He's gone now. So right there are some good things happening But if for those of you who don't know which I can't imagine there are many listening to this podcast who don't know What's been going on the last few weeks? We actually took a bit of a hiatus because it was just it was really hard to feel Excited and interested in Assassin's Creed at a time when a lot of the people involved with it We're starting to find out. We're doing some really scummy things. Yeah, and even people that we kind of admired Yeah, people that we've had conversations with in some cases people that we Like are tangentially close to yeah, you know, it's been kind of a really You know every I think every community is starting to go through things like this I Just found out that apparently there's a massive Like abuse scandal going on in the world of competitive Smash Brothers Really? It's no one is safe. No one is safe not even not even the Smash Brothers not even the Smash Brothers are safe So, yeah, it's been a little bit of a you could call it a me to be soft Yeah, I mean, it's it's been very bittersweet because on the one hand. It's good that these things are coming out Absolutely positive change is possible. Yes because of the the bravery of a lot of these people Speaking out about these issues. Yeah, because otherwise it just would have gone unchecked And I think it's nice to see everyone kind of being unified and support and it just sucks that these people who we Thought we kind of knew a little bit, you know Yeah Turned out different than we thought. Yeah, so I just hope for the most positive of of change from here on yeah If any of you are curious about some of this stuff There's a great series of Twitter threads that have been compiled by I Don't know if he's a journalist. I think he is though in terms of gaming but at Denny the villain on Twitter He compiles a lot of these Allegations accusations and the stories they're in so give that a look if you're curious about all of this stuff, but Yeah, it definitely casts a shadow over The things that we're about to be talking about 100% with that in mind Yes, chronologically the first taste we got of Valhalla was a couple of leaks couple of leaked clips, right that were allegedly like basically alpha gameplay It's not pre-alpha They were looking pretty rough. Yeah that that for the first leak I saw was this was the hat was the half hour one Yeah, and that got all the press and it was the same mission being played in that leak That is being played in the official you before we're demo to yeah, and so that was the first one that I saw and then I Admittedly was not too thrilled with it, but I tried I kept the I kept some I kept some optimism because you Orders right on the corner just before you before There was that other there was this other like mission that was leaked. Yeah, it was like a nine minute video Yeah, I was like seven or nine minutes, and it was Lady Avor fighting some like witch boss thing Yeah, and I hated it Okay, so let here's one thing that you just made me think about that I'm not sure we've discussed at all okay I Really noticed something that Fizz Philippe the the quest director He's the one sort of narrating the uB forward Valhalla demo, and he talks about a fight that you have With this supernatural mini boss situation and he explains that there is an Explanation for why you're seeing the weird shit you're seeing is Avor. It's because you've been drugged so the only official bit of like supernatural mythical kind of If experience that we've seen there's Technically a completely logical grounded explanation for so but now I'm wondering The fact that they drew attention to that that feels deliberate to me like they want us tell us Hey, this actually is gonna be pretty grounded regardless of what you've seen, but Then you look at that video of finding a witch boss, and you're like Yeah, I think this is just a dead-ass witch that we're right now How often is Avor gonna be drugged? I mean when when she fights the witch or the giant wolf Yeah, you know or has to hack and slash a boss a hundred times Yeah And even if they try to go the route of like oh well actually this weird thing you're seeing is like a first civilization shenanigans like That's better than nothing. Yeah. Yeah, but it doesn't quite hold up to a whole lot of scrutiny I don't think but I just thought that was interesting Yeah, I know that you personally are not a big fan of the mythological stuff, right? No, I mean, I'm I guess I'm into it if it's like a contained DLC type deal Yeah, but when it bleeds into the actual game, I mean because I always prefer the more the more grounded entries, so Like it's just like the wackiest AC one God is at the very end of the game and even still you're just fighting like multiple people You're not fighting big monsters or anything, right? And it was surprising too. Yes It was memorable now. It's like, you know, you're got Alexios or Cassandra and you're just oh I found a Cyclops Yeah, well even outside of that though I mean you had like the main tool that you carry around in that game is in itself kind of like Supernatural essentially described as a first said first civilization artifact, right? That's about it They can kind of hand wave anything they can kind of say, okay. Well, this is first Siv So don't ask any questions about it. Yeah, it's definitely become kind of like I'm a guffin I mean, yeah in some ways it always was but I think they're now just sort of there are many devices in Assassin's Creed that sort of make up its internal mythology that At one point we're consistent with each other and made sense and now they've changed so often to accommodate different directions that It's kind of hard to tell You know everything from the first civilization stuff to the actual technology the animus the things that power the Assassin's Creed universe It's a lot more vague and slippery than it used to be right, but what were your impressions of the gameplay? You know do you feel like because I noticed that I do think that the You be forward demo the gameplay looks Better cleaner more polished than it did in the leak the leak looks pretty rough Yeah, so I believe when people say that it was unfinished stuff. Yeah, I mean when I first saw the leak My first third half hour one my main criticism was like wow this looks really rough I mean the combat look terrible. It looks really awkward. Yeah, and so that definitely was better in the official Gameplay I will say though the official gameplay didn't do anything to make me more excited for any of it Yeah, I ended up I kind of this was really underwhelming the disappointed Overall I think I was surprised at how similar it really did look and feel to What we've just had with origins and Odyssey I like I knew it was going to be iterative in that way I knew it was going to be based on the same engine the same technology But the actual experience of the gameplay looks so similar Even with the fresh coat of paint the new looking world the you know the dingy or aesthetic the new user interface Elements of design stuff like that. It still looks very much the same Yeah I mean the way that it was described originally before we had saw very much is that like the combat was crunchy and weighty It doesn't quite look that way and I know people who have played it have have attested to that but it still just looks very like Arcade like and Then you have navigation which essentially is the same and there might be more focus on navigation It doesn't mean that this the system itself is going to be very fun And I think we can go ahead and just dash any expectations. We had of this being like a good parkour game That's out the window for certain. Yeah, which is fine. I mean again like we're talking about Ninth century England. I think we probably in our hearts knew it was not going to be great parkour it does in some of the clips look better to me than Odyssey Parkour, but I mean the system is the same the system is unchanged the animations the actual and I think the fact that they're gonna be parkour puzzles throughout the universe that you know, that's better than nothing I like having those I guess Yeah, but yeah, you know how challenging those puzzles of those puzzles going to be able to be with such a Easy system. Yeah, I don't know. That's what I'm sort of curious about I liked what they talked about in the forward demo of You know, you see a house out and about it's got a chest in it And then there's kind of a puzzle you'll have to figure out to get access to that chest, right? That's a lot more interesting to me than like, you know, throwing a chest behind a handful of guards or just having Oh, yeah, completely out in the open Yeah, I Why I saw when one of the videos like you had to like break a well and climb down the well and find the key for it Yeah, that kind of stuff is interesting and it'll make it more Involving than just running around an opening chest the more I have to think about the game the better Yeah, so it's not so mindless. Exactly. And also Then that paired with the idea that all the all your gear is unique and you're not gonna find like 10 versions of the same weapon It's gonna make me want to go and find those chests more because I might get a sword That's gonna be that's better than the one I have not by just a couple points But it will be more unique and something that I might want to carry with me forever. Yeah My main takeaway from all this information. I'm definitely as you said I'm not as excited as I was before I think that Before we knew what it really looks like to play this game It was really easy to run wild in your head with like absolutely the the kinds of things that we're saying about it You know, they talk about okay. Well, the world is more handcrafted. It's not as copy-paste It's not as arbitrary as these last couple games. That's awesome. It might still be it does It does definitely seem like there's a lot more. There's a lot more density to the map But you can still hear that and think who more handcrafted world. This is just gonna be 10 times better You know what I mean, like yeah, no for sure The finish not finished product But what we've seen so far definitely doesn't that doesn't live up to what my expectations were on my head But I you know I do have to I will say they give it credit does look more dense than the previous games And we are all like We're all victims of hype a lot at the time. Yeah, I mean I take the responsibility for my own expectations in some regard like I Can't fault the game for not living up to the perfect name I might have imagined it's five episodes ago in this podcast But I do think that I from what we've seen I have a reasonable expectation I think that as far as what I look for an Assassin's Creed game This is gonna be better than origins and Odyssey were for me Yeah, and and while I agree with that I I do think it doesn't quite get there for me in terms of Like like I just I'm not really on the hype train anymore. Yeah, and it you know, it's like to say that I guess but Because I you're right So I definitely had a certain expectation in my head at the same time just based off of what we were hearing and It was very easy for that to sound pleasant outside of the current like engine and systems that Odyssey and origins ran on Yeah, but yeah things they talked about that sounded really interesting, right like put in that framework though because Because we know that you know Combat isn't going to necessarily be like back to the basics like it was Which I'm not even sure I want it to be I just want the design of the game to be a lot less combat forward That's another thing I enjoy about the demo though is that we do get finally a look at what the hidden blade Implementation is and having the the timer thing like the little timed hit is This is like far and away much better than the origins Odyssey implementation. Yeah, it's a it's a good compromise between the two It's crazy. They didn't show in the demo what you can really do if you If you go for stealth because you know in the demo you have this fight with Rued the Viking dude And you just he's a he's a classic origins Odyssey hit sponge enemy and you just wail at him for you know Ever and then he dies But we saw in one of the youtuber videos later you can stealth up to him You know get up at a high point like on that sort of rope above the fight area and air assassinate him and clear half his health bar Yeah, no for yeah, so that definitely like incentivizes you to do stuff Incentivizes you to be to do stuff by a lot. Yeah, and that wasn't so much of that before that's fantastic I think that I've always had this it's it's barely a conspiracy theory because it's pretty much truth That the reason these past couple of games would be so combat forward is because combat is really easy to Break down into a game of stats of having all these different statistics that make it so the better gear you have in the higher level you are the More frictionless your combat experience is going to be That makes it really easy to RPGify that system which makes it really easy to monetize the game because someone who wants to have a Powerful badass armor set but doesn't want to grind doesn't want to go looting a bunch of places to find that powerful armor Might be inclined to just buy it stealth is entirely skill based right not that combat isn't skill based But you can offset. I mean it's it's a numbers game really Well, yeah, I mean well I would even say that that is part of why the combat become like or rather the gear and those games become so redundant because yeah constantly just trying to find like these These very minuscule numbers that this can benefit a couple in a couple stats and managing like a loadout build sort of situation To maximize the yeah, I mean yeah, there's not much fun about that Exactly, it's not a style of gameplay that I enjoy because You know in Odyssey the stealth game is pretty much neutered It's just it's not possible because they want to force you into those instances of having to take on a higher level enemy and Make it so that you have to fight them because that will encourage you to Focus on your gear and that one courage you to spend money. That's that's how it works. I think well in that also Kind of hinders you from wanting to explore because it's like well What's the point if I'm just gonna have to like fight a bunch of guys that are gonna kill me one hit? Yeah, and then but in this game apparently you're gonna be able to explore new places because it doesn't restrict you to do so now Is it gonna be a good idea? Maybe not but just having that opportunity. I do appreciate absolutely another thing I noticed And I talked to you about this briefly. I tweeted about this a little bit is I pay a lot of attention in Assassin's Creed games to the UI design and Early on with that leak I noticed that the approach that they're taking to the way that the user interface looks I Feel like to me it says a lot about the game whether it is intending to say a lot or not They've pretty much dropped any pretense That what you're interacting with is like animus software typically in pretty much every past game and including Origin Odyssey the reason your user interface looks modern is because you are You know diagedically in the world of the game you are playing an animus Interface that is showing you these memories Which means that your menu screens your HUD items? They look like you know a modern software interface They have sans serif fonts and clean geometric shapes, right? Yeah, at first I Didn't know what you're talking about and then I got a I got a better look at it And I totally see what you were saying In terms of just kind of how generic it looks now. Yeah, the new the UI for Valhalla It drops that pretense and in that in in that way. It becomes very generic fantasy game looking They use fonts that are supposed to evoke the time period more than they would evoke a VR interface HUD, you know what I mean? Yeah, and Yeah, it starts to look More like a Witcher game purely on a UI level than an Assassin's Creed game And that's really interesting to me I also just a moment ago before we were started recording saw a glimpse of what the memory corridor looks like Have you seen it? I haven't it's sort of an aurora borealis design Which they've used that iconography pretty heavily and that's it's cool. It's beautiful But fascinatingly to me it doesn't look like a computer like you don't have any like Classic animus touches of you know bits of data flying about or a grid on the floor like things that would make it look like You're in a computer Instead it looks like you're in an endless void with an aurora borealis and stars interesting Even like the origins memory corridor had a lot more of like a digital feel to it this yeah, so like it's back But it isn't at the corridor and I mean I think it is back in the sense that I mean I'm glad I can just run around in the loading screen now That's fantastic. And if I can interrogate someone I assassinate that's cool, too Yeah, we like those things those things we associate with the best Assassin's Creed games and they're often missing from the ones that Don't feel as adherent to the Assassin's Creed ethos. They're back. That's good But it is part of that whole UI thing of it It doesn't look like it's even trying to be an Assassin's Creed animus looking sort of experience Yeah, for sure. I I would be interested like maybe I don't know. Is it a different animus? Because it used to follow that sort of a you know of a logic where yeah I mean as it would update it would update with the animus correct. It would yeah, I would so I don't Yeah, I mean like so having you point out to me it does look like Obviously it looks nice, but in comparison to other UIs previously I definitely prefer those because it immerses you more I think into like Oh, hey, yeah, I'm in the animus But now it just kind of looks like you're you're just playing any random RPG And there's something to be said for that like oh, well Well, we don't want people to feel immersed in the animus who want them to feel immersed in the world And that's right. I would I would understand that I'm just curious about it And I don't think I'm obviously there's going to be an animus Obviously you're in an animus when you play this game But maybe this is just one of those steps that they take On the on the line on the path Towards foregoing those modern-day elements in the future. I feel like that's a possibility Right and well also speaking of like the modern-day elements There is an interesting way that they're handling modern-day in this game. I honestly don't know if I like Um, I'm technically very cool with it and yeah, like I have faith Like in in the way Darby would bring it up But I don't know if I love the idea if you don't know what we're talking about is essentially something called animus anomalies So while you are running around in the game You will find moments that essentially bring Layla into your world And you will as Layla Complete parkour puzzles and things of that nature So it's a way of progressing the modern-day story Without you having to leave the animus and the reason I'm fascinated by this is two things one is Any excuse to give us more modern-day story? For the development resources is good. I feel like modern-day falls by the wayside Often because it requires there to be this, you know, environment that's Separate that's different and as the designers of the game. They don't want to interrupt your experience with A modern-day interlude Which I respect but at the same time for me playing those older games I never felt like it was an interruption. I always felt like it was a reward I would play more of a game even like unity So that I could get that next bit of modern-day content because For a lot of these games, that's where the mystery was that's where the intrigue was Figuring out what's going on in the modern day I would say the last time that modern-day has really impressed me and never like for instance To go off of what you're saying. I never felt interrupted by syndicates modern day because it was so good Right. I mean they were short scenes Right and they didn't get on the way too much Like it's not like they were too momentum shattering because they were very short most of the time Yeah, and and also them not being gameplay instances Did not have like it didn't make you have to all of a sudden be like, okay. I guess I'm playing as Desmond now or whoever so um, and I get it because going back through I played a little bit of Assassin's Creed 3 recently and I can totally get why someone playing that game would be like Why do I have to do this Desmond shit? I just want to be in the past Because there's a lot of it. It's like there are definitely our people like that for sure And and that wasn't my take but I understood why someone felt that way Now we're getting to a place where like they're trying to every game they shift their approach to try and please everyone and You know interestingly the past couple games. We've gotten more modern day than in years But it's really shitty regardless like Yeah, I mean that and uninteresting and I don't care about leila at all And it doesn't and I think what proves to I guess like at least you and me that modern day doesn't necessarily need to be playable to be good Is syndicate. Yes like there's no playable aspect to it and it's one of my favorite iterations of it, and I don't know if that's a popular opinion, but I'm right there with you That the nine minutes of cutscenes that make up syndicates modern day They moved the story forward so much more than anything in the last like five games combined Yeah, and they even had time for some emotional payoff like that scene where sean is like Lamenting how he treated desmond and that you know, yeah, you know that like actually worked that that mattered It was like one of my favorite Scenes and the whole thing is because it's like wow you're referencing old characters finally You know because it's like that stuff got so halted with uh black flag and unity Yeah And just seeing it because it's not about just seeing the old characters because we saw the old characters and black fight a Little bit, but it's also about like what they do and what they say and I think syndicate nailed it And so if that from and I know I don't want to get too in the weeds about just syndicates modern day But if the modern day was permanently like that, I wouldn't have a problem with that These animus anomaly is what I'm look why I'm looking forward to them is because the knowing that they exist is going to make exploration more engaging for me because Something I do care deeply about as an assassin's creed fan is what's happening in the modern day story And knowing that I can come across bits and pieces of it In the in the overworld of the game in the main game That's like that's awesome and syndicate too when you figured when you found the helix rift If you just found it and no one told you where it was because it wasn't Something that the game led you to you had to find it Your yourself right that was super rewarding to find this Huge piece of content that the game wasn't Actively dragging you to right and I think If they do it kind of this way it'd be really nice and I also think If like the secrets or the mysteries or actually secrets and mysteries that you come across and they're not They're not an icon on your map. Yeah, that means so much more rewarding. That is going to be nice I did have to chuckle a little bit. I think I you know may have mentioned this to you like I just remember seeing a screenshot of the like secrets and mysteries like every region essentially has a progress bar for wealth secrets and mysteries and it just feels like such a ubi soft thing to be like Our game has a lot of mysteries and secrets in it Here's your fucking mystery and secret progress bar Make sure you find all those mysteries and secrets before you stop playing the game You wouldn't want to miss any cool mysteries or secrets Yeah, I mean are they really secretive if you tell me where they are and tell me and make sure that I do them like If I can look at a region and go hmm. I've found 75 percent of the secrets I I do think That in that second the witch battle or whatever because once you once you Vanquish her. Yeah, it gives you a little progress bar and it's like There there goes one mystery in the east anglia era like oh nice congrats You did a mystery glad I could solve that one imagine if there were secrets and mysteries in the game That were not Helpfully delineated as secrets and mysteries Yeah, it's almost like it's almost like if they labeled a side quest fun Here's where the this is the fun park of the game Click here for fun God, I love ubi soft. They're so they are just so they're trying so hard all the time Click here for enjoyment They they just they cannot let you Miss anything We talk about when you look at these like rock star games red dead redemption 2 and keep in mind red dead redemption 2 gta 5 Together i've probably sold more copies than the holy bible I don't know if I talked about this on the podcast already because i'm starting to think that I have The whole idea that like in in a rock star game You can pass something on the side of the road and it'll you'll know that if you talk to this person Or you do this thing it'll it'll give you a story. It'll lead you somewhere interesting and you can just not do it God forbid you miss, you know, like a side quest and don't finish it You know or or even still like like like you like you mentioned in rock star games like in red dead redemption 2 at least from what i'm aware of like there are people who you just might never ever run into on the on the side of the Road if you're if you don't go that way and spoiler alert for red dead redemption 2 At the end of the game your character dies And they stay dead which i'm so surprised that they haven't done in Assassin's Creed yet because They throw away the protagonists of that game after that game anyway. Oh, yeah, you're never gonna see these motherfuckers again Yeah, why not just have like a self-sacrifice type deal? I'm just kind of interested why that hasn't happened Yeah Anyway, there are definitely like it's not like there aren't parts of it that I see and i'm like wow That looks like no fun at all. It definitely looks like an enjoyable game Yeah, the the problem for me though is I have to reconcile with one It's nothing like I want Assassin's Creed to be and it's probably never going to be again I'm until we're 30 right, but at the same time I can't even enjoy it I can't say okay I'm just gonna close my eyes and imagine i'm playing the witcher play this because Those games do what this game is trying to do most likely better than those games And obviously like Darby is probably more talented rather than most of most of them But when it comes down to gameplay experience It will always be the mediocre version of those games It's trying to emulate because they're still holding on a certain iconography from the series To get people like you and me interested Yeah, but they don't utilize it enough to get us like very happy about it But they also They only hold on to it Just a tad so that they can still call it Assassin's Creed Just so that they can still market it is that and not have to worry about be like a new another ip I'm I'm ready to love this game. I'm open to loving this game because the truth is My standards are very low I mean they've really whittled me down to the point where like I should not be in a point. I should not be in a position where seeing an assassin Makes me excited, right? Yeah, just a guy in just a guy in rose. Oh my god It's an assassin Because again for the majority of this game series existence You couldn't look at a frame of one of those games without seeing an assassin, right? Why is that exciting to me? Well, it's because I've been beaten down and I just I'll take whatever they'll give me at this point. So for me I'm like, all right, it's it's the same kind of it's the same kind of design philosophy as Origins and Odyssey. I'm not in love with it. I want parkour to be great. I want stealth to be the focus I want the story to be awesome and again Unless one of those components is fundamentally broken I will probably like the game because if you look at the games in Assassin's Creed history that I hate the most They are the ones where One or more of those components is fundamentally broken unity ac3 They have gameplay story. It was your favorite. They have gameplay and stories that are fundamentally broken Did you hear what I said? He said you thought ac3 was my favorite. Yeah, go fuck yourself timothy Of course, it's not Yeah, I don't yeah for the listeners I fucking hate Assassin's Creed 3. I think I think you must have mentioned it before I'm sure I mentioned before and if anyone watches my Story forward videos the one on odyssey. I mentioned that I hate Assassin's Creed 3 And I really laughed my ass off because one of the commenters was like Um, I really enjoyed this video even though you have stupid and wrong opinions like thinking that syndicate is good And ac3 is bad. I mean compared to ac3 syndicate is ac2 Thank you. I agree because I just started replaying ac3 recently the remastered one And god, does it just chug ass to play? I have no idea. How does the game that came out? I know I tweeted this but yeah, how does the game that came out? Seven years ago eight years ago still feel like it has not been play tested once Even in a remastered even the remastered version They did it again years later And it still feels like no one play tested it if if ac unity is a seamless game as the meme goes that it's seamless ac3 is downright Seemful it is so many seams in that game There's a loading screen every time you breathe in Assassin's Creed 3 It's like pause loading the next breath that your character takes Sorry even switching a weapon pauses the game I couldn't get through to the point where you actually are an assassin on this playthrough Yeah, well it comes in like sequence seven Yeah, it's halfway through the game that you become an assassin which is its own problem But hey, you know, this is an episode six shitting on ac3. This is Valhalla gameplay reactions We got important stuff to talk about Like how social stuff is back. Yeah, I guess But the interesting thing about that is is that these detection zones or the restricted areas aren't automatic detections Yes, so like the so the hunting cloak is like hey You could just kind of Seem suspicious, but you're not detected immediately and you can get to a blend spot or what happened Yeah, I dig it. It's interesting though because the the official gameplay shows like 10 seconds of it And then it's back to other things But a lot of the youtubers who have been playing it have shown off shown it off and it is it also is nice That's you can toggle it because in syndicate you could you'd have to crouch to initiate it Yeah, but in this game you can just I guess you could always have your hood and cloak on it as it as it seems Yeah, and that's cool because I like that and it's good Yeah, I just have a stock that we have to Huh, I just have a stroke So that's cool because I like that and it's good Yeah Can you make can you make that your ringtone? No My ringtone is is actually darby mcdevitt whispering sweet nothings into my phone Uh, there you go. Yeah, and it just sucks that we have to congratulate them for putting a hook in the game Oh, we're such simps for assassin's creed, dude They give us any morsel of something we like and we're just like oh, thank you Next we're gonna see a smoke bomb and I'm gonna you're gonna jizz. We're in We're in An assassin's creed desert since 2015. I know we're just looking for an oasis Origins is a literal desert and ever since then we've been in an actual desert And and seeing a hood is like is like darby himself dropped a tiny bit of water on our tongues just a little drop Just a little darby himself pissed in our face Here's a hood and we thanked him for it. Yeah, next i'm gonna see it next i'm gonna see some throwing knives Well, okay, you'll have to lose my mind axes Yeah, I guess it's like how do I feel about the fact that you can just throw as many axes as you want They're not a consumable Have you seen that there's a hunger system in this game? It I I saw on the demo that you had they it said that you had to hunt and stuff to survive There are rations upgrade your equipment and you'll have to go essentially your health won't restore automatically So if you get really low on health you have to eat food, right? Yeah, because that was yeah, that was mentioned in the official And I think because you had to because in the world of video games Everyone has always loved hunger systems and having to hunt and and having to hunt in assassin's creed games People just when when you see that there's hunger and that you have to eat in a video game People love that, right? My favorite part of minecraft is having to eat. Yeah, I mean I look I gotta admit though. I kind of think it's cool Like I think it could be stupid But I like the idea that I have to go fucking hunt a deer or something and eat I respect the fact that hunting is now something you have to do because I'm on I've always been on a personal mission To avoid hunting as much as possible And I feel like this is a choice they made specifically to fuck with me Yeah, just you specifically just me just me specifically because I'll play every game And it'll say here's your quest where we teach you how to hunt And I'll say I'll do this quest game But know that I'm never doing this shit again if I can avoid it now I have to but again as I've said on this podcast I am a slut for fishing mini games So if fishing is good you can fish I will fish All the time that'll be my main source of nourishment And I'll be okay with that. Yeah, it's just It it looks like it is fun Well, someone also has fun in the way I want our buddy to rule the head moderator of the assassin's creed subreddit for which Best friend of the show. I also moderate um, he did an AMA about his three hours of gameplay And he described the hunting or he described the food system As annoying I take his word for that at the moment until I play the game. That's what I think it's gonna be Well, I guess we're just gonna have they're gonna have to switch it to medicine instead I mean that got annoying too. Sometimes having to refill your consumables But I do think that it introduces an element of pacing Uh, where you're not just going like an odyssey you can just go fly from thing to thing And just fucking fuck up a fort and then recover your health. Yeah, I always thought it was therapeutic To like actually refill your medicine Refill your throwing knives and and and ammo and the whole settlement design philosophy of like you come back to it as your home base That's entirely a pacing choice Of breaking up the action By requiring you to do things that are a little more low key And kind of give you the feeling that you are Preparing for things and that is a very rewarding and exciting Gameplay sensation. I mean since assassin's creed tooth Also, your main base being able to change it and upgrade it and making it look nicer and work better for you Like that's that's like a classic assassin's creed thing So the fact that it's back and also like the thing that the game is focused around Is is definitely promising I think we've been on a journey of discovery With assassin's creed valhalla that has taken us On an emotional roller coaster with very high highs And very low lows, which I would describe as the gameplay leak Yeah, yeah, or or seeing a boss fight with a witch, but at the same time this is not odyssey and this isn't the hype cycle for odyssey either because If we cast our minds back to 2018 We did not give a shit about odyssey And oh, I I did I had I didn't even watch the gameplay actively did not participate in that cycle Until pretty much the game came out. Yeah, I was I was unhappy And the thing is too is they're being pretty coy with the assassin's Sorry hidden ones and Templars whatever they're gonna order the ancients apparently Yeah, they're very coy with a lot stuff and apparently the game is brimming with it I see none of it, but I guess that's on purpose, but I wouldn't be surprised If we get about as much Assassin Templar involvement here, of course by their other names as we saw in something like black flag, right for sure. I I don't know why I just made this conclusion Like the other day. I told you but there is no way That you're not going to be able to either romance a Templar on our assassin this game Yeah, it's gonna happen. It's gonna happen And we're gonna come to a point like we've talked about what we would consider the actual death of the franchise And I think we've pretty much agreed that the moment you can create your own character and choose whether you're an assassin or a Templar Is the moment that assassin's creed ceases to exist. Yeah, for sure. I mean right now it's on life support in my eyes But the death the the official i'm pulling the plug on it is when that happens. Yeah, that's that's when we We make a tough call. We unplug the machine And we we say we say goodbye to mom. We have a funeral That's when it's dead and buried So you be soft if any of you are listening first off stop sexually assaulting people but second don't introduce build a character Or alignment choices with assassins and Templars because that's that's when we all that's when we all leave We all go away. I mean that also might happen in this game Though you might be able to align with either of them could happen Yeah, I feel like if you can align with like either Dane or Saxon that could be that would be fine, but If I'm not if I can choose to help the Templars that seems like a bad time I think Darby knows that though like Darby has said You know if there was going to be a Templar game experience It wouldn't look like an assassin's creed game. It would be Like an rts or something where you're controlling units or something like that He said that it would have to be a fundamentally different game because The design philosophy of assassin's creed is not consistent with What the Templar experience would look like yeah, and I think rogue is a pretty great demonstration of that The idea that you're playing as a Templar and you're just doing assassin shit the whole time Yeah, but hey the fact that we're having this podcast and we're having this conversation about Valhalla I think that is actually A sign that there's more to be excited about with this game than there has for the last couple Because you and I have been friends for years and we've and we're friends because of assassin's creed But it took this game to be announced for us to be like let's start a podcast Yeah, it helped that it was a global pandemic. So neither of us had anything better to do Yeah, we had a lot of free time, but We said we did say in episode one of the hookblade podcast And I might find a clip and put it here, but if I don't I'll just paraphrase myself What if the gameplay demo comes out and we hate it? Which has happened with me And we said we would cancel the show if that happened did we not yeah, so We'd like to thank our listener. We would like to thank all of our listener. Um White wolf whispers it's been real Thank you so much jaysters habs 18 Uh, you have kept the show alive You've been our our biggest fans and our our greatest supporters and for that we thank you Anyone else obviously listen to the podcast if you exist Um, no, you're not thanked. We actually don't thank you because you didn't leave any comments We're talking about the people who left comments And only them because they matter more than you so Lesson learned start leaving comments if you want us to shout you out in the show Yeah, leave a comment and you know leave a comment on this video telling us how mad you are that we didn't shout you out Yeah, and then we'll bring you on the next episode and then you can be a guest Because we don't care anymore This is this is like when you know when a show gets canceled So they just do whatever the hell they want in the last few episodes We're just gonna do whatever We're just gonna invite like, you know if your mother or dad or brothers want to come on We're gonna do a full episode about ghost of sishima just to fuck with you It's gonna be difficult. I can't play it And we're gonna talk about it like it's the ac game that comes out this year We're gonna be like, dude. I'm a big fan of assassin ghost of sishima assassin screen sequel that we deserve The the real assassin's creed game that came out in 2020. Um, so yeah, as always if you enjoyed this podcast Don't like don't comment. Do not under any circumstance interact with us Any circumstances don't follow me don't follow me on twitter at loss and underscore found This is the part where you say you're is tim. Oh, um But I don't want to follow me. It's zero underscore region But specifically not to follow you there, right? Yeah, don't follow me. Um, but that's my handle Uh, also guys, um, we're sorry. I'm I'm so sorry. We're really sorry Will there be an episode seven? of hookblade Maybe We'll see We don't know yet. Will it be next week? Probably not. All right guys. See you next week See you next week Come around and then let's be like cast to abruptly canceled after gameplay All right, I mean, you know, I mean I I'm pretty optimistic about it. I I think that gameplay was gonna is gonna knock it. Sorry, sorry