 What's up everybody? I'm the hook and I'm the blade and together we're you know Welcome to the axe blade axe cast a show about all things ax sassans creed Valhalla hashtag like a Viking edition I'm your host Lawson joined as always by your host Timothy and And Tim we've we've we've made it. We're here. We're here. We have reached We've reached Valhalla. We've entered Odin's Hall of Heroes today We've been envisioning this moment since the podcast was merely but a twinkle in our eyeball since the dawn of the first This is what it's all been for it's what it's all been about It's just been building up to this moment. It is it is Valhalla time as they say the first new Assassin's Creed game since origins came out in 2017 Today we are going to be giving our spoiler free impressions of Assassin's Creed Valhalla. It's been out for a few days We spent some time playing it and we're gonna give you our thoughts on things that are not Strictly story-related or spoilery at all so you can listen while you play So Tim about how many hours have you logged in the world of Valhalla? I was playing some of it this morning before we got going here. I am about I just broke nine hours Just broke nine hours. Okay. I'm somewhere between I want to say I'm about 65 to 70 hours in so pretty close to me So we're pretty close For context people I did I was lucky enough to get an early Access review copy from Ubisoft to play Assassin's Creed Valhalla. I got it on November 2nd So I've been playing for about a week now Which has been really cool. I have to give a shout out to Some of the people who helped make that happen and by the way Tim didn't get shafted It wasn't like they picked their favorite host of hookplay This was something that they decided to do for the moderators of the subreddit because they basically realized We're gonna have to deal with all of the assholes who try to spoil things on the subreddit And you know as devoted fans doing essentially a volunteer service for them They saw fit to give us some early copies, which was super cool I know to rule our friend to rule also known as Dylan helped that happen There was also uh, there is there is a chance that there may have been And there may have been some uh, are you good? Also known as Dylan Like it's true, it's accurate. It's just anyway Our friend Travizo also known as Finn big Also known as yeah big big friend big old big old buddy friend of the show Travizo sort of tweeted about how hey, wouldn't it be cool if the mods of the subreddit had early access? And then I don't know if I'm allowed to say this but pretty much within the day We got hooked up. So I'm not saying he he did it, but he might have been He kind of like wished it into existence. You know, I think so. I think it was willed It was willed into being you know, it's it's nice for the mods to to to get shown some love And so I'm glad yeah that they got some early or some early ass copies dude. It was it's great Well, but I also have to shout out um, uh, hug warts hug warts is a an intern at I think ubisoft pr department and Was at one point uh with us a moderator of the subreddit and I think she was involved as well So thank you to hug warts. You have a great username Thank you. How do you do the thing where you spell the w as two v's like the vvich which but I still appreciate it the vvich The hug vvorts As they say Look, I don't know exactly who had to pull what strings where but if you were involved in hooking up the mods and all the Influencers and assassins creed community people with early access copies. Uh, I I humbly thank the Anyway, it's been it's been really cool. So I've gotten I've gotten to play a little bit more than you but since we're not getting into spoilers Uh, hopefully that means we can kind of juxtapose our perspectives you as kind of coming into the game. I've had I Mostly through the main story. I want to say but this is a big fucking game It's huge. Well, well, there's two things right like it's pretty interesting about it in general is I'm nine hours in Which is basically the equivalent of pressing start in ac one There's so much to do. Uh, I feel like I haven't even gotten started But but another interesting thing. Yeah, that's kind of gonna juxtapose our positions on it is this is my first ac game Since 2015 Yeah, this is your first one since syndicate. So you're not you haven't played origins in odyssey You you don't have those games to compare it to yeah out of protest I have abstained from from those two, but I bullied you into playing vahala. Well, there was just there was there was no There was no avoiding it really Once you agreed to host an assassin's creed podcast you kind of pretty much I sealed my fate I sealed my fate. Yeah, and honestly I think it's really interesting because here here you've actually set up my first My first take if you will on vahala Which is not to the same degree as these two games, but if you think back to ac three and ac four, okay Something that's really notable about those two games is that they have the same engine underneath They have the same design principles as far as their core pillars of gameplay go And that's also true for odyssey and vahala But clearly one is a lot better than the other in I think both cases Because I think the teams on black flag and vahala just were much better at getting compelling And interesting gameplay out of those systems I mean, yeah, there's definitely something to be said for how black flag took very already present AC three systems and just made them better. So a lot more cohesive a lot more focused Yeah, just like like I completely like I'll take your complete word on it that You know this has is taking a more iterative approach But it's doing better than odyssey did with with the origins formula and and better than origins did with it too Honestly, right. There are some big changes that Go a really really long way to making this game feel distinct and feel More wholly realized I I think probably the best way to sum it up Would be if you look at the game that all three of these games are trying to be They're trying to be these open worlds, you know, huge rpgs with sprawling dense rural country side to explore and And billions upon billions of collectibles and things to do, right? If you look at the game, these are all trying to be Valhalla has succeeded at trying to be that game Far more than either other games have right, but I want to know more about what you think now Just nine hours into it. You've gotten through a lot of early stuff You pretty much you you've had enough of time with the game that you pretty much know how it works You know the yeah, I'm pretty much beyond like the whole tutorial eyes sections and whatnot and you know Look, I've been thinking about this a lot like when we first started The podcast I was I was uh, I was pretty excited. I was pretty fucking hyped like I was comparing my hype Like unity levels and that's pretty big And then as which changed pretty quickly well as yeah, and as we got more information I was starting to teeter a little bit and I really didn't think that this was going to be worth my time Or or that enjoyable from from the perspective I was coming from and lost. I mean lost and sometimes you have to Kind of own up and like admit where you were wrong and this just isn't one of those times I Was waiting for it. This is just Uh, I I gotta say like as my excitement started to turn a little sour. I definitely think it was Indicative of how I actually am enjoying the game. So Gotcha, I mean Yeah, I think I I can echo that sentiment to the extent that With Valhalla, I got exactly what I expected from their sales pitch from what they marketed I'm not particularly surprised by anything so far, right? Oh, I I also just want to preface my thoughts and like for the people that have played origins in odyssey I will completely take your word on it that those games did things that this game does better or Or just more accessible and whatnot. So if I if I say that I don't like something in Valhalla I'm not saying that like the previous two games did it better because I have no idea Yeah, and so I'm just basing this off of like Valhalla compared to the other ones that I've played which is Syndicate and before so yeah, I guess I don't really know where quite to start. I guess to I guess to Uh Okay, well, I suppose pretty much the first thing I wrote down while I was playing and I guess it's a good place to start I don't know what it is. It's just it feels awkward to play It just kind of feels yeah like half baked it feels like as iterative as it is It feels almost too ambitious for even the time that they got and I'm honestly surprised about that because I expected Because it seemed from what I from like origins in odyssey both kind of just worked at launch. There wasn't I I heard I didn't hear any problems like that And I I figured Valhalla being as iterative as it is with the technology that's available I figured it it wouldn't have those issues either but for whatever reason I just It doesn't feel like it's a synced experience. It just kind of feels Like I said, it feels awkward to play All the systems don't just sing to each other harmoniously. They all it just There seems to be like a lot of unnecessary layering to a lot of the gameplay elements Are you talking about jank or or lack of polish at all or are you talking about more like conceptually? What I feel like it's more conceptual because I okay I don't think there's a whole lot of jank like I don't think I've ran into things like well Wow, that doesn't that clearly is broken or whatever like because when you when you talk about awkwardness I definitely feel the sense of floatiness to the controls into the navigation And I have to suspect even though quite a bit of that was present in origins in odyssey It does feel worse in this game and my only theory on that Which I'll get across real quickly and then I'll let you get back to your point My only theory on that is that they spent the last several months both without their original game director and working from home due to covid And got the release moved up by like one or two weeks As we've seen with like cyberpunk sometimes a matter of days is all that it takes to get a little bit more polished So I feel like in an alternate world where covid didn't happen Uh an ash raft ismail wasn't a scumbag Maybe the game comes out a lot more polished and and less floaty feeling But I can only speculate on those things. So anyway back to what you're saying I mean that that is a good point that I'm sure that had something to do with it I also think they're like there. Yeah, there is just a floatiness to it And I and I don't and like like I said, I don't want to say that that's not present in the previous two games But like even compared to syndicate things just feel floaty and things just like I feel like in all of these three games Something that I I notice with the way that they work mechanically and the way that they feel Is like I can point my thumb stick in any direction and just wait and I'll get there You know what I mean, which is what I've been doing in my time with the game I've just been getting on a horse or Now that uh, thank you, uh troll aka dylan. I was able to utilize your controls and now I can just tap Um rt on the xbox controller and I just go and I don't have to do anything and I just end up where I'm going eventually And I guess that also just I completely respect like I know And you'll get into it, but I know that you enjoy the world especially compared to odyssey's I just think this is this is so bland and uninteresting to to navigate Like I've found so far in my nine hours I've found maybe one location that like I actually stopped and like looked at for a second Otherwise nothing catches my eye And I'm not sure if it's the color palette or like the art direction I've also noticed things just kind of blend in with each other Everything kind of just looks the same For instance an example I can give is I was battling some people with an ally And I heard the sword clanking and I heard the shields and I and I And I was like right on top of them pretty much And I realized once I hit odyssey they were like pretty much right to my right And I didn't couldn't even see them because they were blending into the environment I don't know if you've interacted with that at all, but just it's a very bland and like stark coloring and See here's why I'm a little surprised by what you're saying Go ahead because I feel like one of the victories of Valhalla's world is that it does have that grimmer atmosphere That I feel like you've been clamoring for since ochre in ac1. I feel like this whole world. Yeah kind of has that that vibe That said and and I do appreciate that about it like there is like a darker You know moodier feel to the atmosphere of the world than in the last two games for sure I do think that like you I see what you're saying like already at the time that I've clocked into the game There are locations. I remember being in that are pretty nearly indistinguishable from each other But I have different feelings about the world and exploration that I'll get to later Right that's the thing too is yeah, like I do kind of like how moody it is But at the end of the day like so far I have not entered a single city Like I've just been in like little fortresses But when all you're seeing is grass and forests and trees and wheat and mud it all kind of just Blends together. There's just a lot of like green and brown. I don't know I also think like the compass isn't wonderful like I I Appreciate the compass much more than a mini map for for sure I guess I guess just so I don't go into many directions My main complaint here is just that I feel like it's either the color or the art direction something is Making things blend together Where it's different from like ac1 Or even even like unity did a similar landscape in the helix riff better like because unity has better art direction probably Interesting just something about it is just really drab and not interesting to look at to give you sort of my I mean I tweeted sort of a blurb review And I think that pretty accurately sums up my thoughts where it's like right There's a lot for me to appreciate and enjoy about this game I think the story is a lot better than the last few assassin's creed games so far I think that the the world and the environment is Honestly, I found it pretty interesting to explore for reasons. I'll get into There are a lot of these pluses, but at the end of the day I think that the lack of satisfying parkour and stealth Just they make it not really qualified for me is what I look for in an assassin's creed game and To be clear on these things right parkour Exists just like in the last two games. You pretty much will never really need to use it Well, while you can still climb something every once in a while There's not the gameplay of I'm in a city and I'm hopping from rooftop to rooftop That just doesn't exist. It can't really in this time period. I guess To that end the parkour system is really half-baked and I thought the parkour was really bad in origins and odyssey. I feel like in Valhalla. It's worse I've had so much more issues with jank I've had so much more issues with avor just not going where I want them to go Like those chasable collectibles that exist in this game where you can chase tattoos around just like in the Kenway era games They really highlight how fucked the parkour is because I get knocked off of something and then I lose track of the collectible Which is kind of hard to see and I have to restart like two or three times I might just be uniquely bad at using this parkour system But I also think this parkour system is uniquely bad I would like to never see this again I want the next game to be like a complete reimagining of how parkour should feel in assassin's creed because this shit Sucks and the only reason I'm okay with this system at on any level Is because I hardly ever have to use it because there are horses and there are very few things to climb so Yeah, keeping in mind that parkour is a core identity facet of what assassin's creed Is supposed to let you do that is a huge disappointment for me though Honestly, I can't even really describe as a disappointment I never got any indication that I should expect anything better from this game pretty much from the beginning I knew it was going to be dribble on that extent So I guess it is what it is And then stealth here's the thing with stealth I've gotten to a point in the game where I feel like I understand the gameplay pretty well I can use stealth to my advantage as as I need to But even if all the stealth mechanics in this game work together perfectly, which They don't but they work together pretty well. I can occasionally have a pretty satisfying stealth experience The fact will remain That the activities you're going to do in the game through the story through the world are pretty much 10 to 1 stacked in favor of combat You are going to be doing combat most of the time in the last game Last couple of games It was the fact that you could not guarantee to assassinate any given enemy If they were higher level than you you might not be able to that would force you into combat oftentimes You go into a fort in odyssey you try to stealth for as long as you can You reach a captain that you have to kill to clear the fort. You try to kill him He smells you and now the entire fort is on your ass in Valhalla, this is not the case but Pretty much it finds every other way that it can to force you into combat and more than more so than most other games of recent I have moments with stealth where I definitely feel like I get caught for reasons that were not my fault More often than I get caught for reasons that are my fault So Can't really give them any points for the stealth the distressed areas are cool To the extent that they work I've I've still yet to find an example where blending into a group of monks either works the way I would think it does In any way I would think it does or is useful in the slightest I think it's like a complete waste of time to blend with monks because I don't think you can control the direction they walk in and If you can I don't know how to do it And if you can't they're never going in the direction I need them to go. So it's a whole waste of time But that's like my long version of my short review Yeah, I mean I have nothing that in my nine hours that contradicts that at all like I like I There's definitely it's very combat forward and while I like the combat better than the last two I don't love it. It's still really floaty and arcadey and I think it sucks I want cinematic combat. I want realistic motion. You know, I think it sucks I think it's like pretty fucking like I don't want to be like too. Yeah, I don't be too negative about it. No, no, no Like it's be harsh pretty fucking abysmal every time I get into a combat encounter The illusion that I'm like playing a viking dude or woman who's walking around a real world and interacting with real things That illusion goes out the window and suddenly I'm just like watching someone play dark souls. It just doesn't work I don't know. I know you haven't played it But it reminds me of dragon age inquisition combat minus magic stuff. I've played dragon age inquisition Oh, I had no idea But it's no, I totally get what you're saying. Yeah, just minus the magic flare garbage going around It's so similar They're all, you know, the whole time they're like this this combat system is is is crunchy And it's brutal holger and it's brutal yet like it's it's just it's still too cartoonish for me It still was way too like yeah, it's okay So between the combat and clearly like the genre of combat they're going for just not it's not what I want out of assassin's creed You know this everyone listening knows ac1 is the best combat ever That's that's what I want. You're a whore. That's what I want for this kind of game I was expecting some like for honor type shit and what we get is this just you know flamboyant just cartoonish combat and Because it's so combat forward I've contemplated multiple times just turning the combat difficulty down to the easiest setting and just not dealing with it because it's not fun Yeah, like also speaking of not speaking of but I was saying earlier like about poor communication to the player I Maybe I'm just a big stupid pants, but I don't know I I never ever I can hardly ever parry successfully in this game I never know when so yeah, so okay. Here's the thing about that And this is this is fun. I think the game I'm not sure there's any tutorial that tells you how to parry at all I don't think that tells you ever but I did kind of get the hang of it once I It literally took me like reading a message on like the moderator group chat where to rule aka dylan was like Why can't I parry for shit? I suck at parrying and I was literally in my head like you can parry in this I like check the the database for the instructions on it and I practiced it and I've gotten pretty like I can usually parry and I find that the parrying sound and vibration and animation is very satisfying so I actually am now a fan of the way parrying works, but It's not very intuitive or well communicated. You're absolutely right and that's the thing is I feel like that's a lot of this My experience of this game so far is We talk about all the time about how some of these games have really really on the nose and shitty tutorial sections AC 3 AC 1 But like unity I feel like this game just throws me out into the wilderness It doesn't have me figure things out and in in like a rewarding way to me in my opinion It just kind of like throws you out there and it has you figure everything out There's just there doesn't seem to be that guiding hand I'm not saying that I want tutorials or tooltips everywhere, but I don't know I kind of felt like I was like thrust it into everything a little too soon Let me let me validate what you're saying real quick. Okay, go ahead Even having played the last two games, which are mechanically very similar I felt like I had a rougher time getting started with this game than anyone in a long time Like it is rough. I feel like to get through the beginning of it Without fucking things up constantly because I think you're exactly right that like You don't really get a very well designed means by which you are to Figure out the ways things work. Like for instance, I was expecting all the time to be able to assassinate people in the early parts of the game and Spoiler alert. I mean, this is a very minor spoiler. You cannot assassinate in the beginning of the game You have to learn how to assassinate before you can do it, right? Which is an interesting choice But not an expected one coming off of odyssey where Assassins don't exist yet But you can still assassinate and leap of faith and do everything an assassin can do for a minute one of the game Or in unity when you can park around Versailles with no issue at all Like this is the first Assassin's Creed game To my knowledge where you cannot perform any form of sneaky takedown For the for the beginning of the game Like usually you can at least choke someone out before you have the hidden blade in this game They they they they they hold that back For story purposes and it's just jarring when It's playing by rules that none of the other games have necessarily played by Even if I kind of I respect the choice like I respect the idea of tying it to the story But it it really ruins the idea of like Exploring the game at the beginning when you start to realize that you're going to have a shit-ass time exploring Until you get to the part where you can assassinate people I guess if my biggest scribe can you know, it can pretty much be hung upon But I feel like this game doesn't have very great communication to the player about many things Yeah, and it's like this game seems to be emulating breath of the wild a lot to the point like where people are like This reminds me of breath of the wild in the best ways and you know and then derby Excuse me derby can celebrate But I like I keep thinking back to that to the intro of that game where you're literally naked And like you run around and like it's kind of this kind of has this rubber banding effect Where you can only really interact with things that like tutorialize the game for you in a way of like, okay I know how weapons are now. I know how they work. I could pick them up. I know that weapons have a durability Let me chop down this tree to get over this Revene. Oh, I can chop down trees and get what from them and get apples Let me go fight these enemies. I now know how combat works. Yeah, you have to learn by doing It's very handcrafted that way and and it's very guided and it's very meticulous Whereas this game the whole norway section I felt like I was completely alone and while I appreciate that kind of like respect of the player Especially coming like, you know, even you had a hard time with it I'm coming off of just playing rogue to the point where like I changed my controls up off of truel aka dylan suggestion And I'm having a better time of it. They're yeah, there just seems to be a lot of layers Like to the point where like there's just so many different controls and things to do It doesn't seem very hyper focused It's it's combat forward But I don't feel like the combat system even Is developed in a way that's satisfying and that you can have fun for ages in like they seem to think I watched you play ghost asushima for like five ten minutes Which I have to say I was gonna say earlier ghost asushima Has my favorite combat system in an open world third person action game And I would like to see assassin's creed just do exactly what ghost asushima does with combat anyway Yeah, but I was going to mention the combat or just in general Like and I took the controller for like a couple seconds And it just seems like that game with that game does particularly well and you can confirm or deny this It's very hyper focused very coherent gameplay systems that all work together in harmony 100 percent Whereas this game I feel like there's just like so many different things at once and it's weird, right? Because it's like a staple of the series now for for the combat to change every time But it also seems like a hindrance though because if they just stuck with one combat system or not, you know Not not obviously not for the whole for the whole series But because this combat system seems similar to odyssey but different it seems very different from origin So it's just like yeah, it just kind of seems like they can't decide on something They're all quite different. You know, it's true. It's funny you mentioned that I mean, yeah, we had unity really reinvented combat and pretty much syndicate took us back to uh Easy as piss territory. Yes, and then origins is like combat's the whole thing now So it's all dark soulsy and then odyssey is like what if we made that even more arcadey and we had all these abilities And then the howl says well, what if we did that? We give it a little bit of meta gameplay with the adrenaline management and Uh things like that but but ultimately it's it's mostly odyssey's combat But it's been spruced up in it in the feedback territory to be a bit more as they would say brutal and It's still just as frustrating of a of a mechanic as it was in those last two games But it'd be less frustrating if I didn't feel like the game was shoving it down my throat Here's an early game thing Not really a spoiler, but if you if you've watched anything to do with the game, you know that there are raids There are viking raids now one of the core mechanics of the raid is that You're with your group and Most of the doors and chests you need to loot I think all of the chests that you need to loot in a raid have to be open by two people So not all of them. Well all the ones that count towards completing. Yeah Yeah, there is some loot that you can get by yourself But yeah, yeah the ones that have like the raw materials and stuff Yeah, obviously you need to be in a raid. You need to have all of your group to get into those chests But interestingly enough all of the raids also take place in a distrust area as opposed to a restricted area So if you're walking around with your cloak, you won't necessarily get Fucked up on site But here's another example of where the game really miscommunicates what it wants you to do I've been trained at that point as I think is reasonable that any distrust area You know these are places with blending options with with cloaks with limited or more limited detection I'm trained to recognize a distrust area as a stealth opportunity So I'm looking at these raids that are happening. I'm going how can I do this stealthily? So first you try to go into the raid area and you don't actually start the raid and you try to get around Oh, well, I can't get through this door. Maybe I'll look around for an entrance Oh, I found an entrance, but now I can't open this chest without my friends So you figure out you can't do it without starting a raid then you start the raid and you think maybe while all my friends are Fighting people I can stealth around. Well, not really because even though it's a distrust area once combat has started Enemies can pretty much smell you and they won't even have a detection meter fill up So what it comes down to is there is no stealthy way to do a raid Nor is there really a stealthy way to do much of the game's activities You saw that mission the roued mission in the first gameplay demo where they were really proud to show off You can be a little stealthy You can walk along a tightrope above the bad guy and you can do an assassination that'll clear him of half his health Of course any time i'm doing a siege I'm going to look for the opportunity to do that And I'm willing to admit that part of this may just be me being bad at the game But outside of the roued mission specifically I have not been able to do that once either because Getting into the vicinity of the enemy triggers a cutscene that triggers a you know cordoned off dual Or there's just no way to get to them stealthily or I will stealth up to the enemy Completely flawlessly and go to press r1 to assassinate And I won't be able to do it So it feels like the game completely misled me on what I would be able to do in these sieges I'm constantly frustrated by not being able to do that. That's ridiculous. There's no real excuse for that I was experiencing the same exact thing I was doing a main quest. I guess I guess there's no main or side quest in this game But I was doing a quest And it led me to this monastery that I was to raid and I was already having to infiltrate the place So I was like, well, why can't I just take some of the loot with me? And it was like, oh wait, I got to bring my friends to get the stuff back to the ship. Oh Okay, so I have to do it this way then Thanks like yeah, and and it's it's fine for there to be an activity where you have to play a certain way I mean odyssey had those like Yeah, those big battle things that were kind of bullshit But with the distrust area and with the fact that there is stealth in the game It really doesn't feel like raids have to be all combat, but yet they are Yeah, and and also but like I feel like black flag like simulated like a raid better than this game does like I have had no fun with raids at all yet. I've done multiple and I have had no fun I I find the sieges are more effective because the sieges give you a little bit more flexibility of stuff I think I just did my first siege officially and yeah Yeah, but that's that's the thing is I just I feel like I just I feel like I just happen upon things Maybe someone can Leave a comment and see what like see if they agree be like I just feel like I happen upon opportunities You know like I don't feel like I ever In communicated about them. I feel like I just happen upon things like that's I think that's one of the strengths I like that I just happen upon opportunities And they don't have to follow like an opportunity marker to go But there's nothing wrong with like unity's black box missions of being like Hey, bud if you go to this part of the of the area, there's something for you there Like there's nothing wrong with that. Well, actually though, can I disagree with you? Yeah, disagree because I think that I think that Valhalla one of the strengths I was going to get to Is that the way it handles opportunities exactly as you're describing I feel much more satisfied if I just come across an opportunity and take advantage of it on my own And if they point out here's where your opportunity is it's more like I'm crossing things off a checklist And I find that as far as their design approach goes it extends through a lot of the game This sense that if I just look around and I explore things and I interact with things I can find ways to create an advantage for myself. I can free prisoners that will cause Distractions I can sneak around to a door that I'm trying to batter down and I can You know shoot off the bars that are making it hard to batter down And that's just something I do because I found out I could do that and Even in the mission design when you sometimes have to investigate something or learn about something Reading letters and exploring the environments can give you clues about things That it's not necessarily always just saying go here to find a clue Those are things that that really excite me because I've had many moments while playing the game Both in the context you're describing of sieging or what have you and also just in general missions Where I found something of on my own and it it helped me it gave me more information or it expanded the story in an interesting way That's emergent gameplay. That's that's a good thing That's what all of these games have been aiming for and this is the first one in my opinion to hit So I would take that over a unity black box mission any day of the week frankly I do hear you and I do agree that like I I obviously like I do enjoy Oh, and let me be clear if you disagree with me you are wrong I I do I do um, I do like I respect for the player But it seems to me that because there's some there's so much layering and there's not There's not hyper focused systems that gel and that work well for me personally I find it difficult to even see those opportunities with my eyeballs And because the UI is so atrociously bad It's just hard for me to keep track of like what like, you know what I mean like, uh, it's just The UI is is kind of terrible. Is it not? I don't necessarily think so. No, I don't have a problem with the UI. I think Tim Here's my prediction. Okay all of the issues you're describing not being able to discriminate things Uh visually or having trouble finding the opportunities I think the more you play the game and the more you get used to the controls and the and the design of things You will Get better at that. Right. I I think I think you will I I should say and then it may not be as big a complaint for you Right. I and I and I should say if I if I haven't alluded to that already like I definitely You know, I'm not I'm not writing a lot of this off. I am I want to keep playing and I'm open to these These first, you know, kind of annoyances. They might go away. They might get worse Yeah, I feel like Valhalla has a kind of a perfect storm of like Not hyper focused systems and just weird UI choices and and things that get like to kind of just confuse me personally and make me seek the easiest possible way to finish something because I'm just so frustrated with them. I don't want to I don't want to mess around more than I have to you know what I mean Have you um, have you seen a bunch of have you kind of had to do a lot of like environmental puzzles yet for collectibles and stuff? I have not even tried I I like I I've done one where like I knocked a thing down and I Well, no, okay. Actually, here's one I'm sure everyone has who has played For any amount of time has come across this particular one But I went into a house. It was a letter and it was like, hey the pig Ader seller key so you can go dig through his shit And so I went and I did that and I found the seller it was like, oh awesome cool But like I don't know I just there's nothing like there's nothing about that But I'm like I can't wait to do that over and over again. I don't know it's well, okay But let me let me just say like for most of the collectibles in the game like especially the wealth ones You have to find them and they're often Sort of create like they've built puzzles around How to get to them that I've found are pretty different every time Where you have to actually interact with the environment like shooting off the bars on a bar door Or lowering a ladder or finding like parts of the wall that you can shoot through or attack through And that has been really really well done in my experience. I've gotten a lot of collectibles I've done a lot of these puzzles and typically when I see something that I can't get to immediately It's like an exciting challenge. I have to use the bird. I have to scout around I have to use odin site I have to actually explore and use the environment To my advantage to actually get those collectibles And that's that's level design, right? That's that's handcrafted shit That's not like copy-paste structures all over the map that are doing this Like we talked about rogue how good the level design is in rogue You just go to a location and you actually have to think about what you're doing and where you're going to get something That's all of valhalla's collectibles Well, that's what I was I was going to bring up rogue because that was what I'm hot off of is rogue And you you know, I like to rogue quite a bit I think rogue's like just world design and level design. I just I prefer that Like rogue's wilderness and areas not once was I ever like wow, I'm confused about where I am It's always like community. It was always communicated to me. Well Coming off of rogue like to have that experience and to be able to explore forever you know like for without even noticing and That's what valhalla. I feel like is trying to get me to do and then just there's something about the gameplay loop That I don't like there's just something about it that I don't enjoy I don't appreciate And it's just like I'm open for this to change But it might I there's just something off about everything Like just the way that you move around in the world is so weird the camera angle to me Everything just feels strange and I know it's going to be more strange to me coming off of A game like rogue or or even or syndicate than it is Having come off of odyssey and playing odyssey, so I'm completely aware of that But it's just really it's been a very jarring experience so far for me. Yeah, I think I think that's exactly the case I think your your opinions might change the more of it you play Because I also think from where I'm standing right now with how far I've gotten into it The story is pretty good. The story is pretty fun. It Has characters I actually give a shit about in a lot of places Some of the arcs these little, you know self contained stories that play out in different territories are Some of them have been really great. Some of them have been pretty bad, but a lot of them have been great and I'm definitely hooked on some of the mysteries powering the story the things that you want to see happen The arc that the character is on I'm I'm pretty much on board for all of that And I haven't felt that way about an assassin's creed game in a very long time Think of a very long to probably sense black flag Because unity's story was shit syndicate story was you know functional, but not particularly interesting Origin story was straight up garbage odyssey story was functional, but not super interesting Here's finally a story that is functional and interesting that has Threads that I actually am invested in seeing them pay off and a real sense of wonder for the You know lore and mystery of the assassin's creed universe that again, I haven't really felt since 2013 I I have to give him credit for that that that could be I mean, you know me What do I care about more than anything else story? I was gonna say pancakes, but that is also true I love pancakes with with little with little stories in between each pancake And like like I said, you know about every assassin's creed game pretty much that I've ever played It's like I'm willing to forgive a lot of gameplay sins if the story gives me a really powerful experience There's a lot I'm willing to overlook if the story is phenomenal and I can't quite say I'm I'm probably 75 to 80 through the game right now and I I can't fully say with certainty like Oh, it's a good one. It's the best one ever. It's great. So good I can't say it's bad. I can definitely say I'm along for the ride more so than I have been in the past There is definitely uh within my nine hours There is nothing about the story that has gripped me You know made me I am so uninterested in this time period too. That's not helping At all. I don't know if this is a spoiler I mean people know he's in the like I I just met I've I've are I've are the bonus Yeah, dude, what the fuck is going on with that? Like I know he's intended to be like the charming lovable Like miscreant. Holy shit. Yeah, he is annoying as fuck, dude He is so he's so like obnoxious like I get what they're going for And I'm not saying it's anything down to the performance or anything It's just like how I feel like how how we gels in the scenes in the writing. It's just it's I'm not a fan I am not a fan. I've are I've are kind of grew on me. I've are kind of it's definitely like not I always felt like he was somewhere on the annoying spectrum. No doubt I also just don't like the flow of the game. I don't I'm not used to there not being sequences And you know like I'm just not used to a lot of this stuff either No, it's just like oh get back get back to go time travel back to 2015 you old man sequences are gone We're doing we're doing like television arcs. So we're gonna have like 16 different arcs in this game It's just I like it a lot better than like the weird Chapters that you had in the last two were nothing really. Yeah, this is a big improvement over that I know you don't know that I'm just saying I like the sense of You go to a territory you do a thing for a few hours and then you come back to the settlement I like that loop I like the pacing of it because there are things that I'll do at my settlement pretty much every time I go back there I'll talk to certain characters. I will you know upgrade my gear. I'll change my tattoos Just I have a routine of things that I like to do And those are things that I will often look forward to doing while I'm out and about on my quest I'll get new gear. I start using I go can't wait to upgrade that I'll collect a new tattoo that looks cool. I'll go can't wait to put that on And then I go back and I you know do any quests that are there I upgrade whatever I can with the things that I've looted and For me that that works So it's kind of getting that sense that I was hoping for with like montereggione Where you look forward to going back and upgrading things and you want to make it a better and more useful place This settlement certainly has a lot more to do in it and care about in it Then montereggione did With montereggione, you just kind of wanted to make the buildings look prettier This this has a little bit more depth to it for me. So I'm on board with it. I do have I so far Completely preferred montereggione not even close so far. Yeah, but that's just because you're a purist I I do have a gameplay Thing I want I want to bring up that I like that I actually I really like and I want to get and I want to Ask you fucking finally, dude. You've been you've been making me so sad And I want and I want to ask I want to ask you if it like I have some thoughts about where it might go later on And that's why I just want to get your I want to get your season opinion So I know that it's evidently It's very reminiscent of like the cultist system and an odyssey But I really really enjoy so far. I really really really really like the order of the ancients little hierarchy thing I am so down with it I I love I love like getting I love seeing a person and it's like I'm gonna go fuck them up and then I come back to hyphen hyphen kenway and I'm like hey pal Well, actually maybe I shouldn't I mean he's not a kenway and it's not clear Here's a little medallion you bitch and see you later. But okay, so what I Okay What I like about it. Yeah is And you can come like you can kind of say if this is kind of what it becomes If you gave me an assassin's creed game and just gave me this this big web of people I have to go fuck up and and get clues on and work my way up the ladder To the big guy to the big boss. That's it. That's all I want that that sounds amazing And so I love that I can like work my way up the ladder And so I know some of it has has kind of overlapped with with with the main quest line a little bit Yeah, but it seems like a lot of it is optional Yeah, is that the case like is most of it still optional? That's pretty much it It's it's a lot like the cultist system in odyssey, which I thought was one of the better parts of that game Yes, there are targets that are that are weaved into the story and Yeah, a lot of them are people that you just have to hunt down on your own You read the clues it gives you you find where they are on the map You investigate whatever it tells you to investigate and you kind of have to do it on your on your own And I feel like that's a really smart way of carrying over the fantasy of the assassin identity Of I have to collect information and track down my targets and I definitely appreciate that You can kind of do it yourself and feel like it's emerging naturally in the world And it's not a bunch of scripted cutscenes that you're crossing off items on a checklist to get to It does seem though the only like okay for instance I'm going to keep playing after we are done recording here And so I have a clue and it says hey go to this town and go talk to these people Yeah So if I can go to this town and I could talk to some people and get some clues and stuff then Maybe we've got something cooking It seems to me I think it'd be it'd be dope if you just gave me like I like I'm an assassin You put me in this big old map. That's Preferably like an urban environment That's actually a city and you give me this big web of people and you say Okay, so this one is has last been seen in new york go to new york and And be among the people hide in plain sight figure out where the fuck he is Yeah, and take care of him and I I don't know if that's if that's kind of present in Valhalla's interpretation of it but like if that was just the like Main quest line of a future game and that was like the main story and they all have their little That's how an ac1 remake should be done 100 percent. Well, right Yeah, right like because ac1 with the way that you gather information And that's what I was getting at is there doesn't seem to be that in this game You can't eavesdrop you can't pick pocket letters It seems very much like go here talk to this person But it would be cool if I could just like walk into a tavern sit down and over here a conversation and now I know where to go I mean, yes and no. I think those things do exist, but they are Genuinely more emergent. I have overheard things And that led me to an opportunity or a clue. Gotcha. Okay. Okay. Yeah I think the more you play the more you'll get in touch with how that system is is meant to work And I think you'll appreciate it What's much better about this time around than with odyssey is that usually if it told you to go investigate somewhere It was kind of just leading you to a side quest line that you then had to carry out and that that would Then lead you to the cultist there There were some you would find out and about But you don't quite have the same sense of discovery when you find, you know Letters that lead you to them or when you find like, you know When you overhear a conversation that leads you to the the target There's a lot to be said for in general in this game as I've talked about before How opportunities and information are treated A great example is there's a mission early in the game This isn't this shouldn't be a spoiler that requires you to Investigate a few people you're trying to identify who might be a traitor And I don't know if you notice this tim, but if you just go exploring the world And you're just like collecting things and you're in the area at any point in time before that, you know Around that quest all that stuff is there. It's in the world. You can find it. You can investigate it You can read it. You might not understand its significance when you do so, but it's still just there It's not a scripted investigation sequence where you in you know an odyssey You have like five clues to interact with and you kneel next to it and you say something about it And then that part of the mission is done move on It's part of the world and you can learn things that you might not otherwise learn by going to certain places There are pieces of evidence all over the place that you might never find and that might be okay because you have enough to make a decision anyway and I want to see more of that because this game did it really really well I saw something that was part of that quest that i'm talking about And I thought it was part of a world event that was happening nearby I investigated it during that world event and I thought this is interesting I wonder what this has to do with the world event When I solved the world event it had nothing to do with that clue and I was like that's really interesting And then later on I discovered something else that then brings my attention to my mind back to that clue and I go Oh, and now I know something and I felt like I was doing that I was making that deduction the game wasn't making it for me as it often does in these murder mystery situations That's brilliant. You know, that's what I want to see I hear you and and I and I had a I actually, you know, I I did find some clues and I was like Wow, that's that's pretty cool. But I agree with you. I completely agree with you I just don't think that this game I and so far I have no reason to believe that this game doesn't any better Than any of the other games that do similar things What get the name one like in terms of just like the emerging Opportunities and stuff. Yeah, but like for solving a mystery or figuring out like is there another game that does that For solving a mystery, I I guess I I guess I I don't I don't really have an example for a mystery I just I feel like finding things out in the world and seeing the consequence later and like things I just don't know if Valhalla is doing that better than Like, I don't know like other games out there like I can say I play a lot of games Most like big releases that come out and usually in an open world rpg like this Even in the Witcher 3, you're still pressing your hunter vision and and interacting with all the highlighted objects But that's what you're doing with Odin sight. That's still happening in this game But it's not tied to whether or not you are doing the mission that requires you to see that And if you explore and you go after collectibles and you interact with the world It's a lot more likely that you'll uncover those things naturally and that you won't be led there necessarily by the quest That's what I appreciate. Yeah, I I think that's true You know, it is like if you can just find some of the clues without having started that quest that is cool And even beyond mysteries and the setup that I'm talking about very specifically here I'll find letters in camps and in forts and in houses That directly reference other things. I've read or world events I've done or main quest that I've completed and it really does a good job of giving me the sense that like Yeah, things are interconnected here And and this is a like a living and breathing world that is reacting to The forces that play around it and I think I have to give that simple device that simple technique a lot of credit For creating the the idea in my mind as I'm traveling that when I come upon a town There that it's a town that's kind of alive that there are people that live and breathe and work there And that I can interact with things and that the choices I make will change something about that world maybe this is Naive and I'll understand at the end of the game when I'm done that like Actually, none of that really mattered and it was all very handcrafted But the fact that it's giving me that feeling Is worth something at least right now and I can see also how you could totally as a player Miss that completely if you're never taking the time to like Go for collectibles investigate your surroundings if you're just going from quest marker to quest marker You may not ever have that experience I I I just also I just don't think that the game does a great job of inviting you to do those things like I have I I I just have no interest in running around and getting collectibles like so far I I'm of I'm just like trying to get through it. There are a lot of different strategies people take now I know as a completionist with Assassin's Creed that I'm going to get all the collectibles anyway So for me, it's just a matter of you're eating all the collectibles. I yeah Yeah And if that's not your bag, I get it But I'll tell you this right now tim and you may not know this but you might you might know this There will be one or two kinds of collectible that you'll discover if you even try to That you will love that thing and you will want more of it And you will have to actually explore to find more of that thing Have you done and this is minor we won't talk about anything specifically But have you done an animus anomaly yet? No, no, I haven't well I'm not going to say anything about it other than to say that when I found my first animus anomaly I knew I was going to have to find all of them interesting and That in order to do so That would mean Investigating a lot of fucking blue dots because I don't know how many are in the game But it's probably a handful and I think there are 488 or something blue dots in the game But I want to find those fucking animus anomalies I want to do it and that's going to motivate me. There are other things too. Sometimes you find a gear set gear piece You like the piece you like the gear But you don't have the rest of the set and you want it You have to explore you have to go to the wealth icons to find those pieces Yeah, that's just how it is a big thing about how I've been feeling about it as I as I try and separate I try and just think okay if I just pick this up Off the shelf and it was like, you know a medieval, you know fantasy RPG game what I enjoy it. Yeah, so far like I feel like I don't always want to be like I just I would just rather go play the Witcher 3 like You can't always just be like I'd rather go play that old game because things evolve and change There's enough in Witcher 3's world That incentivize me to keep going in it that I just don't know if is present in this game And I know they're not the same game. I don't want to keep comparing them But even my even like Breath of the Wild which I have plenty of issues with like it still kept me playing for a long time because of A lot of those things that I think this game is emulating Maybe not doing as well, but we'll see I'll say I couldn't finish either the Witcher 3 or Breath of the Wild But I will probably finish this Also because it's as well, maybe because of the Assassin's Creed game Also because it's an Assassin's Creed game and that's what I'm all about But if I feel like if I pulled this off the shelf and it was not Assassin's Creed branded I would probably Like it better I would like it even more because I wouldn't be comparing it to the expectations of what the Assassin's Creed brand represents And then it would just be a really good medieval game Well, maybe not really good, but a fairly good medieval game And if those mysteries and and and story threads were equally as effective to me in that context I would have to rate it even higher But I understand if this is just not your style. This is just not your bag That's totally fine. Like that's just how it is. You know what I mean? Yeah, and but I also want to be clear like compared to how big this fucking game is Yeah, I haven't beaten it or anything. I'm not even half. I'm not even 25 of the way through So a lot of this is just like my my just word Vomit about it so far. I'm not loving it But like I said completely open for those things to change And you and I are going to talk about here in a second about something that I think we both like Yeah about it. Uh, so far you've probably experienced more about of that than me, but soft spoiler warning here If you haven't reached the first modern day moment of the game Shouldn't be a spoiler that there is one. It was confirmed that Layla would be back Um, and she is So we're going to talk a little bit about the very first Thing uh in the open in the modern day if you haven't gotten there yet Just just turn this off come back later. We'll be waiting here for you patiently But all right spoilers are go now tim. Did you appreciate last week that I reintroduced the concept of those origins? voiceover things Yeah, because I when I saw him on the laptop. I wasn't like what the fuck is this Yeah, I I knew exactly because I did that just for you It was what you referenced. Yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah, dude, like I gotta say I was feeling pretty sour about the game and but then when that modern day thing hit I was like, all right Cool. So this this is my reason to beat the game now. This is it. This is the only reason. Yes Sean and rebecca are back. They look different. Sean's aged about 40 years Rebecca's had some plastic surgery Uh, but they're back. It's the year 2020. COVID exists for the first time in a video game And now there's an end of the world happening again. We're not sure even at the point where I'm at in the game I don't know a lot about it, but the mysteries have been unfolding and things have been playing out I do know more than I knew in that very first moment But in that moment I was pretty blown away Especially that they got Nolan north back for a bit of friendly fan service to come do a Maybe final performance as desmond miles for the audio files You know what's weird about those things though is it like given the time stamp on those They're like talking to desmond in a way that I don't feel like they would be talking to him in the events of ac3 Like yeah, the events of ac3 like like they're pretty close to each other But in those talks they're like as if they just met almost it's really strange I I didn't get that impression But I did get the impression that we were hearing a conversation that was taking place during downtime And the impression you get playing ac3 other than the fact that everyone's kind of dicking around in the cave Is it like Everyone's working on something so there's maybe not a lot of downtime I can allow for the possibility that those conversations happened But it did weird me out a little bit they talk about the isu because that was not a word I think that had been coined yet in the assassin's creed franchise They were still at that point precursors are the ones who came before right and what's also interesting is ac4's desmond dialogue Audio files are also take place during downtime in ac3 now So yeah, it seems like that's the only time that we have for everyone to be in the same room and talk But yeah that besides lucy I guess because revelation season at coma before that lucy would have to be around So ac3 is all I got for no lucy. Yeah, it is it really is But I can see there being a lot of downtime. What's really smart is how they handled Honestly, I have to give them credit for how they handled leila in this in this opening because They're not hiding from the fact that like terrible stupid shit happened in the last like dlc We saw of her with odyssey. Yeah, and she's doing some some wack shit and uh, you know honestly like They did the best they could they they acknowledged that like, okay, she was she was being controlled by the staff and Sean and rebecca treat her very specifically like You're not like in the clear for having done that but hey, we have some experience with working with somebody who Yeah, uh Who killed someone while being controlled by a precursor artifact So we're we're no strangers to that we understand and it kind of explains why they're together because There's an implication by shon and in his dialogue. It's like the old team She was with doesn't want to work with her anymore. So now she's being paired with these people who she didn't know super well before and The reason that they're more forgiving and understanding of what she did is because they experience it with desmond I would have never expected there to be a good reason for shon and rebecca to work with leila Just that it would happen because darby or whomever wanted it to happen But they actually thought of a good reason. Good on him for sure. Yeah, I I agree and I think uh, I gotta say two There's two things one This modern day little cut scene has like better cinematography better direction and acting Then like anything that's present in vahala up into that point. So that's nice to see sure and yeah I mean like the shot of like the cigarette falling into the Is she's been standing there staring at the staff for probably at least like Two minutes because her cigarette's completely burned away and it's falling into the sink now So yeah, that's pretty dope. I like that. Yeah And there's just this this feeling this atmosphere that what we're in right now in this moment Is we're in the beginning of the ending like this is the conclusion They're talking about the aurora borealis. That should happen at the end of ac3. Yes, they're talking about Oh, there's another apocalypse that we now have to avert Suddenly because of course of our king and lord and savior darby. There are stakes There is a mystery. There are characters we care about and There's like a driving like I am so motivated by the modern day when I play this game like Even though I haven't gotten any notifications like you have new emails. You should leave the animus to check it out I will constantly just leave the animus and Just see if there's anything different and I just love existing in that Like moment and I can't wait to to see more of What the modern day has in store. I'm starting to get Some inklings of like what the situations are what the mysteries are and I'm just I'm desperate for more Yeah, I really got to say too is You and I both thought that once we saw Sean that there had been like a time gem I thought yeah, it'd been extreme like 20 plus years and that the staff has been keeping her youthful Yeah, I thought that was what was going on and I I'm kind of disappointed. That's not what happened I agree like Sean especially for whatever reason he looks like an old man I don't know what the fuck's going on. Rebecca just looks different, but she sounds older. She's talking in a much more restrained Older sort of tone of voice. I guess the idea is just supposed to be that they're stressed out Yeah, like they've been through two different like they've been pretty much now This is their second apocalypse about the hit earth Yeah, so I guess that's what that's what's implying as Sean is graying Well, let me make a very declarative statement right now if this game does not wrap this up in an interesting way I'm gonna be pissed because I do not want to be waiting on the hook for another foretold apocalypse event I don't want to be anxiously looking forward to the next Assassin's Creed game to answer any questions from this one because Time and time again, they've shown I can have no faith in them to resolve any questions That one game leaves unanswered because the developers of ac 2021 or 22 They're gonna say oh, fuck that shit. I don't I don't even know who Darby is. What is this? I don't want to do this. What's a do-know. It's and they'll just have a whole different thing dude, yeah, I mean That's that's so accurate too because Like the only thing keeping me going in this game right now is finding out what the fuck's going on modern day And if they don't wrap it up and this is gonna go at the bottom of my list real fast so that he's yep, but The tone and atmosphere that is present in the historical setting I actually think is much more complimentary of the modern day sections in this game Because I instantly felt the tone. I instantly felt the mood and I think it works so much better Because it brought me back to like, you know, ac1 ac2 days and it's like things are this things are serious And the stakes are high and they have the cute little mirror device of the aurora borealis being part of the apocalyptic event But also a big part of the nor psychonography. Yeah, and I was able like I I was just kind of running around I was actually interested in exploring actually. I was actually interested in And I I was so rewarding when I ran around enough and I get to see a fucking upstirgo satellite falling from the sky and what's awesome about that is It makes this now feel like it's assassin's creed world again And not just our world with templars and assassins like things are happening in the in the world that are not happening in ours And so it feels like it feels like a separate thing. This is what we should have gotten the year after assassins creed 3 This is what we should have got desmond should be in layless place It should be the same people in the same situation because ac3 unleashed juno on the world And this setup feels like it could be the resolution of that I don't know if or think juno is necessarily involved in this plot But for all intents and purposes with what I know now it might as well could have been at the time So like this feels like the long long long overdue conclusion to In some form what the modern day story was supposed to be and I really couldn't be happier about it I was not sure we'd ever see a good modern day again Even if this completely crashed and burned It would still have to be up there with some of the best modern days in the game Just for the fact that it like made me really feel things and got me invested and I believed in the mystery For at least the 60 or 70 hours that I've already played I have to give credit for that. I really do and I'm I I'm just I'm still right now Just itching to go back and play more primarily so I can get more of that shit Yeah, I completely I completely agree with you This this this does feel like the long-awaited follow-up to ac3 because ac4 was like Where are you be soft and then like, you know and and syndicate actually did we we both love syndicate But that was like such a little sliver of things. It was like a taste It was like an appetizer that was immediately shat upon by origins and yeah And that's the thing is like this is like this is darby This is darby respecting the modern day because yo, this is straight up darby I completely agree with you. It feels very long overdue It feels in line with those classic modern day Classic ac modern day stuff and I can't wait to see more that's it's keeping me going Here's how I knew they were taking modern day more seriously this time There's a story austin wintry the composer on syndicate told Where he asked the producers what kind of music he should make for the modern day of syndicate Because he was a fan of the games and he knew modern day was a big part and the producers at the time literally were like, yeah People don't really care about the modern day stuff. We're not gonna do a whole lot Don't worry about music too much for it And he didn't there's no music in any of the cut scenes of syndicate other than at the end where they play austin wintry's You know underground So on and so forth when I heard like this striking sci-fi arpeggio soundtrack in the modern day portion I knew I was like they got jesper kai in a room. They've got sarah schachtner. They've got you know These composers who are brilliant and who have made some of the best music ever in an ac game in vahala And they're like, you know what? Yeah do some music for the modern day We actually care about it right now. So just go ahead and make us some music Every time I like every time I hear it if because Minor spoiler you're gonna hear that music if you're ever in an animus anomaly uh Anytime I I'm hearing that modern day like Just um synthy futuristic Score I'm like pausing the podcast. I'm listening to I'm cranking that shit up and I'm just like This is what it sounds like When they care about this stuff. Yeah, that's a really small thing, but that's what I really appreciate Yeah, I mean, it's it's it's it's both what we're here for like, you know, it's Yeah, so it is very validating to have it and I Yeah, I'm really impressed with it so far. It's also retroactively making me care more about Avor because because I'm I'm I'm now wondering like okay look Okay, I don't I don't I don't really care about Avor But I'm kind of curious how the fuck did he end up here, you know, like yeah, that's that's what's doing to me and That's what that's that's assassin's creed, baby. That's what modern day does well assassin's creed, baby so Yeah, so we kind of we kind of edited on we kind of ended it on a good note tim you hate this game and that's okay But there are parts of it you like I like this game, but there are parts of it that I hate and Together when you when you when you put both of us in a pot and you stir it up That's that's one love and one hate, baby. That's that's pretty balanced We're pretty fair and balanced here on the hook played podcast And uh, yeah, I'm excited to see where it goes. I just am itching to play more I'm gonna see how I can edit this podcast around the fact that I want to play more assassin's creed vahala And hopefully in the coming weeks, I don't know if it'll be one week or two weeks Uh, we'll get to a point where we've played the whole thing. We will do an in-depth Spoilerful discussion of it for your ear balls, but we appreciate you listening to this and we hope we see you Next week, I have been the blade. I have been the hook Together we've been Fuck faces good night