Semi unrelated, i recently finished AC Valhalla after putting in 100+ hours or so and I didn’t hate it, guys. It was definitely janky, like nowhere near what AC 1 or 2 were in their time, but it wasn’t as horrifically woke as I’d expected.
It's woke because it doesn't even bother to try to be remotely historically accurate.
At least the previous trilogy (and the few after) tried to immerse players in the time period. You didn't have women warriors fighting in the front ranks with Napoleon's men in Assassin's Creed Unity, nor did you have to worry about unnecessary gay romances thrown into Assassin's Creed Brotherhood or Assassin's Creed III.
There comes a point where being woke isn't just about flagrantly throwing around anti-White hatred, and conspicuous misandry, it's also about distorting and rewriting history, changing culture based on modern ideological bents (viz., how often did you raid and rape in Assassin's Creed Valhalla with the Berserkers? I'll answer that for you even though I haven't played the game: you probably had typical Ubisoft style "raids" similar to the Far Cry enemy encampments where you killed x amount of enemies and captured certain points on the battlefield, and there were absolutely zero rapes, zero desecration of holy places with the dismemberment of clergy, and zero razing of villages that included women and children).
There was an opportunity for the game to be more than a vanilla, anachronistic modern retelling of Vikings through the lens of Left-wing agitprop, but that authentic depiction is definitely not what Assassin's Creed: Valhalla was.
and zero razing of villages that included women and children
I remember seeing one of the game trailers early on showing MALE Eivor (the horror) and his band a Vikings razing a village. There’s a part where he briefly lowers his axe and nods at a woman and her two kids to pass him and his gang unharmed.
There were parts of it I didn’t totally hate, not gonna lie. The expansions were definitely better than the base game (that forgotten saga was actually pretty awesome), but the amount of estrogen medieval England was supposedly swimming in was highly cringey.
I’ve been able to ignore the wokeness in the previous AC games, up to and including Odyssey, but for some reason with Valhalla it felt like they were far more blunt, like they were actively TRYING to annoy me with it. Like, “you WILL bow before us and you WILL like it.” After a while I just kept thinking, “fuck off, game.”
Never had that feeling with Ezio or Connor or Edward. I never wanted any of them to fuck off at any point.
I can’t say for sure whether it’s because the quality of writers and devs has tanked or if it’s just because games (like everything else) have become so fucking bland and lacklustre lately. All the analogies about “fast-food gaming” and “a mile wide but an inch deep” really are true.
The WORST thing about Valhalla by far isn’t the shitty writing or forgettable characters or the woke nonsense. It’s the squandered potential. They could have made something shorter, grittier and far more epic with that setting.
Again I didn’t hate ALL of it, just most of it. Which pretty much still means it sucks, doesn’t it?
There were definitely an unreasonable number of strong, independent women and gays in the game, but they never ventured into like “let’s show the boys how it’s done…” territory so I didn’t get too upset. Like I baseline assume the franchise isn’t for me at this point so just a lot of cringey inclusion wasn’t enough to put me off because I’d honestly thought it’d be much worse.
Semi unrelated, i recently finished AC Valhalla after putting in 100+ hours or so and I didn’t hate it, guys. It was definitely janky, like nowhere near what AC 1 or 2 were in their time, but it wasn’t as horrifically woke as I’d expected.
It's woke because it doesn't even bother to try to be remotely historically accurate.
At least the previous trilogy (and the few after) tried to immerse players in the time period. You didn't have women warriors fighting in the front ranks with Napoleon's men in Assassin's Creed Unity, nor did you have to worry about unnecessary gay romances thrown into Assassin's Creed Brotherhood or Assassin's Creed III.
There comes a point where being woke isn't just about flagrantly throwing around anti-White hatred, and conspicuous misandry, it's also about distorting and rewriting history, changing culture based on modern ideological bents (viz., how often did you raid and rape in Assassin's Creed Valhalla with the Berserkers? I'll answer that for you even though I haven't played the game: you probably had typical Ubisoft style "raids" similar to the Far Cry enemy encampments where you killed x amount of enemies and captured certain points on the battlefield, and there were absolutely zero rapes, zero desecration of holy places with the dismemberment of clergy, and zero razing of villages that included women and children).
There was an opportunity for the game to be more than a vanilla, anachronistic modern retelling of Vikings through the lens of Left-wing agitprop, but that authentic depiction is definitely not what Assassin's Creed: Valhalla was.
I remember seeing one of the game trailers early on showing MALE Eivor (the horror) and his band a Vikings razing a village. There’s a part where he briefly lowers his axe and nods at a woman and her two kids to pass him and his gang unharmed.
As if.
There were parts of it I didn’t totally hate, not gonna lie. The expansions were definitely better than the base game (that forgotten saga was actually pretty awesome), but the amount of estrogen medieval England was supposedly swimming in was highly cringey.
I’ve been able to ignore the wokeness in the previous AC games, up to and including Odyssey, but for some reason with Valhalla it felt like they were far more blunt, like they were actively TRYING to annoy me with it. Like, “you WILL bow before us and you WILL like it.” After a while I just kept thinking, “fuck off, game.”
Never had that feeling with Ezio or Connor or Edward. I never wanted any of them to fuck off at any point.
I can’t say for sure whether it’s because the quality of writers and devs has tanked or if it’s just because games (like everything else) have become so fucking bland and lacklustre lately. All the analogies about “fast-food gaming” and “a mile wide but an inch deep” really are true.
The WORST thing about Valhalla by far isn’t the shitty writing or forgettable characters or the woke nonsense. It’s the squandered potential. They could have made something shorter, grittier and far more epic with that setting.
Again I didn’t hate ALL of it, just most of it. Which pretty much still means it sucks, doesn’t it?
Congratulations! You qualify for a "Stockholm Syndrome" Tee-shirt!
Just send $49.95 to UBISoft and wait by your mailbox!
Lol, knowing Ubisoft it’ll only be the front half of the shirt. Another $49.95 gets me the back half 😆
And if you don't wear it for a year they break into your house at gunpoint and take it back.
There were definitely an unreasonable number of strong, independent women and gays in the game, but they never ventured into like “let’s show the boys how it’s done…” territory so I didn’t get too upset. Like I baseline assume the franchise isn’t for me at this point so just a lot of cringey inclusion wasn’t enough to put me off because I’d honestly thought it’d be much worse.
I found it very boring compared to odyssey
I personally found Odyssey a shit ton of fun to play. Honestly loved every second of it. Way shorter than Valhalla with better writing and characters.
Well odyssey had more interesting characters and more weapon variety early on. I got so bored with just fighting with dual axes