cmdrdredd
Lifer
- Dec 12, 2001
- 27,052
- 357
- 126
I was a little surprised about the performance of Assassin's Creed... but not in a good way. At least based upon the Ars review, I expected it to run very well on the Series X, but I did notice framerate hitching. I can't really attest to the graphics quality as the last Assassin's Creed game that I played was Origins on PC. It seems fine, but given that Ubisoft prides themselves on their graphical fidelity, I kept getting this feeling that it didn't seem as good as some recent first-party titles from Sony. I think the biggest problem is in the face where it looks more like I'm watching people in rubber masks re-enact the Vikings.
One other weird aspect, and I'm not sure if it's a bug or not, but the game seems to have side quests (the blue markers), but it doesn't always update the map or even track them. For example, I was in this one town, and this guy told me to meet him at the docks (quite vague in this city), and I eventually just kind of ran into him. After that, he told me to meet him at some north point, and I just sort of gave up at that point. To note, I kind of detoured off right after getting the ship, so I don't know if it's a timing thing. Maybe it also relates to my difficulty setting as Valhalla gives you multiple difficulty sliders for different aspects (enemy health/damage, stealth, etc.). I kept mine on the default, so I figured that might not be it.
That sounds rather nice to hear! I wasn't sure if it was a congestion issue due to having no real issues with Assassin's Creed at around 8:30PM CST. (That was when I got the 325-380Mbps.) On the other hand, I was installing Yakuza around 10PM CST. So, it might be that I was trying to download during a heavy use time for the west coast.
In Valhalla the quests don’t show you where to go. Once you discover the quest giver it will but after you start you are kind of on your own. There is a mode to show you more markers for where to go but often you have to follow a character without a marker floating. It helps if you use your raven to scout ahead and it should highlight quest areas. I don’t have a problem with how it looks, it’s a different style than some other titles though. I want to say it looks more like CG at times than an actual person, kind of plastic. I’ve only encountered one spot in actual gameplay that had any frame rate issue too. I couldn’t reproduce it reliably so I didn’t think much of it. The cinematics are probably not 60fps and you can tell so they aren’t smooth at times.
Overall though I am enjoying the game a lot. It’s refreshing to have a game that understands that I’m an adult and can handle blood, dismemberment, some nudity etc without censoring it or presenting it in an unnatural way. Everything happens just matter of fact as if it’s just normal. I appreciate that. The kill animations are pretty cool as well.