Assassin's Creed Valhalla fans are expressing their frustrations with how Ubisoft has prioritized microtransactions over post-launch DLC and updates.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla players aren’t happy with how Ubisoft has handled monetization and post-launch content, thus far, and are making their grievances known online. Ahead of the title’s November 2020 roll out, Ubisoft unveiled a roadmap replete with paid content plans. Compared to AC Odyssey, said plans didn't include as many free DLC details. Add to that Valhalla’s aggressive microtransactions and there lies the perfect recipe for backlash.
Like Odyssey before it, Valhalla launched with a slew of in-game purchasing options in tow. Unlike Odyssey, however, Ubisoft has done little to address the issue in its newest release. And the issues are aplenty. Players who want good-looking armor with decent stat bonuses have to buy them via the in-game store, for instance. Meanwhile, the armor sets available in-game are either a grind to unlock or don't appear until much later in the experience. It’s a far cry from Odyssey, which had an exorbitant amount of gear for players to pick and choose from.
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Related: Assassin's Creed Valhalla's Post-Launch Content Is Concerning (UPDATED)
Fans began questioning Ubisoft's Valhalla-related priorities earlier this week following a viral Reddit post by user Zuazzer. The post, which as of writing sits at roughly 4,800 likes, notes that Valhalla's in-game store is selling nine armor sets, the same number of sets available in the base game. It hasn't helped that Ubisoft continues to prioritize pushing out more monetized content, as opposed to launching additional updates to improve the game. Zuazzer additionally identifies monetized cosmetics as a concern, since they affect gameplay and are often overpriced. A thread of replies to the Redditor wholeheartedly agrees, with many fans recalling how WBIE was forced to remove Middle-earth: Shadow of War's microtransactions due to unyielding backlash from critics and players alike.
It is indeed concerning that much of Ubisoft's focus seems centered on microtransactions. That the publisher is just now coming under fire for such practices warrants attention, too. Are in-game purchases so prevalent that they now fail to receive pushback when the likes of Ubisoft overemphasize them? Or perhaps this particular conversation has been overshadowed by the controversy surrounding Cyberpunk 2077, which launched just one month after AC Valhalla?
Whatever the case, Ubisoft has yet to respond to the hot water it's now found itself submerged in. How the publisher will address the matter, should it choose to do so, presently remains a mystery. But here's to hoping fans have their concerns addressed before AC Valhalla's first batch of paid DLC is deployed this spring.
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Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
tommycahil1995 on February 6th, 2021 at 17:35 UTC »
For me AC gets better and better but the lack of outfits in this one (especially compared to the last two) is weird. I think they made finding armour more of a challenge and reward but still doesn’t seem to be too much here. I found an outfit I like so it’s fine but this does suck.
I never ever have felt ripped off by an AC game and I’ve played them all, they are absolutely gigantic detailed open worlds in time periods that don’t usually get a lot of money poured into them (don’t think I can remember the last big budget open world games set in Ancient Greece, Egypt or dark ages England? If there even are any at all). The stories are always enjoyable, and often the main characters are great (Edward/Bayek/Ezio/Alexios and I’m starting to like Eivor a lot)
and I’ve never really cared about the MTX because like I said the base game usually has a lot of cosmetics - but hopefully this is a trend they’ll reverse.
Also I think people like to shit on AC (like many in this thread) because of the ‘Ubification’ of open world games. I like Fenyx Rising a lot but it’s very similar to the AC Odyssey DLC set in the Greek afterlife (also has a ton of Odyssey animations and the same voice cast) - but people acting like it’s some sort of revelation.
JoseToThe on February 6th, 2021 at 17:26 UTC »
For the curious, Valhalla moved away from Odyssey’s loot system and consolidated it.
In Valhalla you find armor (that belong to sets) in specific places, and because there are fewer of them it gives them more importance. Of the sets available in game all can be upgraded to be comparable although they each have their own “specialization” I guess and special unlockable traits (if you wear armor from the same set).
The same is true of weapons as well. You’ll find two great swords, five axes, three spears etc. So you only have to focus on upgrading a few.
The armor available in the MTX store are basically all god like, myth based skins (ie being dressed like a soldier from Helheim). The armor sets in game are tailored to be more “realistic”.
Having finished both Odyssey and Valhalla, I prefer Valhalla’s system. I was excited to get a new piece in Valhalla and ended up upgrading most of them to mix and match. In Odyssey there were so many that would just randomly drop that I never found myself very excited.
There are many actual arguments to be made about how bloated the open world design of these games are, how floaty the combat can still be at times, and how repetitive many of the activities are. But I don’t really get the issue with the MTX stuff.
The focus should be on improving the games sub systems (being able to mix and match after upgrading sets, fixing fishing, improving enemy AI in Orlog, adding back an arena, NG+, etc). This armor stuff is useless.
2girls_1Fort on February 6th, 2021 at 16:51 UTC »
Assassins creed is one of those series you skip 3 games, get the next one cheap for about 20 bucks just so you can remind yourself why you skipped the last 3 games.