Originally planned as the final story expansion prior to the announcement of second year content for Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, The Siege of Paris adds the French location and a few new ideas but essentially feels like more of the same.

Continuing the heavily political narrative themes of the base game and the previous expansion, Eivor is enlisted by a pair of foreigners to travel to their homeland and help bring down the Mad King, Charles the Fat.

It is impossible to ignore the visual similarities 9th century France has with the English territory that comprises the bulk of Valhalla’s experience. Lacking the same visual punch and unique qualities that Ireland presented in the previous expansion, Wrath of the Druids, Valhalla’s France looks like more of the same. Considering it plays essentially the same and provides a story that treads the same political waters, The Siege of Paris struggles to feel unique and like a meaningful addition to the ever-expanding experience.

My review of Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla can be found HERE.

Having spent nearly eight hours tackling the story it was hard to feel satisfied in the sense it had essentially been told countless times throughout the core Valhalla experience. The format of wandering between new locations completing fetch quests, escorting characters and typical go here and kill this guy becomes all too familiar almost immediately.

The implications of the teases Catholic Church infiltration and radicalisation by cultists was interesting but ultimately wound up being a mystery unsolved. At least with Wrath of the Druids the cultist sub-plot was interesting and fleshed out rather than teased and possibly abandoned though it can’t be ruled out this arc won’t be returned to with the newly announced second year of content.

My review of the Wrath of the Druids expansion for Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla can be found HERE.

With combat all but perfected with Valhalla the addition of a new and deadly weapon is certainly welcome. The large, double-handed scythe makes for a fun toy to dismantle the opposing forces and has some satisfying animations and executions. Its ridiculous size becomes normal after a few combat encounters and the fact that it’s nearly twice the size of Eivor is certainly comical at first.

Adding to the weird and wonderful additions of the world of Assassin’s Creed, as has become standard for the franchise, and especially with Valhalla, a new and completely ridiculous mount is available. A bear. With horses, giant wolves, a lynx, a lion and now a bear to choose from, the wacky side of Assassin’s Creed makes the dull moments of constant back and forth more enjoyable while being able to ride these crazy mounts.

The singular most interesting concept introduced in The Siege of Paris is the rat swarms that accompany the plague. Dwelling primarily in the sewers or beneath buildings these swarms of rats will relentlessly attack and damage the player. They can’t be damaged or killed themselves, but they can be attacked and forced to retreat into grates in the ground. When the rats have retreated an object needs to be pulled over the top of it to prevent them re-emerging. There is always a conveniently placed object within the environment to be dragged to do so. An interesting idea fails to feel meaningfully executed due to their sporadic appearances, annoying pursuit of the player when they are encountered and monotonous means of repelling them.

Perhaps one of the strongest deviations to the norm in The Siege of Paris are the Infiltration missions. Essentially repurposed from the Black Box missions in the also French-based Assassin’s Creed: Unity, these missions provided a handful of possible ways to reach the target or infiltrate their hideout and present unique ways to assassinate them cinematically rather than simply approaching them and driving a hidden blade through their throat.

These made Assassin’s Creed feel like Assassin’s Creed again since the gradual evolution to the state of the game today. It was a welcome addition and one that should definitely be revisited in the future of the franchise to satisfy the strategic assassin impulses that haven’t felt the same in nearly a decade.

Visually impressive as always and while the locations look amazing, they don’t feel different enough to feel justified. Some solid voice work is provided for some of the new characters, King Charles the Fat in particular adds a layer to the tyrannical rule he imposes that is interesting to see brought to life.

The Siege of Paris feels more like the same Valhalla experience we had at launch in contrast to the excellently diverse and different feel brought to players with Ireland in the Wrath of the Druids expansion. The prospect of more content to come to Valhalla is one that both excites me and has me concerned if it is just going to be more of the same across the board. Fans of the series and Valhalla will likely be happy with new content regardless but as one of those players myself, the novelty is beginning to wear off.

+ Infiltration missions are a welcome addition

+ Scythe and bear mount are fun

– France doesn’t look or feel different enough to England

– Story still stuck treading overly familiar political territory

– Rat swarm idea fails to realise its potential

– More of the same overall

Developed by: Ubisoft

Published by: Ubisoft

Release Date: August 12 2021

Platforms: Xbox One/Series X|S, PlayStation 4/5 and PC

* A digital code of the Ultimate Edition was kindly provided by the Publisher *

– Additional Links –

For more of my reviews, click HERE.

To see this review and other multi-platform content from my associates at BG4G, click HERE.

For this and additional reviews, latest news, trailers and more from the rest of the team at Xbox Gamer Dad and One More Game, click HERE.

To see all the latest news and reviews from the team at Game News Aus, including this review, click HERE.

Don’t forget to also follow Games of DAYNE on: Twitter, Facebook and YouTube!

All digital photography was captured in-game on Xbox Series X by Games of DAYNE

The post Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla – The Siege of Paris Review first appeared on Games of DAYNE.

It’s been six months since the launch of Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla and after a handful of community events and smaller scale content the first story expansion has finally arrived in the form of Wrath of the Druids.

Eivor is requested by the King of Dublin to visit Ireland, home to new main and optional mission chains, more political drama and as per recent trends in the series, mystical and supernatural beings and happenings. With a beautiful new location to explore, secrets to discover, puzzles to solve and things to collect, Valhalla’s first story expansion is meaningful in terms of depth and also introduces some of the coolest enemies in the franchise to date.

My full review of Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla can be found HERE.

The story itself, much like the base game, is mired in political drama and power struggles. Forging alliances, defeating the enemy forces of those who oppose the King and securing trade routes bog down majority of the approximately six hour main story. Lack of mission variety holds the expansion back, treading familiar waters as opposed to introducing new and exciting mission types.

The introduction of the Royal Demands, quests that can be acquired from pigeon coops, are a step back if anything by tasking the player with the likes of clearing outposts, defeating designated targets and stealing items. For players who have already conquered all of Valhalla’s base game this will likely feel too simple and uninspired.

Additional elements to the Royal Demands include providing bonuses for avoiding detection or taking no damage for instance though these aren’t particularly meaningful and in the case of veteran franchise players, little to no actual challenge. Completing these missions helps with the influential gain over Ireland’s four regions which also opens up additional side missions and awards building resources, the latter an incentive that isn’t particularly enjoyable or worthwhile to pursue for players that aren’t completionists. Establishing trade posts that generate resources such as food or clothing that can be used to trade for gear is another new concept that isn’t particularly enjoyable or worthwhile.

Playtime can be increased substantially with the wealth of optional missions, areas to complete and tracking down the interesting radicalised cult of druids known as the Children of Danu. The druids themselves are easily the most visually interesting enemy types to date with their ragged attire, menacing skeletal headwear and supernatural abilities that strike fear into the folks of Ireland.

Their narrative arc, which intertwines with the Children of Danu and the advanced technology tied to the Isu, is by far the most interesting. Exploring their origins and purpose throughout the main story is fascinating and the combat encounters are approximately engaging due to their fearsome appearance and abilities. Their use of hallucinogenic gas affects Eivor’s perception of reality and in turn it appears as though they have magical abilities and can transform in surprising ways, a clever way to incorporate a supernatural element while maintaining a more grounded overall world.

New abilities have been introduced which can be unlocked and upgraded by finding the Tomes of Knowledge books. The new abilities include allowing Eivor to summon an Irish wolfhound, utilise smoke bomb arrows and unleash a powerful headbutt, all of which are fun to experiment with, especially when upgraded.

Ireland is beautifully realised visually, offering rolling hills, lush green plains and ominous forests that feel distinctly different to what England and Norway offer in the base game. With such a stunning backdrop to embark on this extended adventure Wrath of the Druids relies on the visual marvel of its environment and maniacal druids as the most meaningful new content. Unfortunately this expansion is merely more of the same in terms of gameplay and mission variety though Ireland and the druids do a damn good job of making it feel more interesting.

Wrath of the Druids main quest line doesn’t feel interesting outside of the pursuit of the Children of Danu and the newly introduced supporting characters do little to encourage an emotional investment from the player. For fans of Valhalla and Assassin’s Creed overall it’s a worthy voyage though casual players looking for new ideas, mechanics or simply variety will be disappointed.

+ New enemy types and designs

+ Ireland is stunning

+ Children of Danu and druid storylines

– Lack of new mission variety

– Royal Demands and trade posts aren’t enjoyable or challenging

– Overall “more of the same” gameplay

Developed by: Ubisoft

Published by: Ubisoft

Release Date: May 13 2021

Platforms: Xbox One/Series X/S, PlayStation 4/5 and PC

– Additional Links –

For more of my reviews, click HERE.

To see this review and other multi-platform content from my associates at BG4G, click HERE.

For this and additional reviews, latest news, trailers and more from the rest of the team at Xbox Gamer Dad and One More Game, click HERE.

Don’t forget to also follow Games of DAYNE on: Twitter, Facebook and YouTube!

All digital photography was captured in-game on Xbox Series X by Games of DAYNE

The post Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla – Wrath of the Druids Review first appeared on Games of DAYNE.

Ubisoft have returned to adapting Greek mythology in Immortals: Fenyx Rising. Previously explored by the team in 2018’s Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, this latest reimagining of the wildly popular mythology is a breath of fresh air. Blessed with a simplistic art style that feels sleek and fun while guided by a light hearted narrative full of quirky characters, a surprising amount of comic relief and deep combat system, Immortals: Fenyx Rising inescapably borrows elements from Ubisoft’s staple Assassin’s Creed series while introducing enough of its own to feel unique and satisfying. Taking place in the fictional Golden Isles, the stage is set for an epic power struggle between good and evil with Fenyx enlisting the support of the Gods to stop the evil Typhon.

Walking with the Gods

Opening with an ominous monologue from Typhon, having recently escaped imprisonment beneath a mountain at the hands of Zeus, the evil monster has exacted his revenge on the Olympian Gods by severing them from their godly essence and therefore their powers. Zeus meets with Prometheus, shackled in chains atop a snow covered mountain, in an effort to enlist his aid. Prometheus however offers a wager that if a mere mortal can defeat Typhon, Zeus must release him. Prometheus, using his power of foresight, begins to tell the tale of a simple shield bearer and storyteller named Fenyx.

Players are able to customise Fenyx’s appearance from a simple suite containing an assortment of hairstyle, facial hair, eyes, eyebrows – all with colouring options, face markings and finally gender and voice. A selection of skin tones including some very cool red, green and blue options allow for some fun creations. These can all be changed at any point in the game after reaching the Hall of the Gods, at this location only. Having decided upon their appearance, Fenyx’s tale begins with a shipwreck. Fenyx’s entire crew and brother Legyron, as well as all of the Golden Isles human inhabitants, have been turned to stone. After rescuing Hermes, God of thieves and travelers, Fenyx learns of Typhon’s sinister plans to destroy the barrier between the mortal realm and Tartaros, a cosmic prison for the Titans and divine punishment of the wicked.

Tasked with saving humanity, Fenyx embarks on an adventure to free the Olympian Gods Ares and Hephaistos as well as Goddesses Aphrodite and Athena. Trapped in forms that are too spoilery and fun to mention, Fenyx must find and obtain their godly essences and reunite them with it to restore them to their true forms.

Intwerwoven throughout Fenyx’s quest is frequently comedic commentary from Zeus and Prometheus, discussing Fenyx’s current quest while often getting side tracked. This keeps the overall tone of the narrative light despite the grave stakes of Typhon’s malevolent scheme.

Each God has a quest line that awards Fenyx with three blessings, similar to perks, before ultimately obtaining the essence and restoring the Gods at the Hall of the Gods, a sanctum hidden from Typhon’s gaze by magic. These quest lines can be completed in any order and only when all four Gods have been reunited will players be able to access the final section of the map for an epic confrontation with Typhon.

Surprisingly, completing the main quest line can take as little as 10 hours. This can easily be blown out by some of the challenging environmental puzzles and of course exploration and completion of optional side quests. There are dozens of hours of additional things to do that will keep players busy long after the credits have rolled, including a New Game + for players keen to replay the story with their unlocked skills, gear, weapons and upgrades intact, however, a point of no return prior to the final encounter with Typhon eliminates any endgame content as such. Returning to an automatically generated Typhon Save at this point or starting New Game + are the only means to continue playing, with no new content that actually follows the conclusion of the story.

By presenting the story in such a short and simple package, Immortals: Fenyx Rising allows players to complete the main quest line without succumbing to open world fatigue or being overwhelmed by the optional content to complete. The story is tightly paced and full of enough drama, humour, twists and revelations to keep even the most casual gamer satisfied while also allowing those looking for more meat from their experience to be perfectly equipped and prepared to complete the abundance of additional activities.

Gods and monsters

The gameplay in Immortals: Fenyx Rising is undoubtedly going to draw comparisons to Assassin’s Creed, particularly Odyssey and Valhalla, the latest pair of entries. How Immortals manages to separate itself and establish its own continuity as far as engaging gameplay goes starts with its weapons. Fenyx has a sword and an axe, each of which is controlled by single button press and has an assortment for variants to find and choose between.

Each weapon has its own passive perks be it an additional stamina bar or extra damage in air combos for example. The axe is the heavier hitting of the pair and deals more stun damage than the sword. A bow and arrow also allow for ranged combat, also with alternative designs with their own perks to be found and unlocked. This trio of weapons provide a solid foundation for the weapon side of the combat and are fun and accessible to create cool and effective combos with.

Phosphor is a phoenix that acts as a companion to the player, soaring with Fenyx through the skies and constantly circling overhead when getting around on foot. Like everything in Immortals, there are alternate skins for Phosphor to find that also have perks, allowing for even further tailoring of play style preference. The inclusion of this companion is not just fun visually or practically in combat but Phosphor feels like a reminder that despite the odds and stakes at play, Fenyx is never truly alone.

Blessings, as briefly mentioned earlier, are passive perks that are rewarded for completing missions in each God’s quest line, with each God awarding three blessings each. These may be increases to stats or additional stun damage at the end of combos for instance. These, coupled with weapon perks, allow Fenyx to become a force to be reckoned with well before the end of the main quest line.

Godly powers can be unlocked at the Hall of the Gods by spending Charon coins, earned by solving the many Tartaros vault optional missions scattered throughout the Golden Isles. These powers include a powerful dash attack, summoning dozens of spears to rise from the ground launching enemies into the air and ordering Phosphor to attack from above.

As well as the godly powers, skills can also be acquired at the Hall of the Gods and are unlocked by spending Charon coins. Unlocking this arsenal to use alongside the godly powers can result in a very strong and diverse Fenyx to handle even the most overwhelming encounters.

The inclusion of a jump and double jump function add another element to not just traversal but to combat too. This allows for juggling enemies with combos in the air while avoiding melee damage from any other potential enemies. Enemies that use aerial attacks will be able to interrupt these combos but they too can be attacked in the air as well as from the ground. Successful parrying and use of the evade dodge will be essential to surviving combat while taking as little damage as possible. Evading and using the godly powers will consume stamina which will only recharge upon remaining completely still for a brief period of time, requiring a little management to avoid being completely drained at a critical moment.

Balancing all of these different types of attacks, abilities and techniques while considering stamina is simple enough with practice and depending on the difficulty selected to play through the game, in most instances the best offence is a good defence with parrying in particular stunning enemies and opening a window for a devastating counter attack.

The enemy variety is visually creative and combinations of melee and ranged enemies are enough to keep the player alert with each encounter, especially when multiple enemies are attacking at once. From the likes of fearsome giant cyclops that roam around alone or with a posse of allies, large birds that swoop and unleash flurries of feather like ranged attacks to the more common standard enemies or variants with shields to be broken with heavy axe attacks or godly powers, combat is dynamic and enjoyable with minimal feeling of repetition. At random, Wraith events are triggered where powerful enemies are sent to defeat Fenyx. These are simply cleared by defeating all enemies in the area amdist the chaotic firey storm and red hue that accompany the battle.

Plenty of different outfits and helmets can be found by completing side missions or optional challenges throughout the world. These too provide stat boosts or perks which act as an incentive to equip certain gear. All gear, weapons, mounts and even Phosphor can have a certain one selected while being able to customise its appearance to look like another that the player has found, similar to Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey. For example, you can select Helmet A for its perks but choose for it to look like Helmet B, offering a purely cosmetic change without losing the desired perk. This is an excellent feature for allowing the player to have the best of both worlds in regards to perks and appearance without either having to be compromised.

Potions that heal, restore stamina, provide attack and defence buffs can be crafted at various locations throughout the world. The materials required are fruits and vegetation that can be collected out in the wild or found in chests. Pomegranate and blue mushrooms, the ingredients for crafting healing and stamina restoration potions respectively can be consumed instantly for very small increases too.

Exploring the Golden Isles

Traversing the Golden Isles can be done competently on foot thanks to the sprint feature, which consumes stamina, on a mount such as a horse, zebra or even a golden Pegasus for example or by gliding using wings.

The way in which mounts are acquired is not as simple as buying them, instead, they need to be approached in the wild cautiously using stealth. Crouching and slowly moving closer to them will still alarm them, triggering a red exclamation point above their heads. Staying perfectly still temporarily will cause the mount to calm, allowing for the approach to continue and when close enough, an on screen prompt will allow Fenyx to tame it. There are several different mounts that can be tamed and they can be switched between easily within the gear screen.

Wings are perhaps the coolest and most enjoyable feature in the open world elements of Immortals. Initially they can only be used to double jump until progression awards a pair that allow the player to glide. This consumes stamina which can be replenished mid flight using blue mushrooms or a stamina potion to increase the flight time. Unable to adjust the pitch up or down, the wings literally only allow Fenyx to glide. This still covers a lot of ground very quickly and eliminates some rough terrain that may otherwise take a little more time to traverse. There are several alternate wings to be found which, as with everything else gear related, can be switched between instantaneously in the gear screen.

Jumping, gliding, riding and climbing comprise the core traversal mechanics of Immortals and the variety is great for avoiding repetition or feeling like getting from point A to point B is taking too long. As the map is fairly large, accessible traversal is a very welcome inclusion to the core gameplay.

In typical Ubisoft fashion the map is defogged by ascending tall environmental landmarks. In the case of Immortals, these are giant statues that represent Gods. Upon activating these Scout points, Prometheus narrates what Fenyx has uncovered which is cool alternative to the formula players have grown accustomed to throughout the likes of the Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry franchises.

Additionally, the actual points of interest are uncovered by using the Far Sight ability, triggered by clicking the right thumb stick. This reveals a cursor that will glow and vibrate when a point of interest has been hovered over and can be revealed by pulling the right trigger. This is a slightly more cumbersome approach to uncovering the optional activities and points of interest when compared to alternative uses of the feature in Ubisoft’s other titles. While it is unique it may alienate players familiar with Assassin’s Creed for example and also come across as a little tedious for newcomers to Ubisoft’s open world formula that has been used for over a decade.

Elevating Fenyx’s platform game

The Golden Isles are littered with optional objectives and a large number of these revolve around environmental puzzle solving. This may be as simple as eliminating all enemies in the immediate area to unlock a chest that can be opened or shooting arrows through flames to ignite unlit fire pits for instance. More complex puzzles include collecting blue orbs and placing them into specific slots with the solution visible somewhere in the immediate area. In some cases, these blue orbs can only be accessed by solving other environmental puzzles such as pressure plates that require light or heavy objects to be placed on them or maneuvering boulders into slots.

These puzzle solving situations are very prevalent and dominate a lot of the open world secrets, this is evidently clear in the Vaults of Tartaros locations. Large glowing red crystals circle a pit that can be jumped inside. Upon entry, Fenyx is inside a cosmic space that locks progression behind a varying number of puzzles to solve. These include all of the types mentioned above as well as shooting arrows to manipulate wind direction which guides thrown objects for pressure plates or slots as well as Fenyx when gliding to lasers and spike traps to name a few. These optional puzzles vary in difficulty while the story related ones can be quite challenging and take upwards of 20 minutes to complete. They’re fun and different initially but eventually they begin to tire, feeling a little more like work and send any kind of pace to grinding halt. Immortals feels more like a puzzle platformer than an open world action adventure with the sheer amount of these mostly optional sequences, some however are required for story progression.

Other types of optional activities include myth challenges which require players to get to a destination before a timer expires or solve more environmental puzzles within a time limit, rewarding players with Charon coins to spend in the Hall of the Gods.

Beauty in simplicity

Immortals: Fenyx Rising doesn’t strive for photorealism but rather a simplistic art design that is sleek, sharp and incredibly charming. The beauty of this direction is that it compliments the light hearted tones and themes that make Immortals a refreshing open world adventure. The enemy design is creative and inspired, as is the gorgeous Golden Isles that act as the battleground in the divine war between Typhon and the Olympian Gods. Each of the seven unique locations are vibrant and striking, feeling varied enough to make the world seem larger than it really is. This visual shift from Ubisoft’s typical photorealistic approach succeeds in establish the world of Fenyx as something new and exciting despite the familiarities of some of the gameplay elements.

The score is appropriately dramatic and light yet not afraid to get dark and foreboding when necessary and the sound effects are as energetic and alive as the wild and wonderful godly abilities Fenyx can tap into. The voice acting of the supporting characters is excellent, as is Fenyx with the female iteration of the character feeling a step above the competition. Each of the characters feel genuine and convey the appropriate ranges of emotion when called upon.

Fenyx, mortal instrument of the gods

Immortals: Fenyx Rising tells an endearing tale of a mere mortal blessed with glorious purpose that borders on impossible. Rescuing the Gods of Olympia and conquering the monstrous Typhon is an adventure rife with danger, drama and charm that is so excellently presented.

With a tight paced narrative, engaging gameplay that will feel familiar to fans of Ubisoft yet still manages to introduce enough new ideas to stand on its own merits. Immortals: Fenyx Rising feels like the beginning of something wonderful that comfortably appeals to players of all ages.

+ Gorgeous art design

+ Focused narrative direction

+ Fun and deep combat mechanics

+ Interesting characters

– Environmental puzzles dominate the optional activities

– Lack of diversity in optional content

– Forced New Game + or save reload to continue playing, no endgame content

Games of DAYNE Rating

Developed by: Ubisoft

Published by: Ubisoft

Release Date: December 3 2020

Platforms: Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch and PC

– Additional Links –

For more of my reviews, click HERE.

To see this review and other content from my associates at BG4G, click HERE.

The post Immortals: Fenyx Rising Review first appeared on Games of DAYNE.

Forging the legacy of a viking has never been more satisfying in the series’ most photorealistic world to date

The twelfth main entry in the franchise takes place amidst the backdrop of the Viking invasion of Britain in all of its beautifully brutal glory. Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla retreads familiar gameplay territory, taking elements that have worked in recent entries while also reintroducing a more stealth based approach and adopting the most grounded narrative experience since the days of the first few titles.

As a launch title for the new generation of consoles, the series has never looked or felt better than Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla. Embracing the power of the new generation, this experience is perhaps the most visually impressive that a console has seen to date. The extremely large and stunning environment is a treasure trove for exploration, adventure and conquest. With the player able to choose between a male or female Eivor, which can be switched almost instantly at any time, Eivor’s role in this Viking epic has a commendable focus on customisation that falls short significantly in the loot department that is likely to alienate fans of Origins and Odyssey in particular.

Eivor of Ravensthorpe

Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla opens with a harrowing tragedy that leaves Eivor an orphan after their settlement is raided by Kjotve the Cruel. A small handful of Eivor’s Raven Clan escape and Eivor grows up as the adoptive child of King Styrbjorn, growing close with his son Sigurd.

18 years pass and Eivor’s attempt to exact revenge upon Kjotve fails though the retrieval of Eivor’s fathers axe bestowed upon him a vivid vision of Odin. Revealing the vision to local mystic Valka who induces another vision on Eivor of a large wolf and Sigurd with one arm, interpreting this as a prophecy that will eventually see Eivor betray him.

Cursed with this prophetic vision that Eivor refuses to believe will come to pass, Sigurd returns from a two year voyage with a pair of foreigners, Basim and Hytham of the Hidden Ones and gifts Eivor the iconic hidden blade. After finally exacting revenge on Kjotve for the murder of Eivor’s parents, Sigurd’s father King Styrbjorn pledges allegiance to King Harald in support of his plan to unite Norway into one kingdom. Infuriating Sigurd, he, Eivor and a handful of other clan members leave on a voyage to England to found their own kingdom.

Settling in an abandoned village in Mercia which they dub Ravensthorpe, Eivor and Sigurd’s expansion into England begins and the tale that unfolds sees Eivor travel across the country forging alliances, making pledges to every territory to secure support for their clan. Explore and conquer sit at the root of the premise of the narrative and what follows is quite possibly the most grounded story the franchise has told since the likes of the first few Assassin’s Creed titles.

Grounded in political turmoil, swaying allegiances and the looming prospect of Eivor’s vision of betraying Sigurd coming to fruition through escalating tension, conquering England dominates the narrative. The Order of the Ancients that will go on to become the Templar Order play a prominent role in the political power struggle, proving to be adversaries just as deceptive and manipulative as fans of the series have come to expect.

As has become standard with the franchise, the advanced civilisation that pre-dates humanity, the Isu, plays a part in key moments that alter the trajectory of Eivor’s saga in Valhalla with some game changing moments hitting hard at the very end of the story. Surprisingly, the present day storyline featuring Layla who has served as the protagonist of this timeline in both Origins and Odyssey is almost entirely abandoned until the games climax.

After doing such great work re-establishing the significance of the present day timeline since the death of Desmond in Assassin’s Creed III, it is such a shame to see her absence for almost the entire experience. Admittedly, her presence is incredibly powerful in the final moments of Valhalla’s narrative though it’s hard to justify her absence that precedes it after her prominence in the previous pair of entries.

Brutal beauty

Following on with the deeper combat as seen in Origins and Odyssey as opposed to the earlier entries in the franchise, further refinement has made the combat the most satisfying the series has ever seen. Mastery of parrying and evasion provides a more strategic approach than simply hacking and slashing. Eivor is able to equip a weapon in each hand including the likes of swords, hammers and axes. Shields can also be equipped which are just as useful offensively as defensively.

Some weapons require 2 hands though a skill can be acquired to allow dual wielding of 2 handed weapons for ultimate devastation. Unfortunately, there are not many weapons available and only a handful can actually be purchased. Most weapons are found throughout the world and a player that focuses on story with minimal exploration is likely going to only have less than a dozen before they start exploring heavily as was my experience.

A pair of legendary weapons are hidden in the world that require a series of tasks, collectibles or pre-requisites to obtain. These are Thor’s Mjolnir hammer and King Arthur’s Excalibur sword. These are incredibly powerful and very fun to use, a great pair of weapons that fit within the realm of the mythology tied to the land and the era of Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla.

Most enemies have a stun meter above their health bar which when depleted leaves them open for an execution finisher. Depending on the weapons the player and the enemy possesses, these are varied and oh so glorious. Ripping an enemies spear from their hands and impaling them with it, chocking them with their maces or ripping their heads off is incredibly satisfying. Known for their brutal and merciless combat, the violence of the Vikings is well represented in Eivor’s combat prowess.

Enemy soldiers of the varying factions are the only threats to Eivor as the wildlife can be just as lethal. Bears, mountain cats and ferocious boars are just a few examples that are interested in eviscerating Eivor on sight. Mythological beasts and Alpha beasts are also tucked away waiting to be found that will test the player’s abilities unlike any other. These beast boss battle type encounters are challenging, fun and rewarding.

Health does not regenerate and instead relies upon the consumption of berries from the wilderness or food in camps. Upon consumption of certain amounts of food, the excess contributes to Rations which can be stored and used to replenish health when it is low. The amount of Rations that can be stored can be increased through customisation.

YOUR Eivor

Customisation for Eivor is an improvement from Odyssey as far as being able to customise hair style and colour, and facial hair for male Eivor, though these are fairly restricted to a small assortment. The inclusion of tattoos that can be placed on the face, chest, back and each arm is cool and certainly allows players to have their Eivor look, to a degree, how they want.

Gear has taken a significant backseat when compared to Odyssey. No longer will the player constantly find new gear to equip in the form of helmets, boots, gloves, cloaks and shirts for example. Instead, somewhere in the neighbourhood of two dozen sets are available. Wearing more pieces of the same set applies boosts to various stats that can be worthwhile.

This approach to the gear as loot means a player has very little variety of they are just focusing on story, thus encouraging exploration with the reward of customisation options. Players like myself that like to absorb the story first before really digging into the world will have an extremely low amount of gear to switch between before committing to exploration.

Gear can be enhanced in rank at Ravensthorpe and upgraded as far as stats are concerned in the inventory using resources found in the environment. As with weapons, gear can also have Runes applied. Runes can be found, collected from killed enemies or bought from merchants and these offer a large variety of stat boosts to the player such as health, increases heavy damage or assassination damage to name a few. Enhancing the rank of the gear in Ravensthorpe is required to increase the number of Runes that can be applied, with a maximum of three slots per item.

Ravensthorpe itself, which serves as the main hub of the game world, can be upgraded by building different shops or huts. These are built using supplies found in the environment or by raiding outposts. Buying the tattoo shop for example allows the player to customise Eivor’s tattoos and hair, buying the fishing hut gives players access to a fishing rod that can be used to fish and majority of the other building types award increases to the feast buff. The feast can be triggered in Ravensthorpe by ringing a bell, at the end of the feast a buff is applied that increases various stats such as attack and health for a duration.

Eivor’s raven Synin can have alternates skins purchased including a pigeon that can be equipped from the Stables and Aviary at Ravensthorpe when it has been constructed.

The horse too has a variety of skins and Valhalla’s online store allows for Haiti, a large white wolf to be purchased as a microtransaction, alternatively available in the more expensive versions of the game. The customisation of these animals, particularly being able to use a different species, is fun and allows for a more personalised approach to the pair of animals that Eivor will spend a significant amount of time with.

Mastering the environment

Eivor has a beautiful world to explore and most of it is going to require platforming and environmental puzzle solving to fully experience. Eivor’s raven Synin can be controlled to take a look at the environment from up high though its abilities are significantly less useful than the previous two entries.

Synin’s ability to hone in on mission objectives is ridiculously underpowered when reflecting back on Odyssey. No longer can the player locate their objective from up high but instead a generous green radius is presented that hides the objective inside. This requires a boots on the ground exploration type that only feels like a negative in the context of the perhaps overpowered ability of the bird in Odyssey or even Origins.

Fast travel between unlocked synchronisation points is very fast, especially on an Xbox Series X when compared to an Xbox One X. This alleviates the burden of the never ending backtracking required, with it never feeling intrusive or time consuming. Unlocking synchronisation points as they are come across is highly recommended to increase the efficiency of exploration and reduce the amount of riding time. Though with such an immersive world to explore, there is certainly nothing wrong with soaking it all in on horseback.

Got skills?

An interesting alternative to the skill tree found in Odyssey is present in Valhalla. Instead of being able to see future skills and base your decision on which skills to pursue, Valhalla has the rather large skill tree shrouded in smoke. Skill points earned through leveling up can be spent on stat boosts such as increased melee attack damage, health, or fire resistance for instance.

Skills can only be unlocked if the one prior to it has been unlocked and each branch contains a singular passive ability or perk such as the ability to dual wield two handed items or rapid fire certain bows. Once a certain point of the skill branch has been unlocked, the first node of an attached branch will open up, clearing that branch of its smoke and revealing the skills available.

This approach makes it near impossible for players to customise their Eivor to their liking without significant progression, with some amazing and useful abilities that may go unfound until deep into the endgame. Luckily, individual or all skill points can be reset with no in-game cost that allows for some exploration of the skill tree before committing to a particular path.

The lack of transparency hurts early players though once the story is complete and thorough exploration is being taken to complete the insane amount of optional tasks, it becomes much easier to at least have each branch revealed and the player can slowly chip away at which one will lead to an ability they desire.

More than a story

Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla offers a lot more than the main quest line. Throughout the main story and after there are a large number of optional side missions to keep the player busy. Presented in a formula much different to previous titles in the series, these side missions are typically single objectives and can be completed very quickly. Gone are the multi-objective quest lines and instead presented as less intrusive and distracting.

Majority of the available side missions are encountered as World Events. These are incredibly brief and certainly don’t lack in variety. Escort missions, brawls, hunts and fetch quests are present but so too are missions that see a couple insist Eivor to burn everything in their hunt in exchange for a key to a loot chest or drinking a suspicious brew to communicate with a pig. The weird and wacky nature of a number of these World Events bring levity and humour to a rather stern narrative that offer a nice change of pace amid the chaos.

The world map in Valhalla is full of Synchronisation points that when synchronised reveal over 800 icons that indicate things to do. Majority of these are glowing orbs that are either white, blue or yellow. White orbs are Artifacts, various collectibles that can be found and traded, used to find hidden treasure or required to solve puzzles in exchange for legendary rewards such as King Arthur’s Excalibur sword.

Yellow orbs are Wealth items which contain abilities, gear, weapons or resources and supplies used to upgrade gear or Ravensthorpe.

Blue orbs are defined as Mysteries and consist of World Event side missions, Cairns that require rocks to be stacked to certain heights, ritual offerings and standing stone puzzles where the likes of the iconic Stonehenge must be viewed at a particular angle to align symbols. Other special missions such as Alpha beast encounters or Animus Anomalies for instance, the latter bringing Layla from the present day into the world to solve platforming puzzles the reward the player with extremely brief glimpses into the Isu timeline.

Completing all of these Animus Anomalies provides an unbelievably epic hidden video that is an absolute treat for fans of the deeper mythos of Assassin’s Creed. I’ve just mentioned a few but there are so many unique types of encounters to discover with deep exploration.

Made to raid

Replacing the large scale Conquest Battles from Odyssey are Assaults. These require the player to breach gates, lower drawbridges and defeat bosses. These are a lot of fun, especially with the background showing Eivor’s reinforcements trying to knock down gates with battering rams that occasionally need protected and watching both sides brutally chop each other down. It’s chaos, it’s fun and their length is fair to prevent them overstaying their welcome.

Outside of Assaults, any location can be raided as Eivor’s clan can be summoned by the radial wheel on the D-Pad to provide assistance. Raids can also be initiated from the longboat by ramming it onto the shore with a button prompt. Aside from story missions and getting from point A to B, this is about the only use of the longboat as the naval combat has been removed. The longboat can also be summoned when near water with the radial wheel too and it can be reasonably customised in Ravensthorpe.

A marvel of exploration

There is an absolute abundance of things to do across the vast world that encourages exploration with its clever placing of optional objectives to lure players to every corner and every crevice. Several of the Wealth and Artifacts items are well hidden and require puzzle solving and environmental traversal to uncover, completionists will be looking in the neighbourhood of 100 hours to tick off everything on the world map that covers England, Norway, Vinland as well as the majestic mythological realms of Asgard and Jotunheim.

These locations are all incredibly stunning and overall Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla easily contains the most striking environmental design experienced on a console to date. The realism of the lighting and breathtaking sunsets and sunrises are jaw droppingly beautiful and the water is as serene and authentic as I have ever experienced. The character models themselves leave a little to be desired outside of the main characters and some suspicious lip syncing in particular hold the characters back from achieving a more genuine feel.

The music is beautifully appropriate featuring a score that knows its place with excellently dramatic beats while also containing more solemn, and haunting melodies when called upon. It’s masterfully woven into the cinematics in particular and the world never feels too quiet or as though it’s at odds with the story or scenery.

Is the latest Assassin’s Creed the best?

There’s no doubt going to be a lot of opinions among the community as to where Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla ranks when compared to the remainder of the series. With a narrative that is for the most part the most grounded since the first adventures of Altair and Ezio, the slower pace and political dominance may alienate players looking for a story as strong as Odyssey or Black Flag for instance. The puzzling loot situation is also a step back from the excellent variety found in the last few entries.

Aside from that, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla has perhaps the most immersive world in the series, stunningly brought to life on the new generation of consoles in particular. Coupled with the the deepest and most engaging combat gameplay in the series to date and epic Isu and present day timeline revelations that are unfortunately held back until the very end, Valhalla gets a lot right.

Unfortunately the steps backward may hold it back from being the greatest entry into the series overall but for an action adventure RPG epic, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla is a hell of a way to launch into the new generation. The series still has a lot left in the tank after this trilogy of reinvigorated mythology and this Norse adventure will easily satisfy fans of Assassin’s Creed and casual players alike.

+ Incredible environmental visuals

+ Overwhelming amount of things to do outside of story

+ Cool customisation of Eivor, including instant gender switching

+ Norse mythology well executed, especially Asgard and Jotunheim

– Story is very slow and political

– Limited gear and weapon options

– Raven is far less effective than Odyssey

Games of DAYNE Rating

* A review code was provided by Ubisoft for the purpose of this review courtesy of BG4G. *

– Additional links –

For more of my reviews, click HERE.

To see this review and other content from my associates at BG4G, click HERE.

The post Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla Review first appeared on Games of DAYNE.

Hacking your way through London as anybody and everybody is a fun and unique experience at the expense of the story.

Watch Dogs: Legion is the third entry into the open world hackers paradise franchise. Control of the environment and the vehicles and people that populate it has never been more available than this instalment. Watch Dogs: Legion doesn’t put the player in the role of a single protagonist, instead anyone and everyone is able to be recruited to join hacker group DedSec in their mission to clear their name and reclaim a futuristic, dystopian London.

With a city full of people to recruit, regardless of whether they support or despise DedSec, the unique approach adopted by Watch Dogs: Legion allows players to build a team comprised of the likes of professional hitmen, adult entertainers, judges, vice presidents, football hooligans and almost any other profession imaginable. Despite this one of a kind recruitment process, this key feature quickly loses its novelty and in the process the story suffers significantly.

A faceless story

Watch Dogs: Legion opens with a DedSec operative’s desperate attempt to prevent a bomb from destroying a parliament building. Unknown to DedSec, there are more bombs and simultaneous targets. Managing to save only one, DedSec are framed by the emerging Zero Day hacker group, turning London against DedSec alongside the rise of private militia Albion as the city’s peacekeepers. After choosing from a handful of randomised characters, each with their own profession and unique randomly generated background, the player is recruited by the DedSec to take to London and build a resistance to reclaim the illustrious city and prove DedSec’s innocence.

The premise is simply that. Recruit anyone at all, take down Zero Day, save London. The biggest selling point in Watch Dogs: Legion succeeds in the gameplay department but cripples the story, stripping away any attachment to the protagonist and their personal story. By allowing any inhabitant of London to be recruited, these characters are present in the cinematics spitting the same generic dialogue that any other character would, only with a unique appearance and accent to differentiate. This generic characterisation means there is no playable protagonist as such that drives the narrative forward but rather a collective yet disconnected band of insurgents that simply engage with a handful of core characters at the heart of DedSec’s operations. Sabine is DedSec’s fearless leader and she alongside Bagley, an artificial intelligence that communicates directly with DedSec and the player’s operatives, feel more like the protagonist than the player’s actual characters are able to achieve. This faceless story makes the player feel more like just another disposable spoke in the wheel instead of a perspective that drives the story forward.

It’s a shame that a story that already strips away the concept of a hero trying to thwart an evil scheme has an extremely predictable outcome at the end of it’s surprisingly short 8-10 hour story. Bringing down key figures from Albion and Clan Kelley, a criminal syndicate operating in the deepest and darkest of activities such as human trafficking and organ selling, DedSec come face to face with the leader of Zero Day before engaging in an anti-climactic finale. While the story of London’s power struggle is interesting in its concept, the dialogue and execution underwhelms. With a significant portion of the story being relayed to the player via earpiece, the lacking face to face encounters between the player and their fellow DedSec supporting characters creates such a disconnect between the player and any sense of emotional attachment to the rebellion they are fighting for. The espionage, infiltration and betrayal would have a greater sense of urgency if the player’s character mattered. Both Watch Dogs titles prior to Legion had a centralised focus on a singular protagonist that gave their actions and motivations weight, giving them a reason to have a mask to hide behind as opposed to wearing a mask because it looks cool, not to conceal the identity of a character that doesn’t matter.

Hackerman

With a futuristic London serving as the playground for the player to explore and control, the non-linear approach to the variety of missions lends to allowing players to tackle the story and the open-world at their own pace. The main missions push the story forward but these aren’t the only things the player can occupy themselves with. A significant portion of Legion’s mission variety comes from the ability to recruit any character to join DedSec. The recruitment process is incredibly simple, which is good in terms of accessibility and the instant gratification todays society seems to demand from video games but bad for its lack of complexity for players who want a little more mileage from the overall experience.

Any character wandering the open world can be scanned, providing a face, name, profession, brief one sentence backstory/fun fact and perks and skills this potential operative brings to the table.

Some characters have unique weapons, personal vehicles and the likes of faction based perks such as the ability to arrest citizens or blend in by wearing their uniforms. This diversity brings a fun assortment of skills that can come in handy for various scenarios. Upon finding a character that seems useful or simply fun to experiment with they can either be added to the Team tab of the menu for future recruitment or in most cases the recruitment can commence immediately with a single button press. Recruitment missions are very brief multi-objective missions that can typically be completed in as little as 5-10 minutes. These objectives are simple and nearly impossible to mess up with the exception of rescue missions where the target, usually a friend of the character the player is trying to recruit, is inadvertently killed. A successful mission means the operative joins the DedSec resistance, becoming playable and can be switched to any time as long as the player is not in a restricted area or being pursued.

Failing the recruitment mission doesn’t close it off entirely, it just becomes more complicated. Some characters have a soured opinion of DedSec and require a slightly different recruitment process, similar to that of failed recruitment missions. By purchasing the Deep Profiler upgrade, these harder to crack potential recruits have a variety of alternative sub-missions to choose from and complete which will then enable, or re-enable, their recruitment mission. These Deep Profiler missions that can be selected vary in the task and may be time of day specific, the latter of which does not apply to all options. Regardless of how the operative is recruited, once they are, they and all of their tools and perks become available, adding to the Team in meaningful ways in regards to combat, traversal or access to places for example. Some operatives are automatically recruited with story progression. A pool of operatives with diverse professions and perks allow the player to have options for how to tackle any situation.

Should one of the operatives be downed in combat, they will be unusable for one hour while they recover in hospital. Having a Doctor or Paramedic recruited will reduce this time by 50%. Similar benefits are applied to having a member of Albion recruited as this will reduce the arrest time if defeated by one of their faction. These perks significantly impact the effectiveness of a team.

At the very start of a new game the player is able to choose whether they want to play in Permadeath mode. This means that once every one of the player’s operatives has been defeated, the game will end and a brand new playthrough will be required. This puts a far heavier focus on who should be recruited to the team than playing the default mode as a reduced recovery time for an operative could be the deciding factor on whether the player is able to survive this harsh mode.

Teched to the nines

The world of Watch Dogs is unashamedly driven by one thing. Technology. In this series, technology is more intrusive, more controlling and more powerful than we can comprehend. Power is dictated by the tech at hacker’s disposal, how it can be controlled and manipulated to push an agenda, typically political. In Watch Dogs, this “power” is literally in the hands of any character controlled by the player via their phone. Controlling cars, drones, security gates and road barriers give enough of an idea to see how the environment can be manipulated in favour of the player.

Tech Points are littered throughout London, within all of it’s regions referred to as Burroughs. These Tech Points are used to upgrade equipable gadgets and weapons as well as upgrades that allow further control and manipulation of enemy weapons and drones for instance. These can all be upgraded 3 times, with each upgrade increasing the effectiveness or performance. There are more Tech Points in the world than are required to fully upgrade all of the tech. The highlight of these upgrades is that they are available for your entire team to have access to, they are not locked to individual operatives.

Playing the part

The core gameplay in Watch Dogs: Legion is similar to the prior instalments. Parkour plays a prominent part in environmental traversal but a very fun and useful new feature is the ability to hijack cargo drones, large enough to climb atop and fly to reach high access points or bypassing gates etc. These can be found in certain areas or summoned from drone pads but the Construction Worker profession is able to summon one of these which makes them a very valuable asset to the team.

There are plenty of pipes and ladders to climb which typically mean there is going to be at least one locked door to get through. Gaining access to these areas either requires a an access key to be downloaded, either carried by an enemy or on a table. These can be hacked remotely by using drones or security cameras to get a clear and close line of sight and requires being in close proximity for the download to occur which only takes a few seconds.

Some areas can only be accessed by the newly introduced spiderbots. These can be summoned as an equippable gadget or by hacking a white box found in some areas. Able to jump and navigate vents, these are very useful and able to get into tight areas high and low.

Enemy weapons can be jammed and enemies can be disrupted, providing ample time to get in close to unleash melee attacks and executions. Melee combat allows for strikes, grabs to break blocks and dodging, allowing for a follow up attack to break their guard. Once taking enough damage the enemy will fall to their knee and a melee takedown becomes available. Depending on the operative’s background and skill set, their melee combat style varies. Some rely on kicks while others can be heavy hitting brawlers. This variety lends towards a more unique feel for the different operatives in regards to their profession and backgrounds.

Gun combat is typically non-lethal and shock based by default, with 4 purchaseable guns available. Certain characters that can be recruited have their own unique weapons such as actual assault rifles, pistols and shotguns. Emphasising again the importance of recruitment as all of this is visible when a potential recruit is initially scanned.

Further personalisation comes in the form of rather extensive customisation. The in-game currency earned from completing missions or hacking ATMs for instance is called ETO and can be spent at a variety of clothing vendors. A very diverse offering of jackets, shirts, pants, backpacks and masks for example can be bought. Each vendor specialises in certain styles with some favouring slicky and formal attires such as suits while others are more chaotic and anarchy inspired, typically with variants of the union jack flag. There are so many different styles to mix and match to create a team full of varied or uniformed operatives.

The masks are fun, donned by the operatives when combat is engaged. These can be bought or found in the environment and are crazy, outlandish and wild in the best of ways. A knights helmet, a lion head and skeletons with metallic linings are just a handful of examples of the fun options available to players.

Vehicles are available for the player to cross the city with cars, trucks, buses and motorcycles for instance for the player to steal. A large number of cars are self-driving meaning no driver needs to be removed and therefore no unwanted attention from Albion will be attracted. These vehicles all handle pretty well and are pretty quick, with some able to travel at great speeds. A large offering of fast travel points make it easy for the player to get anywhere throughout the games 8 Burroughs.

Burroughs can be made defiant by completing a small handful of missions that reinforce DedSec’s public image and its rebellion against Albion, Clan Kelley and Zero Day. These missions are as simple as hacking consoles to replace Albion propaganda with DedSec imagery or taking down key figures in these enemy factions. Having a Burrough become defiant also highlights all Tech Points in the area, making it worthwhile for players looking to capitalise on the generous upgrade tree these Points unlock.

London under siege

The environmental detail is pretty stunning with Ubisoft’s dystopian, futuristic London being arguably the truest representation of the city in any video game. With faithful recreations of iconic landmarks, all under the influence of a tech influenced filter, the city looks and feels alive, full of danger and adventure. The character models are solid, with each character moving pretty authentically and behaving realistic when danger and conflict are nearby.

The sound effects and score is appropriately upbeat and energetic, providing an authentic fell to a world overrun by the most powerful and corruptible technology. Watch Dogs looks, sounds, feels and plays like a hackers paradise and Legion’s London backdrop is a perfect playground for players to experiment with the unique gameplay on offer.

Is London worth saving?

Ubisoft have done an incredible job breathing life into a phenomenally realised alternate London. The unique approach to the playable characters offer a lot of fun and variety, rife for experimentation and customisation. The lack of a singular protagonist prevents genuine attachment or investment in their role in the story, which overall hurts the narrative despite its interesting premise.

With fun and satisfying gameplay that offers detailed personalisation for each and every recruit, Watch Dogs: Legion easily offers 25+ hours of missions, main and optional, to keep the player engaged and exploring. With random missions becoming available throughout exploration, there is plenty to do and with the inclusion of co-operative and competitive multiplayer modes arriving soon, Watch Dogs: Legion has some staying power that should be a lot of fun with friends.

+ Fun gameplay

+ Interesting recruit anyone mechanic

+ Deep customisation

+ Mission variety

– Story suffers with no playbale protagonist in the traditional sense

Games of DAYNE Rating

Developed by: Ubisoft

Published by: Ubisoft

Release Date: October 29 2020

Platforms: Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC

The post Watch Dogs: Legion Review first appeared on Games of DAYNE.

Yet another free-to-play Battle Royale title enters the arena but does this futuristic Contender get it right? 

The Battle Royale genre seems to have no end in sight. The popular last man standing game mode has been adapted by countless developers now to compete against the heaviest of hitters such as Fortnite and Apex Legends. Ubisoft have entered this arena with Hyper Scape, a free-to-play, fast paced and futuristic take on the genre. The only way to win is to be the last man standing in a war against up to 99 other players in either Solo or Squads, or alternatively, to capture a crown in the final Sector. With fun and crazy rechargeable abilities called Hacks and a diverse assortment of weapons to get the job done, Hyper Scape certainly feels different for better or worse. 

The player has the choice of one of eight pretty generic avatars, though they can change between them for no particular reason outside of cosmetic gratification. Every player that enters the arena is referred to as a Contender and up to 100 total Contenders comprise the match, not unlike other entries in the genre. Contenders drop into the decently sized map via a pod that bursts open and thrusts the player into a rapid free fall ahead of landing. No matter where on the map the landing takes place, each Sector feels generically similar. Some of the architecture is stunning aesthetically but the interiors don’t feel different enough to particularly stand out or distinguish themselves from others. The visual presentation of Hyper Scape is a very clean, Uber-modern approach that removes the distinction of finer gritty details that may help represent the state this world is in. It’s too clean and too polished, almost as though it is uninhabited.  

Upon landing, outside of surviving as long as possible amongst the chaotic frenzy of such a large number of enemies in a constantly shrinking map, it’s time to loot. There are an array of unique weapons such as shotguns, chain guns, various pistols, rocket and grenade launchers to name a few. By adopting a more futuristic style the weapons are able to be a little more creative stylistically. They all look cool and there are more than enough to experiment with, carrying two at any one time and picking up new ones as they are discovered via exploration or defeating rival Contenders. 

The second and perhaps most unique asset to the combat is the inclusion of abilities referred to as Hacks. These can provide either offensive, defensive or movement enhancing capabilities such as a deplorable wall to hide behind, homing mines, temporary invisibility, teleportation, momentary invulnerability and shock wave pulse to name just a few. One of the more creative, weird and amusing Hacks though is the ability to become encased in a sphere that can take a ridiculous amount of damage before being destroyed. Bouncing on Contenders will deal damage too and the ability to leap extremely high makes it a very useful Hack to escape sticky situations. Two can be equipped and as with weapons they can be replaced at any time. Once used, a Hack requires a brief cool down before it can be used again.  

This is both advantageous and dangerous. By not making Hacks single use abilities that need to be constantly scouted, the right build can make players borderline invincible. Coupled with the regenerating health system if the player can find a quiet place to allow it to kick in, it can be extremely frustrating. While it’s enjoyable when using these features yourself, depleting an enemy Contenders health bar to just a sliver and losing line of sight can see your next encounter just moments later have them back to full health. It’s a balancing issue that is sure to infuriate when on the receiving end more than it will satisfy when used first hand. 

For both weapons and Hacks, picking up the same one of either will create a fusion that makes it more powerful or it’s effect last longer and the more it is fused, the stronger it becomes. This makes the process of finding repetitive loot regarding instead of a hindrance, rewarding the Contender for their loyalty or favouritism of their load-out with greater power.  

Sprinting, sliding and double jumping across the very vertical environment rounds out the gameplay. The core mechanics at play are technically sound and don’t feel overly ridiculous or slow considering the style that has been set in place. Glowing yellow launch pads catapult the player into the air, very useful in quick escapes or avoiding that fatal shot. 

At regular intervals the playable area moves and Contenders too must ensure they are within it before the Sectors collapse. The visualisation of this clever as it shows the environment become covered in dark fragments, appearing like an inaccessible area in Ubisoft’s Assassins Creed franchise where health will deplete until death in Solos or downed in Squads. Being downed while playing Squads is not the end however, as the player is transformed into an Echo. Able to move around the world freely but without the means to inflict damage, Echoes will exist until they are revived or the squad is wiped. When an ally kills an enemy a Restore Point appears in the ground which when activated will initiate a Revive. 

There are dozens of in-game challenges that award players stars, as does the completion of matches and performance in them. These starts contribute to a Tier progression bar, leveling up unlocks access to new weapons, Contender skins, pod skins and more. An optional Battle Pass is also available for those interested in getting the most out of their content which provides significantly more of these rewards. 

As mentioned earlier, the visuals are neat and clean but at the cost of a gritty, realistic world that feels lived in. The animations are smooth and the Hacks in particular look great. The sound design is very clean and fitting for the overall presentation. 

Hyper Scape is certainly unique and for all of the things it gets right it manages to have a counterweight in the form of features such as health regeneration and Hack recharges. While it’s certainly satisfying to have these features personally it causes great frustration when enemy Contenders can do it too. It’s a balancing act that makes it more accessible but at the cost of a more level playing field. Skill, and in the case of Squad games communication, will be critical in overcoming regenerating enemies and familiarity with the different Hacks will be just as essential in outwitting the opponents. The overall experience is likely to be divisive. It’s going to be either satisfying or frustrating based almost entirely on interpretation of the regeneration functions. 

Final Verdict: 

+ Fun Hacks 

+ Fast paced action  

+ Fusion of Hacks and weapons rewards loadout preferences  

– The districts don’t feel visually distinct 

– Health and Hack regeneration  

Games of DAYNE Rating

Developed by: Ubisoft 

Published by: Ubisoft 

Release Date: August 11 2020 

Platforms: Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC 

Hyper Scape is a free-to-play title.

The post Hyper Scape Review first appeared on Games of DAYNE.