It’s funny that two of my favorite games from last year, both from Ubisoft , have taken such an opposite path when it comes to reusing their ideas. The strategies of Immortals Fenyx Rising and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla seem from different companies.
The first, with everything against it but with the enthusiasm of those who believe they have everything assured, has opted for the Martians and experimentation that, with better or worse results, have given way to three additional highly noteworthy chapters. For its part, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla appears to have gripped the catenaccio like a burning nail.
Ubisoft playing it safe
There is nothing to create a bad feeling in Wrath of the Druids . It’s a short story with new characters, a new setting, and a handful of new mechanics that serve to break a bit from the routine of the main campaign.
A main adventure capable of lasting for a day, and with the possibility of adding a couple more if we go in search of all the collectibles and secondary missions that are hidden in Ireland . Very good, really, just what you would expect if you wanted the main story to go on for a handful of more hours.
I said, catenaccio. Catenaccio and amarrategui pure and simple. A bus in front of the goal capable of preventing any hint of originality, thus preventing the saga from leaving the marked lines. An incomprehensible decision – coming precisely from secondary branches of history capable of transporting us to dream worlds – that plays it just right with an idea that, on the other hand, pointed out many, many ways.
On this occasion the road from Eivor takes us to Dublin , where one of his lifelong cousins wants to be king of his swamp by helping another king of Ireland . Convince me of these helping those and kill these others who are not for the work. What has been an encore of the concert that you had already experienced a few months ago in England.
The most magical Ireland
The adventure takes us to a landscape that, emblematic places aside -with the Giant’s Causeway included-, is very similar to the English countryside of hills and rivers that you came to travel from end to end, with which you will hardly be able to take away that feeling of continuity.
The only notable change seems to offer a twist in the tone that the game has us used to in its more ” realistic ” side. Far from taking us to another world where monsters have a place, a series of druids that swarm there play with poisons and hallucinations capable of turning a normal fight into a fight against a lycanthrope.
The monsters that you could come across in The Witcher 3, suddenly have a place in Assassin’s Creed as well with an excuse as good as LSD of yesteryear, simmered with the best mushrooms in the place by people with deer antlers on their heads.
I buy it to you. I buy it from you with a tremendous desire. But the truth is that you have more than enough fingers to count the times the idea is taken advantage of and, far from adding depth and surprises, it is a mere appetizer for a main dish loaded with the classic regicides that by now you probably have more than choked.
A twist on the idea of settlements
The new trading post system didn’t look bad either, at least during those early stages where the excitement of the Wrath of the Druids trailer still lingers. The idea here is that, with your settlement more than improved, the materials you get from raiding fortifications in Irish lands can be used to create small commercial shelters.
Spread over the length and width of a map much smaller than I expected – make no mistake, despite this it is still huge – the more trading posts, the more resources will be generated in your merchant chest. Pieces that, in the form of fabrics, books or jewelery, you can exchange for improvements for the city of Dublin and special prizes from other parts of the world.
In addition, each new trading post will open the doors to small assault and looting missions in which, by meeting special requirements such as not being detected or ending only with the selected objectives, you will be able to get many more prizes. An excuse to continue enjoying its fantastic combat system while trying out new weapons like the sickle, getting new armor, and unlocking more special abilities.
The Wrath of the Druids from Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is the typical chewing gum that you keep stretching out despite having already lost much of its flavor but, what the heck, it can still be used for a few more hours. It is impossible that you leave the main adventure with a smile and you are going to lose it here, things as they are, but I will not deny that there is a desire to see much more ambition and enthusiasm in your next adventure: The Siege of Paris .
