Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Wrath of the Druids
But promises are mistakes. Instead of a mysterious adventure that could (and should) have taken place, the expansion serves an uninteresting cotton ball. It seems as if the developers themselves are bored with the creation. The result is lazy, without an idea, without inspiration, without a single scene that you would have a chance to remember for more than three hours, without trying to make any fresh special. Wrath of the Druids exists only out of duty and is saved from an even worse rating only by the graphic beauty and the traditionally well-chosen soundtrack.
Eivor, the shadow king
The very first problem is the misjudged scale of the story. It takes about seven hours to get through the DLC storyline, but much of it is traveling around Ireland, fighting and stealth. The narration itself may have an hour, and who else knows if.
This is simply not a big enough space to present an ensemble of new characters, to show why players should care about them. There is no time left for their destinies to unfold and intersect, and finally complete the narrative with a sufficiently graduated dot. Even so, the play attempts to do so, and as a result it sounds about as believable as a random pub story that can be heard sometime around four in the morning in a markedly subdued state for both the speaker and the listeners.
Eivora, a foreigner in an Irish country, for example, is heard by kings for half an hour for an unknown reason. And without debate. Example: An enraged young ruler walks through the hall and says, “I will kill them all! I’ll execute a bloody eagle! We repaint everything in their regions, their cities! Treacherous snakes, death will be deliverance compared to what … “Eivor:” Look, brake, you are exaggerating. “
The narration at the top of the fall rushes as fast as possible, and eventually noises until lost. Oh yeah, after all, it doesn’t always have to be the fate of entire countries, a more intimate format would have been much more appropriate for a small, more personal plot! But unfortunately.
By the way, if you’d like to argue that Eivor’s opinion is probably taken into account because of his English success, it wouldn’t fit too well, because the DLC has a recommended power level of 55, which means you can look to Ireland relatively soon after the game – at a time when no one even knew Eivor in England.
And where are the druids?
Anyone who, like me, hoped to explore pagan folklore, experience the mysterious realm of natural religion and Irish mythology on their own video game can get a taste. The game barely rubs off the Irish mythos through the existence of Lia Fáil, the stone of destiny, but the desire for any deeper probe remains unfulfilled.
True, we have less authentic sources at our disposal than in the case of Nordic legends, which would mean that the creators would have to think a lot, but Wrath of the Druids gives the impression that no one just wanted to.
Druids? Only in the form of Children of Dan, a hidden order whose members you have to reveal one by one with the help of various scattered clues. Yes, that’s right, again. Which is such a terribly deadly, unimaginative solution that when the game unwrapped a familiar web of hidden faces at me, I rolled my eyes so that they didn’t turn around.
Apart from a few pieces of scenes, you will meet the natural cult only by chance, because here and there you can come across enemy groups of druids that tour the landscape. On the road. In clumps. Just like regular armed knichts somewhere in Wessex. Which is extremely tragicomic.
Dublin to nothing
The expansion contains a new (except for the story introduction, thank God, purely optional) mechanics – occupying and improving trading stations and subsequent trade. However, there is no need to get excited, it is a completely primitive and, above all, unnecessary addition.
The acquired stations produce four raw materials, which are automatically stored in your Dublin chest. From there, you can pick them up, submit them three steps away, and thus fulfill the “order”. For it, you get a few game ingredients, sometimes a piece of equipment and increased influence in Dublin.
In parallel with your home settlement, you can improve the city to the fifth level in this way, but it is not clear to me who would do it and why. You returned to Ravensthorpe regularly over the course of tens of hours, so the growing and thriving home helped immerse yourself in the atmosphere. On the other hand, you go to Dublin once, maybe twice. The whole mechanics stand apart from the rest of the game, grafted, added simply so that someone can write on the store’s website that they are there.
Ireland
It is a great pity that no one bothered to create interesting content, because the world deserves it. It’s incredibly beautiful again. True, the creators had it relatively easy here, there was no need to invent much. It was enough to process Ireland as it really looks, because it is a beautiful country.
Anyone who has ever visited there may have experienced what it is like to climb to the top somewhere in Connemara, then look around the landscape and for a narcotic moment you are not sure if you happen to be deceived by your eyes, because such unreal greenery can’t really exist. Oceans bow in a rich emerald all around and feel like from another world.
And that’s exactly what worked in the game. Even if, for example, a bitter folk song sung in Irish Gaelic is dropped into your headphones, the frost on your back is absolutely guaranteed. What’s the point, he just does this in Ubisoft.
But the rest already smells of wasted potential. Wrath of the Druids is a seven-hour dose of absolutely classic gameplay without sparkle. With a bad story, a reprehensibly unused theme, a few over-textured enemies and useless, useless news. The creators have completely resigned themselves to trying to come up with something refreshing, and apart from the far-reaching views and sung ballads, I will remember for more than a day only the final bossfight, which, I must admit, was quite successful, but … that’s not enough.
It is a pity that the developers did not take the expedition and a walk around Barna Woods before work, for example. That’s where inspiration grows on trees. And that’s what they had little to do with the devils.
