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I am almost 60 hours into the game at this point. It is a very *grueling* experience. I am not even half way through the main stor. Spoilers below.
I don't care about the lack of achievements. I don't care about it not being a sneaky AC Game. I can respect this game as an RPG with elements of the AC World during the Viking Raids of England. I don't even necessarily care that the game can't seem to decide if it's Isu technology or if magick is actually real (At this point I'm leaning somewhere near the latter).
Issue #1: The Main storyline is WAY too long and way too repetitive. I'm sorry but I really have no incentive to want to explore the world and help EVERY SINGLE little count or ealdorman in England just so I can beat the game. And that's not even including the missions in Asgard and Jotunheim through Valka. To put into perspective how many quests there are in the main storyline, I lost count at around 112-ish. These quests can range from "Go to Randvi and tell her you finishes the last story arc" to "Find 8 unmarked locations at the map and kill people and find supplies" I enjoyed Origins on my Xbox One. I loved Egypt, I loved following Bayek's tale of revenge. There was a clear goal that was driving you, the death of his son and getting justice for that. With Eivor I don't even know what I am doing at this point. Like: We have the support of like 6 kings or ealdormans and like I don't really know WHO THE BAD GUYS ARE! In theory, the order of ancients are the bad guys but the game never really makes it a priority to hunt them down (there's also like no real reason for me to want to hunt them down. They haven't DONE anything to Eivor and there's no real reward, as far as I can tell, for killing them all), they're really a secondary concern to the acquiring of alliances, but at this point there isn't a point to collecting alliances. There are no immediate threats to Eivor or their clan. At the beginning, it made sense for Eivor to ally with Grantebridge or Seek out the Ragnarsons, that was in line with the original goal of establishing a home for the clan. But at that point the clan is pretty safe all things considered so there isn't really any pressure at this point anymore. Also the game is REALLY INSISTENT on Eivor and Sigurd being angry and hateful to fulfill Valka's prophecy but there hasn't really been enough development, to me at this point, for them to want to be this close to coming to blows.
Issue #2: The World feels empty and at the same time cluttered with useless junk. There are many collectibles in the world of AC Valhalla, and at the point I'm at in the game they are all useless. I don't have a need to upgrade my gear because I have not faced enemies that have forced me to reconsider my strategy or way of fighting, I haven't reached a blocking point, in fact I'm TOO Strong at this point. None of the armors or wealths or mysteries interest me anymore. They don't reward me anything of value. I understand that part of this is to encourage players to explore, but what's the point? I see why people WANT the achievements, because this would make it worth it, but I would take anything for collecting all of the mysteries, artifacts and wealth points in a certain number of places. The armor isn't really that good compared to the upgraded berserkir armor. At the same time, the world doesn't make you feel like you're in it, it makes you feel like you're the center of it. Nothing happens without Eivor, the all powerful ubermensch who can literally be the difference between an army winning a battle and just losing. No one does anything without you. Sure there are some funny voicelines in cities and such, but the world doesn't feel alive. Even the mysteries, which are meant to be these sort of side quests are just so boring and insignificant, they are only worth doing when they give you a key to get some supplies you desperately need to build one more part of your settlement.
Issue #3: The Legendary weapons are very underwhelming. These are meant to be the "Weapons of Gods and Heroes". They feel like weapons in skyrim that you enchanted with shock damage... It would be cool I guess if the weapons looked a bit more impressive or if they had like actually good special abilities aside from "Pew pew lightning, *stuns for like a second*"
The final thing I want to note is that, it feels like some of the writing and items are just there as fan service. Like, this game has a LOT of fan service. Kassandra didn't need to be in the game, you could've avoided that entirely, they did it because "OMG LOOK IT'S THE CHARACTER FROM THE LAST GAME!!!!" And you didn't need to make the Egypt armor from the Wrath of the Druids DLC literally just be partially based on Bayek's armor...
All of this said... I want to praise it a bit as well. Eivor's character is interesting and there are good moments where their qualities shine through, One of the best ways is at the beginning, Eivor places the hidden blade over their wrist and says "Why would I want to hide such a weapon?" This is really fascinating on many levels: It sets up that Eivor is not a fan of hiding their power, it says something about the culture Eivor comes from, it sets out that Eivor is not the sneaky type, they're a warrior and proud of it and they want everyone to know they're proud of this fact. Eivor also manages to do it without seeming, to me at least, overly arrogant and self righteous. I think this is because Eivor really goes out of their way, at least out I play them, to do the right thing and find BETTER solutions than the problems present.
One of the best storylines in this game is the Wrath of the Druids DLC. Eivor gets a message to meet the King of dublin, their cousin Bairid and his son Sicfrith. Bairid asks Eivor to help him gain the favor of the High King of Ireland, a godly man who hates Pagans and Vikings on account of them killing his father. In doing so, you are roped into building up Dublin as a center of trade and in trying to stop a cult of druids who are trying to kill the High King of Ireland and Bairid. Along the way you meet one of the Good Druids, the High Poetess and you start to see this tension between the christians and pagans in Ireland. Eventually you go hunt down all of the Evil Druid cult leaders and the last mission is killing the leader. Your reward for killing all of these leaders is the legendary Gae Bolg, the weapon of Cu Chulainn. Afterwards the kings of Ireland call a meeting with the High King and they all decide to do an inquisition to purge the island of all of the Druids. The High Poetess storms off and attempts to unleash hell upon the isle and kill the High King, You then either kill her or spare her life, in which case she flees. the High King is convinced of his faults and calls of the Inquisition. The story ends with you and Sicfrith mourning Bairid who died in the course of the war trying to earn the favor of his High King.
THIS IS WHAT A STORY SHOULD BE LIKE. It's not Oscar winning by any means, but it doesn't force you to win the favor of every single gods damned lord in England, AND THEN some quests with the gods.
I think it would've been better for all of the alliances to be optional and instead maybe make them simplified or offer a reward for creating all of these alliances like special merchants or buildings for Raventhorpe or maybe a special set of armor or something. Kind of like the Templar Hunt missions in AC4.
Anyways tl;dr:
Stunning Visuals
Great Voice Actors
Terrible Story
Long Story
Boring Story
Disappointing Legendary Weapons
Empty, Cluttered, Boring world