Assassin's Creed Valhalla released less than a week ago and has produced an extremely impressive player count. A couple days after Assassin's Creed Valhalla's launch, Ubisoft's newest title has doubled the player count of Assassin's Creed Odyssey. While many players are enjoying the game, famous Twitch streamer Shroud has been fairly critical of Valhalla.
During a playthrough of Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Shroud was asked if he believes the title could be Game of the Year. The streamer's response was fairly surprising, as he chuckled at the question and quickly answered no. Shroud goes on to give his reasoning behind such a quick and concrete answer.
Shroud shares that he believes Game of the Year awards are given to more technically impressive games. Shroud then defends his statement with some heavy criticism for Ubisoft developers, saying, "The game developers for this game, don't get me wrong, they do great, but the direction of the game is to be cash money." By accusing the game developers of not trying and performing a money grab, Shroud may not be the most liked person in a Ubisoft office. However, Shroud also points out aspects of a game that he believes is required to be Game of the Year worthy.
Shroud says, "The direction of the game isn’t to polish everything, be perfect, make sure all the lip-synch is good, make sure all the animations are good. They could do that if they wanted to. They really could. It just would take longer."
Shroud believes that Assassin's Creed Valhalla lacks in very specific areas of development. His criticism is not directed at all towards the storyline, gameplay, or playability, but with minor details. However, with so many quality titles coming out, the smallest details need to be considered when deciding Game of the Year. Shroud did not go on to specify which titles he believes deserve Game of the Year, but during his playthrough, his Twitch chat was overwhelmed with users believing Cyberpunk 2077 would be Game of the Year without a doubt.
While there are many Game of the Year awards, the most coveted may be given by The Game Awards. Unfortunately for Cyberpunk 2077, The Game Awards host Geoff Keighley announced that due to the title's delay, it will not be eligible for the 2020 Game of the Year award. Each year, six games are selected as nominees, and the 2020 Game Awards nominees will be announced on November 18th.
Shroud's criticism of Assassin's Creed Valhalla picks at development details, however many publications have rated the title very high. Much of the Assassin's Creed Valhalla praise stems from the storytelling elements and the combination of RPG and adventure features.
While many agree that Assassin's Creed Valhalla has some of the most impressive adventure and storytelling features of an Assassin's Creed title, it seems Shroud is more focused on the details of development. It would be interesting to know which games Shroud thinks deserve the Game of the Year nod.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.