Twilight of the gods is a disaster for others, but it can't help us.
—What Odin said to Badr not long ago
One sunny afternoon, under the old tree of Ravensthorpe in Raven Township, "Wolf Kisser" Evol fell asleep. Aver enters a restless dream and receives a sign from Odin, the king of the gods: with the support of the Frost Giants, the leader of the Fire Giants, the immortal war leader Sulu, subdued the dwarf kingdom of Watt Aalheim, which still could not stop Sulut's ambitions, and he also captured Odin's son, Badr, the god of light in Norse mythology. In order to save Badr, Odin must find Surut and defeat Sulut, but he is defeated by Sulut like an ant and thrown into the putrid corpse pile like garbage...
Everything seemed to herald the coming of the twilight of the gods.
Unbeatable Surut
Waking up, Evol feels that things are not so simple, this is not only a dream, but also not only means that the apocalypse in the mythological world has come, but may also have some connection with the fate of the Isu gods and the invisible. Evol seeks guidance from the clan prophet Valka, drinks her herbs and goes to the dream world to find out again.
In about a year and a half since assassin's creed: Temple of Heroes went on sale in October 2020, Ubisoft brought the game's third major DLC, Dawn of Ragnar k, today (March 10). This is the last major update known to date for Assassin's Creed: The Hall of Heroes, with a longer production cycle than the previous two DLC, Wrath of the Druid and siege of Paris, and because of this, Dawn of Doom continues to expand on the story and has more changes in the gameplay of the system – the results of these changes are different, but it is almost certain that the story about Assassin's Creed: The Temple of Heroes may not be over.
A land where reality and magic intertwine
Continue to the mythical world of "matryoshka dolls" and continue to accumulate magical abilities
I love the norse mythological world, and much of what I know about this world starts in the game. For a long time, twilight of the gods has provided an endless source of inspiration for the creation of Norse mythological theme art. Twilight of the Gods refers to a series of great catastrophes prophesied by Norse mythology, including the great wars and natural changes that caused the demise of countless important gods and races, after which the entire world sank to the bottom of the water and then revived, ushering in a new world and a new order of gods and men.
An extremely important part of this Norse mythology is the material that game developers are happy to play, especially the destruction of the old world and the birth of the new world, which can easily be embedded in the worldview that Assassin's Creed has long constructed. In Assassin's Creed: Temple of Heroes, Odin first appears as the grim reaper, and later, Aver drinks the medicinal soup of the Prophet Valka and is able to personally go to the divine realm in his dreams (or illusions), "possessed" Odin, and unfolds the mythological storyline of the branch from a first-person perspective.
Inside the body, this part of the story deals with one ring after another. The game is a simulation of the real world, Animus is a simulation of the history of the game, the mythical world - that is, the dream world, the illusion world - is a simulation of the game's history simulation... Unconsciously, the screenwriter gave the story of "Assassin's Creed" several layers of "matryoshka dolls". The story of Dawn of Doom is like Asgard in the body, in the deepest part of the "matryoshka doll", and the dwarf kingdom of Watt Ahrheim is a brand new map unfolding in the "dream".
New to the Dwarven Kingdom
In short, Evol follows Valka's revelation and returns to the mythical world as Odin, and the dream continues. Odin in the corpse pile happens to be rescued by two dwarf treasure hunters, but the way to find the child is clueless, and Odin can only follow the guidance of the dwarves and collect clues by the way.
Dawn of Doom's original process amounts to a series of novice quests to familiarize yourself with some of the new mechanics added to the DLC. In the Dwarven kingdom, there are not only green grasses, but also lava rivers that gush out from the ground and flow everywhere, which is the norm in the world of Doomsday. Many useful items, equipment, and enemies who stand in the way of the road like to stand on the lava. But coincidentally, the dwarves gave Odin a magical treasure - the Wrist Guard, which can infuse Odin with various divine powers that are only found in the Dwarven Kingdom - that is, some special abilities that are completely different from the main body and the previous DLC. For example, by learning the divine power of Musbeelheim, you can safely step through the lava without being burned to the outside of Jolinen.
Later, Aver will learn more divine powers. The reborn divine power can summon dead enemies to fight for you; the raven's divine power can transform into a raven and fly to a position that would otherwise be difficult to reach in a high place. Others can be restrained against the different attributes of the game's two main enemies, the Fire Giant and the Frost Giant, such as freezing the Fire Giant and then smashing them. The new gameplay built around divine power is the freshest and most important part of Doomsday.
Under the power of the Reborn God, the puppet of the dead who helps fight
The divine power of Jotunheim, which can be camouflaged and teleported
All divine powers are bound in the Wrist Grabber, and the use of divine powers is time-limited. For example, in the beginning, with the power of Musbelheim, you can safely walk on the lava for 25 seconds, and then you need to collect a series of related resource items to upgrade the power, extend the time of the power, or develop to a more advanced version of the power.
The body originally provided the player with two shortcut skill rings, displayed in the lower left and lower right corners of the screen, providing 8 quick calls of abilities. On the basis of the body, the Capture Wristband opens a third quick skill ring, which can equip two divine powers at a time, and also requires a full energy slot to be activated - but the energy comes from the independent blue bar, not the previous adrenaline. Therefore, when you need to activate the divine power, looking for items that can be recharged around the world will also be a common operation in DLC.
The avatar raven can easily fly to the heights, but the landing is not easy...
On the other hand, if you are a loyal player who has experienced the main body and two DLC, at this time it is almost 400 or above in the game, and there should be no weapons and equipment in the old world that people can desire to obtain. Dawn of Doom offers a new weapon type, the Halberd, a number of new armor suits that still correspond to 3 different combat styles, increased the level of weapons and equipment, up to the mythical to the Divine level, corresponding to new upgrade materials (such as Platinum Blocks), and a new mosaickable rune, the Odin Rune, which can only be embedded in the superior Divine level equipment.
In short, obsessive-compulsive disorder and the perfect party have a new goal to strive for.
This set can be obtained in a single trip in the Vault at the cost of purifying the curse with runes one by one before providing a bonus
In the World Exploration section, DLC provides a large map of the world, divided into 4 main areas. According to the story, the search for the dwarven "Son of Ivati" hiding in the shelter is the key to defeating the undead Sulut, and the dwarven's shelter is scattered throughout the map, and finding all the shelters will have the hope of saving Badr. However, the shelter only marked the approximate location on the map, and when it came to the vicinity, it was necessary to carefully search according to the hidden markers left by the dwarves to find the exact location of the shelter, which continued the consistent thinking of the mythological trilogy and cultivated the ability to think independently, which was indeed much more interesting than running in a straight line according to the map marker.
Assassin's Creed: The Vallee itself offers a multi-explosive side quest or collectible mini-quest, and in the first two DLC, these mini-quests have variants corresponding to the corresponding story background. The same is true in Dawn of Doom, but it may be more genre-rich. It is worth mentioning the "Dwarves in Distress" series: save the dwarves in the wilderness who are besieged by fire giants or frost giants, and then go to the shelter to find them and receive their rewards. Other mini-quests include looting, calamity, gems, page collection, etc., all of which are variations of the related types of quests in the body. This part is a lot more in general.
There is never a shortage of gold in the dwarves' homes
Rescuing the Dwarves will give you clues to the locations of the 5 Suthurne Pioneers
Finally, friends who like to quickly brush resources also have a place to go, that is, the Valkyrie Arena located in the mountains in the middle of the map. The basic routine is to constantly challenge the missions offered by the arena and win various rewards. Challenges can enable a variety of "show off", in fact, a variety of debuff effects for themselves, increasing the difficulty of the challenge, but also increasing the income after the completion of the challenge.
Some good and probably not good novelty
Basically, I've figured out what's in this DLC. In simple terms, if the first two DLC, Wrath of the Druid and Siege of Paris, are the 1.1 and 1.2 versions of the game, Dawn of Doom is like 1.5, and the longer development cycle brings a lot of new things. Of course, not every new thing is presented with comfort.
Let's start with the good part. First of all, unlike the previous content, this story takes place in a dwarf country, so you can see that the world style and architectural style are indeed more inclined to the simple and thick appearance of the dwarfs in the general impression. While the snow was drifting, I stood in front of the huge dwarf ruins, as if suddenly crossing the door of the Iron Furnace Fort.
The shelters that are still in operation are designed in a different style. I originally thought that according to Ubisoft's style, there would be a lot of scenes and material reuse, in fact, material reuse does exist, but the scene is still carefully designed, every time you go to a shelter, there is a sense of freshness, and the sense of substitution is quite good.
The iron furnace fort is the visual sense
One of the sanctuaries is located in a huge crystal cave
The story is also great. In the not-so-short novice guidance session, the dwarf treasure hunters Sigren and Halstein lead Odin's search for shelter, chattering along the way, not only helping players learn their abilities, but also tirelessly introducing the background of the world, and the tone of the speech can be said... Very dwarf. This laid the foundation for the story style of the entire world that followed, and the dialogue with each dwarf NPC gave Odin a headache. I'm happy to see them in this "way of communicating".
In the middle and late period, the plot of the 3 dwarf families in the story line of the holy relic is also laughed and tearful, in order to prevent spoilers, I will not elaborate, in short, you will see how desperately the dwarf's "traitor" Enal is desperate to maintain a family bond.
Frankly, I love that the Assassin's Creed series is becoming more and more like an RPG to write a lot of dialogue for the characters, enriching the background and story of as many NPCs as possible, so that they look like they are alive, which is a good feeling.
The daughter of Surut is not exactly the enemy
Master Enal's face was almost written with the words "helpless"
Next I want to talk about puzzle solving and fighting, which I think is not bad, but it is not good.
Why? As you can see, Dawn of Doom tries to bring some new ideas, rather than just tinkering with the game itself, so it adds a series of divine powers with the wristband as the core. There are enough tutorials in the game to familiarize players with these new ways of playing, but this is ultimately an addition to an already mature or even cumbersome system, rather than trying to simplify, so that while bringing novelty, you can feel that these things are a bit troublesome to play.
Let's talk about the puzzle part. Assassin's Creed: The Hall of Heroes itself likes to design a lot of "Hades" puzzles, hiding important supplies, key to open doors, or in houses that are inconvenient to enter, which is already a headache. On this basis, because magma flows everywhere in Dawn of Doom, some key items are placed in magma pools or isolated islands surrounded by magma, which obviously requires inspiration to arrive. Therefore, many times, you do find the location of the collection, but unfortunately, you have to replenish the energy tank of the divine power everywhere, otherwise it will not be launched.
I love these puzzles that use light, they are simple and fun
In the detective process, this type of task can be more than a little
In the battle part, I don't think anyone likes the feeling of magma spraying face, or accidentally stepping into the lava area in a tight space, and the whole body is lit, and while fighting, you have to think about how to extinguish the fire. It is true that there are many divine powers that assist in combat, such as freezing enemies and resurrecting dead enemies to help fight, but don't forget that after the divine power is launched, there is a time limit and cannot be used indefinitely, and you cannot guarantee that you will finish a lap, and then there must be enough energy to continue to launch the divine power.
To put it simply, I like novelty, but I don't like rolling in lava. Developers may have overestimated player enthusiasm for this.
Who loves magma baths...
The most critical point is that the divine power skill slot can only be equipped with two skills at the same time, if you need to use additional skills, instead of going directly to the shortcut bar to switch, you need to find the enemy or enemy corpse with a certain kind of divine power on the world map, absorb the divine power, and then replace the divine power into the skill slot. So, when you really need a certain kind of divine power, you will find that you can't use it immediately, even if your energy slot is full; or on the contrary, you have the right divine power, but the energy slot is empty - to be honest, I can't understand this design, just like other quick skill rings, stuffed with 4 skills, switch at any time, what's the problem?
The experience was greatly improved after having enough materials to upgrade the second soul bar, to get more souls, and to use the divine power twice. But as you can see, just to describe this mechanism clearly, I don't think it's very convenient. With so many restrictions, the actual game feels less refreshing.
When you want to fly, it is best to find a live or dead raven
Even without upgrading, most of the base abilities are sufficient
All in all, on the bright side, it is very understandable that developers are eager to inject some new gameplay into new content, but the effect of the implementation is discounted.
Extra words
Since Ubisoft provided the experience code in advance, I played Doomsday earlier than most people. My experience is based on the PS5 version, the game itself has no problems, the graphics are delicate, the frame rate is smooth, and there are no bugs. At my pace, it would take at least 30 hours to complete the process plus the full collection — the tedious combat and puzzle-solving mechanics and the rough terrain in the game also delayed some time.
"Dawn of doom" is priced at HK$308 (about 245 yuan) in the PS game store, which is about half the price of a full-priced game, and in terms of content, this price is moderate, but considering that playing DLC requires the game itself, it is not very cost-effective to buy it alone. The best deal is, of course, to buy a season pass, which includes 3 DLCs that have been sold and only sells for HK$288. And speaking of season passes, I'd like to say that the season passes didn't actually contain Doomsday in the first place — it was clear in the original store description that there were only the first two DLCs. However, the situation is constantly changing.
Shortly after the release of Assassin's Creed: Temple of Heroes, Ubisoft announced a long-term operational plan, adding quarterly festivals to the game, adding looting maps along the river and various challenges, the most important drama was the "linkage story" at the end of last year, linking Assassin's Creed: Odyssey with Assassin's Creed: Temple of Heroes, and letting Kassandra meet Evol, which was a good gimmick. I also had to get the long-deleted Assassin's Creed: Odyssey back and accompany Kassandra on the final journey of ancient Greek drama.
Kassandra's story has a light comedic twist that I'll never see enough
These content are updated for free, and it is nothing more than the hope of giving the service game as much life as possible. Ubisoft has made it clear that there will be no new Assassin's Creed canon in 2022, which means that series players will basically have to spend 3 years with Ivoir. As for the new work, the foreign media has some exposure. Last month, Bloomberg news said Ubisoft plans to separate a large DLC from Assassin's Creed: Temple of Heroes into a new game, the game may be smaller than the main game, the protagonist is no longer Evol, but the villain Bassim. From content to style, this sounds like a replica of Assassin's Creed 3's indie assassin's creed: Rogue – but no one has yet confirmed its existence.
From a business perspective, although the stereotype of Ubisoft in the big picture has not faded, the player's choice is honest. At the end of last year, Ubisoft mentioned in its earnings report that Assassin's Creed: The Temple of Heroes is the second most profitable game in the company's history, the performance of the last DLC "Siege of Paris" "set a record", and there is still a long gap period before the next "Assassin's Creed" can be transmitted (according to convention, it may not be until the end of 2023), as players, we can hardly imagine what the series will go after the mythical trilogy, that is a longer-term thing. For now, Ubisoft will probably continue to run Assassin's Creed: The House of Heroes to maintain revenue, or, as revealed above, to plan a small spin-off game – no one can say for sure. Whatever its format, Dawn of Doom may not be the end of the Assassin's Creed: Temple of Heroes story.
future...... What will happen?
(The game experience code is provided by the publisher Ubisoft.) ）