Valhalla is everything you love AND hate in a Ubi game.
What I love from Ubi games is that they don't shy away from mature content. You saying loads of it is in?
What I hate in Ubi games is microtransactions scamware in a fullpriced game. Oddly no mainstream rewiews mentioned any of it, is it finally removed?
On mature content in a Ubi game:
Hmm, I haven't seen any serious mature content in Ubi's games except these two:
Far Cry 2: You have to be grey during a meaningless war.
Watchdogs: Technology is ambivalent - you decide how to use it.
(plus a VERY DISTANT honorable mention: AC: Rogue)
Sure, no Silent Hill 2 deep maturity (guilt in sexuality and relationship), but IMHO far better than the usual young adult adventure Ubi themes such as: oppression is bad - rebellion is good, freedom over everything else, betrayal by a trusted one, Rabbids are the reincarnation of evil, etc, etc. These are standard storytelling 101 tropes and I'm pretty tired of them. Good pulp fiction, but nothing that will make me think about the story long after I finished the game.
Needless to say, this mature theme thing is utterly subjective: if, say, someone thinks that Thanos is the shining example of a complex character in fiction, I won't disagree with that person. I'll just remark that I read Borges too much.
On microtransactions in Valhalla:
YES there are microtransactions, and on PS4 it is mandatory to have a UPlay account (seriously? c'mon!), but I haven't seen encountered any paywalls yet (except the obligatory DLC season pass).
Note: I've finished Odyssey without paying anything extra (except the obligatory DLCs), so I think Ubi repeats the the same trick -- microtransactions are for:
- cosmetic stuff (if you need this sort of thing, you are hopeless anyway)
- optional timesaver stuff (emphasis on "optional")
For the record, my Ubi bias is the following:
LOVE: production values
HATE: bugs
LOVE: pulp fiction mix of history and myths
HATE: simple stories
LOVE: world building
HATE: bloated gameplay
As far as I can see for now, this is Valhalla in a nutshell.