Assassin's Creed: The Hall of Heroes: The Dawn of Doom Caught Between Ambition and Scale

In Ubisoft's promotion, the third DLC of Assassin's Creed, Doomsday Dawn, is considered the most ambitious DLC work in the Assassin's Creed series, and its price is also the same.

"Dawn of the End" tells the story of Odin's journey to save his beloved son Bader. He arrives in the dwarven kingdom of Watt Arkheim to fight against the armies of Musbelheim and Jotunheim, and a brand new mythological story begins in Aiwal's dream.

Dreams have everything. jpg

Mythical Journey

The story of Doomsday Dawn takes place in Watt Arkheim and is a continuation of the mythological dream content in the game itself. Despite this, there is not a very clear connection between the plot of the two, and it can even be said that the introduction of DLC is somewhat simple and crude. The protagonist, Avril, has a nightmare, and everything starts from there.

Due to the fact that players enter the mythological world through drinking mysterious potions in the storyline of "Hall of Heroes", the Ishu element in the divine realm scene is relatively rare, which is already reflected in the difference between the divine realm storyline and secret images in the game itself.

The landscape of Watt Arkheim continues Ubisoft's consistently excellent level of visual production and scene art design, with an overall style that is close to a fantasy world, rather than being filled with Istic sci-fi elements like the mythological DLC of the previous Odyssey and Fate of Atlantis.

Due to the invasion of ice, snow, and magma pools, as well as the floating island of flames in the air, the verdant Watt Alheim constantly reminds players playing the god king Odin that war has begun and the twilight of the gods is approaching. It is not an exaggeration to say that "Dawn of Doom" has brought the most beautiful dwarf world in electronic games.

In the exploration of Doomsday Dawn, players will acquire new abilities on multiple levels, and after combining them, various players can develop a new set of gameplay that belongs to their own style. The key item among them is the Soul Striking Wrist, which you will obtain shortly after the DLC process begins.

Through the Soul Striking Wrist, players will gain 5 different divine powers, which are essential items in the process and an important means to further enhance the freedom of gameplay. For example, the power of Raven allows players to transform into a crow and fly freely. You can skip the climbing process and fly to the top of a building, or directly launch aerial assassinations against enemies on the ground during the flight. The power of rebirth allows you to resurrect killed enemies into teammates for combat, and so on.

turns into a crow and flies directly to the synchronization point

In addition to new skills, abilities, and great runes, the player's combat power far exceeds that of the original period, not to mention going to heaven and earth, and finally looks like a supreme god battle.

At the same time, many elements of the essence of "The Hall of Heroes" have also been inherited.

If you want to upgrade the divine power of the Soul Striking Bracelet, you inevitably have to take a iconic action from "The Hall of Heroes": looting. Under the command of God King Odin, the warriors rushed into the dwarf mill occupied by the Fire Giant to seize the upgrade materials. As the plunder was completed, Odin boarded the long ship and heard the words "Avol" coming out of his ear, instantly acting.

The original action of summoning a long boat in DLC has changed from sounding the horn to the protagonist using a throwing action to make the long boat and crew appear by the river out of thin air. However, some small flaws still affect the player's level of immersion.

At first glance, the number of collected elements in DLC can be overwhelming, with gold dots representing a vast amount of wealth in each region. After getting familiar with it, I realized that most of them were upgrade materials required to upgrade weapons and equipment to the newly added "Holy" level in DLC. If you don't have OCD, let them go and specifically collect a few equipment and knowledge books.

New Equipment Level and New Weapons

The collection in "The Hall of Heroes" often comes with solving puzzles, and players who have played with the main body should have experienced being disturbed by these puzzles. The puzzles about finding an angle to shoot the latch from the window are not very interesting, and there are still a lot of them. This issue has also been improved in DLC, where puzzles are mostly solved using light and divine power, achieving a better balance between difficulty and diversity.

This journey of God King Odin against the Fire Giants led by Sirte, if focused on the main storyline, the game time is approximately 8-10 hours. This time, there is no top-notch assassination list system that delays time, and following the mission target all the way can lead to the end. Overall, the plot and task flow of Doomsday Dawn are relatively tight, and players who like it can continue to explore after the ending. The length of the main storyline also does not make players feel tired.

However, this also raises another question.

The Value of Ambition

As the most ambitious DLC in the Assassin's Creed series, the national selling price of Doomsday Dawn has also been raised to 198 yuan in the $30 level, making its 8-10 hour mainline clearance time a problem.

The most intuitive comparison object is the previous work "Odyssey", listing the subsequent content prices and contents of the two works as follows:

The season ticket price for Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 198 yuan, mainly including two DLCs: The Inheritance of the First Sleeve Sword and The Fate of Atlantis, as well as a high-definition remake of Assassin's Creed 3. The price for purchasing two DLCs separately is 125 yuan, which will be launched in three separate chapters.

The season ticket price for Assassin's Creed Hero's Hall is 198 yuan, mainly including two DLCs: Druid Wrath and Siege of Paris. The price for purchasing the two DLCs separately is 125 yuan. Doomsday Dawn can only be purchased separately and is priced at 198 yuan.

Looking further, the clearance time for a single chapter in "The Inheritance of the First Sleeve Sword" is about 5 hours, while the clearance time for a single chapter in "The Fate of Atlantis" is about 10 hours. Both DLCs have a significant complementary effect on the main storyline, inheriting the works before and after the series, and connecting the series's worldview.

However, the three DLCs in "The Hall of Heroes" do not take long to complete, and the connection between the plot and the main storyline is relatively weak. Their nature is similar to that of a spin off adventure by the protagonist Avril, without filling in the holes left by the main storyline. I had hoped that Doomsday Dawn would be different from the first two DLCs, but it still continued the previous approach.

The most ambitious aspect of Doomsday Dawn is definitely not in the plot.

The question of how long a game/DLC can be played has been continuously discussed in the past two years, and there are different situations when it comes to a specific game. In recent years, although the main body of Assassin's Creed can make players feel significantly fatigued, shortening the time required for DLC can relatively increase the player's willingness to pass. Unlike in Fate of Atlantis, which extends DLC to 3 chapters and 30 hours, it also avoids some obvious repetitive content added to delay time.

But on the basis of past works, "Dawn of Doom" has shortened the clearance time and increased the price, inevitably being compared by players. The market will respond to which is better and which is worse.

In the future after this

"Dawn of the End" will not be the last major update of "Hall of the Spirit" in 2022, it is only the content of the first update roadmap in 2022. After completing the level, the game also tells you in various ways that "we may still have a sequel".

The first updated roadmap for in 2022

This also makes the DLC plan for "The Hall of Heroes" confusing: we are not clear about Ubisoft's initial idea of DLC, how many DLC should be proposed, and what content should be focused on. We also don't understand the sales pattern of DLC in the future. If there is a fourth DLC in the future, will it also sell at this price? Will there be no season tickets in the second year?

These questions will be answered within 2022. Doomsday Dawn is in line with people's understanding of the large DLC of 3A games, and I also believe it will not be the last DLC of Assassin's Creed Heroic Temple.