The follow-up to Odyssey, Valhalla trades ancient Greece for medieval Europe (specifically Norway and the Viking invasion of England).
The exploration aspects remain pretty much identical, though points of interest have been streamlined/condensed for a far less cluttered experience and it doesn’t appear to be possible to highlight enemies while in Bird View any longer (I suspect the ranged ability which automatically highlights enemies replaced it). You also now have to manually click on a chest marker if you want it shown on your compass rather than that happening automatically.
Combat on the other hand is a bit different, with boss fights now being geared toward counters/parries and slower deliberate fighting instead of hectic hack & slashing (random trash mobs can still be attack-spammed into oblivion though). A particularly interesting choice is the implementation of a stamina system which drains when you dodge/block, use a power attack, or miss with an attack, but refills when you connect with normal attacks or just move around normally. This encourages a more engaged, hybrid playstyle and avoids the trap Elex fell into.
The biggest change though is the equipment system: It’s been drastically simplified so that there’s only one or two varieties of a particular weapon or armor piece. Rather than continually finding new randomized variations with slightly better stats, you instead directly upgrade whichever particular weapon/armor type you want to use. I’m not sure how I feel about that just yet considering my fondness for collecting things, but it does make sense from a gameplay perspective and makes finding a new weapon something of a special event.
All-in-all, at this point with Rygjafylke cleared (make sure to periodically check your map at its most zoomed-in setting to catch any resource chests; they show up as faint gold specks), I’m pretty well satisfied with this incremental upgrade so far. We’ll see how things progress when the assassination ability is finally unlocked and the action shifts to England.