With roughly 50% of England cleared (Oxenefordscire, Lunden, and everything lower level), 7 zealots killed, 11 Order members killed, all non-feast buildings constructed, silver equipment, and 205 skill points this seems a decent enough place to mark as the midpoint of the game.
With ~55 hours invested so far it’s quite large, larger than it seems because there’s also an Asgard ‘dream world’ map (cleared that too) along with apparently a Vinland area (haven’t gone there yet). What’s really remarkable about this is that each area so far has felt pretty distinct in both the landscape and questing departments, all of which was enjoyable until the bizarre Odyssey-like change in the Eivor/Sigurd dynamic that occurs in Oxenefordscire.
Combat-wise I’ve been using heavy dual-wielding. Started with a greatsword & dagger combo, switched to a spear & dagger combo, and then finally settled on a greatsword & spear combo (using the Dual Swap skill depending on whether it’s a boss fight or not). It’s extremely effective for plowing through enemies I can’t assassinate/headshot ahead of time (I do however still miss the 3-enemy chain assassination ability quite a bit).
There’s no shortage of skill points (and you can respec whenever you want) so there’s not really any need for skill breakdowns, though Brush with Death and Advanced Assassination are godly, Explosive Corpse and Battlefield Bolt are garbage, Counter Roll is kind of sketchy since you need to dodge into attacks for it to work, and Auto-Loot is just plain nice to have. Abilities are a bit trickier. I’ve been rolling with Valkyrie Dive (great quick stun), Rage of Helheim (you have to hold the button to connect), and Throwing Axe Fury (crowd control). Bow abilities I’ve mostly been ignoring apart from Powder Trap (to blast through weak walls).
As far as settlement buildings go, some are certainly more useful than others. The Blacksmith (equipment upgrades), Hidden Ones Bureau (quests, targets, rewards), Hunters’ Hut (quests, rewards), Seer’s Hut (quests), Museum (quest, rewards), and Fishing Hut (rewards, at least one Mystery event requires the fishing line) are probably the most important. The Barracks (cosmetics), Tattoo Shop (cosmetics), Shipyard (cosmetics), Stable (cosmetics, don’t have to travel for horse training), and Trading Post (don’t have to travel to other cities to shop) meanwhile are all nice to have. The feast-buffing ones are obviously situational (although the Bakery has a couple quests), and the Cartographer is completely useless if you happen to be the exploring type.
At some point you’ll also get an Opal Shop for free. This serves as a method to buy Cash Shop items with in-game currency rather than actual money. On the positive side of things this currency is renewable through simple daily quests… on the negative, these quests award 5 opals a piece and you only get two a day (a new piece of equipment costs ~130 opals). So while you ~can~ technically get these pseudo-DLC items for free it’s not exactly something worth obsessing over (and besides, there’s plenty of equipment/customizables already in the game).
All in all a very impressive showing so far even with the recent main plot hiccups. The only other thing I can really complain about is the inability to assassinate zealots the same way you could assassinate mercenaries in Odyssey. Oh, and I guess it’s also a bit annoying that the most efficient path forward is to complete the main questline in each area before exploring; it reduces backtracking and some items don’t appear until a quest triggers them (if you see a chest marker on your map that doesn’t have a related item for instance, chances are it’ll appear later during a quest).