Shroud Roasts Assassin's Creed Valhalla Explaining Why It Isn't GOTY

Popular streamer Shroud says that Assassin's Creed Valhalla isn't Game of the Year material. The former Counterstrike Go player talked about it on a Twitch stream and actually forms an argument based on game quality and user experience. It's no secret that Assassin's Creed has become like a yearly series in almost every sense of the term. Just like Madden, NBA 2K, and Call of Duty, it feels as though there's a couple of tweaks. After a few entries, there is usually some sort of big jump forward and gamers are reminded of what drew them to these big tentpoles in the first place. Needless to say, when a popular streamer points these things out, there is always a visceral reaction. The fans will debate this as other headliners like Cyberpunk enter the fray. For now, it makes for a great conversation.

"'Do I think that this game could be game of the year?' Absolutely not," Shroud begins. "Game of the Year is given to titles that, no offense, actually try. You know what I mean? The game developers for this game, don't get me wrong, they do great. But, the direction of the game is to be cash money. The direction of the game isn't to polish everything, be perfect, make sure all the lip-synch is good, make sure all the animations are good. They could do that if they wanted to. They really could. It just would take longer. That's not the name of this game. The name of this game is get something out there relatively quickly that people can spend hundreds of hours on. And that's it. That's not Game of the Year worthy."

Comicbook.com reviewed Assassin's Creed Valhalla and our Matthew Aguilar enjoyed his time with the Viking title.

"The Assassin's Creed franchise has come quite a long way since the original, and though there have been some missteps along the way, Ubisoft breathed new life into the franchise with Origins and then refined the experience further and crafted one of the best assassins in the franchise in Assassin's Creed Odyssey," he wrote. "Now comes Assassin's Creed Valhalla, a game that seeks to forge its own unique identity while bringing back elements from past entries in fresh new ways. That's a tall and ambitious order, but Valhalla pulls it all off with flair, weaving all of these disparate elements into a delightfully compelling whole."

Do you think Valhalla is a Game of the Year candidate? Let us know in the comments!