Assassins Creed Valhalla - set in the Viking age - now on Steam

[Rieser]

I wish they'd just drop the retarded animus time-travel bullshit and go from there.

 

[Deadass]

I wish they'd just stop

 

[Fedora Master]

I wish they'd just drop the retarded animus time-travel bullshit and go from there.

I wish they'd stop making this crap

 

[Alienman]

I loved the Sci-Fi stuff in the first 3 games, only played little of Revelations. It actually felt like it was heading somewhere and I found the story very fascinating, especially puzzling together the big secret from 2. The whole Adam & Eve thing. What I don't get it why they keep it around now though, all games (from what I have seen) seems to just be some kind of extremely long interlude. The Sci-Fi stuff have not progressed at all, not one bit. Highly disappointing to me.

 

[Riddler]

Kind of wish they separate the two things. Do one series of historical games and one that's straight up fantasy Witcher 3 stuff.

The animus shit is worn out by now and they need to do something new and it's a waste to see their engine and artistic talent wasted on this played out premise.

 

[ADL]

Just loaded up the game for the first time and the optional Morrowind-esque exploration mode is front and center again. Love it.

Also they added stealth difficulty levels

 

[RNGsus]

Kind of wish they separate the two things. Do one series of historical games and one that's straight up fantasy Witcher 3 stuff.

The animus shit is worn out by now and they need to do something new and it's a waste to see their engine and artistic talent wasted on this played out premise.

Get back to being an actual Assassin. Prince of Persia meets Splinter Cell, and drop the other crap (including open world).

 

[Raskens]

I loved the Sci-Fi stuff in the first 3 games, only played little of Revelations. It actually felt like it was heading somewhere and I found the story very fascinating, especially puzzling together the big secret from 2. The whole Adam & Eve thing. What I don't get it why they keep it around now though, all games (from what I have seen) seems to just be some kind of extremely long interlude. The Sci-Fi stuff have not progressed at all, not one bit. Highly disappointing to me.

One of the primary developers/manager of the AC games once said that they already know the beginning and ending of the plot, and they are currently just filling in the middle of the story. Hence the reason most of the animus plot is filler. I can't find the quote at the moment though.

 

[Raskens]

Just loaded up the game for the first time and the optional Morrowind-esque exploration mode is front and center again. Love it.

Also they added stealth difficulty levels

Do you have a journal like in Morrowind? Are the descriptions from the NPC's/journal good enough so you can figure out what to do? If yes, since when has this been case? Can't remember it from Origins.

 

[Palomides]

I wish they'd go to Japan or pre-Columbian Mexico next time. Something more exotic than Vikings or Greeks, it's the only reason I play AC games.

Ah yes, Japan. A unique and not often used setting.

 

[ADL]

Do you have a journal like in Morrowind? Are the descriptions from the NPC's/journal good enough so you can figure out what to do? If yes, since when has this been case? Can't remember it from Origins.

No journal but the directions are great, even for basic fetch quests the quests are fully voiced and the dialog gives you good directions to the point where I never had to use the map screen, but even on the map screen it's giving you directions rather than a waypoint.

Origins didn't have exploration mode but Odyssey is highly recommended for that reason as I had to learn the map as much as I did while playing something like Morrowind or Kingdom Come Deliverance.

I haven't gotten past the tutorial of Valhalla yet so I don't know if this one has Odyssey's great NPC dialog where you can figure out where to go but now the optional compass/map don't tell you what things are until you discover them, if you go into bird view, points of interest are pillars of light telling you something interesting is there. I've disabled the compass and able to navigate just fine.

 

[Oracsbox]

I am enjoying it immensely at the moment, pathfinder mode is indeed incline.
Game looks great, no bugs so far, music is good, voice acting seems fine.
If you liked origins/odyssey you'll like this,
Rpg mechanics have been expanded, it's too early to say how much build potential is available.
Lots of little puzzles which aren't annoying suprisingly.
The mini games are ok and I like the Orlog dice game especially.
I wouldn't mind being able to zoom in more with the combat camera but it's a minor issue.

 

[Fedora Master]

Yet another shameful thread.

 

[The Jester]

 

[GewuerzKahn]

No journal but the directions are great, even for basic fetch quests the quests are fully voiced and the dialog gives you good directions to the point where I never had to use the map screen, but even on the map screen it's giving you directions rather than a waypoint.

Origins didn't have exploration mode but Odyssey is highly recommended for that reason as I had to learn the map as much as I did while playing something like Morrowind or Kingdom Come Deliverance.

This is very misleading. You can just use your bird to add the waypoint on your map. The game even gives you a hint like "Use your bird to pinpoint the exact location for the quest" if you are around a quests location.
The exploration mode is just for marketing. Gameplaywise it makes zero difference.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-11-04-assassins-creed-valhalla-review

Assassin's Creed Valhalla review - a saga for the ages
Worthy of passing to the next generation.

Valhalla is another enormous Assassin's Creed saga, lavishly designed, with its sights set on story direction over narrative choice.


There's a Viking belief that the paths we walk are predetermined, and that the threads of our lives are already woven like strands in a collective tapestry. Where your own thread encounters others, even where it ends, are points in history already sewn together by the Fates. But the Vikings also believed in an idea of free will, in the possibility to see the path prophecy might have chosen and the ability to resist it, to fight for your own destiny and the destinies of those whose lives you might touch. Such ideas run through the brilliant narrative of Assassin's Creed Valhalla and the life of its heroine Eivor, to lift this beautiful game into a saga for the ages.

Much has been made of the option to play Eivor as either male or female - a first for the Assassin's Creed series - and in particular of Valhalla's default choice which has the game pick this for you at specific points. With hindsight, knowing the narrative reason for this and seeing its overall impact on the vast, vast percentage of the experience, this option is actually the one I'd recommend - at least until the game swaps who you're playing as for the first time, or it finally clicks for you as to why it does. Suffice to say this option never impacted my attachment to the Eivor I played as across the majority of the game, and it is not the situation some had expected, where your immersion could be broken by a constant ping-pong back and forth.

Your version of Eivor - their life, their choices and their relationships - is never detracted from, something that had been a valid concern. This option also has wider - and ultimately, I believe, positive - implications in the struggle to see better female representation in the Assassin's Creed series - something pushed for by Ubisoft's own developers as well as fans, especially in a game that is still overwhelmingly being marketed with its male option front and centre.

Eivor's story thread involves a prophecy she will eventually betray Sigurd, her brother and clan leader, something initially as unthinkable to her as the idea their collective glories won't earn them a place side-by-side in Valhalla. Their bond is strong, forged amongst family tragedy and the need to survive in new lands, but slowly the threads binding the siblings begin to fray. There are many hours of story and several key characters that play a part in this, and while it's a tale best left to be unravelled by yourself as much as possible, it's a changing relationship that is well paced. As Eivor, I was the one journeying the land to form alliances and grow our settlement while Sigurd was off messing around with Basim, his new assassin buddy. Whenever Sigurd disappeared off-screen for several hours, I would wonder what he was up to, and when he popped up again, I wouldn't always like what I heard.

Eivor's path towards this reckoning is one she walks alongside the mysterious figure of Odin, someone she has a peculiarly close connection with. The Viking god has a prophecy of his own to struggle with: the legend he will meet his maker on the apocalyptic day of Ragnarok, in the jaws of the giant wolf Fenrir. Ubisoft has already shown glimpses of Valhalla's mythological realms, which Eivor can visit via a dream-like connection, and it's in those you will find out much, much more about Odin's role in the story, the parallels between him and Eivor, and the connection between the two. It's smartly-plotted stuff, couched in just the right way so it never feels too out of place, while acting like a mythological story add-on woven directly into the base game.

For those who enjoyed the more experimental and varied environments found in Odyssey's excellent Atlantis expansion, Asgard and Jotunheim are built in much the same vein. Finally, it's worth mentioning what's going on outside of the Animus, where there's a quick conclusion to the ongoing story of Layla Hassan, the character you played in the modern day sections of the two previous games, Assassin's Creed Origins and Odyssey. It's 2020, the pandemic is real, and on top of that there's another newly-prophesied threat to stop, similar to the impending solar flare back in the series' Desmond era. As ever, the answers lie back in the past and specifically, in Eivor's story.

Can this trio of characters - Eivor, Odin, Layla - unpick the threads of their fates? That is the story Valhalla tells and ultimately answers in a more cohesive way than the splayed story threads of Odyssey's own trio of plotlines (and for those who just want to play the historical stuff, rest assured that remains the overwhelming focus). But while there are similarities to Odyssey in the shape of Valhalla's story, there are some key differences in how it is told. I had expected Valhalla to stick to the formula of Ubisoft Quebec's very popular predecessor, but the Origins team at Ubisoft Montreal has come up with something much closer to its own previous Ancient Egypt-set chapter. Where Odyssey offered branching storytelling and quests with a cascade of narrative outcomes, Valhalla's story is noticeably more linear, with few places to really exert your own decision-making and control. Each of its many map regions holds an arc with several main missions and perhaps a secondary objective, but no side-quests whatsoever. Indeed, in what feels like a regression even from Origins, you'll simply run across fleeting world events, which amount to quick interactions with NPCs.

Valhalla's winnowed quest structure feels like a decision made to provide a more focused tale - one that is never left to wander all over the Mediterranean, but that instead directs you to specific parts of England, one at a time, before reporting back to your settlement for a debrief. Each region you visit feels like a feature-length episode of a good TV show, with guest stars that often recur further down the line. The focused plot twists and heartbreaks in Valhalla's tale often hit emotional highs Odyssey sometimes struggled with amongst the sheer weight of storytelling spread all over its world, while Eivor's journeys further afield to Vinland, Asgard and Jotunheim are well integrated into direction of the main narrative rather than being left for players who still want more after the main quest is done. Still, it's a disappointment that the flourishing RPG-side of Assassin's Creed has been impacted, that Valhalla does not hold much room for meaningful choices, and that the few dialogue options on offer give little more than quickly-forgotten flavour. Eivor is a great and memorable heroine, but one I rarely felt I was forging my own version of, as I had with Odyssey's Kassandra.

One antidote to the lack of side-quests is the impact of your settlement, and the time you'll spend getting to know its growing community. For those who remember Assassin's Creed 3's frontier village, the vibe is very similar - and, ultimately it feels closer to that than the kind of RPG hub where everyone has something new to say every time you visit. Still, every so often, a new quest will pop up involving one of your villagers, and typically these slice of life stories offer an enjoyable palate cleanser from the drama of the main campaign. You'll go hunting or sightseeing, sometimes to be rewarded with an unexpected new ability or item as a result, or other times just to get closer to a character who might otherwise be a vendor. Some of these characters can be romanced (there are a few options for flings outside the village too), and some can become a permanent partner for Eivor. It's a step up from the fleeting romance options introduced in Odyssey, but it still feels mechanical. And while one particular romance option does impact the game's story - one of the few times I felt able to see something of my own version of Eivor play out - this thread still felt abrupt.

Otherwise, your settlement features a bustling population you can mostly ignore, unless you need their services or access to one of the game's various systems they control. There's a blacksmith who can upgrade gear quality, boat workers who can trick out your longship, or hunters who reward you for slaughtering wildlife. Assassin's Creed Origins fans will recognise a familiar face once again providing quests to let you grind out items from the game's paid cosmetic packs. Other characters here have even less to do - the initially interesting Hidden One named Hytham, for example, or Roman fanatic Octavian, both essentially act as places to dump collectables you find when exploring the open world. I love having a settlement with so many familiar faces in it, I just wish there was more for them to do.

Spoiler

Beyond the settlement's walls, England awaits. Valhalla's version is the ultimate Saxon pastoral fantasy, one of roundhouse huts and crumbling Roman ruins set amongst flowering meadows, dry stone walls, forests, fens, and fields. Every surface feels embellished, from the fronds of moss on the stones Eivor climbs, to the cave systems regularly hidden behind towering waterfalls. It is often astonishingly pretty, particularly around golden hour, or as the evening mist sets in, moonlight filtering through trees. I could write pages about how this game replicates the feeling of the English countryside, the flourishes that can be found as you explore, the dirt which gets caked onto Eivor's boots as she stomps through the fields, or the snow kicked onto her clothes while adventuring in colder climes. (And, as a local, the sight of an early Norwich, the inclusion of Seahenge, the legendary Black Shuck and the ability to see seals on the north Norfolk coast felt like East Anglian fan service.)

Between England, Norway, Vinland, Asgard and Jotunheim, Eivor has an astonishing breadth of landscapes to explore, and while size comparisons are always crude, Valhalla's world is one which altogether feels equal to Odyssey's scope. More importantly, perhaps, it is spread out in a way that feels more manageable, more varied, and more enticing. Few story arcs passed by without me getting majorly distracted by several different things along the way, and while location types are not always unique, each generally features a clever bit of puzzling to find hidden loot, or an interesting layout of enemies upon which to test my battle skills.

Early chapters in Valhalla's narrative skew towards a strong Viking flavour - raiding with your longship, castle assaults and the like - that are later balanced to some degree by the game's cities: dense areas that encourage you to spend several hours at a time scurrying around rooftops well away from your Viking crew and longboat. These are, of course, relatively small when compared to the floor space of the city-set games of the past. Still, they will make early Assassin's Creed fans feel very much at home in terms of the gameplay on offer: investigation-style activities, treasure hunts, rooftop assassinations, and even the series' first tailing mission in what feels like years. Vinland, meanwhile, offers the traditional 'let's put the main character somewhere completely different with none of their usual gear' section, while not walling Eivor in there for however long it takes you to complete its arc. Fans of Assassin's Creed 3 are the ones being treated here, with treetop parkour and long sections voiced entirely in Native American language. (Oh, and eight years later, the kayaks which got cut from that game are finally now usable.)

Valhalla slowly builds up Eivor's abilities, though I never got to the point where I felt as powered up as Kassandra in Odyssey (even if the lore nerd in me acknowledges Kassandra was able to wield an essentially-magical artefact to do so). Still, combat feels refined, far more bloody, and meatier overall now with three gauges to keep an eye on (health, stamina for things like dodging, and your special ability bar). Valhalla offers a sprawling skill web, nodes of which you'll unlock at regular XP milestones, in order to access numerous passive abilities. Meanwhile, Books of Knowledge found within the game's world gift specific abilities you can choose eight (four melee, four ranged) to have active at any one time. The best of these are the ones that spice up the variety of options available to Eivor while stuck in the middle of fights, such as the skills to stomp on prone foes, or pick up and throw discarded weapons, as well as the risky but fun super-assassinate move which lets you one-shot foes while undetected if you complete its time-sensitive mini-game. I liked combining this with the thrown axe double assassinate skill to get two super-assassinations at a time. There's also an option buried within Valhalla's options menu to switch on automatic one-shot assassinations - a fan-requested feature, interestingly included here despite its description warning players this is not how Ubisoft intends the game to be played.

There are several other changes from Odyssey that initially take some adjustment. Your raven drone has been significantly nerfed from the eagles of the past, and no longer lets you automatically tag items or enemies you're after (you can manually tag three, but in an enemy-dense area this is not a lot of help). It's a frustrating change that impacts the ease at which you can stealth through larger combat zones, and it results in more detections by enemies you otherwise have to keep pinging using your fiddly R3 button Odin Sight. Fall damage is back, negatable up to a certain extent but no longer fully escapable. Gear is now permanent but upgradable - a change I found left me less likely to swap between items after pumping resources into a build that worked well enough. And while it's nice to be able to take the weapons you began with to the story's finale, finding base level items in the open world even in the late game can often be underwhelming.

While we're talking annoyances, we should also talk about bugs. For reference, I'm playing Valhalla on a retail Xbox Series X, and with the launch day build of the game available when the game releases tomorrow. At the time of writing, the one major bugbear I have is with its screen-tearing, which usually occurs in mocapped sequences when there are multiple characters moving around on screen, though sometimes also appears in busy areas of general gameplay such as assaults within the interior of a castle. I've spoken to others with similar experiences and know Ubisoft is aware of the problem, though the suggestion I got for a fix did not solve the issue.
In the grand scheme of things, these are minor annoyances in a vast experience, and while there changes from Odyssey to adjust to, I also know some of these will result in a mechanically more traditional entry that may be welcomed by some. Indeed, as both Quebec and Montreal teams continue to alternate on releasing Assassin's Creed games, it is perhaps only natural the two build on each other's accomplishments while keeping their own styles - and there is so much to enjoy in Valhalla, a game that simultaneously feels a worthy wrap-up for the series' recent forays into ancient history, a strong first entry for next-gen consoles this year, and one which lays important groundwork for the franchise's future.

It's this future I'm thinking of as I reflect on the series' recent past, and on a painful year for those affected by a culture of problems within Ubisoft. Valhalla is the work of many hundreds of people - not just its former creative director who, as far as I can tell, no longer holds a place in Valhalla's credits. It is the work of many of the same people who created Origins, and who wanted Aya to have a more prominent role there, not just the studio heads and editorial team who thought otherwise. And it is the work of developers who recently reached out to the ACSisterhood fan initiative, to include their community within the final game.

Just over two years ago, I reviewed Assassin's Creed Odyssey and recommended it thoroughly, while still looking forward to polishing off its remaining parts. Two years on, I feel like I'm at a similar point with Valhalla. Since then, the already enormous Odyssey has grown bigger (I still play it every week), and the same will also be true of Valhalla. The series' first free seasonal content will arrive before Christmas, bringing new abilities, missions and yuletide items to your Viking settlement. Similar updates will follow through every season of 2021, separate from the game's upcoming paid-for Ireland and Paris expansions, and the now traditional Discovery Tour mode to follow. Before all of that though, Valhalla already feels complete. It is a Viking saga which does at times struggle a little in reaching its destiny, and in its efforts to evolve the series has made some sacrifices to tell a stronger overall story. But it wins through, in the end quite easily, as it continues the Assassin's Creed saga for a new generation.

https://www.pcgamer.com/assassins-creed-valhalla-review/

ASSASSIN'S CREED VALHALLA REVIEW
Valhalla is Ubisoft's best Assassin's Creed to date.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla is my favorite Assassin's Creed, which is saying something considering it's a series that spans 23 games. It builds on the already excellent RPG foundations laid by Origins and Odyssey, but with meaningful improvements that iron out many of the frustrations I had with both games. Case in point: Not once during the 60-hour story was I told to stop and level up a bunch before I could take on the next quest. That also means Ubisoft isn't selling optional experience boosts, either. Thank god.

What really stands out to me, though, is how much better Valhalla is at telling an engaging story that twists and turns according to my decisions. In Odyssey, my choices sometimes felt arbitrary or confusing, but Valhalla does a great job of introducing characters, concepts, and themes, and then forcing me to decide how Eivor, the main character, relates to them. When one of my beloved own clansmen betrayed me and tried to take my life, I had no choice but to kill them in self defense. But I agonized for almost a full minute over whether to let them grasp their axe with their dying breath or kick it away, denying them entrance into Valhalla. I had come to love this character and their betrayal was upsetting, but does that justify denying them an eternity in heaven?

Ragnarökin'
Set during the Viking Invasion of England, the story follows Eivor and her adoptive brother Sigurd, two fierce Norse warriors chasing glory. Like Odyssey, Eivor can be played as either a man or a woman, but what's great is you can now switch between them freely to test which one suits you instead of being locked into that choice from the outset. Whichever Eivor you play as, the story unfolds in mostly the same way. Sigurd was supposed to be made a local king, but the unification of Norway under King Harald leaves him two choices: Bend the knee or leave. Unwilling to give up his dream of ruling, Sigurd convinces Eivor and much of his clan to abandon Norway and sail to England so they can violently carve out a new future.

The anchor of this story is my settlement, called Ravensthorpe, which expands slowly over time as I gather new resources and construct new buildings. Like Dutch's camp in Red Dead Redemption 2, the settlement is my home base that I return to frequently in between quests. New buildings unlock new upgrades, like a forge so I can enhance my equipment or a brewery so I can host feasts that give me a temporary buff to my stats. As the settlement expands, it draws new characters, sidequests, and even the opportunity for romance. When huntress Petra asked me to help her look for her missing brother, for example, we ended up accidentally tripping on some magic mushrooms we found and chasing forest creatures instead. Like any good trip, we bonded and became lovers a few dates later.

Even though many of the characters aren't as fully realized and vivid as in Red Dead Redemption 2, I love how Valhalla's settlement encourages me to get to know my clan. Instead of completing side quests for random strangers I find while exploring, like in Odyssey, I'm helping my blacksmith find a wife, or my museum curator settle a feud. Each one is a narrative thread that, woven together, tells the collective story of the Raven clan.

Most of the story is concerned with what's happening outside the borders of my settlement, however. In order to cement a permanent place in England, Eivor and Sigurd have to negotiate alliances with the various Viking tribes (and the occasional Saxon king). This is all centered around an Alliance Map, where I choose which region I want to venture to, participating in a somewhat self-enclosed series of quests to win the favor of whichever faction happens to be there.

At first this structure seemed too templated and isolated, but once the story gets going characters from one region will pop up in the story of another, giving a nice sense of continuity between these otherwise independent chapters. What really impresses me, though, is how consistently great the story is throughout the entire adventure, even as it takes astounding detours to places far beyond England and Norway. That's something I can't really say for any other Assassin's Creed games, including Odyssey.

It takes a while before it all starts to come together, but Ubisoft does a great job juxtaposing my relationships with Sigurd and the rest of the Raven clan with the much more epic sagas as I wage war on Picts with the legendary Halfdan Ragnarsson, establish puppet kings with Ivar the Boneless, or trade veiled threats with Aelfred, King of Wessex. All the while, dialogue choices poke and prod the rigidity of Norse culture and traditions with surprising nuance. It's hard to explain without spoiling specific moments, but Valhalla has some wickedly knotted moral conundrums. There were a dozen or more times I stared at dialogue choices, completely stumped over which option was right.

Spoiler

Blood and glory
There are still some moments where Valhalla feels like a bad Game of Thrones episode, though. Entire armies show up undetected at a moment's notice, and characters will inexplicably change sides in a conflict just to reveal they're actually a part of the Templar order—the overarching villains of the Assassin's Creed mythos.

These cutscenes are relatively few and far between, and ultimately this is a game about two warring cults reliving historical simulations to uncover mythological artifacts in the modern day—a bit of cheese is expected. But, and I can't believe I'm about to say this, Valhalla even makes Assassin's Creed's sloppy overarching meta-narrative interesting again. Without spoiling anything, the final two hours are a whirlwind of revelations with implications that stretch all the way back to the first game. God help me, I actually want to see what happens next.

I love that the Norwegian invaders are portrayed as so much more than vicious barbarians, but it also ignores more troubling aspects of that era of history completely. It feels like a wayward extension of Ubisoft's feeble reluctance to admit its games have political messages.

Take raiding, for example. To gather resources to expand my settlement, I have to pillage Christian monasteries dotted along the various riverways of England's different kingdoms. The first few times I did this, it was exhilarating: My soldiers stormed the town, hurling torches onto thatched-roof cottages, slaughtering the guards, breaking windows, shattering pots and crates, and helping me kick down doors to get at more valuable loot. But god help you if you kill an unarmed clergyman, even by accident. Kill too many and it's game over. Burning their entire lives to the ground, however, is totally OK.

I'm not saying Valhalla should gleefully reward you for butchering Christians, but including a hard rule against it feels like Ubisoft intervening just to wag a finger in my face. It's even stranger when I start a quest with a Saxon lord who completely ignores the fact that I pillaged every church in his lands on the way to meet him. It makes raiding feel like a shallow feature clumsily stitched onto the rest of the game rather than something incorporated into and accounted for by the story. Ubisoft could've invented a narrative reason why Eivor doesn't kill innocents or just made priests really good at dodging thrown axes when they're fleeing for the hills. Instead I'm given a warning message that completely pulls me out of the moment.

I have a similar problem with Valhalla's Assaults—the big set piece castle sieges that typically act as the climax of a given regional questline. I'd never expect Ubisoft to go to the pains of simulating a full battle from start to finish, but the illusion of participating in one is paper thin. I'll use a battering ram to smash down the castle gate only to find my own soldiers are inexplicably already inside the castle and locked in never-ending mock combat with enemy soldiers. There's no sense of a battle having an ebb and flow, and so long as I complete my objectives the fight will progress in my favor.

Axe, meet skull
Both of these issues would be a lot more frustrating if combat weren't so much fun. The system is similar to Odyssey's in a lot of ways, but much more satisfying. For example, I can now dual-wield any two weapons, changing my combat style while also giving me access to special moves unique to my offhand weapon. Playing on a harder difficulty, I immediately favored the traditional axe and shield for the extra defense. But then I unlocked an ability on Valhalla's skill tree that let me dual-wield two-handed weapons. What a game changer.

Instead of sporting a measly axe, I'm holding a two-handed battle axe in one hand and a massive spear in the other—or I can hold two spears and be extra stabby, or two shields and be extra shieldy. It's so much fun discovering all of these combinations. And no matter what weapons I choose, I know I'm going to be both horrified and amazed at just how artfully Eivor can use them to separate people from their limbs.

It's hard to overstate just how gnarly some of the finishing movies are. I've repeatedly knocked enemies down and then impaled them on their own spears, or chopped their hands off as they raised them to defend against the axe I was about to lodge in their skull. There's even one where Eivor sticks an axe in a guy's face and then punches his head off. It's exactly what you'd hope for in a game about Vikings.

Of course, stealth is still an option, but it's quickly becoming the most antiquated part of Assassin's Creed—if only because so little of it has changed. Valhalla brings back some cool features like being able to blend into crowds to avoid guards and creating distractions to draw them away, but I'm often frustrated by how shitty the AI continues to be. Guards are dumb, and you can easily lure them into bushes one after another to assassinate them, and when one does spot you it feels like every guard within five miles immediately knows where you are. These are the same problems I've had in every Assassin's Creed, sure, but they're still annoying. At least Valhalla is more willing to let me forgo stealth entirely in all but a few quests. Being a sneaky Viking doesn't feel appropriate, anyway.

The combat isn't all just flash, though. There are 23 different human enemy types that each have their own distinct weapons and combat styles, which makes fights feel dynamic and often quite challenging. It's more varied than any other Assassin's Creed. Rogues will kick dirt in your eyes to blind you, while Ceorl's will swap weapons with dead allies, 'Berserkirs' will pelt you with thrown axes while they run you down. Knowing the attack patterns and timing of these enemies takes patience and skill.

Fortunately, Eivor has more tools than just the weapons she wields. While exploring, special books can be found that unlock new abilities, like being able to set your weapon on fire or a harpoon you can use to yank enemies off cliffs. This, coupled with a skill tree that recalls Path of Exile—hundreds of nodes that offer incremental stat boosts mixed with bigger ability unlocks—makes customizing Eivor really fun.

This all feeds back into the open world exploration, which remains largely untouched from Odyssey saved for a few improvements. The map is still littered with icons in typical Ubisoft fashion, but you can (and should) turn that all off in the options so that you can explore without signposts everywhere. Most of the stuff you'll find is new equipment and treasure you can take back home or use for upgrades, but I also found hidden caves with challenging puzzles, secret boss battles, and weird little one-off quests that are often bizarre and sometimes hilarious. One time I happened upon a Viking who didn't realize he had an axe lodged in his skull. He asked me what he should do so I offered to remove it, and he died instantly. That was it. Quest completed, I guess?

These activities all reward you with skill points you can spend in the skill tree. But, like I said earlier, Valhalla doesn't use this as a way to gate your progress through the story. Different regions still have power levels you have to match if you hope to survive the enemies there, so you can't go anywhere you want right away. But aside from doing a little exploring, I mostly blitzed through the story without ever feeling forced to go off and do something else to level up.

These little improvements go a long way in making Valhalla more inviting and fun than Odyssey. Assassin's Creed's transformation into a full-blown RPG hasn't been the cleanest one, especially as features like stealth feel left to stagnate while other aspects get so much better. But Valhalla succeeds on so many levels that it's easy to forgive the times when it doesn't. It's an enormous game, and it'll probably take me another 20 hours to finish everything I still haven't completed. I honestly can't wait.

THE VERDICT
92

ASSASSIN'S CREED VALHALLA
Bloody and captivating, Valhalla is Assassin's Creed at its best.

 

[baud]

for those who couldn't see the picture (because fuck 4chan for picture sharing):

 

[Avarize]

Ah yes, Japan. A unique and not often used setting.

If you don't consume weeb shit, yes it is. Name a single open world game that let's you explore a historical and realistic depiction of medieval Japan. I want to see Kyoto recreated like Alexandria or Memphis in Origins.

That said I'd be fine with Khmer Empire, various periods in China, Korea or pre-Mughal India.

 

[ADL]

Female Eivor is cute! C U T E!

Also regarding Japan, I have a feeling they're a little reluctant to do it after Ghost of Tsushima did it so well. My prediction is that they'll do a Romance of the Three Kingdoms-era China game versus Japan. They waited a little too long on that one.

 

[Avarize]

Hey at least they are being more realistic by making women capable of fighting identical to men.

 

[Fedora Master]

Anyone who pays for this shit is officially Part Of The Problem.

 

[Oracsbox]

for those who couldn't see the picture (because fuck 4chan for picture sharing):

That's Reda, he's a mythical,magical trader from Ancient Egypt, he's a cool little dude, he was in assassins creed origins.

 

[Silverfish]

Does he sell magic dirt?

 

[Darkwind]

Kind of wish they separate the two things. Do one series of historical games and one that's straight up fantasy Witcher 3 stuff.

The animus shit is worn out by now and they need to do something new and it's a waste to see their engine and artistic talent wasted on this played out premise.

The DLCs for Odyssey that took you into the Mythical Greek pantheon of gods / heroes was simply awesome on its own 2 legs. I agree they should peel off another series that presents the fantasy mythos of these various settings as they are all ripe with legend / myth / gods/ etc.

 

[Hellion]

Oddly enough, Reda and his guild members were the only non-whites I remember seeing in the entire game. I didn't think Ubisoft would resist putting in a few minority berserkers here and there.