2021-01-16 New Scientist

34 | New Scientist | 16 January 2021

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VIKINGS have undergone a bit

of a rebrand of late. Once seen

as violent barbarians, rampaging

in horned helmets across Europe,

we are increasingly finding

evidence that they were an

advanced, civilised people

with everything from frozen

food to navigational crystals.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla,

the latest in the historical action

series, seems to want it both ways.

You play as a Viking called Eivor

(male or female), who after a brief

introduction in snowy Norway

boards a longship for England in

AD 873 to establish a settlement.

Throughout the game, you build

up your new home, Ravensthorpe,

by raiding churches and

monasteries for supplies that

you can use to establish trading

posts and other amenities.

So far, so Norse, but every time

I launch into a raid I can’t help

laughing, because it seems Eivor

and their chums are nice Vikings.

Although you cut through swathes

of enemy soldiers, Eivor seems

to have signed up to the Geneva

Convention, refusing to harm

civilians. It isn’t that I want to

hack a bunch of monks to death,

but it is a bit ridiculous for the

game not to acknowledge that

the player is essentially leading

an invading force that aims

to subjugate the population.

That aside, I am enjoying

pootling about in 9th-century

England. Each region has its own

self-contained (and mostly

forgettable) story, which makes

them feel like episodes from a TV

show. Then there are “mysteries”,

brief encounters that often serve

as comic relief. One involved

helping a man who didn’t realise

he had an axe stuck in his head.

As with all Assassin’s Creed

games, historical sightseeing

is also a big draw. I visited

Stonehenge in Wiltshire,

unblemished by today’s A303

road (this was particularly fun

as I was editing an article on it

Playing nicer The real Vikings have traded their image as violent marauders for a

bit of nuance, but new game Assassin’s Creed Valhalla has it both ways and features

people playing nice while still wanting to invade and rule, says Jacob Aron

“ Historical sightseeing

is a big draw. I’ve

visited Stonehenge

unblemished by

today’s A303 road”

Game

Assassin’s Creed

Valhalla

Ubisoft Montreal

PC, PlayStation 4 and 5,

Xbox One, Series X and S,

Google Stadia

Jacob also

recommends...

Game

God of War (2018)

Santa Monica Studio

PlayStation 4

The God of War series stars

Kratos, an extremely angry

man who murders his way

through the Greek gods.

In this soft reboot, the action

shifts to Norse mythology,

and a more restrained

Kratos has to mend his

relationship with his son

following the death of

his wife. Oh, and he also

kills a LOT of monsters

with a big axe.

for the 9 January magazine). I also

took a trip to its more enigmatic

counterpart, Seahenge, a wooden

circle built 4000 years ago, the

remains of which were discovered

in 1998 on the north Norfolk coast.

Back in the 9th-century, it stands

in all its glory, surrounded by seals.

I had to check out London, or

Lunden as it was then. Unlike the

painstakingly recreated modern

London of Watch Dogs: Legion

(reviewed in my last column),

Lunden is almost unrecognisable.

It is dripping with Roman

ruins,including an amphitheatre,

and I loved experiencing the

history: the long-gone Romans

are almost mythologised, with

one character describing Lunden

as a “city built by giants”.

All this makes for great

escapism, although Valhalla

does also mention the coronavirus

pandemic that so many people

would like to escape. This is

because the slightly silly sci-fi

conceit of the Assassin’s Creed

series is that people can relive

historical memories stored in

an ancient genome – nonsense,

obviously – and the game

occasionally cuts away from Viking

times to put you in control of Layla

Hassan, an archaeologist who

has discovered Eivor’s remains in

2020. You can access her email and
      see a message reassuring a relative
      she doesn’t have covid-19.
      Thankfully, these interludes
      are brief and it is easy to forget
      you are playing someone playing
      as a Viking. I feel developer Ubisoft
      Montreal only keeps them for
      die-hard fans who care about
      the modern-day plots that span
      multiple games in the series. Who
      needs a metanarrative when you
      have a whole country to pillage? ❚

UB

ISO

FT

There is action in Assassin’s

Creed Valhalla, but harming

civilians is off-limits

The games column

Jacob Aron is New Scientist’s

deputy news editor. He has

been playing video games

for 25 years, but still isn’t

very good at them. Follow

him on Twitter @jjaron