the Templar order – the 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 artefacts 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.
The Viking fantasy is great, but
there are times when Ubisoft pulls
punches in a way that is frustrating
and clumsy. 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 the developer intervening 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 on to
the rest of the game rather than
something incorporated into and
accounted for by the story.
AXE, MEET SKULL
Some 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,
It’s exactly
what you’d
hope for in a
game about
VikingsGAME DAY When you’re not hewing off limbs, there’s some fun side stuff
ORLOG
A surprisingly complex
and strategic game of
dice. Roll them!BUILDING CAIRNS
Stacking rocks on top
of each other. It’s really
very soothing stuff.FLYTING
Viking rap battles. Outwit
your opponent with your
lyrical flow and win cash.GET DRUNK
Challenge locals to a
drinking competition
that you both will lose.Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
REVIEW
changing my combat style while also
giving me access to special moves
unique to my offhand weapon.
Playing on a harder difficulty, I
immediately favoured the traditional
axe and shield for the extra defence.
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 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.
It’s also hard to overstate just how
gnarly some of the finishing moves
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. 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.
Fortunately, Eivor has more tools
than just the weapons she wields.
While exploring, special books canbe 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
ability unlocks – makes customising
Eivor feel deeply satisfying.
This all feeds back into the
open-world exploration, which
remains largely untouched from
Odyssey save 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 just 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
absolutely hilarious. Instead of a
checklist of things to do, it feels more
like an organic world I actually
want to fully explore.
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.
92
Bloody and captivating,
Valhalla is Assassin’s
Creed at its best. And the
setting injects some new
life into the formula.VERDICT