Review - Assassin’s Creed Valhalla

Part 1

Let’s get this out of the way up front; I am going to approach this review very differently than most games. I’ve always been a hug fan of the Assassin’s Creed series. For me, Assassin’s Creed games are like pizza. Even when it’s not the best, it’s still an Assassin’s Creed game and I’m going to play it, just like I’m going to eat that mediocre slice of pizza. So because I am going in to this game knowing I’m almost certainly going to love it, I’m holding my review back a bit to judge the game on current and next-gen performance. The good news, I’ve been saying this will be the first game I play on my shiny new Xbox Series X for months now, and I’m happy that it will be, along with my first next-gen review. The bad news is I just got my Series X shipping notification and it’s saying it might not get here until later this week. That leaves me in quite the pickle. Do I play the hell out of this game for a full and thorough review, knowing, as a new father with a full time job that I won’t likely have the time to fully play through it twice? Or do I play enough of it to get a good idea of the mechanics, story, gameplay and overall feel of the game, then save the experience for when my Series X arrives so I can enjoy it all in glorious 4K/60fps HDR? This review will be going the later route, so keep that in mind. I have played the opening dozen or so hours of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. I intend to pick at it through the week, simply because I can’t put it down, but I’m hoping to really sink my teeth in to it next week on my new hardware. Now, with all that out of the way, let’s dive in to my initial review in progress of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla! 

In case that first paragraph didn’t make it clear, I love this series! If you love the series, early impressions are indicating that you won’t be disappointed with this entry either. The story pulls no punches right from the start. This world feels grittier, dirtier, colder and darker than the bright, colourful settings of Egypt and Greece, but still feels like an Assassin’s Creed game. Like Origins and Odyssey, Valhalla leans heavily in to action RPG territory, with skill trees (something I’m not yet in love with, but hoping will grow on me), hit points, and upgrades aplenty. At some point in the early game I felt like I was playing The Witcher or Skyrim, complete with some weird, but not game-breaking bugs. Speaking briefly on bugs, I haven’t had a full game crash or anything terrible like that, but I’m definitely looking forward to some stability patches. Back to the gameplay. The Norse and English landscapes also help make this game feel like the others I just mentioned, but at the same time Valhalla manages to feel very much like an Assassin’s game. The first time you sync a viewpoint and the cameras pans around, fans of the series will feel both at home and completely lost. This is a new, beautiful, sprawling world to explore. You’re not climbing buildings, churches or statues any more; you’re scaling mountains. Locations and objectives are a little more hidden. It feels a little like Breath of the Wild at points, allowing you to see everything but giving away nothing. At some points early on, I felt completely lost, but that feeling encourages exploration and discovery, so don’t be afraid to test your limits. 

The first sync is the sweetest, but the views never get old!

One thing that plants this game firmly in the Assassin’s Creed universe is the hidden blade. It’s been a series staple in nearly every entry. You get the hidden blade (even if it’s not hidden this time) pretty early on, and start learning stealth maneuvers, jump kills, and the usual assassin arsenal quickly. It feels fresh and new, but familiar all at the same time. Combat feels punchy and brutal. It’s satisfying as hell to watch Eivor sink an axe in to someone and throw them aside while instantly charging the next target. I LOVE being able to dual wield axes, or switch up to an axe and shield, or try a massive two handed weapon, and weigh the pros and cons of each fighting style based on my given combat situation. Dual axes are my favourites so far, but I’m sure each person playing will have subtle differences in opinion and play style, which is awesome! 

You won’t only be battling with blades though! One of my favourite new additions is flyting. Flyting, if you didn’t know already, are basically Viking rap battles. Each side flings rhyming insults are their opponent, or builds themselves up to be the better Viking. The mechanic reminds me of a simplified version of the absolutely fantastic “Oh Sir! Insult Simulator” series of games, which you should also definitely check out. For someone that doesn’t usually spend much time with additional mini games in big open world games (Gwent, etc), this is one that I can see myself searching out as I visit other villages and settlements, raising Eivor’s charisma stats as I go.

I’ve mentioned Eivor a few times now, so I should probably introduce the main character in the game, for those who have been avoiding spoilers or information about the game. Eivor is the first character in the Assassin’s Creed franchise to have selectable gender. Past Assassin’s Creed games have let you play as either male or female, but the characters were always distinct, like Kassandra and Alexios from Odyssey or Jacob and Evie from Syndicate. For Valhalla, you are Eivor, whichever gender you choose, and the canon choice is actually neither. The canon choice is ‘let the animus decide’, which swaps genders based on the story and situation. It’s an interesting choice, and I’m curious to see how it resonates with fans, but so far doesn’t feel forced or awkwardly tacked on. Personally, I’m going with the canon choice, and seeing how that works in to the animus portion of the game, but you can choose to play as male or female through the entire experience and it won’t change how the game’s story shakes out. 

Eivor and the supporting cast are very engaging, and I was instantly invested in the story. It might be the bit of Norse DNA floating around in my genetic soup, but within the first hour or so I already knew I would be seeing this game through to the end. Voice acting is pretty solid, with some weird accent hiccups here and there, but overall the cast is enjoyable and engaging. I also love how they’re working in the mystic bits of Norse mythology in to this game, and can’t wait to see where some DLC (which usually get away with more fantastical story pieces) can bring this down the road. 

Eivor is what you make er… I’ll show myself out

I’ve had a ton of fun with the first part of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. I’ve played on the original Xbox One, through Remote Play on my iPhone and iPad, and I’m (im)patiently waiting the arrival of my Xbox Series X. Playing on the OG Xbox shows just how far this generation has come. I sold my Xbox One X to make room for the Series X, and I miss 4K HDR. You can tell this game is pushing some limits of the older hardware, but it’s good enough. I think it’s really going to shine on new hardware the same way Black Flag showcased Xbox One and PS4 at the start of this generation. But the new hardware doesn’t take away from the actual gameplay. Mountain vistas, rough surf and snowy landscapes still look beautiful, even on the oldest hardware. Raid battles are still intense, brutal, awesome and fun (except when you accidentally light yourself on fire during the torch-throwing tutorial), and the story is still just as engaging no matter what hardware or screen you’re playing on. I’m sure there will be improvements, but I would not suggest sitting out or skipping this game if you’re not in a position to or simply don’t feel like jumping on the next gen bandwagon this holiday season. This is the next evolution of a fantastic franchise that’s been shining the last few years, and unless things dramatically change as the game goes on, it’s one of the best games I’ve played all year. 

Such a beautiful game!!!

Part 2

For England, James? No, for VALHALLA!

After a few hours of play, you’ll get to experience a change of scenery as you and your merry band of viking brothers and sisters depart for the new, exciting land of England to set up a new home. This isn’t really spoiler territory since this was pitched in the game’s promo material, but the events leading up to the move were interesting to me, because when I trace my family back far enough, there are some vikings that left Norway to go to England and eventually Scotland. Whether or not you share similar ancestral ties, the story is super interesting and engaging, with well-performed voice acting for the most part. As you reach England, you find the location of your settlement, and the game really take off and opens up from there. 

When I first heard they were adding a settlement building mechanic to Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, I was a little hesitant. This sort of thing has turned me off games in the past. If an action game focuses too much on the building and managing of a settlement or town, I always feel like it grinds the action to a halt and I either stop focusing on building until the very end, or worse, I just drop the game altogether. If I want a town sim, I’ll play a town sim. Luckily, I can say this isn’t the case with Valhalla. I enjoyed building up my settlement so much I found myself hunting for raid locations just to get enough material to add a new building here and there. 

And yes… you CAN pet the dog!

One of the first buildings I focused on was the Assassin’s main headquarters because, slight spoiler, you don’t start this game in the Order, and the Assassin’s storyline just happens to coincide with Eivor’s, so they’re seen as allies. Unlocking this building allows you to train and unlock more assassin story bits, which I love as a long time fan of the series. You’ll also notice that unlike most other Assassin’s Creed protagonists, you don’t hear the classic eagle screech when jumping off of viewpoints. There are a couple of examples of that in past games, and I’m not going to spoil anything here by saying any more. Just something for you to pay attention to. 

Another location I built out early on was the horse stable, because YOU CAN RIDE A FREAKING WOLF WHEN YOU DO!!! The wolf is part of the Gold edition of the game, but you can also purchase the skin if riding a giant wolf sounds appealing to you.

DIRE WOLF!!!!

There are a handful of other very useful buildings you can focus on, including the barracks and blacksmith, the first of which allows you to customize your #2 to your liking to help you in battle, and to me, personifies what the settlement building section of the game is all about; making it YOURS. Every building you build, every person you give a job to, every interaction you have, helps build your personal story within this world. While the main story beats might be fairly similar for everyone, one of the most appealing things to me is hearing how other people are playing the game, customizing their experience, and really taking advantage of the openness of this vast, open world. It reminds me of a gritty, blood soaked Breath of the Wild. I remember playing that game and saying “did you find X” and hearing back “No, but did you find Y?” and part of the fun was that sense of wonder and discovery that we were all crafting our own paths and stories. When I first heard “did you find the axe guy?” while talking to other content creators playing this game, I thought “NO! But now I have to!!!” and set off on my quest. 

Further to the personalized experience that exploration and customization gives you, the way you approach this game can vary depending on your preferred play style. Where early Assassin’s Creed games gave you a target and pushed a certain level of stealth on you, this game lets you decide how to approach each scenario. You can learn some things from the Guild and approach in a more stealthy way. Or you can go full viking rage, run in screaming, torch in hand, dual-wielding axes and riding a FREAKING DIRE WOLF! While I loved the older Assassin’s games and the thoughtful approach that stealth kills required, I’ve been leaning a little heavier in to straight up viking rage attacks in this one. It reminds me of Black Flag (my long-time favourite in the series) where rather than starting off the game as someone being trained to be a badass, you already start as a badass (pirate vs viking, who wins?) and start learning extra skills from the Guild as you go. I love this approach, because again it allow me the freedom to make the game my own. If I feel like sneaking around and scoping things out, pulling off some stealthy assassinations, I totally can! If I feel like, as I mentioned before, sounding the horn and charging up a hill, dual wielding axes and lighting buildings on fire, that’s a perfectly valid option as well. 

First person to guess what happened to this guy’s head wins a virtual high 5

One thing leading me a little more down the path of attack-over-stealth is the way the new combat system handles assassinations. No longer are assassinations one-strike insta-kills. If your opponent is a higher level than you are, a stealth assassination might just take a chunk of their health away, allowing them to get up and retaliate. There are options and toggles to turn this off and revert to the old way, but so far I’ve been adjusting to the new system and trying it out, as I’ve been looking at this as the default option the developers intended. 

Speaking of toggles, there are plenty of options aside from just setting classic assassinations. If you want Dark Souls style difficulty, there are options for that. If you want to play through for the story and don’t need much of a challenge, turn combat options down and enjoy the viking drama. I found myself wanting to go to an easier difficulty at times, but touched it out because I’m a glutton for punishment. There are absolutely times in this game where, thanks to the incredibly huge open world, you will come across enemies that are much higher levels than you are. You will get your viking ass handed to you. It will be disheartening. But it will also show you how much further in the game you have to go, and how much stronger your character will get. When you finally topple, one of the tougher enemies, like the roaming Templar Knights who you will have to kill to progress through the Order of the Ancients and move up through the hierarchy, you really start to appreciate how far you’ve levelled and feel like your progress, skill points, weapon upgrades, and time with the game are working toward something. I found this approach was a really cool take on the usual Assassin’s Creed hit list, and I loved killing my way through the ranks and gathering the clues to hunt my next target. 

Another wolf picture, because I am OBSESSED!

Overall, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla feels familiar to fans of the series, but also completely different from any other entry in the series. It builds on the last couple of entries, brings back some feelings of being a badass from Black Flag, and carves a new path through a new world that moves the series in an exciting direction. It’s one of my favourite games of the year, one of my favourite entries in a series that I love, and I can’t wait to see where they go next! 

6 out of 6 Chicken Nuggets!