Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, Xbox Series
Ubisoft’s open-world model was made for Vikings. What were Norse raids if not the original collectathons? You call them pillagers; we see aggressive completionists. The truth is, in the heat of
Valhalla’s battles you might not even notice you’re crossing icons off a map. Sounding a horn turns a gentle river cruise into a raiding party, AI charging warriors up the banks to carve a route towards resource crates. It’s a show of shock and awe that’s initially hard to parse, as murky uniforms force you to rely on health bars to tell friend from foe. Get a few monasteries under your belt and it becomes second nature as you, as lead berserker Eivor, do the lion’s share of the slaying to inspire troops towards doors requiring a second body to barge open. The looting goal isn’t new to the series, but the brazen speed at which you strip the map of its prizes is bracing.
Crucially, no peasants are harmed in the making of these set-pieces, although the animators do a fine line in visibly shaken monks. Violence is reserved for Saxon guards, allowing Eivor to later make pacts with the local population without potential partners having to swallow a bitter spoonful of ludonarrative dissonance. Alliances tend to hinge on castle assaults that unfold as supercharged versions of Black Flag’s naval forts. Here you push a battering ram through outer walls, parting ways to hinder turrets or boiling oil as only a wall-scaling sneak can. If you felt triggering regional warfare in
Odyssey clashed with the series’ ostensibly sneaky leanings, that assassin’s cred takes a similar knock in these scenes. But, again, ransacking a freshly seized keep does boast a pleasingly brash energy compared to the scurrying list-checking in previous entries.
During bloodbaths it’s easy to see why some question whether the series has strayed from its remit. The topic is addressed in vital ways (more in a moment) and the hacking and slashing is less jarring than in Odyssey and
Origins, owing to both a tightening and expanding of the system. Enemies now have a shield bar you whittle down by parrying or sniping weak spots – a fun way of bringing bows into close-quarters play. This in turn stumbles foes for gooey kills or, with stronger brutes and bosses, increases your harm output. Opting between big stun damage and evasive needling lends brawls the drama missing in earlier iterations, furthered by a stamina bar (not as punishing as a Soulslike, but enough to prevent spamming) and ration-based health. Okay, a bout of midfight raspberry picking looks daft, but it provides tension missing in the health-regenerating powers of old.
Around this solid core grows an eyebrow-raising spread of violence. As you fill Eivor’s skill tree it reaches a point where it’s harder not to press a button and kill someone. You throw dropped weapons, rig bodies with bombs, lob axes to chain assassinations and stomp Saxons like bearded Goombas; practically the only inputs that don’t kill people are Start and Menu, and the latter brings up a map that points to where more atrocities can be committed. There’s even an option to blast a horn and summon your raiders, if a mere massacre isn’t enough. Accumulating ludicrous strength not only captures a berserker rage befitting the hero, it gives Valhalla more tangible character evolution beyond spiralling stats.
As a nuts-and-bolts RPG the maths of pain plays a smaller role. Eivor’s gear carries numbers, but a simplified upgrade path makes it easier for earlier finds to last the entire game. As well as cutting out Odyssey’s interminable equipment shuffling routine, having finite, unique loot gives you impetus to hunt every stash – another win for the pillagers. It becomes a game about wearing the right items in the right situation, with armour sets bestowing buffs. Or simply sticking with what pleases the eye, rather than what drives a damage value into five figures. And while rune slots do let you tweak unfavourable stats, and give wiggle room for tailoring builds to high-level challenges, none of it comes at the cost of bottlenecking your 70-hour trip through the meat of the adventure.
Slower-paced weapon unlocks also play nice with dual wielding. Any single-handed weapon can be paired (expanded to heavy weapons with the right upgrade), with their behaviour dictated by the hand and some pairings revealing bespoke interplay. Get two axes alternating and it becomes a limb-shredding drumroll. We’re particularly sold on encasing Eivor between two shields, like the meat in an angry sandwich. Experimenting with Eivor’s physicality in this way leans closer to the in-the-moment fun of an action romp than the invisible numbers game. And it’s a much better fit for a series that never quite found a proper footing in RPG territory.
Take assassinations, for example. What were instant kill techniques in Assassin’s Creeds of old became tangled with loot levels that dictated whether you had the numbers to slay with a stroke. Just like that, Origins and Odyssey became imprecise stealth offerings. Valhalla rediscovers that clarity, with an early skill tree node adding an extra timed cue to shank high-level enemies. A simple tweak that opens many avenues of approach. The hamlets you raid? You can now stalk key-carrying guards and steal treasures without traumatising monks. And the assassinations that once took centre stage again pepper the tale; both the loudest and subtlest Creed in years. This mechanical connective tissue is reinforced by narrative nods: set in the year 873, we’re within stabbing distance of the original game and all the lore that entails.
Excavation of Creeds past doesn’t stop at a hidden blade. It’s there in the social stealth that sees a cloaked Eivor skulk through hostile towns and mingle with monks to pass undetected. Ninth-century Winchester lacks the allure of Assassin’s Creed 2’s Venice, but the return of clandestine city breaks is a welcome change of pace amid the galloping freedom. Likewise, the focus on
The looting goal isn’t new to the series, but the brazen speed at which you strip the map of its prizes is bracing