Assassin's Creed Valhalla - PS5 | Review

Assassin’s Creed has never been a series that I’ve followed closely. I originally played Assassin’s Creed II which honestly helped cement my love of stealth RPGs, but outside of dipping my toes into Black Flag, I’d not really played much of the series. Then along came Assassin’s Creed Odyssey which combined so many aspects of games and culture that I love, I was hooked once more. This is why I was so excited for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla - a next gen iteration of a series that I was coming to love once more? Sign me up!

Set in the 9th-Century Viking invasion of Britain, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla follows the story of Nordic siblings Eivor and Sigurd as they break away from their clan and seek fame and fortune in England. In a direction I quite like, the majority of the story focuses on the two forging alliances and navigating the complex political landscape which has formed in the broken kingdom of England.

Serving as a makeshift headquarters for the incursion is the settlement of Ravensthorpe - the grounding point, and future town of the Raven clan. It doesn’t just serve a narrative purpose, but also is customisable in the sense that you can upgrade and build structures for your fellow clan. There’s things like a shop, hunter’s lodge and Roman museum, all of which provide buffs to your character stats, and can provide services and quests depending on how upgraded they are. It’s these features that keep you coming back to your settlement as you learn more about the settlers who live there and uncovering their secrets.

Ravensthorpe does a great job at being central to everything you are doing - it’s from here you plan which regions you’ll venture to and form alliances, plan raids and build up Eivor's stats. In order to upgrade and improve your settlements you must partake in river raids, excursions to monasteries across the country which provide you with resources and unique weapons & armour.

The raids are good in theory, but feed in the confusing identity that Assassin's Creed has in the later titles. I’m about 35-40 hours into Valhalla as of the time of writing, and I don’t think I've felt this conflicted about a game in a long while. Valhalla is in a tough spot, it feels like a strange amalgam of what the franchise used to be, and what the AAA game space wants it to be. On the one hand it’s a standard open-world action RPG, but on the other it still wants to tell the story of assassins and spies, stealth and subterfuge.

Take, for example, the sieges that serve to conclude each region’s narrative arc. These sections of the game completely abandon any form of stealth, and as the name suggests, sees you besiege some kind of important location. This is fine, but like with Odyssey’s conquests, they are thin in content. It usually boils down to fighting a swarm of nameless NPCs before unlocking a gate - do this a few times and you can fight a slightly more buffed nameless NPC to win the siege.

The first few sieges you do will feel grand and exciting, but the lack of anything meaningful or any real challenge results in them feeling stale as the game progresses. They are fun, but they hold about the same weight as the river raids - raids which you can complete whenever you want, and ultimately have no impact on the plot.

On the topic of plot, whereas in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey it was easy to get invested Kassandra’s journey, and more importantly, her connection to the eternal war seeded throughout the Assassin’s Creed series, in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla the overarching plot just feels like it’s there, disconnected from everything else that is happening. This, I feel is down to the protagonist’s link to ‘The Order’ who serve as the franchise’s primary antagonist

In the story of Odyssey the link is woven through the plot seamlessly - Kassandra fights The Order because they ruined her family, kidnapped and indoctrinated her brother and are directly calling her into war. In Valhalla, your introduction to The Order is via characters your brother met before the game began. They are then given a permanent spot in your settlement and are loosely incorporated into the plot. I’m not saying they have no bearing on the plot, but the targets that you’re tasked with taking down across England feel arbitrary and forced. Outside of, maybe, two members of The Order, Eivor’s determination to take down The Order feels forced. (In my original notes I commented “It feels as though Eivor is taking on someone else’s fight and is pursuing them to such lengths that it feels unnatural and out of place)

This comes down to a complaint which I had with Odyssey - it feels like there is a solid story here, but it’s being forced into the Assassin’s Creed mould. The story of Eivor & Sigurd joining the Viking Invasion is interesting, the twists and turns the story takes you on is engaging, but too much of the game is brought down by the links to established Assassin’s Creed features (In a breath of fresh air, I’ve only been forced into one out-of-animus sequence).

Everything I’ve mentioned so far might lead to the assumption that I dislike the game….yet I cannot stop playing. I dislike the Assassin’s Creed formula, but there is so much to love about Valhalla. From Norway, to England, to Asgard itself the setting of Valhalla is beautifully created and a genuine pleasure to explore. The characters of Ravensthorpe and their interconnected stories keeps me coming back, and I am invested in seeing how the relationship between Eivor and Sigurd grows as they seek different goals.

I’ve not touched much on the actual combat of Valhalla and that’s because it does very little different to Odyssey, and this isn’t a bad thing. While nearly absent of stealth, the core combat mechanics are fun to play and it is fun to experiment with the plethora of skills and abilities at Eivor’s disposal.

For better or for worse, Assassin’s Creed has outgrown its stealth persona. It is now more in line with more mainstream open-world RPGs, but luckily the franchise has embraced this with open arms in Valhalla.

It feels weird to say, but the worst thing about the more recent Assassin’s Creed games, is that they are Assassin’s Creed games. If you can sift through some of the heavier links to the franchise’s history there is a lot to love here and I would definitely recommend it - it’s not perfect, but it does enough right that it’s had me hooked, and likely will for at least a couple more weeks.