So after playing for nearly 120 hours, I have decided to put in my two sense on the latest AC game: Valhalla.
I’ve heard a lot of people bad mouthing it, though I feel somewhat differently.
Valhalla isn’t the best the Assassin’s Creed franchise has to offer, but it isn’t the worst either.
Aside from the main storyline there are tasks that you need to complete in each region. There are three types:
The three task types mentioned above can be both fun and frustrating, as depending on the difficulty of the territory it will be harder to find the right angle to destroy cursed artifacts, the power of legendary animals increases, and such.
When it comes to gameplay I feel like Valhalla has a lot to offer in terms of combat and stealth. You can conduct Raids all over England, though there are no glorious naval battles that Odyssey boasted.
There is a heavier presence of “Hidden Ones” or the “Assassins” as well as Isu lore.
However, I felt that the main storyline wasn’t very well written or conducted. Mostly because a lot of things that happened made no sense, or were never fully explained or properly lead up to. (SPOILERS AHEAD)
For example, a drengr named Dag seems to always have it out for Eivor. He is a part of our favourite viking’s crew from the beginning, and when you reach England your brother Sigurd will leave you in charge. Dag challenges you every step of the way, accusing Eivor of treason and publicly humiliating you while ignoring all of the good things you’ve done for the clan as a whole as well as individual people. Eventually he will challenge you to a duel, where you will be forced to kill him.
Next, you can choose whether or not to send Dag to Valhalla or deny him his place there. No matter what you choose the rest of the clan will react poorly, they themselves seeming to forget everything you’ve done for them and how you’ve been searching endlessly for Sigurd once he is captured by the Order of Ancients.
It is never explained why Dag acted this way, leaving his presence to be confusing as well as extremely frustrating. He raided at your side the whole time, watched you build the homes for your clan, the brewery, the seer’s hut, the bakery, etc. But no, you were only trying to usurp Sigurd.
At one point in the story you find Sigurd’s arm, left as a “gift” for you by Fulke, a member of the Order you are set to destroy. Eivor expresses great anguish at finding this, nobody seeming to care about how much of a mental toll this dogged search for your brother is for Eivor.
Upon finding Sigurd, he himself will accuse you of “taking too long” and asks if it is because you “enjoyed his throne”. Which again is a slap in the face after everything you’ve done to find him.
Throughout the rest of the story Sigurd will be cold to you, all the way up until the end. From there, depending on your choices, you could get the good, bad, or neutral ending.
I have only completed the good ending so far, and I DO feel like Sigurd redeemed himself a bit by opening up and finally, FINALLY recognizing Eivor’s achievements and loyalty.
Still, the story leaves a bitter taste in the mouth and doesn’t make me feel like playing it all over again.
Oh, and several characters are reincarnations of the Isu: Eivor is Odin, Sigurd is Tyr, and Basim is Loki. There’s a bit of a branching storyline there, but the asgard and midgard timelines feel like two separate stories, with the only connection really being names and a few other things here and there.
Odin seems to councel you throughout the story, but he is unfortunately just the devil on your shoulder. Near the end you will turn your back on him, freeing you from his influence.
Aside from the storyline the romance in Valhalla is very bland and nearly pointless. You have much fewer options to choose from, and very few of them are long term. My personal preference is Petra (the huntress) or Randvi (Sigurd’s wife... yeah).
When looking at the Order of the Ancients, the main enemies of the game that Eivor must eliminate, it feels exceedingly lacking when comparing it to AC Odyssey, which had a much more emersive style as well as individual enemies that are more entertaining.
So that’s the brief gist of it and what I feel about the game, some people may think that this is one of the better AC games. It ultimately comes down to preference.
