Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla
Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla is a game that breaks with the old style of Assassin’s Creed even more than the last few games. In a setting where Raids with your fellow Vikings take center stage and open combat is the order of the day, the more traditional stealth gameplay is increasingly fading into the background. Fortunately, that fighting in itself is very nice and Assassin’s Creed is; Valhalla packed with content. The English landscape is well filled with quests, treasures and secrets to which are added Norway, Asgard and of course the piece in the present. Fans of the old AC games will find hunting members of The Order of the Ancients entertaining, but the story about the Assassins and Templars often hangs just a bit too. That’s okay, because the majority of the game is fun, inviting and even addictive, but it does underline that the evolution of the Assassin’s Creed series with Valhalla is taking another step further away from the basis it once started with. Whether that’s bad is a matter of taste, but this open-world action RPG is a great game anyway. Even after tens of hours of play, he manages to surprise you every now and then with a memorable mission, beautiful location or cool new skill, so that he knows how to hold your attention for a long time.
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Final verdict
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Remember back in the day when console gaming was extremely simple? Switch on the device, insert cardridge or CD-ROM and go. In 2020 we are not only completely used to periodic updates that fix all kinds of bugs and other problems, we have even settled on a ‘PC-like’ system. After all, which platform should you consider when dealing with a game that, depending on which hardware you have, looks better or less beautiful? PC gaming, of course, but nowadays also console gaming. That has everything to do with ‘Smart Delivery’. The Xbox platform reads which console a user connects to the store with, and then downloads the correct version of the game. So Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, as one of the first games for this new generation of consoles, looks different on an Xbox Series X than on a Series S, a One X or an even older One. It also means that Ubisoft had to point out that until there was a ‘next-gen update’, we were more or less playing the backwards compatible One X version. The update is now available and Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla can be played in full glory on 4k60 on the Xbox Series X. So it is high time to find the Northern Lights, in the latest addition to the long-running series of Ubisoft.
Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla is a standalone game, but also the third game in a series that started with Assassin’s Creed: Origin and continued in Odyssey. This has several reasons. This is the third part in which the story in the present revolves around Layla Hassan, who relives memories of people from the past through Animus technology. By the way, we immediately hit a point of order: it is wise to play Odyssey before starting Valhalla. Events from the final stages of Odyssey are discussed early in the game. It’s more fun when you understand what it’s about and it can even be a spoiler for you if you were still planning on playing Odyssey.
In addition, this is the third game that is made according to the Origins formula. Assassin’s Creed was, with the exceptions Black Flag and Rogue, a game series that revolved around gameplay in and around major cities. Origins changed that, Odyssey took it one step further and Valhalla is expanding it even further. At the same time, it is nice that the Mediterranean atmosphere of Origins and Odyssey is exchanged for the colder Norway and colorful England. That hardly sounds appetizing, but Origins and Odyssey were very similar due to the similarities in climate. The choice for new environments also brings a different atmosphere and a completely different look, so that obstacle has already been overcome.
In touch with the Hidden Ones
Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla opens in Norway. The young Eivor – whether that is a man or a woman you can decide for yourself – experiences up close how a party night with her clan turns into a carnage when a hostile clan of Vikings is at the door. The leader of that clan kills Eivor’s parents, who have pledged their allegiance to the local Jarl. That Jarl then adopts Eivor and she grows up as Sigurd’s stepbrother. Together with Sigurd, Eivor then chases the people who have done her so much injustice. Through Sigurd she also comes into contact with two oriental men, who already betray in their appearance that they are part of what will later become the Brotherhood of Assassins. These mysterious men give Eivor her ‘hidden blade’, which she does not carry as a hidden weapon, but simply open and exposed. It is a first introduction to these Hidden Ones, who occasionally come into play during the story.
When Eivor and Sigurd take their revenge, it turns out that their Jarl has sworn allegiance to another leader, effectively depriving Sigurd of the chance to ever take control. Sigurd and Eivor reach their conclusions, pack up and jump into a Longship to go to England. Once there, Sigurd leaves to forge alliances and Eivor must build a village. This quickly leads her away from the village and allows her to forge alliances herself. Before all of this begins, however, let’s stop for a moment in contemporary times. Layla encounters a technical problem and has to stop her Animus work. When she walks around and chats with her team members, it soon becomes apparent that the company is not in England or Norway, but in America. And to make it even crazier, she is standing next to the grave of none other than Eivor. That obviously has a function. It gives the player a beacon, something to look forward to in the (distant) future. You know that the lady (or gentleman) who tries so hard to found a nice village in England, ends up in America at some point. How, why and what that means for Layla and her team? These are questions to which you have to find the answers yourself.
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