Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed returns with Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, bringing yet another epic to this historic fantasy anthology. We have seen Egypt and Greece in the earliest days of civilization, and now we find ourselves in the early Medieval period barely outside of the Dark Ages playing as a Viking.
Our story begins in Norway, when life is good and we are celebrating in a longhouse with our family and our king. However, in customary Assassin’s Creed fashion, our happy life is interrupted and changed forever by an attack of our ancestral enemies. Everything we love is ripped away from us, but escape with our brother. Before the night is over, we are attacked by a wolf, who gives us a grim party favor. In this moment the Animus glitches out and forgets how chromosomes work. In order to continue the story we need to pick our gender. I don’t get why we couldn’t choose our protagonist from the beginning, but it is a good way to remind players of the 4th wall and that we are observing these memories. The only Animus/simulation things I’ve run into are the Eagle/Odin sight and synchronizations from climbing vantage points.
We skip ahead many years to our adulthood, but it seems we failed to achieve revenge for our family. To make matters worse, our enemies intend to sell us off to be a slave in Ireland. Naturally, we are not going to take this lying down. We break free and make moves to save our crew of hearty Vikings. Here is when the game throws you to the wolves and tries to teach you things along the way. The game has plenty of suggestions, but you are free to engage in any way you see fit. I enjoy the amount of choice that goes into skill points and equipment to match and complete a unique experience. I prefer the stealth approach, but you will see that stealth kills are not readily available on the scale of Ezio. You do deal more damage to unsuspecting enemies with melee and ranged weapons. All damage is displayed in numbers, as well as in a quickly depleting health bar.
Combat is simple and mostly fluid. The majority of the action comes from the controller bumpers and triggers, functions for melee and ranged attacks. You can tap the X button to dash as well. I thought it was kind of funny when I fought the first boss, and the game thought now was the best time to teach me how to dash, parry, and block. I would recommend learning to perfect these things outside of the battles with the heavy hitters with large health bars. I was surprised by how easy it is to take out enemies; you may want to select the difficulty higher than the default for a more challenging experience.
What kind of Viking experience would this be without a good old-fashioned raid? The moment you and your band of warriors row away from enemy shores, an outpost is waiting for you to loot and pillage. The group combat is cool, but I think you will see that you are the primary motivator for change; you are the character that mows down the defenders and everyone else is here for support. I haven’t seen any consequences or rewards for increasing wealth so far, but I think it is mostly a preview of what is to come as we move to other lands.
I am having such a great experience so far. I have not experienced any crashes, even before the patch on launch, and I have more fingers on my right hand than the amount of glitches I’ve encountered. I think Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is a well-polished and smooth-running game, which is great for me because I am still playing on my Xbox One. I think a fair rating for this game should be a 9.5 out of 10. This is going to consume hours of your life.
Check Out the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Preview Part 1 Video:
For more information about Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, please visit: assassinscreed.com
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
Xbox One Review
I like to think of myself as the average Joe who grew up alongside video games. I have fun playing strategy games, RPGs, shooters, sandboxes, the whole shebang! Every game provides an experience whether it strikes you as profound, mundane, or someplace in between. I'd like to weigh in my two cents before you spend a single penny.
More Stories
GTA Online this Week Features Double Rewards on Auto Shop Robberies, Bonuses for Original Heist Finales, Plus More
THRESHOLD Review for Steam
On December 3, theHunter: Call of the Wild will Release Free Update and 3 New DLC Packs