Assassin's Creed Valhalla Review (PS4)

Assassin's Creed Odyssey was probably my favorite game of 2018. One of my favorite Assassin's Creed game of all time. The best things about Odyssey was the Ancient Greek setting, the main character, Kassandra, and the music. Valhalla is now the 12th game in the long running series and it follows the same role-playing/adventure tradition we have gotten used to in both Origins and Odyssey. How does it compare? 

First, the setting. The game is set in the late 800's and your playground is mainly England, but also Norway. It's a game about vikings and they were all about conquering and raiding but also family and honor. Norse Mythology has been a theme in other recent games like God of War and Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice and it is heavily present here too. 

Story and Characters

At the beginning of the game you can choose to play as male or female Eivor. If choices like this make you uneasy, you can also let the animus choose for you. I chose to play as male Eivor this time and I think the voice actor does a decent job. Eivor is a relatable fellow, but not nearly as good as Kassandra. 

Assassin's Creed Valhalla follows the story of Eivor, a Norse viking warrior, who lost his parents at a young age, was almost killed by a wolf and thus nicknamed Wolf-Kissed. (pretty cool nickname if you ask me) Having lost his parents he was raised by the ruling jarl and his son, Sigurd. Sigurd became like and older brother (from another mother) to Eivor and together they had lots of adventures. All grown up and during political and personal tensions in Norway, Eivor and Sigurd decide to set sail to England instead. There they hope to find glory, wealth and fame.

They arrive in a divided England. Saxon kings and Danish Jarls rule different regions. To find their own place in this foreign land, Eivor and Sigurd need alliances. Luckily, they're good at negotiating, and fighting.

The main missions are divided into story arcs. They all follow a similar structure, where you pledge to go to a different region and make an alliance with the leaders there. The more alliances you make, the stronger your presence and influence in England is and it can also affect how the story plays out.

The story missions are fine, some of them great even, but they're also too structured and full of cutscenes that ruin the immersion. A problem that doesn't only concern Valhalla but many other games, is the mixing of cutscenes and (minimal) player interaction. The alternating between a cutscene and some minor interaction, where you have to walk or press button get's annoying. I think it might be better if it was a clear cut between the two.

Valhalla also suffers from bad pacing. The starts is a bit slow, which is fine but then when the story eventually gains momentum it feels like it suddenly stops and then just slowly fades away. There is no grand finale, no actual closure. No end credits.

There are some cool side characters, like Ivarr the Boneless, but also many quite forgettable ones. I don't know what's up with the character animations either, specifically hand gestures. Some characters move their hands and arms around like I don't know what and some are very heavy breathers (I'm looking at you Randvi). These might seem like minor issues yes, but these animations take you out of the immersion and could have used some more work. 

When it comes to the modern day story, Layla is back (yaay...) and so is Shaun and Rebecca. But they've changed. They all look different. Layla's character is actually an improvement but what the hell happened to Shaun and Rebecca? They're practically unrecognizable. I just don't understand the change in looks, but allright.

I honestly couldn't get into the modern day story this time and it's actually just a small fraction of the whole game. However, what I did get was that somehow solar flares are back and Layla and the other assassins are trying to find away to save earth, again.

Activities

Aside from the main missions there are tons of stuff to do. I mean literally hundreds of mysteries to unravel, wealth to collect and secrets to find. It's a bit overwhelming to be honest. You really have to pick and choose what is worth your time and what is not. Doing everything, will suck you dry.

My approach was doing the main missions, some flyting (to build charisma), finding gear and the hidden one's bureau's. If you want to upgrade your gear or your homestead, you also have to do some raiding and wealth collecting. 

I really took a liking to flyting. For those of you who don't know what it is, it's aViking version of a "Rap Battle". You throw insults at one another, often in rhyme or in an otherwise elegant way. Flyting was actually refreshing, different and surprisingly fun.

Missed opportunity: Winning a flyting competition increases your charisma, which can give you an edge in some conversations. However, it doesn't affect romancing at all. Honestly, the romances are quite unnecessary actually and don't require any skill. You don't have to say the right things or do anything particular. It seems every romance option is available to you (correct me if I'm wrong) if you just press the dialog option with a heart. It's not like in Mass Effect or Dragon Age where you really have to work for it. Say the right things and match words with your actions.

Weapons, Gear and Combat

The game is not that difficult, but still you want to have nice looking gear and a decent defense when fighting some of the stronger enemies. Aside from weapons like axes, swords, bows and spears, you can get different abilities by finding books of knowledge. These are similar to the abilities found in Odyssey but somehow they aren't as fun or useful. Combat isn't as fun either and the game doesn't really encourage stealth. Weapons and armor is only found in special chests and you have to commit quite early, which ones you want to upgrade. Upgrading at a high level takes a lot of resources and grinding for them might not be something you want to do.

There are some missions you can do stealthily but often it is way too hard. There are too many enemies around and although you have a raven at your disposal, you can't mark them the same way as in Odyssey. I also tried raiding alone, using stealth, but that is not possible. You can't open some doors or chests alone. Come on dude, seriously? I get it, Vikings liked to raid, fight and drink but what about the more introverted ones, vikings who preferred doing things on their one terms, alone?

This is actually one of my biggest issues with AC Valhalla. Since it is a (soft) role-playing game, I think you should get to choose how you want to play and who you want to become. Luckily there is also the option to go into the world alone and do stuff you want to do. The best moments I usually had was going into the world with just my horse and a sense of adventure. 

Verdict

The hours between 30-50 hours in, was the best time I had with Valhalla. This was when exploring the world was the most fun and the story gained momentum. But the game is just too big for it's own sake. You easily burn out doing the endless quests. I played the game on and off for over two months before I completed the main story, clocking 103 hours. I generally had a good time but I would have preferred a more tight story over a huge world.

A role-playing adventure game like Assassin's Creed Valhalla shouldn't strive to be a minimalistic game, I get that, but it got me thinking of a quote I've heard by the french writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery. He said that:

“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”

I sometimes think about this when making music. It's so easy to add layers and layers to a track. But once in a while, it's good to step back and see how much you can remove, while still maintaining the essence of the song. To remove the fluff,  and only keep what makes it good.

The same could apply to game design. If you just keep adding stuff and never removing anything, the result can become a bloated mess. I'm not saying here, that Valhalla is a mess, but it is a bit bloated. The completionist in me would really like to do everything there is to do in the game, but honestly it is just too much. Just saying.

What Valhalla does right is the environment, the game world. It looks and feels great. From the snowy mountains of Norway to the misty forests of England, this is a world you can't admire enough. You can easily get lost in it for hours and hours. I thoroughly enjoyed exploring caves and finding the hidden one's bureau's. The music also builds good atmosphere but I wasn't a fan of the more viking inspired songs during raids. They got a bit annoying.

So now that the RPG trilogy of Assassin's Creed is over, I wonder which direction they will go next. Will they just keep expanding, making the games bigger and longer or will they change it up. Only the future will tell.