Assassin's Creed Valhalla

Assassin's Creed Valhalla is a third-person action-adventure game with RPG elements, set in a vast, well-crafted, ever-changing open world. Most of the action takes place in East Anglia. The protagonist is a Viking named Eivor (whether male or female doesn't matter).

The game mechanics have been redesigned to reflect the era and popular historical views of Vikings as fierce close-combat fighters. A gameplay innovation in Valhalla is that the blade has been moved from the wrist to the outside of the arm, and you can hold a blade or shield in each hand. Graphically, the game uses an updated version of the same engine as Assassin's Creed Odyssey.

Valhalla features a vast, handcrafted open world that includes parts of modern-day East Anglia and Norway, along with special locations such as Kyiv, which players visit as part of the story.

England makes up most of the game world and reflects the landscape of its real-life counterpart: dense forests and wide meadows, lowlands and hills, rivers and swamps, and the North Sea coast. The regional system has been removed and replaced with several large kingdoms at war with one another, while Viking settlers add a factor of global threat.

Human influence is already clear: farming and animal husbandry are well developed, small villages and larger settlements are found everywhere, and there are also a couple of large cities where trade and crafts thrive. Fortresses have appeared—well-defended strongholds with large numbers of soldiers and bosses.

Valhalla's world is comparable in size to Odyssey's, but has more land, as Ubisoft depicts the Viking settlement of England. The world is also more open in structure and doesn't tie players to a character level. There are few activities at sea; the longship is mainly used to transport the hero and companions, scout, and launch surprise attacks, rather than fight other ships.

Valhalla's world also includes the northwestern part of Scandinavia, with its harsh climate, steep mountains, and cold waters beneath the majestic northern lights. This part of the world is used mainly for story events.

The main character, Eivor, is a fictional character based on historical figures. They are a fierce Viking, raised on legends of great battles and military glory. At the time of the game’s events, they are both a warrior-conqueror and the leader of their small clan.

Eivor’s membership in the Assassins, however, is mostly formal: they share enemies with the Brotherhood, and they were given a pretty cool blade, but they only have a vague understanding of the true purpose of their membership and are focused on their own interests.

Character progression in Valhalla follows the spirit of The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim: the more you use an ability, the higher your character’s skill level becomes. The game has more RPG elements; you can develop your character in several different directions and use gear of varying quality. Each piece of gear is tied to a particular archetype—Raven, Bear, or Wolf—each with its own combat style and skill tree.

Unlike Odyssey, Valhalla has a new quality system: each item can be upgraded to level ten, which solves the problem of loot balance. Before, weapons and armor dropped too often and took up time with tedious inventory management; now there are fewer items, but you can upgrade them however you like. You need to collect numerous resources to upgrade them.

As always, the events of Valhalla unfold in the past (the 9th century) and the present. The upgraded Animus will allow Layla Hassan, whose story began in Assassin's Creed: Origins and continued in Odyssey, to delve deeper into the history of the conflict between the Assassins and Templars. The present-day storyline is longer.

In the past, in the spirit of early feudalism, a fierce struggle for resources is underway. Migration of local tribes from cold and hungry Scandinavia across the North Sea to warm, resource-rich England begins, where a struggle for power is already raging.

The warring Kingdoms greet settlers with suspicion and hatred, and the protagonist must ensure their clan’s survival at any cost. As the writers would have it, the Saxons and Vikings you encounter can be either good or bad. You’ll need to make alliances with the former, while the latter must be fought and forced into peace. So don’t be surprised when Eivor, having joined forces with the English, goes to war against his own Danes, who despise him for refusing to conquer lands.

At the same time, the main antagonist, Alfred the Great, King of Wessex, seeks to rule England alone and has called for the extermination of the northern peoples. Players can prevent this by making their way through a whirlwind of events, visiting every corner of the game world, joining forces with other clans and Kingdoms, and uncovering one conspiracy after another—each driving a wedge between the peoples and their peaceful coexistence.

Valhalla’s story arcs are more substantial than before, and side quests have been almost entirely done away with (it would be strange for the foreigner Eivor to start taking jobs from peaceful residents). Instead, Ubisoft uses “world events” that Eivor encounters while exploring, bringing the game closer to Red Dead Redemption 2, where some stories didn’t even appear on the map.

The Templars play a significant role in fueling the conflict in eastern England, so you won’t be able to stay out of the conflict between them and the Assassins. In time, Eivor will find himself at its center.

Much of Valhalla’s gameplay revolves around developing your own settlement by constructing various buildings (barracks, a forge, a tattoo parlor, and so on) and upgrading them over time. This all requires a great deal of resources, which players have little of at the beginning, so you’ll have to raid settlements and forts. The first are easy enough to plunder: break through the defenses, storm the settlement, and defeat its leader.

Forts are a different story: they’re protected by formidable walls, numerous soldiers, and several bosses, so attacking them is a large-scale operation, similar to sieges in games like Medieval: Total War and is divided into several stages. The player kills regular and elite enemies, protects allies, and helps them ram gates, breaking through to the fortress’s next levels and eventually taking down the boss. The player will receive more resources for such an assault, and a better reward for Eivor personally.

Another option is to forge alliances and organize trade with local English settlements. But trust must still be earned, as reflected by the Influence (reputation) system, which depends on completing quests and helping NPCs. Some tasks can only be completed after building up your Influence.

The Vikings will face many enemies in their new home, so the combat system has been reworked. In battle, you’ll need to actively defend yourself with a shield while hacking your way through hordes of enemies with dual axes or swords. Many pieces of equipment, such as weapons, now have a durability mechanic.

There are several types of weapons, which can be upgraded with special runes that add fire, frost, or lightning damage—elements characteristic of Scandinavian mythology. In combat, the player must use special abilities with different effects, with up to eight available: four for ranged combat and four for melee.

The influence of Dark Souls has reached Assassin's Creed: the difficulty level affects timing, parry windows, the player’s health, and the enemies’ awareness and reaction speed.

There is no information about the possible addition of a co-op campaign mode or competitive online modes like those in the older Assassin's Creed games.

The only likely addition is an item shop similar to the one in Odyssey, which would not affect gameplay.