Reevaluating Assassin's Creed Valhalla

Despite being the best-selling Assassin's Creed game Valhalla definitely doesn't have the best reputation.

This makes sense in a lot of ways, the game's bloated and unstructured, with weaker characters than its predecessors. Even the stellar gameplay foundations from Origins feel like they've been diluted between games. 

Yet, I've got a bit of a soft spot for this messy Norse adventure. At launch, I considered Valhalla one of my favourite games in the series, and was enthralled by England, Eivor and the Raven Clan. The disappointing ending, lacklustre DLCs (I've still not even bothered picking up Dawn of Ragnarok) and updates that I think genuinely made the game feel worse to play, went to destroy that excitement, and soured the far too many hours I'd put into exploring this world. 

I'm not sure exactly why, maybe watching Duke of Whales’ excellent new ACII narrative breakdown gave me the hood bug again, but I felt the need to return to England, picking up on a save I abandoned a while back just after completing my first alliance arc. And, to be honest, I can see why I liked it so much. 

Now, straight off the bat, it's worth saying that I don't hold it in as high a regard as I did back at launch. The game is clunky, it has so many moving pieces that rarely flow well together. While likeable, Eivor is neither as fun as Kassandra or as well-written as Bayek, making her strangely forgettable. So you get this oddity, a mish mash of things constantly fighting for the spotlight. 

But paved over those issues, is a brilliant atmosphere, enjoyable exploration and a compelling gameplay loop sending you on adventures across the country before returning to spend your spoils at your settlement. It doesn't overcome these core issues, and at times the cover will crack and you're reminded of its flaws. Yet, in those moments between, when the mask is on firmly and you can fall into this Viking assassin fantasy, the game works. 

Boarding the longboat, setting a target and listening to your crew tell tales is just so immersive. It makes you want to take things slow, soak in the funny and obtuse tales from Eivor’s band of Vikings or just listen to Jesper Kyd’s stellar score. Rather than a constant swarm of loot filling your HUD, you can forget about gear hunts for miniscule upgrades and just enjoy your time in this beautifully produced - if a bit over the top - recreation of England. 

Even things like the regional arcs and small narrative tales add to this sense. Eivor isn't Kassandra or Bayek, jumping between thousands of quests at once with an endless list of goals and targets. She's single minded. Everything is about the settlement, and while the arcs will see you spending a lot of time getting attached to the people of each of England's many regions, your targets remain contained and allow that immersive atmosphere to take priority. 

I really wish this is what the game put all its time into, sharpening the narrative arcs, preparing a satisfying conclusion where we see Aelfred form the Templars and cutting out the needless high fantasy elements. There's a game here that could take the strengths of the RPG trilogy, and make it work within the fantasy set out by Assassin's Creed I.

Eivor's a constantly hunted outsider, taking down a corrupt political and religious order, being forced to face both the merits and failures of her beliefs - she's a precursor to Altair in many ways. Unfortunately, that story and game was drowned out by indecisiveness, misdirection and bloat. I only hope that Shadows doesn't make the same mistakes, but knowing Ubisoft Quebec…