The Assassin’s Creed Franchise has been a big part of my life since it debuted in 2007. It’s helped me through tough times, led to the discovery of my career, and even helped to get my first job in the industry. Every time a new game releases, I look to see if it can recapture the magic I felt for the series back in the beginning. 

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is the latest game in the franchise and the third since the restructure of the franchise, continuing the series’ new course of RPG gameplay. So grab your drinking horn and read-on to see why you should ride into Valhalla. 

London Calling

For the second time in the franchise, Assassin’s Creed takes you to England, and this time around they’ve ditched the Victorian era canes and top hats for drinking horns and axes. The game sees you play as Eivor, a Norwegian Viking who leaves their village to settle a new home in Britain. As you go through the game you’ll confront kings, help fledgling lords, and meet other Viking clans. Without going into further detail it’s one of the series’ best stories yet. 

What makes the story so good is the characters, especially those in your Viking clan. As you build Ravensthorpe, your settlement in England, you’ll meet more side characters and create a bond. Eivor’s brother Sigurd and his wife Randvi were two characters I absolutely loved getting to know, even the connection with Dag, who distrusts Eivor was one that I was so curious to learn more about. While previous versions of AC have done wonders with characters, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla has stepped up its game on creating interesting folks to inhabit this world. 

Eivor preparing for battle

By far the most important character is Eivor. You forge their story as you play through the game and it will take you to places you didn’t expect, including the mythological. I played the game as female Eivor and loved that version of the character, while you can switch gender at any time, or even have the game randomly change it, the best version of the character was female Eivor. It makes me hope that for future AC games, Ubisoft can drop the dual character/gender approach and focus primarily on a female assassin, as this is the second time the female version has been more interesting than her male counterpart. 

Getting lost in the Countryside

With every new iteration of an open-world game, developers try to outdo the last game with a bigger, bolder, and better map. Assassin’s Creed has been doing this since the onset of the series and Valhalla is no different,  offering one of, if not the largest map in AC history. England is a vast place, with each province feeling a little unique, as much as a medieval island nation can be. There’s also Norway and a few additional maps you visit that each offers their own stories and treasures to find. 

Petting a Viking Doggo

Like any other RPG game, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is loaded to the brim with additional content, whether it’s helping two men rob a house, using cats to get rid of rats, or fighting some of Ragnar Lodbrok’s bravest men. These missions are mostly great, each offering a fun or interesting story for Eivor to experience or provide a challenge for you to overcome. There are also some fun side games, such as the ale chugging competitions which are mostly fun but a bit repetitive, or the Viking battle rap which is fun the first one or two times, but it quickly devolves into just selecting the right answer rather than the most fun one. By far the best side quest though is Orlog, a dice game that can be quickly described as Viking Magic the Gathering. I was intrigued at first and eventually found myself running around England trying to find new opponents to face and get more totems. 

Building on Evolution

With Valhalla launching alongside the next generation of consoles, the game offered versions for the last-gen console and upgraded versions for the PS5 and Xbox Series X. I had the opportunity to play the game on both my launch Xbox One and my Xbox Series X and both versions are stunning. The last-gen version uses most of the hardware and delivers a great game, with more clouds and fog to hide the distance. Despite the lack of power in the console, the game looks great. What is truly stunning is the next-gen version, which looks amazing in 4K with HDR capabilities. Just look at the screenshot below, which includes the Xbox One version on the left, and the Series X version on the right. Just the sheer amount of detail in the Series X version alone blows my mind and makes me quite excited for what the future holds for the next-gen. 

Left: AC Valhalla Screenshot on a base Xbox One – Right: AC Valhalla Screenshot on Xbox Series X

Also, the near-instant loading time on next-gen is a HUGE plus… While last-gen loads in about a minute, you can go from the menu to in-game in roughly 5 seconds on Series X. 

While a graphics update is nice, the biggest evolution in Vallhalla comes from the RPG mechanics. Like it or not, the AC franchise is a full-blown RPG and each new entry doubles down on this. Valhalla takes it further with a massive level system and skill tree and replaces the origins and odyssey equipment system with a more streamlined version. Gone are the days of getting 80 shields, now you get a smaller selection that you can upgrade as you want. This takes time away from Inventory management but did have me questioning if I should still be using the same sword for the past 20 hours or switch to something else. 

The hardest part for me to grasp in Valhalla was the combat. Origins and Odyssey both did their iterations of combat, with the former preferring blocking while the latter had you dodge more. Valhalla is a bit of both, which allows you to play how you want, as does the insane weapons system that will eventually let you dual wield anything, even two shields. What I struggled to get used to at the start of the game was the combat camera, which saw the camera zoom very far back during combat. It took some getting used to but after a few hours I adjusted and went on stabbing folks and chopping off heads. 

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Assassin’s Creed Valhalla may return the franchise to familiar territory in England, but it also takes the series to new heights and solidifies the future of Assassin’s Creed. Eivor and her Viking clan shine in one of Assassin’s Creed’s best games to date. Many folks compared the previous two AC games to The Witcher series. Well, if Odyssey is the Witcher, then Valhalla is the Witcher 3.