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Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is the latest mainline release in the long-running Ubisoft franchise.
It follows its predecessor Odyssey’s footprints and focuses on being an action RPG instead of stealth-based action-adventure like most of the previous entries and takes place in the year of 873 where a fictionalized story of the Viking invasion of Britain is retold. The game was released to positive reception but was criticized for technical issues and repetition in the gameplay structure.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Gameplay
The game follows a third-person perspective and lets you traverse a large, detailed open world which is filled with a different story and side quests. The player takes control of a Viking and complete missions that contribute to the betterment of his/her (depending on which gender you choose) army and eventually lead them against other kingdoms. The playable characters are customizable to a certain extent as well besides the ability to pick the gender.
The game has multiple weapons to choose from which all alter the combat, and a new addition to the game is that you can dual wield almost every weapon that you can find – which includes the ability to hold a shield in one hand and a weapon in another. And you even hold two shields at a time, which may not be very useful but goes to show the kind of gameplay freedom that is offered.
While gameplay has been changed a lot compared to the older games, some features do return such as the Eagle Vision; but it’s renamed to the ‘Odin Sight’ to fit the theme of the game more accordingly. The player additionally gets an animal who can scout areas for them so they can know what threats or items could be available for them in the areas. The animal (a Raven) can also be used to distract guards away so that it becomes easier to sneak into some places in the game.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Gaming Style
Although the game is an action RPG, there’s still a bit of ‘social stealth’ in the game which allows the player to hide from enemies in certain pieces of environment and hide their identity by putting a hood on. But it’s not necessary if it does not fit your playstyle, so it’s another part of the game allowing you freedom to play it how you like. You can even fake your death if you think that would help your situation, but finding out whether it does or not is half the fun.
The game also has bosses, and the main ones are built differently from each other so they’d require different approaches and tactics to be fought. Most of them can be assassinated in the classic hidden blade style too, but you can choose to fight them head on and have a proper fight as well.
Since the game identifies with the RPG genre, it has the usual levelling up and skill tree options that you would expect to see, and they’re a bit less grindy than Assassin’s Creed Odyssey which was seen as an issue with that game. You can also make choices that affect the story and its outcome such as within conversation or to attack a settlement or solve it diplomatically – there’s several different ways to play the game which adds to the replay value.
Lastly, the game allows you to use naval transport but it’s less combat-based and more for just simply travelling through the game’s world unlike Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. There are also tons of mini games such as hunting, fishing, brawls for fun, drinking contests, rap battles (Flyting to be precise), a dice game, and Cairn construction.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Tips
The first thing in a game with a RPG structure is to make sure you remain consistently levelled up for harder threats as the game progresses, and a good way to do that in the game is to hunt a lot. It’s a great way to gather resources and you can use them to upgrade your weapons and equipment. You can also trade rarer animals for higher rewards when you get to that point.
Don’t mistake the wilderness as a way to get around the game’s map without running into trouble, as a matter of fact it’s more dangerous than the main road. In the forests you can run into gangs of criminals but on the main roads you will mostly just run into low tier guards/peasants. Guards also don’t attack you in most cases either, making roads the ideal choice overall compared to shortcuts.
We all love doing side missions, but Assassin’s Creed Valhalla has a very long storyline so you might find yourself a victim of repetition if you do too many side quests and then go back to the story. So, we’d recommend putting more effort on the story first instead while doing a few missions here and there.
While this goes without saying, make sure to practice with weapons and make sure you have figured out the load outs ideal for you. Since the game lets you dual wield everything, even if it’s two shields at once, it can be a while to try out every combination. But there’s a high reward if you do spend some time doing it, especially since even the game’s combat rewards patience due to how long the health bars of the bosses are.
