Assassin's Creed Valhalla review: 'A game caught between generations'
By Jordan Middler // Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ The Social contributor // 09 November 2020
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s stunning visuals and often gripping storytelling can’t make up for the padded quest structure and outdated open world.
While at times a showpiece for the next generation of gaming, at others, it feels stuck in 2015.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla Review
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is a game caught between generations in more ways than one.
Few franchises in the last 15 years have cut into the gaming consciousness as much as Assassin’s Creed. This is helped by the fact that few series have had as many sequels in the same space of time. However, the Assassin’s Creeds of recent years are a far cry from Ezio sneaking through the streets of Rome.
The games are now sprawling RPGs, taking massive inspiration from games like The Witcher 3. There are now enormous maps that stretch for miles, all filled with small distractions. The recent Assassin’s Creed games are in the running for some of the “most” games ever made.
The problem is, not all that content is good, and in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, the really good content, of which there is a lot, is bogged down by dull admin.
The story follows Eivor, an orphaned Viking from Norway who travels across to England in order to settle his/her people. And by settle, they obviously mean burn half the place to the ground.
Valhalla is at its best when you’re neck-deep in a battle. Castle walls crumbling around you, enemies on every side, only you and your father's axe in hand, determined to make it out alive. Divorcing enemy’s heads from their shoulders at a speed that often sends them out for a home run, the intense raids are when the game shines.
Sadly, a lot of that is complemented with long, stilted horse rides that lead to conversations that feel like they’re making up the time, rather than advancing the plot.
From a visual perspective, you’re going to be hard pressed to find anything that looks quite as good on a next generation console. Only Spider-Man Miles Morales on the PS5 edges it, and nothing on the Xbox Series X comes close.
There’s plenty to love about Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, but it needed an editor to come in and chop about one quarter of the fat off to streamline it. Yes, there is a significant amount of content here, but the question is, would you prefer 100 hours of okay content or 20 hours of fantastic content?
For me, the answer is the latter.
