Review
Played on: Xbox Series X
Released: 2020
Naturally, there was a lot of expectations riding on Valhalla for me. Set in Viking Norway, my home country, and it released alongside the launch of my newly purchased Xbox Series X. Optimised for a new generation, while at the same time having a setting that intrigued me immensely, was a dream come true.
Let’s take a look and see if it outclassed Odyssey and lived up to my expectations.
My experience with Valhalla is a little divided, perhaps even some of my hype was turned a little too high. Considering the 100+ hours I put into Odyssey, it satiated my appetite for a new and massive AC.
Valhalla begins beautifully, fulfilling my dream of exploring my home country and playing out the history books of being a Viking. We’re on a raid, sailing a longboat, exploring a Viking village and climbing mountains. However, after a massive introduction, two-three hours' worth of gameplay, I came to realise Valhalla isn’t set in Norway for its main duration. No, we're moved over to a settlement in England. I know this is the main history of Viking raids and as such a suiting setting, however, it was a less interesting and varied landscape to explore for me.
Maybe Valhalla's world just doesn't quite push my buttons the way Odyssey does with its lush beaches, white covered stone cities and blue oceans. Here we have England's moody and dark countryside at the brink of medieval ages. That’s a visual preference though, and believe me, the organic world of Valhalla is breath-taking, technically step up from Odyssey, in its own right. While you won’t find anything as massive as Athens here, there are some large cities to roam. I think that a 50/50 percentage of England and Norway utilised as locations, would've been a better choice.
The main goal of Valhalla is about getting a footing in England, building a settlement, levelling your character, Eivor, as a strong leader and then ruthlessly collect England to one kingdom and rule. Gaining the trust of local lords, kings and other Viking families along the way. It’s once again, for the AC series, an interesting window into history and an opportunity to live how they did back then.
Although violent, some of the best features in this Valhalla are the raids on churches and attacks on fortifications. Landing your Viking ship along the riverside and storming your clan up to a church or castle, killing and looting what you might find. It’s a brutal reminder of the harsh life back then.
Much like Odyssey, there are more than the main quests at hand, like the list of assassinations of Templar leaders, although, I felt the list lacked the mystery and creepiness it had in Odyssey. There’s also a separate story about the northern gods, allowing Eivor to sink into a dream about Valhalla, home and resting place of the north Gods. I found this part less interesting and opted out of it, but for fans of Viking history this is a cool and large side story. I’ve heard a lot about it previously, but for newcomers to northern myths, they have a lot of fun to dig in to.
There’s also a very discrete modern-day story, which explains the ties this game has with the ongoing, future battle of assassins and Templars, although I feel this part is so small it’s almost non-existent. Recent, future, AC plans have revealed this modern-day exploration to be separated completely from the games, into a hub like app. So, I guess this small part of Valhalla is the last time it shows up in an AC game.
For a launch title, on the new console generation of Xbox Series X/S and PS5, Valhalla cleverly opts for a 60fps experience. It made the shift to a new generation of consoles clear, with a big step up from the earlier Origins and Odyssey experiences in smoothness and responsiveness. Although, these latter AC releases have since received a 60fps updates for the new consoles. Nevertheless, seeing another major franchise take the jump to 60fps on console is much appreciated.
Valhalla treats us to some neat dynamic visual flair. The way sunlight throws itself across grass fields, through tree branches in woods, or how weather changes with shadows of clouds stretching and moving across fields, is very pleasant to watch. It’s a beautifully, organic focused, world and the subtle change to more cold and snowy landscapes in the north is so pretty. Sadly, the underutilised Norwegian landscape, is the most interesting and drastic, with massive mountains to climb and snow fjords to sail through. So, remember to go exploring there too!
Gameplay keeps the great battle system from Odyssey, although this time around they’ve made parrying more important. Nerfing you somewhat in the special moves you can perform. It’s a more intense battle system, it feels tougher to keep yourself from harm. The large battles attacking enemy forts is very impressive too, with tons of soldiers storming castle walls and enemy archers firing away at you. Smashing down a castle door with a ram comes to mind as a super cool experience.
One of my main gripes with the game, considering its massive scale and length, is it’s pacing. It’s a terribly slow game to progress in. It begins rather dramatic, but when it shifts from Norway to England it really goes on the slow burner. I’m not very fond of games making you settle in somewhere, only to disrupt it and move you along. Once your settlement in England is established though, it’s fun to expand and improve its various buildings. Like a bakery, hunters lodge, fishing house, horse stables etc.
As much as I love content, there’s just so many tasks at hand, with the uniting of England requiring you to go into each region, become friends with its leader and perform lots of tasks before gaining their trust. It’s a windy, slow and sluggish progression, begging for a shorter route for those that want to get the momentum going and play faster through the main story.
On the plus side, Ubisoft have really gone all in to keep this game alive, there at tons of secrets to discover on the map, frequent updates to festivals in your camp, many side missions and even more extra stuff if you’re a season pass owner. I loved mini games like the beer drinking contest and the super amusing "flyting" contests, where you need to battle it out with rhymes against another character!
While it won’t surpass Odyssey for me, Valhalla offers a lot of value for money and a deep lore to dig into for Viking fans. Eivor is an amazing and strong lead, I played in the intended female role, with her kick-ass and tough attitude, being every bit as memorable as Odyssey's Kassandra.
Recommended for the fans, rather than newcomers, go in with the intention to sink many hours into it. This is an action RPG, compared to the older AC titles, but so was Odyssey! Personally, I went to and from playing for months, finding it a bit too large and grindy.
Overall, I enjoyed it mostly, just make a main campaign playthrough a little shorter and intense the next time Ubisoft!
