Skal vikingrs!
I'm Kat Clay, and today I want to talk to you about the latest instalment in one of
my favorite video game franchises, Assassin's Creed, Valhalla.
Now, I've been a long time Assassin's Creed fan.
I started playing the way back at the
first game, and I've played almost every Assassin's Creed game since.
So this is an exciting game for me, not only because they're are Vikings, but
because it's the first game I'm playing on my PlayStation five.
But is this game worth all your precious trinkets?
So Valhalla follows the storyline of Eivor, a Viking who experiences a pretty
traumatic childhood incident in an amazing opening to the game.
And it's a really cracker of an opening
scene after this killer opening to the game.
You spend a little bit of time in Norway, read tutorial level before it's off to
merry old England to start a new life with your clan.
It's up to able to negotiate new alliances, settle her clan and eliminate
those pesky Templar influences along the way.
What I'm really liking about Assassin's
Creed Valhalla is it gets the Assassin's Creed tone right.
I felt maybe in Odyssey and previously in Origins that it didn't quite hit the mark
for me in terms of the tone of the Assassin's Creed games.
And I feel that this game is a little bit grittier.
And I also feel like the motivation is stronger here in the storytelling.
The humor is still there.
But there's an underlying seriousness to
Eivor's character and her mission as a female gamer.
I really appreciate the choice to put
female protagonists into the Assassin's Creed franchise.
Ever since I was able to play Evie Frye, I
feel like I've been more invested in this game.
They're strong, they're respected, the aspirational and they're also
really appropriately clad in some excellent Viking fashions.
Now, it's hard not to compare Assassin's
Creed Valhalla to that other masterpiece of Norse axe throwing God of War.
And while Assassin's Creed dual wielding Eivor is a lot of fun to play.
There's nothing new here.
It really just builds on the systems that you've seen in Odyssey and Origins.
You've got your light and hard attacks,
you've got an adrenaline bar and you've got some special moves as well.
But I tend to find that I don't use them as much as I used to in, say, Odyssey.
I am glad to see the return of the hidden
knife and with it the return of the Assassins Guild.
Valhalla has carried over one of the most enjoyable parts of Odyssey, which was
taking out that branch of shadowy cultists.
I feel like this kind of gameplay, though, is quite gated to your level.
So early on, you'll probably spend a lot of time levelling up.
A lot of the world events aren't those kind of perpetual quests that you feel
like you're running halfway across the map for.
And go here, do this, get this, pick up this bottle, give it to this person.
They've actually minimized those into kind of little problems.
And a lot of those problems are discovered not necessarily by talking to people, but
by overhearing conversations and then figuring out the puzzle for yourself.
Now, I really like that kind of gameplay, but if you don't like that discovery style
of gameplay, it might be a little frustrating for you.
Apart from the world events, there's a lot
of little puzzles stashed around the world, but it's hard to tell whether these
things will pay off in some form of gear or whether they just kind of collect the
marker things and you might get a trophy for them.
I'm also really glad that those kind of
epic battles between Sparta and Athens have disappeared.
I felt like they were the least enjoyable part of the Odyssey game.
I know some people will disagree with me,
but I just like stealthin' around being an assassin.
These have been replaced by raids.
Now you can take your longship your crew and go and raid those cathedrals along the
banks of the rivers like a true Viking does.
But it's really interesting the way that
the Assassin's Creed team have approached this, because obviously civilian deaths
are not tolerated in the Assassin's Creed universe and you will be desynchronized.
So you can be a Viking, but you can't be too Viking.
And I appreciate that because Assassin's
Creed has always run the risk of glorifying murder.
And I think this is a rather neat way of dealing with it.
The supplies you get on these raids also allow you to upgrade your colony.
It's also a really fun way to build relationships and also expand the gamut of
side quests that you will have in Valhalla.
So I'd be remiss in not mentioning the environment, design and the lighting.
For me, these are the strongest parts of the entire Assassin's Creed franchise, and
it's one of the reasons I've played these games so many times through the years,
because the way they recreate historical locations is second to none.
And this game is no exception from the.
The foliage to the snow.
Let me talk about the snow, the snow in this game is incredibly done.
It really creates that atmosphere of being
in England, especially in some of those scenarios when you're trying to hunt
things out through the fog and it's just so moody.
And this is one of the areas where Assassin's Creed shines on the PlayStation
Five with a 4K television and the 4K on the PS5.
It looks beautiful.
I mean, I've seen Assassin's Creed Valhalla played on a HD
screen with a PlayStation 4 and I've seen that played on a PlayStation 5 in 4K.
And let me tell you, there's a massive difference both in speed, but in
performance and in the quality of the visuals.
There's no comparison.
It just looks spectacular.
For me assassin's Creed is kind of such a
fun game to play, but there are a few issues with it.
And the first thing is that I'm playing a
relatively early release of the game, so it's a little bit buggy.
I've had some pretty amusing encounters
with the bugginess of this game getting caught on things.
It hasn't actually affected my gameplay
apart from getting desynchronized and then just reloading.
My other bugbear is, as a long time Assassin's Creed player, I want to
remap the controls to old school Assassin's Creed.
Now in Odyssey.
They made it really easy.
They had an alternate control system so I
could just flick across to my old school set up.
But this game, they provide a standard
controls menu and then they give you a lot of options, but they don't give me the
option to just set up an old school assassin's Creed controller, please, for
the old fans, for the love of Odin, and just make a button so I can do it.
My final critique of the Assassin's Creed
franchise as a whole is kind of like where to from here?
Where does Assassin's Creed go from here?
But I mean, how does Assassin's Creed innovate?
And that's a whole other video.
And I do have some ideas about where they could innovate.
So for me, Assassin's Creed is the ultimate in comfort gaming.
There is something so enjoyable about this
ridiculous premise of fighting Templars through the ages under the guise of
fighting the near future of Abstergo Corporation through this wacky machine
that sends you back in time through people's memories to go through historical
locations and assassinate historical bad guys.
There's something so enjoyable about that, and it's why I played almost all the games
in the series because it is comfortable and it is reliable.
But I would really love to see the Assassin's Creed franchise push itself
that much further because I know that the elements are there to make a ten out of
ten game, so I can't wait to see what they do next.
If you're looking to buy Assassin's Creed,
Valhalla, I think it's a really solid game.
I think you will really enjoy it.
And it's hard not to like a game with Vikings.
Thanks so much for watching on Kat Clay.
If you'd like to see me do more video game reviews, talk about writing, talk about
nerd stuff, do a bit of cosplay, hit subscribe, hit the bell icon.
And thanks so much for watching.