Assassin's Creed Valhalla is the third game in Ubisoft's open-world series where its gameplay is reminiscent of RPG games like Skyrim and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This review more broadly reviews Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla, being focused on the latter. This can also be seen as the introductory review in my "In Hindsight" review series, a thought I've had for a while where I review a game I've played to the best of my ability without replaying it. In that context, I played Valhalla over the summer and into the fall of last year, while I played Odyssey in 2020 and Origins at the end of 2018.

If you've played Origins or Odyssey, you've basically played Valhalla - in terms of gameplay, they're nearly identical. In these games you run around in vast open maps where there are long strectches of land between the cities - most of the time this is done on horseback as it's faster - and occasionally you scale mountains or climb buildings. Horse gameplay is improved over previous games in the series, they feel more agile and can more easily travel on uneven terrain. As for the maps, they are gorgeous, but they are far too big for their own good. Each map is about 10km by 10km, and every available objective has at least 200 meters between it and other objectives, and rarely are there more than one objective per location. It makes for a more realistic world and the maps are impressive, sure, but they make for a more tedious game instead with less memorable locations relative to their size. I'd much rather prefer they shrunk the map sizes by half, because running through open fields and forests nonstop can only ever get so exciting.

You have a pet bird companion along on your journey that can be used to scout areas from afar. Use the bird to fly over areas with enemies in order to tag them, but also tag any objectives in that area and look for things you can use to your advantage. The bird has been nerfed for Valhalla, enemies and objectives don't stay tagged, but that may have been due to my Exploration settings. Speaking of, set the exploration settings to easiest if you're plating Valhalla, as there are far too many things to find without some help. For context, I got around 220 hours of playtime after beating everything (including DLC), and that's WITH easy exploration.

Sticking to objectives on the map, let's talk side content. Origins and Odyssey have quests up the wazoo. An infinite amount in fact, as some are auto-generated. Valhalla reserves the quest structure more for the main story, while side quests takes the "Mysteries" approach. Mysteries are more varied with what they can be: puzzles, fight arenas, actual side quests, etc. The major drawback they have, however, is that they aren't tracked, so if you don't take care of them when you start them, good luck remembering what you were supposed to do. Aside from them not tracking, I do prefer this approach as there is a good amount of variety in them. Regarding things to do, Valhalla's map is littered with objectives. On the surface these are varied, but when you take a closer look you realize that they are just different ways for you to interact with the combat system. For all their variety, they don't do anything new with the gameplay. Some unique side content exists, like cairns and orlog, but they're a relatively minor part of the game in comparison.

One important "side activity" is eliminating the Order. I say side activity, but these are your main targets, as the main antagonists are often part of this list, and eliminating them all will unlock the true ending. These are important targets spread across the map that you must hunt down using clues, which will reveal clues for your next target until you have eliminated them all. These are fun to do as you have free range in your approach, and the clues can be fun to decipher.

In some quests, you now have dialogue options to choose from (don't think they were present in Origins). Your choice can drastically alter your story, more so in Odyssey than Valhalla. The options you get in Valhalla seem less impactful than those in Odyssey as they seem to revolve more around whether or not you personally want to have more information about the current subject. In Odyssey, most every choice seems to have some weight behind it. I'm not a fan of dialogue options most of the time, so when a game series I like throws them in it makes me a bit disappointed, but they work fine and as expected, and the fact Valhalla made choices less impactful was a bit disappointing in and of itself.

Now, let's talk about gameplay. Compared to the games prior to Origins, the general feel of the gameplay has been improved. On-foot movement feels good, it doesn't feel like its tied to the character's animations like in older entries, which makes the controls feel more responsive. As for parkour, you are able to climb basically anywhere that isn't a flat surface. The games have shifted focus from it however, as it resulting in it being downgraded compared to previous entries. Certain moves have been removed, such as jumping from the wall you're hanging onto, which makes it not flow as good as it could have. Cities are no longer designed for it either as the roads between buildings are too wide to just jump over, if it's even a dense city and not just a few houses with entire fields between them. Instead, parkour is now in my experience mostly used for scaling mountains, which isn't as exciting as it sounds. It's useful in large enemy bases as well, but the main cities aren't very good for it.

As the game has changed into a more typical RPG, this has led to the combat seeing significant upgrades over prior games. There are now several distinct weapon types with their own fighting styles, allowing you to play in a variety of ways: slow and tough, quick and agile, or somewhere in between. You also have access to tons of abilities, ranging from knockback hits, to healing, to increased accuracy, and even mythical ones. These changes makes it so that combat encounters no longer are parry-instakill on every enemy, for better and for worse. While previous games' combat feels super simple, maybe a little like a rhythm game, the combat in the RPG games is just a bit unfair. Enemies have a ton of HP, especially bosses, and they can basically cancel out of being attacked whenever they feel like. Not a huge problem if it's a one-on-one, but when you're surrounded and every enemy attack one after eachother and you can't get in many hits of your own, it just becomes frustrating. If you get into the rhythm, fights can definitely be enjoyable, but as enemies have as much health as they do they most often feel like they're dragging on instead.

Before I leave combat, I want to talk about stealth. These are Assassin's Creed games, games where you usually play someone in the shadows who pops out every now and then to assassinate their targets. Stealth works, but assassinations suck. In Origins you can instakill only the weakest enemies, if even. Otherwise it'll only act as bonus damage before you begin a typical combat encounter. Bows are just as weak as assassinations, as you can't even kill anyone with a headshot. Stealth is therefore only usable to bypass enemies, really. These problems are slighty mitigated in Odyssey as you can specialize build in these territories, but then you'll also need a melee build for when you inevitably get caught. Valhalla is the only game of the RPG's where stealth is truly viable, but even then typical melee encounters are still the quickest way through as it's just so much better in every regard, especially when factoring in the Raid mechanic. Call on your friends and take over an enemy base by force. Quick and easy, so why waste time on stealth?

Quick mention of boat gameplay. You have your own ship in these games, similar to Black Flag. The ships here are more nimble and therefore easier to control. They also have combat capabilities, again similar to Black Flag. In Valhalla there is no naval combat however, so there it's only used for traversal, which is an improvement as I have never really cared for it. Small boats are also spread everywhere in the rivers, which helps if you want to cross a river or if you're already in the water.

With the gameplay out of the way, let's talk a bit about the protagonists and their stories. It's been so long since I played Origins some details may be wrong, but it stars Bayek who's a pretty serious person. The story revolves around getting revenge on your son, as well as describing the Hidden Ones, which is the precursor to what would later become the Creed. A relatively basic story from what I remember, but a good one for this new foundation. Bayek is a great protagonist similar in vein to Altaïr, essentially sacrificing his regular life for the greater good.

Kassandra, meanwhile, is similar to Ezio and Edward. She's snarky and charismatic, and the dialogue options in Odyssey really bring out everything from the character and allow you to make her your own. She has good chemistry with the other people in her life, and is just all around a great protagonist. While I'm biased towards Altaïr, Kassandra may well be the best protagonist in the series. Anyway, the story of Odyssey takes place all around Greece and revolves around the Sparta vs Athens conflict. It's also about family, and that's what's so powerful about it. I remember liking the story even though I cheated my way into the good ending, but regardless the most enjoyable aspect of it was the characters.

Now, for Valhalla. You play as Eivor who, alongside her brother and some others, have just arrived in England after a dispute back in their home country of Norway that left them looking for new endeavours. Your mission: Increase your clan's influence and take over the country, basically. Through several spiritual journeys Eivor is told she'll betray her brother, and her brother believes himself to be a god. This story unravels as you slowly but surely "conquer" each terriotory on the map.

You have a few territories to choose from at a time, with some of them being optional (or at least until the end, I did all "optional" ones before doing the ones required). Each territory has its own contained story, which marks your progress in that area. As the territory's story is over, your influence on the region is decided. This is a great way to track your progress through the game, but it has its downsides. Each territory's story is basically a game on its own, at least when you do all of its optional objectives. The base game has around 15 territories in all, so estimating 10 hours per territory will get you 150 hours. I most likely didn't play as efficiently as I could, but from my experience this is a lowball estimation.

A quick note on total playtime: As previously mentioned, I ended up at around 220 hours in total for Valhalla, doing everything including DLC, except River Raids. Take that into account with mostly the same gameplay throughout, even when doing side content, and the overall experience will feel mostly the same from start to finish. You get new abilities and can use different fighting styles, but it doesn't change the overall feel of playing the game. Just take that into account if you feel like playing it. This also goes for Odyssey and Origins, but they're shorter than Valhalla. I wrapped up Odyssey in around 180 hours if my memory's correct, while Origins is more approachable at 100 hours.

Back to Valhalla's story. After finishing every territory, you begin the finale, and when I finally got to the end it felt... anticlimactic. No real ending. Even when dealing with all of the targets on the Order of the Ancients list, it felt unfinished. Granted, this ending was part of the base game back in 2020, and the Final Chapter update was released at the end of 2022. It wasn't good, in any case. Now, before I speak on Eivor, let's quickly go through the DLC's.

For each game, DLC was made available that was more mythical in nature, dealing with aspects presented throughout the story in a more literal manner. I can't remember Origins' DLC, but for Odyssey, there were two DLC questlines. The first was a three-parter about the first hidden blade, taking place in the same map of Greece as the base game and was alright from what I remember. The second was also a three-parter, which dealt with the continuation and aftermath of what was discovered in the main story, and is important for the real world story of Valhalla. For this second batch of DLC, each chapter received a new territory exclusive to that chapter, and included lot's of things to do. Like with the territories in Valhalla, if you do everything in one area it's about the size of a game, but in comparison these were smaller in scope. All-in-all, they felt important to the story of Kassandra, enhancing her character. There was also a "crossover" DLC, explaining what she did after the story of the game, and how she ended up in Valhalla's crossover story.

Before I get into Valhalla's DLC, I want to mention the Asgard adventures from its base game. Similar to Odyssey's mythical DLCs, there were two or three chapters with unique maps that told the story of Odin, the Norse God, through visions in Eivor's mind. Without spoiling too much for now, the character of Odin and his story is essential for Eivor's story. Now, onto the DLCs. There were many updates released over Valhalla's two year lifespan, some free and some as part of its season pass. I didn't play them until I had finished the main story, as they were released after.

Starting with the Odyssey crossover DLC, it told a story on a new map and featured Eivor and Kassandra working side-by-side, which was a nice moment between the two and you got a cool reward for it. Another piece of DLC saw you in Ireland, where Eivor travels to her cousin in order to help him with his troubles. Some of the mythical aspects begin in this DLC, as druids appear and can sometimes transform into werewolves. Ireland is a new map with a story that's more tight-written as it didn't need to act as part of the main story. The France DLC is the same, and sees Eivor travel to France, trying to prevent a war between the francs and your clan. The colors of the France map felt more lively, but overall it felt like just another territory for the main story. There was also a crossover quest added with the final update, featuring Roshan from the upcoming Mirage game. This was a very barebones quest and was essentially her and Eivor working together to eliminate one target. A very meh experience.

Tombs of the Fallen are a set of puzzle-dungeons added, which are reminiscent of the parkour dungeons from e.g. the Ezio games. These are pretty good, I don't have much else to say about them. River Raids is another addition, in which you travel on a boat to a river area and you try to get as much loot as you can before heading back. This would've been a nice mode, but the game doesn't save here and it's prone to crashing, so it feels like you lose progress more often than you make some. Finally for Eivor, there's the Mastery challenges. Try to defeat a base using the provided tools while fulfilling the marked challenges in one of three ways (melee, stealth, and bows). A neat idea, but the AI glitch out too often, making some of them impossible unless you're lucky. In addition, the goals you need to reach basically translate to doing it perfectly, as only some challenges have extra enemies which increases your margin of error.

There were also DLC added that focused on Odin: An expansion focusing on what happened between his story told in the base game and Ragnarök, and a(nother) roguelike mode. The expansion, Dawn of Ragnarök, tells the story of Odin trying to save his son, Baldur, from the clutches of Surtr. I keep saying the territories/expansions are essentially games in their own right, but while they typically are around 8-12 hours in length, this one is the largest of them all at perhaps 30 hours, rivalling some of the series earlier entries. The mythical nature of this expansion bring more interesting enemies than the base game, but again, the gameplay remains the same as it always has. The roguelike mode then, the Forgotten Saga, details Odin's neverending attempts to again rescue Baldur after the events of Dawn of Ragnarök. This is a more typical roguelike experience, where you traverse lands in search for powerups to aid you in your journey, where you'll hopefully reach the ending. The map layout is the same every time, with only powerups switching positions, but it makes for a fun experience and has checkpoints, unlike River Raids. You can even select a base gear set and gain skill points to fill out a skill tree unique to this mode (none of your typical gear or skills are available here) to improve your chances. A fine mode that brings some excitement to the game.

The last piece of DLC is the ending to Eivor's story, added in the Final Update. It's just a bunch of cutscenes of Eivor saying goodbye to some of the people from the story, before finally setting off to new lands, culminating in the answer to the question posed in the beginning of the game's real world story: What is Eivor's body doing here? A letdown after such a long wait, but I'm okay with the final of these cutscenes, the answer to that question.

Finally, it's time to go over Eivor's character. She isn't as charismatic as Kassandra, but she isn't too stoic either. She's level-headed if a bit fiery, and she's serious when she needs to be, which is quite often. A bit of a step down from both Bayek and Kassandra, but not bad. She's alright and I like her well enough. Comparing her to an older protagonist, I guess she shares some traits with Connor. Odin, on the other hand, is almost the opposite to what Eivor is. He's selfish and vain, which is what his story revolves around. Everything he does is done with his self-interest in mind, even if he denies this when questioned or if he helps others along the way. It's almost like playing a villain, which is understandable thinking about it. Together, Eivor and Odin work well together in a Yin/Yang sense, and my assumption is that this was done intentionally.

Alright, let's wrap this up. All of these games are worth a playthrough, but whether this includes all of them or just one is a tougher question. If you've played one, you've played them all, so it really depends on how much you like them. I'm a sucker for the AC games so of course I've played them all, even if I enjoy complaining about them. Overall, if you can only choose one, I'd say Odyssey is the strongest of them all. Origins is probably the most digestible of the three, but Valhalla is definitely the weakest overall. It has the most to offer, but it just becomes too much by the end.

Now, for the future. There are some questions that Valhalla left unanswered, which I hope will be answered in Mirage. That game is being advertised as some sort of return to form, which after three giant games I'm looking forward to. Hopefully stealth will be viable for real. Mirage is rumored to have originally been DLC for Valhalla, so I expect the gameplay to feel similar, but I at least hope the map will be smaller, denser, and filled with more varied things to do. Red and Hex are also intriguing, but if they're more in the vein of these RPG games, I'll be a bit disappointed.