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Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla is the ultimate example for a decent 15-20h game that’s artificially bloated to last the player at least 65+h even when rushing the main story, resulting in an incredibly draining experience that seems to drag on forever
As the third Assassin’s Creed title to follow the action-RPG direction that was first introduced by Assassin’s Creed: Origins back in 2017, 2020’s Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla should’ve been the game to improve upon the flaws and deliver the ultimate version of the formula. Instead, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla feels like publisher Ubisoft learned all the wrong lessons from the previous two Assassin’s Creed games and subsequently doubled down on the worst design choices. This is all the more frustrating because at its core, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla does have the potential to be an enjoyable – but unfortunately, nearly all of it is drowned by a crushing amount of ‘quantity over quality’-type content.
To provide the necessary framework for this review, let’s take a look at how the amount of content changed across the three Assassin’s Creed action-RPG titles (Origins, Odyssey & Valhalla) first. When Origins released, it was the biggest Assassin’s Creed title so far, with a map size of 92km²/35,5mi², 183 quests and 78 viewpoints – I considered it a much fun & mostly needed overhaul for the long-running franchise but noted the unfortunate need to grind side-content for levels. Next, Odyssey went on to basically double all of these values, which resulted in an experience I called ”the Origins-formula stretched way too thin through the massive amount of ever-the-same content if offers.” And finally, there’s Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla – unsurprisingly, the map size and quest amount is upped once again, but interestingly, on paper it’s actually not by a lot (~11% more quests, ~17% bigger map). However, in practice you’ll probably find Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla to be even more of a slog than Odyssey – at least if you’re interested in completing the story.
One of the biggest changes present in Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla compared to the previous two franchise entries would be the overall story quest structure. While the base game of Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey offered three storylines - one “main” quest (your “Odyssey”), one tied to exposing + assassinating all members of the Order of the Ancients and one tied to the mythical side of the game – for the player to complete, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla offers a similar structure, with the major difference that the “main quest” is tied to conquering all major twenty-one territories on the game’s various map. This is done by completing a story arc in each territory, which consists out of multiple quests – in total, you’re looking at a whopping 139 (!) main missions you’ll need to complete for the full story, plus additional missions added through free updates that serve as a final chapter as well as tie-ins to other Assassin’s Creed titles. This is also a good point to point out that the game also received three paid expansions, all with their own additional story missions.
Now, 139+ main missions is definitely an intimidating number but by itself, it doesn’t mean much if the quality of the quests is high enough. The problem is that Ubisoft only managed to achieve such a high number of “main story” quests by basically turning almost every possible quest of the game into one – as a result, you’ll find that there are almost no side quests to complete except for “world events”, which amount to 2min micro “quests” spread across the map. While there is a central story thread woven throughout some of the 21 story arcs, the vast majority of the time you’re basically busy doing side errands for current or future territory leaders in order to forge an alliance. In every other game, the central story arcs would’ve been separated from those that barely make an impact on the plot, turning them into optional side content instead – but not here, as Ubisoft wants a game that lasts you at least 65+h, even if you’re mostly rushing through the story. Unsurprisingly, this also ruins the pacing of the story completely, as you’re going from major story developments to hunting bears or collecting shards.
Further problems of this approach include the introduction of many forgettable characters that barely make an impact as well as the resulting lack of character development for actually important ones. Admittedly, there are some positively surprising developments happening near the end of the game, but they can’t outweigh the sheer amount of bad story arcs that feel like filler side story material. As you’re constantly drowned in unnecessary story arcs repeating similar plot structures, another problem arises: The gameplay loop of Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla wasn’t built for a lengthy game like it.
Without the space to go into details here, the gameplay loop of Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla boils down to a refined version of the Origins formula, which was already improved upon in Odyssey. The two most notable changes include a massively expanded skill tree, which only maintains it size by offering a lot of boring stat upgrades (e.g. +3 resistance to light attacks) instead of constantly rewarding a level up with actually new skills, as well as changes to the loot system: Instead of constantly receiving new and better equipment like before, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla only rewards you with each individual gear piece/weapon once – if you want to increase its power, you’ll have to use materials to upgrade it. Unfortunately, as the game isn’t too generous with crafting materials unless you put in the time, this means that you’re not able to experiment with new gear/weapons that much if you’ve already chosen to upgrade certain pieces.
As to why the gameplay loop doesn’t work for a game as lengthy as this: It’s simply not deep enough. Even if we ignore longevity problems like encountering the same few enemy types and minigames or the large amount of recycled/empty locations, both the combat and the assassinations repeatedly require you to perform the same motions, with no reason/opportunity to mix things up. Once you reached a certain level a few hours into the game, every gameplay mechanic is going to feel familiar and won’t gain any additional depth. Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla simply feels like a decent 15-20h game in terms of story and gameplay that was forcefully expanded into a 65+h monstrosity, which sucks all the fun out of the experience through painful repetition and endlessly dragging things out.
Concluding, I’d recommend Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla only to the most dedicated fans of the action-RPG titles in the franchise. While there is a decent game hiding somewhere between all the bloat, seeing the story to its end will require you to engage with the same type of content and forgettable quests for a long. long time - to the point where playing the game almost feels like work. If you value your time, think twice before purchasing – or at least plan on taking adequate breaks.