Assassin's Creed Valhalla is the latest entry in the long-running franchise, and as such, carries a certain level of expectation for fans. After all, prior games had given into franchise fatigue, while many still do not prefer the RPG approach the franchise has taken. There are still common elements such as the modern-day story, and it's a pay-off for fans who have been invested since the beginning. Indeed, it can be argued that Assassin's Creed Valhalla has redeemed the modern-day story, putting players on a new path while maintaining everything loved about it.
To do so, there are a lot of subtle pay-offs from Assassin's Creed Origins and Odyssey, some surprises in terms of direction for Assassin's Creed 2021, and a lot of subtle course correcting. Perhaps the greatest strength of Assassin's Creed Valhalla is how it corrects the franchise's biggest mistake. PLEASE NOTE: MAJOR STORY SPOILERS ARE AHEAD FOR ASSASSIN'S CREED VALHALLA. Spoilers are avoided where possible, but given the subject of this article, are not entirely unavoidable.
The Unavoidable but Costly Mistake of Assassin's Creed
Of course, it should first be stated that this mistake was unavoidable from a narrative standpoint, as the stakes of the modern-day story put it all on the line. As many fans know, there are a lot of closely connected games, games that are connected in strange ways, an for the overall modern-day story, there have been three effective arcs: the Desmond Miles storyline introduced in AC1, the Helix Initiate storyline introduced in AC4, and the Layla Hassan storyline introduced in AC Origins. After Desmond Miles' death is when the franchise fatigue began to sit in, as while the Helix Initiate storyline had the benefit of trying to put the "player" into the story, it didn't quite land with audiences.
Bringing a modern-day protagonist back in Layla Hassan was the beginning of this, but of course, the death of Desmond and the allocation of Juno's plotline to a comic series made fans feel as if the modern-day story was more disjoined than ever. Of course, there have been calls to end the modern-day storyline in Assassin's Creed, but that would be a vital part of its identity lost. Instead, Assassin's Creed Valhalla does the unthinkable: it corrects Desmond's death.
Having Shaun and Rebecca back in the modern-day story goes far with this, and while it may seem Layla's time in the sun is over, it's hard to say exactly if AC Valhalla does indeed set up a new modern-day story or if it's just the perfect coalescence of everything thus far. Fans will have to wait and see how that goes, but there's one thing that's clear: Desmond's death matters again.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla: The Reader
Players are introduced to The Reader in Assassin's Creed Valhalla, where Layla inevitably joins him in his task. However, players were quick to notice that The Reader is voiced by Nolan North and that his body shape is different but undeniably Desmond. His physical body may be gone, but he continues his work. In other words, the game has brought back Desmond's story without changing it, retconning it, or doing some strange revival; no, it simply continues his story with new elements to propel the modern-day story forward, while not forgetting Desmond's sacrifice.
Where the story goes from here and what The Reader accomplishes in the next few games remains to be seen, but it seems that all the cards are back in play. Juno may not be exactly, but again, there's a lot of course correcting without sacrificing everything that has developed so far. It's quite a feat for Assassin's Creed Valhalla, and it may very well give its DLC and future games new ways to keep the modern-day story relevant.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.