There was a relatively long wait for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, as the game was released two years after Odyssey, meaning fans were much more excited to play than usual. In the end, Valhalla has been both a success and something of a letdown since it brings the entertainment factor but fails in areas like originality.
There were elements within the story and gameplay that have set a new standard to be used in the future. On the other hand, the game also delivered a mix of repetition and lack of quality that has set the series back and will force Ubisoft to go back to the drawing board. Let’s see what these are.
10 Changed: Guarantee Of A New Protagonist
There is not only going to be a new assassin to join the list of established ones, but an entirely new protagonist as well due to the departure of Layla in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.
More so than before, though, the possibility of playing as Basim for the next game might mean that we could be stepping into the shoes of a villain going forward. These are unprecedented times for the series since this has never happened before.
9 Pushed Back: Repeating The Same Gameplay
Despite hopes that it wouldn’t, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla has repeated several mistakes from the series. One of these was bringing back the exact same gameplay mechanics from the previous entries. The issue this time round is that the series’ lack of creativity has been solidified.
This has effectively pushed progress right out of the window, to the point where playing the next game will entail a sense of trepidation as there’s a chance of having more of the same. Valhalla doesn’t get a pass in the repetitive gameplay since this trend has been going on for a while.
8 Changed: Option To Switch Between Male Or Female
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey had brought the choice between male and female protagonists, but selecting one meant going through with this protagonist for the entirety of the game. Valhalla, meanwhile, is the first to allow players to switch at any point.
This is a great feature since many situations within the game are more suited to either gender. Not to mention how the female Eivor is the canonical one, meaning players who chose the male version before knowing this fact can switch to the female one in order to play the true campaign.
7 Pushed Back: Rebooting The Same Story
There have already been a big set of villains in the series, only for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla to bring further ones at the expense of rebooting the story. Going forward, we’ll have to contend with yet another starting point for the cycle of Assassins and Templars.
This is now the third time this has happened, setting fans back in the story since they’ll have to accustom themselves yet again to a scenario that basically tells the same story just with different characters.
6 Changed: Carving Out The Isu Backstory
The Isu arc has been floundering for years by this point, so credit deserves to go towards Assassin’s Creed Valhalla for bringing some clarity to it. It’s now been established that mythological figures are indeed part of the Isu due to the reincarnations present in the game.
This will allow the series to take more liberties with the story since the mythological aspect isn't’ something that will be thrown in just for thematic purposes. Valhalla has also retroactively explained these themes from prior games.
5 Pushed Back: Making A Mess Of Eagle Vision
Eagle vision has been a staple of the franchise, but the newer games have messed with this aspect. Still, the previous couple entries did bring a little innovation in this regard, only for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla to mess with it completely and make calls for a reinvention even louder.
The Eagle vision (or Raven vision) of the game was easily the weakest point, as it required the player to zero in on locations themselves and effectively make exploration a huge chore. It also highlighted the nagging problem of the literal Eagle vision that the past three games have tried to present and it’s too glaring a flaw in this game.
4 Changed: Finding The Balance In Naval Gameplay
Hopefully, the Assassin's Creed series won’t feel the need to dabble with naval gameplay after Valhalla. This is due to this feature finally being used for travel purposes rather than combat, as should have always been the case.
Naval gameplay was used to carry out raids on land, blending in both the sea-based features with the land-based ones. There was a good balance to be found here which should be carried forward for the rest of the series rather than force anyone to fight in those earlier drawn-out naval missions.
3 Pushed Back: Turning The Combat Into Hack And Slash
The combat portion of the series is in dire straits as of this game. We recommend going for a straight-up hack and slash game after playing Assassin's Creed Valhalla rather than try to make sense of the weird combat mechanics in this one.
It’s as if the developers shrugged their shoulders and figured spamming the attack button was what players would be okay with. There is zero depth in fighting styles, to the point where no weapons even matter. The series needs to do a serious revamp in the future since Valhalla has severely messed this aspect up.
2 Changed: Combining Old And New Plot Threads
When one ranks all the games together, it’s usually the earlier entries that reach the high numbers. For this reason, it was a smart move on Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s part to combine plot threads from the Desmond Miles storyline with Layla Hassan’s.
Not only did this explain several storylines that had been stuck in limbo for nearly a decade, it also opened up a new way to tell the story. Going forward, games can follow in Valhalla’s steps to move forward stories established long ago by integrating them within the current plot.
1 Pushed Back: A New Wave Of Bugs And Glitches
It didn’t seem like things could get worse than how Assassin’s Creed Unity had left them in the bugs and glitches department, but this excessively long game proved otherwise. Unfortunately, Valhalla takes us back to those days since there are so many issues that mess with the gameplay.
At times, glitches are such that you can’t enter areas that are mandatory to interact with. If manual saves haven’t been made, it effectively traps you in the same place and there’s no option but to begin the game all over again. Other times, there are lags in conversations, making two people talk over each other. Stuff like this makes Assassin’s Creed’s execution feel very last-gen.