The conversation about difficulty in video games comes and goes, currently experiencing something of a resurgence due to the upcoming release of Elden Ring, one of FromSoftware's notoriously difficult games. However, that conversation bleeds into other franchises too. While it hasn't been at the forefront, Assassin's Creed Valhalla is taking some steps to make the experience more accessible with some major difficulty option tweaks.
In a blog post detailing Assassin's Creed Valhalla title update 1.5.0, Ubisoft revealed some major new additions, laying the foundation for Dawn of Ragnarok and tweaking various aspects of the RPG. Perhaps the biggest addition is Saga difficulty, which will lower the amount of damage that enemies deal and block them from scaling to Eivor's level. The new mode should make it easier for those having trouble seeing Valhalla through, but Ubisoft isn't stopping there.
In addition to the Saga difficulty option, Ubisoft has added a number of other difficulty tweaks. Now, players will be able to adjust how much damage they deal and receive, their healing restoration ratio, and how much their stamina regenerates. They'll also be able to set an enemy health modifier. The new options join existing ones that players can use to customize their experience, like the insta-kill hidden blade setting.
Update 1.5.0 also makes other changes to Assassin's Creed Valhalla, mopping up minor issues that have plagued it. The new changes should make for a stabler experience as players get ready for Dawn of Ragnarok, which Ubisoft says is the most ambitious Assassin's Creed DLC ever released. Players can expect to find improvements to target specific issues, fixes for existing DLC problems, and light tweaks for miscellaneous bugs and glitches.
Accessibility has been an important conversation over the course of the last few years. Minor changes can help gamers with disabilities, new players, or even those just looking to customize their experience make their way through games, which have gotten bigger and more daunting over the past few console generations. Of course, there's still plenty of room for accessibility options to grow.
Such changes have been met with resistance from corners of the internet, some of whom believe that accessibility options detract from the experience, despite the fact that gamers are under no obligation to use them themselves if they don't want to. Those beliefs have caused the conversation to cycle for years, with no real resolution. Fortunately, the trend has been for companies to expand accessibility options, though there's a long way to go.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.