Over the course of its history, the Assassin's Creed series has evolved to feature a number of changes that have been met with varied reactions from fans. Some love the updated combat system and loot-focused approach of Origins and Odyssey, while others long for the more stealth focus of AC 2 and Brotherhood. After having played Assassin's Creed Valhalla two times now, it's apparent that Ubisoft is trying to satisfy as much of the AC fandom as possible, even bringing back some familiar elements from the prior games.

Without going into specifics to avoid spoilers, there is an element of Assassin's Creed Valhalla that calls back to the earlier AC games. For those that remember, anytime that the key assassin character eliminated a character, they would enter an ethereal plane to interact/judge that individual.

During our Assassin's Creed Valhalla demo, at the end of a mission chain, main character Eivor is confronted with a boss battle. The boss has a number of attacks that are different from the average enemy, and even some that dabble in the more magical elements of AC.

Boss fights are something that Assassin's Creed doesn't do often and usually, they are relegated outside of the main story. For this mission line, the final confrontation does include a boss fight and it felt more impactful than, say, the fight with Medusa in Assassin's Creed Odyssey. It's also interesting to have to face down a character that has abilities like Eivor. Once Eivor defeats them, though, the scene shifts.

Here, Eivor is given a chance to pass judgment over the character and determine their fate. The dialogue plays out similar to what was seen in past Assassin's Creed games, only usually the character in question has already been assassinated. For Valhalla's version, the player is given the choice to spare or kill the character.

From the moment it began, the scene instantly called to mind the confrontations between Ezio and his various assassination targets in Assassin's Creed 2. Obviously, the context is different and the graphics are significantly better, but it was hard not to see that same idea on display here. It felt like an homage to the earlier games in a way that Origins and Odyssey only brushed up against.

On top of that, there are some details about the way this scene played out that will have huge implications for the story in Assassin's Creed Valhalla. It's not worth spoiling them here because the secrets of the game are better kept that way, but know that there are some really cool reveals in the game and this one caught me by surprise. More importantly, it left me eager to see more of the story and how these spoiler-y details will factor into the remainder of the game.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla releases November 10, 2020 for PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. The PS5 version will release on November 12, 2020.