Bisoft has undoubtedly been able to find balance in this second season of Assassin’s Creed. The new direction developed by Origins and the sanctification and refining of the Odyssey has revived one of the most popular (and also very hot) franchises for the past two generations. But how do you stay clean? Can this Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla give us something illegal that would surprise us?
When Assassin’s Creed Odyssey came out in 2018 it seemed that the emergence of the franchise was guaranteed and solid. With a huge open world you can explore and climb in all its corners, and the story of Kassandra or Alexios in ancient Greece, expands the knowledge and diversity of the game that has never been seen before. Now the cold winds are blowing from the north with some amazing changes and new options in Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla who takes old ideas and integrates them with the latest innovations of recent times.
We are in the middle of the IX century of our time, in the middle of the Middle Ages. A time of darkness and violence, when the most powerful are those who can direct their future. In the Norwegian ports live Eivor, one of the leaders of the Raven Clan, he and his “brother” Sigurd who took his people across the sea with the intention of building a new empire. The Norse have been invading the Saxon kingdom of England for decades, and that is where the family is looking, seeking a new life and triumphant glory. By good cooperation or by the use of the sword and the ax, Eivor and his family began to conquer all the kingdoms that made up England in those days. His struggle will lead to him sharing goals Hidden (order made by Bayek de Siwa and Aya at Origins, the forerunner of the modern assassins) and will be involved in his secret warfare with the Order of the Ancients (the present Templars).
This is about the Vikings, and for our character and his family to find their place in the world, we must first fight for him. And so it is in battle in which the great appearance of Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla is found in relation to the former. Is Eivor really a murderer? Not a priori. Even if he gets his Hidden Blade (as a gift from a robbery at the beginning of the game), it is already attached in such a way that the Real Secret finds it strange. He doesn’t understand that he has to hide from anything, that’s not his style, so he marks his personality within the hidden.
The Vikings were characterized by direct and indirect fighting, and their violence was unlimited. Now we can choose to fight with empty fists, with one weapon and shield, or with two weapons (or with two shields!). The variety in the arsenal reflects the number of combat styles we will have. Swords, spears, axes, bows, arrows… all kinds of death tools with which we are helped each blow falls on our enemies. Performing cartoons and combos vary depending on each type of enemy, and beheadings will be a daily occurrence, and it is a pleasure. With more than 25 different types of opponents, each has a different fighting style and with whom our strategies will need to be different, it is clear that the study has taken into account the players’ suggestions regarding this category, which they have already been fighting for.
Level is no longer available, or not at least as we know it. Now our character will change thanks to power points, by which we increase our numbers according to the fighting style we choose (Raven Road, Wolf Road and Bear Road) and will be represented by a single skill tree whose stellar branches. There is no special way to these other two, and we will be able to “redeem” the points obtained according to our fighting needs. We can choose to gain strength from Raven’s armor, and at the same time develop the power of the Bear to acquire combat skills in this way. Regular adaptation to each player’s style makes the experience work, and that sending enemies to Valhalla makes it work the best Assassin’s Creed when it comes to fighting. In addition, we also have a winged partner (in this case, a crow named Sinin) who will perform the usual observations in the sky and will reveal some secrets that we cannot see with our eyes.
By looting we will also find goods and resources with which to establish our stay in England. This machine was found in Assassin’s Creed II and would not have been more suitable. In a world where we are clearly strangers, having a place to call home and watching it grow is very close. From this point we will link a large line of machinery, which creates the formation of alliances with neighboring regions that support one party against another. As we improve our living space, so will they hear about it in many places, and new characters will live with new quest for quirks and new activities we can do in it, such as parties and duels for imed drinking.
And here we will find a variety of fishing and hunting challenges as well as a collection of other collections we will find around the world: tattoo designs, Roman antiquities, Viking sagas pages, famous animal medals, among others. From the port area we can customize our longship and make our Jomsviking, a hero who can be online to steal from other players. In addition, we should highlight two other important areas within the home: a hidden residence (which gives us a tour of its group) and the Seer Valka hut, where it will connect us with our dreams and we can visit and explore Asgard himself.
It is not just the weapons that bring about changes in this installment. If by the Odyssey the election was the basis on which we decided how to meet each Greek territory, in Valhalla the weight in the building would be the election results, which would greatly affect game development, closing or opening new machine lines. At one point, we were able to choose whether to give the glory of death to a rival hero or to tell him the truth about the betrayal that befell him. We chose the truth and were kind, and he warned us about the order of our destruction that we might destroy before you reach the Zealots, one of the most powerful enemies in the game.
It also changes the focus of on the side, now called World Affairs. There are so many types to choose from! There are crazy and real events; for example someone who wants us to help him throw all his stuff in space, and another we can find in it a cat of our employees who robbed in a longship. In addition to the events, there are two second activities we can do in many of the venues we want to highlight: Playing Orlog and Dueling Escarnios.
Orlog is a game of dice and strategy where we have to defeat an opponent by using the balance of defensive dice rolls and skills we can use if we have enough points. That being said, it doesn’t sound very appealing, but we can assure you that here is a worthy Gwent heir from Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Escarnios duels “fight with words” in which we have to choose an answer that suits the opponent’s insults. Yes, the insulting duels of Monkey Island also come to mind. The idea is the same, and winning these duels allows us to improve our Charisma, and thus open up new lines of dialogue that can help in the development of advanced technology.
Map management is now more attractive than the Odyssey and knowing where each position is will require us to move there and find out what to expect. The wild and frozen plains of Norway are distinct from the forests and rural pastures of England, playing with a palette of muted colors but with many subtle tones of brown and green. You can feel the mud when you go through the fog hours before sunrise, and here Photo Mode will let you take snapshots you remember.
