Played: Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla – Next month, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla will be released, which will take us to the old England that has to deal with Vikings. We already had a first introduction in July, of which you can read our extensive findings here can read. Recently, however, we got a chance to dive into Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla again and that in a new environment with more gameplay possibilities. It’s time to look ahead a month before the release, because what we played felt refreshing in a way.
Build your own settlement
One of the recurring features in Assassin’s Creed is the ability to build your own stuff. In the past it was possible to refurbish shops and more, after which it disappeared from the franchise at some point. In Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla this is reflected in a certain sense, which logically fits within the context. After all, the Vikings didn’t travel to England for fun. They wanted to explore the ‘new’ land and settle there, which of course is not without a struggle. However, in the preview we played, there was already an existing settlement this time, which gave us a new perspective on the later adventure.
It is important to further expand your clan’s settlement and that is where you play an important role. After all, building, developing and expanding your settlement requires resources, which you obtain by raiding other camps and places. Here and there on the map you can find locations that house useful resources and you can activate a ‘raid’ at any time. These are roughly the same as the classic ‘take out camp’, where you have to kill an x number of enemies and loot some boxes. Not very original, but developing within the framework of your settlement and the mindset of a Viking of course makes sense.
Once you have collected enough material in the game, you can travel back to your regular location and you can then throw upgrades against existing buildings here and there. This in turn gives you more in the sense of possibilities. It is also possible to further customize your settlement, so you can place images in various places, build a well and more. It is cosmetic in nature, but it gives you the illusion that it is evolving. As the settlement grows, you get more options, as already mentioned. For example, there is a guy who is engaged in fishing and you can search for certain fish specifically for him, which in turn yields you a reward.
But that also applies to hunting, which is also important. Go past the hunter’s hut and see which (legendary) animals are wanted and turn on your detective instincts. These are the traditional side missions that you can pick up completely optionally. It is nothing special, but it does give a little more that feeling of liveliness within your settlement. In addition, it is possible to speak to the foreman of your clan regarding your crew, who will support you in the raids. You can then design your right hand entirely according to your own taste. You can also visit the tattoo artist for a new picture, you can buy new horses in the stable and more. These are all nice extra details to give it more atmosphere.
Collaborate with each other
As usual, you will also find a ‘town hall’ in the settlement, the location where the leaders of the clan reside, where the parties are celebrated and where you will regularly knock on the door for important matters. New is the possibility to look at the map of the world with your clan leader to see where possibilities are connected or which area needs to be addressed. By activating that, you go to a certain province where a new quest line is started and so we were instructed to find a certain king and take it out, so that another king could be pushed forward. Obviously, the king you put forward is someone under the influence of the Vikings, which helps you in your quest to gain more and more foothold in England.
We will not discuss the content of the quest line that we played, because you have to experience that yourself. We can say that it was quite interesting to follow and that it also had more emotional impact than is normally the case in Assassin’s Creed. Then we mainly refer to the last two games, which quite often sent you on meaningless missions. It is difficult to define clearly in writing, but the impression we got is that the storyline has more body. We noticed that earlier and it was confirmed again during this play session, so this creates hope for an exciting adventure. A nice detail is that you do not operate as a kind of loner, but that you really work together with other clans. For example, we encountered some famous names along the way, where the characteristics of the characters were quite different. Interesting, because that gives it more depth.
Discover the world
Obviously, in Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla exploration is also quite an important part. Since the preview took place more inland this time, we had to deal with a different environment. It was mainly hilly and full of small and large rivers. You can move yourself on foot, on horseback or by boat, it is just what you find most comfortable. Since the Romans have already visited during the time in which the game is set, you will encounter typical old English places, abbeys, walls and bridges also dilapidated Roman temples, so that the horizon always looks varied. Again we were confronted with the fact that the England in Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla is particularly large and to think that we have only seen that country.
There are more locations available, so that means there is a lot to discover again. Compared to Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, however, it does seem that the amount of side activities has been scaled up a bit. Down. The province in which we traveled certainly had the necessary ‘dots’ with activities, boxes or other things, but there were a lot less than we have gradually become accustomed to from the franchise. Whether this applies to the entire game is unclear, but it gives the impression that Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla is not so packed with time-guzzling activities that don’t contribute much to the overall gameplay experience and that is a healthy development as far as we are concerned. Nevertheless, you come across the necessary interesting things and Animus anomalies are of course not missing, which Ubisoft has incorporated into the game in an alternative way. It is new in a sense, but also reminds us of similar ways of implementing what we saw in previous parts, but you will soon be able to discover that for yourself.
In addition, there are of course the camps here and there that you can raid, the larger places that you can ‘raide’, but you also have to deal with Zealots. They are similar to Mercenaries from Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, which are extremely strong and attack you when they see you. You can also look for Roman artifacts, visit underground corridors and much more. In that respect it is mainly more of the same, but the completely new ‘flyting’ is fun. It is the intention that by using the correct words in a sentence construction you insult the opponent, as it were. Think of it as a kind of medieval version of dissing each other in rap battles, where the focus is high on rhyming. A fun side activity that will raise your charm level on success and will give you new optional choices for dialogues.
Preliminary conclusion
Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla is essentially more of the same, but with different additional elements. Building your settlement is not very special, but it is a nice extra that also fits logically into the whole. In addition, the world looks inviting to explore and the various other novelties feel good. The story in particular seems to have received a bit more attention and that together with the new environment makes it feel fresh. It feels like a nice new look for something we already know. Ubisoft does not seem to bring very special novelties, but what is that and there is nothing wrong with that. Finally, it is important to note that we have a strong impression that the entire adventure is more focused on the experience rather than a quantity of meaningless activities. We will see next month whether that impression is correct. In any case, that idea makes us positive about Eivor’s adventure!
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