Random Video Game Review - Assassin's Creed: Valhalla

I think it's fair to say that I have now lost count of how many games there are where history is a playground. Now as many of you know, my first Assassin's Creed game was Brotherhood and since then, I have played a majority of the games from the series. All the main games so far, plus a few smaller games too. I even watched a few short films and also the feature length film, which wasn't completely bad and had new ideas bought to the series. But was ultimately a pretty bland film. The games, much like Call of Duty and all the sports games EA and 2K make and publish, used to be a yearly affair until demand became too high, and the games became too big for a yearly release. So nowadays it's once in a while that we get a new game in the series. This is good though because many of us believe that a rushed game isn't great and most of us are happy to wait anyway. So this game is the third in the RPG era of the series and continues the themes and so forth that came from both Origins and Odyssey. Time to get our hidden blades ready and see if this game is worth it:

A trio of modern day assassins consisting of Layla Hassan (reprised by Chantel Riley), Shaun Hastings (reprised by Danny Wallace) and Rebecca Crane (reprised by Eliza Schneider) travel to New England to exhume a Viking's remains and explore his/her memories via the Animus in the hopes to find clues that can prevent Earth's magnetic field from further collapse. The person they explore the memories of is a 9th century Viking called Eivor Varinsdottir (voiced by Cecilie Stenspil as a female and by Magnus Bruun as a male) who once wanted revenge for the murder of his/her father, but sets about doing a much greater challenge to create his/her own kingdom and making allies along the way. All while dealing with those associated with this time period's Order of Ancients (Templars) and learning a thing or two from the Hidden Ones (Assassins). This is a big game, just like the previous two, so plenty to unpack here. Similarly to Odyssey, the game has several story arcs centred on Eivor's efforts to build up his/her kingdom while also dealing with the usual threat that the Order of Ancients pose. There are of course plenty of side missions too, that you can do and also some riches to find, high viewpoints to synchronize and a few optional but very hard enemies to take on, on top of everything else. New to the series is a toned down naval system which in true Viking fashion is used as a means to travel to places, but allows both songs and stories to be told. You can also raid villages and military outposts for things, pledge allegiances to various factions, and learn more about what it means to be an Assassin in the Viking era.

There is probably a lot more that I've missed, but all you need to know is that if you enjoyed what Odyssey had to offer, you are going to have a good time here as it largely follows the same setup as that game in terms of what you can do, the RPG stuff and the fact that you can make choices to affect the main story (even though there is almost certainly a canon version of the story that can be done). But if you rather explore the historical side of things, there is another Discovery Tour to check out like has been done previously. I have never really thought of Ubisoft failing to understand history when it comes to these games. They are mostly on point with accuracy, though some things do make us scratch our heads. But this game is basically what the last two games were, but with everything turned up a notch yet again. It's a fine entry to the series in its RPG era and I hope future games continue to follow this system because it really does work well I must say. 9/10