Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
Developer/publisher Ubisoft (Montreal)
Format PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series (tested)
Release Out now
Ubisoft’s open-world model was made for Vikings. What were Norse raids if not the original collectathons? You call them pillagers; we see aggressive completionists. The truth is, in the heat of Valhalla’s battles you might not even notice you’re crossing icons off a map. Sounding a horn turns a gentle river cruise into a raiding party, AI charging warriors up the banks to carve a route towards resource crates. It’s a show of shock and awe that’s initially hard to parse, as murky uniforms force you to rely on health bars to tell friend from foe. Get a few monasteries under your belt and it becomes second nature as you, as lead berserker Eivor, do the lion’s share of the slaying to inspire troops towards doors requiring a second body to barge open. The looting goal isn’t new to the series, but the brazen speed at which you strip the map of its prizes is bracing.
Crucially, no peasants are harmed in the making of these set-pieces, although the animators do a fine line in visibly shaken monks. Violence is reserved for Saxon guards, allowing Eivor to later make pacts with the local population without potential partners having to swallow a bitter spoonful of ludonarrative dissonance. Alliances tend to hinge on castle assaults that unfold as supercharged versions of ’s naval forts. Here you push a battering ram through outer walls, parting ways to hinder turrets clashed with the series’ ostensibly sneaky leanings, that assassin’s cred takes a similar knock in these scenes. But, again, ransacking a freshly seized keep does boast a pleasingly brash energy compared to the scurrying list-checking in previous entries.
