The Assassin’s Creed series is one of Ubisoft’s most popular franchises which is why we’ve seen a constant release on a near yearly basis ever since the first game arrived in 2007.
However, it’s fair to say that since the first game of 2007, the Assassin’s Creed series has changed in a big way. It evolved from being less of a game focused on stealth with more condensed maps to something much larger akin to open-world RPGs.
Check out the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla trailer below!
That being said, the most recent release in the series, Assassin’s Creed Mirage did take the series somewhat back to its roots. It featured a smaller but still sizable map and more of a focus on stealth mechanics, though it still did feature RPG-inspired levelling-up mechanics.
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The last game to be released in the RPG era is Assassin’s Creed Valhalla of 2020, a game in which the protagonist of Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Basim Ibn Ishaq was first introduced. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is set between 827-878 AD and tells the story of Eivor during the Viking invasions of Anglo-Saxon Great Britain. To say that the map of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is massive would be an understatement filled with an at times overwhelming amount of activities that the player could partake in. It also gave the player the choice of playing as either a male or female Eivor.
On the aggregate website Metacritic, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla scored a very healthy 84, so it would be strange to consider it underrated in my opinion, but it seems that this entry in the Ubisoft series isn't everyone's cup of tea. “I thought I would hate Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. I was wrong,” exclaimed Redditor NineTailedDevil.
“I've been playing Assassin’s Creed Valhalla for the first time recently, currently 40-ish hours in (after finishing every other previous AC game), and I'm having a blast, so much so that I'm confused as to why other diehard fans like me disliked this game,” they explained in a lengthy post sparking discussion with fellow members.
“I enjoyed Valhalla. I played the base game for about 100 hours over like six months. I didn't really get tired of it because of the relatively short sessions I played it in,” replied jkgaspar4994. “I played it at release, and just recently beat Origins and am currently playing Odyssey. Valhalla is my favourite of the three.”
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“The side quests don't get enough credit for how interesting they are,” explained ConventionalizedGuy. “Not only that, most of them don't give you a simple fetch quest. You actually have to pay attention to the dialogue, scout the surrounding environment, etc. They don't just spoon-feed it to you.”
“I agree! I'm genuinely confused when people say Valhalla is the worst of the [RPG] trilogy when it does everything better than Odyssey in my opinion,” said GreenJayLake. “Combat is weightier, less equipment bloat, and the story is more interesting.”
So there you have it, there’s obviously a lot of love for the Eivor Norse shenanigans, and if you’ve never played Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, I can wholeheartedly recommend it. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is out now on PC, PlayStation and Xbox.
Featured Image Credit: UbisoftTopics: Assassins Creed, Assassins Creed Valhalla, Ubisoft, PC, PlayStation, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox, Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X