Assassin's Creed Valhalla Reviews
Obsessing over playtime and Content™ at the cost of innovation and depth puts Valhalla‘s ability to actually get into Valhalla in question, as it doesn’t quite earn the kind of glory that only the best Vikings achieve.
As a whole, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is an enjoyable game filled with obvious artistry that ends up having its head clubbed in by repetition; 20-30 hours of this game is on par with or better than the best Assassin’s Creed games, but stretched over three times that, you’re afforded enough time to become familiar with (and develop contempt for) the numerous tiny faults that then snowball into problems.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla is too much of the same thing, and it's not nearly engaging enough.
Returning to the Assassin's Creed series after a decade away, some things seem to never change.
Sadly, that string of hours, spent clambering up towers and defogging the map, bounding across the fields in a hopeful, happy loop, was the last of the fun on offer.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla digs deep and further away from the franchise roots and reaches to us with bad writing for the protagonist and slow evolving mediocre story with disappointing stealth mechanics and AI, yet however, fans of exploring have something to feast their eyes here with so much content and a very beautiful design alongside some fun raids there and there.
Review in Arabic | Read full review
Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is a mostly solid, if somewhat unambitious, Assassin's Creed game that is dragged down by a shockingly poor PS4 release. I look forward to seeing how it runs on a PS5, but the last-gen version is hard to recommend due to the sheer amount of issues that I encountered while playing through the game. If you discount those issues, Valhalla would be a comfortable 8.0, but one can't just ignore those issues. Fans looking to continue the franchise's story should wait until Valhalla receives a series of patches or until they can pick up a next-gen version.
Valhalla is a giant step backwards for Assassin's Creed, which is pretty to look at, but feels soulless and fun-free.
Review in German | Read full review
But I also found myself making excuses for Assassin's Creed Valhalla until I couldn't any longer. It mimics the Odyssey formula but takes a step backward in almost every way. It sacrifices story for scale. It's designed to discourage stealth in favor of epic battles. It's true to the Viking experience, but it isn't true to the Assassin's Creed experience. That's why it comes off feeling like the least essential game in the whole series. Impressive in some of its accomplishments, but inessential all the same.
Valhalla would’ve benefited from being smaller in scope. This is something that is blatant throughout. Even at 20 hours in (a third of the overall 60-hour length), the game begins to feel repetitious.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is a fun but flawed new entry in Ubisoft’s iconic action franchise, with a bloated campaign that wears out its welcome and a ton of bugs for players remaining on current-generation platforms. Still, what’s here is actually some of the most confident Assassin’s Creed content to date, with thrilling story beats, refined exploration, and enjoyable side content.
With Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, Ubisoft has given me another pair of the super comfortable shorts I’ve grown accustomed to, but with a few welcomed changes. Very few.
If the answer to that question is a story, it really is a wild ride. The new arc has been interesting and the latest addition continues things in a way that makes me excited for the next release. However, if you want to stealth kill some enemies, scale buildings, and more, this really isn't for you. Norway is a largely bland world with mountain ranges and other less interesting things to deal with. It really isn't a bad experience, it's just when push comes to shove, it's essentially what you'd expect given the previous entries.
The game is fairly dedicated to correcting many of the worst creative decisions made across the lifespan of the Assassin's Creed series.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla is a good time, with fun combat and a beautiful setting. But it's also full of the open-world busywork that's characterized the series lately.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla's vision of ninth-century England is a beautiful place to explore, populated with a great cast of characters who make up for the bland new protagonist, Eivor. Nevertheless, the tired overarching story of Templars and Assassins, and a design ethos that overstuffs the setting with side activities, add unnecessary bloat and distractions to the experience. Valhalla's a solid action-adventure game that does well to capture the turmoil of its historical era, but it's weighed down by the increasingly ponderous legacy of the series it represents.
A vast and multi-faceted trip through a stylised Viking life, with a new fighting system, manifold mini-games and diversions, and untold glitches. It's Assassin's Creed to its core.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla is a worthy "continuation" of the saga for me. Personally, I like the amount of open combat and acting from the shadows. Fans will have to break free a bit from Ezio and the awesome missions where you weren't allowed to be discovered. That rarely happens. Valhalla is just great, fun and offers a lot of playtime for the money. This is marred by the sheer number of bugs. On the one hand, there are some people who were fortunately not affected by them, and on the other hand, like me, where everything just goes wrong. With patch 1.0.2 I was on the verge of leaving the game for now, if I hadn't gotten it for a test. 1.0.4 is unfortunately not much better. There, completely different errors have crept in with me. Against Valhalla, Unity was a smooth release, to put it in perspective. Unfortunately, all these errors overshadowed the really well-done game, whereby there were probably also problems with digital pre-orders at the time of release and fans couldn't even start on time. So much went wrong that the mixed ratings don't surprise us. Assassin's Creed Valhalla is definitely a worthy Assassin's Creed, if you look past the flaws and take in the overall concept. Hardcore fans can already grab it, but if you don't necessarily want to play AC "right away", wait for a few more patches until a certain stability is established and you can play without fear of your score being destroyed or a quest not starting.
Review in German | Read full review
It may sound like I've been constantly ripping into Assassin's Creed Valhalla, but it's more complicated than that. I love the world and exploration, and I love that Ubisoft made a concerted effort to address many people's issues with Odyssey. I love that I don't get constantly blindsided by over-leveled mercenaries, I love that assassin missions have death cut scenes, and there are so many side stories to explore. It just doesn't come together as well as it could. It feels like the development team has branched out to try new things, but none of the good ideas and changes were followed through, making them feel like shallow attempts to change things. This would likely not have been a criticism if we were talking about a runtime of fewer than 30 hours. With a runtime of 50+ hours, though, these sorts of things eventually come crashing down as player fatigue sets in. I still enjoy Valhalla for what it does, but it hurts to know that this could've been a tighter, greater game that delivered on its ambitions rather than merely hinting at them.
Rather than continuing to build on its predecessors, Assassin's Creed Valhalla takes a more streamlined approach to the open world RPG design, for better or worse. It encourages exploration more than ever, and the new setting is initially exciting, but bland characters and underwhelming presentation don't exactly make it a must-have game for your new next-gen console.