Though its campaign takes time to get going, Assassin's Creed Valhalla brings a satisfying finish to the current saga of the franchise. Assassin's Creed Valhalla fully embraces the series' heritage. The 12th major Assassin's Creed game shows a keen awareness of the history and gameplay innovations of the saga, and it feels like a love letter to the franchise as a whole. This makes the game a far more rewarding experience for longtime fans, though newcomers can still enjoy Valhalla's combat, emphasis on exploration, and mystery-driven narrative without years of time spent in the Animus. In Valhalla, you once again play as present-day protagonist Layla Hassan, who's still a bit shaken up after the unfortunate events at the end of Assassin's Creed Odyssey's second DLC, The Fate of Atlantis. Understandably ostracized from her old team, she's now partnered with fellow Assassins Shaun Hastings and Rebecca Crane. The trio find themselves facing the daunting task of needing to save the world, and their only clue as to how is a mysterious message of unknown origin that contains coordinates to a grave. With no other leads, Layla hops into the Animus machine with a DNA sample taken from the skeletal remains, allowing her to relive their life in the distant past. This time she'll be Eivor, a Viking who lived during the ninth century. Now Playing: Assassin's Creed Valhalla Review The Assassin's Creed games have traditionally struggled with the modern-day storyline that runs alongside the stories that take place in the past, and Valhalla is no different. However, its modern-day plot is the most focused it has been in years. There's a clear and present danger, and a nice setup for the throughline of the game's campaign: the concept of fate. However, the same care is not extended to Valhalla's secondary main character Layla, whose arc in this game concludes in a way that doesn't feel earned. For a game all about fate and the consequences of trying to break free of it, Layla ends up feeling like a passenger more than the driver of the story. Given the lack of evolution in her character over her multiple appearances, her defining quality has become the bull-headed nature she exhibited in Origins and Odyssey. Thus, her characterization in this game seems all the more contradictory, leaving the modern-day storyline with a bit of an unsatisfying feeling. Thankfully, Layla isn't Assassin's Creed Valhalla's primary main character, and Eivor more than picks up the slack when it comes to story. Vinland Saga Eivor is portrayed as female in the Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Song of Glory comic, which feels like a more natural choice for the character, so that's how I played them. However, you can choose to play as a male version instead, or have the Animus choose for you, which changes Eivor's gender at certain points throughout the campaign (and you can switch among all three options whenever you want). A Viking raider, Eivor is a leader of the Raven Clan alongside her adopted brother, Sigurd. At the start of Valhalla, Eivor has a vision that foretells she will meet a terrible fate. Before she can make proper sense of the more minute details of the vision, however, Sigurd decides to leave Norway for England, prompting her to follow. The two reestablish themselves but find their new home is now located at the centerpiece of several wars. Sigurd sets out to ally with each of England's four kingdoms (Wessex, Northumbria, East Anglia, and Mercia) in order to carve out a safe plot of land for the clan, leaving Eivor behind to oversee their growing settlement and only calling on her when he's in need of her strength or cunning intellect to put the final touches into securing a new alliance. Thus, Valhalla's story plays out over a series of self-contained narrative arcs--a first for Assassin's Creed. By talking to Sigurd's wife, Randvi, you can choose which of Sigurd's leads to pursue next, which kicks off a two-to-three-hour story. Upon completion, you return to Randvi to report on what transpired, invest any collected resources into the settlement, and then pick the next narrative thread.
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