It’s not often any of us start a game on a current-gen console and finish it on the next generation, but here we are. I remember playing Black Flag exclusively on the PS4 and I’ve often wondered how it fared on the PS3 and what it would have felt like to transition between the two. We expect a substantial jump when we open our hearts to a new generation: better graphics, better framerates, better lighting, better load times and most of all new and unique experiences we couldn’t get before. Perhaps unrealistically we often expect all of this in one hit right at the beginning of a new console’s lifecycle. So is it fair to expect all that from Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, a cross-gen game landing right at transition? Probably not. We’ve played 80 hours of ACV, the bulk of it on PS4 and a good ten hours on PS5. In this review, we’re going to compare the experiences, but that’s not all. ACV is a game that divides its fans. Is this another Odyssey or does it sway back towards its stealthy and hooded roots? Let’s find out.
As I’m sure you’re aware the bulk of the game takes place in merry old England, except it wasn’t massively merry at that time. I assume spotting a Viking ship sailing towards your shore or a Viking axe swinging towards your local monastery wouldn’t have been something jolly to tweet about. But we won’t worry too much about that seeing as you are the Viking. Eivor is a warrior in search of somewhere new to lay down her/his helmet. I’m not going to step anywhere near spoiler territory or in fact sum up anything else about the plot. You’ve undoubtedly heard it elsewhere by now or if you’re lucky you’re planning to go in a dark as possible story-wise. What you do need to know is that ACV’s story is the backbone of the game. It’s gripping, it’s interesting, it’s intriguing and it’s also very surprising how cohesive and well-paced it is considering the massive scope of the game.
The story is littered with well-written characters, some charismatic, some that need a slap and some that need a good throat-cutting. There is plenty to meet on Eivor’s journey and together they support a really gripping story. The voice acting is superb. The female Eivor’s voice has the perfect combination of smoke and grit that lures you into her world and makes her believable as a great Viking warrior. She’s absolutely flawless.
One of the ways in which ACV avoids story fatigue is the way it’s broken down. It tells numerous stories, a different one for each part of the map you visit in addition to the main story thread. Along with the power level needed for each county, it grounds you into a specific area which makes exploration less daunting and gives you less reason to go running off to a different part of the map. Each story arc is very different and the accompanying missions are varied and don’t feel overly repetitive. You’ll be storming castles, searching ruins, rescuing and hunting, and even doing a little bit of detective work. Because you don’t have the usual abundance of pointless distractions on the side, these missions feel much more impactful and dare I say exciting. You’ll also have numerous opportunities to make choices, some of which will affect the end of the game.
Now, you’re not just in England for a jolly holiday. You’re there to make a new home. Your settlement will need to be built up with the supplies found in the open world and on raids (encampments of a sort where you can either pluck off lives one by one or charge in axes blazing with an entire boatload of Vikings). Settlement building never feels grindy and don’t worry it’s nothing like Fallout 4. Building facilities like merchants and farms will help you in the game by giving you important buffs, and other buildings like the tattoo parlour give you the option to make cosmetic changes. It’s a nice addition to the game and I’m glad to see Ubisoft didn’t get too carried away.
The map is gigantic. You can easily spend ten hours in the starting area before you even hit the title screen. And yet the pacing still feels good. You’d think a game this big would be bloated and that’s always the fear, right? But ACV doesn’t feel this way at all because gone is the palpitating-quantity of crap to do. Side quests have vanished. The map is no longer completely covered in icons. Well, this is where my brain initially split in two with one side jumping for joy that the constant stream of necessary side quests and bus work is gone and the other side is whining unhappily that the constant stream of necessary side quests and busywork is gone. To clarify, there is plenty to do but you don’t have to do it. The ten-hour prologue can be done in just a few hours by following the main questline straight through. Side quests have been replaced by something called Mysteries. These are brief localised side activities than can range from poetry battles, stacking stones, alters, cursed objects to bizarre and amusing character encounters. Many of the Mysteries are puzzles of sorts and most don’t take more than a few minutes to complete. They’ll give you XP and skill points so it’s definitely worth seeking them out when you and your horse are clippety-clopping by.
The environment can feel a little empty at first and I wonder if that’s because it lacks the usual plethora of random and unimportant NPCs begging for your attention. We’re so used to open-world games stealing our lives with endless quests that have you running circles. Breath of the Wild taught us a new way where exploration was key and your adventure was your own. Unfortunately, there’s very little on Valhalla’s map that makes you want to deviate from your missions just for the hell of it, but what it does have you galloping out of your way for is the chance of wealth, weapons and rune abilities.
Don’t expect weapons to fall into your lap as they did in Odyssey. Every weapon and every piece of gear is unique and you’ll need to hunt many of them down. Everything feels a bit more special because you’re not being constantly showered with it; you’ve got to find it. Gear and weapons also take a lot of materials to upgrade so seeking out wealth icons is a must if you want the best of the best.
Rune Abilities are a great way to improve combat. Collecting and assigning these will give you a wealth of options to unleash providing you’ve got enough adrenaline. You can no longer unlock them automatically from a skill tree. Abilities must be found in the open world. You get what you get and then you can pick between them. There’s a pretty awesome jump attack, a running tackle, a volley of arrows and fire attacks to name a few. Remember all that pointless busywork I said was missing? This is another example of what they’ve replaced it with. You need to go out of your way to get a lot of your abilities, gear, weapons, runes, wealth and supplies. You can also gain skill points this way which you’ll need to unlock the new skill tree and gain power levels.
Your skill tree is a branching constellation that gradually expands depending on what you decide to unlock. Many of the choices are the same no matter which way you branch. There’s health, stealth damage, ranged resistance, poison damage. But each section also has a unique skill you can unlock and these vary across the constellations. You get 2 points every time the game rewards you which is often so progression feels quick and constant. The points not only unlock the constellation but also count towards your power level. Your power level tells you which parts of the map you’re best off staying in and which parts you should go to die. It’s a solid system that never leaves you either over or underpowered.
Valhalla’s England is a bit of a shock after Greece’s bright summer colour scheme. Gone are the sparkling green and blue oceans and the sunny sands, and in its place is a more muted autumn pallet. Expect a lot of browns, greens, oranges and a few depressing greys and foggy murk. That’s not to say the environment isn’t gorgeous, because it absolutely is, but sometimes the landscape has a more solemn sort of beauty which is a nice change. It’s a hostile place and there’s something of that in its graphical representation. But just like in real life, though, the sun does put its hat on and make quite regular appearances. It’s really something to just stop and take it all in – the wind rustling through the trees, the leaves falling, tranquil birdsong, and the occasional ram up the backside from a grumpy elk. ACV definitely has its share of wow moments. You know what I mean. That first distant glimpse of a Tallneck gently stepping through the lush lands of Horizon Zero Dawn. Jin drawing his blade in the long grasses. Arthur Morgan riding through the snow. I’ll leave Valhalla’s wow moments for you to find for yourselves.
There were a few times when the lighting made playing difficult or uncomfortable. The orange sunsets and sunrises were the colour of Irn-Bru and I don’t know what country you’re from but here in the UK if everything turns that shade of vivid orange we throw ourselves to the ground and wait for the nuke to hit. The problem was the same on PS5. I think it’s worth noting that graphically the PS4 version stands pretty tall next to its newborn brother. Both are ultra-detailed and quite frankly spectacular in places and there were no huge differences that slapped me in the face when I transitioned up a gen. Disappointingly I did notice that on PS5 when you’re galloping across the countryside the finer environmental details in the distance was noticeably loading in. The effect was like a moving shadow across the landscape. Hopefully, this is something that will be patched sooner rather than later and it’s worth noting that this only happened with a fully upgraded horse that was charging at break-neck speed for a prolonged period of time.
But that’s enough about characters and story and graphics. We all know that the gameplay is what makes or breaks an Assassin’s Creed game and divides its fans. I’m in the stealth camp. AC should be about lurking in the shadows and pouncing with a sharp blade. I want to hide, I want to track you from above, follow your every movement and plan your silent death. I forgave Odyssey for the complete lack of any of this only because the combat felt so damn good. With ACV we’ve been told we’re returning to social stealth and silent assassination. So did we get a decent combination of the two?
Stealth is definitely back and the hidden blade is terrific. I no longer feel like I’m prodding an enemy with a Cumberland sausage only to have him flinch and alert the entire encampment. Most enemies will go down with one blade in the ribs but the tougher dudes need a simple QTE to get them down with one stab. You can chain assassinate, jump on top of them or surprise them from haystacks just like in the old days. Ranged combat with the bow and arrow feels beautifully precise so much so that it changed my whole playstyle for the rest of the game. You can also shoot down objects that will fall and crush the bad guys. Enemy territory has never been so much fun, and when something goes wrong and one of the sly buggers spots you, it’s not the end of the world or the mission. Blunders are easy to resolve with a bit of slaughter and skewering and then you can go back to the shadows. One small disappointment, however, is your raven. Your bird no longer tags enemies. It’s remarkably off-putting at the beginning and leaves you feeling like you’ve lost one of your senses, but I guess it’s more like you’ve lost one of your cheats. The raven will allow you to take a look around and make mental notes and it’ll guide you to a rough area where you can expect to find your objective. Other than that you’re left to stalk England the old fashioned way, with cunning, wit and a desperate scramble to suddenly become more aware of your surroundings because the video game isn’t holding your hand any more.
Social stealth is also back, allowing you to blend into select groups of people, sitting inconspicuously on a bench and lure drunks into making idiots of themselves to create distractions. Some territories have a Restricted Area where you’ll be attacked if they spot you but there is also a Distrust Area where you have to pull up your hood and walk slowly if there are guards around. It’s not a perfect arrangement mainly because if there are a lot of guards very near you have to walk at roughly the same pace as a dead slug. Your character is a bit on the floaty side and in the same way that it has always been easy to unexpectedly arrive halfway up a tree it’s very easy to suddenly lurch a tad too fast and get caught out. But as much as I’m complaining about it, I still love it. It feels like AC is dipping one big toe back into stealth as an important part of the game.
The quickest and easiest way to clear a quest is to storm in axes flying, but combat initially felt a bit iffy. Eivor feels quite light and floaty and combined with the slower and heavy attacks, over-enthusiastic dodge and the odd control scheme it took a while to get used to. I put in a good twenty hours using various two-handed weapons but the combat only really clicked for me when I switched back to shield and Axe. Now, I love it. It feels even better on PS5 with 60FPS. That’s the game-changer here. It’s not the graphics, it’s the frames. Suddenly everything feels more graceful. I don’t think I could ever go back. This is probably a good moment to also mention the load times and it’s another reason to never go back. Load times on PS5 are reduced from minutes to seconds. If you’re planning to slurp your tea while fast travelling, slurp quickly and try not to dribble, otherwise save it for the cut scenes.
Conclusion
With its much-improved stealth, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla has won me over. This feels like the best AC in a long time. It gives you the choice on how you want to tackle your objectives, something Odyssey lacked if you wanted to stay in the shadows like the Assassins of old. While the franchise hasn’t returned to its roots, it is a step and stab in the right direction. The simply massive story is the game’s strongest feature but although you’ll need a good 80 hours just to complete the game without too much deviation from the main questline, the game never feels bloated. Loading times on the PS4 are pretty abysmal, but on PS5 you’ll barely have time to check a single Tweet. The graphical upgrade to PS5 wasn’t quite what I was hoping for. The game is already stunning and aside from some improved textures, I didn’t notice a huge difference. The lift from 30 to 60 FPS was gratefully received and it feels damn good. All in all, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is a hit. Bring on the DLC!
Best price as of review: Amazon UK
A review code was provided by the publisher. Reviewed on both PS4 and PS5.
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