Introduction
Basic information
Developer Name: Ubisoft
Full Name: Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
Release Date: November 10, 2020
Released on: PC, PlayStation 4–5, Xbox One–Series, Stadia
Cross Play: No
Initial thoughts
From the very beginning, Valhalla presents itself with an impressive façade that weakens almost immediately. The moment you take control, the sense of refinement that Origins had is missing, replaced instead by systems that feel clunky and strangely disconnected from one another. Even navigating the map, a basic task in any open-world game, turns into a tedious ordeal. My wife, who adored Origins enough to complete it entirely, voiced immediate frustration, feeling as though the game lacked the identity and polish she expected. The early excitement faded into mild annoyance well before the story properly settled.
Story and setting
Plot overview
Eivor’s journey aims to balance personal growth, clan politics, and supernatural influence, yet the story struggles to bind these threads cohesively. Scenes drift without urgency, major beats feel unearned, and the overly stretched narrative causes emotional investment to evaporate. The game wants to be epic, but its pacing and scattered direction leave the plot feeling repetitive rather than meaningful.
World building and immersion
The world is vast but strangely empty in feeling. Instead of immersion, the player is often pulled out of the experience by the unreadable map, repetitive activities, and a general lack of environmental storytelling. The scale is impressive, yet it rarely feels inviting or cohesive.
Character development
While the game’s main focus is on exploration, the characters you meet along the way are memorable. Each NPC has a distinct personality, and their interactions with the cat add a layer of charm to the experience. However, the game doesn’t delve deep into character development, as the primary focus is on the cat’s journey.
Emotional impact
The world is vast but strangely empty in feeling. Instead of immersion, the player is often pulled out of the experience by the unreadable map, repetitive activities, and a general lack of environmental storytelling. The scale is impressive, yet it rarely feels inviting or cohesive.
Rating for story and setting
I have visited multiple aspects of the story, and after some thought and objective thinking, I rated the story and setting with a 4.5.
Gameplay and mechanics
Core gameplay mechanics
Combat, exploration, and progression attempt to merge RPG complexity with brute Viking force, but the result feels rough and unrefined. The weight and responsiveness found in Origins are replaced by sluggish clashes and animations that never quite satisfy. Even simple encounters often drag unnecessarily.
Difficulty and balance
Instead of offering meaningful challenge, enemies rely on inflated health pools that extend fights without enriching them. It feels artificial and becomes tiresome quickly.
Pacing of the game
The pacing collapses frequently. Extended stretches of repetitive tasks are followed by sudden bursts of action that feel randomly placed rather than thoughtfully crafted. It’s difficult to maintain momentum or engagement.
Innovation and uniqueness
For a franchise known for reinvention, this entry feels oddly stale. Very few systems feel new, and those that do often seem bolted on rather than integrated into the overall design.
Controls and user interface
Controls feel floaty, while the user interface, including the notoriously unreadable map, it is one of the game’s most frustrating flaws. Navigation becomes a chore instead of a natural part of the experience.
Microtransactions
Their presence subtly undermines the game’s progression, offering gear and shortcuts in a way that detracts from the satisfaction of earning rewards through gameplay.
Rating
After combing through many of the mechanics, the pacing, and other factors of this game, I rated the gameplay and mechanics with a 5.
Graphics and art style
Quality of graphics and art direction
Visually, the game can be beautiful in moments, but these moments are inconsistent. Lighting varies wildly, character models sometimes appear stiff, and regions frequently blend together visually rather than establishing memorable identities.
Technical performances
Performance hiccups, texture pop-in, frame stutters, and odd physics issues undermine what could have been a stronger presentation. Even after updates, the experience remains rough around the edges.
Environment and design uniqueness
Despite the vastness, there is a surprising lack of unique identity across environments. Everything starts feeling interchangeable, which dampens the excitement of exploration.
Rating
It took me some time to give the graphics and art style an objective rating. There are many things to consider, but ultimately, I rated this section with a 5.
Sound and music
Music score and how it contributed to the game
The soundtrack aims for atmospheric Nordic tones, but it never establishes a strong thematic presence. It fills space but rarely enhances emotional or dramatic moments.
Sound effects quality
Clashing weapons, environmental ambience, and footsteps lack the richness and detail expected from a modern title of this scale.
Voice Acting
Voice performances are consistent, yet they struggle against the unfocused script. Even strong delivery can’t compensate for the emotional flatness of the writing.
Rating
After a lot of consideration, I rated the sound and music section with a 5.
Replayability
Game Length and content volume
The game is extremely long, but length does not equal quality. Much of the content feels padded, repetitive, or shallow, making the overall volume more exhausting than rewarding.
Extra Content
There is a lot of extra content in the form of the DLC.
Replay value
Once completed, there is little incentive to return. The systems lack satisfying depth, and the narrative lacks the emotional punch needed to encourage replay.
Rating
After thoughtful consideration, I decided to rate the replayability and game length of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla with a 5.
Suggestions and comparisons
Suggestions and feedback
The game would benefit greatly from a cleaner, readable map; combat with real impact; streamlined systems; and more focused storytelling. Reducing padding and prioritizing meaningful content would help restore the spark the series once had.
Comparisons
Compared to Origins, which my wife completed 100%, Valhalla feels like a downgrade in every meaningful respect. The mechanics lack sharpness, the world lacks cohesion, and the story lacks emotional resonance. Valhalla comes across as an awkward, confused sequel.
Personal experiences and anecdotes
Our playthrough was filled with small irritations that grew into larger frustrations. What began as an optimistic journey into Norse territory became a slowly unraveling experience defined by unclear navigation, clumsy controls, and constant reminders of how much better Origins handled almost every system. My wife’s disappointment was the clearest sign, the magic simply wasn’t there, and no amount of perseverance made the game more enjoyable.
Rating
Taking in all the personal experiences with Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, I give it a personal rating of 4.
Last words
Pros
- A large world with moments of visual beauty
- Occasional atmospheric highlights
- An interesting setting with potential
Cons
- Unreadable map
- Bloated pacing
- Repetitive exploration
- Sluggish combat
- Lacking refinement compared to Origins
- Emotionally flat storytelling
- Technical performance issues
- Clumsy controls
- Overly long runtime
- Minimal replay appeal
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla tries to deliver an enormous Viking adventure, but its ambition collapses beneath layers of repetition, unclear design choices, and an overall lack of cohesion. While it has glimpses of charm, they are too fleeting to overcome the many frustrations. What should have been a powerful entry instead feels like a weary, unfocused chapter in the franchise, one that struggles to justify the time it demands.
FINAL RATING
4.5
Please let me know what you think of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla in the comments!
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This game I was really hoping to be something for me but it was not. Although I really just like the name Valhalla because of all the legends about it.
Wait, worse combat than Origins? But why…
Well thanks for the review. I, like many others, bought this slop when it was 90% off and will play eventually. Will probably knock it down some pegs on my backlog.
There are indeed a lot of legends!
From what I saw in the video, it didn’t seem too bad, but it looks like a game with all sorts of problems…
There are a lot of problems.
Sounds like this is another generic open world game with a lot of fetch quest. They sure like to kill their own brand.
They have no soul left.
The world looks visually interesting, it is a shame it is filled with bland fetch quests, on top of other general issues…
Too many issues.
Seems too many shareholders who decide how a game should be without knowing what a game is?
It could still be a good franchise when the money is not the focus.
Gameplay and fun should be the focus instead of money.
I like the Assassin’s Creed series, but I’m a long way from Valhalla. This episode tempts me (like all the others) and I understand that the repetition of exploration can be annoying. That said, from what I’ve read, this is the case for many episodes.
It is no longer a stealth game.
I might be in the minority, but I actually liked this AC experience. Sure there is a lot of copy-n-paste quests and lots of fetching (all optional) but there are some interesting quest lines too. Also, the setting is very interesting to me, at least much more exciting than Ancient Greece for sure. Egypt wins all of course, but that’s another game.
I liked Ancient Greece but could not get through it.
Yeah, I trust you, that could be better. In the past Ubisoft games were better.
They need more money and they need it right now!
I fully agree, I know someone who’s played this game for several 100s of hours and I dont know how, its just so boring and repetitive, similar to Oddyssey and Origins but even those games are like a 6.5/10
Odyssey and Origins were much better!
Yep, a Ubisoft game… I played it for a few hours when I had a Ubisoft+ trial. It was very “alright”, not bad, but definitely not good. The game is pretty, yes, that’s one of the things Ubisoft still does correctly. But sadly it doesn’t go much further.
I got bored after a bit and am not really looking forward to playing it again even if I end up owning it for some reason. I don’t know if I would have given it a 4 if I continued playing it, but it wouldn’t have been much higher anyway.
I wonder what you’ll think of AC Shadows when you eventually get to it!
Maybe we will play AC shadows when it is in a bundle…
Yep! That pretty much sounds on point with what I heard from this game.
Sorry that your wife was disappointed by it… 😔
I was disappointed by it as well.
Repetitive exploration and sluggish combat feel like what a title of this series should not have from my knowledge of it 🙁
It is too focused on new things and trying to get people to pay.
Microtransactions in a single player game >:( now I know most of the other more or less bad reviews about this game are true.
Microtransactions are very strange and do not belong in a singleplayer game.
Hope they will make good Assassin’s Creed games again
Me too!
It’s really too bad, because the visuals, setting and some of the themes look and sound really cool! It seems like they forgot to work on gameplay and a meaningful story after creating everything else… I think these big companies get lazy and uninspired, expecting their brand to carry them the rest of the way :/
They indeed expect their brand to carry them.
why you have performance issues? what was your graphic card?
It was on the Playstation 5, it should have no problems playing this game.
Good review, it always nice to read review for independent player who played already previous titles or similiar games. Maybe they release (Ubisoft) too many titles instead working more on them? I personally not played them but anyway it is good to know what to expect in new titles versus older from them. Gameplay and story is very important in such games. I will overall check how it look in video.
Story and gameplay are indeed important.
Well, that’s what I call a washed out entry in the franchise. They lost their vision with what they want to do in the franchise, and then end up with a bland entry that just repeats whatever was before, maybe add some new mechanics, and then make them repeat as well. Lots of copy and paste action, not much meaning behind it. Yes, the story has no meaning at all.
It was a flop!
I like how honestly you break down where Valhalla stumbles, especially with the bloated length and clunky systems
I am glad you liked it!
So sad that these games are often so badly made. The franchise could be so awesome. And I really like the Viking setting with the Raven (I soo love Ravens). Hopefully they’ll improve on future installments.
I do hope they improve future installments.