About Assassin’s Creed Valhalla

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is a 2020 action role-playing video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It is the twelfth major installment in the Assassin’s Creed series, and the successor to 2018’s Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. Principally set in the years 872–878 AD, the game recounts a fictional story during the Viking expansions into the British and Irish Isles. Players control Eivor Varinsdottir, a Viking raider who, while attempting to establish a new Viking clan in England, becomes embroiled in the centuries-old conflict between the Assassin Brotherhood, who fight for peace and liberty, and the Templar Order, who desire peace through control. The game also includes a framing story, set in the 21st century, which follows Layla Hassan, an Assassin who relives Eivor’s memories so as to find a way to save the Earth from destruction.

Development of the game began in 2017, around the release of Assassin’s Creed Origins. Ubisoft Montreal led its three-year development with help from fourteen other Ubisoft studios worldwide, as well as Sperasoft. Numerous people involved in the development of past Assassin’s Creed games returned for Valhalla, including Ashraf Ismail, who served as the creative director for Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (2013) and Origins; Darby McDevitt, the lead writer for Black Flag and Assassin’s Creed: Revelations (2011) and co-writer of Assassin’s Creed Unity (2014); and composers Jesper Kyd and Sarah Schachner, who composed the game’s soundtrack alongside musician Einar Selvik. Similarly to Origins and Odyssey, the team conducted extensive research into the time period to make the game world as historically accurate as possible, and drew inspiration from Norse mythology for certain narrative elements. The team also sought to address some issues found by players with Odyssey, such as its over ambitiousness, small focus on the Assassin-Templar conflict, and the absence of traditional Assassin’s Creed gameplay elements like social stealth.

Valhalla was released for PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, and Stadia on November 10, 2020, with the PlayStation 5 version following on November 12. It received generally positive reviews, with praise for the narrative, characters, voice acting, visuals, soundtrack, world-design and the interconnectivity of activities, while being criticized for its length, technical issues, and repetitive structure. The game had the biggest launch in the Assassin’s Creed series to date, selling the most copies within its first week and becoming the second most profitable Ubisoft title of all time. Ubisoft supported Valhalla extensively with two years of additional content, including both free and paid story expansions, game modes, and events. The game was followed by 2023’s Assassin’s Creed Mirage, which features a historical setting in Baghdad during the Islamic Golden Age and follows Basim Ibn Ishaq, a major supporting character from Valhalla.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla System Requirements

Minimum

Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: Windows 10 (versions 64 bits uniquement)
Processor: AMD Ryzen 3 1200 3.1 GHz / Intel Core i5-4460 3.2 GHz
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: AMD R9 380 /NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960
DirectX: Version 12
Storage: 160 GB available space

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla System Requirements

GAMEPLAY

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is an action role-playing video game structured around several main story arcs and numerous optional side-missions, called “World Events”. The player takes on the role of Eivor Varinsdottir (/ˈeɪvɔːr/), a Viking raider, as they lead their fellow Vikings against the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. The player has the choice of playing Eivor as either female or male (voiced by Cecilie Stenspil and Magnus Bruun respectively), or letting the game alternate between the two at key moments in the story (with the female avatar depicting Eivor’s life and the male avatar depicting the physical appearance of the Isu Odin, due to his connection with Eivor). The player is also able to customize Eivor’s hair, beard, war paint, clothing, armor, and tattoos. The variety of weapons available to the player has been expanded to include weapons such as flails and greatswords. Combat has been changed to allow dual-wielding of almost any weapon, including shields, and every piece of gear that the player collects is unique. The Eagle Vision mechanic of previous titles returns in the form of “Odin Sight”. The player’s companion animal is a raven named Sýnin (Old Norse for “insight”) who can be used to scout the nearby areas, much like previous avian companions had done in Assassin’s Creed Origins and Odyssey, and other parts of the game world from afar before Eivor engages in combat. There is more focus on the stealth aspects for both traversing the game world and in combat. The “social stealth” concept from earlier Assassin’s Creed games returns: Eivor can hide from enemies not only in stationary environmental objects but can pull down the hood and slip into certain crowds to use them as cover. Eivor can feign death, use her raven to distract guards, and can access a hidden blade for near-instantaneous assassinations. Most of the game’s enemies, through specific combinations of approaches, tactics, and weapon selection, are able to be assassinated through a single attack, with the notable exception of bosses, but still can be defeated through numerous other routes.

Valhalla has a familiar structure of main story missions and a number of optional side-missions. While the main storyline in past Assassin’s Creed games typically moved linearly through the main sections of the game world, Valhalla has the player often returning to the main settlement and back to areas previously visited as information about the new areas of England is learned by the Vikings through reconnaissance or from contacts. Not all missions require violent ends, with some that can be resolved through diplomatic means. Player choices through conversation or gameplay options will affect the characters and their political alliances with other non-player characters. The game also relies less on a traditional leveling system and instead focuses more on the selection of skills through skill trees selected by the player as Eivor advances through the game. The difficulty posed by enemies is rated based on the player’s collection of skills. The development team aimed to introduce a wider range of enemy archetypes to Valhalla than in previous titles as they wanted the player to be continually surprised by the game even after playing for tens of hours. Narrative director Darby McDevitt said that the game has 25 unique enemy archetypes, and each “has a unique way of challenging the player.” Enemies can also use objects in the environment to their advantage. Some enemies are also capable of adapting to the player’s actions and combat and finding ways to defend themselves. Enemies can also show personality during combat. While some might be intimidated by Eivor and fight more defensively, others might be more aggressive in their approach.

Conquest Battles, a feature introduced to the series in Odyssey, return in the form of “Assaults” which see the player lead armies to attack fortresses. “Raids” are smaller engagements where the player leads a raiding party to attack a target and secure resources for their settlement. The player is able to build a raiding party by recruiting non-player characters to assist with these. The player is able to create a Viking mercenary, or Jomsviking, that can be recruited by other players to act as a non-playable character within those games; the player gains additional in-game rewards for successful missions that their Jomsviking takes part in. As part of the game’s first season of DLC content, an expanded “River Raids” game-mode was introduced which offers replayable raiding locations in new regions of England not reachable in the main map.

The game also sees the return of player settlements, which have been absent from the series since Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. However, where previous player settlements offered passive gameplay bonuses, the settlement in Valhalla takes on a renewed importance. Game director Ashraf Ismail described this as being “[because] a lot of what you’re doing in the game world is, at the end of the day, going to feed into the settlement so that it can grow, it can flourish.” Quests start and finish in the settlement and the player is able to direct the construction of certain types of buildings, which in turn provide benefits for gameplay. To build these structures, the player needs to lead the Vikings on raids to collect resources. As with Odyssey, the player is able to explore romance options for Eivor, including same-sex relations.

Though the use of naval transport has returned, naval combat has been dialed back. Eivor’s longship acts more as a means of travel when performing raids and for escaping after land combat, rather than being used in combat with other naval vessels. In addition to these, the player can engage in a variety of activities such as; hunting, fishing, brawls with other Vikings, drinking contests, and flyting challenges, which Ubisoft described as “Viking rap battle[s]”, in addition to an original dice game called “Orlog” and Cairn construction.

STORY

In 2020, the unexplained strengthening of Earth’s magnetic field negatively affects the planet. Layla Hassan, Shaun Hastings, and Rebecca Crane receive a signal with coordinates in New England, where they exhume a Viking raider’s remains. Layla, struggling with the Staff of Hermes Trismegistus’ influence, enters the Animus to view the raider’s memories.

In 855 CE in Norway, a young Eivor Varinsdottir witnesses warlord Kjotve the Cruel sacking her hometown and killing her parents before she is rescued by Sigurd, son of King Styrbjorn of the Raven Clan. Seventeen years later, Eivor has been adopted by Styrbjorn, and pursues vengeance against Kjotve. Her latest attempt fails, but she recovers her father’s axe. Touching it, Eivor experiences a vision of Odin, leading her to consult the local seeress, Valka. Valka induces another vision of Sigurd losing an arm before being consumed by a giant wolf.

Sigurd returns from an expedition with foreigners Basim and Hytham, members of the Hidden Ones, who came to Norway to assassinate Kjotve, a member of the opposing Order of the Ancients. Defying Styrbjorn’s orders, Eivor and Sigurd enlist King Harald’s help to eliminate Kjotve. Following their victory, Harald declares his intention to unite Norway under his rule. Styrbjorn pledges fealty to Harald, angering Sigurd, who expected to inherit the crown. He and Eivor take loyalists in the clan on an exodus to England, establishing the settlement of Ravensthorpe. Eivor then secures alliances with neighboring Saxon kingdoms and Viking clans led by Ivar, Halfdan, Ubba Ragnarsson, Guthrum, and Ceolwulf of Mercia, and helps Hytham assassinate local Order members, following tip-offs from a “Poor Fellow-Soldier of Christ.”

Eivor’s visions continue. Valka gives her an elixir that makes her dream of Asgard from Odin’s perspective. Hoping to avert his own fated death during Ragnarök, Odin imprisons Loki’s son Fenrir, who is foretold to kill him, and retrieves a magical mead from Jotunheim that will allow him and the other Aesir to be reincarnated. Layla realizes these are actually visions of the Isu shortly before the Great Catastrophe, and that Loki, who was forbidden to reincarnate himself after betraying Odin, found another way to ensure his survival.

Sigurd and Basim discover an Isu relic, and Sigurd, with Basim’s encouragement, comes to believe himself a god. Fulke, an Order agent and servant of King Alfred of Wessex, captures Sigurd, believing him to be an Isu or descendant thereof, and tortures him, removing his right arm. Eivor rallies her allies to kill Fulke and rescue Sigurd, who has also begun experiencing strange visions. Eivor later accompanies Sigurd back to Norway to investigate his visions, finding an Isu temple with a tree-shaped computer system. The siblings connect themselves to it and are seemingly transported to Valhalla, where they enjoy endless battles, until Eivor realizes it is just a simulation. Having become disillusioned with the pursuit of glory, Eivor persuades Sigurd to return to the real world, and escapes the simulation after resisting Odin.

Upon awakening, Eivor is confronted by Basim, who reveals himself, Eivor, and Sigurd to be reincarnations of Loki, Odin, and Tyr, respectively. Having been overtaken by Loki’s personality, Basim attacks Eivor, but is defeated and trapped in the simulation. Sigurd then abdicates leadership of the clan to Eivor, who returns to England. Later, Eivor and her allies join Guthrum’s assault on Wessex, defeating Alfred’s forces at the Battle of Chippenham. Eivor tracks down Alfred, who reveals himself as both the leader of the Order and the “Poor Fellow-Soldier of Christ.” Disgusted by the Order’s heresy against Christianity, Alfred sought to replace it with a new God-fearing order. Eivor spares Alfred and returns to Ravensthorpe to a hero’s welcome.

In the present, the Assassins deduce the strengthening magnetic field is a result of Desmond Miles’ activation of the Isu towers in 2012. To stabilize the field, Layla travels to the Norway temple and enters the simulation. She meets Basim, who reveals that he led the Assassins to Eivor, and tells her how to stabilize the magnetic field. She does so, but this releases Basim and traps Layla in the simulation. Layla encounters a being called “the Reader,” and decides to work with him to prevent future disasters, allowing her mortal body to die. Meanwhile, Basim escapes the temple with the Staff of Hermes—containing the consciousness of Loki’s lover, Aletheia—and meets Shaun and Rebecca. After they leave to bring William Miles, Basim enters the Animus to track down Loki’s missing children.