ASSASSIN'S CREED VALHALLA

Are longboats and axes enough to stand out from the crowd?

- Wes Fenlon

NEED TO KNOW

RELEASE November 17, 2020

DEVELOPER Ubisoft

PUBLISHER In-house

LINK assassinscreed.ubisoft.com

I almost dropped my controller in a panic when a nun pulled a sword on me. Maybe I should’ve seen it coming – she was praying in a field of corpses. But I wasn’t ready for her to charge me, shouting about chastising sinners. Two hours into my demo, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla finally surprised me.

That fight was the first ‘world event’ I ran into in Valhalla, shorter and simpler than a sidequest, but also more fun, because I had no idea it was coming. Completing world events is a new way Valhalla rewards you skill points to level up Viking assassin Eivor. As Ubisoft continues to turn Assassin’s Creed into an RPG series, more focused on story and character-building, it needs many more moments like that one. But not exactly like that one, because ‘bloodthirsty nun’ is the kind of card you can really only play once.