Is Assassin‘s Creed Valhalla Worth Playing? A Complete Breakdown

After carefully playing through Valhalla and examining its various gameplay systems, I believe Valhalla is worth playing for most gamers, especially if you enjoy the recent Assassin‘s Creed RPG formula.

While it doesn‘t deliver the definitive classic AC experience, Valhalla still succeeds in many areas and offers an immersive Viking epic packed with content to enjoy. Let‘s take a closer look at the major pros and cons.

Huge, Beautiful Open World Setting

One of Valhalla‘s biggest strengths is undoubtedly its vast open world encompassing several kingdoms of 9th century England. From the forests of Mercia to the rolling hills of Wessex, the landscape diversity is impressive along with the variety of towns, monasteries, and settlements.

I was constantly amazed at how each new region I uncovered felt unique with its own character and ambience. For example, traversing the misty fens of East Anglia versus the rugged cliffs of Eurviscire provided two very different adventuring experiences.

Ubisoft did an outstanding job creating a stunning landscape true to the Dark Ages England setting. Attention to detail is high with period-accurate wood and stone architecture for villages and monasteries. The forests and coastlines are loaded with natural beauty just begging to be explored off the beaten path.

Overall, Valhalla‘s open world is an absolute joy to get lost in and constitutes a worthy setting for a 100+ hour Viking saga. The map rivals top contenders like The Witcher 3 in terms of scope, beauty, and attention to historical detail.

Satisfying, Brutal Combat

While not as complex as dedicated action RPG titles like Dark Souls, Valhalla provides some of the most visceral and enjoyable combat in the entire AC franchise.

Wielding dual axes or swords captures the raw power and violence of a Viking warrior. Landing hits feels meaty, especially critical blows that can dismember limbs in gory fashion. The variety of weapons like hammers, spears and shields keeps combat fresh too.

I appreciated the new special attack abilities Eivor unlocks throughout the game. Charging up my bow for an explosive shot or calling down a hail of arrows added extra strategic options besides button mashing.

Enemy variety could be better, but facing different soldier classes and beefy elite units still forces you to use timing, dodging and combos to outmatch them. Overall, combat is the best it‘s ever felt in Assassin‘s Creed thanks to the expanded RPG mechanics.

Highly Customizable Progression

Speaking of RPG mechanics, Valhalla offers deep character progression through its very flexible skill tree system. By spending skill points acquired from leveling up and books, you can unlock melee abilities, ranged skills, stealth talents and more to create your ideal Viking warrior.

I loved experimenting with different builds to enhance combat, like duel-wielding heavy weapons or focusing on speed and dexterity. The skills notably impact your approach to fights and open up new tactics. There‘s also plenty of gear to hunt down like armor sets and powerful unique weapons.

Between skills and gear, Valhalla gives you lots of agency to carve your own path through the progression system. Hardcore min-maxers will enjoy the system depth despite no respec option to easily reset skills.

Raids Capture the Viking Spirit

Assaulting enemy strongholds in massive raids is easily one of Valhalla‘s most unique and enjoyable activities. Raids involve infiltrating territories, scouting ahead to identify enemies/resources, then gathering your forces to attack the main castle in an all-out war.

These large-scale battles really capture the feel of leading a Viking clan against the Saxon kingdoms. The amount of carnage and destruction you can unleash with your raiding party is amazing and an absolute adrenaline rush.

While the core objective remains the same across all raids, I appreciated how each location posed different obstacles to overcome like heavily guarded gates or enemy encampments. Figuring out how to weaken defenses before your army arrives retains the strategic stealth elements of AC.

Raids end up being one of the biggest gameplay innovations introduced in Valhalla, blending open combat and stealth in thrilling set pieces. I never tired of this quintessential Viking activity.

Detailed Character Interactions

Another high point of Valhalla is the depth of NPC interactions and side content compared to past games. Key NPCs like your advisers and romantic interests get lots of optional conversations to flesh out their characters and backstories.

Many mundane activities around your settlement like drinking, hunting and composing songs are portrayed through (skippable) cinematic scenes. I enjoyed seeing slices of everyday Viking life versus just hearing descriptions of it.

Small touches like Eivor sitting down when you idle or party members singing together after victories make the world feel alive. The writing and voice acting deliver some genuinely emotional, funny and reflective character moments.

Disappointing Stealth and Parkour

However, Valhalla isn‘t flawless. Two of the biggest cons stem from decreased emphasis on stealth and the limited parkour traversal.

Fans of slowly infiltrating enemy fortresses using cover and careful assassinations will quickly notice less developed stealth systems compared to past titles. Social stealth is essentially non-existent – you can‘t blend into crowds anymore. Enemy detection is also inconsistent; you can run right by oblivious foes.

Without whistling or other diversion tools, luring enemies is very difficult. Assassination animations are still cool, but stealth overall feels like an afterthought catering to the new RPG focus.

Climbing and parkour have also regressed. Eivor‘s movements feel heavier and clunkier compared to a master Assassin like Ezio. You‘re unable to freely climb most buildings or traverse fluent paths across rooftops since Valhalla shifted to a more grounded setting.

Free-running just isn‘t a priority anymore, which is sure to disappoint fans who loved smoothly scaling huge landmarks using parkour. The world shifts toward width rather than verticality.

Story Drags in Places

Another downside is how Valhalla‘s main story drags in the later acts. After an excellent opening establishing the Norse invasion, the plot momentum slows way down. Long stretches of the mid-late game involve uninteresting alliance-building and territory disputes.

I didn‘t find the Order of Ancients targets compelling either compared to the Templars in previous games. They get very little development as antagonists. Also, the First Civilization elements and modern day scenes feel incredibly tacked on instead of driving the narrative forward.

The ending delivers some emotional payoff, but the 30+ hour journey there has rough patches that tried my patience at times. While the standalone arcs for each region have self-contained stories, the overarching narrative lacks consistent focus and urgency.

Other Drawbacks

A few other issues hamper the overall experience:

• Technical bugs/glitches: Numerous graphical hiccups, especially blurry textures and clipping into objects. There are also occasional game crashes and failures to trigger quests properly.

• Repetitive side content: Activities like enemy encampments and wealth collection are copy-pasted frequently. The mystery puzzles also recycle the same solutions.

• Long load times: Loading screens last 1-2 minutes initially when booting up the game and starting missions. Using fast travel triggers more long loading that disrupts flow.

While not dealbreakers, these problems should be fixed with more patches. But they do periodically diminish enjoyment of the game‘s strengths.

Verdict: Recommended for Fans of the New Formula

Despite some flaws holding it back from being a masterpiece, I heartily recommend Valhalla for most gamers based on its superlative open world, visceral combat, and stellar recreation of Viking-era England.

Fans of the last two Assassin‘s Creed games will feel right at home with the further expanded RPG elements and large-scale raids. The worldbuilding and storyline also live up to the saga‘s epic scope for the most part.

If you demand more emphasis on stealth and parkour, Valhalla may not satisfy like the older AC titles. This entry continues moving the franchise away from its roots as a historical action-adventure to a full-fledged RPG.

But taken on its own merits, Valhalla delivers a breathtaking Viking experience packed with activities, customization, and memorable moments that kept me enthralled for over 100 hours.