Which is better: Valhalla or Unity?

If I had to choose one Assassin‘s Creed game as the definitive experience, I would pick Unity hands down for its incredible recreation of revolutionary Paris, stealth-focused gameplay, and overall embodiment of the franchise‘s strengths. Valhalla has its charms but is simply too bloated, unfocused, and missing that signature urban parkour. For both longtime fans and newcomers, Unity is the superior choice.

Now let‘s dive deeper into why I believe Unity is the better AC game by comparing these two massive open world titles across key categories.

Story and Characters

Unity follows Arno Dorian, a charismatic Frenchman swept up in the events of the French Revolution after his Templar adoptive father is murdered. He joins the Assassin Brotherhood to find answers and redeem himself while also getting entangled in political intrigue with his star-crossed lover Élise.

Valhalla puts you in the shoes of Eivor, a Viking raider leading their clan to seek glory and riches in England. Eivor becomes embroiled in the fight between the Templar-affiliated Order of Ancients and the hidden ones as they build a settlement for their people.

Here‘s how the narratives stack up:

Protagonists

• Arno is witty and charming with a personal quest for redemption. His motivations and relationships are clear.
• Eivor is fierce yet introspective, struggling between their destiny and free will. But some motivations are muddled across the sprawling story.

Supporting Characters

• Unity has a tighter cast with more memorable figures like Napoleon Bonaparte and the Marquis de Sade.
• Valhalla has an overload of allies and enemies that are hard to track and lack depth.

Story Scope

• Unity spans a few years focused on key phases of the French Revolution led by Robespierre and other figures.
• Valhalla covers decades across multiple kingdoms and children of Ragnar Lothbrok‘s legacy.

Historical Setting

• Revolutionary Paris is inherently more intriguing than England in the dark ages. The social upheaval creates natural drama and tensions.

Critical Reception

Based on Metacritic and OpenCritic scores, Unity has a 73 average rating while Valhalla earned an 80. However, many reviews praise Unity‘s story over Valhalla’s drawn out saga.

My Take

Unity’s tale of Arno’s quest for redemption during the French Revolution is easier to follow and care about. Valhalla’s sprawling epic covering decades of Viking conquests loses steam. The intrigue in 9th century England simply can’t match the dynamic historical backdrop of the French Revolution.

Gameplay and Combat

Assassin‘s Creed games blend action-adventure with RPG elements by offering an open world for exploration, mission-based narratives, and melee combat. Stealth and parkour have also been signature elements since the beginning. Let‘s see how Unity and Valhalla compare in terms of mechanics.

Stealth vs Combat Focus

• Unity emphasizes stealth with blending into crowds, using disguises, picking off enemies, and avoiding detection. You feel like a true assassin.
• Valhalla favors large-scale assaults and battles encouraging direct combat over stealthier approaches. You feel more like a warrior.

Combat Complexity

• Unity has a simpler rock-paper-scissors style combat system with light, heavy, and ranged attacks. Encounters are challenging and require patience.
• Valhalla adds more RPG depth with dual-wielding, unique abilities, adrenaline build-up, and no auto-regen health. This makes combat more button-mashy however.

Parkour

• Climbing and traversing 18th century Paris‘ iconic landmarks and architecture is sublime. The parkour down mechanic also shines.
• The rural environments of England lack verticality. Parkour takes a backseat and feels far less smooth or innovative as a result.

Stealth Mechanics

• Unity rewards careful observation and creativity with black box assassinations, crowd blending, disguises, whistling, and well-designed hiding spots.
• Valhalla simplifies stealth into largely avoiding enemy line-of-sight circles on your minimap. Less emphasis on creative strategies.

RPG Elements

• Unity dabbles with some skill trees, upgrades, and gear mods for your assassin.
• Valhalla goes all in on the RPG formula with dialogue choices, romance options, settlement building, and endless skill and gear customization.

Replayability

• Unity received substantial post-launch support adding new story chapters, missions, and cooperative modes to promote continued play.
• Valhalla also got meaty expansions but leaned heavily into grinding for incremental gear upgrades as the endgame.

My Take

When it comes to fulfilling that fantasy of being a stealthy hooded assassin, Unity does it better. The black box missions really make you feel like a clever assassin through creativity and preparation. The RPG elements in Valhalla like romance options feel awkwardly shoved into the experience. Parkour is shoehorned into the rural environment. The big raidsMand battles get repetitive. Overall Unity delivers a more focused experience true to the franchise‘s roots.

World Design and Graphics

Creating an immersive open world is key for any Assassin’s Creed title. Let’s see how post-revolution Paris and 9th century England compare in scope, beauty, and accuracy.

Scope and Scale

• Revolutionary Paris is approximately 3x the size of Syndicate‘s London at 30km^2^ according to developers. The population is massive.
• Valhalla‘s world is absolutely massive at 140km^2^, but feels more spread out with rural areas between key locations.

Urban Density

• Paris is overflowing with intricate alleyways, markets, slums, palaces, and landmarks packed with thousands of NPCs.
• Rural regions in Valhalla feel sparse while cities like Lunden have nice architectural details but lack Paris‘ bustling crowds.

Historical Accuracy

• Paris stunningly captures the dense, grim vibe of the French Revolution era from the impoverished districts to the extravagant Palace of Versailles.
• Valhalla renders a beautiful but generic picture of the Middle Ages in England and Norway that lacks specific historical detail.

Visuals and Art Direction

• Impressive lighting, interior designs, and gritty ambiance make Paris come alive. The dark semi-realistic tone perfectly fits the narrative.
• Valhalla’s landscapes are beautiful with bright colors but feel less cinematic. Muddy textures undermine the quality at times.

Critical Reception

• IGN praised Unity‘s Paris as "breath-taking" while GameSpot called the city "astonishing in scope and detail".
• Valhalla‘s world received similar "gorgeous, richly detailed" acclaim but some noted the repetitive terrain and dull underground tunnels.

My Take

Exploring intricately realized 18th century Paris and climbing to synchronize off viewpoints like Notre Dame remains one of the greatest joys in the entire AC franchise. The urban playground comes alive with unrivaled energy. Valhalla’s attractive but repeating terrain and monasteries, while expansive, come nowhere close to Paris in terms of beauty, precision, or unique personality.

Other Factors

Beyond core gameplay and world design, let‘s examine some other AC elements and how Unity and Valhalla compare.

Replayability

• Unity integrates seamless 2 to 4 player co-op for completing campaign missions, useful for replaying the game.
• Valhalla has no main game co-op, but the standalone Ravensthorpe mode adds Viking saga replayability.

Post-Launch Support

• Unity received substantial DLC adding new story chapters, missions, gear, and the Dead Kings mini campaign.
• Valhalla also got meaty expansions like Wrath of the Druids and The Siege of Paris bringing dozen of hours of new adventures.

Monetization

• Unity faced backlash for tying skill perks to upgradable gear sold as microtransactions. The overall impact is minor however.
• Valhalla shoved in paid XP and currency boosters, but largely avoids pay-to-win mechanics. Still, there‘s an overload of paid cosmetics.

Modern Day Storyline

• Unity tried to reboot the lackluster modern day tale of battling Templars with a new protagonist but it fizzled out.
• Valhalla intricately weaves the modern Assassins vs. Templar conflict into the historical plot with connections to past games.

My Take

I appreciate Valhalla more thoughtfully tying the modern storyline into the historical action and explaining how the different time periods connect. The cooperative integration in Unity is also brilliant though for experiencing these worlds with friends. Ultimately neither adds monumental new ideas, but both check the important content support and feature boxes.

The Verdict

If you want to experience the quintessential Assassin‘s Creed formula polished to near perfection, Unity is your game. The urban stealth action gameplay, exquisitely recreated world, compelling revolutionary setting, and overall sense of player freedom and immersion make it the pinnacle of the franchise in my opinion. It runs well on modern systems too if you struggled with bugs at launch.

For its part, Valhalla delivers addictive Viking action but suffers from bloat, repetition, and an identity crisis between stealth, brawling RPG, and settlement manager. As a huge AC fan, Unityfelt like coming home again. The only major downside is the lack of cross-platform multiplayer. So I hope Ubisoft eventually remasters the game with revamped online play.

But those are just my takeaways. Every fan‘s opinion differs of course! If you have the time, play both Unity and Valhalla and decide which style of assassin adventure resonates most with you. But if you can only choose one, go with Unity for the quintessential creed.