Assassins Creed has been one of modern-day gaming's biggest franchises with its origins stretching way back to 2007 with the games initial release for the Xbox 360 and PS3. I was never initially a fan of the Assassins Creed franchise of games, all of that however changed when I got to play the excellent Assassin’s Creed Syndicate and had a blast sneaking, creeping and assassinating the population of 1860s London as twin brother and sister Jacob and Evie, something about the setting and the gameplay had me hooked whereas previous games in the series never got their teeth into me. Of course, after Syndicate followed both the highly praised Origins and Odyssey, games that in my opinion raised the bar for standards where open world video games were concerned. The aforementioned games were what had me so excited to finally get my hands on a copy of the long-awaited Assassins Creed Valhalla. Vikings, axes, mead, longboats, pillaging, what more could one want from a video game?

WARNING: The following will contain spoilers, but only for the prologue section of AC Valhalla, so if you do not wish to have the start of the story spoiled then please feel free to skip over this paragraph. As Valhalla starts out, we are treated to a video with a seer explaining the story of how the world was created according to Viking mythology, the world was apparently created by the bones and blood of Ymir the first of all beings, with the tone set we are cast into the world of Norway somewhere around AD 800 as a young child named Eivor who is part of a Viking clan. There is a large party that the clan are partaking in and Eivor is tasked by his father Varin to deliver a gift to the clans King. As Varin walks through the rather loud Viking shindig to try and deliver the gift to the King we meet his mother Rosta and various other members of the clan. As soon as Eivor manages to spot the king however, a rival Viking clan known as Ksotve attack and whilst Eivor’s father runs off to take part in the battle Eivor’s mother places him on a horse and tells him to escape. Just before his departure though Eivor notices his mum is about to be attacked and rushes in to try to save her, unfortunately she is captured and this leads to the leader of the rival clan giving Eivor’s father an ultimatum, the he can save his wife if he surrenders, Varin begrudgingly agrees to surrender to save his wife, but unfortunately the Ksotve clan leader is not a man of his word and ends up killing both Eivor’s father and mother.

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Eivor quickly escapes on horseback but in the consequent chase falls down a steep cliff and is soon attacked by a bloodthirsty wolf and seemingly killed, suddenly the screen starts glitching and we hear distant voices talking about ‘crossed streams’ and 'The Animus.’ It is here where you get to choose whether you want to play through the game as a male or female Viking or a third option that seemingly randomly chooses for you each time you play the game. After this the story skips forward some years to reveal that Eivor has now been captured by the same clan that killed his mother and father all those years ago and is about to be shipped off to become a slave. The rest of the prologue set in Norway sees Eivor trying to escape and find the lost members of his clan and acts as a tutorial of sorts to get you up to par with the games basic controls and systems. At the end of the prologue and start of the main game you set sail away from cold Norway to the distant land of England in order to try and set up a new settlement there after becoming disenchanted with the politics in your homeland.

It is in England in the 800s where Eivors true journey begins and your first task is to find a nice bit of the English countryside for your raggedy clan of Vikings to occupy. Once you find your patch, which you name ‘Ravensthorpe’, you are then tasked with building your settlement, which basically requires you of doing the very Viking-like thing of raiding and pillaging from all those around you, regardless of who gets in your way. Each building you add to your settlement increases its reputation which then unlocks further building types and there is quite a variety to choose from. Buildings like the smithy will help with upgrading your weapons, stables will help with upgrading and customising your horse whilst a barracks will help you recruit soldiers and allow you to create a personal ‘Jomsviking’ which is a personal bodyguard of sorts, you can also use the barracks to recruit other Jomsvikings created by other players. The concept of settlement building, though not as in depth as something like the Civilization series of games, still adds a great amount of depth and customisation to the whole experience in Valhalla. You can wander around your settlement talking to members of your clan, engage in games of ‘Orlog’ which is a Viking dice game along the lines of Gwent from The Witcher series where you battle against your opponent in order to kill off all of their soldiers. You can even engage in what is known as ‘Flyting” which is basically a Viking rap battle of sorts, I will not go into this too much as it truly is an experience to behold. There is also your standard Viking drinking mini game where you can convince onlookers of your drinking prowess as they chant “SKOL SKOL SKOL!” These activities will earn you anything from coin through to bonuses to your charisma which will open up extra dialogue options for you in future conversations.

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The world in Valhalla is absolutely massive, in fact I think the first time I zoomed out on the map I got vertigo and nearly fell off my chair. To help you traverse the world you have your horse, but you are also equipped with your trusty raven ‘Synin’ the raven will help you scout the massive landscape as per other avians in previous Assassins creed titles. The major difference this time is that your feathered friend will not tag enemies for you, this is now done by pressing R3 and will only show enemies around a limited area for a limited period of time, I must say I did prefer the old system of being able to do a fly-by of a camp and scope out and tag all the enemies it contained, but the new system does add a further challenge to encounters thus making them more interesting as an enemy you weren't suspecting can now come out of nowhere and sneakily attack. You can also scout out large chunks of the world by synchronizing at various spots marked on the map which usually involves climbing a large tower, this will then highlight certain points of interest that are worthwhile visiting, anybody even vaguely familiar with the AC franchise will be used to this game mechanic. Points of interest on the map range from settlements that you might want to raid for resources to build up your own camp through to various world events that you can partake in, some of the world events are extremely creative, such as the time I was out exploring and heard the moaning of somebody nearby complaining about their headache and having a hangover, I looked around and came across another Viking, with an axe through his skull, and was tasked with removing it and sending him on to the afterlife.

Thankfully the massive map does not have to be traversed solely on foot as you also have your trusty horse and your longboat available to cruise down rivers, sadly even though you can use boats Valhalla doesn’t have any ship-to-ship combat. There are some niggling problems in regards to quest markers in Valhalla as there were a fair number of times where I was tasked with completing a quest and had no idea where to go finish the task as there were no markers indicating a battle or area to be searched on the map, all I was given was “go search the swamp” which is not entirely helpful when “the swamp” in question is not even marked on the map, this could be a bug that will hopefully be patched out before the games release as it is fairly annoying to have to waste time wandering around searching for your objective in a game this massive. The “cult” system from the previous game also returns in Valhalla however instead this time sees you seeking out clues and executing members of the mysterious order of the ancients in a plotline that runs parallel to the main game.

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Of course, exploring won’t be the only thing you will be out doing, you will need to complete missions and take down rival clans for resources through raids. Raids are one of the most thrilling aspects of the game, as you cruise by a settlement in your longboat you can choose to launch a raid by pressing the triangle button which will then send your boat straight at the shore and all of your men rush in to attack the opposing forces. Combat is an integral part of the game, and I am happy to say it feels much improved since AC Odyssey, you can tell a lot of time has been spent improving this area of the game. One of the major changes in the game is that you can now dual wield one handed weapons, or even shields if you choose! There are even new weapon types such as flails included in the game. Archery also feels much improved as in previous games I had found the aiming to be a fair bit floatey, however in Valhalla it is spot on. Battles are very satisfying, and every hit or parry feels weighty whether you are dual wielding axes or slashing away with a massive 2 handed broadsword. Weapons can also be upgraded overtime by spending various resources to improve their damage and other attributes, upgrades can also add sockets to weapons that you can then slot runes into to improve various stats.

Without any skills however all this slashing, smashing, and flailing will probably end with disastrous results and in AC Valhalla the skill system has had a massive overhaul. In previous games you acquire skill points upon levelling up and then choose to upgrade various skills from what was a pretty meagre selection. In Valhalla the focus on levelling up is gone, instead each time you acquire a certain amount of experience you are then given skill points, spending these on skills will then increase your overall power level which allows you to take on harder areas in the game, it sounds like a small change but in practice it makes a major difference and the game seems to reward you with skill points more often. Speaking of skills, the skill tree system has also been massively improved, you are now presented with a huge variety of paths and options you can take in regard to skills, if you have ever played Pillars Of Eternity then you will instantly recognise the same sort of skill tree system in place here, it allows for a great amount of diversity in the character you want to build and really makes you scrutinise each and every skill point you spend. You will actually feel your character grow stronger as you progress in this game and gain the ability to assassinate multiple targets at once, rush at someone throw them to the ground and start pummeling their face to pieces or leap into the air and smash your axes through their skulls.

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Executing skills costs adrenaline which is gained from successfully dispatching opponents so it is crucial to keep your adrenaline meter full, even executing basic attacks and dodging comes at the cost of stamina, however this can be recharged by hitting opponents with successful light attacks or executing parries. Gone from both Origins and Odyssey is health regeneration which I find to be a fantastic change as it makes Valhalla a lot more challenging as in previous games it was all too easy to go into battle and dispatch a few enemies and then once you got into trouble you could run off and wait for your health meter to recharge then going in and rush into battle again. In Valhalla the only way to regain health is through eating rations which can be done both in and out of combat, rations are gained by picking up various items scattered around the landscape and are stored in your rations satchel which can be upgraded over time via the use of resources. I found this system to make me play the game much more cautiously and adds a much more strategic element to each battle as you constantly have to manage your health and make sure you have the required amount of rations to heal before you rush off into battle. There is one downside to the combat though in that is sometimes extremely hard to tell the difference between friendly and enemy units on the battlefield, this is a minor annoyance since you can’t hurt friendly soldiers but it would be nice if there was an easier way of distinguishing enemy units.

Graphically Valhalla is absolutely stunning, from the towering snow-covered mountains of Norway through to the rivers and seemingly endless greenery of England the game wowed me at every turn. The landscapes are meticulously detailed and full of life, with wildlife scurrying around fields and soldiers and citizens alike traversing the various roads and pathways in the game, similarly the character models are of the same quality and are animated with a great degree of skill, the first time I climbed to the top of a mountain in Norway and watched frost come out of Eivor’s mouth with each breath was awe inspiring, the attention to detail here is amazing. Cruising down rivers in your longboat has an option where you can set your boat to automatically go straight to your quest objective and switch to a panoramic view, I absolutely encourage you to do this when you get the chance, sitting back and just watching the beautiful landscapes roll by is an incredibly relaxing experience. Combat is another area where the graphics shine, to the state where they can sometimes be downright terrifying, as you and your Viking crew slash up and chop down foes you will see massive gushes of blood go streaking through the air and your enemy's heads go flying right across the screen, some of the assassinations and finishing moves in the game are absolutely brutal.

There is one issue graphically however, and this also happened to me and a fair amount of other people with AC Odyssey, the HDR implementation in the game does not appear to work well for people with certain models of TV. I tried using HDR on both my 4K TVs and found that the game appeared colorless and completely washed out, it is not a problem with my TV settings as other games with HDR work perfectly fine, even adjusting options within the game would not allow me to tweak the visuals to work suitably with HDR enabled, of course your results may vary depending on the TV you have, but this is something to keep in mind. On the audio side of things, Valhalla doesn’t fail to disappoint, and perhaps even surpasses the soundtrack of Odyssey, the Viking inspired musical is absolutely incredible and the sounds of weapons smashing and striking on the battlefield put you right in the moment. The voice acting in the game is also of an exceedingly high standard and you will find yourself engaged in conversations and as a result will care about the members of your ragtag crew and their stories. There are some issues in cutscenes though that can be very immersion breaking as I did find from time to time that when speaking to other characters that dialogue would become choppy and infused with static, there were also times were characters were silent when they were meant to be speaking, hopefully this is a minor issue that can be patched at launch as it would be a shame to have such great audio work ruined by an issue like this.

Valhalla is an absolutely huge game from the size of the map through to the sometimes-overwhelming number of things to do in the game, you can tell that each and every aspect of it has been a labour of love from the developers. The game is not currently perfect as there are graphics and sound issues and some other niggly bugs where scripts seem to break down and leave your fellow soldiers or enemies standing still or running into walls in the middle of heated battle but these should easily be solved with a patch. There are easily way over 40 hours of gameplay here especially if you engage in the numerous side quests and mini games that are an offer.

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Each time I stepped away from the game I found myself constantly thinking about and wanting to come back and experience the amazing world that Ubisoft Montreal have crafted some more. If you like Assassins creed you will love Valhalla, if you have ever wanted to be a Viking, you will love Valhalla, in fact if you are alive and breathing you will most likely love Valhalla, the game is that good. I cannot wait to see what this game looks and plays like on the Series X and PS5!