Door 21 of the RPS Advent Calendar is covered with carved runes, and the planks look like they came from a few different trees – even though they are now part of the same door. Sneaking through it could be the way to go, but honestly, you’re free to start it and set it on fire, if you prefer.
This is Assassin’s Creed Valhalla!
Imogen: I’ve never played an AssCreed game before Valhalla, so I don’t really understand any basic stories about modern people and weird magic. I don’t want to understand him either, to be honest, because Valhalla is just a fun game for me about being a stealthy and hidden viking.
One of my favorite things to do is to climb them all. Especially because it’s very liberating, but partly because I find it incredibly funny. While mountaineering can sometimes be unpleasant, for the most part you can climb almost anything. It’s not like the annoying Horizon Zero Dawn, where you play a character who is very good at mixing in stones, but will only do it in specific ways, with bright yellow markings. Trash! Push Eivor up to a flat wall and he will simply walk, whether or not there are handles.
Which brings me to the bit I find funny: a clogged Viking warrior jumping and jumping at various buildings. Every time I do it in a random town or village, I’m so puzzled and amused that no one seems to care. It’s almost as if these people have absolutely seen the scary woman climbing the side of a church, but of course they won’t call her because if she jumped down and crushed me.
And I would do absolutely that because air eliminations are also wonderful. There is nothing as satisfying as a stealth attack from above, especially when you are a huge viking who absolutely flattens people before giving them a quick stab. I’m 90% sure they’re already dead from the impact of Eivor’s body, pushing them with the hidden blade seems like just a formality at the moment.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla allows you to climb things and gather people, 8/10, GOTY.
Alice Bee: Imogen doesn’t have to worry, because most longtime fans of Assassin’s Creed don’t understand the story of the magical framing of aliens, but not the historical one. It wasn’t the important part anyway, was it?
Ubi’s iconic adventure series, which essentially refers to stabbing people throughout history, was revived a few years ago with Assassin’s Creed Origins. Set in Ancient Egypt, the new Assassin’s Creed style stripped the HUD markings, revitalized the fight, gave you a much bigger and more lively world to play in. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey has added a massive hench girl protagonist. And this year I received Valhalla.
Because I played all AssCreeds, Valhalla, for me, feels like a game that has all the best pieces in the series. It has a big world to play in, a “hands-off” approach that allows you to play in a more adventurous, free way, and the protagonist of the big girl in the latest games. But it brings back the stealth mix from previous games. The forerunner of high-tech extraterrestrial things is fading.
Then also add Viking raids to your own long-lasting ship (with a cat!), Axes to people, great cut hairstyles, a village to send, and an entire side piece where you can relive being a Viking god. which you can totally ignore if you’re not interested in it.
Sometimes the amount of stuff you can make him feel a little overwhelmed and I don’t think he needs all the elements he has. The side searches where you find an ancient altar stone and then you have to do a search to kill a lot of rabbits and gather their legs could have been cut back.
But missions in which a colony of nudists fought with their former leader (and he now stands naked on a rock above the bathing place and constantly screams at them) or two families are fighting for their joint grain business, so to set fire to the whole thing or the family of pagan witches … yes, that sort of thing can stay. Assassin’s Creed is dead; Long live Assassin’s Creed.