After spending in excess of 202 hours exploring a dark age England during the Viking age it has left me in sheer excitement as to what is about to unfold in the fourth coming expansion packs this year.

When the game was anounced back in Spring last year it is worth noting that Assassin's Creed CGI trailers are amongst the best ever seen for any IP.

For me Assassins Creed 3 totally enthralled me after the exasperating expansions to Ezio Auditore's story arcs and I must point out Assassin's Creed Valhalla is the first installment in the series that has fully captivated me since Assassin's Creed 3 and Black Flag, Valhalla's CGI trailer I have to say is the best Ive ever seen for an Assassin's Creed game.

But I do not want to get ahead of myself discussing Assassin's Creed Valhalla's awesome media campaign as in my honest opinion the game certainly delivered and in most areas exceeded my expectations.

I do not think im alone in knowing that the Assassin's Creed game developers across Ubisoft's global development studio's have demonstrated their love and passion for the franchise and I admire the fact that the writers and designers are not afraid to try new things and I think I Assassin's Creed Odyssey is a prime example of exploring the Lore and the franchise in an entirely different context.

Ive always had a love for the Viking age and Ive read some very insighful books written by some very critically claimed archeological experts and historians and the most recent one ive just finished is by a man called Neil Oliver and the book really delved deep into the magic of Scandanavian history and folk lore and really described in intracate detail how these Norse, Danish, Swedish and Finnish farmers, traders and warriors played an integeral part in reconnecting the world after the fall of the Roman Empire and I think Assassin's Creed Valhalla did an amazing job from a writing perspective in bringing these historical facts to life.

This does bring to my next point that every Assassin's Creed game or transmedia project Darby Mcdevvit lends his insanely creative narrative mind always turns into an amazing Lore rich experience and that is coming from someone who has followed the franchise since the Assassin's Creed in 2006 and I have thoroughly enjoyed re living Eivior's memories, the narrative choices this time round really added an element of suspense to the various story arcs knowing that what ever responses or choices I make will literaly come with consequences but more importantly being atuned to Eivior's personality and I actually found myself really feeling some kind of sympathy and compassion to Eivior when being faced with tough decisions and bearing the consequences.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla's Lore rich plot was a real treat for me and I really felt that the Lunden, Jorvik and Wincestre arcs was in someways a homage to Assassin's Creed 1, for example putting your hood up to remain incognito from the Saxon guards and using your environment and its citizens to your advantage to navigate safely through these areas were historically Vikings was said to have been met with animosity ie Pagan's walking amongst Christian cities, so the correlation between the Lore and historical accounts was beautifully connected.

From the Norse mythological elements to building and overseeing my settlement the game has plenty to offer and I am a huge fan of fishing in a relaxing spot of the world to escape the battle and waring also I love Orlog.



Environmentally the game is beautiful and landscapes are rich which compliment the hidden dangers in these lands like a moth to a flame, when I was exploring Eurviscire and its vast snow capped hills and forests covered in blankets of snow the back ground music ( Valhalla Nights by Jesper Kyd ) really made me feel like I had been transported to a barren empty magical glacia which really made my spine chill with the games overall atmospehere.

The combat system is another element I want to shout about, When Ubisoft explained the game will feature visceral combat I was very excited to actually have hands on experience with the new mechanics and using these manourvers during raids on Saxon Monasteries was beyond satisfying and my favourite manourver has to be the throwing axe fury, i actually found myself using this quite often when enemies surrounded me followed by th epic stomp. The finising manourvers and stun animations was bloody and beautiful.

I never really used every skill as I was very comfortable with my own customised set up but I am starting the game and experiement with all the different abilities and skills, two skills I found very usefull was the evade ( slow down ) and the throwing weapon skill which really helped in large scale assualts on forts.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla actually encouraged me to read all of the Codex and Saga pages that I encountered through out the world ( and I srongly encourage when the poor fellow soldier of Christ ) hands you the key to Aelfreds study in Wincestere go and read his scriptures! you will be very suprised, but above all else the Codex and Saga pages really took me deeper into the Lore of the Hidden Ones which was an amazing touch.

I found that every decision Eivior made such as wearing the wrist blade on the top of the fore arm and the Eivior's alliance with Basim and Hytham to hunt down the members of the order was perfectly aligned with the seeking of glory and prosperity and I felt the writing to really channel that narrative was executed perfectly and never left me wondering how or why.

All in all Assassins Creed Valhalla was an amazing experience and par a few bugs and glitches that can always be rectified with a simple patch I want to thank the team at Montreal and every studio involved for bringing us this amazing Assassin's Creed game and I cannot wait for the incoming sesonal content.

@wolfkissed82

not seeing any spoilers here honestly...

@asgardian02 Yes I tried to keep it spoiler free so I do apologise of the title is a bit misleading,

As I was writing it did it occur to me I could deliver my thoughts with out any spoilers

@wolfkissed82

ah i see