Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Gameplay Breakdown

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is one of the most anticipated AAA titles of the year. The game is set in the Dark Ages and the story follows the Viking invasion of England. You play Eivor, a Viking raider who you can choose to be male or female. The gameplay was, unfortunately, leaked a few days ago but the official reveal offers a more detailed insight into it. Take a look at everything revealed in the official gameplay walkthrough at the Ubisoft Forward event below.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Gameplay intro

The gameplay walkthrough begins with a scene from the assault of Burgh castle.  An ‘Assualt’ is a major mission in the main storyline of the game. This mission will show up around halfway through the story where you storm Burgh castle with your forces to defeat Rued. During the attack, you also find out that Oswald, the rightful king of East Anglia, is indeed alive and being held captive by Rued.

Rued Boss fight and combat changes

Level designer Philippe Bergeron explained that they wanted to add new mechanics to the combat system to make it more immersive. For instance, the game has dual weapon wielding and throwable axes. You can also use your bow to attack long-range targets. The combat is also extremely gory and brutal to depict the Viking brutality accurately.

As the assault progresses, you come face-to-face with Rude and his pet wolf in a boss battle. The game allows you a 360° approach to combat where you can choose how to approach your enemy. You can use stealth to drain a large part of the enemy’s strength or you can simply take the enemy head-on. You will also notice that the Spartan Kick from Assassin’s Creed Origins is back, but maybe we should be calling it the ‘Viking Kick’ now?

The eagle vision from the previous games is back and is now called ’Odin Sight.’

After defeating Rued, you then have the decision to make where you choose to let him live or kill him. This does indeed affect the game’s story as it progresses.

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Recruiting and building alliances

The assault on Burgh castle obviously requires preparations. You are free to go and explore the open-world, looking for people to join your cause. You go to Thetford looking to recruit people. In order to get their help, though, you have to assist them in getting their village back from Rued’s men. Once done, the people will join your cause.

After an attack is completed, you can go around looting for weapons and wealth. You will also find something called the ‘Book of knowledge’ which will unlock skills for the character.

As the gameplay progresses, it shows a number of side activities that you can do to take some time off. You can interact with animals and NPCs in the game to help them accomplish smaller objectives.

Eivor will be traveling around, a lot, in Viking longships that will allow you to navigate to distant locations and also aid you in attacks/raids. You will be at the helm at all times where you can control the boat or just set it on autopilot and let your crew take over. It also allows you to switch into a more cinematic view, while in the longboat, where you can look at the beautiful open world. Your crew will also tell their own stories while on the journey to pass time.

 Health Regeneration

One major change here is that you will have to regenerate your health using consumables, unlike the previous titles. There are numerous ways you can do so. You can also go fishing in order to get some food for combat situations. You can look for food and other consumables in the open world too.

Offering Altars

These will be spread out across the open world. You can interact with these where you will give offerings in the form of animal parts or other stuff you find. (These look unbearably similar to the places of power from the Witcher 3)

Another old feature returns to the gamer where you chase parchment pieces which will challenge your free-run skills. In Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, these will give you access you tattoos to customize your character.

Looting Houses

Most of the time in open-world games you come across structures you cannot enter. In Valhalla, you can access most of the houses and structures but will have to find a way inside. Witcher 3, again, would be the best example of it as almost every house had lootable stuff.

In the walkthrough, Eivor shoots the lock on the door through the window to get access to the house that is locked from the inside. You will actually have to brainstorm your way into a structure.

Relaxing Activities

Apart from fishing and looting houses, you can also build cairns in the open world. Carins are stones stacked on one another which you can choose to build to gain skill points. This is a feature included to help you relax and look at the open world.

Gameplay Progression

As the game progresses, you are to attend Oswald’s wedding. There will be a couple of Viking activities that you can perform at the ceremony. These include beer drinking competitions and then testing your archery skills while being intoxicated.

If you decided to let Rued live when you defeat him, he will re-appear at the wedding to challenge Oswald. This is when you have a choice to kill him or let Oswald do it. These choices will definitely change the outcome of the story as you progress.

Overall, the gameplay looks quite similar to what we saw in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Origins. There was even a moment where you could use something like the rope-dart from Assassin’s Creed 3 during combat. This gameplay reveal is just the tip of the iceberg and we may be in for more surprises at the next Ubisoft Forward event.