Oliver Whiteley

Incredibly buggy 6 months after release. Acquiring resources is pitifully slow, Ubisoft's cynical way to push players to purchase them with real money in-store, which is particularly disgraceful when considering the £60 price tag. The map is overwhelming, poorly designed and stuffed with far too many collectibles, so unless you want to go through the tedious task of retrieving all of them, Eivor will have barely any silver, even by the end-game. Disappointing storyline and weak ending (barely even an ending, not even a credits screen as far as I can tell?). Choices offered to the player are disappointing and often rather inconsequential. England's landscapes are rendered beautifully, and the game is pretty overall, though not impressive for a PS5 title. Overall, Valhalla is a nice looking game with some Viking fun to be had, but it is let down by being overly tedious, poorly designed and plagued with bugs. It falls short on several fronts, namely the subpar RPG elements, overcrowded map and levelling system, middling story and microtransactions (which I refuse to pay for). I enjoyed the last Assassin's Creed game I played, Origins, but Valhalla feels in many ways a downgrade, leaving me underwhelmed and with a bitter taste in my mouth.