The last chapter of the saga dedicated to the order of the Assassins, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, has no intention of slowing down the production and distribution of content that extends the already overflowing longevity of the Ubisoft title. After two expansions that have met with some success, the French publisher is ready to take us once again to the Norse world with many other missions and activities to undertake, but this time with two big news.
Although Dawn of Ragnarok has been presented and shown to us in all respects as a massive expansion of the main chapter, this will not be part of the Season Pass which at this point will not include further content in the future. This DLC will therefore be available in the various stores at a price of € 39.99 as stand-alone content but which obviously will require the possession of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla to be reproduced.
The second novelty present in this content, on the other hand, concerns a great change to the linearity that so far we have experienced in the role of Eivor, the protagonist who has accompanied us between the lands of England, Ireland and Paris. The adventure that we will be called to undertake on March 10 will see Odin himself descend on the battlefield in search of his son. Impersonating the Norse god from what we could see during the Dawn of Ragnarok presentation is not just a change of narrative; this choice actually completely distorts the game mechanics.
In this add-on we leave the conflicts between realms, skirmishes for territories and court intrigues for something higher: fighting gods. Although Dawn of Ragnarok is in effect a game in itself compared to the products released in the Season Pass, a high level of the character will be required to undertake this mission. However, there is no limitation if you have not finished the main game or participated in the Wrath of the Druids and Siege of Paris campaigns. Ubisoft offers the possibility of automatically leveling our character so as to be ready to face the pitfalls of the new scenario.
Forget the lush Irish valleys and the war-torn French roads, to welcome you in the Dawn of Ragnarok there will be Svartálfaheimr, one of the nine worlds of Norse mythology, commonly associated with the dark elves, the well-known Asgard for fans of the Marvel universe . Although we cannot say with certainty the exact dimensions of this new map that the developers have summarily described as 1/3 of England that saw us as protagonists in Valhalla, the count of places to visit will remain faithful and similar to what was seen in the previous ones. DLC.
In fact, we were struck by the huge floating rocks that stand out on the playing area, capable of reminding us that the raids in the churches are just a memory and now the stakes have become much higher. To enrich the landscape we saw golden mountains and huge volcanoes, whose undergrounds conceal the forges of the gods. And it is from a forge that the mission that was shown to us during the presentation starts, with our beloved Eivor / Odin looking for information on Baldr, the son of the Norse god, hostage in this dark world.
This objective, of course, involves having to make their way through bloody battles and alliances with unpublished races, such as the dwarves, those who possess the knowledge and the perfect arsenal to save the offspring of Odin, kidnapped by Surtr, the gigantic fiery character seen during the announcement trailers. At his command there are two types of enemies: the Jotnar and the Muspel.
We have already met the former, the famous ice warriors native to the Jotunheim region, while the latter, also protagonists of the trailer, come from the kingdom of Muspelheim, creatures whose powers are powered directly by the fire and lava of the volcanoes in their region.
Their aesthetics and their way of approaching clashes is completely new, a strong change that gives the impression of being in front of something fresh after two years of wars. To reinforce this breath of fresh air, there are obviously new powers that Odin can count on to get the better of his enemies. In just under 30 minutes viewed during the preview of the Dawn of Ragnarok we were shown some of them, at first glance decidedly interesting but which also leave room for some perplexity.
The first power to reveal itself is the possibility of transforming into a crow to quickly fly over the game area, a perspective from above useful for scanning any enemies in the vicinity and discovering places of interest. Furthermore, once an enemy has been identified, we can go swooping towards him and transform ourselves into our “human” form to carry out a killing. In the field of metamorphosis, it was also possible to notice the power to turn us into an arrow and hurl ourselves towards the set goal.
But it was certainly what we could define as the power of the resurrection, that is the ability to bring back the fallen on the battlefield as our allies for a predefined period of time, and then see them collapse definitively. This power, as far as we have been able to see, is not only in our hands but also in those of the most powerful enemies that we will find ready to block our way during this mission to recover the son of Odin.
The short duration of the presentation did not give us the time and the way to discover much more but what we have seen has genuinely intrigued us, aware that we have only seen a handful of new features compared to the many transformations and powers on which we can count on 10. March.
It is certainly too early to tell but at the end of the mission we have seen we wondered how these new powers will affect the balance of the game, very often a critical point in the saga.
Will getting lost in the many secondary activities before dedicating ourselves to the main mission will again lead us to be superior in power to the enemies?
To answer this and other questions we will unfortunately have to wait exactly one month, but we are confident that we are faced with an important and apparently well-made content, ready to keep us glued for more than 35 hours.
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