Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok, as Havi | Review

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla

Over the months, we have addressed the subject several times, this time, however, we are ready to do so definitively, after having spent the last few days in the company of the largest expansion ever created for an Assassin's Creed. The dawn of Ragnarok, therefore, keeps faith with the promises made in the preview: it is really a very extensive expansion, but perhaps not so different from the previous ones. Once we completed our playthrough, in fact, throwing an eye to the in-game hours counter, we realized that we had not invested the 35 or 40 hours declared by the development team. Or rather: if you want to complete any activity on the new map, the investment in terms of hours will not - in all likelihood - be so far from what Ubisoft Sofia declared; in our case, however, and we are sure to represent many of you, once we exceeded 20 hours we felt very full and aware of having seen the right, practically every content. On the map there were only a few of the classic icons well known to fans of Valhalla, as always divided into artifacts, mysteries and wealth.

Having said that, having made this necessary premise regarding longevity (which remains high considering the nature of the content and the fact that it is included within a mammoth title), the time has come to tell you if Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok is worth the time required, whether or not it is a viable expansion. These days, then, considering the influx of exits, time is really precious.

Is it too easy?

Welcome to Svartalfheim

Exactly as experienced in previous expansions, Dawn of Ragnarok begins in Ravensthorpe, the raven clan camp. Eivor, tormented by some persistent visions which catapult him into the role of Odin, this time for an assignment that has Svartalfheim as its destination, will ask for help from Valka, the seer, and once ingested some concoctions he will continue the journey of the Norse God. A desperate journey, a story of rescue, as he must manage to save his son Baldr from the clutches of Surtr, the fire giant.


Don't worry: we will avoid mentioning other elements of the story, limiting ourselves to giving you an opinion on the script, which we found comparable to the work done in the previous contents. First of all, it is with great pleasure that we inform you that the expansion is characterized by a rather rhythmic pace. During the 10/12 hours required for completion, except for a few rare cases, we never got bored, and we were always struggling with new characters. The story, therefore, works and is accompanied by discrete supporting actors and moderately interesting dialogues, which outline the figure of Havi well, which we had never had the opportunity to explore so closely, not even during the stories set in Asgard and Jotunheim. Unlike Eivor, in fact, while sharing his features, he is a resolute and arrogant protagonist, full of personality and glorious of being the much feared father of the gods. Consequently, as can be guessed, the conversations take on different connotations. However, it is precisely during the final stages that some too many problems arise, revealing the cards of a hasty story and with a great desire to run towards the end credits. Such a shame, considering the potential.

Regarding the story set in the present day, however, everything is silent: at this point, we are confident in the much talked about standalone game dedicated to Basim, which will certainly act as a bridge towards the monumental Infinity.



The fights and the general difficulty, moreover, are certainly not helped by the fact that all the enemies are almost identical to those already faced in the base game; what changes are only their skin, which can be ice or fire, and the elemental damage they will inflict on you. Really a great shame: it would have been enough to slightly vary the patterns of the enemies and separate the new abilities and powers from those previously obtained.

Free as air

If we encountered problems in combat, at least during the exploration we found the addition of powers really tasty. Depending on the type of scenario, it may be appropriate to use the power of the crow or that of Múspellsheimr, solutions that help the side activities making them more elaborate and varied. The puzzles, in fact, are more successful than in the past, they sufficiently tease the user. We liked less, however, the redundancy of the activities, which despite the flicker given by the powers, are really too similar to those dealt with previously. A really out of tune note, for example, also considering the different context, are the raids, which return and are also fundamental to enhance Havi's superhuman abilities. Among other things, the choice of being able to recall the Eivor crew during these phases appears completely inconclusive.

Fortunately, there is no shortage of brand new content, such as stories to be collected around the world in order to unlock tenacious battles in the arena, an end-game content that allows you to accumulate a particular currency and buy some unique objects, among which a precious set of armor stands out. In this regard, a sincere applause to the new objects: they are really many and well worked in design. Staying on the subject of new additions, we also point out the presence of shelters, which will first be scrutinized from above and then identified through arrows hidden in the scenery. Although the solution ends up repeating itself in a short time, the activity is quite pleasant, also considering its importance, since shelters are the only way to access blacksmiths and merchants.

In conclusion, the presence of an updated sound sector with new very valid sounds, and a dubbing in Italian which, at least as regards the main characters, while not reaching peaks of absolute quality, proves to be solid and convincing. Curiously, we also found some news regarding the support for the Dualsense controller of PlayStation 5 which, in the vicinity of the lava, will emit pleasant vibrations.