As I'm writing this, I am balls deep in Assassin's Creed: Valhalla. I'm loving parts; I'm hating parts. But well into the 80 hour mark (not sure how accurate that is), I've come to the realization that Valhalla doesn't need to be an Assassin's Creed game. In fact, Origins and Odyssey didn't need to be Assassin's Creed games either. Why am I saying this? Because these past three games, Valhalla specifically, have been shifting away from what Assassin's Creed games are all about: stealth action.
The very first Assassin's Creed game in 2007 was a mix of historical and science fiction. It kept things simple in terms of its gameplay. You sneak around, find out who your targets are, kill them and the gameplay gets broken up sporadically by ejecting you from the Animus so you can learn more about what you're doing. As every game that followed, more and more gameplay elements were being introduced, yet the pace was still pretty well structured to keep the game flowing. In Assassin's Creed III, Desmond Miles' storyline came to an end, but Ubisoft didn't want to end the franchise. They kept it going with AC4: Black Flag, and the outside world of the Animus became less important. It was more about absorbing the player in the experience. Some games like Assassin's Creed III: Liberation removed the Animus component entirely.
AC: Unity and Syndicate tried new things such as anomalies which messed with time manipulation putting you in World War segments, yet the core gameplay was still very much Assassin's Creed. It wasn't until Origins that the entirety of the game was completely reinvented. Taking place in ancient Egypt, Origins introduced a wealth of open-world gameplay elements. There was now leveling and even though the game was open to you from the start meaning you could go anywhere you wanted, there were high level areas that you obviously were not meant to enter meaning you had to go run off somewhere to level up and come back. Along with Odyssey, there were also numerous gear dumps and resource collecting meaning you spent a lot of time in the menu breaking down gear and sorting through items. The pace of Assassin's Creed began to suffer thanks to all the distractions.
With Origins, Ubisoft begin to experiment with the idea of incorporating mythical gods in their games. The main character Bayek would encounter Egyptian gods such as Anubis, Sobet and Sekhmet. In Odyssey, main characters Kassandra and Alexios would fight Greek mythical creatures such as minotaurs, cyclops, and even Medusa. In Valhalla, there are side quests that take you completely out of the believable old world of England and whisk you away to realms such as Asgard and Jotunheim where you take on the role of Odin.
These new fantasy elements were incorporated to make Assassin's Creed more of an action-RPG, so much so that they even showed up on some places' Game of the Year awards under the RPG category. Although there's nothing wrong with these fantasy elements themselves, it's my personal opinion that they don't belong in the Assassin's Creed franchise. The main reason why I'm against the fantasy stuff is because it goes against the nature of what the franchise started out to be: science fiction. Everything before Origins, although still science fiction, was grounded in historical fiction, meaning it could be traced back and validated as actually happening within the game's world. But gods are not real. The games try to get away with this by using the ancient alien race Isu as being responsible for creating their appearances, which would explain why mentions of gods show up in historical accounts. None of this was going on before Origins, so doing this with Origins and beyond is no more than the franchise jumping the shark.
With the inclusion of the open-world RPG gameplay elements, there's so many distractions getting the in the way that I've pretty much stopped caring about the Animus. I've even forgotten many times in Valhalla that I could leave the Animus if I wanted to. I've uncovered a lot of the game world and I've only been brought out of it once by the game's story. I need that balance of story telling the old AC games had returned. I don't care about Eivor's dreams of being Odin. I want to know more about my next targets (which pretty much have very little backstory to them), the Isu and the Pieces of Eden. I want to know more about the Animus team guiding me in this world. I want the AC games to be focused again.
But that's not going to happen. Ubisoft was trying all sorts of new things with their recent games, but they honestly should have just started making new IPs altogether if they were going to change them THIS much. I doubt very many people even care about the story anymore. The franchise has really boiled down to nothing more than the constant feedback loop Ubisoft games are known for. Maybe part of me is speaking this way because I'm suffering burnout. I know a few people who gave up on the series a long time ago, but for some reason, I just can't say no to Assassin's Creed games. They're fun games to play that don't require much of your attention so you can watch Netflix at the same time or whatever. But even then, I will be among the first to say that they've worn out their welcome. As I'm currently exploring the realm of Jotunheim, I'm thinking, "Man, imagine a new IP where they can leave the AC story behind and just their own full-blown God of War!" But again, that's not going to happen because Ubisoft knows the brand name sells. I just wish more companies took more chances on new IPs, because Assassin's Creed started out as a new IP 13 years ago.
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