Best RPGs of 2020
Second Runner-Up: Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
Senior Editor Alex Gibson: The Assassin’s Creed series’ transition from action to action-role-playing has been an overwhelming success, but for me it’s reached a zenith moment with Valhalla from a mechanical standpoint.
Where in Origins and Odyssey there was far too much level-gating, Valhalla loosens those shackles and finds a far better balance through clever design.
The skill tree, for example, is at first overwhelming but slowly proves a triumph, allowing players to respec at the click of a button. As a result, you’re able to play several different builds within a single playthrough, changing your approach to combat and traversal when things grow stale.
This, in combination with Valhalla’s focus on exploration to improve weapons and gear, makes for a liberating RPG experience that never feels like a grind. Other notable features relate to Valhalla’s combat system, which is familiar but improved with new features like the timed stealth takedown mechanic.
Again, it’s another example of what seems like a more concerted effort on the part of Ubisoft to make RPG mechanics fit for Assassin’s Creed where before they felt jammed in.
As for the storytelling and branching dialog, they too represent facets of the modern Assassin’s Creed experience that feel accomplished in Valhalla. Quite how improved they are over Odyssey, I’m not so sure, but the quality of the writing had me equally invested this time around.
It’s going to be fascinating to see which areas of the design Ubisoft will seek to iterate on in the next installment, but Valhalla already feels like the complete role-playing experience the developer has been striving for since 2017.
