It’s been a day since Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarök was released and the criticism around this DLC is already starting to be heard by players.
No more assassins
The Dawn of Ragnarök really makes it possible to make a cross on the assassins. The mythology around Odin is very interesting, but yet so wobbly within this DLC. The story puts us on our end, with a display of credits that surprises us. It feels like the end of a series episode, except this time we can’t just watch the sequel, because it’s the real ending.
Norse Mythology has so much to offer, but is inevitably at odds with the very essence of license. Players are sad to see that the Age of Assassins is dead with Dawn of Ragnarök; some comments even say that it would be a bad copy of God of War.
The infiltration, the assassination, the hunt for the masterminds of oppression are no more, we are simply making a highway on the map, with a monotonous story and totally unrelated to the identity of Assassin’s Creed.
A stand-alone like a DLC
Another point that is really missing is the false promise of a stand-alone that should have been bigger and more ambitious than any other project of the license. We finally end up with a DLC which must be purchased individually at the price of € 39.99, because the latter is not available in the Season Pass.
The dissatisfaction of the players is especially felt for this price to pay for a content which is not better than The Wrath of the Druids. The map is not as big as expected, there are certainly more activities to do, but these have become much simpler. Gone are the interesting puzzles that could be found in Assassin’s Creed Origins and the side missions that managed to keep players in suspense.
ACExperienceYT even say that Dawn of Ragnarök could have been a DLC, but with a need to potentiate the game to the end, they reviewed the plans and Ubisoft had to artificially enrich the extension so that it could be called “stand-alone”.
Extensive casualization
To come back to what was said just before, the different activities offered by Dawn of Ragnarök border on indifference. The mysteries are not so relevant and much less written than the previous opuses, the artifacts are for the most part not placed on the ground (no more need to climb or open enigmatic mechanisms) and the books of knowledge are not Interesting though, because our skill tree tends not to change much.
In the space of a good 15 hours of play, it is possible to clean up the map and its history, without too much difficulty. There are a few puzzles that can make players rack their brains, but nothing too complicated in reality. The additional activities are really dispensable, because they are in no way necessary for our progress in history and are not alluring either.
While it was necessary to listen to the dialogues with the NPCs or to read the smallest piece of paper scattered on the exploration area in the previous chapters, Dawn of Ragnarök is played by putting the brain down and without any element that comes attract our curiosity.
It is certain that this DLC will be able to please players, but unfortunately will not be unanimous. Dawn of Ragnarök is deemed off topic and does not fit into the license.