Assassin's Creed Valhalla Update Finally Turns Off Kill Animations
Ubisoft is sharpening its axe and is ready to set sail into uncharted waters with the latest Assassin's Creed Valhalla update. Since the game's all-star launch on November 10, Assassin's Creed Valhalla has cemented itself as a worthy sequel to 2018's Assassin's Creed Odyssey and has taken us to a whole new realm of stealthy assassinations and brutal battles. This time, players can play as either a male or female version of a Viking called Eivor. Set in the midst of the Viking invasion of Britain, there's also the usual undercurrent of Assassins versus Templars.
The developers have promised there's more to come from Valhalla, with it almost certain there won't be a new Assassin's Creed game until at least 2022. This year is dedicated to keeping the Valhalla wheel turning, with a series of updates and planned DLCs ensuring the fandom remains fresh. The latest update is a hefty one that's packed with tweaks and performance perks, however, the big pull is the fact you can now turn off those achingly long kill animations.
What is the Assassin's Creed Valhalla update?
With the latest AC update live now, Valhalla has added three new skills. Cold Rage allows players to ignore hit interruptions when performing successive melee attacks, Eye of the North stops Eivor flinching if they're hit while aiming their bow, while Intense Rage means you'll ignore hit interruptions before performing your next off-hand parry or special attack. Each skill will recharge after just a few seconds, meaning it should hopefully change the way battle works.
Much like Assassin's Creed has become synonymous with its iconic synchronisation animations, watching a kill cutscene runs in the franchise's blood. Then again, seeing Eivor chop through an Anglo-Saxon for the 12,000th time can get a bit repetitive as it eats into your important play time. Let's be honest, Valhalla was hardly one for speedrunners - until now. Even if wrestling a wolf and cracking its neck or impaling an enemy with their own patriotic flat is a great way to show off the graphics of Valhalla and its next-gen potential, it's more than a little boring as you plough more hours into the game.
What do fans think of the Assassin's Creed Valhalla update?
The Valhalla Title Update 1.2.1 comes just ahead of the game's first planned expansion and clocks in at just 5.5 GB on PlayStation 5 but 16 GB on Xbox Series X. Another tweak courtesy of the update involves the ability to use armour transmog to gain Bayek and Altair's outfits. Finally, there are over a dozen bug fixes to iron out some of Valhalla's annoying issues. The above is all well and good, but for many, it's the fact you can toggle off kill animations that's the main one. New skills are a great advantage, however, shaving some serious time off your romp through the green pastures is a big plus.
Thankfully, the update teases that we're closer than ever to the delayed "Wrath of the Druids" DLC. Devs recently confirmed the trip to Ireland had been pushed back to make sure the team could "deliver a more refined experience". Unlike some 2020 games already being left in the dust, Assassin's Creed Valhalla keeps on berserking into 2021. Hopefully, the latest update is an improvement on the rest. In a developer blog, Ubisoft admitted they've been falling short.
On April 22, Ubisoft wrote, "Our community is at the heart of everything we do, and we always strive to provide you with great experiences. That said, we recognize that some of our recent title updates may not have met your expectations or been up to our standards". Moving forward, the game can expect a five-week update cycle instead of the usual four-week. We'll have to wait and see whether the Title Update 1.2.1 is the start of a shiny new era. If not, a fiery Viking burial could be on the cards.
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