Video: Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is the ultimate Viking fantasy

If living the Viking fantasy if your ambition, then Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will certainly offer the full gambit of Norse warrior life.

In just a few short hours of hands-on time with the new open-world instalment, we went from commanding a navel army towards a bloody castle siege, to a rap battle, horn-swigging booze contest, then a subsequent drunken fumble with our righthand man.

The setting is definitely the appeal here: as the series is known for, the sense of place in Valhalla’s recreation of 873 CE is striking. There’s not much verticality in the landscape, but this is made up for with a succession of moody medieval landscape.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla Guides:

• Wrath of the Druids - Children of Danu locations

Everything else will be rather familiar to players of Odyssey; combat feels the same, with players able to equip and use various skills in battle, such as throwing axes or poison blades. Meanwhile dialogue trees provide some unique and surprising story elements, such as the trap laid after the aforementioned sex scene, in which we had to try and remember our lover’s name.

Via the video embed above you can watch 20 minutes of edited gameplay from our time playing Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s preview build. The game will release for all major platforms on November 17.