Assassin's Creed Valhalla Is Now a Better Assassin's Creed Game

By Tyler Fischer

A massive Assassin's Creed Valhalla update was released this week via Amazon Luna, Google Stadia, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S, and Xbox Series X. Assassin's Creed began its life as a stealth-action series. Over time, but particularly with Assassin's Creed Origins, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, and Assassin's Creed Valhalla, this has changed. Not only has the series mostly abandoned stealth in favor of evolving into an open-world action-RPG, but the little bit of stealth content it still offers isn't up to snuff, however, it's now improved with the aforementioned update. 

With the update, the AI reaction to whistling, which is key to stealth encounters, has considerably improved. Meanwhile, using the bow is now also more improved. There are other changes, which you can read about below, but none of them drastically improve stealth in the game, but altogether they combine for an appreciable improvement. 

Does Assassin's Creed Valhalla all of a sudden play like the first game, Assassin's Creed 2, or Assassin's Creed Brotherhood? No, not even close, but it's an improvement for a game that may have had the worse stealth yet.

Stealth Improvements:

  • AI reaction to whistle improved.
  • Players get detected by enemies when using environmental traps.
  • Wild animals detecting Eivor regardless of distance/angle and alerting nearby NPCs.
  • NPCs disengaging from conflicts extremely quickly.
  • Enemy detection cones reducing when using a bow.
  • Monks having difficulty to leave the music crowd stations in the quest Taken (Kidnap Estrid).

Assassin's Creed Valhalla is available via the PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, Google Stadia, and Amazon Luna. 

"The Assassin's Creed franchise has come quite a long way since the original, and though there have been some missteps along the way, Ubisoft breathed new life into the franchise with Origins and then refined the experience further and crafted one of the best assassins in the franchise in Assassin's Creed Odyssey," reads the opening of our review of the game. "Now comes Assassin's Creed Valhalla, a game that seeks to forge its own unique identity while bringing back elements from past entries in fresh new ways. That's a tall and ambitious order, but Valhalla pulls it all off with flair, weaving all of these disparate elements into a delightfully compelling whole."

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