Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Wrath of the Druids

The first expansion pack for Assassin's Creed Valhalla can cut both ways, as good visuals, great music and deep gameplay on one side and repetitive game design, shallow story and weak character design on the other cancel each other out.

It’s hard to call Wrath of the Druids essential, but those seeking to eke out yet more gameplay from Assassin’s Creed Valhalla would be wise to check it out. As I explored the countryside of Ireland, including iconic landmarks such as The Giant’s Causeway, I couldn’t help but stop to take screenshots due to the beauty of it all. And while the gameplay boils down to more of the same, it’s enjoyable spending yet more time in Eivor’s shoes, developing their skills even further, adding more gear to their repertoire and being the person that gets things done.

Exploration, pillaging, and king-making is still largely satisfying in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Wrath of the Druids, but the new Irish setting adds only a few genuinely fresh takes on the process and a handful of new and interesting fights. An expansion that largely adds more of the same activities to a massive game already bloated with them without attempting real shakeups risks feeling inessential. Instead, the storytelling is its strongest feature, as both its main tale and sidequests are bolstered by nuanced writing and clever characters that capture many complexities of the Irish political landscape.

If Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was as vast and interesting as many seasons of Game of Thrones, think of Wrath of the Druids as the forthcoming House of the Dragon spinoff. It’s not going to change anyone’s minds, but if you were still on board, it’s exciting to return to that world.

Wrath of the Druids has a lot of the same shortcomings as the main game. The story is too concerned with political intrigue that isn’t that intriguing, the landscape is mostly barren greenery that’s unexciting to traverse, and the overall game hardly hovers above the average baseline it rests upon, just to name a few of the overlapping problems. But Wrath of the Druids does leapfrog the base experience because of its relative focus that organically slices off the astounding amount of bloat inherent to a game that large. It doesn’t magically make Assassin’s Creed Valhalla a better game, but it does show that sometimes, a smaller serving can make a huge difference.

While Wrath of the Druids isn’t Assassin’s Creed at its most exciting, it’s certainly passable in a month as quiet as this. Burn a weekend burning druids and make the most of it all, before waiting to see when they'll get back to the actual plot. Seriously, I need closure on that ending, Ubisoft.

Wrath of the Druids is an interesting DLC because of its generosity but which is sorely lacking in originality and new elements compared to Valhalla. Offering 10 to 15 hours of scripted adventure, it extends the experience, serving us Ireland on a set. However, we would have appreciated a more in-depth treatment of the druids, relegated to the rank of obscure threat like “Order of the Ancients” and a much better balanced difficulty, just to do honor to the various quests, both main and secondary.

The game’s still visually gorgeous, but interesting characters and stories are sidelined to oblivion. No wonder the druids are so hacked off. [Issue#2, p.76]

A decent if uninspired first major DLC pack for Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Its truly brilliant moments are worth playing, and those who enjoyed the core gameplay loop of the main game will be satisfied. However, elements like resource gathering and generic side quests could certainly have been cut to make way for more divergent design, to make use of Ireland and all its history.