14 DAY TRIAL // After visiting Ireland a few months ago, I was quite anxious to lay siege to Paris in the next Assassin’s Creed Valhalla expansion. Part of the game’s Season Pass alongside Wrath of the Druids, Siege of Paris sends players on a dangerous path across Frankish countryside, which culminates with one of the most iconic battles in Viking history.
Just like in the previous expansion, Eivor is invited to join Viking Chieftain Siegfried and his Elgring clan in their fight against the Frankish army, now united under the single banner of Charles the Fat, the great-grandson of Charlemagne.
Although things are off to a slow start, once I reached Francia the missions structure seemed more focused than the usual Assassin’s Creed experience. There are some choices that will have meaningful consequences later on, something that I was pleasantly surprised, but the story arc lacks the twists and turns from the Wrath of the Druids expansion.
The new area that I’m sent to explore isn’t that large at all and, more importantly, not that different than England. Exploring Francia’s wilderness felt like I never left England and made me want to return to Ireland. However, visiting Paris is when things start to diverge visually, and the gloomy atmosphere starts to pile up. Ravaged by the plague, Paris’ slums aren’t pretty at all, and the contrast between the different quarters is quite obvious.
Apart from the new Frank units, there’s a new hazardous ingredient in Siege of Paris that it’s impossible to kill – the Rat Swarm. Although, they’re unkillable, they can be repelled and trapped in grates by attacking them. Obviously, these immediately gave me A Plague Tale: Innocence vibes. Usually, rat swarms are strategically placed throughout tunnels and catacombs, and as much as I wanted to like them, I found these frustrating rather than challenging.
The best part of the expansion is the newly added Infiltration Missions, which will probably be familiar to fans of the series since they have been introduced in Assassin’s Creed Unity under the name of Black Box missions. They have been reworked though to fit the new gameplay formula and I found them quite fun.
An Infiltration Mission start when you have to assassinate a high-profile target. You’re being warned that you can approach the mission in different ways and that you have to investigate the area around the target for assassination opportunities. It feels like a simplified version of a Hitman mission. The cherry on top is that if you use one of the assassination opportunities presented to you, you’ll get a very nice cutscene.
As I said in the beginning, the Siege of Paris’ story arc is nowhere near as interesting as what we’ve been given in Wrath of the Druids. With a few exceptions (Charles, Odo) the several important characters that appear in the expansion are much less developed, and not at all that interesting.
Outside of the main plot, we have the Rebel Missions, something that I was bored of quickly. You’re basically sent to kill several Frankish units to receive a different type of in-game currency that you can use to upgrade your fellow NPC rebels or buy weapons and runes. They are repetitive and the things you can buy with the said currency aren’t worth the chore of spending hours doing the same thing over and over again.
I was more excited to use the Scythe, a new type of weapon that’s much faster than all the other two-handed weapons in the game. The moveset is meant to help you when you’re fighting multiple enemies, but the scythe can be deadly even when used against single targets.
Conclusion
Aside from the Infiltration Missions, which aren’t really a new idea, Siege of Paris doesn’t bring anything new to the table. The 10-hour story arc lacks tension and doesn’t stand out from what we’ve already been subjected to. Although Siege of Paris isn’t bad, it’s way too similar to Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. If you’re already suffering from Assassin’s Creed Valhalla fatigue, you won’t find the cure here.
Review code provided by the publisher.
