Though the big addon brings many hours of story and open-world occupation, it leaves some chances behind in the test. And that is a great, great pity.
“Meteor” was the code name of AC Valhalla: The Signs of Ragnarok. It sounds huge, spectacular, this DLC should really hit home and send shockwaves of excitement! Surely there must be more to it than the first two add-ons? The new expansion around Odin, the father of the gods, cannot fulfil such expectations, although there are some really exciting ideas in it. But they would have needed more love and courage to shine.
We have once again thrown on the wolf’s cloak for you, strapped the axe to our belts and marched to Svartalfheim to save Baldr. And more importantly, to tell you what to expect from the DLC – and what not to expect.
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What is The Marks of Ragnarok about?
You’ll have to say a quick goodbye to Eivor in the expansion. Okay, that sounds more dramatic than it really is. This time you slip into the role of Odin, the father of the gods (here called Havi), but there is hardly any noticeable difference between the two – which has story reasons. Nevertheless, the first chance is wasted here. It would have been exciting to get to know a completely new character in Havi instead of spending hours with Eivor 2.0.
After all, this time we’re going to a whole new, expansive world instead of just another country. Our destination is Svartalfheim, the realm of the dwarves, which has been invaded by fiery hordes from Muspelheim. So you won’t find any historical cities, but great magnificent buildings, huge statues and literal mountains of gold, all spanned by the mighty roots of the World Tree. The picture-perfect landscape is atmospherically accompanied by the usual ingenious soundtrack.
Havi’s son Baldr has been kidnapped by the immortal fire giant Surt. And of course the daddy and mummy of the gods want to get their own offspring back – but promptly have to deal with the whole family of an arch-enemy and his henchmen. The dwarves living in hiding, on the other hand, hope that Havi will free them from servitude, although he or she doesn’t really feel like it.
Own character or have it automatically upgraded?
You have the choice to either start with your character from the main game and take your own skills and equipment with you. Level 340 is recommended, if you are significantly above that, the DLC will be very easy.
Or you can level up automatically, get a lot of powerful items in your backpack and jump into the story. But be careful, there are hardly any tutorials, so The Marks of Ragnarok is not suitable for a cold start.
What good is the story of Ragnarök?
It takes about 20 hours to experience the saga of Havi and the battle against the Muspels. The story neither carried us away nor left us completely cold – it is somewhere in the lukewarm midfield. Fans of Norse mythology will sit up and take notice of some of the characters and names, but don’t expect too much.
Considering that Ragnarok is in the title and the possible death of Baldr could herald the twilight of the gods, there is surprisingly little about the impending end of the Nine Worlds. Havi never seems particularly concerned about this and is always in the mood for flippant remarks. As a result, we rarely get the feeling that there is actually an incredible amount at stake. And you have to be able to forgive certain gaps in logic (the hidden dwarves mark their top-secret refuges with thick, orange arrows). By the way, the Ragnarok DLC does not offer freedom of choice or different endings.
After all, the story keeps us interested with a few interesting twists and motivates us to play through it at least once. But if that’s the only reason you’re thinking about buying the 40 euro DLC, we don’t recommend it. You should also have fun with the familiar Valhalla gameplay.
Exciting ideas, but again not enough new things
The good news first: The Signs of Ragnarok brings more gameplay innovations than the last two DLCs. Especially Havi’s new skills, which he or she steals from fallen enemies, should provide the often desired variety. In a new Valkyrie arena, you can also create your own challenges to make the combat system more fun. Now for the bad news: it only works halfway.
The battlefield offers different types of fights, for example against large hordes of opponents or powerful bosses. Before the match, Havi is allowed to really show off and thus gain playful disadvantages. For example, you take more melee damage or your attacks become progressively weaker. This should appeal to those of you who find Valhalla’s fights too easy and who start the DLC with a very high level. But after a few rounds, the whole thing becomes very repetitive and the rewards (hairstyles, runes, equipment) probably won’t knock anyone’s socks off any more.
Or let’s take the five new abilities, of which you only ever have two activated. The developers want to give you strategic freedom so that you can approach each mission in your own way. However, two of the skills are so much more useful than the rest that you only need the others for hard-to-reach collectibles. We were almost always equipped with:
* Power of Muspelheim: With this you walk on lava as if it were comfortable carpet. Very useful because the stuff bubbles almost everywhere and cooks you pretty quickly when you touch it. Just as useful: You also get social camouflage and can move under muspels without being detected. This is an elegant way to avoid combat.
* Power of the Raven: Havi transforms into a white and golden raven, which you control like your already familiar bird. What’s new is that you now perform assassinations from the air and teleport to where your feathered friend lands. Handy for getting to remote locations quickly, but not really exciting.
Speaking of Raven: Very sad that Havi also sends Synin off, like Eivor did in the main game. Why doesn’t he have Hugin and Munin with him, like in the sagas? Such little things would have made Havi at least a bit more of a character in his own right. Even the Jomswikings, who also support you in Svartalfheim during raids, still call you “Eivor”. There are also no Valkyries or Norse heroes in your crew, but exactly the same Vikings you already know from the main game.
The collecting tasks, puzzles and side missions will also be familiar to you. Some materials have different names, but otherwise everything works the same as in the main game. So if you enjoy the Valhalla Loop and like collecting tons of stuff, you’ll get plenty of supplies here.
Many of the unlocked objects can also be used by Eivor when you continue playing after the DLC, such as the new polearm Atgeir. Wielding it feels pleasantly smooth, especially when we’re surrounded by several wrathful muspels.
What about the technology? We were only able to test AC Valhalla: The Marks of Ragnarok on a single PC (GeForce RTX 3070, AMD Ryzen 5 3600X). We did not encounter any serious bugs. Havi got stuck in the environment from time to time, and more rarely opponents got stuck in a corner. Sometimes our character suddenly stalled while climbing and we had to start again. None of this disturbed the flow of the game, but we keep a close eye on how Ragnarök behaves on weaker systems. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be the first time that a Valhalla addon has made problems – we’ll keep you up to date with the latest news!
And is it fun now?
Is Dawn of Ragnarok fun now? Yes, with the same but that Valhalla wrings from you: You’ll have to like this packed open world style, where there’s flashing all over the map and always more to do. The expansion, which will cost you 40 euros and is not part of a Season Pass, is said to contain 35 hours of content in total. The story accounts for just under 20 of this, but at a very high level you’ll be through it faster.
Whether you should buy the DLC or not depends on your relationship to Valhalla.
The short version: If you still enjoyed the main game after 80 hours and you like the mythological parts of Assassin’s Creed, then you can go ahead and buy it. But you shouldn’t expect as much variety as the fantastic Atlantis DLC brought to Odyssey, Ragnarok is much closer to Wrath of the Druids and Siege of Paris.
And that’s why we’re drawing almost the same test conclusion for the third time: The DLC again doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but provides you with a big chunk more of the same. This time there are at least a few playful innovations – but Ubisoft really needs to find the courage to come up with new ideas. Ragnarok has some of them, but it doesn’t use them creatively enough.
