The audience for Dawn of Ragnarök, the third and final paid DLC for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, probably already know if they’re going to enjoy it or not. While the expansion adds a new map, abilities, and gear, the fundamental game hasn’t changed, and there’s nothing here to counter arguments that Valhalla is formulaic and bloated. People who bounced off the main game won’t enjoy Dawn of Ragnarök, but anyone still looking for more Viking stealth action will be quite satisfied.
This expansion sees Valhalla protagonist Eivor continuing to experience visions of Havi — better known as the god Odin — as they explore the Nine Realms of Norse mythology. Surtr, the king fire giant of Muspelheim, has invaded Svartalfheim and begun massacring the dwarven population there. He is also holding Havi’s son Baldr captive. After a failed rescue attempt, Havi sets out to rescue Baldr, save Svartalfheim, and exact revenge on Surtr. Most of Havi’s plans to achieve these goals revolve around the familiar franchise exploits of sneaking, fighting, puzzle-solving, and running errands.
Early on in the revenge plot, players discover Dawn of Ragnarök‘s big mechanical change: the Hugr-Rip. This artifact grants Havi access to a whole new set of skills by absorbing energy from specially-marked enemies. Each of these five new skills comes with a variety of active and passive features that add to Havi’s combat, stealth, and exploration options. For example, a players can transform into a raven to fly into an enemy stronghold, assassinate a solitary guard with their beak, then magically disguise themselves as one of the enemy to cause further havoc. Blacksmiths across the map can upgrade these powers, too, using Silican (a resource only acquired by completing Raids) to open up the options even further.
When the Hugr-Rip works best, it is a fantastic addition to the game, adding Dishonored levels of mischief, but the possibilities are too often limited by design. Although there are five total abilities, only two can be equipped at any time, and switching them out means finding and eliminating an enemy with the right kind of icon floating over them. When the designers want players to have a particular skillset for a puzzle or encounter, they provide an appropriate corpse ready to be drained.
While thoughtful, this approach speaks to a lack of thorough implementation. A body providing the Power of Muspel means that a puzzle nearby requires walking on lava. Instead of coming across a puzzle and having to determine what skill is necessary to solve it, players are simply going through the motions. Also, the Hugr-Rip’s magic meter only holds two charges. Extra resources aren’t difficult to find, but stopping to top up in the middle of an encounter breaks the flow of the action.
It’s the action that makes Dawn of Ragnarök worth playing. The expansion adds not just abilities and gear to help bulk up Havi’s repertoire, but also a variety of enemies to apply them to. Surtr’s forces includes a range of different species from across Norse mythology, and each antagonistic tribe has a distinct identity built on visual design, attack patterns and geography.
The colder regions of Svartalfheim feature ice giants that stand a whole head above Havi and attack with slow, powerful swings, while the central plains are home to shapeshifters, appearing at first as any other wolf pack before transforming into agile humanoids with sharp knives. This variety makes Ragnarök’s combat a little more satisfying than Valhalla‘s, especially for those who’ve already conquered the base game. The idea of chaining together familiar acrobatic combos against teleporting demons instead of angry Danes may turn some off, but it’s remarkable how engaging a difference it makes.
Fortunately, the expansion’s barrier to entry is quite low, too, so even relative newcomers can join in. Completing the Havi storyline given by Valka in the main game grants access to Ragnarök. The recommended level is 340, but there is an option to gain a temporary boost up to 340 in order to play without being overwhelmed. Boosting loans players higher-grade equipment, skills and stats solely for use in the Svartalfheim map. However, equipment gained during those adventures remains in the inventory. On one hand, this provides a shortcut to major advancement, but it also throws off the character progression curve by introducing end-game equipment too early, which risks making the rest of the game too easy.
In the end, Dawn of Ragnarök is almost the platonic ideal of a game expansion: It simply provides more Assassin’s Creed Valhalla for those who may not have had their fill after hundreds of hours. Anyone who enjoys the core gameplay loop of the franchise today — heading to glowing orbs on a map to find a puzzle or combat arena or short play or collectible — will find 30 more hours of that loop here, but those who find this particular blend of the Ubisoft formula unappealing won’t be converted by Havi’s latest adventure.
Perhaps the best thing Dawn of Ragnarök does is highlight just how far the franchise has come from its roots. What began as a stealth parkour game now represents a goliath action-RPG leaping with both feet into a low fantasy world. While this current iteration of the Assassin’s Creed series presents a pure distillation of its particular design philosophy, it resembles something like Elden Ring far more than it does its own predecessors, something that raises deep questions about what an Assassin’s Creed game actually is and what it will be moving forward.
Developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarök is available now on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Stadia. A review copy was provided by the publisher.
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