Just like in Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla let’s you choose between playing a male or female Eivor. In a weird twist, it also let’s you play as both, switching dynamically between the two as the story progresses.
In Odyssey, you played as either Alexios or Kassandra. They were siblings rather than the same character and Kassandra was clearly the better option.
In Valhalla, you only play as one character: Eivor. When I first played the game as a preview I played almost the entire time as female Eivor (Cecilie Stenspil). Only during the last bit did I switch over to male Eivor (Magnus Bruun).
Unlike Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, this time around the better of the two is clearly male Eivor. Magnus Bruun, who I first encountered in the The Last Kingdom on Netflix, is excellent in the part. It’s honestly not even a contest. Female Eivor is just not great. She’s too tough-sounding all the time, not nearly subtle enough. Bruun simply puts in a much better, more nuanced performance.
Obviously not everyone will agree, but I’ve been playing my review version of the game as male Eivor and there’s just no way I’d switch back, much like how in Odyssey I can’t imagine playing as Alexios instead of Kassandra.
Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla comes out tomorrow alongside the launch of the Xbox Series X. It’s currently rocking a pretty respectable 85/100 on Metacritic on Microsoft’s next-gen console.
So far I’ve enjoyed Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla a lot. I’m surprised at how much I like it, given I wasn’t super into Odyssey. It’s partly the setting—I’m a sucker for all things Viking—but it’s a lot of other things to. I prefer Eivor as a protagonist. I find the story more interesting and the gameplay—combat in particular—a big step forward. More on all of that later when I’ve gotten further into the game.
For now, my biggest tip is play as male Eivor rather than female, though it’s easy enough to switch and check for yourself.
Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla comes out Tuesday, November 10th on Xbox Series X and other platforms, and on the 12th for PS5.
