‘Valhalla’ Is Assassin’s Creed At Its Most Bloated

Welcome to The Backlog, a series in which we will take a look back at 12 games from 2020 that, in one way or another, had a lasting impact on the video game industry.

The Assassin's Creed series is a bit of a blind spot for me. It wasn't always that way. I played the first game in the series way back in 2007, and while that game had a lot of flaws, it intrigued me enough to check out the second, which is one of the better games for the PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 console generation. Ubisoft, the series' developer, clearly felt the same—or at least read the tides of overwhelmingly positive fan reactions—and followed with two sequels focused on Ezio Auditore da Firenze, the charming Italian Renaissance protagonist. The Ezio Saga is a focused effort that leverages that era of Italian history and, more importantly for a series that engages with every nook and cranny of its open worlds, Italian architecture to deliver a satisfying experience.