Back in 2007, Assassins Creed was released and it blew my mind. I loved every second of it. It was also the reason behind me buying an Xbox 360. It was cheaper to do that than to upgrade my PC at the time.
You played as Altair, via Desmond, who was reliving his ancestors memories that were locked away in his DNA. Plunged in to the Holy Land during the Third Crusade, slap bang in the middle of a struggle between The Knights Templar and the Assassins as they fought to find an ancient artifact.
As a bad ass assassin, you could parkour your way around these ancient cities sliding your hidden blade deep into you enemy. What's not to like? I also found the story incredibly gripping if you ignored the repetitive nature of the quests.
Then in 2009, along came Assassins Creed 2. You played as Ezio during the renaissance in Italy. I loved the look of the more flamboyant outfits. I didn't enjoy it as much as the first, but it continued the life of the assassin and I kept getting to plunge my blades in to enemies and seeing their surprised faces.
2012 - Assassins Creed 3. This time you were "Connor". A half English, half Mohawk assassin that could run through the trees like some kind of animal. It was damn good fun. Unfortunately, guns were really starting to make their way in to the games at this point which I felt was really starting to spoil the hidden-blade assassin feel of it all. Despite my interest in the time period and the story, I just couldn't bring myself to finish it. I've tried a couple of times but something just didn't feel right.
2013 - Assassins Creed: Black Flag. A pirate assassin, now this has to be a hit. While it introduced some different features like sailing your own boat - it was at this point I felt the AC games had completely lost their way. Thankfully, I did not buy this installment straight away. It was probably around this time I stopped pre-ordering/buying new games altogether. The industry was taking a turn for the worse at this point and Black Flag was showing that.
Between then and now, there's been a flurry of releases for the Assassins Creed games. I've picked up the bigger ones when they've been on sale but as with 3, they just have not felt like Assassins Creed at all.
Now with the latest iterations of the console wars, Assassins Creed: Valhalla has been revealed.
A Viking assassin... Holy crap are my juices flowing. Everything Norse absolutely fascinates me. If it's got a Viking theme, I'll watch it, play it, read it. Part of me cannot wait to rip open my wallet and abuse my bank account to purchase an Xbox Series X and Valhalla. But I learned my lessons with games many, many years ago and as much as I want this game to be amazing - Ubisoft is Ubisoft.
Are you looking forward to this instalment of the Assassin's Creed franchise? Have you enjoyed all of the previous games?