Now that #UbisoftForward showed off all the brand new footage from #AssassinsCreed Valhalla, I am free to let you all know about my personal experience with that one aspect of the franchise that interests me (and many of you) the most: parkour.

A thread:

Don’t let any article/interview talking about parkour mislead you: not only it isn’t “back”, it’s also more of a struggle than it was in its 2 predecessors. If you were hoping for Ubisoft to make a U turn on this and reintroduce parkour in AC, know that ACV is not here for that.

ACV takes Odyssey/Origins’ free run and brings it to another level—In the opposite direction. It’s heavier, slower, more tiresome than ever before and it lacks freshness, as it mostly features the same set of animations we’ve seen in the past 3/4 years, with some exceptions:

make no mistake: free jump is still missing; side eject is still only a 2015 memory; even getting off from a foot tall wall sometimes feels like an effort; the slow controlled descent makes you wish you just jumped instead, to either your potential death or certain health damage;

Not only the level design invites you to rather ignore parkour, as the very few heights aren’t all that connected, the heavy, slow and tiring free run discourages you from choosing that option anyway, to the point you rather run on foot than try get around through rooftops.

If I had to use 3 words to describe free run in AC Valhalla, I’d say uninspired, uninteresting and unfriendly. It ignores the player’s desire for heights and verticality ownership, it simply doesn’t care for you to consider that option because that’s not what the game is about.

The gameplay clearly sacrificed all that for elements that do not appeal to those who were drawn to the series for its parkour, it left them behind to focus and favor other aspects that do appeal to anyone who simply wants to be a Viking and on that, the game 100% delivers.

I never truly understood why embracing the RPG direction meant we had to say goodbye to one of the most iconic features of the series. I simply don’t see the connection that makes the sacrifice necessary, and I never will.

What I can tell you though is that I alone can’t (and will not) have any impact whatsoever to help the franchise reconsider its position on parkour, but maybe, if we all come together and be vocal about the depressing state of free run in AC, maybe we can get Ubisoft to listen.

With that out of the way, I don’t want to give you the impression this is all I have to say about ACV. The game looks breathtaking and I’m sure it has a lot more to offer, and hopefully the rest is so groundbreaking I will not mind the lack of parkour. Only time will tell!