After setting up Assassin’s Creed Valhalla on my Steam Deck, I tried out the AC Valhalla the Lost Saga DLC. I looked forward to more of the Norse gods storyline. What I thought I would not enjoy was the die and try again gameplay. Surprisingly, I ended up liking it a lot.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla the Forgotten Saga DLC
The whole Asgard storyline in AC Valhalla was a pleasant surprise. I even enjoyed continuing the Norse God’s story in Dawn of Ragnarok. When I heard the Forgotten Saga continues that story, I was sold. That is until I heard it was a die and try from the beginning again game. Die once before the end and start over again.
I don’t have much time to play games, or rather not enough to handle all the ones I want to play. The idea of stress, repetition and time, were not appealing at all. Not in the mood for frustration, but wanted to continue the story. First, I played the Cassandra side missions, but I did not play Odyssey yet, so I could have skipped that.
Asssassin’s Creed Valhalla Lost Saga DLC Better Than I Thought
Moving onto the Forgotten Saga DLC, I thought I’d hate it. Turns out, I liked it a lot. Yes there’s some repetition, but plenty to keep things fresh. Each level has branching paths to go left versus right, for example. Each path offers a different reward for completing the challenge. Broken bridges or zip lines prevent going back.
Each AC Valhalla Lost Saga DLC challenge involves fighting groups of enemies in growing numbers or difficulty. Thought I’d despise that part, but the reward for winning each battle is addicting. More health, more abilities, different weapons and upgrades. Each path is a choice, but the type of reward shown before choosing the path lets me choose what I need.
Every run starts with a different set of weapons and abilities. This demands adaptation, but I prefer the trusty axe. It’s nice to play around with various abilities, but my favorite is the Axe Fury. With crowds of enemies a given, I love a one button press to lob axes at multiple enemies. Elemental arrow abilities are also helpful, as are the Draughr abilities. They generate a temporary spirit to help fight.
The longer I survived and more battles won, earned thoughts and memories. That’s a high point of the game. Favors are available for purchase with these to help on the next run only. Things like choosing a weapon or ability from the previous run to carry over. That currency also buys skills that persist over every run.
More Power to Win the Lost Saga
The incremental power increase in the AC Valhalla Lost Saga DLC is key to the fun. Skills are obviously preferable for this reason, but I hit up favors first. Controlling the starting weapon and abilities I’m comfortable with are huge helps for each run. It’s easy to spend everything on skills and not have enough for my favorite ability. Did that once and never again.
With more skills and favors in tow, I cruised through the beginning battles. Parts of early levels that took an hour, I was able to fly through with increased skills bought after each run. Boss fights that stressed me out previously, almost became a joke.
Skills and favors were part of the ease of later runs, but it also helped to learn weaknesses of various enemies. With the skills and elemental weaknesses taken advantage of, I finished off bosses without breaking a sweat. I loved the power of my final run, knowing I was going all the way.
Helheim was tough the first time I visited and I didn’t even make it the final fight with Hel. Even when I did on later attempts, she destroyed me. That final run though, I fully took advantage of her weakness and didn’t even drop less than half my health. That’s without being careful too.
After the surprise of how much I liked the game play of AC Valhalla the Lost Saga DLC, I think I might have to revisit playing Hades. I owned in on the Switch, but traded it in after only a few hours of play. With the knowledge earned from the gameplay in the Lost Saga DLC, maybe I can enjoy this type of gameplay more in the future.