Like the previous DLC pack, Wrath of the Druids, The Siege of Paris seamlessly enters the main game as it plays out like a mission in Valhalla’s other arcs.
Just to recap the Wrath of the Druids, Eivor travels to Ireland after getting summoned by their cousin Baríd, who happens to be the king of Dublin. The primary story involves Eivor helping Flann, the high king of Ireland to secure his throne by hunting down members of a hyper-zealous druidic cult known as the Children of Danu.
If you’re new to the game, you can start playing the Siege of Paris DLC when you get to your new home in England, Ravensthorpe. You will only be able to access this expansion once you’ve completed either one of the first two-story arcs, Grantebridgescire or Ledecestrescire.
New Game Features
The Siege of Paris added new game features including an Assassination mode where there’s a brief cutscene that you can choose to go through. It’s a much fun experience to see how the story unfolds and how the kills were intended by the developers.
Other than that, there are also new abilities that Eivor can learn. This includes Rat Swarm, Idunn’s Heart, Heidrun Slam, Light Fingered, Thrill of War, Survival Instinct and Wolf Warrior.
Like the main game, there’s also several Assassin’s bureau you can discover in Francia.
New Weapons
One-handed sword
The one-handed sword is a new weapon in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and it’s truly fun to use. Eivor moves faster and it gives you enough time to dodge attacks. It’s truly unique, especially when you’re fighting with the bosses.
Scythe
The scythe is a heavy weapon and it does a lot of damage to Eivor’s enemies. However, it’s still quite slow compared to the smaller agility weapons. To use the scythe, players will have to time their attacks wisely and break any combo when necessary. If you’re playing on a harder difficulty, you have to be more careful.
That being said, both the one-handed sword and scythe are fun to use in their rights. One can get you carried away from the speed of attacks but the other makes you strategize your attacks.
Share with us, what’s your favourite new weapon introduced in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.
Bonus: Mjolnir
We’ve recently got our hands on Thor’s weapon, Mjolnir and as a first time user, it’s super fun!
When you attack enemies, not only does it deal with large damage, but it also projects out lightning in which your opponents will be stunned. It truly makes you feel like a demigod.
Story
[WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD]
The DLC starts when Randvi (who has a different voice, for some odd reason) tells Eivor that there are visitors from France/ Francia, who bore gifts and even built their own guesthouse in Ravensthorpe.
Eivor would later talk to the guests from Francia, Toka Sinricdottir and Pierre (who is an Assassin… we think) and they explain their situation in Francia and why they need help from the Ravensthorpe leader. Eivor later consults with Randvi and later they decide that they need to visit Francia to see King Charles themselves.
Later, Eivor travels to Francia with their crew and the guests and they met with Sigfred, the Jarl of the clan in Francia.
Like the main game’s storyline, Eivor is there to build an alliance or friendship with the leader of Francia to make sure they don’t mess with Ravensthorpe or England.
Eivor would meet with Charles the Fat, the leaders of Paris and you could choose your path and how you would like the game to proceed.
Choices Guide
Like the main AC Valhalla game, players will get to choose the path of how the game will end. Though, many of the conversations may not impact the story but if you’re looking to reach the “best” ending, here’s what you should do.
There are 3 main story decisions that you need to consider, and you should take note that these outcomes are left ambiguous intentionally.
Image via Ubisoft
Here’s what you should do to get the best ending:
Talking To Sigfred
After you reach a big battle, you’ll have to decide if you’d like to return King Charles’ son to him – in which he will react to you with more reservation later in the game. You will then return to Melun where you’ll soon argue with Sigfred, who storms off after a brief argument. The first big decision you will have to make happens when Sigfred challenges you to a holmgang and it gives you two options, to fight or talk him down. If you fight him, you will ultimately be forced to kill him. But if you manage to persuade him, he will leave the village. Both decisions will lead to Toka taking over as the new Jarlskona of the clan.
Saving Richardis
After that, Odo will send a message to Eivor, stating that Richardis has been captured by the mad king, Charles. The second major choice occurs when Odo asks you to kill Charles for him to gain the throne. Here, you can either choose to commit or brush him off. Though it is but a gentleman’s agreement here, Richardis will later ask you not to kill Charles, begging for mercy for her husband. You can choose to spare him where she will take him to a remote location for treatment while preparing Bernard for the throne. Now, you must choose to either support Odo or Bernard as the new ruler of Francia.
Kill or Spare Charles
The last impactful moment happens when you battle Charles the Fat. It’s rather difficult to battle him and it took us a lot of dodging and precise attack. As mentioned previously, you can choose to either kill Charles or spare him.
To kill Charles, you have to keep hitting him until he gets stunned then you will need to push him towards the braziers. You can also use flaming arrows or fire-based abilities to inflict more damage.
If you’re aiming to spare him, you can lure him to the sealed gate, and when he’s in there with you, attack him until he’s stunned. Then head to your left, there will be a level for you to interact with. Once you’ve done that the shrine door will close and a cutscene will be activated. Richardis would come down to the room and if you killed Charles, she will state that she feels betrayed by you. If you spared Charles the Fat, however, she will thank you and promise to prepare Bernard to lead Francia when he is ready.
Overall
The Siege of Paris expansion was fun, however, it did not feel meaningful enough to call it the best moment in Assassin’s Creed history. There were more assassination missions, yes and though we enjoyed both the assassination missions as much as the newer AC styles, it lacked being oomph. To put it plainly, it is a fun story mission with new but it wasn’t memorable enough for us to care deeply.
Unlike the Wrath of the Druids expansion, no prominent characters died… well, unless you want to count killing Sigfred, even then it did not have any consequences to the story.
Overall, the expansion does have its flaws, but if you are a fan of the Assassin’s Creed series, you would enjoy it but you can take a pass if you didn’t get the Season Pass or the Deluxe version.
The big question is, will we play the entire Siege of Paris expansion again? Probably. It is still fun and has the standard AC storytelling, but maybe not so soon.
Rating: 7 / 10
What’s Next?
Image via Ubisoft
Fans will get to see Beowulf in the Assassin’s Creed universe in the next expansion. We wonder, will it be a legend type of storyline/ mission, like how Eivor travelled to Valhalla. Or will Eivor get to meet the legendary Beowulf? Whatever it is, we’re quite excited to see how it’ll turn out. (Fingers crossed for Kassandra to make a return.)
Additionally, Ubisoft announced at this year’s E3 conference that there’ll be two years worth of content coming to the game. This means that there’ll likely be another expansion coming after Beowulf… or not.
Question is, will we finally get to see a past Assassin/ protagonist make a return? *cough* Kassandra *cough* … Perhaps even a closure to how Eivor ended up in America?
If you’ve played the Siege of Paris expansion, let us know what you think and if you agree with our review.
You can play Assassin’s Creed Valhalla on the PlayStation. Head on over to SEAGM to get PlayStation Wallet for all regions.
