Adding too much to something can make it overly complicated and almost unenjoyable whether it's putting too much salt in a dish or stuffing a bunch of superheroes in a movie, who weren't properly introduced in their standalone films (looking at you, original cut of Justice League). In the case of Assassin's Creed Valhalla, the base game provides a chunky amount of content, which is mildly enjoyable. But its second expansion, The Siege Of Paris, seems to be an expansion for expansion's sake.
THE PLOT
Eivor, the main character from Valhalla and who can be a man or a woman depending on what you choose, finds yet another visitor to their camp in England, much like in the Wrath Of The Druids expansion. This time, it's a Viking raider from Francia, ie France who tells Eivor of the true-to-life ridiculously-named yet utterly villainous Charles The Fat, and that he may be setting his eyes on England, threatening the Raven Clan's new home. In true assassin and Viking fashion, Eivor agrees to join a planned raid of Paris and to stop Charles in whatever way necessary.
THE CONTENT
Valhalla's first expansion, Wrath Of The Druids, offered a minimal amount of new things to pique a player's interest. A new map and new story is a given but even its other additions weren't really enough to keep me excited all the way through. With the Siege Of Paris, it seems that all there is to it is a new story and map, and that doesn't even seem to be good enough content for an expansion. The Francia map doesn't really offer anything new aesthetically or content-wise. In fact, Ireland seemed to be more interesting than this one. As for its story, Charles is an interesting villain but other than that, it's the usual historical conspiracy plot that's been used by the franchise for years.
To be fair, the Siege Of Paris also adds infiltration missions, which gives you a target to kill and a number of different opportunities for you to be able to kill them -- y'know, like an assassin. It's one of the very few new things in the DLC, but I also can't help but feel it should have been in the game all along. After all, the game is about assassinations. Instead, there's annoying game mechanics like missions where you have to follow a slow-walking NPC as they go on an expository rant or rats you can't kill but can kill you. But hey, this time around you can wield a scythe and that's bound to at least give you a few rounds of enjoyable bloody fights.
THE VERDICT
The Siege Of Paris would have felt more at home as part of the base game because it doesn't really offer anything new. I felt the same way with Wrath Of The Druids, but I, surprisingly, realised that it offered more interesting additions than this one. Ubisoft has said that this is the last expansion for the game's first year. Here's hoping that upcoming expansions will do just that: expand on the game and not just be a repeat of what we already know.
