Assassin's Creed Valhalla arrived on Steam just last week after a prolonged absence of Ubisoft games from the biggest digital storefront on PC. You can get the vanilla game, Deluxe Edition, Ragnarok Edition, and the Complete Edition, which includes all previously released DLC. But no matter what version of the game you buy, Assassin's Creed Valhalla will never have achievements on Steam.
That's the message received to a question posted on the Steam Discussion forum for Valhalla (thanks, Eurogamer) wondering why the game doesn't seem to have certain Steam features enabled. When Steam Achievements were mentioned, a Ubisoft Support rep replied to set the record straight.
"As there has been a lot of speculation - just to officially confirm. Steam achievements are not supported for this title," wrote Ubisoft, touching off a string of negative replies.
Achievements aren't important to everyone, but they're apparently important enough that Assassin's Creed Valhalla currently has a "mixed" review score on Steam. Many of those negative reviews cite a lack of Steam achievements as the principal reason for giving the game a thumbs down.
"No achievements, had to refund," wrote one player who summarized the problem. "You can't make checklist simulator games and be surprised when people ask for the pen and paper to actually check off a list. This game is designed to have achievements and designed for completionist players. This isn't Elden Ring, this is Assassin's Creed. It NEEDS achievements to fulfill its completionist-oriented game design goal."
Another player was somewhat more succinct in their criticism: "Give us achievements, lazy bastards."
While players on Steam won't be able to unlock achievements like their console brethren, at least they'll still have access to the Destiny 2 crossover cosmetics that recently arrived in Valhalla. Those include Shax and Saint-14 armor sets, weapons modeled after Destiny 2 Exotics, the Gajallarhorn Wolf, and more.
Steam players also have access to The Last Chapter update, which added the "Shared History" quest. Eivor and Roshan team up in this short quest linking the events of Valhalla to the upcoming Assassin's Creed Mirage, which is rumored to arrive next August. A smaller game, Mirage will tell the story of Roshan's pupil, Basim, as they achieve their purpose in the ancient city of Baghdad.