Assassin's Creed Valhalla The Siege of Paris is just a few weeks away. If you've already played through the 120+ hours of existing content in Assassin's Creed Valhalla, you'll want to play this expansion - especially since it has the potential to solve two major problems from the previous "Wrath of the Druids" DLC.

Not only does The Siege of Paris offer free-form "black box" assassination missions, but it is optimized for late-game characters. In other words, it may be an appropriate challenge for players who have already finished the main game. The source of the information is Gamespot, which quotes a direct communication with Ubisoft's PR team:

"There are no power levels required to play The Siege of Paris. The recommended power level for the Francia area is 200."

For gamers who have yet to dive into Valhalla, "Francia" was a medieval French kingdom that included Paris. The "power level" is the overall strength of the protagonist Avor, determined by the number of skills learned; 200 is not the maximum level (it can be raised to 430), but it is not reached until late in the game.

Compare and contrast this with the previous expansion of Valhalla, "Wrath of the Druids," which had a power level requirement of 55. To put this in perspective with other games, East Anglia, which is an early area when you leave Norway and reach England, also has a power level of 55. Glowecestrescire, at power level 220, begins the last big story arc of the game.

This means that you can play Wrath of the Druids within a few hours of starting your Valhalla adventure; to play Siege of Paris, you must be in the final act of the game.

This could, in theory, address one of the biggest drawbacks addressed in our review of Wrath of the Druids:

"For players who have already finished the base game and maxed out their equipment, Wrath of the Druids, taking into account a handful of strong boss fights I wrote: "This expansion will be very easy, even taking into account a handful of strong boss fights.

"The expansion is not tailored for endgame characters, so they will either have to increase the difficulty or accept that the game won't be much of a challenge.

Indeed, endgame characters will still be well above the power level 200 threshold recommended by "Siege of Paris." However, "Wrath of the Druids" has adjusted its difficulty for higher level players, and we imagine "Siege of Paris" will do the same. Hopefully, the difficulty limit will be higher this time around.

Another feature that Ubisoft has highlighted in "Siege of Paris" is the return of "black box missions" from previous "Assassin's Creed" games. These free-form assassinations were a big part of Assassin's Creed Unity, but did not appear much in the Origins/Odyssey/Valhalla trilogy. These missions present a large, enclosed area with environmental options for stealth skills, for example, killing a priest in a confessional booth. They also rewarded players for taking creative routes rather than simply "kill the target, fight off the guards, or run and hide."

In Wrath of the Druids, there were relatively few assassinations and more open combat. The availability of black box missions would be welcome. Assassin's Creed Valhalla The Siege of Paris was released on August 12 and is part of a $40 season pass.