Assassin’s Creed Valhalla - Everything we know so far about the new Viking flavored Assassin’s Creed
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will see Ubisoft’s historical adventure explore Norse mythology this year.
The next in Ubisoft’s stealth and slaughter series is Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, set in the world of Vikings and Norse mythology. Leaks suggested that a working title for the game was Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok, so fans have been excited about living out their berserker dreams even before this official announcement. Players will take the role of Eivor, leading their clan to greatness.
“We can’t wait for players to experience the incredible Viking journey ahead of them,” said Ashraf Ismail, creative director on Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.
“Being in Eivor’s boots as both a Viking raider and a clan leader, players will face the conflicts of establishing a new home while in the midst of a power struggle for control of England.”
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla has a release window of Holiday 2020, so expect it to arrive in November around the same time as the PS5 and Xbox Series X. You can put money down for various versions of the game already.
Following the galaxy brain example of Assassin’s Creed
Odyssey, players can choose to play as a male or female Eivor, and - a first in the series - will be able to customise their appearance through hair, tattoos, and war paint.
The Assassin’s Creed Valhalla gameplay trailer featured in Xbox Series X May event showed just a few moments of gameplay, but they were glorious. Hero Eivor showed off some graceful combat moves for a big lad, with jump kicks, elbow smashing, axe throwing, and tooting his horn.
Luckily for the detail hungry, Ubisoft was also kind enough to create a developer commentary video for the first Assassin’s Creed Valhalla trailer and packed plenty of juicy details from the creative director Ashraf Ismail and narrative director Darby McDevitt.
Around ten minutes in, Ismail talked about the importance of the longships that played such a crucial role in the Viking way of life. “This is a technology that was unique to the Norse and the Danes, the Vikings in this time period. If I was to give a metaphor I would say imagine that you have this empty highway - rivers - and you have a Ferrari that you can drive down this highway, with no one around you and no one able to chase you.”
Combat will include the infamous Viking raids. Raiding is about getting to a specific place, stealing riches, and creating chaos. As we saw in the trailer, there will be big battles too. “There are moments in the game with these really big, epic-scale battles on battlefields or in fortifications. It was a big part of the history during this time so we needed to represent that.”
In the developer commentary video, Ismail highlighted the importance of settlements to the Viking people, and that will play a big part in your Valhalla adventure. In an interview with Eurogamer, lead producer Julien Laferrière gave more detail on how that game system will work.
“It’s your own Viking village you’ll see prosper and grow, and which your clan mates will live in,” he said.
Raiding is about getting to a specific place, stealing riches, and creating chaos.