Preview | Everything we know so far about Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.
With a different announcement, involving art being drawn live, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was one of the hottest topics of recent weeks in the gaming world. Set in Nordic lands and in Great Britain, and with a Viking protagonist, the game promises to be the highlight of the franchise and a watershed.
The focus continues on expanding the RPG mechanics and this time we will even be able to manage our Viking village, with buildings and everything. Lots of news, some expanded things and a smaller map, but denser, were some of the confirmations so far.
We’ve compiled everything that has been said by the game’s producers and developers so far and tell you below what to expect from this game that promises too much.
The Eivor
The last game in the series, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, allowed for the first time to select the gender of the protagonist in the saga. Instead of a single character, Alexios and Kassandra, the two Spartan brothers, shared the role.
In Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, the possibility of choosing the protagonist’s gender will be maintained, but its relationship with the story is quite different. In Odyssey, if you chose Alexios, Kassandra would have another role in the story. In Valhalla, when choosing the male gender for Eivor, the protagonist of the time, there will be no female version of it.
It has not yet been confirmed whether we will be able to edit the protagonist’s image before the game starts (probably not), but it will be possible to modify hair, tattoos, beard and a few more details throughout the adventure.
Hidden Blade returns and history will be faithful
The game will take place in the early 1000s, right in the middle of the Dark Ages. To ensure the historical fidelity characteristic of the franchise’s games, Ubisoft has a core within the development, focused only on the historical part of the narrative and setting, which serves as support for all other departments of the studio. In this core, there are even professors and experts on the Nordic people and culture of this period.
According to the synopsis, Eivor and his clan, after endless wars in Norway, are forced to leave in search of new lands. This group and the player will travel to the British lands in search of a new future, but will find more conflicts. One of the villains, who will probably have a role with the Templars, will be King Alfred of Wessex, who is commonly portrayed in fiction set in the period, such as “The Saxon Chronicles”, by Bernard Cornwell.
In the cinematic trailer for the game, it has already been revealed that the icon of assassins, the Hidden Blade, absent for much of Odyssey, will be in Eivor’s arsenal to fight his enemies. Due to the Byzantine armor of two of their enemies, unlike the rest of the British, it is almost certain that the Templars will be heavily present in the game.
In addition to all this, it was also confirmed that the adventures of the present, for which many people turned their noses up in the last two games that changed the franchise, will be present again, probably closing the cycle of this trilogy of origin of Assassin’s Creed.
smaller map
For the player to explore, in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla parts of Ireland and England, Norway, southern Sweden and Denmark will be present. While still massive by mainstream generational standards, the game will be smaller than its predecessor in size.
One of the main criticisms for both Odyssey and Origins was the exaggerated scale of the map and the repetition of silly missions to fill empty space, which made progression slow and repetitive. According to the director of Valhalla, Ashraf Ismail, who also directed Origins, the team is aware of the responsibility and what was not well seen in previous games. Therefore, the focus now is to deliver more with less.
Command your viking territory
The big new gameplay feature in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will be commanding your own Viking territory. As the head of your clan, you can recruit other clans to join your village and build new buildings. As an example, a place was cited where you can get tattoos and even generate conflicts and solutions via marriage.
To get resources and help your people survive, you’ll be able to plunder throughout England, as well as go on sea expeditions. They were described as massive and rewarding raids.
For those who were waiting for the cooperative factor in this game, unfortunately it has been confirmed that this will not be possible. However, there is an interesting multiplayer factor, where players will be able to create their own Viking mercenaries and share them with others online. When your mercenary is taken on raids, he will return with resources that can be used to improve your village.
Rap battle?
As strange as it may seem, the Vikings had verse quote clashes that are somewhat reminiscent of today’s rap battles. Ubisoft turned this practice into a mini game in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, which will also feature several other parallel activities.
Fishing, hunting, dice games, drinking, all this will be part of the Vikings’ fun. We will probably still have some other minigames with the English, which should make the content even more attractive.
No naval battles
Unlike previous games, Assassins Creed Valhalla will not feature naval battles. According to Ashraf Ismail, this is due to the historical fidelity of the game. Norse vessels were not focused on combat, but on sailing great distances and navigating narrow rivers.
That last part will be present in the game and the means of transport to travel between the islands will really be by sea. It will be possible to customize your boat, including your crew.
A gun in each hand
To survive at that time, strength and good weapons were needed. Options abound for Eivor in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Among the different weapons, Nordic and English, the player will be able to combine several of them, since it is possible to mix practically everything in both hands. Even using two shields, something that doesn’t make sense so far, has been confirmed by Ashraf.
Unlike previous games, the progression system will be more organic. Just like in Skyrim and some other RPGs, Valhalla will give levels according to the use of weapons. The more you use them, the greater your proficiency with them.
It has not yet been confirmed what the skill tree will look like and how it will be linked to these levels. We expect more information about it at the Ubisoft event, which will be held on July 12th.
choices and consequences
The choice-and-consequence dialogue that debuted in Odyssey will return in Valhalla. In the previous game, although they gave the narrative a charm and some choices were really impactful, it still left a taste of wanting more. Who knows, with a less surreal scope for world-building, they’ll be able to give more weight to the dialogues.
Music goes back to basics
Jesper Kyd is back! This guy is responsible for the soundtracks for the Ezio trilogy games and was awarded a lot for his work. Some of the songs he wrote back then are staples of the franchise, even today. He’s not alone: Sarah Schachner and Einar Selvik, who worked on series writing for Vikings, are also on the team and promise one of the most memorable scores the franchise has ever seen.
Release date of
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla still doesn’t have a confirmed date, but planning has been made for a release in late 2020. What fans can do right now Pre-order, available in multiple versions for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Versions for Stadia and the next generation of consoles have also been confirmed. In the case of Xbox Series X, the game will feature Smart Delivery technology, that is, buying the game for the current Xbox will automatically guarantee it to play on the new platform, at no extra cost. The game will run in native 4K and at least 30 fps on Xbox Series X. So far, it has not been reported whether it will use Ray Tracing.
