Ubisoft doesn’t mind the similarities to 2018’s PlayStation 4-exclusive God of War.

Compared to the two previous Assassin’s Creed games (Origins, Odyssey), the mythology isn’t going to be more prevalent in Valhalla. „God of War is great–yeah, I’ve played it. It’s fantastic. I wouldn’t say we’re too worried because most games when they touch this topic, they skew very heavily towards mythology. So that’s the front-facing feature — you play God of War so you can go punch Baldur in the face, meet all these characters, and travel to fantastical environments. Very few games treat the Norse Viking experience as historically grounded. I think the urge is to always immediately lead with the mythology stuff, but we want you to feel like you’re living in the Dark Ages of England, that you’re exploring the Roman ruins left behind 400 to 500 years earlier by the Romans and the remnants of the Britannic tribes before that and even the Saxon Pagans before they all converted to Christianity,” Darby McDevitt, the narrative director told GameSpot, confirming that the early English and Norse history will be grounded.

„England itself was fairly fractured at this time, with many different kings that rule over different parts of it. […] [Alfred’s] the king of Wessex, the southernmost kingdom in England at the time. There are also three others – Mercia, Northumbria and East Anglia – that we deal with,” he added. In this game, you can not only discover the four kingdoms in England, but also a part of the Norwegian coast. It is a brave move, as not a lot of games focus on this part of history. Also, this time, our blade will not be hidden.

Ashraf Ismail, the creative director who formerly directed Assassin’s Creed: Origins in 2017. is back at the helm. He explained to Press Start how the RPG mechanics will be significantly different. For example, there will be no traditional levels: „So in terms of RPG and progression, our goal was to bring in kind of a fresh new take on it. Something that is much more anchored into the world itself and the concepts of skills and so on. We do have a very different take than what we’ve previously done, all in the hopes of actually making the Viking experience shine a bit more. So as an example, we have this giant skill graph. It’s a really large skill tree where players can customise the kind of Viking they that they want to play as. Hopefully, people see a lot more playstyle customisation within that. Our angle is much more about letting players, sort of, enjoy the experience of the game as they want. In terms of of the RPG progression. So a lot of effort has gone into these skills. We have the return of abilities, but of course, all the abilities are again anchored and rooted and very Viking themed We’ve gotten rid of the idea of levels as well. Instead, we now have power, so again power is something that is rooted in the skill set of the hero. So based on the skills you’ve learned you gain power, and so there’s been a shift in the way we handle RPG and progression to make it a more play-style centred and focused on what players out there want to do in the game,” he said.

He also discussed the combat system, which will be quite visceral: „The combat system has been reinvigorated to showcase the visceral newness and brutality of the period of the weaponry of warfare during this ninth century. So, a lot of effort has been put into making sure of the sense of impact. We make have bearded axes, Dane axes, flails, but now we’ve included the dual-wielding capacity, so you can combine any two weapons in your hands. So you can dual wield two axes, two swords, even two shields if you want, so we’ve made the system quite flexible. The third element to combat improvement is the effort we’ve put into the variety of enemies, that are incredibly unique using the environment and using one another against the hero. We wanted to make sure that if you’d been playing for 15-20 hours, that you were still seeing stuff you’ve never seen before so a lot of effort has gone into the enemy side of combat,” he added.

Julien Laferrière talked to Eurogamer how the Viking settlement changed the game during its development: „It’s your own Viking village you’ll see prosper and grow, and which your clanmates will live in. It’s at the centre of our quests and the centre of the decisions you make. We want players to see the consequences of their actions. It changed the shape of the game we were making. Instead of exploring one territory, then moving on to another and having no real opportunity or reason to return, the settlement changes the structure. So you’ll go on an adventure and then be encouraged to come back to your settlement. It changes the way we’re playing the game we’re making – at least, that’s the bet we’re making.”

Laferrière also briefly mentioned King Alfred the Great (who was King of Wessex at this time in history), saying he will be a nuanced character: „He is shown in that way in the trailer but throughout the game you’ll see there’s a lot more nuance to him. Alfred the Great is a very important historical figure we want to treat right. And to do so it’s all in the subtleties and nuances you’ll find.”

Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla will launch this Holiday season on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, PC (Epic Games Store / Ubisoft Store), PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Google Stadia.

Source: WCCFTech, WCCFTech, WCCFTech

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