We recently had a chance to play three hours of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and there is a lot to unpack and understand about Ubisoft’s latest entry in its stealthy-stabby series.
In a new video, Jess, Ed, and Jordan speak about their impressions from playing a chunk of the game, covering things like historical accuracy, fantastical elements, and, of course, the combat. Ed says he found the combat to be more complex than in past entries, leaning more towards a Dark Souls-style experience. Valhalla has dual-wielding weapons, too, and epic finishing moves that emphasize the game’s overall focus on highlighting the brutality of the Vikings.
Also in the video, we discuss Valhalla’s various skills and abilities that you can unlock. It looks like Ubisoft is going very deep again this year to let you play with style and flair. Valhalla also includes a new Raid feature where players can take their crew to an encampment and wipe out its inhabitants and then scour the location for treasure. Be sure to watch the full video to hear everything that Jess, Ed, and Jordan had to say about their time with Valhalla.
Valhalla launches later this year for PS4, Xbox One, and PC, while people picking up the PS5 or Xbox Series X will be able to play the game on those next-gen consoles, too.
Become Eivor, a mighty Viking raider and lead your clan from the harsh shores of Norway to a new home amid the lush farmlands of ninth-century England. Explore a beautiful, mysterious open world where you’ll face brutal enemies, raid fortresses, build your clan’s new settlement, and forge alliances to win glory and earn a place in Valhalla.
Prior to the announcement of the release date for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla at Ubisoft Forward, I sat down with the game’s narrative director Darby McDevitt and assistant level design director Laurence Letalien to talk about the upcoming entry in the history-based franchise.
We talked about numerous aspects of Valhalla–such as side quests being almost nonexistent, in-game romances changing, and combat transforming to focus on moment-to-moment decisions–but what struck me the most was that you can switch between female and male Eivor whenever you want throughout their story, and that this feature actually ties into one of the major mysteries in the upcoming Assassin’s Creed game. The way that Valhalla weaves together the different parts of Eivor’s story and will drop additional nuggets of lore about the Hidden Ones’ evolution into the Assassin Brotherhood sounds pretty cool too.
The Mystery Of Eivor’s Identity
Unlike Kassandra and Alexios in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, you’re not picking between two different characters in Valhalla. Regardless of whether you play as a man or woman, you’re always playing as Eivor. However, just like Kassandra and Alexios, Eivor isn’t a blank slate protagonist. Before you even pick up the controller and start making dialogue choices, Eivor already has an established personality, set of morals, and aspirations. All of this will shape the type of choices you’ll be able to make.
“One of the things we wanted to do was start out with a character who’s already an expert, who’s already a legend, who people already have a deep respect for,” McDevitt told me. “We typically start with a boy in their late teens and he’s got some growing to do and you’re going to see him make mistakes. And we decided, ‘No, Eivor is like 26-27 when the game starts.’ So already, everyone talks about how legendary Eivor is and there’s a bit of a cool arrogance that comes with that but there’s also a sense of humor and a bit of a leader who doesn’t suffer fools lightly and maybe gets a little hot when things don’t go their way, has a very tactical mind but is also a bit selfish–they want glory for him or herself, they want to be known and want to be honored as a brave and courageous warrior.”
When designing this background for Eivor, it was decided that they’d be a character that the player could play as a man or a woman. “Sometimes you do things because you know players will really enjoy it and will appreciate it,” McDevitt said. “I think that even before Odyssey came out, we knew that [the choice of protagonist] would be a feature that people would like. Hardcore fans, who have an investment in how the Animus works with genetic memory and know you’re supposed to be living the life of a specific ancestor, they took issue with that. But the feature itself was really appreciated by a lot of people. So we knew that we wanted to do the same thing–we wanted to give you a choice.”
I’m one of those hardcore fans who has issue with having to choose between Kassandra and Alexios. For those who don’t know, Assassin’s Creed in a collection of time travel stories. Characters in the present day use a device called the Animus to relive the events of specific individuals by reading a user’s DNA and allowing them to relive their ancestor’s memories, with advancements in the tech now allowing anyone to relive the life of anyone’s ancestor provided they have a DNA sample of the ancestor in question. Even with these advancements though, Odyssey makes no sense–Kassandra and Alexios are two different people and both exist in lore, they shouldn’t have the same story. The game should have just made you play as Kassandra as she’s the actual canon (and better) choice.
Valhalla sort of circumnavigates this problem by making the choice between a man and a woman into the same person–but given how DNA works, it still doesn’t make much sense that you can switch between both genders throughout the game. Only one should be the canon for your version of Assassin’s Creed history, right? In order for Valhalla to make sense, Ubisoft realized it would have to once again make additions to Assassin’s Creed lore.
“From the beginning, we also said that we have to make [the choice of gender] work in the Assassin’s Creed universe,” McDevitt said. “And I remember pitching two versions to the creative team of how that would work and we ended up going with one of the two, so the other one is still available for another team to use but we have this cool way that’s based in areas we’ve already investigated for Assassin’s Creed. We asked, ‘How would you, with one genetic memory stream, have two identities?'”
McDevitt continued: “So we just threw our arms around that concept, threw our arms around some other lore that we’ve established in earlier games, and we tweaked it and twisted it and said, ‘Okay, we can do a game where in the genetic memory stream, you can choose to be male or female and you can switch at any time you want.’ The reason why that is, is a mystery that will slowly unravel as you play the game. You’re not going to turn on the game and five minutes later go, ‘Oh, okay, that’s why.’ But it’s something that we want players to experience as they’re going through [Valhalla] and hopefully by the end, or at least deep into the story, maybe there’s an epiphany moment, where you say, ‘Oh my God, that’s why–okay, that’s pretty cool. That’s insane.'”
Everything Weaves Together
Assassin’s Creed games typically come in two flavors: There’s the games like Brotherhood and Syndicate that primarily build on what came before by addressing past issues and expanding on what worked and then there’s the more revolutionary titles like Assassin’s Creed III and Origins that implement brand-new mechanics and features that push the franchise into a different direction. Valhalla seems a lot more like the former, building on what Origins and Odyssey did right without implementing a brand-new foundation that’s going to drastically shift the direction of the series. One of the big improvements being made in Valhalla is how the protagonist’s story will unfold. Valhalla will have multiple major storylines just like Odyssey (which has three–Odyssey, Hunt the Cult of Cosmos, and Between Two Worlds–and each unlocks a different ending) but instead of each storyline existing separately from one another like in its predecessor, Valhalla will see its main narratives and tangential stories regularly weave together at certain points to tell an overall more coherent campaign that’s easier to follow.
“One thing I learned writing Black Flag was that if you’re interested in the story and you just followed it, people would follow it really well and they’d have a great time and they’d think it was a good story,” McDevitt said. “But if you were the exploration-type, you’d stop doing the story for like four hours and you’d go off and explore and then you’d come back and you’d be lost, like ‘What the hell is going on in this story? Who are these people?’ And we learned a lesson from that. So early on, we gave Eivor a very personal motivation–some personal things that he or she is trying to figure out and we wrapped that into this other story about their clan wanting to go to England and start a new life, start a new settlement.”
“The way that we’ve built our narrative arcs in our story is that we try to use as much of the territory as possible–and they’re pretty big. So there are areas where it’s more plain-ish, but we still entice players to go there because there’s always something there.” – Laurence Letalien
McDevitt continued: “So those two stories are overlapped on each other. For Eivor, it’s, ‘How do we build up a settlement, how do we gain alliances throughout England so that we feel safe and influential, but also there’s this personal problem I’m dealing with and as I’m going out into the world, that problem keeps following me.’ So we’ve kind of wrapped the stories in that way and then there’s a few other tangential things, but again, it all feels braided together fairly nicely.”
This is also where Eivor’s belief in the mythical comes into play. “The Norse use the metaphor of a tapestry to describe fate,” McDevitt said. “And the Norns–they are the weavers of fate–they have long ago woven this thread and this tapestry and your life has already been set out for you and your job is to live it and accept it as best you can. And that’s kind of how we approached the narrative–there’s these threads and they weave in and out of each other.”
The aforementioned tangential stories are territory arcs and world events. Valhalla basically drops the onslaught of side quests that cluttered the mission screen in Origins and Odyssey. Instead of map markers, actual images on your in-game map and structures in the world lead you towards additional activities that you can complete–these are the world events. The territory arcs do have markers (unless you turn off Guided mode) and they are these longer multi-part quests–think along the lines of the Mykonos arc in Odyssey (ya know, the best side story in the game and the one that allows you to romance Kyra, the best romantic option in the game by a significant margin).
“We made sure that we had something unique in each of our territories,” Letalien told me. “We have different flavors, different people you can meet. There’s a good chunk of content in each of those territories. The way that our narrative structure works, there are little arcs in each territory and you choose which one you want to do first. So there’s a big chunk of content throughout the story but also there’s a lot of stuff where you can see something going on or just stumble upon it, like our world events–I don’t know if you saw this one in the demo, but there is one where you can recruit a cat onto your boat and it becomes your raider with you.”
“We definitely tried to stay as true as we could to the time period. Back then, there were the remains of Roman structures from before the vassal of that time period.” – Laurence Letalien
Though the territory arcs are the big pieces of content, some of the smaller, individual world events can span multiple territories–which further ties together the many tales that Eivor will come across. “So we have each character’s story as their own world event but we do tie them together–the cat is an example but maybe you can also stumble upon someone and have the option of bringing her or him back to your settlement or pick up specific objects that need to be taken elsewhere,” Letalien said. “So we have those little stories [that cross] territories but each territory has their own specific ones too.”
With so many aspects of Eivor’s story woven together, Ubisoft decided to do the same for Valhalla’s world. You can travel by foot or horse across Valhalla’s fairly large landmass, but the far faster method is by longboat. Valhalla allows you to summon Eivor’s longboat from any body of water as opposed to needing to find a port, and a massive system of rivers that cut throughout the map allow you to quickly navigate from one territory to the next. Smaller streams throughout each territory allow you to quickly get around via water as well–there’s even a new auto-follow system. Just summon your longboat, turn in the direction you want to go, press the button for following the stream or river, and then Eivor’s crew will take care of the rest while you sit back and play with your new kitty because only a monster would deny a cat from joining their Viking adventure.
“A canal system is a good way of putting it,” Letalien said. “The way that we built our entire map was in thought of that exact mechanic. So you can travel throughout the world on your ship with your crew–you can recruit more raiders and fight alongside them throughout the story–and it was important for us to build this navigation path where along the way, maybe you’ll encounter a raid where you need your crew to fight or maybe there’s a military location and you want to take it out but you don’t want to do it alone and you want your crew to be there with you. So you can use it pretty much wherever you want, which is super, super cool.”
The Hidden Ones And Assassin Brotherhood
Of course, this isn’t Viking’s Creed, it’s Assassin’s Creed and that means Eivor’s story will pull them into the war between the Assassin Brotherhood and Templar Order in some capacity. After jumping way back in time with Origins and then even further with Odyssey, Assassin’s Creed is creeping towards the time period of the original 2007 game. Valhalla takes place in 873 AD–pretty close to the original Assassin’s Creed, which takes place in 1191 AD. Yup, after 13 IRL years, we’ve almost come full circle.
Despite the distance from Origins and proximity to the original game, both the Assassin Brotherhood and Templar Order we see in Assassin’s Creed still haven’t been formed by the events of Valhalla. “It’s still the Hidden Ones and still the Order of Ancients,” McDevitt said. “But we’re only about 250 years from the original Assassin’s Creed. So we really wanted [Valhalla] to start giving you the feeling of how [both groups were] changing and what had happened since Bayek’s time too. So there’s a lot of stuff–if you start exploring, there’s a lot of cool lore to discover.”
And of course, Layla’s story as a modern day Assassin will continue in Valhalla as well. You won’t just be playing as Layla outside the Animus either–her story takes her into Eivor’s memories to complete puzzles and challenges within the simulation of 873 AD England. “There are these glitches in the Animus that are threatening to tear holes in the simulation so you go and platform around and solve puzzles,” McDevitt said. “They get harder and harder and then you get a reward at the end of each one of them and more story, more narrative.”
However, when it came to whether this third entry in her tale would conclude her arc, both McDevitt and Letalien remained coy in order to avoid spoilers. “I don’t want to spoil that, but this is a very fine third act,” McDevitt said. “Now whether Layla’s story is a three act story or five act story, you’ll have to wait and see. I think the conclusion of [Valhalla] will leave a lot of people satisfied, I’ll say that.”
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After a flurry of leaks in the days leading up to Ubisoft Forward livestream, Far Cry 6 has now been officially revealed. In development for four years at Ubisoft Toronto, Far Cry 6 will bring the series to a new locale in the Caribbean named Yara, taking many influences from the island country of Cuba. The developers of the next game in the open-world franchise recently unveiled two new trailers. One was an HBO-style opening credits sequence introducing the cast, and the other set the stage for the game’s primary antagonist–Presidente Anton Castillo, played by Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul actor Giancarlo Esposito.
Set in the present day, Far Cry 6 occurs in a time of great political turmoil within Yara. As a country “frozen in time” due to economic sanctions and isolationism, the population begins to rise up against Castillo’s oppressive regime that’s run on his ambition to rebuild the country to its former glory. You’ll play as Dani Rojas, a native Yaran who is caught up in the uprising to overthrow Castillo and free Yara from the Presidente’s control. Teaming up with a guerilla faction, the protagonist will explore urban and rural areas of the island, facing off against Castillo’s army and engaging in the familiar open-world antics you’d expect in a Far Cry game.
Before the reveal at Ubisoft Forward, GameSpot got an early look at the game and spoke with narrative director Navid Khavari about its creation, as well as what to expect with the next installment of the game. One important thing to note is that while Far Cry 5 and its spin-off game New Dawn brought the series into the post-apocalypse, the next game will have a story set in a more traditional setting that’s not the post-apocalypse.
“I think the beauty of working on Far Cry is that every game is really its own context, its own world,” said Khavari. “You have little threads that carry forward from previous games, but for us when coming up with this game, we were excited to really just dive in and tell a story about a guerilla revolution on this massive island with its own capital city. So I think once we dialed in to the idea of wanting to tell this story about guerrilla revolution, everything sort of flowed from that. And the idea is really with Far Cry, like I said, it’s the reason why, honestly, I’ve worked on so many is that every game is almost a fresh opportunity to try something new.”
While the developers didn’t share too many details about the game at this time, they briefly explained some new and returning features coming to the game. Described as the most “ambitious open-world yet,” the island of Yara includes a mix of jungles, coastal towns, farmland, and urban environments to explore–the latter of which is a rarity for the series. Throughout the game, you’ll acquire weapons, gadgets, and vintage vehicles based on technology handed down and recycled from decades past. Returning from Far Cry 5 is the Fangs for Hire feature, allowing you to partner up with allies met in the main story–one of which is a pitbull named Chorizo.
Another change coming to Far Cry 6 is the return of the voiced protagonist, who will be present in cutscenes and have more agency in the story than most other Far Cry lead characters. In a similar approach to Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Valhalla, players will be able to select either male or female versions of Dani, whose appearance can be customized just like in previous entries.
2018’s Far Cry 5 was set in an isolated American county under the control of a madman, and FC6 is seemingly hitting at a similar tone that feels evocative of our current times. Many scenes shown in the trailer have familiar imagery of protesters fighting riot police and toppling statues of historical figures during the trailer. It no doubt leans into topics centered around the dynamics of power and the nature of control. Still, I do wonder if Far Cry 6 will have more to say about these themes of power and dictatorships in an isolated country, or if it will just be window-dressing for the game’s setting. We’ll certainly know more about the game in the coming months, as the launch is coming sooner than most people expected.
Like with other Ubisoft games, Far Cry 6 will also be released in multiple editions. Here’s a quick breakdown of each edition of the game:
Standard Edition: The base game.
Gold Edition: Base game and season pass.
Ultimate Edition: All previous content including the Jungle Expedition pack, the Croc Hunter pack, and Vice Pack bonus DLC.
The Collector’s Edition: Box set with includes the ultimate edition, a steelbook case, 64-page artbook, stickers, a Chorizo keyring, a soundtrack, map of Yara, and a 72cm display model of the “Tostador” flamethrower from the game (assembly required).
Far Cry 6 looks to continue on with the series’ tradition of featuring vibrant, lush worlds to explore, while following the trail of a brutal, charismatic antagonist whose presence is felt throughout the game. Set for release on February 18, 2021 for PC via the Epic Game Store and Uplay, PS5, Xbox Series X, Google Stadia and current-gen consoles. Players who buy the game on PS4 and Xbox One will be able to upgrade to next-gen versions free of charge.
For more on Far Cry 6, check out more of our talk with narrative director Navid Khavari about the making of the game’s setting and how Giancarlo Esposito prepared for the role.
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Shown off at today’s Ubisoft Forward event, a gameplay deep-dive showed work-in-progress footage showing a female Eivor on a raid down English rivers, using a warhorn to set her crew on English village defences. Crews will assist on all raids, including to use siege weapons, and to carry heavy loot. The game will include more enemy types than any previous Assassin’s Creed game, including some that work in tandem, or use environment objects to attack you (including dead bodies).
We also saw a look at the game’s settlement system, including its Alliance Map, which shows the alliances you’ve made across Britain. A weapon overview showed off how the game will use dual wielding across any weapon types, and a stealth overview showed how the game will let you use disguises.
On July 17, a seven-song EP taken from the official soundtrack featuring original compositions from Jesper Kyd and Sarah Schachner as well as an original song by Einar Selvik, will be available to listen to on Spotify and purchase on iTunes. Spotify pre-save and iTunes pre-order are available now and the full soundtrack will be released at a later date.
The Assassin’s Creed Valhalla – Geirmund’s Saga novel, written by Matthew J. Kirby, will tell an original story set in the world of the game. Players will discover the epic tale of Geirmund Hellskin, a man determined to prove his worth as a Viking and a warrior who joins the ranks of King Guthrum’s army to participate in the invasion of England. The book cover will be revealed on renowned Korean artist Jung Gi Kim’s Instagram account in late July.
Dark Horse Comics will release Assassin’s Creed Valhalla – Song of Glory, a comic series written by Cavan Scott, illustrated by Martin Tunica and colored by Michael Atiyeh. In this prequel to the game, fearless Vikings Eivor and Sigurd embark on separate adventures to show their mettle and seek glory. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla – Song of Glory #1 (of three) will be in comic shops on October 21, 2020.
Finally, The Art of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and The Art of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Deluxe Edition will invite readers on a visual journey through the world of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla – a world defined by the harsh beauty of Viking life, rich with fascinating characters and breathtaking landscapes. This book offers an enticing collection of art and commentary that is sure to attract returning fans and newcomers alike.
Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].
The next game in Ubisoft’s long-running historical series is Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. It’s coming November 17 to Xbox One, PS4, PC, and Stadia, and “soon” to Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5. You play as Eivor, a Viking warrior who leads a clan out of Norway and begins raiding English towns during the Dark Ages. When you’re not looting and plundering, you can build and grow your own settlement to gain power in the region. Eivor can be male or female, and the game features a new combat system that includes dual-wielding weapons. You can read more in our Assassin’s Creed Valhalla reveal.
As usual with major Ubisoft releases, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will be available in a number of editions. Here’s a look at what comes in each one, plus details about what preorder bonuses to expect. Note: the next-gen versions of the game are not yet up for preorder, but if you buy the Xbox One version, you’ll get the Xbox Series X version for free.
The ultimate edition comes with the game, the season pass, and the Ultimate Pack, which includes the following exclusive customization content: the Berserker Gear Pack, the Berserker Settlement Pack and the Berserker Longship Pack, along with a Set of Runes to improve weapons or gear.
The Ubisoft Store-exclusive collector’s edition includes the base game, the Season Pass, the Ultimate Pack, a high-end Ubicollectibles replica of Eivor and her longship (30 cm high), a Collector’s Case, a SteelBook with unique artwork, a numbered certificate of authenticity, a Viking Statuette of Eivor with a raven and Dane axe (5 cm high), exclusive lithographs as well as a selected soundtrack of the game.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Preorder Bonus
Everyone who preorders Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will receive an additional mission called The Way of the Berserker, “in which players will join a legendary Norse Berserker on his quest for revenge.”
The new battle royale is currently playable only on PC (but will come to consoles at a later date). The open beta will be broadly familiar to those who’ve played the previous technical tests, but adds a new weapon, a new hack ability, and include a free 30-tier battle pass.
A new CG trailer explained the story behind the game, explaining that in 2054, the world’s population spends time in a virtual reality realm called the Hyper Scape, primarily playing a game called Crown Rush. However, Crown Rush has been hacked, which will presumably make up the game’s ongoing storyline.
A gameplay explanation showed off how the game will integrate Twitch votes to affect live games, and a developer update explained how costumes added each season could point to the ongoing story.
Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].
Watch Dogs Legion will be released on October 29, for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Stadia, and PC (for Epic Games Store and Uplay).
Shown off at today’s Ubisoft Forward event, Xbox’s Phil Spencer added that the game will support Smart Delivery between Xbox One and Xbox Series X, with the latter version using Direct X Raytracing. A store page later confirmed that free upgrades will also be available between PS4 and PS5 versions.
We got a look at a live-action/CG trailer for the game’s dystopian themes and futuristic London setting. We also saw a series of gameplay clips, showing London’s Dedsec in action.
We saw recruitment profiling, differences in dialogue between procedurally generated characters, and a look at the game’s story – featuring a mysterious terrorist cell, London’s new PMC police group, Albion, and the Kelly Gang, led by Mary Kelly.
Mission gameplay shows a series of Dedsec operatives attempting to break into the Tower of London, including a contruction worker armed with a wrench, nailgun and a cargo drone. It then shows the same mission attempted by a more stealth oriented drone expert, who uses surveillance and spider drones, and an Albion officer who can simply walk through the Tower’s defences.
A separate mission sees Dedsec attempting to disrupt an organ farming operation from the perspective of a drunk football fan (who passes out) and a John Wick-like hitman, able to take down swathes of security. It’s a confident showing of quite how different Legion can be for every player.
Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].
Watch Dogs: Legion is set to release on PS4, Xbox One, and PC on October 29, with a next-gen version coming at some point after that. (The Xbox One version is confirmed to get a free upgrade to the Series X version). The third installment in the futuristic tech-focused franchise is headed up by Clint Hocking, the creative director of Far Cry 2, and is set in an open-world version of London. When you need a specialist in your fight against the overbearing government, you can recruit (and play as) any NPC in the world, from hardened criminals to… (checks notes)… grannies?
If you’re ready to lock in your preorder for Watch Dogs: Legion, you’re going to want to know what comes in each edition, how much it costs, and where you can get it. Let’s get to it, shall we?
The steelbook ultimate edition is exclusive to GameStop, but the digital version is available elsewhere. It comes with the game, any applicable preorder bonuses, and following digital items:
