Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Vikings can be stealthy too...

[Nightowl1701]

"Better to fight and fall than to live without hope." - The Volsunga Saga, 13'th century

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873 AD. We're well past the age of Kassandra and Bayek, but three centuries still to go until Altair. (If you watch the Vikings TV series, you're in end-of-Season 5 territory.) No Spam, Marvel superheroes or Kratos & Son here; as always, Ubisoft plays it as straight and historically accurate as the story arc will allow. Expect everything and the kitchen sink gameplay-wise in the world of our hero Eivor; Customization, conquest battles, naval battles, settlement building, your choice of romances, tons of miscellaneous activities - even rap battles. (Yeah, you read that right.) Visit Dark Ages London, Winchester and York. And yes, you will see how a Viking can not only perform, but perform well, as a traditional sneaky Assassin.

 

[JD]

I'm a huge fan of both Vikings and The Last Kingdom, so I couldn't be more excited for this.
The male version of the main character, Eivor, is actually being played by Magnus Bruun, who plays a Viking, Cnut, on The Last Kingdom.

 

[FPAlpha]

I really loved the trailer but for the whole duration i thought "All well and good but it could be any generic action adventure game" until at the end he assassinates the big guy with the iconic forearm mounted Assassins Blade (something i really miss from Odyssey as good as the game is).

Really looking forward to this and with a great deal of luck i'll be even done with Odyssey and actually finish an AC game for once before moving onto the next

 

[Owain Taggart]

There was a reference to Vikings in AC: Rogue, so it made me wonder how long it would take for them to make a Viking AC.

 

[FPAlpha]

I was also thinking about settings that would still be possible and interesting (not including any meta story requirements)

As far as i can recall we have Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt, Middle East, Italy, Revolutionary War, Carribean, French Revolution/Paris and London as settings, did i miss some?

Personally i'd be interested in a China setting (with some cool Martial Arts combat system) and maybe a modern setting - maybe one of the World Wars (though that has been played to death by so many other games) or a truly modern, contemporary, setting in the present.

Anyway.. let's be Vikings first!

 

[Rincewiend]

You forgot New Orleans...
Assassin's Creed III: Liberation...

 

[Skywalker]

I still really want an Assassin's Creed set in Japan. I know past members of the various dev teams have said no to the idea, but I think it would be amazing. You could get at least two games out of it: one set during the Warring States era and one set during the Meiji era, both of which I think are perfect settings.

 

[Nightowl1701]

From an Arthur Chu, on Twitter May 6th:

"I just sat up bolt upright with four words in my head that could revolutionize the gaming industry.

ASSASSIN'S CREED: OREGON TRAIL"

 

[Owain Taggart]

I was also thinking about settings that would still be possible and interesting (not including any meta story requirements)

Personally i'd be interested in a China setting (with some cool Martial Arts combat system) and maybe a modern setting - maybe one of the World Wars (though that has been played to death by so many other games) or a truly modern, contemporary, setting in the present.

Yes, one set in China would be really cool, beyond the Chronicles side-scroller which was kind of fun. There's tons of interesting history that is just ripe for some gameplay. They could set it around the time of the building of the Great Wall, which they had built to keep out invaders. Plus China has many different regions with differing climates which would make for interesting settings.

Oh, there was a WW1 section in Syndicate which I thought was pretty amazing given it had entirely new assets. It was like a game within a game. That's felt the closest to modern day as we'll likely get.

 

[Rincewiend]

Yes, one set in China would be really cool, beyond the Chronicles side-scroller which was kind of fun. There's tons of interesting history that is just ripe for some gameplay. They could set it around the time of the building of the Great Wall, which they had built to keep out invaders. Plus China has many different regions with differing climates which would make for interesting settings.

Oh, there was a WW1 section in Syndicate which I thought was pretty amazing given it had entirely new assets. It was like a game within a game. That's felt the closest to modern day as we'll likely get.

17th century mainland Europe would be cool...
The time of Breughel and the Eighty Years' War...

 

[JD]

I was also thinking about settings that would still be possible and interesting (not including any meta story requirements)

As far as i can recall we have Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt, Middle East, Italy, Revolutionary War, Carribean, French Revolution/Paris and London as settings, did i miss some?

Personally i'd be interested in a China setting (with some cool Martial Arts combat system) and maybe a modern setting - maybe one of the World Wars (though that has been played to death by so many other games) or a truly modern, contemporary, setting in the present.

Yeah, I would definitely be up for something outside of Europe or the Middle East.
I've hoped for a while that they would do something closer to the modern day, I'd avoid the World Wars though, since they've been done to death at this point. Even a completely modern day game could be a lot of fun, maybe they could do that as the big final game, which ties up the whole Assassin/Templar conflict once and for all.

 

[kirk55555]

While I doubt they'd do it, I'd be up for Assassin's Creed: American Civil War. Its not like they haven't dealt with stuff like slavery before (the AC4 DLC/Expansion AC: Freedom's Cry was about you playing as a freed slave and had side missions to rescue slaves), and I'd love to assassinate some Confederate bigwigs. I can imagine the final (or nearly final) mission where you try to prevent Lincoln's death, fail, and have to take down John Wilkes Booth (who is a templar, obviously).

 

[Imaus]

Apparently the map is the whole of Britain and a bit of Norway.

Here's my current favorite Viking game, Expedition: Vikings' map:

oooh, even, maybe it's like the map from the Viking Scenario from Civ IV Warlords:

Either way...might be too big. Britain is big. There's a whole lotta nothing between Winchester, London( a Burh at this time)York, and maybe Leicester...Scotland's gonna become two or four mountain 'ranges' aka four big hills, isn't it....

 

[thribs]

I hope they get back to the main story of this series. Feels like they have been waffling since Black Flag.

 

[Owain Taggart]

While I doubt they'd do it, I'd be up for Assassin's Creed: American Civil War.

I think the reason they've held back from getting closer and closer to modern day, would be a thing such as the American Civil War. For many, it's still a very hotly debated topic that hits too close to home, and if putting the Assassins or the Templars in either camp, they'd be seen as taking sides and I think it's something they want to avoid. Hell, I know some people didn't like the Revolutionary War setting of AC III for similar reasons.

I'd love for an AC game set in the Old West, but I think I've seen comments from those at the studio saying they would never do such a thing.

 

[Nightowl1701]

I hope they get back to the main story of this series. Feels like they have been waffling since Black Flag.

They've written themselves into a corner, and I wouldn't be surprised if Valhalla is the penultimate game of the whole series for that reason. The whole Juno/Phoenix Project arc (along with the remaining loose ends of Desmond's story) was jettisoned in a comic book series few are likely to have read and Odyssey only vaguely (blink-and-you-miss-it) refers to, the Callum Lynch/Sofia Rikkin story was stillborn at the box office (and again only gets the briefest of nods in Origins), and Layla Hassan's starting to get more than an unpleasant whiff of Anakin Skywalker about her.
Eliminating all the past settings they've ruled out or used in a non-game medium already (Feudal Japan, Old West/Civil War, Joan of Arc, World War I-II, anything Biblical etc.), there's not a whole lot of world history left for them to explore either. Nothing worth making a video game out of, anyway.

 

[kirk55555]

I think the reason they've held back from getting closer and closer to modern day, would be a thing such as the American Civil War. For many, it's still a very hotly debated topic that hits too close to home, and if putting the Assassins or the Templars in either camp, they'd be seen as taking sides and I think it's something they want to avoid. Hell, I know some people didn't like the Revolutionary War setting of AC III for similar reasons.

The kind of people who think that the Civil War is controversial or debate it aren't a group that many companies care about catering to, and its the same kind of people who probably refused to buy AC Odyssey because of the LGBTQ+ romance options and would probably protest a WW2 AC for making Nazis the bad guys.

The Union were the good guys and the Confederates were the bad guys in the American Civil War, this is an uncontroversial opinion for the majority of people, its just that the minority are as loud as they are bigoted. Sure, you could twist the rebels as being the kind of "free" that the Assassin's want, but the assassin's are definitely anti-slavery when it comes to their group ideals, and they aren't against government, just certain overly controlling things.

In the end, I think it could be done well and it would probably sell well, with most of the people protesting it probably not even being video game players. But Ubisoft is a French company and might not want to deal with America's bullshit on this particular topic, which I can't really blame them for. Still, I'd like to see another America related AC, and I can't think of much besides the Civil War that could fit for an interesting enough setting for another America based AC game.

 

[Owain Taggart]

. But Ubisoft is a French company and might not want to deal with America's bullshit on this particular topic, which I can't really blame them for.

Which is exactly my point. They wouldn't want to do it, not because of slavery issues as they've handled them before, but because some would likely take issue with their states being lumped in with the Templars. For a lot of people, that'd just seed resentment and hits a little too close to home for some people who may not want to relive it. I agree that another game in America would be great, but I'm just not sure the Civil War would be the best idea even though from a gaming standpoint, it's a good setup.

 

[FPAlpha]

Which is exactly my point. They wouldn't want to do it, not because of slavery issues as they've handled them before, but because some would likely take issue with their states being lumped in with the Templars. For a lot of people, that'd just seed resentment and hits a little too close to home for some people who may not want to relive it. I agree that another game in America would be great, but I'm just not sure the Civil War would be the best idea even though from a gaming standpoint, it's a good setup.

I think in a game where your main task is killing people (you are an Assassin after all and it's in the series title) offending small groups of people is not something that may prevent a game being made if the potential profit is big enough and i believe it is.

Those who are even deeper into the game and know about the Templar/Assassin War are even a smaller group and i think they would not care at all if a Union General would be a Templar or not or that Assassins would support the South in whatever form - gamers aren't usually that political.

All throughout modern gaming, especially since Rpgs like Mass Effect gave you the option of being a dick yet be the main hero of the game, you could play the bad side - there's enough WW2 strategy games that let's you play the german side (i'm currently playing Panzer Corps 2 and am invading Scandinavia) for example so i think the political aspect of a Civil War era AC game is a non-issue for gamers.

It's just about finding an interesting era and crafting a game around it - now it's Vikings and that has risen in popularity in recent years due to shows like Vikings, next then could be something set in Asia - either China (long history of War and action) or Japan (Samurai and Ninja are always cool), US Civil War, WW 1 or 2, Modern Era, Ancient Rome (though may be too similar to Odyssey) just to name a few off the top of my head.

 

[FPAlpha]

https://www.ign.com/videos/13-minutes-of-assassins-creed-valhalla-gameplay-raising-iron-quest

Uhm yeah.. like it says mostly in the comments under the video it looks and feels like a reskin of Odyssey. Now you can't judge a game from 13 minutes of gameplay that shows a standard mission (go there and kill everything) but there was nothing there to get me excited.

Reinventing the wheel is hard so i hope the new elements make this feel distinctive enough but i'm not holding my breath and most likely won't buy this immediately.