There’s some very interesting things brewing with Ubisoft and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. The game is making some very significant changes to the formula laid down by other games in the franchise. Instead of having a ton of quests, the player will largely be able to engage with the story directly via the main questline but will be free to roam.
The Viking-infused adventure will instead focus on a gameplay loop where sidequests and other distractions are “almost nonexistent.”
In an interview with GameSpot, narrative director Darby McDevitt revealed that the decision was made to move away from the more traditional structure to something new, citing a need to shake things up. And since the game is going to an entirely new locale and time in history, it kind of makes sense.
So now, players will hunt down “World Events” that offer a welcome distraction from the main story. Instead of having these tied to factions or minor story elements, it’s all in service to building your Viking empire of sorts. The player has to navigate a foreign land as a Norse conqueror in England, and things are going to be tricky. The player has to build up their military and diplomatic might by playing a more political game, rather than just assassinating key targets. This will manifest in-game as a system that sees the player building and breaking alliances by choosing paths to take. Each
Each Assassin’s Creed Valhalla world event will take on branching paths to a degree, and offer players their own ways through each of the events. This are being made to feel much more organic as well. Rather than collect-a-thons like previous games, the new Assassin’s Creed Valhalla world events should feel like the natural conflict between groups.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla comes to PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X on November 17.
