One of the best parts of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla it does not take place in England. Where you go is a spoiler. It is also one of the best parts of the game. We recently asked the people who created it to explain its origins
The area in question is called Vinland and is located on the northeast coast of North America. A visit to the area changes the rules of the game. Vinland forces players to leave behind all their powerful weapons and equipment, instead of making them look for basic supplies and weapons to complete their mission of taking out a single, powerful target in a large sparsely populated desert.
By the way, the spoilers we are about to enter are not just for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla but for another franchise game involving North America, Assassin’s Creed III.
This area of the game, with its own big map, wildlife and feel, stayed with me even after I finished it. He was a perfect platelet cleaner after spending most of the game in England killing, exploring and conquering like a powerful Viking warrior. But I also wanted to know more about Vinland. How a team that already works on a huge game works Valhalla, also create and create something as big and different as Vinland? Where does the idea for something like this come from? And how do you reconnect it with the labyrinthine tradition of the franchise? Ubisoft offered amazing answers about Vinland’s development and production.
The initial idea for the region came from Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, according to Darby MceDevitt, the narrative director of Valhalla. When the Ubisoft Montreal team raised the stage and the issue of Valhalla, Guillemot noted that the Vikings were among the first Europeans to visit North America and wondered if this would be an element of the story that could appear in the game. However, there was a problem. The Vikings a Valhalla would not leave for America until 1000 AD, and Valhalla left during the 870s. “While we were thinking about how this might fit into the historical chronology of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, we realized that it could work very well, through the Assassins and Templars target, the two groups in our game that always seem to be one step ahead of the real story, ”McDevitt explained.
Although Vinland’s initial plan arose from the initial meetings at the beginning of the game’s production, the actual development of the game would not begin until much later, after the teams working on the game had a better understanding of the various systems. and functions. This allowed them to create something that felt different from what they had already been working on. The developers wanted Vinland to be a survival experience. “Taking a territory and fulfilling that feeling of being‘ naked and scared, ’” is how level design director Philippe Bergeron put it. “Only with your skills with a challenge that is hard to overcome, you have to find your own path.”
Vinland also allowed the team to create territory within the game that included a single major assassination target and allowed players to figure out their own approach on a much larger scale than any other mission offered.
Building Vinland’s world was a challenge because of its environment, the American desert, and how different it was from the rest of the game’s open fields, hills, cities, and farms. This would require more original resources and art. Creating so much additional content would be tricky for a smaller studio, but Ubisoft was able to leverage one of its many other teams to help build Vinland’s more nature-focused map.
“The team working in the region was from Ubisoft Singapore, who is Assassin’s Creed veterans, “said Rika Lim, chief designer at Ubisoft Singapore.” Most of the people who worked there have worked on at least two or three titles in the franchise. ” back and their skills they had won, Ubisoft Singapore developers built Vinland around the concept of stealth, allowing players to use more prudent tactics.
Ubisoft thought of Vinland as a “rhythm breaker,” challenging players to survive without their usual equipment, while allowing them to discover a new region and their hometowns. Vinland’s native people, the Kanien’kehá: ka, had Ubisoft design the Vinland area as a “one-off adventure,” which players visit for a few hours and then leave behind. The team did not want to alter history too much by allowing them to build a permanent Viking settlement in America 200 years before most historians believed that the Vikings visited the continent for the first time. And they tried to avoid any friction between Eivor and the Native Americans who lived there. “We were also careful not to present Eivor as an antagonist or savior of the people of Vinland,” McDevitt said. “Eivor’s goal was always to track down and defeat a single enemy.
This desire to build Vinland as a unique survival adventure also led to the decision not to allow players to take the team they won to Vinland when they left. Fans have been asking about it since the launch, but that wouldn’t have worked with the team’s goal.
“As we headed to Vinland, we wanted this experience to feel like a stand-alone survival loop,” Bergeron said. “For this to be true, we had to start it fresh in this environment, stripped of the team. If the player left the territory with this equipment and updated it at home he would have broken this experience, so we finally decided this structure ”.
For the usual fans Assassin’s Creed, this is not the first time Kanien’kehá: ka people have appeared in the franchise. They play an important role Assassin’s Creed III. A young man from the tribe, Ratonhnhaké: Tone (also known as Conor), is the main protagonist of this game. But this is a different time period. ACIII was established during the 1770s, more than 900 years after the events of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Ubisoft wanted to make sure they presented an authentic representation appropriate to the period of the tribe when Eivor arrived. To do so, they contacted Akwiratheka Martin, Kanien’kehá’s own language consultant: ka who worked with Ubisoft on Assassin’s Creed III.
But there is a more tangible connection with Assassin’s Creed III inside De Valhalla Vinland section.
The target of Eivor’s assassination in Vinland is Gorm, a high-ranking member of the Order of the Ancients (also known as the proto-Templars). He also possesses a strange sphere, which is actually an ancient Isu artifact that guides him to a hidden temple that The Order wants to access and that is why they are first found in Vinland. Once Eivor defeats him, he decides to give the strange object to the native people of Vinland, letting them protect the powerful artifact. This sphere is the same as Connor found in the beginning Assassin’s Creed III. And the temple that Gorm seeks is the same temple that is seen ACIII too.
The idea of connecting ACIII a De Valhalla Vinland began very early in the development process. “We were investigating the landing sites that the Vikings had on the American coast and a place was very close to where Connor’s village was. Assassin’s Creed III, “Bergeron said.”So for fans (including ourselves) we created this link pretty quickly. “
McDevitt admits that Valhalla’s story for Conor’s Isu sphere was not planned when ACIII was done in 2012. “This would be an incredible testament to our ability to plan and execute. But no. The origin of the crystal ball was not clear when Assassin’s Creed III it was in production, ”he said.