One of the best parts of it Assassin’s Creed Valhalla does not take place in England. Where you’re going is a spoiler. It’s also one of the best parts of the game. We recently asked the people who made it to explain its origins
The area in question is called Vinland and is located on the northeast coast of North America. Visiting the area changes the rules of the game. Vinland forces players to abandon all their powerful weapons and equipment, instead scrapping for basic supplies and weapons to complete their mission of taking out a single, powerful target in a large, sparsely populated wilderness.
By the way, the spoilers we are about to enter, not just for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla but for another game in the franchise involving North America, Assassin’s Creed III.
This part of the game, with its own big map, wildlife, and feel, stayed with me even after I finished it. It was a perfect platelet cleaner after spending most of the game in England killing, exploring and conquering as a powerful Viking warrior. But I also wanted to know more about Vinland. How do you like a team that is already working on a huge game Valhalla, also build and create something big and different like Vinland? Where did the idea for such a thing come from? And how do you reconnect it to the labyrinthine knowledge of the franchise? Ubisoft offered some surprising answers about Vinland’s development and production.
The original idea for the region came from Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, according to Darby MceDevitt, the narrative director of Valhalla. When the team at Ubisoft Montreal created the setting and theme of Valhalla, Guillemot pointed out that Vikings were among the first Europeans to visit North America and wondered if that might be some element of history that might have come into play. There was a problem, however. The Vikings in Valhalla would not sail to America until 1000 AD and Valhalla was deposed in the 870s. While we thought about how that would fit into the historical timeline of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, we realized it could work very well – through the lens of the Assassins and Templars, the two groups in our game that always seem to be one step ahead of actual history, ”explains McDevitt.
While the original plan for Vinland stemmed from pitch meetings early in the game’s production, its actual development wouldn’t begin until much later, after the teams working on the game had a better understanding of the different systems and features. 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. “Take one territory and carry that feeling of ‘naked and scared’, ” level design director Philippe Bergeron said. “Only with your skills and a tough challenge to beat you have to find your own way.”
Vinland also allowed the team to create an in-game territory with a single, major assassination target and let players determine their own approach on a much larger scale than any other mission on offer.
Building Vinland’s world was challenging because of its location, the wilderness of America and how different it was from the rest of the game’s open fields, rolling hills, cities and farms. This requires more original assets and art. Creating so much additional content would be tricky for a smaller studio, but Ubisoft was able to use one of its many other teams to build the more nature-focused Vinland map.
“The team working on the region was from Ubisoft Singapore Assassin’s Creed veterans, ” said Rika Lim, chief designer at Ubisoft Singapore. “Most of the people who worked on it have worked on at least two to three titles in the franchise.” Since players would come to Vinland with nothing but the shirt on their back and their acquired skills, Ubisoft Singapore’s developers built Vinland around the concept of stealth, allowing players to use more cautious tactics.
Ubisoft viewed Vinland as a ‘pace-breaker’, something that would challenge players to survive without their normal gear, while simultaneously discovering a brand new region and its native people. It is the indigenous people of Vinland, the Kanien’kehá: ka, who have also led Ubisoft to design the Vinland area as a “one-time adventure,” something players spend a few hours visiting and then leaving behind. The team didn’t want to change history too much by allowing them to build a permanent settlement of Vikings in America 200 years before most historians believed Vikings first visited the continent. And they tried to avoid any friction between Eivor and the Indians who lived there. “We were also careful not to present Eivor as an opponent or a savior to the people of Vinland,” McDevitt said. Eivor’s goal was always to find and defeat a single enemy.
This desire to build Vinland as a one-time survival adventure also led to the decision not to allow players to bring the stuff they earned in Vinland when they left. Fans have been asking about this since its release, but that wouldn’t have worked with the goal of the team.
“On the way to Vinland, we wanted that experience to feel like a self-contained survival circle,” Bergeron said. “To make that happen, we had to start you fresh in that environment, stripped of your gear. If the player left the territory with that equipment and upgraded it home, that experience would have broken, so we finally decided to this structure. “
For longtime fans of Assassin’s Creed, this isn’t the first time the Kanien’kehá: ka people have appeared in the franchise. They play a big part in it Assassin’s Creed III. A young man from the tribe, Ratonhnhaké: ton (aka Conor,) is the main protagonist of that game. But this is a different time period. ACIII is set in the 1770s, more than 900 years after the events of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Ubisoft wanted to make sure they presented an authentic and appropriate depiction of the tribe when Eivor arrived. To do that, they contacted Akwiratheka Martin, the same Kanien’kehá: ka language consultant who worked with Ubisoft on Assassin’s Creed III.
But there is a more tangible connection to it Assassin’s Creed III in Valhalla’s Vinland section.
Eivor’s murder target in Vinland is Gorm, a high-ranking member of the Order of The Ancients (aka the proto-Templars), who also possesses a strange orb, which is actually an ancient Isu artifact that leads him to a hidden temple. wants access to it, which is why they are primarily in Vinland. Once Eivor defeats him, she decides to give the strange object to the indigenous people of Vinland so they can protect the powerful artifact. This atmosphere is the same that Connor encounters in the beginning Assassin’s Creed III. And the temple that Gorm is looking for is the same temple that we see ACIII also.
The idea of connecting ACIII to Valhalla’s Vinland got into the development process very early on. “We researched landing sites that Vikings had on the North American coast and one location was very close to Connor’s village. Assassin’s Creed III, ”said Bergeron. “So for fans (including ourselves) we made that link pretty quickly. “
McDevitt admits that Valhalla’s backstory to Conor’s Isu sphere wasn’t planned back then ACIII was created in 2012. “That would be incredible proof of our ability to plan and execute. But no. The origin of the crystal ball was not clear when Assassin’s Creed III was in production, ”he said.