Sit by the campfire in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla

Last night, former MTV news staff member Stephen Totilo sent me a text message Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: “Sit by the campfire.”

We’d talked about the game from time to time, and he suggested I check it out. Apparently, even though I had sunk into it for 90 hours last year’s biggest game– although I completed all Animus anomalies, disabled most of the regional storylines, and thought extensively about the endgame– I had somehow missed a crucial hidden cutscene that has serious consequences for the relationship between two main characters.

Major spoilers follow ahead Assassin’s Creed Valhalla

So the campfire. It’s not just any campfire, but specifically the one you see while exploring the modern segment, in New England. And you have to stay put after you beat the game’s main arch, apparently once you’re in Basim’s passé but indisputably sensible footwear. (Remember that after the events of the Hordafylke arc, the protagonist of the recent series Layla becomes trapped in an ancient digital abyss. Basim, once believed to be dead, uses a magical scepter to come back to life and escape to the real world, in the 21st century .. You control him instead of Layla contemporary story of Assassin’s Creed remains, as always, utterly baffling.)

I got to that point in my game, so I sent Basim to the campfire. “Ah, the wonderful scent of wood smoke,” he says. “I’m glad some things never change.” He then looks out over the idyllic American hinterland. It is all very beautiful. But not exactly crucial.

Zack Zweizen, Kotakuis in the house Assassin’s Creed lore master, had a different experience. Following the same steps, he saw …

Yes, that is Eivor. It is not Eivor Eivor, mind you, but rather an appearance, something like the Force ghosts of Star WarsLook closely and you can see the hints of a smile. In the full clip, Eivor and Basim nod to each other, a recognition of mutual respect. You could reasonably go so far as to assume that with that one move, Eivor is actually saying, “It’s all right, man.”

It doesn’t matter how many hundreds of years have passed. When my brother disappeared for two years and then showed up with a strange man one day, and when that strange man made plans to have my brother kidnapped and partially dismembered, and then secretly chased the two of us on a soul-searching adventure to our homeland, and when his secret plan was revealed all the time at, about, the worst possible time, and then tried to kill me, I don’t know if I’d be that forgiving.

We also still don’t know how Eivor’s skeleton ended up in New England. But Eivor – whether through Animus’ magical technology or Basim’s established presence in the 21st century – somehow still seems to be there. And it’s not like there is no precedent for this stuff. Kassandra, the protagonist of 2018 Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, survived into modern times.She’s dead nowI hope this means that Eivor, the strongest protagonist since Ezio Auditore, is coming back.

It’s unclear why Zack saw this video when I ended up clinging to a wistful ode to nostalgia. I’ve played a lot Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, but there are two more important tasks that I have yet to complete. First, I didn’t finish the Hamtunscire arc. After learning what’s happening, I decided that the eight to 10 hours it takes to beat it – see, I’m playing these games at an excruciating methodical pace – could be better spent playing something else. I haven’t tackled any of the Asgard stuff either, although it’s first on my checklist for when I eventually get back to the game.

Our best-working theory is that you must complete one or both segments before you can see Eivor in New England. Kotaku has contacted Ubisoft about the exact parameters required to activate this movie.