One of the best parts of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla does not take place in England. Where you go is a spoiler. It is also one of the best parts of the game. Recently I 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. A visit to the area changes the rules of the game. Vinland forces the players to leave behind all their powerful weapons and equipment, making them look for supplies and basic weapons in order to complete their mission to take out a single strong target in a large desert, with a sparse population.
By the way, 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 sensation, stayed with me even after I finished it. It was a perfect platelet cleanser after spending most of the game in England killing, exploring and conquering like a powerful Viking warrior. But I wanted to know more about Vinland. How does a team that is already working on a huge game like. Valhalla, build and create something as big and different as Vinland? Where does the idea for such a thing come from? And how do you connect it back to the labyrinthine tradition of the franchise? Ubisoft provided 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 at Valhalla. When the Ubisoft Montreal team launched the set and theme ValhallaGuillemot pointed out that the Vikings were among the first Europeans to visit North America and wondered if this would be an element of history that could be presented in the game. However, there was a problem. The Vikings of Valhalla did not start in America until 1000 AD, and Valhalla left in the 870s. “As we thought about how this might fit into the historical chronology of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, we realized that it could work very well – in terms of the Assassins and the Templars, the two groups in our game that always seem to be one step ahead of current history, “McDevitt explained.
While the initial plan for Vinland came from the meetings at the beginning of the game’s production, its actual development will not begin until much later, after the teams working on the game have a better understanding of the various systems and features. This allowed them to create something that felt different from what they had already worked on. The developers wanted Vinland to be a survival experience. “Taking a single territory and achieving that feeling of being ’empty and afraid’,” said Philippe Bergeron, the top design director. “Alone with your abilities, with a challenge that is difficult to overcome, you have to find your own path.”
Vinland also allowed the team to create territory in the game that contained a single important assassination target and allow players to discover their own approach on a much larger scale than any other mission offered.
Building the Vinland world was a challenge because of its setting, the wildness of America, and how different it was from the rest of the game’s open fields, hills, cities, and farms. This would require more original goods and art. Creating additional content would be difficult for a smaller studio, but Ubisoft has managed to use one of its many teams to help build a more nature-focused Vinland map.
“The team working in the region was from Ubisoft Singapore, which they are assassin’s Creed veterans, “said Rika Lim, chief designer at Ubisoft Singapore.” Most of the people who worked on it worked on at least two to three titles in the franchise. ” Because players would come to Vinland with nothing but the back shirt and the skills they gained, the developers at Ubisoft Singapore built Vinland around the concept of stealth, allowing players to use more cautious tactics.
Ubisoft thought of Vinland as a “break break”, something that would cause players to survive without their usual equipment, while allowing them to discover a brand new region and its native people. Vinland’s native population, Kanien’kehá: ka, also led Ubisoft to design the Vinland area as a “unique adventure”, something that players visit for a few hours and then leave behind. The team did not want to change history too much, allowing them to build a permanent Viking settlement in America, 200 years before most historians believe the Vikings first visited the continent. 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 a savior for the people of Vinland,” McDevitt said. “Eivor’s goal has always been to pursue 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 equipment won in Vinland with them when they left. Fans have been asking about this since the launch, but that would not have worked with the team’s goal.
“Leaving for Vinland, I wanted this experience to feel like a loop of autonomous survival,” Bergeron said. “For this to be true, we had to start you fresh in that environment, stripped of equipment. If the player left the territory with that equipment and updated it at home, he would have broken this experience, so that’s why I finally decided on this structure. ”
For longtime fans you have Assassin’s Creed, this is not the first time the people of Kanien’kehá: ka have appeared in the franchise. They play an important role in Assassin’s Creed III. A young man from the tribe, Ratonhnhaké: tone (also known as Conor,) is the main protagonist of the game. But this is a different time period. ACIII was established in the 1770s, over 900 years after the events of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Ubisoft wanted to make sure they presented an authentic and appropriate description of the tribe’s time when Eivor arrived. To do this, they contacted Akwiratheka Martin, the same Kanien’kehá: ka language consultant who worked with Ubisoft at Assassin’s Creed III.
But there is a more tangible connection with Assassin’s Creed III into the Of Valhalla Vinland section.
The target of Eivor’s assassination in Vinland is Gorm, a high-ranking member of the Order of the Ancients (aka proto-Templars). He also possesses a strange sphere, which is actually an old Isu artifact that leads him to a hidden temple that the Order wants access to, which is why it is located in Vinland in the first place. Once Eivor defeats him, she decides to give the strange object to the native people of Vinland, leaving them to protect the powerful artifact. This sphere is the same one that Connor encounters from the beginning Assassin’s Creed III. And the temple that Gorm is looking for is the same temple seen in ACIII also.
The idea of connection ACIII the Of Valhalla Vinland came very early in the development process. “We were looking for the landing places the Vikings had on the North American coast, and a location was very close to where Connor Village was. Assassin’s Creed III, “Bergeron said.”So, for the fans (including for ourselves) we made the connection pretty quickly. ”
McDevitt acknowledges that Valhalla’s background history for Conor’s Isor sphere was not planned then ACIII was made 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.