Assassin's Creed Valhalla is getting the first in-game teaser later today, during the highly anticipated Inside Xbox episode where Microsoft promised to unveil the first slew of third-party next-generation games coming to the Xbox Series X console.
Meanwhile, though, some Ubisoft developers have been discussing aspects of Valhalla through select interviews. For instance, Narrative Director Darby McDevitt told Gamespot that the game will feature a 'unique narrative structure'.
We do approach narrative in Valhalla in a very unique way and I think it will be one of the stand-out aspects of the game--the structure of the narrative. Because the structure of the narrative is different--it actually didn't rely on next-gen tech at all, it relied on structuring story experiences in a way I haven't seen in any game as far as I can think of--this will definitely be a unique story structure for Assassin's Creed fans. But I would even dare say it's quite unique for any game. I don't think people have experienced a story in quite this way--how we present it to you, how you consume it--it's very unique. It relied on being willing to experiment with a different way of presenting information to players and leading you through the world.
Later in that interview, McDevitt also labeled Assassin's Creed Valhalla as a sort of 'ultimate grounded Viking fantasy', something that he reckons hasn't been done yet in gaming.
Very few games actually treat the Norse Viking experience as historically grounded. I think the urge is to always immediately lead with the mythology stuff, but we really want you to feel like you're living in the Dark Ages of England, that you're exploring the Roman ruins left behind 400 to 500 years earlier by the Romans and the remnants of the Britannic tribes before that and even the Saxon Pagans before they all converted to Christianity.
All these layers haven't been done before in a game and I don't think there's ever been a Viking game that's tried to be the ultimate grounded Viking fantasy. That's where we found our place to shine--and I think we have. We've created this massive world to explore, to raid, to assault, to meet interesting people, but you're going to do it as a human.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla is scheduled to hit PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, and Google Stadia this Holiday season, with rumors pointing to an October release.
