Do you think you're clever, Ubisoft? Do you think that by changing the name of your game from 'Ragnarok' to 'Valhalla' that we'll all forget about how this game has been leaked literally years in advance? Heck, I feel like we've been hearing whispers about this game for longer than it's active development cycle, like this story dropped back in pre-production. In fact, I'm pretty sure that back when Eric Bloodaxe first landed in England a pre-historic Yves Guillemot jumped out from behind a rock saying "Oh, this would be great for a project I'm working on..." But I suppose those years of inconceivably poor secret-keeping is now behind us as we now have an official, albeit cinematic, trailer for the viking-themed Assassin's Creed; Valhalla. (Although to be honest, all this means for me is that Odyssey will finally go on sale.)
Now first let me address the most important elephant in the room; Ragnarok was a cooler name. That's just a fact. And I've heard some folk claiming that 'Ragnarok' was just the production codename all this time, but uh-uh. No way. (I mean be real; what's the point of a secretive production codename that is literally preceded by the title 'Assassin's Creed'. Not really hiding that from anyone now are ya?) This name change was a pure power move on Ubisoft's part. It's their way of saying "Oh, you think you got our number? Well, surprise, we fooled you all along!" It's a lie, and I making a much bigger issue out of this than I rightly should. But seriously, conceptually 'Valhalla' is just a glorified waiting room for 'Ragnarok'. In terms of importance it always plays perpetual second fiddle. But I heavily digress, there's a new trailer.
Personally I can't remember the last time that I actually sat down to watch a cinematic Assassin's Creed trailer, and that's because they petered out some years back. Back in the day, they used to be this competition between the animation companies to create a teaser trailer that topped the last entry's offering and effectively conveyed to the audience "Oh, you thought that last Assassin was hot? Here's the new hotness." Whilst Altair was all evasion and deceiving, Ezio was all glitz and glamour. Young Ezio was brash, but adult Ezio bought an entire Brotherhood to help him out. The Brotherhood was cool and all, but old Ezio was capable of just as much by himself. But Conner could charge down a line of firing muskets! But Edward had Blackbeard simping over him (Also he had four guns). But Arno harnessed an entire revolution to get to his targets (Also, co-op)! As you can see, there was this rather juvenile oneupmanship that used to be part of the whole trailer crafting culture, but that spell was broken after the mess of Unity. (and the way that the very soul of the trailer was absent from the game.) Since then these trailers have been lowkey and a little directionless, but I guess it's tradition now so here's another. (Did Odyssey even get a cinematic trailer? Yeah, it was just super forgettable.)
The first thing that'll you likely notice from the trailer, heck, perhaps even before that trailer started, is the fact that this game takes us into the role of a viking. This is a point that is heavily hammered home throughout the trailer as we jump between the slanderous English (I presume) conjecture regarding this savage folk to the realities of the folk themselves. I almost feel like I'm being a little condescending by explaining this because literally no one on the Ubisoft writing team posses the vocabulary to form the words "subtlety" or "subtext", but seeing as how that's the most concrete detail from the trailer I can hardly miss it out. From this I suppose we can deduce that Ubisoft intend to balance us between the fun raiding of Viking life and the simple farming and nomad living. To this end there was even a small section which showed a rudimentary settlement building which hints at a metagame mechanic. It certainly wouldn't be the first time that the Assassin's Creed franchise has dabbled with such (such as The Homestead from AC3) and those were some of my personal favourite gameplay additions so that has won me over a little.
In an interview with Eurogamer the lead producer, Julien Laferrière,went a little further into details about the game and left quite the impression seeing as how the article header claims that the team have 'redefined the series' RPG storytelling' (Really? Wow that's quite the statement considering Assassin's Creed first started putting RPG elements in it's series all the way back in the last entry. That's quite the history to go around shaking up!) Julien spoke about how the exploration and character development would be shaped around the settlement system, with it eventually becoming a place where you'll make decisions with consequences, forge allegiances, partake in the romances, et cetera. It all sounds fair enough in concept, but I've personally heard a great many grand promises out of games like these and I wouldn't be surprised if this whole 'settlement' turns out to be a glorified base building metagame which demands fetch quests to develop. Not that I'm entirely adverse to that I think it's perfectly serviceable, but I don't need these guys selling it to me like the return of Christ.
We even got a brief touching upon the story, with player's finding themselves in the shoes of that Travis Fimmel looking bloke, Eivor. (He doesn't quite have Travis' eyes though...) Things seem almost deceptively straightforward so far, with a forced settlement in Great Britain seeming to be the driving force of the plot that will lead players into an inevitable conflict with King Alfred. (He was the pantomime villain from the trailer.) Julien then directly answered a question regarding King Alfred, assuring the interviewer that King Alfred wouldn't be a pantomime villain- and I'm sorry Julien, but you just lied to the poor man, now didn't you? Now, yes, I haven't played the game yet; but I've dived deep into enough Assassin's Creed- Heck, Ubisoft games in general, to know that unless your entire team was struck by lighting and became capable of three dimension character writing, you've been telling porkies. (Gosh, I'm being a bit mean today, aren't I? Well, I stand by it; AC characters suck.)
My last gripe with this trailer is very perfunctory at this point, I'll admit, but I feel it lays the seeds of something greater, and that's the main character himself. Why are we stuck with one face this time around? Now yeah, I know that some folk were slightly perturbed my the lore implications of having multiple playable characters in Odyssey, but I was under the impression that the official word from Ubisoft was; "meh." Now all we have is this Eivor fellow who speaks in perfect English (that rubbed me a bit wrong in this trailer) and I just feel like this is a bit of a step back for the franchise. If they're certain that the future of Assassin's Creed lies in making the series into an RPG, then why don't they embrace that whole hog? Honestly, by this point I was expecting the game to have a full blown character creator. Maybe I'm jumping the gun a bit here and Assassin's Creed will surprise me when they drop their gameplay (which is said to be sooner rather than later) but as of yet I'm a little disappointed, I won't lie.
Ultimately, I poke holes out of a place of love because I am unconditionally enraptured with the Assassin's Creed franchise just like I've always been. I'm amazed that we've finally reached the point where they're touching on all of those dream-concepts that we hoped from them back in the day, and I really want to jump in myself. Personally as a Brit, I love the idea of jumping into the shoes of my Viking ancestors, and as a student of Classics I'm even more encouraged as Nordic mythology is one of the most storied of any mythologies. (And you already know this game is going to dive heavily into the the myth.) So does this mean that Valhalla will be the first Assassin's Creed in nearly a decade that I turn up to support on day one? No. Sorry guys, any other year and that would a resounding yes, but come on; Cyberpunk wins out. (It's outta my hands.)
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