Assassin's Creed Valhalla

So, I wonder how are "rap battles" gonna work...? lol

https://www.reddit.com/r/assassinscreed/comments/gbbntg/acvalhalla_all_the_info_so_far_summarised_in_an/

 Figures.  Any “insider info” on other upcoming games?

I clicked through to the link while thinking of a witty response and then I saw it...

Now? I hope the rap battles are awesome.  I do.

But all I really care about are the drinking games...

If we don’t get combat buffs for winning the rap battles, we may as well all skip this game.

Just because there are the basic elements there, it doesn't mean it comes across that it has the same feeling as playing the prior Assassin Creed games.  This is more of a personal "feels" kind of thing, for yes you can hide in bushes and attack from behind.  The problem for me is that doesn't feel like being an assassin for there is more then just that to the games.  Things like around the corner takedowns or throwing a coin to move an enemy away from you to help doing the sneaky abilities.  Not to mention the Order of Assassin's doesn't exist in Odyssey either it seems.

Its the things like that I feel were missing from Odyssey and not that you couldn't hide in a bush or shove a sword in the back of an enemy.  Its why just seeing something basic like the hidden blade return means a lot for me.

There is an historical document (from the the mid 900s) that mention Vikings, both male and female, having elaborate face cosmetic and tattoos. There is also a 900s Viking tomb in Danemark where they discovered a compact with cosmetic powders (~950 years before it was officially invented!) and the woman in the tomb seems to have kept her face all white with the powder in it. Because Vikings left very few documents and their enemies didn't exactly care about their day-to-day, that's the only info we have about their face cosmetic habits.

The Britons have been using face paint (woad) back in the 53 B.C. as per Julius Caesar conquest document. The Scottish kept the traditions 1000+ years later. For some reasons, pop cultures seems to have merged Britons/Scottish and Vikings at some point when it comes to face paint design/colors (and a lots of other things). Or maybe the Vikings did took the habit from the Britons considering how much they loved going to England.

For the costumes, it isn't that far away from history outside the crazy amount of details, most weapons/armors were very plain back then. Everyone should be in nasal helmet with round or kite wooden shields, some chainmail/leather/gambeson armor with spears, swords or axes. With leather and chainmail being too expensive, most Vikings were in cloth gambeson though. Fur and leather were a thing for the "rich".

Vikings used mostly axes in battle and it became their prevalent weapons toward the end of the age to counter the heavier armor. Were they dual wielding...kinda. The off hand axe would have been used to hook the opponent shield, break shields or deflect blows, not strike.

I was starting to wonder why you hadn't chimed in yet...! 

Wouldn't that be something... I kinda want it to happen now. Kinda alot.

Face paint and makeup I get. Tattoos being common is very unlikely according to most historians. As for what they wore, it was mostly like what people all over Europe wore - simple tunics. cloaks, leather shoes etc. They also had the same armor, mainly chainmail and helmets just like their English counterparts. There were some unique aspects to how they dressed sure, but the Vikings in the trailer are pure fantasy.

WE SPOKE TO ASSASSIN’S CREED: VALHALLA’S CREATIVE DIRECTOR ASHRAF ISMAIL AND GOT ALL THE NEW GAME DETAILS
press-start.com.au/features/2020/05/01/we-spoke-to-assassins-creed-valhallas-creative-director-ashraf-ismail-and-got-all-the-juicy-new-game-details/

We saw Odin mentioned in the trailer. What level of norse mythology can we expect to see in the game and how supernatural will things get?

For this game we’re anchored and grounded in the history of the ninth century, Norway and Dark Ages England and the way we treat the Norse beliefs, is really based on a lot of the research that we know about this time so it’s really more in the vein of, it’s a cultural thing, it’s an everyday thing, so people see symbols, people see signs in the world, when they see a squirrel running by that has a meaning, that’s Ratatoskr and he’s sending a message to someone.

2020 is a big year for gaming and with Assassin’s Creed Valhalla confirmed for next gen consoles, what are some of the things that new technology has made possible for this game that weren’t possible 4-5 years ago with Origins?

Additionally, the worlds we’re building now are unlike anything we’ve built in the past in terms of their their detail. The amount of stuff that we can put so the more we can push the incredible potential of these worlds of Norway and ninth century, Dark Ages England. It’s better for the game it’s better for the immersion, it’s better for our players.

A lot of people felt that Odyssey forced you to grind to certain parts of the game to take on certain enemies or missions. Has that been looked at and balanced here?

By the way, when you leave Norway to England, you can always go back to Norway, so we built these really beautiful breathtaking living worlds, and we want players to play the content as they wish to play it. That’s the way the game is being balanced. So, people want to focus on narrative, there’s no issue there, people want to focus on their settlement, again, no issue there. It’s really up to players to decide how they want to consume the content. That’s always been our angle and again, this, we’re showcasing Eivos’ personal journey, we’re really focused on that. So again, if people want to focus on that personal journey and the relationships that come out of that they can do that.

I’d love to know more about raids and settlements. Are we talking like tower defence? How big of a part does this play in the game?

No, not tower defense, so raiding, it’s really going out into the world. You’re out into England to attack various enemies, various factions to weaken them to gain resources using your raiding party and you bring back those resources to your settlement, and you use those resources to grow your settlement. Growing the settlement is really about the people, it’s about the relationships, it’s about the buildings that you put in that a lot of gameplay features rely on.

The Ones Who Came Before ⚔️ @acfirstciv
Amazon have listed the Assassin's Creed Valhalla Official Novel by @writermattkirby!
You can now pre-order the Kindle edition.
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