History buffs have always loved Assassin’s Creed. From its first foray onto the scene, tackling the murky waters of The Crusades, the game allows players to relive a fictionalized version of history. Whether it’s the American Revolution or Renaissance Italy, the series prides itself on taking actual historical events and weaving them into the lore of the Assassins and their ongoing war with the Templars.
In Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, players will experience the era of the Vikings. Most notably, it will deal with the Viking colonization of England, which involved a long and bloody conflict.
Ashraf Ismail, the game’s creative director talked in a recent interview about how his team was handling this conflict as the Vikings further moved through England.
“The history of the invasion itself in this time period is, of course, a critical part of the journey,” Ismail said. “What did it mean for the Vikings of the Norse to land in England and to cohabitate?”
He went on to talk about how Viking culture began to adapt to that of the English.
“Yes, there was war and it was bloody, and it was very brutal,” Ismail said. “But they adapted themselves to the people they came to. And this is an aspect of it that we do look at. Some historians will even say that this is maybe why the Vikings sort of lost their way of life and culture over time. They adapted themselves rather than forcing others. And so that aspect is something we do explore to a certain degree in the game.”
This is a fascinating take on the conflict. It seems as though this game will be focusing not just on the bloody war for colonization, but also the cultural impact of said war as it pertains to the Viking way of life.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was recently revealed by Ubisoft, though rumors of a Viking-based entry into the series persisted for months prior to the official announcement. Many drew comparisons to 2018’s God of War, which also focused heavily on Norse culture, but it seems as though the Assassin’s Creed team is leaning more toward the history surrounding the Viking colonization of England and not so much on Norse mythology, which was well covered in God of War.
Recently, Ubisoft had to apologize to fans after releasing what they described as a gameplay trailer which ended up featuring no actual gameplay.
