As more gameplay details on Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla is being revealed by select developer interviews, there’s more than meets the eye.
Ashraf Ismail, the Creative Director who formerly directed the franchise’s reawakening with Assassin’s Creed Origins in 2017, is here again at the rudder to stir Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla.
In a recent interview with Australian websites Press Start, Ashraf Ismail told the folks over there that the upcoming installment will entail a very different experience when it comes to RPG mechanics. For example, there are no more traditional levels.
Ashraf Ismail went into details during the interview, written below is an excerpt from the talk:
“So in terms of RPG and progression, our goal was to bring in kind of a fresh new take on it. Something that is much more anchored into the world itself and the concepts of skills and so on. We do have a very different take than what we’ve previously done, all in the hopes of actually making the Viking experience shine a bit more.
So as an example, we have this giant skill graph. It’s a huge skill tree where players can customize the kind of Viking that they want to play as. Hopefully, people see a lot more play-style customization within that. Our angle is much more about letting players, sort of, enjoy the experience of the game as they want. In terms of the RPG progression.So a lot of effort has gone into these skills. We have the return of abilities, but of course, all the capabilities are anchored, rooted, and very Viking themed that we’ve gotten rid of the idea of levels as well. Instead, we now have power, so again power is something that is rooted in the skill set of the hero. So based on the skills you’ve learned, you gain strength, and so there’s been a shift in the way we handle RPG and progression to make it a more play-style centered and focused on what players out there want to do in the game.”
He also added that combat would be intuitive and brutal in Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, to ramp out the Viking feeling and setting put in place for gamers.
Read the excerpt below:
“The combat system has been reinvigorated to showcase the visceral newness and brutality of the period of the weaponry of warfare during this ninth century. So, a lot of effort has been put into making sure of the sense of impact. We make bearded axes, Dane axes, flails, but now we’ve included the dual-wielding capacity so that you can combine any two weapons in your hands.
So you can dual wield two axes, two swords, even two shields if you want, so we’ve made the system quite flexible. The third element to combat improvement is the effort we’ve put into the variety of enemies that are incredibly unique using the environment and using one another against the hero. We wanted to make sure that if you’d been playing for 15-20 hours, that you still saw the stuff you’ve never seen before, so a lot of effort has gone into the enemy side of combat.”
Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla is scheduled to launch on PlayStation 4, PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Google Stadia, and PlayStation 5 during this holiday season.
