One of the best parts of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla does not occur in England. Where you go is a spoiler. It is also one of the best parts of the game. We recently asked the people who created it to explain its origins
The area in question is called Vinland and is located on the northeast coast of North America. A visit to the area changes the rules about the game. Vinland forces players to leave behind all their powerful weapons and equipment, instead making them search for basic supplies and weapons to complete the quest to defeat a single, powerful target in a large and sparsely populated jungle.
By the way, the spoilers we’re about to enter are not just for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla but for another game in the franchise that involves North America, Assassin’s Creed III.
This area of the game, with its own big map, wildlife and feel, stayed with me even after I finished. He was a perfect platelet cleaner after spending most of the game in England killing, exploring and conquering as a powerful Viking warrior. But I also wanted to know more about Vinland. How does a team, already working on a big game like Valhalla, also build and create something as big and different as Vinland? Where does the idea for something like this come from? And how do you connect it back to the franchise’s labyrinthine tradition? Ubisoft offered some surprising answers about the development and production of Vinland.
The initial idea for the region came from Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, according to Darby MceDevitt, the narrative director for Valhalla. When the Ubisoft Montreal team presented the scenario and theme of the Valhalla, Guillemot pointed out that Vikings were among the first Europeans to visit North America and wondered if this was an element of the story that could be presented in the game. However, there was a problem. Vikings in Valhalla would not set sail for America until 1000 AD, and Valhalla was established during the 870s. “While we were thinking about how this could fit into the historic timeline of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, we realized that it could work very well – through the lens of the Assassins and the Templars, the two groups in our game that always seem to be one step ahead of the real story, ”explained McDevitt.
Although the initial plan for Vinland came from field meetings early in the game’s production, the real development on it would not begin until much later, after the teams that worked on the game had a better understanding of the various systems and features. This allowed them to create something different from what they were already doing. The developers wanted Vinland to be a survival experience. “Taking a territory and delivering that feeling of being ‘naked and scared’”, as the level design director Philippe Bergeron put it. “Alone with your skills with a difficult challenge to overcome, you need to find your own way.”
Vinland also allowed the team to create a territory in the game that would present a unique and important target of assassination and would allow players to discover their own approach on a much larger scale than any other mission offered.
Building Vinland’s world was a challenge because of its setting, America’s wild nature and how it was different from the rest of the open fields, hills, cities and farms in the game. This would require more original resources and art. Creating so much extra content would be tricky for a smaller studio, but Ubisoft was able to leverage one of its many other teams to help build the more nature-focused Vinland map.
“The team that worked in the region was from Ubisoft Singapore, which is Assassin’s Creed veterans, ” said Rika Lim, chief level designer at Ubisoft Singapore. “Most of the people who worked on it worked on at least two or three titles in the franchise.” As players would come to Vinland with nothing but the body shirt and the skills they gained, Ubisoft Singapore developers developed Vinland around the concept of stealth, allowing players to use more cautious tactics.
Ubisoft thought of Vinland as a “breakthrough”, something that challenged players to survive without their regular equipment, while allowing them to discover a new region and its native people. They are the natives of Vinland, the Kanien’kehá: ka, who also led Ubisoft to design the Vinland area as a “unique adventure”, something that players visit for a few hours and then leave behind. The team did not want to change the story too much, allowing them to build a permanent settlement of Vikings in America 200 years before most historians believed that Vikings visited the continent for the first time. And they tried to avoid any friction between Eivor and the Native Americans who lived there. “We also took care not to present Eivor as an antagonist or savior for the people of Vinland,” said McDevitt. “Eivor’s goal has always been to track and defeat a single enemy.
This desire to build Vinland as a unique survival adventure also led to the decision not to allow players to take with them the equipment they won in Vinland when they left. Fans have been asking about it since the release, but it wouldn’t have worked for the team’s purpose.
“Going to Vinland, we wanted this experience to feel like an autonomous cycle of survival,” said Bergeron. ”For this to be true, we had to start you over again in that environment, without your equipment. Getting the player to leave the territory with that equipment and update it back home would have broken that experience, so that’s why we decided on this structure. “
For longtime fans of Assassins Creed, this is not the first time that Kanien’kehá: ka has appeared in the franchise. They play a big role in Assassin’s Creed III. A young man from the tribe, Ratonhnhaké: ton (also known as Conor) is the main protagonist of this game. But this is a different time period. ACIII was defined during the 1770s, more than 900 years after the events of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Ubisoft wanted to make sure that they presented an authentic and appropriate representation for the tribe’s time when Eivor arrived. For this, they contacted Akwiratheka Martin, the same Kanien’kehá: ka language consultant who worked with Ubisoft in Assassin’s Creed III.
But there is a more tangible connection with Assassin’s Creed III inside Valhalla’s Vinland section.
The target of Eivor’s murder in Vinland is Gorm, a senior member of the Order of the Ancients (also known as proto-Templars). He also has a strange sphere, which is actually an ancient Isu artifact that is guiding him to a hidden temple that The Order wants access to, which is why they are in Vinland in the first place. As soon as Eivor defeats him, she decides to give the strange object to the natives of Vinland, letting them protect the powerful artifact. This sphere is the same that Connor finds at the beginning Assassin’s Creed III. And the temple that Gorm is looking for is the same temple seen in ACIII also.
The idea of connecting ACIII for Valhalla’s Vinland emerged very early in the development process. “We were researching landing sites that the Vikings had on the North American coast and a location was very close to where Connor’s village was Assassin’s Creed III, ”said Bergeron. “So for fans (including us), we created this link very quickly. “
McDevitt admits that Valhalla’s story for the Conor Isu sphere was not planned when ACIII was done in 2012. “That would be an incredible testimony to our ability to plan and execute. But not. The origin of the crystal ball was not clear when Assassin’s Creed III was in production, ”he said.