Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: NEW RELEASE DATE, No Show at Ubisoft Forward, Trailers, Map, Gameplay, latest news & more

Ubisoft is back with the newest entry to the Assassin’s Creed series, this time joining the world of vikings.

Ubisoft has announced Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is coming sooner than expected!

Release date

Ubisoft had originally set Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s release date for 17 November 2020.

However, they have now brought it forward to 10 November 2020, to coincide with the Xbox Series X release date!

We’re yet to find out when the PS5 will release, but now Microsoft has made the first move, Sony won’t be far behind.

Ubisoft Forward

With Assassin’s Creed Valhalla making an appearance last time around, we expected big things at this Ubisoft Forward event on 10 September.

Unfortunately Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was a no-show at UbiForward, so we’ll have to wait for new reveals and gameplay footage elsewhere before launch day.

Head here to find out how to watch Ubisoft Forward and what new content is on the way!

Platforms

That release date puts the game in line with the release of Next Gen consoles, with Valhalla set to be available on Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, Stadia, and PC.

READ MORE: Which consoles is Assassin’s Creed Valhalla coming to?

Next Gen Remastered

Those expecting an enhanced experience if they go straight to Next Gen consoles may be slightly disappointed.

The tagline “Enhanced for Series X” has been repeatedly issued by the Xbox team, and there will be improvements to games like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, but don’t expect to receive an overwhelming improvement in graphics for a start.

Next-Gen Upgrades

We already knew that a one-time purchase will get you both the current-gen and next-gen version of Valhalla for Xbox.

However, according to an announcement made by Ubisoft, players will also be able to upgrade their PS4 versions of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla to the next-gen PS5 version at no additional cost!

You can see this now on the Ubisoft store, where you can also pre-order the game!

Price

The Standard Edition of the game can be bought for £51.99 / $50 on PS4 & Xbox One, whilst the PS5 version costs £59.99 / $59.96.

The PC version is slightly cheaper at £49.99.

However, with Microsoft announcing that if a game is already in your Xbox library, you can also play it on Series X for no additional cost thanks to Smart Delivery.

READ MORE: What is “Smart Delivery” on Xbox Series X?

Editions

Unlike other games, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is coming with a whopping six editions you can choose.

As well as the Standard Edition, there’s a Gold Edition, Ultimate Edition and Collector’s Edition.

It doesn’t stop there with UK retailer GAME having an exclusive Drakkar Edition on sale, and Amazon offering a Limited Edition.

READ MORE: All the various Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Editions

Each comes at a different cost and includes different content packs and features.

Regardless of the Edition you purchase, if you pre-order, it will include a bonus mission.

READ MORE: Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Pre-order Guide

Trailers

Ubisoft have been revealing plenty of trailers, the most recent being a 30 minute gameplay walkthrough which you can check out below:

Female Eivor Cinematic

Those of you who may have been left disappointed that Female Eivor didn’t get her own cinematic are now in for a treat!

A new trailer has been released which puts Female Eivor front and centre in the epic cinematic for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.

There’s even a more dramatic soundtrack, which gives the trailer a fresh new, and slightly darker, feel.

Reveal Trailer

The Assassin’s Creed Valhalla trailer was unveiled on Thursday, 30 April 2020.

Despite not showing in-game gameplay, the graphics are incredible and give us some insight into what’s ahead of us in Valhalla.

Gameplay trailer

We’ve finally got our first taste of gameplay in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and seen it in all its next-gen glory.

The gameplay was premiered on the Xbox Series X thanks to the most recent Inside Xbox stream.

The trailer had fans thinking they were simply watching cinematics, but according to the developers, this footage was all in-game.

Eivor Trailer

A new in-depth trailer was released for the main character, Eivor, which showed off some of the intense story and lore behind the title.

The trailer was packed full of mini-reveals also, which you can see our breakdown for right here.

Theme

The theme for the latest instalment in the Assassin’s Creed franchise was revealed the day before the trailer in unique faction.

A periscope feed of an official graphic was made of eight hours, which slowly revealed that there was a Viking theme to this year’s game.

It has since been revealed that the game will take place in both Norway and the old kingdoms of England.

Plot

When you dig deeper, the initial trailer reveals plenty.

The narrator is believed to be King Alfred the Great, who dealt with the Vikings during the 9th Century.

He finally made an agreement with the Vikings, but not after significant bloodshed.

The official Ubisoft site reads:

In Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, you are Eivor, a fierce Viking warrior raised on tales of battle and glory.

Explore a dynamic and beautiful open world set against the brutal backdrop of England’s Dark Ages.

Raid your enemies, grow your settlement and build your political power in your quest to earn your place among the gods in Valhalla.

Ubisoft.com

READ MORE: What we know about Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s Plot

In the trailer, Eivor is male, but you do have the choice to play as a female Eivor instead.

If you want to find out even more details about the characters, head to the Assassin’s Creed Fandom page.

Map

We got our first look at the Alliance Map during the Gameplay Trailer at the first Ubisoft Forward.

You can consult the Alliance Map to see what areas of England you have control over.

We can see all the following Kingdoms on the Alliance Map:

• Cent (Kent)
• Suthsexe (Sussex)
• Hamtunscire (Hampshire)
• Essexe (Essex)
• Oxenefordscire (Oxfordshire)
• Glowecestrescire (Gloucestershire)
• Grantebridgescire (Cambridgeshire)
• East Anglia
• Sciropescire (Shropshire)
• Ledcestrescire (Leicestershire)
• Lincolnscire (Lincolnshire)
• Snotinghamscire (Nottinghamshire)
• Eurviescire (Yorkshire)

It’s yet to be revealed how much of these kingdoms we will see, but expect a few key locations in each area to feature in the game.

Head here to read more about the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Map.

Locations

One of the game’s developers shared some more details on what to expect in an interview with Game Informer.

He says the map will focus on four major kingdoms of England. They are; Wessex, Northumbria, East Anglia and Mercia.

This includes three major cities – London, Winchester and Jórvík (which is York in modern-day language).

The iconic UK landmark Stonehenge will also appear in the game, which was already 4,000 years old during Alfred the Great’s reign.

READ MORE: Everything we know about Assassin Creed Valhalla’s Maps & Location

You also have the option to return to Viking’s homeland of Norway at any time.

Tombs

While we don’t have any official word on whether there will be tombs in the title, we can make some assumptions based on the previous instalments.

Tombs did feature in both Assassin’s Creed Origins and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, so it could be likely that they are in this title too.

In AC Odyssey there were 22 tombs to discover, so we expect roughly the same to appear in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.

Rewards for finding tombs and navigating through them range from some serious loot all the way to an extra skill-point, so they are well worth hunting down.

Romance

Uniquely, in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, characters who are open to romance won’t be different depending on Eivor’s gender.

It’s a move which takes a step forward from other RPG’s, which typically have a set of romanceable characters for each gender.

You can read more about this feature right here.

Weapons

The most epic aspect of combat in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will not be the use of a classic Viking axe, but the fact you can dual wield weapons.

According to a developer commentary, creative director Ashraf Ismail said:

“Dual wielding is a big part of the game and it’s very open – you can pretty much dual wield all combinations of weapons that we have. If you want to dual wield two shields, we’ll let you do that.”

Although we don’t know the full extent of weapons in your arsenal, this does open up plenty of combinations.

Here is a list of weapons confirmed for Valhalla, as found on the official Fandom page:

• Axe
• Bow
• Spear
• Sword
• Hidden Blade

Combat

Reportedly, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will be taking a leaf out of Mortal Kombat’s book, with rumoured X-ray finishers.

We saw a glimpse at some brutal dismemberment in the new gameplay trailer, but haven’t got to see the X-ray moves just yet.

READ MORE: Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Character Trailer – Everything you may have missed, Rope Spear, Dismemberment, and more

If this is the case, it will be a first for the series – however, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is seemingly packed full of firsts, including unrestricted romancing and even the ability to change gender at any point in the game.

Enemies

There are a ton of new enemies, in fact, the largest variety of enemies ever assembled.

Every type has a unique challenge. Some co-ordinate attacks, with some even throwing fallen comrades at you!

Gameplay

The game has an RPG (Role Playing Game) style class system as well as a skill tree system similar to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

These RPG based changes have also caused a change to the way the player navigates the world, with the removal of level-based region locks the player will be able to go wherever, whenever they like with no restrictions. 

Character Customisation

In a recent interview with Washington Post, Ashraf Ismail revealed a load of new details on the customisability of Eivor. 

Gear & Armour

Ismail revealed that gear will work much the same as in Origins and Odyssey.

READ MORE: How long is Assassin’s Creed Valhalla?

Eivor’s armour will be broken into five separate pieces – we assume this will be made up of a hood/helmet, chest piece, bottoms, arm accessories and footwear.

Ismail stated that all gear will be unique and the aesthetic of your gear will chance when upgraded.

READ MORE: Create your own Mercenary in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla

In addition, players will have the option to swap out the visuals of their gear for a different aesthetic, whilst retaining the armour and abilities of the item.

Hair & Beard

One disappointment of the last two Assassin’s Creed games was the lack of physical customisation, rather than just your gear loadout.

READ MORE: Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Characters: Protagonist, Female lead & more

Well, Ismail has revealed that there will be a vast selection of hair and beard styles to choose from when customising Eivor.

Furthermore, players will even be able to customise the colour of Eivor’s hair.

Tattoos & War Paint

Much the same as Eivor’s hair, gamers will also be able to choose from a huge array of tattoos and war paints for their character.

Evidently, you’ll be able to make your Eivor truly unique, adding even more immersion to the game.

Changing Gender

A post on AccesstheAnimus gave us a glimpse of how changing Eivor’s gender at any point in the game can be achieved.

The player moves onto a DNA STREAM selection, where they can switch between male or female Eivor.

Now there is a ton of lore behind the Animus and Assassin’s Creed as a whole, so rest assured this all appears to tie in well and resolve any potential plot holes that could work against the bigger picture.

Game length

Judging on the other games increasing length, Assassin’s Creed Valahalla could clock in at over 70+ hours – and that’s just a prediction for the main story.

With Odyssey taking over 70 hours to complete, with a staggering 50 hours more for a completionist run – it looks like we’re set for a very immersive experience yet again.

Co-op

The cooperative style gameplay from Assassin’s Creed: Unity is expected to return, with a ‘drop-in / drop-out’ multiplayer system to give more flexibility when trying to play with friends.

Cross-platform

Although, there has been no information given regarding cross-platform, cross-gen has been rumoured – this means people playing on PS4 can play with people on PS5 and vice versa.

By the time the game releases later this year, cross-platform could be a feature seen in multiple AAA titles, so watch this space.

READ MORE: Ubisoft Forward – Everything we learnt about Assassin’s Creed Valhalla

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