Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Release Date, New Details, Gameplay Preview

Last Updated: July 15, 2020

The Ubisoft Forward live stream over the weekend not only included a new gameplay overview trailer for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, but also its release date and an extended gameplay preview after the main showcase. Many more details have been released since then, so let’s late a look at everything that was revealed.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Release Date

Asssassin’s Creed Valhalla will be out on November 17 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Google Stadia. Its PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X release date has not been confirmed, but if you own it on PS4 or Xbox One, you’ll be able to upgrade it to the respective next-gen console for free.

Story and Gameplay Details

The Assassin’s Creed Valhalla protagonist is a Viking warrior named Eivor, who can be either male or female. It features RPG mechanics and choices, dual wielding weapons, and an open world to explore that covers both Norway and England. You’ll be leading raids and recruiting new clan members to your settlement, and there will also be an online component that lets you create a Viking raider friends online can use in their raids.

In an extended preview from Ubisoft, we learn a bit more about what the basic gameplay loop for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will be like and see some of the previously-mentioned activities. During a raid on the village of King’s Bury, Eivor finds a Book of Knowledge and learns a new ability called Dive of the Valkyries, which helps the raiders reclaim the village for the Vikings. Next they attack Burgh Castle and show off more of the game’s combat as they fight their way through enemy territory. At the end, they have a choice to make – whether to spare their enemy or not.

The next section of the gameplay preview focuses on exploration as they discover many things in the game’s world: a cat that can be recruited, a “Flyting” insult battle, tattoo drawings to collect to give Eivor new tattoos, and a grim side quest with environmental puzzles that they stumbled across in their travels. Once they return to the story, we get to see the ramifications of the choice they made earlier and another battle to wrap things up. All of this can be seen in the 30-minute Assassin’s Creed Valhalla gameplay demo walkthrough posted by Ubisoft.

It appears as though the natural way they encountered the side quest in that preview is how side quests will be handled in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. That is, you won’t gather up quests from NPCs and then head out to solve them, but instead will come across them as you play and explore. More details about the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla side quests should be revealed as we get closer to the release date.

Assassins and Templars?

While there is a lot of excitement for Valhalla, there is also some consternation from fans who see the series straying further and further away from its traditional story and themes. After all, a Viking warrior isn’t exactly what comes to mind when you hear “assassin.” In fact, the Assassin Brotherhood and Templar Order haven’t even been established yet, although the series’ timeline established as of Assassin’s Creed Origins and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey allows for their predecessors to appear instead: the Hidden Ones and the Order of the Ancients.

According to an interview with Game Informer from April, Eivor’s goals will align with the goals of the Proto-Assassins met in the game, although further details have yet to be revealed.

Meanwhile, the modern-day storyline will continue as well. Another extensive demo preview, this time from the PlayStation Blog, mentions encountering Animus Anomalies. These glitches in the system will switch you to controlling Layla in the present day to continue that storyline as well.

Conclusion

We have a much better idea now of what to expect from the latest entry in the long-running Assassin’s Creed series when Assassin’s Creed Valhalla launches on November 17.