The saga of Assassin's Creed, ever since it was built in 2007, it has always aroused great interest from many. The game, in fact, born from a “rib” of Prince of Persia, over the years has been able to take a good slice of the market all over the world, so much so as to retire the beloved prince. Although in these thirteen years the IP has made significant progress, both on a historical and technical level, many of the imperfections that have always surrounded the various chapters, unfortunately, have made us lose the hype that it has been able to generate since the first chapter.
To date we have 11 main titles and numerous spin-offs who have been able to accompany us every year along numerous eras of our planet. Precisely this spasmodic search to constantly and cyclically produce titles as has now been very fashionable for several years, was the main weakness of a franchise that, on balance, always manages to move a large number of masses. Ubisoft however he seems to have understood, and for the second time (the first happened between AC Syndicate e AC Origins) took an extra year to try to make a title worthy of the name it bears. But what do we know about this mysterious new chapter coming out in 2020? In reality we know a lot of information, although nothing has been made official, but the various speculations, settings and historical periods that circulate on the net, as well as old rumors of past years, all lead back to a single precise point.
Period and Setting
The new Assassin's Creed, to begin with, should be called Assassin's Creed Ragnarok or even Assassin's Creed Kingdom. To suggest the first name, in addition to the various rumors, was the inclusion of the game in the online lists of sites such as GameStop e Amazon. From the name it is easy to understand how the setting of the new chapter of the series, this time, turns out to be the age of Vikings. The protagonist, who can be both a man and a woman - and in both cases he should be called Jora -, at the beginning of the adventure he will not be a real killer but he will become one over time. Just time will allow Jora to become what in all respects will turn out to be the ally of Ragnar Lodbrok to help him in the formation of the Great Heathen Army (the Great Danish Army).
The historical period, therefore, can be placed towards the second half of the 800th century, more precisely it is said that the adventure will begin in the year 845 AD, during the first siege of Paris by the Vikings, and then move to about twenty years after where we will impersonate the protagonist of the title. There will obviously be mythological figures and historical characters such as Odin, Loki, Alfred the King of Wessex, Rollone the first ruler of Normandy and Charles the Fat the emperor of the Carolingian Empire. The map would include the entire Scandinavian peninsula and that of Great Britain as well as much of northern Europe such as Paris, York and Kiev. There are also some kingdoms that can be visited such as that of Asgard e Jottuneim inherent to the Norse myth. Within them, the kingdoms will be divided into various regions that may contain numerous settlements with varying degrees of customization.
Game mechanics
Among the various and new game mechanics there are also some welcome returns such as the hidden blade, but that's not all. Indeed, it seems that the brotherhood system, first entered in Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, will return along with the ability to recruit new allies. Naval combat will also remain in this new production albeit in less quantity than in Black Flag o Odyssey. Furthermore, exploration will have a considerable importance on its side. This new episode will in fact focus more on it, even removing the question marks on the map to allow you to move far and wide and freely explore the various game locations. The drop-in / drop-out system will also find space in the new title similar to what already seen in Ghost Recon: Wildlands which will allow, during the game session, to modulate the adventure from one up to a maximum of four players in cooperative.
Taking advantage of the historical context, Ubisoft appears to have implemented the use of runes within the new weapons, which will be able to grant special powers and abilities as well as improve their strength and sturdiness. There will also be new RPG mechanics that have never before been implemented in the saga. A new class system and a skill tree that changes and mutates according to the choices made during the arc of the adventure further risk the final experience of this product. Finally, the adrenaline bar has been replaced by the mode Berserker which would activate the mystical powers of the rune based on elements such as thunder, ice and fire. The game difficulty has also been revised, no longer based solely on the energy of the enemies but also on the reaction times and on the health of the player himself. Furthermore, the armor can be changed on the fly in such a way as to speed up or slow down the notoriety accumulated in the different kingdoms.
Presentation, exit and first impressions
Still remaining in the field of rumors, the new Assassin's Creed could be presented during the rumored event PlayStation of February, an opportunity that could be used to give birth to the new one PlayStation 5. Developed by Ubisoft Montreal together with Ubisoft Sofia, the project will certainly be released by the end of this year on current generation consoles, but a possible future release on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, or in conjunction with PS4, Xbox One, PC and Google Stadia is not entirely to be excluded. This new chapter of Assassin's Creed seems to promise a lot of new things mixed with other less recent but certainly of great effect. A chapter set in Norse mythology will surely be appreciated by the majority of the public if exploited in the best way. Furthermore, the possible landing on the next-gen would guarantee a good step forward compared to the last two titles (although castrated by the possibility of going out in cross-gen) which have paved the way towards new routes, deviating a lot from those that were the original canons. of the series, trying to beat roads more focused on role-playing components rather than in the past. In conclusion, we leave you in the gallery below what to date turn out to be the first images extrapolated from the game although they present a visual and technical quality definitely not in line with the final product.
