Assassin's Creed: Valhalla Is Headed To This Fan Favorite Location
A new trailer detailing post launch content for the upcoming Assassin's Creed: Valhalla revealed that the Viking adventure will expand its scope to new locations after its release. Specifically, gamers will get a chance to venture beyond ninth century England to Ireland in the first significant expansion and then to Paris, France in the second.
The official Assassin's Creed Twitter account announced that Valhalla had gone gold on Oct. 16, meaning that the team had finished the base game and was ready to ship almost a month ahead of the Nov. 10 release date. In Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, players step into the boots of Eivor, a customizable protagonist who can be either male or female, and lead a Viking clan out of Norway to build a new home in England. While some of these customization choices have resulted in an uproar from certain Assassin's Creed fans, they should give players a lot of flexibility in their approach to the game.
The new trailer is the first concrete explanation of what sort of content upgrades gamers can expect after Assassin's Creed: Valahalla's launch and is especially relevant to those who pre-ordered the title. One of the critical features of the Gold Edition, Ultimate Edition, and Collector's Edition is access to the Season Pass, but up until now, fans had no real clue as to what that might include.
Like most of the Assassin's Creed games, the story is grounded in history but also explores elements of culturally relevant mythology. This leads to the first major reveal of the new trailer, an expansion called Wrath of the Druids. This DLC is the centerpiece of the Spring 2021 Season 2 content for Assassin's Creed: Valhalla and takes Eivor into Ireland to investigate an ancient Druid cult.
In Wrath of the Druids, Eivor will hunt down members of this Druid organization. While pursuing this goal, players will have a chance to conquer an ancient ring fort structure in addition to exploring and trading in a ninth century Dublin. Ubisoft's Jose Araiza explained in the trailer that the expansion focuses on Celtic themes and adds a darker sense of mystery to the game.
Araiza then detailed the next major expansion, The Siege of Paris, expected to arrive with Assassin's Creed: Valhalla's Season 3 in Summer 2021. The expansion will return the franchise to Ubisoft's home city, Paris, for the first time since the controversial Assassin's Creed: Unity.
The Siege of Paris focuses more on the setting's historical element, and players can expect to encounter real historical figures as they fight across a war-torn France, including Charles the 2nd, known as Charles the Fat in the expansion. Players will battle Charles' elite units outside of Paris and during the siege itself, form alliances and attempt to infiltrate the city to conquer it from within.
While the new locations and missions included in Wrath of the Druids and The Siege of Paris will only be available for Season Pass holders, the developers also detailed the seasonal content available for all players. Each of the first three seasons after launch, roughly planned for Spring, Summer, and Fall of 2021, will feature free content including skills, gear, and heartwarming new animals to meet. In addition, they will all revolve around traditional Viking festivals.
The first of the free seasonal content releases is the Yule Festival, which occurs in the Ivor settlement. It will start in late 2020, according to level design director Bruno St-Andre. The main content upgrades that will accompany the Yule Festival are new game modes, including a river raid where players can hire a Jomsviking crew from their online friends.
In addition to the planned seasonal DLC, season pass holders will get a free bonus mission right off the bat: The Legend of Beowulf. Gamers received a heads up on this content when the German Ubisoft Store accidentally revealed it back in May. While the trailer only teased what's in store, it did confirm that it will be available at launch.
The trailer closed with the announcement of the return of the Discovery Tour for Assassin's Creed: Valhalla. Ubisoft has offered standalone Discovery Tour content for both Assassin's Creed: Origins and Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, in which players have the chance to learn about history by exploring the environment freely or on guided tours. While the trailer didn't reveal specifics about what fans could expect in Assassin's Creed: Valhalla's Discovery Tour, Arazia did confirm the mode and promised more details to come.
The Assassin's Creed DLC season pass programs have offered a lot of highly praised content in the past, and Valhalla's is shaping up to keep the gamers interested throughout 2021.