Ubisoft has confirmed that Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will feature new narrative elements for the game’s Animus. One of these elements will allow the player to switch the main character’s gender at will, and another will enable the player to bring the modern-day protagonist of AC Layla into the game’s historical world.
According to the developers, these new narrative elements that were added to Animus will provide lore justifications. This will introduce players to new gameplay possibilities.
Ubisoft showed a hands-on demonstration of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, which featured the ability to swap Eivor’s gender from a menu. According to Ubisoft, the new feature will ensure that both male and female versions of Eivor will be considered canon.
This gender-switch feature will be backed up by new lore that upgrades the abilities of the Animus. Animus is the machine that allows the characters in the game to explore the memories of their ancestors.
As explained by Ubisoft, the player can get into the Animus layer of the game. The gender-switch feature gives leverage to the game’s overlooked science fiction nature.
In Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, the player scans the DNA found in Leonidas’ spear in Animus. The machine finds two potential matches in the siblings Alexios and Kassandra, which gives the player a character choice. The same situation may be introduced in Valhalla.
Another new ability Animus has to offer will allow the player to bring Layla into the simulation itself. This will let the player control Layla in the Anglo-Saxon open world of Valhalla. According to the developers, this innovation is designed to solve a problem present in the previous Assassin’s Creed games. To explain it further, Valhalla will enable Layla to explore the open world without the hard stop.
AC Valhalla is set to be released on November 17, 2020, for PS4, Xbox One, gaming PC, and Stadia.