Ubisoft Is Changing Progression In Assassin's Creed Valhalla

Ubisoft partnered with Bosslogic to spend hours in their livestream to confirm the game’s Viking setting and revealing that Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is the next entry in the franchise. This will be the third game with the new Assassin’s Creed formula with changes based on what they’ve learned in the past. But what will change? Well, for one, character progression this time around will be different.

Changes in grinding and progression

The Assassin’s Creed formula was altered in Origins and Odyssey with the inclusion of RPG elements such as equipment and leveling up your character, plus a more action RPG-oriented combat system complete with skills and auto-lock.

While the combat system will remain similar to the previous two games, the developers aim to lessen the grinding players will experience in order to do certain content in the game. This resulted in a new concept on character progression that will be applied in Valhalla, pretty much replacing the traditional leveling system. The creative director for Valhalla, Ashraf Ismail, talked to Kotaku and explained that they have implemented “the concept of power, power that is gained through, let’s say, the player gaining skills.”. They want to avoid “progression walls” to allow players to pretty much do whatever content they wish.

So no more recommended levels for certain areas in the game map, the subtle indicator of what you can’t and cannot do based on your level. They are giving players more freedom.

In another talk by Game Informer, Ismail said “As part of our fresh take on the RPG elements and progression, I would say it’s less about levels and it’s more about the sense of power, Based on the skill you have, you gain power. That’s how we look at that mechanism in the world; it’s really about your capacities and what you can do.”

Progression with this new numeric Power value will be based on what you’ve obtained and how far-long you are in the game’s skill tree instead of how many experience you’ve accumilated in your journey.

They didn’t go into finer details past this but it sounds like the overall goal is to lessen the time players will need to spend in order to reach certain content in the game, an issue more prevalent in Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey than Assassin’s Creed Origins.

Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla will be released in the Holiday of 2020, on PS5, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC.

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