• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Will Help Bridge The Narrative Gap Between New And Older Titles

Mista

Banned
Assassins-Creed-Valhalla.jpg


In an interview with Official PlayStation Magazine (issue 176), Narrative Director Darby McDevitt discussed how the game will connect the two narrative paths the series has found itself on. While it doesn’t seem like Valhalla will have that old school Assassins vs Templars feel exactly, he says you will see the “bridge” between The Hidden Order and The Order of the Ancients and their modern day equivalents. He says that fans will be a lot of narrative connections throughout.
It really feels like there’s not a wasted moment in this game where you just really feel like every discovery, every narrative discovery, has a kind of grand purpose. Really like [it] tickles you if you’re an Assassin’s Creed fan. Hopefully, there’s quite a number of moments where your jaw drops because you’re like ‘Oh, that’s how that connects to that. Okay, that’s cool.'
 

Life

Member
BLA BLA BLA: sneak, attack, fetch-quest, chase someone, follow someone, attack attack, climb up building, hide,hide, attack one more time, CREDITS.

Edit: When I say attack, I mean press one button.
 
Last edited:

ruvikx

Banned
They're just trying to sell their game to people who want story stuff. Tomorrow they'll be talking about combat, or rpg elements, exploration, DLC/Season Pass or whatever.

I only found one Assassin's Creed to have a remotely interesting impact on the broader plot (Templars versus Assassins) & that was Assassin's Creed Rogue. In all other games I find the Assassins boring, hypocritical & self-righteous, whilst the Templars are & always have been totally underdeveloped. Will Valhalla do anything to improve in those areas? Who cares. Just give me some good Viking combat, good gameplay & please for the love of god(s), no political bias with clunky "this historical person was bad because we in 2020 say so" propaganda (or inserting "diversity" in terms of race & sexual stuff which didn't exist at the time).
 
Last edited:

GymWolf

Member
Just nuclearize the modern day history from the orbit, no one cares anymore.
You cant even make a decent story only for the past, imagine thinking about 2 stories in the same game...
 
Last edited:

Fbh

Member
These games could be so much better if Ubisoft had the balls to drop the Assassins Creed name.

Imagine if they could just make a cool Viking Action RPG with a great standalone story and gameplay designed to be unique and make the best use of the historical setting.
But no, it needs stealth "because assassins creed" and the plot needs to be about fighting some secret organization controlling stuff from the shadows "because assassins creed" and it needs some boring modern day sequences "because assassins creed" and it needs a crappy sci fi twist "because assassins creed" and it need to give every relevant historical figure from the time a forced appearance in the story "because asssassins creed".

I loved the history + sci fi + modern day twist at first, when it still felt like it had some direction and someone had a plan of where it was all going. But at this point the larger story and lore of the franchise have become a burden for these games.
 
Last edited:
The story thread supposedly tying the AC games together is a rolling dumpster fire and confusing/convoluted mess. I guess better late than never trying to make some overarching sense of it? But I won't hold my breathe.
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Does anyone care about the modern day story? I treat each game as a standalone game. The animus stuff I just ignore.

I really wish they would just get rid of it at this point. It hasn't been compelling at all since they wrapped up Desmond's story and it really doesn't add anything to games.
 

The Shepard

Member
I always thought the modern stuff was the most interesting, until they killed someone off

The first one was great in this regard, I looked forward to going back to the modern timeline to find out more of the story. They completely dropped the ball and messed it all up when they decided to yearly release them even though I enjoyed the ezio trilogy mostly, it's when the modern storyline started to slide and feel rushed. 3 had the most anticlimax ending ever, only original mass effect 3 ending was worse.
 
Does anyone care about the modern day story? I treat each game as a standalone game. The animus stuff I just ignore.
Easily the worst stuff of the entire games. Was fun in the first game but after that, it got very boring very quickly. I just to this stuff in Odyssey and it annoyed me to no end.
 

A.Romero

Member
I still think the modern day stuff has potential. The first games handled fairly well and added to the game. Haven't finished Origins (And I haven't played in a while) but I can't remember them being too annoying. I still like Asscreed, I just don't get a lot of hype anymore and definitely don't feel tempted to pay full price. $20 is about what I'm willing to pay for an Asscreed game and don't really care about the DLC. Last game in the series I paid full price was Unity.

What I really want is to go back to the series roots. I want something similar to what Brotherhood offered. I loved chaining hidden blade kills.
 

CatLady

Selfishly plays on Xbox Purr-ies X
Does anyone care about the modern day story? I treat each game as a standalone game. The animus stuff I just ignore.

I loved it in the early games, but absolutely hate it in Origins and especially Odyssey. I really liked the original modern day team, Desmond and the mystery and intrigue of it all. Modern day was some of my favorite content in AC1 and AC Ezio and AC3.

I absolutely loathe Layla and the new story content. They need to kill off Layla and start a new and much better modern day story or kill off the modern stuff completely.
 
I loved it in the early games, but absolutely hate it in Origins and especially Odyssey. I really liked the original modern day team, Desmond and the mystery and intrigue of it all. Modern day was some of my favorite content in AC1 and AC Ezio and AC3.

I absolutely loathe Layla and the new story content. They need to kill off Layla and start a new and much better modern day story or kill off the modern stuff completely.
I started Odyssey ages ago but quit at the part where you need to pay the pirate 15,000 or whatever it is, in order to progress. I felt like it wasn't respecting my time. However, with being furloughed for the last 2 months I decided to go back to it, given I now have a surplus of time. I'm nearly 35 hours in and there hasn't been a single piece of modern day shit. I've completely forgotten all of it. :messenger_tears_of_joy:

I'm hoping it's basically all over and done with but I doubt it.
 
Last edited:

CatLady

Selfishly plays on Xbox Purr-ies X
I started Odyssey ages ago but quit at the part where you need to pay the pirate 15,000 or whatever it is, in order to progress. I felt like it wasn't respecting my time. However, with being furloughed for the last 2 months I decided to back to it, given I now have a surplus of time. I'm nearly 35 hours in and there hasn't been a single piece of modern day shit. I've completely forgotten all of it. :messenger_tears_of_joy:

I'm hoping it's basically all over and done with but I doubt it.

You're correct, there is almost none in the base game. I forgot it's actually in the Fate of Atlantis expansion. FoA was the best DLC I've ever played. It's longer and much better than most full-priced games. The only drawback was that loathsome, annoying Layla, her shitty team and her crappy story were a part of it.
 
You're correct, there is almost none in the base game. I forgot it's actually in the Fate of Atlantis expansion. FoA was the best DLC I've ever played. It's longer and much better than most full-priced games. The only drawback was that loathsome, annoying Layla, her shitty team and her crappy story were a part of it.
That's high praise indeed. Best DLC I have ever played is Blood and Wine for Witcher 3. You've tempted me now with Fate of Atlantis. The subject matter is interesting to me as it is. I estimate I probably have another 30 hours, or so, in the base game. At this rate I'll be playing Odyssey until Christmas.
 
Last edited:

NullZ3r0

Banned
There is no narrative gap. The Abstergo stuff is garbage. I thought the games were moving up the timeline only to end up in modern times. But no, its just random time periods.
 

JORMBO

Darkness no more
Odyssey was the first one I played since AC2. I just ignored all the real life stuff. The game would have been fine completely dropping it.
 

Ascend

Member
Can't say I care much for Valhalla. The last one I played was AC3. I heard black flag is good and I have it, but, haven't bothered booting it up yet.

I'll be using Valhalla is a reference of next gen graphics, and little else at this point.
 
Last edited:

nemiroff

Gold Member
Can't say I care much for Valhalla. The last one I played was AC3. I heard black flag is good and I have it, but, haven't bothered booting it up yet.

Funnily enough, playing AC in the past mostly only made me fall asleep, the games were so fucking boring.. Oddyssey(didn't play Origins), while having many of the same formulas, broke that curse for me. It's just a well crafted solid game and exploration is just plain beautiful. I never thought I'd be excited for another AC game, but after Oddyssey I'm really looking forward to it.
 

Nester99

Member
When they say “modern” I get the feel they are talking about the Templar’s in black flag, rogue, syndicate, unity etc... vs the ancient origins and odyssey.

I don’t think they mean the 20th century which we all agree is terrible.
 

iorek21

Member
I believe that ACV will be a kind of "conclusion" to the series (2007-2020), its ending will connect to Altair/Masyaf, the Modern Day story will also conclude, and the first next-gen game will have a blank slate to build new foundations to the franchise (something like GoW 3-Gow 2018 transition).

I also got a feeling that the next game will be an Altair remake/reboot.
 
Last edited:

Andodalf

Banned
When they say “modern” I get the feel they are talking about the Templar’s in black flag, rogue, syndicate, unity etc... vs the ancient origins and odyssey.

I don’t think they mean the 20th century which we all agree is terrible.

100%

It’s about hidden ones to Assassins, and the order of ancients to Templar’s. Maybe with a dash of cult of Kosmos
 
Origins had about two minutes of forced modern day bullshit. You could jump right back into the Animus whenever it took you out for """""story""""" reasons.
I have no idea what the modern story is about.

It all went downhill when they introduced the Scooby Gang in AssCreed 2 - seriously, fuck those people. Their retarded "humour" and personalities even infected the in-game wiki. It's a good thing that Origins knew to shut the fuck up and let you play in Egypt.
 

sobaka770

Banned
Modern game plot is what made these game more than just a historical excursion imo. The concept behind it is sound and very interesting. The problem is the way Ubi makes these games using teams across the world seems to take a toll on cohesive writing and execution of various elements. Ubi in general has issues with their universes as they are overwritten and lack a clear vision on protagonists, antagonists and overall plot. The whole thing is in dire need of streamlining. I mean who can actually remember what Assassin's Creed is, how it's tied to gameplay and who are the main antagonists and why?

Ubisoft is the ultimate lack-of-commitment company. I like their games but they are all muddled and in terms of story lack cohesion. And Ubi is too corporate to deal with it. They either need to make these games just period pieces or fully embrace current-time segments with expanded gamplay and protagonists we actually can care for. Instead they think that toeing this line will bring them more sales.
 
Top Bottom