A couple of weeks ago, it was reported that the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will be smaller in scope than its predecessor, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. However, newer reports coming out of GamesRadar indicate that Valhalla‘s map size will be larger than Odyssey.
A bigger world?
In an interview with YouTuber Julien Chièze (translated by Reddit user u/vesat), Ubisoft producer Julien Laferriè seemed to confirm that Valhalla will be a bigger game.
“I would actually say in terms of range it is probably a bit larger than Assassin’s Creed Odyssey,” said Laferriè. “I do not have the exact figures at this stage, but we have not only created the whole country, which is, in this case, England, but also a good part of Norway too. There are other secret worlds, which I can not speak about today, which contributed to the size of the game. It’s not a small game, it is a game which is clearly ambitious, which will offer many many hours of gameplay for the players.”
Series bloat
Previously, it had been reported that Valhalla would be smaller than Odyssey. One factor for this seemed to be the amount of bloat that had crept into the series. After all, Odyssey had well over 60 hours of content in addition to two sizeable DLCs. At some point, it became a chore to go from sidequest to sidequest. Apparently, many players held those concerns, as Ubisoft Middle East Head of communication stated (in a since-deleted tweet) that “it won’t be the longest or biggest game in the series… [t]hey addressed criticism on this one.”
The hiccup in communication doesn’t quite clarify everything. Ideally, Valhalla will have an expansive map filled with meaningful activities. Ubisoft would benefit from dropping the tedious sidequests meant to eat up your time. Hopefully, battles, base building, and old-school assassinations will keep us occupied in Valhalla‘s rendition of Viking-age England.
You can pre-order Assassin’s Creed Valhalla on the Ubisoft Store or the Epic Games Store. It will release in Q4 2020.
