Leaks and Assassin’s Creed go hand in hand, and the next instalment in the series, reportedly due out next year, has been part of a few. Not too long ago, an easter egg spotted in Ubisoft’s The Division 2 hinted at Vikings setting for the next Assassin’s Creed game, while follow up reports confirmed that that was indeed going to be the case, and the game, currently in development under the codename Kingdom, would indeed be coming in 2020.
Now, a new leak surfacing on 4Chan (via ResetEra) has revealed more new details on the game. Considering the source, the leak is best taken with a grain of salt – 4Chan leaks haven’t always been the most reliable – but a lot of the information here is coinciding with what we’ve heard before, while the leak is also accompanied by screenshots of the game grabbed off a screen, so there might be something to them. You can view the screens in the gallery below.
Now onto the details- the game, codenamed Kingdom, is actually going to be called Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok. You will be playing as an ally of the legendary Viking warrior and conqueror Ragnar Lodbrok (who fans of the television series Vikings will be very familiar with), and will aid the Scandinavian king in the formation of the Great Heathen Army.
The protagonist will eventually become an Assassin, and will be making use of the hidden blade as well. That said, the leak claims that the game’s story is going to focus on the First Civilization much less than what we’ve seen in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey– though there will still be some supernatural elements. For instance, players will at one point find an ancient hidden vault, wherein they’ll find Mjolnir, the hammer of Thor.
The map in the game, it seems, is going to be a fairly substantial one, and will be split into several different kingdoms. These kingdoms will be the entirety of Great Britain, Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Denmark. These kingdoms will further be split into various regions, with each region possibly having settlements within. Settlements, in turn, are customizable, and will have in-game economies for you to manage.
It also seems like the large scale conquest battles seen in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey will be making a return. Naval traversal and exploration will be making a return once again, though it seems that specific part of the gameplay is going to be much less emphasized than what we saw in Odyssey, with much of the focus being more on exploration this time.
That focus on exploration, in fact, is looking to encourage much more organic exploration, and will be removing question marks from the map, encouraging players to explore their surroundings to find better loot (comparisons have been drawn to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild). The eagle from Assassin’s Creed Origins and Odyssey will be returning, while RPG mechanics seen in both games will also be making a comeback, with a greater focus on builds and armour usage than before.
Players can also change their outfits on the fly, which will have an impact on your notoriety in specific regions. Changing outfits can, for instance, also stop sheriffs in different regions and kingdoms from being able to find you. Notably enough, it also looks like co-op gameplay – last seen in Assassin’s Creed Unity – will be returning as an option, and can be use in most of the side quests that will be available, as well as during open world exploration.
The game is reportedly being developed by Ubisoft Montreal, the same team that worked previously on the likes of Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag and Assassin’s Creed Origins. Ashraf Ismail, who was director of both those games, is said to be returning in the same role. Meanwhile, Darby McDevit, who wrote Black Flag and Revelations, among others, is acting as Narrative Director. Ubisoft Sofia is also aiding with development, but are reportedly also working on an expansion in the game that will be set in Iceland, and will see players using Yggdrasil to travel across the nine realms.
Most interesting of all is the claim that Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok is going to be a cross-gen title, and will be launching next year- which is in line with reports of the series skipping 2019, as well as reports of next gen consoles making landfall later on in 2020.
Again, there’s no way to verify the veracity of this leak, but the information mostly seems in line with everything that we’ve heard of the game below, while the screens (see below) also do lend at least some credence to the whole affair. Even so, it’s best to not take this as confirmation just yet- even though Ubisoft do seem to have a terrible history with leaks, especially those concerning Assassin’s Creed games.
Either way, stay tuned to GamingBolt, and we’ll keep you updated with any new info that comes our way.