Assassin’s Creed games getting extensively leaked before they’re officially unveiled is a time-honoured tradition in our industry, and that tradition has bee upheld gloriously with the upcoming Assassin’s Creed title later this year, reportedly titled Ragnarok.
Following speculation in April last year, it was confirmed by Kotaku’s Jason Schreier shortly afterward that the next Assassin’s Creed game was going to feature a Vikings setting, which, unsurprisingly, has been followed in subsequent months by even more leaks.
Now, another massive leak has gone up on 4chan (via Reddit), detailing various pieces of information on the game. Given that this is an unverified leak, and one that emerged on 4chan no less (a site with a dubious track record, as far as leaks are concerned), it’s best to take this with a grain of salt for now- but it’s still worth reading through, given how interesting it is, if nothing else.
As per the leak, Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok is going to be unveiled at the long-rumoured PS5 reveal event next month (side note: many are speculating the long-teased Batman: Arkham Legacy will also be unveiled there), and will launch on September 29 this year. Players play as a character named Jora (whose gender you can choose), who used to lead a small band of 4 during their adventures.
This, in fact, is the conceit that also allows the game to have drop-in/drop-out 4 player co-op support, similar to Ghost Recon Wildlands. The game begins in the year 845 CE, which is when the prologue takes place. After the prologue, there is a time jump to the year 863 CE, where we take control of a teenage Jora. As far as how this ties into the whole Assassins vs Templars conceit is concerned, the leak doesn’t say much- but it does mention that the Assassins is believed to have a connection to Odin, and hence they adopt ravens for “Odin sight”- similar to the eagles in Origins and Odyssey (and Eagle Vision throughout the entire series, for that matter).
The game is also allegedly going to be a cross-gen title, which is in line with another leak from May of last year.
In fact, a lot of the information in this leak – on RPG mechanics, stealth, the world, and more – is in line with that May 2019 leak. As far as the RPG mechanics are concerned, the leak suggests Ragnarok will continue to take the franchise even deeper into RPG territory, just as Origins and Odyssey did.
For instance, as per this leak, there are now multiple character classes to choose from, and which class you select will bring about “mild” changes to skill trees- though it seems changing classes will also be possible. In fact, progression as a whole has allegedly been overhauled, and is now much more similar to the system we saw in Skyrim, with there being multiple skillsets that can be levelled up to allow players more control over build creation and variety. Some skills can be unlocked by levelling up skillsets, some by using skill points, and others through story progression. This overhaul also means that level-gating of missions and regions in the map has been done away with.
Combat has also seen improvements, the leak suggests, with more weapon types added, and each type having special abilities. Meanwhile, players can also add runes to weapons for elemental abilities like frost, fire, or lightning damage, while weapons can be upgraded as well. That elemental damage, in fact, also replaces adrenaline with something called a berserker mode. Meanwhile, the leak also claims that a durability mechanic has been introduced in order to encourage players to manage and use their weapons pool more effectively- durability of weapons can also be upgraded. The game is also supposed to be more difficult, and this challenge is based not on enemies having more health, but on “parry times, player health, and enemy reaction times.”
Stealth, it seems, is also getting a boost in Ragnarok, if this leak is to be believed. The hidden blade returns, which fans will be ecstatic about, and it can be upgraded to allow players to stealth kill enemies with one hit. The hidden blade can also be cosmetically customized.
A lot of emphasis is also seemingly being placed on physical stealth skills. For instance, in addition to crouching in tall bushes and hiding in bales of hay (typical), it seems players can now also hide in mud and snow. Meanwhile, it is also possible to hide in crowds of civilians, though how effectively you do that will depend on what outfit you are wearing, and whether or not that allows you to blend in.
Your outfits also play into a reputation system, which is a new feature that the leak claims is being added in with Ragnarok. Your reputation with various kingdoms will be decided by several factors, including things such as mission completion for civilians or town officials, your outfits, any crimes you’ve committed, and more. Some missions, in fact, can only be done if you have a certain reputation level with the relevant kingdoms.
The leak also goes on to mention that the conquest battles of Odyssey will be making a return. These revolve around players retaking territories from Templars, while these battles can also supposedly be tackled in various ways. Capturing settlements throughout the game’s map also comes with gains in trade and currency. Players can, meanwhile, also organize raids on forts and cities, and you can do so either solo, or with nearby friendly Viking camps- or perhaps even wait on the sidelines for said Vikings to do all your work for you.
Interestingly enough, as per this leak, it won’t just be the player who will be engaging in large-scale battles in the game. Supposedly, kingdoms in conflict with each other can dynamically enter battles with each other, and players might chance upon these randomly occurring battles out in the open world.
And it seems there’s going to be a lot of kingdoms- the leak claims the map in Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok is huge. It allegedly covers all of Northern Europe, and includes several major cities like York, Kiev, London, Paris, and more. Meanwhile, Ubisoft has also made the effort to ensure that every individual kingdom feels unique.
Where traversal is concerned, naval traversal is going to return, to no one’s surprise, but it seems it will be much more focused on exploration than it will be on combat. Meanwhile, parkour has also supposedly seen improvements, with newer animations, and the ability for players to climb trees.
Again, given the nature of any such leaks, and given the source where this one in particular originates, it’s best to not take this as confirmation just yet. That said, it’s also worth noting that over on ResetEra, the aforementioned Jason Schreier seems to believe that there might be some truth to this leak. Schreier said plenty of details in the leak are in line with what he’s heard about the game himself, before also adding that it “seems like a realistic leak as opposed to someone’s fantasy list of bullet points.”
If this is indeed true, we won’t have to wait long to get our first look at Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok. Stay tuned, and we’ll keep you updated on any and all new info that comes our way.
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