Ubisoft announced that Assassin’s Creed Crossover Stories featuring Eivor and Kassandra are available now.

Both stories are available for free for owners of the respective base games. One story features Eivor and Kassandra available in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. The other features Kassandra or Alexios available in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.

Assassin’s Creed Crossover Stories is the first cross-game project on the franchise. The content aims at answering the question “What happens when two Assassin’s Creed heroes meet?”. This allows fans to explore the ties between the heroes of the two games. It also features new environments to explore as well as a rich storyline.

Check out the Dev Diary here for more info:

For the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla crossover story, A Fated Encounter, players must have reached Settlement Level 4 and completed the quest “A Wise Friend,” where Eivor helps Valka establish herself in Ravensthorpe.

For the Assassin’s Creed Odyssey crossover story, Those Who Are Treasured, players will need to have completed Chapter 1 and reached Megaris to access the content, but it’s recommended that players finish the main game’s three story arcs (Family, Cult of Kosmos and Mythology) to avoid spoilers.

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Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s first Season named “Yule Season” is available.

It will last for three months with exclusive narrative content and in-game events accessible to all players for free.

Seasons are coming to Assassin’s Creed Valhalla to extend the post-launch experience throughout 2021, delivering a variety of new free content for all players focused on gameplay and world evolution, with updates coming in at different points during the Season.

The first Seasonal content of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, the Yule Season, invites players to discover the Yule Festival, an in-game event active until January 7 in a dedicated area of the settlement.

During the Yuletide celebration, players can join in the festivities with a new Drinking game, an Archery mini-game, a Fist Fight tournament, and two new character quests available in the settlement.

In addition, players can earn exclusive rewards including a new gear set, settlement decorations, and more.

To experience the Yule Festival, players must reach England and complete one of the first narrative arcs, either Grantebridgescire or Ledecestrescire. The festival will then be triggered automatically when players visit the settlement.

The real-life Ravensthorpe (population 498*) is also celebrating the in-game Season 1 launch, with the Lord of the Manor, Charlie Reeve, declaring a week-long Valhalliday.

From now until December 24, the local Chequers Pub & Village Shop, the village hub, will offer an Assassin’s Creed Valhalla-themed takeway menu to patrons.

Finally, a donation of $5,000 from Ubisoft will go towards supporting Ravensthorpe’s playground project, as well as other community projects.

A second update will add more content for the Yule Season in February:

• River Raids: a new game mode building on the core raiding mechanic will be introduced, delivering a dynamic, challenging, and highly replayable raid experience. As the River Raids rely heavily on the Jomsviking recruits, players can hire Jomsviking from their friends online to take on an entire crew. The River Raids game mode features raids with higher stakes and different difficulty levels. 
• Ranks for Jomsviking: In the Yule Season, an update to the Jomsviking feature will allow players’ Jomsviking to earn XP and rank up – the higher the rank, the more silver players can earn when their Jomsviking are recruited by other players
• Additional new abilities and rewards

Make sure you check out our review for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla!

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There’s always been an issue with finding Vikings and Norse mythology cool; at least, ever since a few bad eggs went and ruined it for everyone. Symbols corrupted, myths manipulated, and even now Gods are consistently reduced to one dimensional caricatures or pop culture himbos.

Assassin’s Creed is the best series to deal with this subject matter without veering into dodgy territory. And, luckily, it’s come out well; we have a Norse Assassin’s Creed game.

Valhallelujah, Eivor is boss

Our protagonist Eivor is a freakin’ legend. She fights well, fucks better, and is an oddly temperate voice in an otherwise bloodthirsty world. Not that she’s a pushover; again, she can be an absolute beast when she wants to.

Storywise, AC has Yggdrastill got it. Family murdered in front of you, quest for vengeance resolved fast but leads into wider conspiracy, meeting some cool history friends along the way; it’s ll par for the course, but if it ain’t brokedon’t fix it right?

This time, we don’t have a Piece of Eden in our back pocket, so Eivor is a much more grounded protagonist. Unfortunately, she’s also not as interesting as Odyssey’s Kassandra. That’s a high bar, granted, and in terms of AC Eivor is definitely more interesting than Altair or Bayek. Just that the Greeks are a hard act to follow, ya know?

As a side note, the mini story inserted via partaking in some recreational herbs is also pretty damn entertaining. Incongrous and ridiculous, yes, but still fun. Seems Ubisoft has taken the more outlandish elemnts from older games to heart, and that’s always nice.

Fighting like a Viking

In contract, combat doesn’t feel quite so fantastic this time around. Eivor is, for all intents and purposes, just a human, and as a result the rough and tumble is a lot more, well, rough. Even the fastest weapons feel sluggish, while the enemy timing windows for parry and dodge are razor sharp. Admittedly I was fiddling around in the difficulty settings (which allow fine tuning of various aspects of difficulty independently), so mileage may indeed vary.

The pacing also leaves something to be desired. Level scaling has been removed, for some reason, so engaging in the sidequests that litter England can make your character a little overpowered. Not enough to be gamebreaking, mind, but enough that the challenge gets dwindled a bit below what you were aiming for with those nice sliders.

Furthermore naval combat is gone, even though the game still wants you to spend a lot of time in a boat. After a while, there’s no real reason to get on the water, except to see your cat.

I got a boat cat. She is vicious and chonky. I love her.

Njord a bad looking game

But hey, onto the techy stuff. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla makes England actually look like a green and pleasant land; the water especially is pretty damn nice, seeing all the little fishies flapping their flappers in the rivers and lakes. The soundtrack is also mostly Ragnarockin’, fusing drums and chanting with church bells and some good old AC indecipherable vocals. I like it, but then again, I’ve never disliked an Assassin’s Creed soundtrack. So, ya know, hope you like cool junk like this.

As an aside, there’s a shameful joy in invading a country that spend a millenia invading others. Yeah, the Vikings weren’t exactly nice to the Irish either, but damned if it isn’t satisfying to be the one setting torch to someone rather than the other way around. 800 years, friends. And although the DLC promises I’ll get to invade my own homeland in early 2021, I’m still enjoying a bit of turnabout and fair play.

(No, obviously I’m being facetious, but c’mon let me have this).

Asgard as it gets

All in all, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is a huge, unwieldy, but very enjoyable experience. You may not like what happens (pour some out for best pupper Fenrir), but the whole package is a Helheim of a good time.

The post Assassin’s Creed Valhalla review; come take a Jormundgandr appeared first on 8-Bit Island.

The day has finally arrived.

You can explore the Norse world in this Viking epic with Assassin’s Creed Valhalla now.

Players can also embark on more adventures with the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Season Pass. Included in the Gold, Ultimate and Collector’s Editions.

• The Legend of Beowulf quest – In this exclusive quest, players will uncover the monstrous truth behind the legend of Beowulf, available on launch day.
• Expansion 1 – Wrath of the Druids (Spring 2021) – In this new adventure, players will journey to Ireland and unravel the secrets of an ancient and mysterious druidic cult, tracking and discovering their members. Diving into Gaelic myths and folklores, they’ll need to fight their way through haunted forests and dazzling landscapes while gaining influence among Gaelic kings.
• Expansion 2 – The Siege of Paris (Summer 2021) – In The Siege of Paris, players will have the chance to relive the most ambitious battle in Viking history with key historical figures of war-torn Frankia. During this key moment in history, players will infiltrate the fortified city of Paris and the River Seine under a prolonged siege, uncover enemy secrets and form strategic alliances to safeguard their clan’s future.

In addition, all players will have access to an extensive lineup of free seasonal content, including new narrative content and in-game events available after launch. Each season will last three months and will be accessible to all player types and levels of progression, focusing on gameplay, world evolution, and other exciting content. Season 1 will launch in December and includes:

• A new settlement area, allowing players to continue to grow and evolve their settlement.
• The Yule Festival, a traditional Viking festival for players to experience in their settlement.
• River Raids, a new game mode building on the game’s core raiding mechanic to deliver a dynamic, challenging and highly replayable raid experience.
• The addition of the Ranks for Jomsviking where players can not only create their lieutenant to be part of their raiding crew, but also recruit from their friends and the community. In Season 1, players will see an update to the Jomsviking feature, which will allow their Jomsviking to earn XP and rank up. The higher the rank of the lieutenant, the more silver players will earn when recruited by other players.
• Season 1 will also come with new player skills, abilities, weapons and gear, along with new cosmetic items for their settlement, longship, horse and raven.

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I far cry from the infamous Gameplay trailer from a few months ago, There is now a trailer with more information than you can shake a sword at.

Check it out:

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Ubisoft has announced Echoes of Valhalla, a podcast documentary series that is starting today.

The podcast will unveils the historical background of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.

In Echoes of Valhalla, Vikings tell their very own story to give a new voice to the warriors who have travelled and shaped the world.

It can be listened to on Spotify here:

https://open.spotify.com/show/32D0s4zdgKVDplzPf8GZBO?si=YXZV_5tSRJi5DA2yaC1MEg

A new trailer for the game has also been released:

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“There is a time for many words, and there is also a time for sleep.” And after Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, this definitely isn’t a time for sleep.

Remember the difference between AC2 and Brotherhood? This is a similar kind of jump between Origins and Odyssey; finessed, perfected, and generally just a better experience. It’s Assassin’s Creed, Jim, but not as we know it.

“The blade itself incites to deeds of violence.”

Look, this is a game about stabbing lots of people. You’re a mercenary, fighting evil for your family. Aaaand that’s the plot. OK, story out of the way, let’s talk about gameplay. Oh my friends, the combat is GOOD. Assassination isn’t a OHKO anymore, as with Origins, but the hitbox based combat feels smoother, powerful, and so very frustrating when three mercenaries decide to dogpile on you just because you stole valuable war supplies and killed their governor.

As for targets to sneakily stab, there are options. You can destabilise governments, murder the cult that will become the Templars, kill some other mercenaries (either because they’re hunting you, or just because they have some sweet gear), and just generally have a blast. My personal favourite activity is walking along the walls of Athens, assassinating all the soldiers along the way. Good way to farm loot in the early game, as well as complete a few quests. Also, it’s just immensely fun, because I got about 14 archers deep before they even tried to stop me. Not a great security system, Athens. Might wanna look into that.

Combat feels glorious, and wonderfully challenging most of the time. I’m afraid of Nightmare mode right now, but once I start my replay you can bet I’m gonna go pure Assassin’s Souls on it.

“For a friend with an understanding heart is worth no less than a brother”

OK, in fairness the story and world building is great. I like avenge plots, and I like Ubisoft’s ‘show don’t tell’ approach. Not every problem needs to be stabbed in Odyssey, much like in real life. Much like in real life as well, however, a big ol’ stab to the face does tend to work.

Disclaimer: please do not stab anyone in the face.

Choosing your protagonist is a nice touch, allowing you to play as either the beautiful Kassandra or the beautiful Alexios. Yes they’re both beautiful, and deadly. I went with Alexios, a man’s man, a ladies’ man, and an eagle’s man. Alexios and Kassandra can chat with people to find out about objectives, and even solve some events without raising sword nor spear. Admittedly, most of my attempts to calm things down ended in bloodshed anyway, but hey, we tried.

Choice has impact too, with certain actions affecting the way the game plays out. There are multiple endings in AC Odyssey, although I’ve not experienced any (more on that later), ranging from good to bad to true, with all the little bits in between. If you have the strength to replay this one, there’s plenty to discover.

Speaking of replay, I don’t know when I’ll have time for that. I’m 45 hours into this game, and have not completed it. But here’s the thing; I’ve played 45 hours without completion, and I absolutely adore every minute. Unless it somehow takes a complete nose dive, this is an excellent game.

“By hook or by crook, this peril too shall be something that we remember”

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is, simply put, magnificent. But there is a single, jaw-droppingly obvious flaw, and it is exactly what you think it is; microtransactions.

Now, let me be clear. I don’t have a huge problem with microtransactions; at least, I don’t hate them as much as some others do. I do, however, have a problem with artificially damaging a game to make the in-game purchases seem more appealing. That, sadly, has happened here.

I bought the XP and Drachmae boost within my first 6 hours of play, and my enjoyment boosted with it. The grind, while not gone, was lessened to the point of feeling reasonable. I have to conclude that execs on high decided to make the game unreasonably grindy to make these more appealing.

It worked. Keeping fun to ransom worked.

I’ve debated for the last 40 hours of gameplay whether or not I should take this into account in my final score, and I’ve decided not to. Yes, it’s shitty. Yes, it should not have been done. But the game itself is glorious, and I adore it. I can’t in good conscience mark down a damn-near masterpiece for the a single bad idea, made above the dev’s heads.

Fight me, malakas.

“Few sons are like their fathers–most are worse, few better.”

Odyssey borrows heavily from earlier games in the Assassin’s Creed series. In particular, Black Flag’s naval strength is extremely evident when piloting the Adrestia, your ship (gloriously named for the goddess of righteous revolution), and in underwater segments. And of course Origins, the born-again AC, has laid the groundwork for much of this installment.

Admittedly, I love the Hellenistic setting, and have a long history with Greek mythology. From reading Roger Lancelyn Green’s ‘Tales of the Greek Heroes’ when I was nine, to briefly studying Classics in a summer course (NEEEEEERD), to an extended period as a Hellenic Polytheist (no, really), I’m pretty familiar with the territory. To me, respect for the subject matter is key when dealing with any religious context, even if its just flavour. The original God of War trilogy, for example, royally f*cked that up. But Odyssey nails it. The Assassin’s Creed teams have always been good about treating their material with care, but from meetings with Herodotus, the Pythia at Delphi, and others, you can see they put their money where their mouth is. Fair play, Ubisoft.

You don’t have to be able to quote Homer to love this thing. I just can, and do.

“I have seen worse sights than this.”

Look. I’m a massive Assassin’s Creed fan, and a huge Greek mythology buff. I am the direct target audience of this game. That’s why there’s so many ridiculous statues in my gaming room, and why Desmond’s tribal tattoo is emblazoned down my skinny Irish arm. But if you can change a series this much, have awful microtransactions, and I still love it? That’s a game worth playing. Whether I’m sailing, hunting, warring, or assassinating, I’ve had a ball.

It’s probably hyperbole to say that ACO is the best game in the series. After all, Assassin’s Creed 2 brought it into the mainstream, Black Flag gave us a phenomenal re-invigoration, and of course Origins last year mixed things up for the better.

None of this changes how amazing Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is. Play it. Penelope can wait.

The post Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Review appeared first on 8-Bit Island.

If Assassin’s Creed Odyssey has you in front of the couch for too many hours, the great news is you will soon be able to assassinate on the go thanks to Assassin’s Creed Rebellion.

Blurb:

Developed by Behaviour Interactive, Assassin’s Creed Rebellion offers a unique Assassin’s Creed visual experience, presenting familiar faces in a new light while remaining faithful to the series. Set in Spain during the height of the Inquisition, the game gives players the chance to build their own Brotherhood by recruiting and training up to 40 Assassins. As their Assassins hone their skills and grow their resources, players will participate in epic missions by selecting three Assassins among their Brotherhood to infiltrate the Templars’ strongholds and put an end to their nefarious plans.

Assassin’s Creed Rebellion brings together a full roster of legendary characters, including Ezio, Aguilar, Shao Jun, Claudia and Machiavelli, with more than 20 new unlockable characters exclusively created for the game. A new version of the Animus in Assassin’s Creed Rebellion will allow players to revisit and merge the memories of several past time periods and therefore, for the first time, meet and play simultaneously with some of their favorite Assassins within the same game.

Players can now pre-register on Google Play or at assassinscreedrebellion.com. Players entering the pre-registration will receive a notification when the game is available. They will also receive a special in-game reward including weapons from Assassin’s Odyssey and an exclusive character.

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After checking out issue #1 of the Assassin’s Creed Origins comic series, I was excited to check out the next episode of Aya’s journey, and it did not disappoint.

The series writer Anthony Del Col has maintained his quality writing, continuing to develop our favorite Alexandrian Assassin, Aya.

Similar to the first issue, the issue starts with a few pages of Cleopatra.  She continues her brutal rule and finds herself reflecting back again on Aya.  Kicking back 16 years, we revisit Aya after the assassination of Caesar.  Because of the circumstances of his death, despite the reader and Aya being aware of why it was the right thing, the people saw the senate overthrowing the leader.  This means there is civil unrest.

Again we see Aya’s character develop as she is exposed to the ways society works, and how they perceive the actions that an Assassin may have completed.

I wont cover any more of the story, as you should enjoy it first hand, but it continues to be strong throughout, and should make for a great series when complete.

PJ Kaiowa continues to illustrate the series and it continues to be excellent.  The realistic style, really matches the tone of the series, and the games they are based on.

I can’t wait to get my eyes on issue 3 if they can keep this good thing going.

Assassin’s Creed Origins #2 is available digitally via Comixology.

Blair was provided a digital copy of Assassin’s Creed: Origins #2 for review 

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Humble Bundle has released a new comic bundle, loaded with excellent comics from Titan Comics.

With Dishonored, Tekken, Dark Souls, The Evil Within, and lots of Assassin’s Creed titles, it’s a good chance to catch up on some franchises, and help support Able Gamers.

Keen observers will note it has the newly released Assassin’s Creed Origins: #1, which we reviewed here.

The full list, in USD, is as follows.

TIER 1: Pay at least $1 to get: Assassin’s Creed #1-5; Assassin’s Creed: Templars #1-5; The Evil Within #1-4; Dishonored #1-4; Assassin’s Creed: Locus #1-4

TIER 2: Pay at least $8 to get Tier 1 content and: Assassin’s Creed #6-10; Assassin’s Creed: Templars #6-9; Assassin’s Creed: Awakening #1-6; Assassin’s Creed: Uprising #1-4; Dark Souls: The Breath of Andolus #1-4.

TIER 3: Pay at least $15 to get Tier 1 and 2 content and: Assassin’s Creed #11-14; Assassin’s Creed: Reflections #1-4; Assassin’s Creed: Origins #1; Dishonored: The Peeress and the Price #1; The Evil Within: The Interlude #1; Dark Souls: Winter’s Spite #1-4; Tekken #1-2;

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