Although most gamers subscribe to the theory that an open-world game should be judged by the quality of its content and not necessarily its breadth, there are still those who want to see developers push their limits. And so, there were some who were disappointed when it was suggested that Assassin’s Creed Valhalla would be shorter and smaller in scope than Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.
However, a follow-up interview with Assassin’s Creed Valhalla producer Julien Laferriere has revealed some promising news for AC fans. According to Laferriere, the map in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will be slightly larger than Odyssey’s map.
A slight uptick from Odyssey might not seem like much but considering how large the map was in the previous Assassin’s Creed game it suggests an expansive adventure. Laferriere explains to Jeux Video that the development team plotted out a map that encompasses all of England and some of Norway, which could be massive depending on how realistic Ubisoft wanted to go.
Additionally, there are apparently “secret worlds” in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla that do not connect to the map but add to the game’s size. Without knowing what exactly the AC producer means by these secret worlds, one can only assume they will be similar to the World War 1 sections in Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. During these time jumps, the player could only explore a small area of London during WWI, but the playable space was still surprisingly large.
Perhaps old news for some, but according to Julien Laferrière, the map of Valhalla is "probably a bit bigger" than Odyssey from ACValhalla
It’s possible that when main character Eivor takes on Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s version of the mythical beasts he is transported to one of these secret worlds. And once the player is done with the mission or boss battle they return to the main map without any way of revisiting.
Over the next few months, gamers are likely to hear different messages about the length and tone of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. At first fans heard the game was shorter than Odyssey because Ubisoft wanted to give players a more focused experience if they wanted. Then there were claims that the “short” length only applied to the mainline quest.
Now talk of the map suggests that even if the game is shorter in terms of hours, the map itself will be larger. And a big map usually has a lot of side quests for players to complete and that’s the type of content that AC fans are looking for.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla releases later this year for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
Source: Julien Chièze (Translation)