'Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok' may bring back a mechanic from the best AC game
Could players once again take to the seas?
Ubisoft has already had a rocky start to 2020. After the company admitted both the The Division 2 and Ghost Recon Breakpoint had flopped and delayed a trio of games it had planned to launch early this year, now its rumored Viking-themed Assassin’s Creed has seemingly leaked across the internet.
The unconfirmed, widely-reported Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok allegedly leaked via a listing on Amazon in Germany January 8, which stated the game would ship with a “Valhalla” special edition. That was followed by a leaked laundry list of game details from sketchy online forum 4chan allegedly revealed that it would be cross-gen, release on September 29, support co-op play, and will have the biggest open-world map in the game’s history.
Update (1/13): DualShockers reports that French YouTuber j0nathan claimed responsibility for faking the Amazon screenshots soon after sharing them.
Games industry analyst Daniel Ahmad also debunked these rumors in a ResetERA thread, saying, “For what it’s worth. All of the new AC leaks so far have been incorrect. It’s not even called Ragnarok. Some of the details are right. Like improved combat or whatever. But in general they’re not that accurate.”
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Ubisoft can’t seem to catch a break, and it’s hard not to think that the company is riding the coattails God of War’s success by exploring Norse mythology. But a large-scale viking adventure game could reuse and refine thefeature that made Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag (2013) one of the series’ best installments: customizable ships and dynamic sea combat.
Alleged 'Assassin's Creed Ragnarok' leak on Amazon.
The 4chan leak claimed Ragnarok’s map would include “all” of Northern Europe, featuring York, London, Paris, and Kiev as its big cities. These areas are connected by the North and Baltic Seas, the perfect place to set sail on viking warships.
Player-organized “large scale raids” of strongholds and cities, which could start as epic naval battles to reach a fort’s shores and turn into brutal melee showdowns. The potential co-op feature could allow friends to work together to topple whole civilizations from the sea and ground.
To be clear: there’s nothing in the alleged leaks that directly mentions naval warfare in Ragnarok. But sailing was such a pivotal part of Viking culture that it would be a massive oversight if it wasn’t part of the title. Plus, a previous 4chan leak also claimed that Ubisoft would bring back some of the creative minds that developed Black Flag.
The leak claims Black Flag creative director Ashraf Ismail and narrative director Darby McDevvit will head the development of Ragnarok. This 2019 post is pretty much directly in line with the latest Assassin’s Creed 4chan rumor. It discusses a colossal map including the British Isles and Scandinavia as well as large-scale battles.
Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok remains unconfirmed by Ubisoft, but back in April Kotaku learned the company was working on a 2020’s Assassin’s Creed title, code-named “Kingdom.” Another installment of the series seems imminent, but will it try to recreate the seafaring magic of Black Flag? We’ll need to wait for an official announcement to know for sure.
Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok is reportedly under development and could release as early as September 2020.
