A whole lot has been rumored and leaked about the upcomingAssassin’s Creed: Ragnarok, the highly anticipated next entry in the long-running franchise. Much like any other Ubisoft title, there’s been a lot of hints about what to expect from a Viking time periodAssassin’s Creedgame. So far it’s a pretty safe bet the next game will be everything Norse, but seems to be drawing some inspiration from a previous entry in many of its supposed themes.
From all the rumors and leaks thus far, many of the features and themes fromAssassin’s Creed Ragnarokmatch many of the aspects ofAssassin’s Creed 4: Black Flagfrom 2013. Both circumstantially and thematically, these rumors point to anAssassin’s Creedgame that foregoes the standard nature of the Assassins as fans know them. Much like howBlack Flagwas a rogue departure for theAssassin’s Creedseries as a whole,Ragnarokappears to be gearing up for a similar shake up to the franchise’s formula.
Less Odyssey, More Black Flag
Gameplay inRagnarokwould almost certainly involve a greater focus on ship traversal and possibly combat, a defining aspect of Viking movement and conquering. The use of their revolutionary Viking longships helped facilitate the great expansion of Scandinavian societies, as it allowed Vikings' ships to be very nimble and could invade territories with haste and ease. Viking ships were integral to their culture as well, held in high regard and religious importance to Norse mythology. Expect some scrappy ship combat tied into the raiding and pillaging of Germanic communities.
Ship combat will also likely differ greatly fromwhat was inOdyssey, for a few reasons. Culturally, Vikings believed that ranged weaponry of any kind was considered less honorable, and generally preferred grounded melee combat with a sense of pride. Along with that Viking longships weren’t nearly as big as the warships from the Peloponnesian War inOdyssey,meaning don’t expect large scale ship combat. Instead it’s more likely that ship combat will be a slightly rarer occurrence but much more tense. Assuming players enjoyed boarding enemy ships, expect more of that inRagnarok. Viking ships were incredibly flexible and nimble for their time, so it’s likely any ship combat inRagnarokwill have a lot of freedom of movement, making any naval fights faster and more hectic.
A New Generation
Whether this is a coincidence or not,Assassin’s Creed RagnarokandAssassin’s Creed 4: Black Flagboth have a very similar release timing. In the transition between the seventh and eighth generation,Black Flagreleased simultaneously on both PS4/Xbox Oneas well as PS3/Xbox 360. WithRagnarokreportedly coming out at the end of 2020, there’s a high likelihood it will release cross-generation between this fall’s newest consoles and the current generation. Whether this happened by chance or not, it’s an interesting correlation considering what the two games symbolized.
Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flagwas a great departurefrom the seriousness and impending doom feeling that the overarchingAssassin’s Creednarrative had been building up to since 2007. After the climactic events ofAssassin’s Creed 3, it was almost like a brief year-long reprieve for the franchise despiteBlack Flagbeing a mainline game and not anAssassin’s Creedspinoff. Of course the Assassins vs. Templars narrative returned in full force withAssassin’s Creed Unity, butBlack Flagwas significant in that it’s gameplay and story invoked a pervasive feeling of freedom unbridled by the tenets of the Creed.Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok, taking place in a Viking period that’s likely several years before the formation of the Templars in the first place, is likely going to have a similarly changed atmosphere.
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Templar? Never Heard of Him
Building off that,Ragnarokcould even be the gamethat strays the furthest from typicalAssassin’s Creedfanfare. The Viking age was a brutal time during which Scandinavian explorers left their homes of what’s now known as Norway, Sweden, and Denmark to expand and raid other existing Germanic communities. Vikings are characterized as brutal explorers pillaging those they believed were weak in order to strengthen their feudal societies. Obviously pirates performed similarly disgraceful or abhorrent acts like inBlack Flag, but never to the extent of the brutality often depicted in Viking media.
That’s part of the reason whyRagnarokhas the potential to be very different.Jora, or whomever the protagonist ofRagnarokwill be, will likely find themselves in morally ambiguous/awful situations during the story that need to be done. Even though the word Viking was a Scandinavian term for “pirate,” they’re not akin toBlack Flag’spirates. Edward Kenway and his band of pirates strived for freedom under the guise of a noble cause, and while they weren’t exactly heroes, didn’t canonically brutalize just for the sake of expanding and conquering. How the actions of the Vikings may tie into Assassin sensibilities (other than perhaps taking the “nothing is true, everything is permitted” tenet literally and liberally) becomes much more implausible.
According toAssassin’s Creedlore, fans know the Templars have existed far longer than their real-world history’s formation in 1119 CE.How Templars or Tainted Ones may appear inRagnarokremains to be seen, but they had have to be plotting something far more brutal than what Vikings were capable of. Fans should more likely expect a version of the Assassins, or in this case “Hidden Ones,” that still favors brute force and public violence to achieve their goals. Similar to Kenway at the end ofBlack Flag, we could see a sort of reformation forRagnarok’s protagonist to perhaps change the ways of the Vikings on the way to the new second CE millennium.
Whether or not the protagonist partakes in such aggressive conquering behavior remains to be seen, butRagnarok’s place in theAssassin’s Creeduniverse is going to be far removed from what is expected of the titular heroes of the series. Overall, the transition to Viking-era history forAssassin’s Creedshould be savagely interesting, as the interweaving of the franchise’s narrative into the brutal Norse world within 793–1066 CE is going to be ambiguous and fascinating.
