If you’ve been keeping a weather eye on one of the biggest upcoming PC games of the year, you’ll probably know that – similarly to Assassin’s Creed Odyssey – Valhalla will give you the option to tackle the game as either a female or male version of Eivor. However, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s gender options will work a little differently this time around – you’ll be able to hop back and forth between them as you please.
In an interview with GamesRadar, the viking game’s director Eric Baptizat confirms that the game won’t lock you into the choice you make at the beginning of the game with regard to its hero’s gender. “You can decide to play male or female,” he says, “[but], you are allowed to change, at any time, your skill tree or the gender of your character – you can swap at any time.”
This is a pretty big change from the way that Odyssey worked – and, in fact, the way many action-RPG games work – as the plot, dialogue, and some other facets differed pretty substantially based on your choice of Kassandra or Alexios at its beginning.
However, its sounds like there will be no such branching when it comes to Eivor – their journey will be one and the same, regardless of their gender. “It was important to make this option available for the player,” Baptizat explains to the site. “It’s something that the player can decide for the way they want to play, because it has some impact on the narrative – but it’s not two different stories. It’s the same story of the character – whatever options your character decides.”
In addition, he says the Valhalla devs want to give players the “freedom to experiment”, so while “yes, you have to [make] a choice”, you can try out something else, too. “We want a player to experience all the possibilities of the game, and we find that very important.”
The Assassin’s Creed Valhalla release date is set for November 17, 2020, so there’s a little while to wait before we can get stuck into the adventure for ourselves. In the meantime, take a look at our Assassin’s Creed Valhalla preview as well as the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla gameplay footage now available to get an idea of what’s on the horizon.