With Assassins Creed Valhalla approaching this November, were getting to see more of the sprawling open-world viking action game both inside and out. Thats because fans can witness brutal assassinations in full X-ray vision, a first for the series. Its like watching the autopsy scenes from CSI, except instead of solving murders, youre causing them.
These gruesome kills first appeared in a recent gameplay trailer, leading fans to think it was just a bit of flourish. But, according to a tweet by game director Benoit Richer, Valhalla will allow players to trigger them in-game. In one breakout gif you can see the main character, Eivor, not just stab an enemy but plunge their blade right into their guts and fat. Its all very Mortal Kombat, and it definitely speaks to the brutality of the setting.
It does seem like this feature is opt-in, or at least relatively rare; during Polygons three hour preview of Valhalla, our Eivor did not complete a single X-ray finisher, despite lots of hacking away with axes and brawling with other vikings. This may also be something that shows up in assassinations proper; well have to see closer to the November release date.
Assassins Creed Valhalla will release on November 17, 2020, for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows. The game will also be coming to next-gen consoles PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.
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