With Assassin’s Creed Valhalla approaching this November, we’re getting to see more of the sprawling open-world viking action game — both inside and out. That’s because fans can witness brutal assassinations in full X-ray vision, a first for the series. It’s like watching the autopsy scenes from CSI, except instead of solving murders, you’re 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. It’s all very Mortal Kombat, and it definitely speaks to the brutality of the setting.
Game Director @BenoitRicher has confirmed that (for lack of a better term) "X-ray assassinations" were not just part of the #AssassinsCreed Valhalla gameplay trailer, but will be part of the gameplay and be player trigged!
— AccessTheAnimus (@AccessTheAnimus) July 16, 2020
We thank @jonathandg20 for the heads up! https://t.co/CR7vv3LmCV pic.twitter.com/bIrrqKmLTY
It does seem like this feature is opt-in, or at least relatively rare; during Polygon’s 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; we’ll have to see closer to the November release date.
Assassin’s 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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