Assassin's Creed Valhalla is a 2020 action role-playing video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It is the twelfth major installment in the Assassin's Creed series, and the successor to 2018's Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Principally set in the years 872–878 AD, the game recounts a fictional story during the Viking expansions into the British Isles. Players control Eivor Varinsdottir, a Viking raider who, while attempting to establish a new Viking clan in England, becomes embroiled in the centuries-old conflict between the Assassin Brotherhood, who fight for peace and liberty, and the Templar Order, who desire peace through control.[c]
The game also includes a framing story, set in the 21st century, which
follows Layla Hassan, an Assassin who relives Eivor's memories so as to
find a way to save the Earth from destruction.
Development of the game began in 2017, around the release of Assassin's Creed Origins.
Ubisoft Montreal led its three-year development with help from fourteen
other Ubisoft studios worldwide, as well as Sperasoft. Numerous people
involved in the development of past Assassin's Creed games returned for Valhalla, including Ashraf Ismail,[b] who served as the creative director for Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (2013) and Origins; Darby McDevitt, the lead writer for Black Flag and Assassin's Creed: Revelations (2011) and co-writer of Assassin's Creed Unity (2014); and composers Jesper Kyd and Sarah Schachner, who composed the game's soundtrack alongside musician Einar Selvik. Similarly to Origins and Odyssey,
the team conducted extensive research into the time period to make the
game world as historically accurate as possible, and drew inspiration
from Norse mythology for certain narrative elements. The team also sought to address some issues found by players with Odyssey, such as its over ambitiousness, small focus on the Assassin-Templar conflict, and the absence of traditional Assassin's Creed gameplay elements like social stealth.