The Viking creed of assassins

"Inspired by historical events and characters. This play was conceived, developed and produced by a multicultural team of different religious beliefs". This is how each new edition of the Assassin's Creed begins since its first publication on November 13, 2007. Ubisoft is the French company behind one of the most interesting sagas in the world of video games. It has sold more than 100 million copies of a game about assassins and knights of the Temple, thanks to which it has recovered after ruinous editions that nearly brought the industry to its knees.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla was released on 10 November 2020. It was announced in July and created a huge buzz as it hit the wave of new Microsoft and Sony game consoles with improved graphics and performance. The game is set in the 9th century, during the Viking invasion of Britain. The player controls the warrior Eivoren in his battle against the Saxon king Alfred the Great.

For 13 years, Ubisoft has been putting more than just a game on the table. Recreating historical moments of mankind by faithfully reproducing cities and environments as they were then. The technical work was impressive from the very first edition, with cities such as Damascus, Acre and Jerusalem. In the second edition, Renaissance Florence presents Ezio Auditore and the conspiracies of the Knights Templar. The character was so endearing that two more games were published with Auditore as the protagonist. Assassin's Creed Brotherhood is set in the Rome of the Borgias in 1499 and Assassin's Creed Revalations is Ezio Auditore's journey to Constantinople to solve the plots of the Byzantine Knights Templar and overthrow the Ottoman Empire.

Knowledge of history through video games is a perfect tandem in 21st century society, where school education leaves much to be desired, including knowledge of the past of other civilisations. The gameplay of Assassin's Creed could be hampered by the fact that it is one of the few games on the market in the third person. The creativity of Ubisoft's developers in programming this type of game can also be found in the company's other famous titles such as The Division.

Assassin's Creed III brought the saga to light. Reconstituted during the American War of Independence in 1750, the new protagonist is Connor Kenway and, in his fight against the colonists, he meets characters such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin or Thomas Jefferson.

Black Flag, Rogue and Unity are three new titles published between 2013 and 2015. Each year, Ubisoft almost launched a new chapter in its saga and with these three, they exhausted the technical capabilities of the developers. Naval battles were beginning and the historical plots had a good backdrop. Black Flag revolved around piracy in the Caribbean in the 18th century, the golden age of piracy. Located in 1715 in the Bahamas, Cuba and South Florida, it featured three major cities: Havana, Kingston and Nassau, which were under Spanish and British influence. Rogue entered the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) in North America with spectacular re-enactments of the North Atlantic, the Appalachian River Valley and New York.

With unity came problems. A title set in Paris at the time of the French Revolution. For the first time, Ubisoft offered a four-player cooperative mode that made it unplayable. There were hundreds of bugs that tired the players and led French society to rethink its economic model. Syndicate was released at the end of 2015 because it was already announced and there would always be players who would buy it. New faces and a new environment like 19th century London in the Victorian era in the midst of the industrial revolution.

Ubisoft and his disciples rested for two years. They took time off, like those couples who need to refocus their relationship. But to do this, one side has to bring something else to the table. Changing habits. Ancient Greece and the Peloponnesian Wars between Athens and Sparta shaped the Odyssey of the Assassin's Creed in 2018. The new protagonist was confronted by an extremist sect that wanted to unify Greece into a single nation, as well as the mythological creatures of Greek folklore. The social movement for the equality of women in society and the increase in female audiences in the world of video games gave players the possibility of controlling a male or female mercenary. Odyssey has regained its audience and favourable reviews from specialised magazines and websites.

The Vikings of Valhalla will put the XBox Series X and PlayStation 5 to the test: graphics, connections, updates, multiplayer... All the possibilities offered by the title and the new video consoles will be the thermometer of the new Ubisoft.

The Assassins credo has also seen a series of small mobile titles, short films and a fairly decent film in 2016, which included Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard and Jeremy Irons in its cast. More than 20 titles, apart from video games, to travel through human history and learn what the laws of education do not include in books.

By the way, a detail of political correctness. One of Valhalla's characters has a scar on her face and the description of the game defines her as "horribly burned in an accident when she was a child, Eorforwine is terrified that someone might see her face disfigured, so she relieves her anger with violent outbursts". A Twitter review stated that the scars on her face should not be a cause for embarrassment and called this description "unacceptable". Ubisoft could have claimed that things were different in the 9th century and more than a thousand years later, but instead responded by saying that "we apologise for inadvertently building capacity through this language" and promised to correct it with a new update.