Assassin's Creed Valhalla will let you switch between the male and female versions of hero Eivor at any point throughout the game, Ubisoft has confirmed.
Eric Baptizat, game director on Assassin's Creed Valhalla confirmed in an interview with GamesRadar that you will not be locked to your gender choice for the entirety of the game.
"You can decide to play male or female", explains Baptizat. "[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 quite the change from the last entry in the series, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, where you had to choose whether to play as Kassandra or Alexios before starting the game. Your decision around which hero to play then had a huge impact on the way the story played out.
Baptizat explains that this isn't the case for the upcoming Assassin's Creed Valhalla when it comes to choosing between the male or female version of Viking hero Eivor.
"It was important to make this option available for the player. 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."
"We wanted to let you have the freedom to experiment. Yes, you have to [make] a choice, but you can experiment. It’s the way it is for everything [in Assassin's Creed Valhalla]. It could be the difficulty, to your skill tree, to gender, etcetera."
"We want a player to experience all the possibilities of the game, and we find that very important."
Assassin's Creed Valhalla is launching later this year on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PC and Google Stadia.
We've put on our finest warpaint, jumped in the longboat, and played a huge chunk of this latest adventure in our Assassin's Creed Valhalla preview.
