The announcement came out yesterday.  The setting isn’t surprising, nor is the timing of the launch.

I am perhaps getting too old for this sort of stuff. Cinematic trailers for near yearly IP releases do not cause any rise.  Having played Origins and Odyssey, I have a darn good idea what the game will look like visually.  Horses, boats, large battles, sneaking, eagle view points.  More or less a reskin.

Where this breaks is in the actual location – Britain.  Origins was in Egypt, so there wasn’t much boat work, aside from rafts.  Odyssey was an archipelago, the large ship was a key piece of the content.  Now when you think Vikings, you think shore raids.  Boats are certainly part of it, but not in the ship to ship combat, simply as a means of transportation.  I’m curious as to how this model, and the projected base building, gets implemented.

I’ve always found the AC games focused on the nomad/explorer type.  You never stick around anywhere for long, what with all the assassinations you’re doing.  You’re a small part of a hidden faction in a larger setting.  AC3 broke that a bit, but the revenge was from inside the larger setting.  Here, it appears that you’re the invading forces which is a new twist.  You’re not set up against a bad Viking, you’re a Viking going against the king of Britain.

One of the cool bits from the last 2 AC games was the supernatural aspects. Both Egypt and Greece have mystic lore coming out of every pore. Britain in the 10-12th century didn’t really have this.  Druids maybe?  Haunted castles?  Sea creatures (Loch Ness is northern Scotland… not sure that’s in scope).  Maybe it will just be epic 1v1 battles against beefed up Brits.  Most likely it will be the Norse gods, there’s ample material there.

The last few AC games have been quite good, so I’m cautiously optimistic that this one will continue that trend.  Plus, it would be neat to dual wield shields.