Interesting COVID Easter Egg in Assassin's Creed: Valhalla
It turns out that the scriptwriters of Assassin's Creed: Valhalla have decided to refer to a rather important problem plaguing humanity in the passing year. They did so in the form of an easter egg hidden in the emails appearing in contemporary storyline.
The creators of Assassin's Creed: Valhalla decided to give us an easter egg referencing the dire straits that the world has found itself in this year, hiding it among the emails to be read within the contemporary timeline of the game.
Beware, spoilers!
The Covid-19 pandemic is no doubt the most relevant subject of the year 2020, which, fortunately, is slowly coming to an end. No wonder the whole affair has made it into pop-culture, video games included. One of the companies that referenced the pandemic in their work is Ubisoft, and they’ve done it in their new game, Assassin's Creed: Valhalla.
Anyone who ever played any of the Assassin's Creed games, probably realize these games are set in two timelines, one of which is contemporary. Starting with Origins, the protagonist there is Layla Hassan, who travels the world with a mobile Animus in order to obtain the DNA of deceased people. She used to work for Abstergo (i.e. the Templars), but decided to side with the Assassins. In Valhalla, she’s located in England. Her action became a reason of concern for her family, as evidenced by the email exchange between her and her brother, Rami. In the first message, Layla clearly dodges the truth, to his great confusion. Enter the coronavirus. The man asks here if all her secrecy isn’t the result of her contracting the disease. She says it’s not true, but that she’s isolated. You can read the exchange below.
This is a minor easter egg, but it’s another proof that the creators of Assassin’s Creed are trying to embed the story of the game firmly in our reality. Who knows, perhaps the subsequent installments of the Assassins’ Creed series will use the theme of coronavirus more extensively, for example to exploit the conspiracy theories the pandemic has thus far generated.
Assassin's Creed: Valhalla will be released on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Xboksie Series X/S on November 10. The game will be available on PlayStation 5 on the console’s launch day.
