Assassin's Creed Valhalla comes to a close with its final, December update
A definitive no on the requested New Game+.
After nearly two years in post-release development, Assassin's Creed: Valhalla will launch its last update on December 6th, 2022. The final update will include The Last Chapter, which Ubisoft describes as "a touching and intimate conclusion to Eivor's saga."
"This epilogue will tie up some of the storylines developed throughout the game and offer closure to your time among the Raven Clan," says the announcement.
The update will also include the ability for players to keep Eivor's hood up at all times—even when not wearing a cloak. It's a purely cosmetic option for those players who'd rather keep their mysterious assassin vibe going at all times and/or keep their hair dry in the rain.
Ubisoft also offered a pretty thorough, for a large publisher, explanation of why players' commonly requested addition of a New Game+ feature won't be coming to Valhalla. In investigating the implementation of that feature, the team concluded that the game had limited options to make replayability unique and rewarding.
"We understand this news will come as a disappointment; however, we hope that the new content released in the past months, including never-before-seen experiences like Forgotten Saga, has provided an exciting and challenging experience for those seeking more replayable content," said the development team.
Valhalla was the third big release since Ubisoft took the main-line Assassin's Creed games off of the yearly release schedule it kept from 2009 to 2015. That means that, since AC: Origins in 2017, AC games have been releasing for nearly as long in the new format as the old. For many, the wide diversity of content that released during Valhalla's tenure shows the strength of the new format. For others, there's hope that the next game in the series will be a return to form.