Assassin’s Creed Valhalla channels Mortal Kombat for its most gruesome assassinations

Finished him

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla has a stylish change to assassinating that doesn’t make much sense in the context of the game, but is sure to make some people cringe in glee. It’s doing that Mortal Kombat thing (or Sniper Elite if you prefer) where the camera zooms into x-ray vision for a particularly brutal and up-close view of the kill shot.

This feature first popped up in the most recent gameplay trailer (embedded and timestamped above) that Ubisoft debuted last weekend. Using YouTube’s new chapters feature, Ubisoft labeled this short section “Assassin’s Kill.” In a high-profile assassination, we see Eivor plunge the Hidden Blade deep into an enemy’s chest, shattering his ribs and piercing his heart.

Considering that Assassin’s Creed has never really done this before, it’d be reasonable to assume that this is just some added cinematic flair for a marketing video. Not so. Answering a fan on Twitter, Valhalla‘s gameplay director confirms that x-ray kills will be a part of the game and triggered by the player.

Game Director @BenoitRicher has confirmed that (for lack of a better term) “X-ray assassinations” were not just part of the #AssassinsCreed Valhalla gameplay trailer, but will be part of the gameplay and be player trigged!

We thank @jonathandg20 for the heads up! https://t.co/CR7vv3LmCV pic.twitter.com/bIrrqKmLTY

— AccessTheAnimus (@AccessTheAnimus) July 16, 2020

Novel, but that novelty might wear thin very quickly. I assassinated oh so many people in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. It’ll be grating if we have to take a three-second detour every single time someone dies to the blade. If it’s used more sparingly or can be toggled off — sure, it’ll be a neat and definitely-not-original addition.