My Viking dude just turned into a chick in a bomber jacket

[Initial C]

And there's like cyberpunk Tron stuff all around and I have no idea what's actually going on

[Kuma]

You probably interacted with one of the many animus anomalies found on the map, it's just a puzzle that you solve by doing some parkour.

When you trigger an anomaly you play as Layla, she is the one using the animus controlling Eivor in the first place.

[Initial C]

Originally posted by Kuma:

You probably interacted with one of the many animus anomalies found on the map, it's just a puzzle that you solve by doing some parkour.

When you trigger an anomaly you play as Layla, she is the one using the animus controlling Eivor in the first place.

Thanks, although I'm more confused now than when I started. What's an animus?

[Kuma]

Originally posted by Initial C:

Thanks, although I'm more confused now than when I started. What's an animus?

This is probably your first Assassins Creed game, so your confusion is understandable.

Animus is the name of the machine that people from the present use to relive historical memories from people of the past.

If you are interested in the sci-fi elements of the series I would recommend starting with the first AC game, or at the very least with Origins when Layla is first introduced.

But if you don't care about any of that then just focus on Eivor saga anyways, afterall the majority of the game is about that.

[Initial C]

Originally posted by Kuma:

Originally posted by Initial C:

Thanks, although I'm more confused now than when I started. What's an animus?

This is probably your first Assassins Creed game, so your confusion is understandable.

Animus is the name of the machine that people from the present use to relive historical memories from people of the past.

If you are interested in the sci-fi elements of the series I would recommend starting with the first AC game, or at the very least with Origins when Layla is first introduced.

But if you don't care about any of that then just focus on Eivor saga anyways, afterall the majority of the game is about that.

That's a correct assumption, this is my first AC. I ran into that and it was just a huge WTF moment for me

[Raider Deci]

Originally posted by Initial C:

That's a correct assumption, this is my first AC. I ran into that and it was just a huge WTF moment for me

This is a bit of a problem problem with long running franchises with continous story-arcs, lots of things thats just fly over newcomers heads. People & stuff that got introduced way back. And this is the third game with Layla (origins, then odyssey & now valhalla) as the protagonist in the modern era-stuff so if this is your first AC the confusion is understandable.

[Initial C]

Originally posted by Raider Deci:

Originally posted by Initial C:

That's a correct assumption, this is my first AC. I ran into that and it was just a huge WTF moment for me

This is a bit of a problem problem with long running franchises with continous story-arcs, lots of things thats just fly over newcomers heads. People & stuff that got introduced way back. And this is the third game with Layla (origins, then odyssey & now valhalla) as the protagonist in the modern era-stuff so if this is your first AC the confusion is understandable.

I guess I'm confused to what the modern day stuff is at all. Is there like a glossary like in The Witcher games? Those did a pretty good job catching the player up even if they hadn't read the half-dozen books before hand. Or should I just not worry about it?

[Raider Deci]

Originally posted by Initial C:

I guess I'm confused to what the modern day stuff is at all. Is there like a glossary like in The Witcher games? Those did a pretty good job catching the player up even if they hadn't read the half-dozen books before hand. Or should I just not worry about it?

The modern day-stuff is a thing from the first game in the series and act as a connection for the over-arcing story for the endless wars between assassins/hiddens & templar/order of the ancients along with the hunt for various artifacts (that sci-fi element people mentioned above).

Its a core-thing and the series has gone in cycles with 3-5 games with a modern day protagonist. With the first 5 day games it was to go back in time to locate powerful artifacts to save the world, but after that ther series didnt really know what to do with it until Origins with Layla & really started to dig deep into the Isu-stuff (forerunner/ that made the sci-fi-stuff).


The really short of it is that they take dna, put in this animus-machine & re-live memory of someone. In the first games the machine required a direct descendant while Layla here using an much improved version that just require a dna-sample.
You can pop-out at any moment to that little cabin in modern day


Dont worry about it too much. The interruptions are fairly short anyway, and for Laylas story it began in Origins (which is a better game btw, so is odyssey). There is this codex-thing & so but its also alot of stuff so its just easier to play the games.

[Utiviroo]

You might be better off watching complete video/cut scenes on YouTube for each AC game, there is probably, on average 6 to 10 hours of in game cut scenes and dialogues per major game release, the DLC stuff for most of them are far shorter.

If you don't want to play multiple hundreds of hours of many games to get caught up, maybe over a thousand hours at this point, if you are a completionist, far less if you are not.

Probably an easy 60 hours of in game voiced over cut scenes between all the editions. So you've been warned about what you are getting yourself into on that front.

Without spoiling things too much, there are three time lines, running in parallel, the modern day stuff related to roughly an alternate time line planet Earth, from 2005 till "today", every game in the franchise has a few hours (tops) of content in this time period where you play a different character.

The main game always takes place in the time period being explored in this case Viking stuff 100+ hours of content.

The third time line that gets the least amount of exposure is something to do with pre-history stuff, not dinosaur age stuff but the whole alternative explanation of how humans came to be and who/what all the different gods/religions different human civilizations have worshiped in different parts of the world, really are.

Maybe on average 1 hour of content per game, again a different character to play as, in the sense of cut scenes/lore not in the sense of game play, prior games had no traveling even further back in time, via memories of ancestors, which is something that started with Origins.

Like others have said, if you enjoy the high tier nonsense of the other two time lines then dive into the absurdity of it all.

It is the primary reason they put up that disclaimer you read when you boot into the game (every time), that they are multi religious/ethnic background blah blah blah. Which is something they have done since the first game, unless my memory fails me, as it might trigger some people, they can't say they were not warned. Which is also probably why no one talks about the "story", its just waaaaaay out there.

[maldorf]

Id say its kinda like the girl you saw is laying down on a special device which allows her to play a very powerful VR simulation. When she shows up, it happens because there is a flaw in the program there. Thats why its all glitchy. When I first saw one in a much eariler game, I thought there was something wrong with the game! lol

[Initial C]

So the impression I'm getting is probably "just don't worry about it"

[Raider Deci]

Originally posted by Initial C:

So the impression I'm getting is probably "just don't worry about it"

About sums it up. For the vast majority of the game it has no impact.


As said at the core of the whole premise of the series is the forever-war between assassins & templars through the ages (or hidden ones & ancients of the order....earlier iterations of same organisations and templars rebranded themself as Abstergo) and the hunt for various powerful artifacts.

Without spoiling to much at one point Eivor will find him/her at the same place as the modern day AC3 takes place with the same artifact, although not enter. For you this will likely be nothing, for people that have played AC3 it will be instantly recognized. And theres the ending that will problaby confuse you even more.

[maldorf]

I like the glitches in the system where you play as the girl. They are fun puzzles you solve and give you exp. Im also clearing all of the things in every zone.