‘Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’ Is a Trip to the Land of Ice and Fire

In the early 2000s, my loved ones and I have been dwelling in Iceland for a span of 3 yrs. Prior to landing in a area exactly where we would be dwelling for nicely over a ten years at the time we moved back to the US, the land of fire and ice was exactly where I identified as household.

Iceland was a intriguing area to reside, from the physical landscape to the record and culture of the nation. I have vivid recollections of hiking up the sides of an inactive volcano and seeing large geysers for the first time. At the time we moved back to the States, I knew I preferred to go back a person working day.

Residing in Iceland was absolutely a large element of what would soon turn out to be a constant wanderlust that I still have to this working day. Travel is anything that I have normally cherished, even if it really is just having a shorter working day journey. So when the Covid-19 pandemic started out and quarantine became our international norm, I knew any visits I would experienced planned for 2020 and any I preferred to make for the foreseeable foreseeable future have been not taking place.

As quarantine carried on, I absolutely discovered myself lacking the enjoyment of finding to working day-journey and strategy extended escapades. It is anything that many men and women have been lacking, but journey was a no-go.

Considering about journey nevertheless? Absolutely doable.

I discovered myself pondering back to the hypothetical journey I preferred to acquire to Iceland. This hypothetical journey was anything I have been dreaming about due to the fact I was a kid, and even right before the pandemic I genuinely experienced no idea when it was likely to materialize.

But in November 2020, a person recreation that I would been incredibly fired up about ultimately introduced. As a longtime admirer, I was searching ahead to Assassin’s Creed Valhalla just a very little little bit a lot more than usual. With the recreation centering around Vikings and the major character Eivor, element of the location is based in Norway.

Norway and Iceland have similarities in their landscapes, with both equally being Nordic nations and being so near to the Arctic Circle. Mountains, snow, and sprawling fjords are common sights. That’s why I invested the first 10 hrs of Valhalla just checking out the opening part of the recreation in Norway. I played by way of the major story line and drastically enjoyed it, but I was extremely keen to just journey around the map, examining out distinct regions and the aspect encounters that have been out there.

Valhalla’s Norway part was stunning. And to me, who genuinely skipped the real geography and sites of Iceland, it captured a very little little bit of what I don’t forget being in Iceland was like.

At the time night time falls in Valhalla, you rather a great deal see the aurora borealis all the time. I experienced noticed clips of the northern lights in the first trailer for the recreation, but it’s distinct to see anything in the trailer in comparison to seeing it for the duration of your first perform-by way of.

When I was dwelling in Iceland, I noticed the northern lights several situations. It is kind of difficult to describe just how incredible they appear, but “magical” does capture some of what it’s like. So in Valhalla, I took time to trek up to a person of the rapid journey points that was at the peak of a mountain to both equally acquire access to the level and to get a genuinely excellent perspective of the northern lights.

It is a basic factor in the context of taking part in a recreation examining out the scenery as you perform and check out. But seeing the northern lights as I was climbing throughout mountains (and slipping to my death a handful of situations) extremely a great deal introduced me back to a unique minute.

I can’t don’t forget the exact 12 months, but it was just just after Xmas in early January. There is an Icelandic holiday identified as Þrettándinn, which marks the close to the Xmas period. In celebration, large bonfires crop up. Xmas trees are also taken down. So this certain Þrettándinn, my loved ones and I went to a bonfire that was in the metropolis around exactly where we have been dwelling at the time. It was certainly large! I can don’t forget seeing old wood household furniture and people’s Xmas trees (the reside kind) in the giant pile that designed up the bonfire.