@rankinsect Unless I missed something, or there’s new info in Valhalla, “reality as simulation” is still just a theory, and I could see it turning out that the references to the code of the universe being a result of trying to translate fourth-dimensional concepts into something a human can parse. And, if I’m perfectly honest, if “reality as simulation” is the canon answer, it kinda makes this worse for me, cause that kinda feels like changing the story to cover a change in mechanics, and I always prefer the game serve the story rather than the other way around. I realize this may come across as me being a contrarian, but that’s really not my intent.

@palmatj what I meant by Layla influencing Eivor’s story is that you are technically playing as Layla the entire game, and the Eivor segments are Layla in the animus reliving the memories, so by you making a choice, as I see it, that equates to Layla making a choice.

Getting this out of the way, I have not played Valhalla. From what I’ve been seeing, I’m not sure I want to. I’ve been playing this series since launch of the first game. I finished the first five games, but had to stop during Black Flag because I didn’t like the emphasis on ships. I finally came back for Origins and Odyssey, and have every trophy for both of them. I played all of Odyssey in spite of the inclusion of player choice. Seeing that player choice seems to be even more prevalent in Valhalla just about guarantees my lack of desire to play it. As far as I’m concerned, the only choices that the player should make in an Assassin’s Creed title should be truly meaningless. The entire conceit of the franchise is that you aren’t actually playing as the character in the past, but the person in the animus reliving their memories. Desmond had no more control over Altair or Ezio’s life than Layla had over Bayek or Kassandra’s, so why does Odyssey give us choices that affect the story? Even outside of a lore perspective, Odyssey was the first game in the series that had me spoiling the story for myself so I wouldn’t make a wrong choice. From what I’ve seen of Valhalla, you as Layla are now making decisions that change not only the story, but how people percieve Eivor, even who plays a role in Eivor’s life, and that disconnect from what AC has traditionally been about has killed my interest in this game. If this is the direction the series is going to continue going, I think I might just be done. I’d love to hear some other perspectives because I really like this series and don’t want to tap out, but at this point I think I might just be done. Which is a shame because Origins was one of my favorite games in the franchise, but they seem to be going further and further from what I like about these games. Anyway, again, I’d love to hear some more perspectives.