We had a chance to go hands-on with Assassin's Creed Valhalla ahead of Ubisoft Forward, and took it through its paces over the course of roughly three hours. This included: combat (natch), longboating, horse-riding, cat-herding and getting drunk at a wedding. We don't go in to all the details on how all of the above plays out, but our initial hands-on is detailed for you after the jump. But also, the game hits everything come November, 2020.

Which means we have more gameplay divulgence to come, but in this instance, enjoy our initial thoughts with quotes from a chat with Ubisoft's Damien Leyris. Here's a snippet:

It’s no secret sailing any form of sea, let alone water in an open-world AC title now is par for the course, and we’re all the better for it. It’s with the tech genius of the Singapore team this is now a staple component of the series, so to know they’re as involved as the other 12 groups is beyond important. The game’s A-Studio, so to speak, is Ubisoft Toronto, but Ubisoft’s global mantra has always been one of all in. Something we’ve seen and experienced firsthand, both as games journos and as gamers on the end-user experience.

What’s important here is to highlight that Valhalla isn’t like Odyssey which was a series of islands tied together by a grand ocean, this is a largely landlocked experience with rivers and lakes and more inland waterways. This means the naval side of the game’s content is actually less naval, and more ship. If that makes sense.

Click here for our initial hands-on Assassin's Creed Valhalla thoughts. And stay tuned for more in the coming days, weeks and months in the lead up to release. Also, check out the Valhalla trailer embedded below.