In an interesting and somewhat unexpected announcement, it was revealed that outfielder from the Los Angeles Dodgers, Cody Bellinger, will have a cameo in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Bellinger provides the voice, face, and motion capture for a character named Otta Sluggasson and as you might expect, that character has talents that informally tie to baseball.
Assassins’ Creed Valhalla Features a Baseball Star Cameo
When you dive into the world of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla on November 10, you may spot a familiar face. Well, if you’re a fan of baseball and the Los Angeles Dodgers that is. In an interview with ESPN, Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Cody Bellinger talked about his role in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.
In the game, he plays the role of Otta Sluggasson who isn’t a baseball player per se, but he is “a Dane with a knack for hitting rocks very very far.” If you know Cody Bellinger’s face, you should immediately be able to recognize Otta Sluggasson when you encounter him in the game as Bellinger provided the voice, face, and motion capture for the character.
“I’m excited. I love video games, so when I heard I had the opportunity to be a character in a big video game, I was excited, I really was,” Bellinger told ESPN. “I’m kind of a video game nerd. My brother and I played Assassin’s Creed back in the day and used to love it. The graphics are so realistic. It’s a game that will take up a lot of your time.”
The interview goes on to ask Bellinger where gamers can find his character in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.
“You can find me in story mode,” Bellinger said. “You got to beat me in the challenge to advance to the next place. My name is Otta Sluggasson – it translates to something like ‘power hitter’ or ‘big hitter’ or something like that. It was super exciting when I was doing the filming for it, and I got to swing a bat or a stick or an ax, so it was super natural to me.”
Bellinger goes on to explain that Otta Sluggasson swings a large, wooden bat. “I got a big ol’ tree trunk,” Bellinger said, describing the bat. “Like probably what they swung in the 1920s, Babe Ruth and them, just like a big ol’ wooden thing. It’s cool.”
Before moving on to other segments of the interview, Bellinger talked a bit about what the motion-capture process was like. According to Bellinger, the character not only has his voice, but also looks exactly like him.
“The only time I’ve ever seen it was, like, behind the scenes when they’re making action movies. You got a bunch of balls on you, motion sensors, and a tight suit. And I had to shave my whole face – I looked like a little kid. As I’m moving, I could see my character, my Viking, on the screen. I would swing and walk like a Viking would, with his muscles out, all big. I’m 190 pounds. It felt pretty cool to be a Viking. I got to make Viking moves and added a baseball swing to it. You can’t fight me, but Otta Sluggasson would win if there were fighting.”
It’s reassuring to hear that you won’t have to fight Otta Sluggasson with his big ol’ wooden baseball bat and his big ol’ Viking muscles, though we can’t help but be curious about how Sluggasson fits into the game’s campaign and how much of him you’ll get to see.
As a whole, it’s a unique cameo for a game like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and the character himself sounds interesting. We can’t wait to get to meet him once Assassin’s Creed Valhalla releases on November 10 for Xbox One, Xbox Series X | S, PlayStation 4, PC, and Google Stadia. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will also be available on PlayStation 5 starting on November 12.
