*contains some story spoilers from Assassin’s Creed games
I think it’s safe to say that Assassin’s Creed is one of (if not THE) biggest franchise Ubisoft has. Starting in 2007, donning the hood of Altair was something truly special, and set us down a path of sci-fi, historical exploration. Yes, the first game wasn’t the definitive Assassin’s Creed experience, but it laid the groundwork for what would turn out to be a nearly two-decade franchise (give or take a year or two).
I recently completed Assassin’s Creed: Mirage, the most recent in the series’ releases. A game that lauded the return to the classic stealth ’em up, smaller world experience that has been lacking more recently; the last three mainline games opted for big sprawling open-world games that might run you to 100s of hours of gaming. During my playthrough of Mirage, I couldn’t help but reflect on things that have been missing from games like Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla. And ‘missing’ is probably the wrong word, just different, I guess.
With Ubisoft recently announcing its summer ‘Ubisoft Forward’ event, I’d expect we’ll more than likely get an update on the next mainline game in the franchise, currently known as “Assassin’s Creed: Red”. This got me thinking about what I’d love Ubisoft to bring to the future of the franchise (whether in this game, or as the franchise progresses towards its 20th year). So without further ado…
Back to the Future
It’s felt to me that since the end of Assassin’s Creed III, we haven’t really had the same focus on the ‘present-day’ story. After Desmond sacrifices himself to save humanity it all kind of goes to business as usual. We get glimpses occasionally of what’s going on with Abstergo, and more recently with Shaun and Rebecca seemingly on the run with Layla, but it’s all felt a bit aimless. Now, I will admit that I haven’t finished the stories for Origins and Odyssey (just haven’t got round to them as yet), but going through all of Valhalla I didn’t feel like I’d missed anything of importance with the present-day story.
The whole point was that the Animus was a tool to explore the past to defeat the Templars (Order of the Ancients) in the present, and it’s a great device to forward the story, but that element, I feel, is underused.
But, Valhalla’s present-day story gave me hope that maybe Ubisoft is going to embrace that narrative again. The ending of Valhalla gave me a huge “whhaaaaaaaaaaaat?” moment at the end when Basim gets OUT OF THE ANIMUS!!!!!! I hope we see this story continue to evolve, I naturally have a lot of questions. That being said, I want those sections to be interesting, it can’t just be a whole load of exposition, and walking around without interesting gameplay.
Take a Gaviscon, I need to feel less bloated
Valhalla is one of my all-time favourite Assassin’s Creed games, I love the Norse mythology, and the lands it takes you too (I didn’t want to leave Norway at the start, it was such a cosy place to explore), and I thought the story was brill, buuuuut, I do accept the criticism from some that it felt that there was too much to do. Or rather, there was too much padding rather than meaningful stuff. Getting rid of all those gold markers on the map I know isn’t something I had to do, but I did a little!
Mirage, I felt, got that a bit more balanced, there were collectibles but they were either tied to quests, lore, or extra equipment and upgrades. They were worth seeking out, rather than the gold dots of chests that were for resources in Valhalla, useful, yes, but they didn’t have vital things in them. Mirage had those chests, but they weren’t on the map, actually giving you some additional exploration to the gameplay. Rather than visiting a dot on a map I could find those resources by exploring a jail, or castle.
The worst culprit for ‘bloat’ has to be Assassin’s Creed: Unity, I get cold shivers thinking about that chest-laden map *shudders. So although we expect ‘Red’ to be an open-world game, I’m hoping they’ve toned down the bloat.
No puns / wordplay, BRING BACK MULTIPLAYER
I may be in the minority here, but I loved the Assassin’s Creed multiplayer. It was such a fun alternative to the fast-paced online shooter space that was around at the time; rewarding you for taking your time and being patient. Sure, you could spot the Call of Duty crowd a mile away as they’d just speed around the map farming kills for the lowest score, but the majority of players understood the assignment.
Some of the most fun, and tense, gameplay experiences I’ve had online have been during the multiplayer sessions back in the day.
And, I know Ubisoft knows we’re thinking about, just look at this tweet from not that long ago…
Come on Ubisoft, make it happen!!!!!!
Evolve or Die
Some of the things I loved about Mirage was the return to some of the ‘classic’ Assassin’s Creed experiences; stalking a target through the streets of Baghdad, sneaking into a prison / palace undetected and stealing a key document, or orchestrating the assassination of several guards using environment and cool weaponry before sneaking away without alerting anyone.
The problem with those missions is that, for the main part, they felt like they did 15 years ago. Following a target through the streets of Baghdad, I knew that at certain junctures, he’d stop, slowly turn around, and look back, like he knew he was being followed, before just carrying on anyway. It just felt a bit dated, and a missed opportunity to evolve what you’d expect to happen. It did feel like some of the interactions in the world were a bit stunted too…
I enjoyed the ‘Tales of Baghdad’ quests in Mirage. I remember similar missions in Valhalla. They didn’t appear on the maps (until you got close to them) and you’d encounter a random villager who needed help, and by completing their quest helped add to the world-building and tell a story of the time. I’d love to see these quests continue to be added, but, even more so, tie them into the history / world-building. I feel there’s a real opportunity to tell us more about the historical facts about the time period of the game through these quests, rather than a text collectible that fewer people will read.
Joining the dots
Another thing that springs to mind that I’d love to see invested in the franchise is some way of connecting all the Hidden Ones to each other. Unless you’re steeped in the lore, you might not know how Shay Cormac (Assassin’s Creed Rogue, another fave), or any of the other protagonists, adds to the overall narrative and story. With 30 games in the franchise it’s easy to not have a full picture of what’s going on, and indeed, what has gone on.
The present-day story seems a good place to put this, gathering all the research together, and joining the links and connections to see how the actions of one game affect the other. I know not everyone will be interested / care about this (some folk are just happy to go assassinating through time), but for me, I’d love that.
Slept like an Orlog
Did you play Orlog in Valhalla? I did, and I bloody loved it, so much so that I ended up getting the real-life deluxe version of the game. I want more games like that in Assassin’s Creed. Much like Queen’s Blood has won a lot of people over in Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, those in-game games can be so good. More of this, please!!!
What do you think? Do you agree with any of these thoughts, or is there something else you’d like to see from the franchise in the future? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or join the conversation on Twitter (X) @gamer_s_c
