Has Ubisoft Learned its Lesson With Assassin’s Creed?

If someone had asked me five years ago what my favourite game franchise was, I’d have answered extremely quickly.

I would have jumped off the ledge I was standing on, taken down my hood, extended my wrist and showed you my hidden blade. I can’t give an exact figure of how many hours I’ve spent playing Assassin’s Creed games, but for the longest time they were the titles I’d look forward to most every year. After eight long years of annualisation, which brought drops in quality, sales, and interest, the franchise had a year’s hiatus.

It’s been confirmed in a fiscal report by Ubisoft that there will be an Assassin’s Creed in 2017. Ubisoft has yet to reveal the details of the game, but there have been rumours and speculation going on for the past year. Screenshots have supposedly been leaked, details have been speculated, and supposed titles have been thrown around. The so-called “Assassin’s Creed: Empire” or “Origins” is rumoured to be set in Ancient Egypt. This setting has been one that fans have been calling on for a long time now. Having said this, Victorian London was also a long-awaited setting, but the long period of annualisation hurt the franchise to such an extent that the game sold extremely poorly. 2015’s Assassin’s Creed Syndicate sold just over four million units on consoles. An extremely poor outing compared to 2014’s Unity, which sold 7.66 million units, or the series’ peak with Assasin’s Creed III, which sold 13.05 million units. Annualisation has seriously taken its toll on the Assassin’s Creed franchise, and to win fans back in 2017, Ubisoft will have to show at E3 that their next title will be a return to form.

If Ubisoft has, in fact, learned its lesson, there are a few things I think we’ll need to see. Firstly, the next Assassin’s Creed must have some kind of modern day storyline in place. In Assassin’s Creed III, we saw the modern day protagonist Desmond be built up to a Christ-like figure, only to be killed off at the end of the game. The next three titles had progressively less modern day involvement in each game. Let’s face it, we play Assassin’s Creed games for the historical settings, but if Ubisoft is serious about saving the IP, it really should show fans that the original concept – modern-day Assassins and Templars still at war, using the Animus to further themselves – is still there.

Moreover, if the modern day story is to work alongside the historical setting, there should be a new cast of strong characters introduced. One of my favourite things about the original three or four games was the parallels and symbiotic relationships the game built around Desmond and his ancestors. Seeing how learning through Ezio and Altair changed Desmond and developed him from a moody prisoner into a fun-loving, Nolan North character was a great thing, and something I think the most recent games have seriously been lacking. Arno from Assassin’s Creed Unity was possibly one of the blandest characters I’ve ever seen in a game. The reason Assassin’s Creed peaked in sales with Assassin’s Creed III was it had just come off a hugely successful run with the series’ most loved character; Ezio. The extra dimension that Ezio brought to the games was monumental to them reaching such heights. Somewhat unsurprisingly, when protagonists began to revert back to bland, Altair-like ways the games were so much less intriguing, and as a result performed poorly. If 2017’s title is to springboard the franchise to success again, they’ll need characters to springboard with. The customisation of Unity was remarkably one of my favourite things about the game, so if they can harness that with a character like Ezio, I believe they’re cooking with gas.

Furthermore, the setting of Assassin’s Creed games has always been vital. I, for one, have been wanting an Ancient Egypt setting for a long time. It would be a less drastic change than Black Flag‘s open waters, but a comforting civilization to those who love the games being set in a more metropolitan city. If the setting of Ancient Egypt is to be believed, Ubisoft has some real potential on their hands. For years, the franchise has moved on in history, moving further and further toward modern day. With this, cities have naturally expanded in size and stature, but have shrunk enormously in terms of detail and intrigue. Indeed, it was extremely impressive that Paris was such a monumental city to explore in Unity, but I would hedge a bet that players probably used about a third of the entire city during their time in the game. Florence, Venice, and Rome felt so historically accurate, while still giving the player a sense that the city was filled with real people going about their day. Thanks to technology advancing, the people in Paris and London felt even more real. However, this was at the expense of the city itself feeling real. Paris and London were too big and lacked detail that previous games had. If 2017 is to see us visit Ancient Egypt, I hope there’s a focus on quality, depth, and history. Not quantity, size, and stature.

Lastly, and arguably most importantly, 2017’s title has to have fun gameplay. There’s no way around the fact that for an Assassin’s Creed game to work, there needs to be strong movement, navigation, and combat. The joy of just running around and climbing in previous games was what made me fall in love with the franchise. Moreover, the game cannot be a technical mess. One of the most obvious and visible problems with the annualisation process was the drop in technical quality as the years went on. I’m almost certain that Ubisoft doesn’t want to be the laughing stock of the gaming community again after their infamous issues with Unity. Black Flag also glitched out and clipped more than I’d care to admit, and the framerates of every game since Assassin’s Creed III have been extremely questionable. If the game isn’t ready for 2017, it shouldn’t be released. But with a fiscal plan already in place, I’d be surprised if Ubisoft was willing to give the studios working on the game any more time than they’ve already had.

Assassin’s Creed has some serious potential this year to return to the amazing franchise it once was. If Ubisoft can hold out until E3, the reveal of the next Assassin’s Creed title will taste all the sweeter. I look with keen eyes over the coming months to see if Ubisoft has really learned its lesson or not. Annualisation will always hurt games, developers, and players. Whether or not a publisher like Ubisoft has finally realised that is yet to be seen.