Summary
When the firstAssassin’s Creedgame dropped in 2007, it was seen by many as a revolutionary step forward for the stealth genre. Since then, the games within this series have largely kept the same basic gameplay formula, but on some occasions, they will also experiment with a few new ideas and systems to help keep things fresh.
This long-running series has gone in all sorts of directions, and though not all the risks Ubisoft took were met with praise, there are also a handful of ambitious titles that have ended up making quite an impact on the industry as a whole. It’s worth taking a look back at theAssassin’s Creedto break down what makes these games so different, and how their experimental ideas have influenced developers going forward.
Dual protagonists aren’t anything new in video games.Heavy Rain, for example, allowed players to assume control of multiple main characters back in 2010, but what makesAssassin’s Creed Syndicatestand out is that the game didn’t force players to switch characters for story purposes. Instead, players are free to swap betweenJacob and Evie Fryewhenever they please, and because they have their own stats and benefits, it allows them to interact with the open world in very different ways.
Implementing dual protagonists in a game can always be a risky move since it can be hard to get players invested in a main character when the game is being shared by two of them. However,Assassin’s Creed Syndicatetook the bold step, alongside other games at the time likeGrand Theft Auto 5, to try out this experimental mechanic, with it becoming a highlight of the game.
Ever since the firstAssassin’s Creedgame, players had been led to believe the mysterious group known as the Assassins who always lay in the shadows were undoubtedly the good guys, at least compared tothe Templars, who are always described as violent, malicious, and evil. Ubisoft decided to switch things up inAssassin’s Creed Rogue, a spin-off game that follows the personal journey of Shay and his eventual betrayal of the Assassins.
The game does an excellent job at showcasing that the Assassins aren’t quite as innocent as they are often made out to be, especially considering how far they will go just to get their hands on the pieces of Eden, even risking innocent lives in the process. There are not many game franchises out there that will establish a group for the player to root for, only to then showcase them in a more damning light later on for an entire game, but while it was a risky move, it was one which certainly paid off considering how belovedRoguehas become among the fanbase.
Pirate gamesmay be more popular than ever these days, but the title that arguably demonstrated just how much fun being a pirate on the open seas could be more than any other wasAssassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag. Considering the game is first and foremost an open-world title with the ship sections being nothing more than side-content, it’s shocking how well-designed the naval mechanics are.
Being able to hop onto a ship with a few ragtag crewmates, singing and drinking all the while, certainly feeds into the whole pirate aesthetic, but it also helped that the boats themselves didn’t feel slow or cumbersome. In fact, the naval battles that frequently occur ensure these sections never become dull, and instead, are some of the best parts of the entire game. No one would have expected back in 2007 that this series would dedicate entire chunks of the map to ship sailing, but this single piece of content has ended up inspiring many other pirate games to blossom in the modern day, thanks to how successful it turned out to be.
Assassin’s Creed Unityhad several problems at launch that many fans weren’t too happy about, but one aspect of the game that received widespread acclaim was Paris itself. Since the game was set during the French Revolution, Ubisoft needed to translate how chaotic and all-encompassing this historic event was inthe city of Paris, and the way they did this was by packing an honestly staggering number of NPCs on screen at once.
This sort of thing had been attempted before with games likeDead Rising, but these characters on screen weren’t just mindless zombies shuffling from one area to another. Instead,Unity’s NPCs all felt and looked real, and would act accordingly depending on where they were. Whether it’s waving a banner and screaming at the Royal Palace, or simply enjoying a meal in a nearby bar. This might seem like a small feature, but whenUnitycame out, barely any games had experimented with having such a large magnitude of people on screen at once, and it went a long way in emphasizing how much of a social impact the revolution had on the population.
Ubisoft is the developer behind another revolutionary stealth series alongsideAssassin’s Creed, that beingSplinter Cell. Unlike that iconic series, which placed a large emphasis on using the shadows to remain out of sight,Assassin’s Creedtook a different approach and encouraged players to assassinate anyone who they see as a threat while remaining out in the open. Blending in among crowds and acting casually to avoid suspicion became core parts of the gameplay.
It also needs to be mentioned how crucial theinnovative parkour movement systembecame to the stealth gameplay too, enabling players to navigate across the map at blistering speeds to avoid detection, set traps, or stalk a target across the open world. Alongside the gameplay, the firstAssassin’s Creedalso stood out for its clever pairing of a historical tale with a modern setting - something which sounds like it shouldn’t work, but manages to come together extremely well thanks to the existence of the Animus.
