Earlier today, Ubisoft announced that the Assassin’s Creed series would be getting a new game in “fiscal 2014” that would feature a new protagonist and a new setting.
“Very interesting,” you may say, twirling your mustache and reaching for your prognostication hat. “Very interesting, indeed.”
I’ve got my wild speculation hat on (it’s like a prognostication hat, but it’s a little bit floppier and harder to get through doorways), and thought it might be fun for us all to make some educated (or absolutely uneducated) guesses about which bit of history the series might swashbuckle through next.
Here’s what we know. It ain’t much.
1.) The new game will feature a new protagonist.
2.) The new game will feature a a new setting, though that could mean anything.
3.) Ubisoft has said in the past that they wanted ACIII to “wrap up” the Desmond storyline, which makes it seem probable that we’ll get a new modern-day ancestor protagonist.
4.) Ubisoft didn’t say the new game would be called Assassin’s Creed IV, and given how many games we got between II and III, that actually seems unlikely.
Here’s what our resident Assassin’s Creed expert Stephen Totilo, who is currently on the ground at the DICE convention, said when I asked him what he thought over IM:
Stephen: If it’s not the Civil War, I’d be shocked
Kirk: you think?
that’d be good
they’ll have the same problem as the revolution
in that the south will take the place of the British
Stephen: They could more or less use the same engine, evolve the rural and urban systems in ACIII, and carry on the American-centric vibe of this batch of games
Kirk: yeah.
more moral ambiguity
more interesting racial stuff
could be very cool
So, there’s one possibility: The Civil War. It’d let Ubisoft tell a new story in a (technically) new setting while using a lot of the stuff that they built for Assassin’s Creed III. They could also give us a new protagonist (who hopefully isn’t as much of a boring, walking tree as Connor was), and move the setting farther inland to re-create some of the famous battles of the war. They could even possibly have some of the game take place in the south, and lift the bayou and southern architecture from the Vita game, Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation. And given how that game tackled issues of slavery and race in early America, a Civil War setting could continue that on a bigger stage.
And they could also have some more naval missions, since those were pretty awesome. And players could meet Abraham Lincoln, since Abraham Lincoln is so hot right now.
And hey, since we’re likely getting a new modern-day ancestor protagonist, that means we can hopefully get someone cooler than Desmond. Might I be so bold as to suggest… a woman? Yeah, yeah, I know. Unlikely. We’ll probably just get another short-haired dude, but this time he’ll be voiced by Troy Baker instead of Nolan North. (Which, you know, would be fine. Baker’s good.)
While the Civil War does sound pretty good, or at least likely, here are some other ideas that might be cool:
- Ancient Egypt: Here’s Stephen again: “For god’s sake, AC Ancient Egypt, with pyramids and the Sphinx to climb would be the coolest thing ever.”
- Throw The Clock Back: In ACIII, loveable arsehole Shaun mentions that they could theoretically throw the Animus back to thousands of years before civilisation and see what’s what. While that might not make for a good game on its own, it would certainly make for some fun, wild parallel-storyline stuff.
- Feudal Japan or China: I don’t think I’ll ever be happy until we’ve had an Assassin’s Creed game that lets me play as a sweet-ass cloaked killer, lighting across rooftops of China or Japan at night. Yes, it’d be a move backwards in time, which the series hasn’t done yet. But who cares? This would be awesome.
- World War One: This one’s from Evan, and it’s pretty solid. Even if they don’t go to World War One in the next game, it seems likely that at some point they will. It’d let the series make its way back to Europe, and would let them focus on a war that video games rarely explore.
- Pirates? The last one comes from a Reddit rumour thread from a poster who claims to have seen, on someone’s laptop on a plane, the title Assassin’s Creed: Black Flags. (That’s via NeoGAF.) Another Reddit poster claims to have overheard two advertising people in a San Francisco café talking about “Black Flag” as well, though he thought it might just be DLC. That’s all entirely unsubstantiated, but if it means that Ubisoft is planning some sort of pirate-centric Assassin’s Creed game or expansion, sign me right the hell up.
That’s enough from us; I’m taking my speculation hat off and hanging it up. But how about you guys? Any theories or wishes? Where do you think, or hope, the next Assassin’s Creed game will take place?
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