There’s a throughline in Ubisoft’s open-world games. You know, by now, to expect enemy outposts, tight combat, and roughly 99,000 points of interest. When you play one, you learn how to play them all. But two of Ubisoft’s biggest series have a bit more in common. Ubisoft revealed today that a member of the Assassin’s Order will make an appearance in this month’s Watch Dogs Legion.
Those who get the season pass for Legion will eventually unlock “Bloodline,” a story-driven add-on that ties in characters from the previous two Watch Dogs games. The expansion will give players access to Aiden Pierce, the walking, brooding trenchcoat who served as the protagonist for the first game, and Wrench, the gregarious masked hacker from the second. It also, apparently, will introduce someone named Darcy, a member of the Assassin’s Order from Assassin’s Creed. It’s unclear what Darcy’s appearance means for the two franchises. Is it a fun but superficial cameo? Or does it suggest a canonical connection between Watch Dogs and Assassin’s Creed? We’ve reached out to Ubisoft for clarification but, at press time, have yet to hear back.
Whatever the case, this isn’t the first time Watch Dogs and Assassin’s Creed have existed in the same fiction. That’s been happening since the original Watch Dogs. In a mission in that game, you’re tasked with stopping an armoured convoy and taking down one Olivier Garneau, a CCO for some company named Abstergo. “This guy’s involved in some heavy shit,” Aiden says at the start of the mission. “Patented genomes, genetic memory manipulation, sketchy pharmaceuticals. And all that fuelled by an unhealthy dose of corporate corruption.” Definitely sounds like Assassin’s Creed. (What’s more, get a load of the mission’s title: “Requiescat in Pace,” a common refrain of Ezio Auditore, the protagonist of three Assassin’s Creed games.) Garnaeu and Abstergo were in fact from Assassin’s Creed, and this mission was explicitly referenced in a later game.
Garneau showed up in the modern segments of 2013’s Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. During the modern-day segments of that game, you can poke around the offices of Abstergo, the ostensible evil organisation in Assassin’s Creed canon. In the process, you learn that Garneau made frequent trips to Chicago, Aiden Pierce’s stomping grounds. The modern-day segments of 2017’s Assassin’s Creed Origins then put you in the shoes of Layla Hassan, a former employee of Abstergo,. On her laptop, you could flip through evidence showing the apparent deaths of important people related to the modern-day plot. Among the deceased is Abstergo’s chief creative officer, a man named Olivier Garneau. Keep digging and, sure enough, you can see video of Garneau’s demise, in Chicago, at the hands of a dude who clearly hasn’t laughed or smiled in years but at least has a fine taste in outerwear. You don’t need a tinfoil hat to connect that one.
[referenced id=”843094″ url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2017/10/more-evidence-that-assassins-creed-and-watch-dogs-are-set-in-the-same-universe/” thumb=”https://www.gizmodo.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2017/10/29/bzvrtdkb6sdfeavxfj2i-300×165.png” title=”More Evidence That Assassin’s Creed And Watch Dogs Are Set In The Same Universe” excerpt=”There’ve been hints in the past that Assassin’s Creed and Watch Dogs exist in the same fictional world. A fun new easter egg in the new Assassin’s Creed Origins sure offers more support for that theory.”]
In other, non-conspiratorial news, Ubisoft also announced that the multiplayer mode for Watch Dogs Legion will be coming on December 3, more than a month after the game’s official release. It’ll feature co-op missions for two to four players, plus the ability to roam freely in the open world of techno-dystopia future London. There will also be a player-vs.-player mode, wherein up to eight spiderbots face off in a free-for-all deathmatch.
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[referenced id=”699762″ url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2015/03/good-assassins-creed-joke-watch-dogs/” thumb=”https://www.gizmodo.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/1970/01/01/699762_nF6XMflEubU-300×169.jpg” title=”Good Assassin’s Creed Joke, Watch Dogs” excerpt=”OK, I’m about nine months late to this, but I just finished Watch Dogs on Saturday. And I liked the little Assassin’s Creed joke I found in the game.”]
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