Any Assassin’s Creed fan knows that more than a few noticeable differences are in store with the American Revolution-era setting of Assassin’s Creed 3. But to say that the developers at Ubisoft are doing everything they can to take the past success of the series to new heights is apparently an understatement. According to the creative director of AC3, mixing the old with new didn’t start by developing a sequel to previous games, but a brand new IP based upon the franchise’s core values.
Before fans start to panic, allow us to explain that this doesn’t mean the extensive and mysterious conspiracies of the series’ plot are being cast aside. The desire to tell Desmond’s story is still going to be a top priority, but the development team has made it extremely clear just how many serious topics this game will deal with. More than simple political power battles or quests for world domination, at least.
So how can a creative team balance a desire to deliver an experience that fans will react to positively, while trying to take on such a fundamentally different goal? Speaking with AusGamers, creative director Alex Hutchinson explained that the developers didn’t take the task lightly.
In crafting a new experience with Assassin’s Creed 3, Hutchinson’s team soon realized that what they most wanted to make was something even more than just another Assassin’s Creed installment:
“It was a huge challenge to find the right balance between changing the game enough to keep it fresh and exciting, and to make it attractive and easy for new players to jump on board while making sure that everyone who has been with us since AC1 was satisfied. We had endless meetings, lunch time discussions, after work arguments over beer, until we realised that what we wanted to do was to treat it like a new IP built around the pillars of the AC franchise, which still obeyed all of the core narrative rules of the brand, and fit within the established fiction.”
Sentiments like that aren’t often heard when the same formula has created and launched four successful games, and seem tailor-made to counter critics who claim Ubisoft has slowed its drive to innovate. Obviously the team won’t be reinventing the wheel, since only so much can be changed before the experience ceases to be a proper Assassin’s Creed release.
If those following the series have gotten somewhat confused or distracted by the dense plot twists and centuries-old conflicts, then you can at least rest assured that the gameplay itself will still feel familiar. But Hutchinson also spoke about how accessible Assassin’s Creed 3 will be to newcomers, and considering the current trend of trilogies, the more rabid fans might have cause to get nervous:
“We kept the idea that the gameplay was built around navigation, combat and social stealth, but we completely changed the way they were built and how the player would use them. We wanted a new assassin and a brand new time period, but we wanted them to fit into the history of the brand, so the character didn’t need to be aware of the brand history but players could understand him as part of a lineage.
“We believe that AC3 is the perfect point for new players to join the franchise, but we’re also happy that longtime fans will be able to look below the surface and find many references to previous games and a new perspective on the AC mythos.”
There’s no denying the fact that the brand new Native American protagonist will stand alone from those of the series, and that’s nothing to complain about. But at this point, hearing anyone say that what is expected to be the climax of the series is the “perfect point for new players to join” is cause for concern. Assuming it’s anything more than a simple marketing claim.
Considering the same was said about the recently-released Mass Effect 3 – and the resulting fallout – we can only hope that fans who played through four previous games will have more awaiting them than “many references.” Unfortunately, the only real alternative (which will no doubt be demanded by the die-hard fans) is for Assassin’s Creed 3 to be so mired in the mythology of the series, it is virtually impenetrable and terrifying for newcomers.
We’ll certainly give Ubisoft and Hutchinson the benefit of the doubt, since everything we’ve seen of AC3 is more than promising. That being said, from a story point of view it’s hard to see ‘no prior knowledge of the series needed’ as a comforting statement. There’s a first for everything though, and new is never a bad thing…almost never.
Are we being too alarmist, or are you concerned that mass appeal will cause the mythology of the AC series to be watered-down? Leave us your thoughts in the comments.
Assassin’s Creed 3 will be released on October 30, 2012 for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.
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Follow me on Twitter @andrew_dyce.
Source: AusGamers
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I dont like the whole “cater for new players” idea:/ whats the point of joining a game series at the climax anyways. The MP of ACR was f-ed up because ubisoft wanted to cater for new players, more than those who played ACB. I realise that the SP and MP are completely different, but i hope it doesnt happen in AC3
Really like this idea, it took me a while to get into Revelations because the gameplay felt like old hat, the vast majority was all stuff I’d seen before in the previous games. I like the idea of a whole new ip, keeps things fresh.
True, I can get on board with Ubi wanting to do something that…I don’t know….takes on a much larger scope than the individual chapters before. I guess my only concern is that it would be all too easy for them to lighten up on offering a satisfying conclusion.
“We believe that AC3 is the perfect point for new players to join the franchise”
I’ve heard this before. This is not a good thing to hear. Whenever someone from the game says “the perfect point for new players” I can’t help but thinking that no game has ever pulled that off 3 games in let alone 4 games in.
“longtime fans will be able to look below the surface and find many references to previous games”
I’ve heard something like that also. The game that came from that made me far more cautious in what games I buy now.
I understand your concerns, but if you think about it, AC2 was a perfectly fine point to join the series. That’s not to say that AC1 wasn’t a good game, it was just completely different. The reason AC3 will be a perfect time to join the series is that there will be entirely revamped game mechanics.
Brotherhood assumed that you understood the notoriety system from AC2, but explained it briefly by having the characters talk about it in 3 lines of dialogue. And then in Revelations, they didn’t even talk about notoriety, and heralds and witnesses just started showing up. If you didn’t know about that system previously, I imagine Revelations would have been harder to approach.
That is not to say that in AC3 these well known game mechanics will be explained at tormenting length for us veteran assassins, but instead I believe everything will be fresh enough that it will seem new enough to veterans, and have enough explanation to not alienate newcomers.
And, that said, notoriety is just one example in an entirely rebuilt game. Remember the difference from AC1 which was solidly a 6/10, to AC2, which at the time seemed to make 10/10 sound like an understatement.
I agree, but experience with companies that use this language hasn’t ended well for us gamers. AC2 was a good starting point for new players whereas Brotherhood & Revelations didn’t give enough background to new players. Well AC3 follow AC2 as a good starting point because it’s a new protagonist maybe? Who knows? BioWare said that Mass Effect 3 would be the perfect starting point for new players; how they could say that with a straight face I’ll never know.
“We kept the idea that the gameplay was built around navigation, combat and social stealth, but we completely changed the way they were built and how the player would use them.”
This part here could go ether way. It could be Assassin’s Creed to Assassin’s Creed 2 or it’s going to be Dragon Age: Origins to Dragon Age 2.
True, I get what both of you are saying. Looking back on Brotherhood and Revelations, players would be completely lost if that was their first outing. That said, I think the clear commitment to Ezio in particular may have kept a stronger core player base than the bigger, badder, and more politically relevant AC3 will.
I played a bit of AC, jumped in at AC2 and fell in love. So there’s certainly the possibility that the same could happen here. I guess my biggest concern isn’t that it will be accessible for newcomers, but that people who’ve made it through 4 doses of dense story and mythology won’t be getting more than “references” that stand apart from a single story in AC3.
I think my point was that they would not let us diehard fans down. There are still ~6 months until the game comes out. Yes, they want to keep us interested by giving small amounts of information, but what I think we must realize is that anything Alex Hutchinson says is only going to be the tip of the ice burg.
They stated that George Washington is going to be an present throughout the game, but they haven’t said anything about the fore fathers being part of the Free Masons, and what that might have to do with the Templars. There is still so much info we don’t have, especially concerning the story, and I think that is less because there is no story, and more because it would be worthless if they spoil it all 6 months in advance.
Personally, I do enjoy Assassins Creed: Revelations a great deal, as much as I enjoyed Brotherhood and Assassins Creed II. Its a fun single player experience with a story that is really interesting for someone like me who is into SciFi. The multiplayer, IMO, is solid, nothing spectacular but it is definitely fun to just jump off a roof or hide in a haystack and pull your opponents in for the kill. If Assassins Creed III provides the single player experience that has kept on since the start of the series then I do not see any reason why I would not pick this game up day one.
Hehehe…by now I had next to nil concerns for this game, and I really want to keep it that way. Please no more “accessible to new players” bs, I mean I hated AC before I have ever played it, and when AC2 came out I pirated AC1 and fell in love with that game soo much that now I bought all the games and all their content too. So I started with, basically Ubisoft’s “weakest” AC offering as some might say specially because AC2 was out at the same time, but I still fell in love with it and didn’t need AC2 to be “friendly to new players”. So no thanks Ubi, please don’t change it that much to make it more “accessible”..I really want to use my parkour and combat skills I mastered in the previous AC’s in this one, but even harder and better this time around…not easier and “more accessible”. :S
As soon as I read the whole, “easily accessible to new players” shmeal, I felt cheated and sold out in favor of mass appeal. I understand game companies need to make monies, but a part of me still wants to believe that games are art, and a story arch enhances the “art” being painted by developers. So I wait in hope to see that the developers of Assassins Creed stay steadfast in their brand of art, both in story and mechanic, both of which we AC fans have committed so much time to appreciate.