Assassin’s Creed is now over a decade old, lasting over three generations of consoles not to mention portables and phones. The franchise has also evolved to be sure. Some changes have been for the better while others are still baffling to longtime fans.
Should Ubisoft give this series a break and instead focus on something new? Perhaps, but because it continuously sells so well that is not going to happen anytime soon unless they put out three Assassin’s Creed Unity games in a row. The point is let’s go through what is still working for the series and what should be changed in order to freshen up the next game.
10 Stay: Assassins
It should be obvious but the titular assassins should not be removed from this series. It kind of seems like Ubisoft is done with them which is why it is important to state that this element has to stay. Since Assassin’s Creed Origins, it has been getting weirder and weirder for the main characters to become assassins in their timelines with Vikings being the most jarring. The proper brotherhood needs a comeback badly.
9 Change: Setting
The series, since the beginning, has focused on European territories in some nature or at least within the same area of countries. There were odd jumps to North America and Africa so it’s not a total domination but the point is obvious.
How about a trip somewhere truly exotic for the series like an Asian country or the long awaited, fan requested Japanese ninja idea. Yes, spinoffs did go to Russia, China, and India but those were 2D and don’t really count. A new timeline would also be interesting like maybe a world war.
8 Stay: Eagle Vision/Hawk Companion
Assassin’s Creed Origins added the hawk to help keep track of enemies. This allowed for a better advantage than just getting radar from Eagle Vision. Both of these elements should stay in the series no matter what changes happen next. A World War II Hawk may not make as much sense, but maybe a pigeon could work too as a more linear experience.
7 Change: Rushed Development
After the success of Assassin’s Creed II, Ubisoft turned this series a yearly event. Sometimes multiple games would come out in the same year which started to wear on people due to fatigue and glitches. The most infamous breaking point was Assassin’s Creed Unity which had a lot of technical problems at launch. They have since dialed things back but even the space of two years shows that they need more time as Assassin’s Creed Valhalla also had bugs aplenty.
6 Stay: Dual Genders
This is a combination suggestion. The ability to have two genders represented in the game should stay, however, it should not be a choice. Instead it should work out like Assassin’s Creed Syndicate which features both Jacob and Evie Frye as playable characters. It would make more sense from a story standpoint as writing two separate gender conversations in some cases may take up a lot of extra time. This doesn’t have to become the standard but it would be nice to see at least once more.
5 Change: The Open-World
In one way or another these games have always been open-world or at least featured giant cities to explore. It’s gotten too big though. 2020 was just too much open-world action from Ubisoft that showed that the company needs to change. Within the span of a little over a month they released Watch Dogs: Legion, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and Immortals: Fenyx Rising, all open-world games with a lot of padding. What if they instead made the next Assassin’s Creed game more like Hitman with an open playgrounds in a set amount of locations?
4 Stay: RPG Elements
Even though the open-world should go away, the RPG elements should stay. Being able to get new equipment and or upgrades for equipment grants players a sense of reward. Even the older games had this without actual experience points.
Keeping the skill tree would also be advised. It doesn’t have to be all about levels and loot though. A little goes a long way.
3 Change: Real World Stuff
When this series was all about Desmond, there was a core to tie things back to reality. It was good up until Assassin’s Creed III when he was cast away with the apocalypse. The apocalypse that apparently didn’t happen in the subsequent games. Ubisoft could have easily taken this opportunity to get rid of the present day stuff but they didn’t and ever since then it’s been muddled. It’s about high time these theatrics were cast aside or at least given a proper treatment.
2 Stay: Mysticism
Instead of keeping up with history, Ubisoft should instead double down on the mysticism. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey had Atlantis in it for crying out loud and it was great. Creating a series dedicated to alternate history could be more invigorating for the series. The crazier the better. At that point it might be a better idea to just create a new franchise altogether.
1 Change: Sailing
Assassin’s Creed III was a disappointment for many, but if there was one thing most fans would agree on its that the sailing was a blast. It proved to be so successful that almost every game since then has implemented it. Sailing was fun but now it feels tedious and old. Look at The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. The sailing was a nice change of pace in that game but think about how boring it would have been if Nintendo put sailing in every game after that.