After years of clamoring, Ubisoft is finally giving fans the Assassin’s Creed title they have been waiting for. Set in feudal Japan, Assassin’s Creed Red is the next open-world entry in Ubisoft’s headlining franchise. Red will have extraordinarily high expectations to live up to, and if it wants to succeed the way it should, Red will need to learn from its most recent game’s mistakes.
For all of its well-deserved praise, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla does have a few key areas that should be improved. Fans have been begging for the return of stealth gameplay in all the latest games, claiming the recent trilogy has gotten too far away from its roots. However, one other area that shouldn’t be ignored is how Valhalla tackled loot, rewards, and gear. If Assassin’s Creed Red wants to be Ubisoft’s next hit game, it will need to learn from its predecessors.
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Odyssey and Valhalla's Different Systems
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla introduced a new loot system to the franchise. The highest quality gear would be marked on the map as treasure hoards as players explored the 12th-century British Isles. There was still plenty of loot that could be acquired by defeating powerful foes, but most of it was now stored in the treasure chests throughout the various regions. Minor chests could be found almost everywhere, but typically only contained resources and weak gear runes.
Rather than having a vast quantity of potential weapons and armor, Valhalla instead embraced an upgrade-based system. Players were encouraged to gather building resources and ingots made of rare elements to enhance the quality of the gear they already owned. To Ubisoft’s credit, it was an interesting new dynamic to try out. Players got attached to certain weapons or armor and could upgrade their power and appearance as they progressed through the game, rather than just ditching them for the next best thing. However, it did dull the combat in a way. The gear’s appearance is rather bland, especially early in the game. It was also a grind to get to the point where players can meaningfully upgrade their weapons or armor.
On the other side of the coin is Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. In Odyssey, seemingly every character, from bosses down to basic soldiers, would grant your player gear and loot when they were defeated. The rewards were typically commensurate to the battle’s difficulty, but everyone once in a while, gamers would stumble upon a random soldier carrying a powerful weapon or piece of armor. If nothing else, the gear could be sold for a good price or dismantled to gain valuable resources.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s higher ranked weapons and armor also each contained special abilities that introduced new combat mechanics to the franchise. Flaming swords and poison-covered spears became commonplace by the end of the main storyline. While this could make Kassandra feel overpowered, she was also a direct descendent of the Isu, so it made sense for her to wield these abilities. Valhalla tried to give players more customizability with its gear runes, but ultimately the advantages the runes provided were underwhelming.
While Odyssey went with a quantity of loot over quality, that system still excited fans more than Valhalla’s. Whether it was high quality or not, gamers love to get something when defeating a foe, rather than just experience points. Loot shouldn’t be the main character’s entire motivation, but rewarding players with gear is a guaranteed way to increase the game’s retention. Assassin’s Creed Red would be wise to adopt a system more similar to Odyssey’s than Valhalla’s. With 15 years of Assassin’s Creed titles to pull from, Ubisoft should know what fans enjoy, and more importantly, what they don’t. Valhalla revitalized the series in a lot of ways, but its loot system left a lot to be desired.
Assassin's Creed Red is currently in development.