Open-world games are among the most prominent types of games out there, especially outside of the multiplayer realm dominated by shooters and MMORPGs. It’s easy to see why. There are few experiences in gaming as exciting as jumping into a vast world and exploring all there is to discover. That being said, the popular formula for open-world games is not without its detractors, and one of the people responsible for one the most common complaints recently had an opportunity to poke fun at his part in it.
Patrice Desilets is one of the major figures in the history of open-world games. Being one of the co-creators of the Assassin’s Creed series and director of its first two games, his contributions are among the biggest reasons for how open-world games have grown over the last decade. While at EGLX in Toronto, Canada recently, Destructoid reports, he was asked about this and whether he’s happy with being considered “the Assassin’s Creed guy.”
“I dunno man! Honestly, I don't know,” he said. After that, though, he did give a proper answer. “A little bit! If you're going to spend years on something I hope that happens. Breath of the Wild, wow! That was a game where you could do anything, once you finished the first half hour or so. Now, you're going to just climb towers and unfog the rest of the map. Sorry...it's my fault..." he said, causing his crowd to erupt in laughter.
If anyone’s not getting the joke, this is Desilets having a laugh at a mechanic his Assassin’s Creed games helped popularize. Fans will know it well: the business of climbing tall points of interest in order to add the surrounding areas to their maps. While popularized by the AC series, this mechanic has popped up all over the place in the years since, from fellow Ubisoft series like Far Cry and Watch Dogs to open-world games from other developers, like Monolith Productions’ Shadow of Mordor series.
At this point, many agree that the tower-climbing mechanic has been played out and tend to mock it whenever it rears its overused head. Some developers, however, have found ways to spice it up, like in the game Desilets mentioned, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Unlike the easy-to-scale buildings in Assassin’s Creed games, the towers in that game are more like puzzles that challenged players with getting around their different obstacles.
Desilets is not in the best position to comment on how the franchise he helped create is fairing nowadays. As he pointed out at EGLX, he hasn’t played an AC game since he left Ubisoft in 2010, simply saying he “just can’t do it.” Ultimately, though, he is proud of what he achieved and accepts how his connection to it is what made it possible to start his own studio, Panache Digital Games, and release its first game, Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey.
Source: Destructoid