To the surprise of roughly no-one, it was finally announced officially today that Asssassin's Creed 4 is in the works, and that it would introduce a new protagonist as well as a new time period to the previous game. I'll be the first to admit that I was a little cold to this series to begin with; the first game didn't inspire much in me with its repetitive mechanics and style-over-substance approach, but every subsequent title has introduced something new that surprised and impressed me. With a franchise now spawning five major titles and even a film adaptation in the works (starring and being produced by Michael Fassbender), it's safe to say that Assassin's Creed is one of the hottest properties in gaming right now. However, that doesn't mean Ubisoft can get complacent; fun though the last game was, it had its share of problems, ones which can certainly be ironed out with this latest title, which might benefit from the news that it's being developed by a different team. Here are 10 things Assassin's Creed 4 needs...
10. Set It In Feudal Japan or Victorian London
The Assassin's Creed games don't tend to know the meaning of "less is more"; they tend to run their settings well into the ground, such that by the time a game is finished, I'm pretty fed up of the environment and keen to move on. What's clear is that Ubisoft needs to ensure that each game has a different time period to prevent things from going stale, and the rumours have been running rampant for months on quite where that might be. One tasty rumour was to set the next game in Victor Hugo-era Paris, but more tantalising to me are Feudal Japan and Victorian London. Feudal Japan has a wealth of exciting possibilities relating to the Samurai code, while Victorian London, with its being mired in death thanks to Jack the Ripper's rampage, could make for some very tense, exciting, and even scary missions. Though the Renaissance Europe and Civil War America aspects of Assassin's Creed 3 were a profound shake-up for the series, these new, diverse settings would add even more flavour to the series, and I expect introducing Samurai assassins would go down particularly well with fans.