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.
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15 Comments
Great article,although i like sometimes ‘my friends’ assassins when i get tired of repetitive killing.
Oh no! Please, please don’t make a new character. How can ezio have three games, four if you count discovery, and Altair have a full game and be playable in revelations. Connor is great and deserves to be fleshed out. But I guess the gap between eventful time periods is too large in America. But I trust Ubisoft and will be buying the next game regardless.
Im not sure if my comment was posted, but if it was, this is an update. On 2nd thought Connor only needs one game. He was fleshed out better than Altair, and i don’t want to see him in 2 more filler games like Ezio.
The Medieval Japan setting would be my favorite, considering how most of the abilities and tools that the Assassins are shown using are obviously inspired by the myth of the japanese Ninja anyway.
Plus, it’d be a very fresh scenario, not only for the AC series but also 3rd person action games as a whole.
While AC3 was fun, I never really understood why it had to be the american war of independence period. Just never felt that the open countryside and budding future big cities Boston and New York lent itself that well to the gameplay that was formerly based on labyrinthine medieval european cities.
I don’t have an issue coming out of the animus as long as it’s done as it was in ACIII; The skyscraper in NYC especially. My issue is with Desmond. He has become a hassle. Hopefully they just bring on a new subject for the Animus and leave it so that Desmond died at the end of ACIII. Maybe a female? As far as locale, I was hoping for the combo of Brazil/France/Space/Portugal around the 1800′s. So many interesting things happening during this time, including the French Revolution. I’d love Victorian England because it would force them to scale back the politics as nothing really interesting occurred in that regard and make it more about the people. As for Feudal Japan, I think they should start a separate franchise for it.
some otf thoes things you want changed are what make assassins creed what it is i personally dont think we should get rid of shean i find him quite funny
First of all i think his ideas for the new AC suck why the hell would you want something in Japan that would bring on Samurais and Ninjas rather than Assassins and why London because in AC3 Haytham starts out in London and it is in the same time period of the part in Boston so like you said (and im using your words against you) why would they put it in the same time period it would get stale. Next I think the should end up going into 2013 because it would be continued as Desmond’s Dad and they could be continuing on again in this one for a definite ending like after this all happened that basically was the ending they saved the world but that really wasnt good enough the ending would need to be Desmond Vs. Juno in like a spirit battle while you can do 2 stories one as Desmond’s Dad and one as Desmond as a spirit.
Don’t like this review. The author seems very biased and you can tell he’s not a fan of the series at all. It seems to me He was just pulling reasons to take away from a great series.
WhatCulture pick a better review next time.
Thanks
What it needs is MOAR assassinations. I loved ACIII but it was very disapponting to learn that the only reason there ever was to explore the roofs of Boston and NY and the vastness of the Frontier, was just to collect book pages, feathers and trinkets. Next time they need to give me something more interesting to do, like more murder contracts, and if they want me to explore make me search for some sort of powerful special enemies or something, not just feathers.
Yes for Japan and Yes for London, that would be good. I hated that in ac1 when you would fall in the water and die, your meant to be a bad ass assassin and die due to a drop of water, glad they improved that. No online achievements would be another choice for me. Not a fan of online achievements
Fedual Japan or Victorian London would be amazing. A strong protagonist is definitely needed but I prefer Altair over Eizo. Interesting how no-one cares about Desmond, I agree about staying in the Animus though. But I guess it might be just a breather from all the actions.
i dis-agree with a lot of this.
My first point i would like to make is i really felt a connection to Conner. Being his father and then being a young Conner, mid aged Conner and then adult Conner was cool and his struggle was a real struggle.
Im aware that assassins creed four is due for release but for future, if there is a future japan is a must. Not feudal japan, the sengeku jedi era, thats to predictable. The fall of the samurai time
JAPAN would be the best. In the time of the “fall of the samurai”. Kisho ninja could be the Japanese assassins creed, if you think about the time period im talking of, there was a real western presence due to trade and of course war (war is present where ever there are Europeans) . The emperor had plenty of western veterans to train the imperial army, it would make sense for these men to be Templar like Charles lee and the legendary MR KENWAY. Imagine the possibilities having sword fights with the greatest swords ever created, the katana.
fighting in bamboo forests and jumping roof to roof to enter a tenshu to kill a damiyo. The fighting in number 3 was good imagine kung fu fighting. JAPAN WOULD BE THE GREATEST EVER, A better game then number 3 i feel.
assassin creed is a great game i loved number 1, hated the others based in Italy etc=boring.com
iv only got back into the game since number 3, best game i have ever played, story, music, graphics 10-10. sometimes i feel game creators don’t have a clue :s.. sometimes it pays to listen to the crowd. and as far as im aware people want rid of the animus=rubbish and they want japan.
I definitly agree that the CO-OP is long over-do as well as going back to the stealthy ways of the first one although not as much as in the first game. One thing I do want to see them bring back the missions from part 1 where you gather information on your target but in a variety of ways this time. I love having my ally assasins but want to be able to use them outside the cities more. Now as far as the animus you have to keep a small story outside of it so the enviorment outside of it must be expanded let us walk around the city stealthyly avoiding templars who now are slowly taking over with the wanna be God we released in AC3 or something like that let us kill outside the animus. We did take a step in the right direction in AC3 climbing over the boxing mathc and sneaking through the arena but they can do better. Last i personally have no problem with AC not heading towards a definite ending but the story should be better atleast make a ending to certain series of events and have that lead into another series of events starting another ladder of excitment like what was kind of done with AC3 ending the story of desmond in a way that opens up questions and possibilites for a whole new series of AC games with a game like this you can make it go on for awhile without it becoming dull they just have to be creative.
Also it would be interesting to see something based in brazil or egypt maybe a plot around pyramids being a temple for some pieces of eden maybe?
Another thing they should bring more on is the bleeding affect and being able to enter the memories once or twice without the animus but just once or twice or do something interesting with that and bring s ubject 16 and his secrets back have subject 16 be the CO-OP player since hes trapped in the animus technically have him be able to come everywhere with us and talk to us through the bleeding effect that would be cool anyone agree?