10 Things Assassin's Creed Must Learn From Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain

10. Manage Your Assassins Better - Have Consequences In The World

First pioneered in Brotherhood, the idea of playing as Ezio as he micro-manages a whole bunch of assassins darting off round the globe on missions was a strong one. Ubi put this together before the poisonous ways of mobile gaming revenue were in effect, and although it essentially meant you were clicking on guys and sending them out to be levelled up - had the awesome hook of then having them drop in out of nowhere if you were in a bind. In MGS V, your handheld iDroid device has a subsection that lets you essentially do exactly the same thing (save for calling in troops onto the battlefield). However, one key difference is the missions you send them on have tailored repercussions and consequences for the upcoming missions you'll embark on. A guard spotted you from afar with some night-vision goggles? Dispatch a team to halt the supply of them in the area. Someone else finished you off with a shotgun, suited up with riot gear or popped your eyelids off with a rifle? All of these are separate options you can get your combat team to handle, and the higher their rank, the higher the percentage of them pulling it off before your next deployment.

Back to Assassin's Creed, and this implementation writes itself. Guards can have protective armour removed, firearms dismantled - even the amount of enemies in a given area could be thinned down if your supplementary team provided a distraction somewhere else. Brotherhood got the ball rolling on this, Revelations kept it going, but since then it's reappeared in Unity, which reconciled it to an optional (and therefore disappointing) phone app, a huge shame.