6. Please Give Us An Emotional Story (And Someone Relatable)
The original Assassins Creed now comes across as little more than a tech demo for the franchise; many of the key elements are here, but the depth we now expect was yet to be introduced. Altair still stands as one of the most important assassins - his outfit is always a much coveted unlockable - but his lone outing succeeded solely on gameplay. It was Ezio Auditore who really who really made the franchise one with relatable characters. Seeing him develop over the course of three games from cocky playboy to tired Grand Master, all among a vibrant setting previously unseen in gaming had us completely involved in the plot full of minor, otherwise forgettable historical players. Even Desmond, in the original almost called Stock Hero, was attempted to be filled with some character beyond being plot essential (success or not isn't important). Connor (and Haytham) were interesting characters, but it was hard to get an emotional connection to them. Noah Watts did a good job giving Connor dialect-free speech, but that inadvertently made him feel aloof and ruined any chance of creating an emotional conflict between him and his father (menacingly voiced by Adrian Hough). For Black Flag to sit alongside both the series best (and for Edward to take on definitive pirate characters like Jack Sparrow) there needs to be a little more relatability this time around.