Assassin's Creed: 9 Biggest Franchise Mistakes Ubisoft Will Never Live Down

6. Losing The Connection Between Characters In AC III

Post-Ezio trilogy - and post a specific team member departing (more on that later) - you could tell Ubisoft just wanted to settle into a steady annual rhythm of "Choose location, choose protagonist, go stab things". The present day storyline was pretty messed up and they'd lost their Creative Director, but the franchise was making straight bank, so there was no need to do anything other than milk that cash cow dry.

However, where in AC II it felt fantastic to actually uncover passages describing what Altair got up to post-AC 1 - and then later unlocking his ceremonial assassin robes - AC III was a disconnect in every possible sense. By the close of the game they'd even kill Desmond, removing that already-on-life-support part of the franchise that was now waiting to be destroyed.

Indeed, playing AC III felt entirely like Ubi feeding the masses with a yearly dollop of by-the-numbers microwaved portions, rather than those handcrafted hearty meals we were accustomed to. That meant all the running, jumping and map-unlocking was present and correct, but there was no tangible continuity to the universe other than the arbitrary present day stuff, which in retrospect, contributed exponentially to that yearly "Here's another one" feel that now personifies the series.