3. Moral Ambiguity
UbisoftIn the past the Assassins Creed series has suffered from being morally uncomplicated. Everything has been a little too black and white the Templars are the bad guys and the Assassins are unquestionably good. Gaming as a medium has progressed and the consumer now expects a narrative to have morally grey elements which allow the player to make their own moral judgements. One of the opening statements in the E3 commented demo is that a King once ruled headstrong and corrupt; now headless and a corpse, murdered by men just as vile. The fact that both the beheaded King Louis XVI and the insurgents who start the Reign of Terror are dismissed as being morally reprehensible is most certainly a good thing. After playing through Assassins Creed III we know that Ubisoft are partial to depicting revolution they need to acknowledge that in a revolt both factions are always responsible for countless atrocities. It seems that neither side is being portrayed in a good light in Unity which is most definitely a step in the right direction. We hope that this moral greyness extends to the rest of the game, representing a maturing in the narrative style of the series which will for the first time allow players to make their own judgements.