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You might think it’s a bit early for Ubisoft to be announcing information about the Assassin’s Creed game they’ll be releasing next fall, and you’d be right. Ubisoft hasn’t announced anything, but that didn’t stop someone else from leaking information to Kotakuregarding what will be called Assassin’s Creed Victory.
From Kotaku‘s report, here’s what we know so far. The game is in development by Ubisoft Quebec. Ubisoft had hinted at this earlier this year, but they didn’t say whether it’s be the next game or even one of the spin-off games like Assassin’s Creed Chronicles. The team in charge of this game has worked on the series before, but primarily in DLC forAssassin’s Creed III and Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. The Freedom Cry expansion was one of my favorite parts of Black Flag, so this is nothing but good news so far.
We also know that, currently, the game is only coming to PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. No previous generation versions are planned and no other games are planned, either. If you want to get your Creed on in 2015, you’ll have to upgrade.
The change in studio and focus on the new generation of consoles are both good moves. Ubisoft Montreal has been in charge of Assassin’s Creed since the series’ inception in 2007, and it seems with Unity and Rogue that fatigue is setting in. While some members of the team are surely from Montreal, a new set of eyes on the series might be a good thing. The decision to focus entirely on one game on one generation of consoles also means that the publisher will have more hands on the game and undivided resources devoted to it. The team will also be working in a much more mature version of the Anvil engine, ostensibly, rather than one that was developed primarily using specs. While I don’t want to make any promises Ubisoft can’t keep, I’d be surprised if next year’s iteration of the series wasn’t a lot more stable than Unity.
It sounds like the team is innovating in some potentially huge ways. Yes, you’ll still play as an Assassin in a big historical city, and you’ll do lots of climbing, running, and historically significant shanking.
From the description provided of the leaked video, a seven minute ‘target gameplay footage’ video – developed entirely in the Anvil engine, but not exactly real time – there’s a lot to look forward to. The Assassin will have a grappling hook, and, if it works like all our hopes and dreams, it might make navigating a very different experience from even Unity. There are also fights atop moving carriages, pointing to a more dynamic experience than we’ve seen in the past.
The game will take place in London, England, during the Victorian era. That information itself gives us all kinds of things to fantasize about. The era lasted from the late 1830s until the early 1900s; this era starts as the industrial revolution is ending. Depending exactly on when it’s set, we’d have access to historical figures like the infamous serial killer Jack the Ripper, and explorer David Livingstone (I presume) as well as authors like Oscar Wilde, Arthur Conan Doyle and Charles Dickens. Kotaku‘s description mentions trains, making this the first game that’ll see any real machines of note, which opens up new possibilities as well for both gameplay and story elements.
I wasn’t too thrilled with this year’s take on the series, but the information in this leak has me, at least, cautiously optimistic. Ubisoft has a lot to prove to gamers after a year of multiple delays, buggy games, and lackluster launches, but I like what they’re onto with Assassin’s Creed Victory.
