5 Possibilities For Where Assassin’s Creed Should Go Next

With the mediocre, bug-riddled taste of Assassin’s Creed: Unity still fresh in the mouths of many gamers, the news that development on 2015’s Assassin’s Creed is well underway was met with a mixed-response from players. Titled Assassin’s Creed: Victory, the series’ next installment is set to take fans to Victorian London and hopefully shake up the formula with additions like a grappling hook. Though there is some scepticism (and rightfully so) surrounding the speed with which Ubisoft is moving on from Unity, I remain more optimistic and hope Victory can be the slam-dunk that the franchise is increasingly in need of.

Post-Victory however, it remains to be seen where the franchise could go. Could smaller downloadable titles like Freedom Cry be on the cards? Or will Ubisoft pull things back a little and shift back to focusing on one game a year? Despite its recent shortcomings Assassin’s Creed still has a lot of potential surrounding its future installments. The whole of history is open to Ubisoft and there’s plenty of intriguing directions Ubisoft could take the franchise.

Feel like there’s a great setting perfect for Assassin’s Creed we missed? Let us know in the comments!

Egypt

While each installment of Assassin's Creed has tended to move the series forward in time, there’s no strict rule that says they can’t take things backwards to Ancient Egypt. I think the setting has a lot of potential. It’s got some great architecture and some powerful personalities that could lend themselves well to the series conspiracy-laden plotline. In fact, the series already has a strong narrative link to the setting with Altair’s children choosing to retire there after the events of Assassin's Creed: Revelations. While Altair’s plot certainly lacks the following attached to Ezio and Edward Kenway’s, It would be cool to see the series revisit his story having learned from its past mistakes. 

Another point in favor of this possible setting exists in the form of Ubisoft’s cancelled Prince of Persia reboot. The leaked-screenshots for the project displayed an art style very reminiscent of Assassin’s Creed (though that could be a consequence of their shared engine) and an Ancient Egyptian setting. Is it that hard to imagine the project could reemerge as an Assassin’s Creed title?

Tsarist Russia

Technically speaking, the Assassin’s Creed franchise has already visited this time period through graphic novels Assassin’s Creed: The Fall and Assassin’s Creed: The Chain, but I know I’m not the only one who’d love to see this particular setting brought to life through a fully-fledged game. It’d be magnificent to the see splendour of Russian Tsars at the height of their power and there’s a lot of interesting historical events that the story could also tie itself to. 

The biggest obstacle here is that - as previously mentioned - it has already been explored and that brings with it a number of additional challenges. If Ubisoft adapts Nikolai Orelov’s story, they risk being called lazy by critics - and if they retcon or ignore it entirely, they're just as likely to anger fans. All that said, Ubisoft have made it clear ‘Everything is Permitted’ when it comes to Assassin’s Creed settings and on the merits of its architecture alone I’d love to see Ubisoft revisit Tsarist Russia.

China

When I first heard about the upcoming downloadable title Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China, I was ecstatic. This upcoming installment (originally set to be bundled in with the Assassin’s Creed: Unity Season Pass), will see players take control of Chinese Assassin Shao Jun. First introduced in the animated short Assassin’s Creed: Embers, China is set to follow through on the potential of both an Eastern-flavored setting and a strong female protagonist - tackling both in the form of a Freedom Cry-sized downloadable adventure that - given its prefix - could open the door for all sorts of cool projects later down the line.

Then, of course, I read the fine print and discovered that China is actually not a full Assassin’s Creed title but a 2.5D platformer. Which is fine - I like 2.5D platformers, but it feels like such a waste to take a setting as historically expansive as China and restrict its presence in the Assassin’s Creed universe to a mere spin-off title. My hope at this point is that Ubisoft are using China to test the waters for a future Assassin’s Creed title that could follow on from the plot and characters of China to do justice to the setting.
 

World War II

Though Unity did touch on the setting through its time anomaly segments, it’d be cool to see Assassin’s Creed break free of it’s traditional geographically-driven structure and take on a more global conflict like the Second World War. The series has hinted at Templar-influence playing a role in the war and a more-ambitious adventure that sees you globetrotting your way across the various fronts of the war could be the kind of reinvention that Assassin’s Creed needs at this point. The game could see you sabotaging enemy defences and paving the way for Allied forces or even enter active war zones to eliminate valuable targets. It even go the Rogue route and see you start the game on the side of the Nazis. 

There is the question of how rapidly advancing firearms technology would impact the series traditional gameplay here but I would argue that the moment Assassin's Creed 3’s Connor Kenway charged headfirst at a line of riflemen, the series’ lax commitment to realistically depicting firearms became VERY apparent. Jokes aside, Ubisoft do genuinely need to overhaul the role guns play in the series and perhaps a World War II game is just the excuse they need.

Space!

I realise this idea may sound like a bit of a stretch but bear with me. Seeing each Assassin’s Creed take on a new setting is a fascinating thing, but there’s something I really like about the idea of Ubisoft taking their endlessly-convoluted Templars-Vs-Assassins mythology and clarifying it through classic science fiction. An installment of the series not overly pressured to bend its narrative around famous historical figures and events could go a long way towards clearing up the confusing nature of the series’ core-conflict and selling players on some sort of narrative endgame for the franchise.

What do assassination missions look like on the Moon? Are there laser-wrist-blades? How could zero-gravity affect the series traversal mechanics? These are all important questions that a futuristic or space-age Assassin’s Creed could answer. Going full sci-fi does take away the historical angle that separates Assassin’s Creed from its competition - but if that’s what it takes to shake up the formula, I say go for it.