Ubisoft hasn’t gone into complete detail regarding exactly whatAssassin’s Creed Infinityis, simply explaining that it’ll serve as a live-service and evolving world with multiple settings. Single-player experiences aren’t going anywhere, though, so it’s easily a bit confusing. As it stands, it seems it’ll be some sort of hub game where players can launch various adventures and stories, and that deserves the benefit of the doubt. While the live-service part may give some reason for concern,Assassin’s Creed Infinitywas rather obvious in hindsight.
Of course, with so much up in the air, it’s hard to gauge exactly what fans should expect of the coming entry, or entries. However, it doesn’t matter if everything aboutAssassin’s Creed Infinityis perfect for what it is if it repeats one mistake seen in the past two games: no Assassin protagonist (s).
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Bring Back an Assassin Protagonist
It’s easy to give the benefit of the doubt to the style of the game, the chosensettings forAssassin’s Creed Infinity,and more, given that so little is known. It’s hard to judge it based on decisions that cannot be predicted. However, once upon a time, not playing as an Assassin protagonist wasn’t something fans could ever foresee. Sure, Edward Kenway inAssassin’s Creed 4: Black Flagdidn’t join the Assassins until late andAC Roguefeatures a playable Templar in Shay Cormac instead, but the past two games have had little connection to the Assassin protagonist with Assassin-style gameplay.
Bayek inAC Originswas the last one who had any real connection, becoming one of the leaders of the Hidden Ones, and despite the world changes, his gameplay and story was connected to being an Assassin at least. On the other hand, Kassandra ofAC Odysseyhas a lot of important connections to Layla’s story, to the Isu, to Bayek even, but she was not an Assassin and that reflected in the gameplay. In fact, the divide was so wide that the game was initially known as “Odyssey: An Assassin’s Creed Adventure” for how loosely it connected.
ComeAssassin’s Creed Valhalla, there’s much of the same problem. Eivor is a powerful Viking warrior, and she cooperates with the Hidden Ones, even beating the Templars in England basically for them. But she doesn’t share their goals, refuses to join them in the shadows, and her gameplay is nothing like an Assassin. It doesn’t help that, despite everything it does to bring back classic features, a lot of thestealth elements inAC Valhalladon’t live up to expectation.
So,Assassin’s Creed Infinitymay be an open-world game of sorts or maybe it won’t. It might have one protagonist or it might have multiple, and on that wide variability alone, it’s impossible to consider what the overall game looks like now. However, even ifAssassin’s Creed Infinityreveals itself perfectly, if it announcesJapan (Assassin’s Creed’s most demanded setting)as its first location, or anything else that’s right on the money, it won’t capture the audience if the character doesn’t know the words of the Creed.
