In these fifteen years, the Assassin’s Creed saga, albeit with ups and downs, has undoubtedly been an extremely successful operation by Ubisoft. From Altair to Eivor passing through Ezio Auditore and all the others, the story of the assassins and their fight with the Templars has established itself as one of the most recognizable worlds of our videogame and non-videogame pop imagery, accumulating in this period of time as many as 200 million copies.
However, this formula needs to be revived and modified after a few years in order not to become too stale, which is why in these hours Ubisoft has defined, a bit like Marvel / Disney, which titles await us in the future both shortly and long term and how the game will change, always trying to remain himself.
The first chapter of this new course will be Assassin’s Creed Mirage, will be released in 2023 and represents a classic return to origins, with an even more classic desire to incorporate what has been learned in recent years. Mirage, set almost exclusively in 861 Baghdad, returns to the Middle Eastern atmospheres of the first chapter and will tell us about the adventures of Basim Ibn Ishaq, a master of the Occult, or what was before the Brotherhood of Assassins.
The details are not yet many but we know that Basim will be able to count on Enkidu, an eagle who will help him in the reconnaissance phase, and that many of the RPG-like elements of the last three chapters will not be present. Instead, there will be new parkour moves, which given the urban element will return to being central, and new combat mechanics and a completely revised artificial intelligence. In general the impression that it will be a more linear and narrative experience than the hangover of open spaces that had characterized the last three chapters.
A triptych for the future
But Ubisoft’s plans are already looking beyond Mirage, to plan what will be the true future of Assassin’s Creed, which is a long-term project that aims to create an online hub that collects all the settings of the series to mix the classic experience with experiences. online multiplayer. In short, a full-blown game as a service, which are now the present of all those video games that want to last over time and collect a constant flow of money.
To get there, however, we will have to go through three other games dedicated to the killers, which for now are identified by as many code names: Jade, Red and Hexe.
Jade will be a mobile game set in China, during the Qin dynasty in 215 BC, and will also allow you to visit the Great Wall of China, or at least the part of it that had already been built. The most interesting aspect of Jade will be that for the first time we will be able to create the character from scratch. Visually, the game seems to be of a very high level for a title designed for smartphones, even considering the computing power of the more expensive models, but more than anything else it will be interesting to understand how comfortable, simple and fun it will be to play.
Red will instead be a more traditional title and will finally introduce a setting long requested by many fans: feudal Japan. Obviously the details are very scarce, but it should be a title more in line with the latest trilogy, therefore an action rpg with very large spaces to explore and not focused on a single city like Mirage.
The most curious and interesting title of this triptych is Hexe, which was announced by a trailer heavily focused on horror and occult atmospheres, complete with a pentacle, reminiscent of the witch hunt, the gloomy woods of the United States and a historical period that it could be that of 1600. For the moment we know absolutely nothing about the game, but in fact a killer, or a killer, able to disappear into the shadows may not be particularly well regarded by the Puritans.
And in order not to miss anything, support for Valhalla will end with a free update by the end of the year.
And all the rest
Meanwhile, in the background, there is also the TV series announced in collaboration with Netflix. In short, Assassin’s Creed will continue to be an important resource for Ubisoft for the next few years and this without counting the arrival of Skull and Bones, a pirate game that had been reported missing and which instead miraculously arrived in port after a very long gestation (and which was born as a rib of the fourth chapter of Assassin’s Creed), Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, developed in Italy and following the excellent title that inaugurated a historic collaboration with Nintendo, a new game from The Division, a mobile version of Rainbow Six and a lot of other stuff boiling in the pot.
Tencent will be happy, which recently invested $ 300 million in the company of the Guillemot brothers, founders and owners of Ubisoft, who firmly maintain the leadership of the company despite more or less blatant acquisition attempts.