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1433070cookie-checkNext Assassin’s Creed Will Move Away From Scripted Narrative
Industry News
2016/11

Next Assassin’s Creed Will Move Away From Scripted Narrative

Ubisoft wants to give players more agency, something that’s been missing from today’s generation of games. In an interview with a French newspaper LeMonde, Ubisoft’s chief creative officer, Serge Hascoet, explained that they want to give players more freedom in how they play and scale back on the restricted scripted events.

According to GamesIndustry.biz, Hascoet stated…

“For the next Assassin’s Creed, the designers have created a system in which what I do not only has meaning just now, but also long-term,” […] “My actions will change the world.”

Sounds like a quote from Peter Molyneux.

According to the article Hascoet and crew will be using a similar model to Far Cry 4 when it comes to interactivity and freedom, something that also carried over into the design of Far Cry: Primal, which came out earlier this year. They also used part of that philosophy for Watch Dogs 2, despite all three games having scripted story narratives in how events unfolded.

However, in the case of Watch Dogs 2 the game could be played in a non-linear way, with players having the freedom to pick and choose their missions that all helped lead up to the game’s big finale against “The Douche”.

Ubisoft is hoping to create more “interesting” events and opportunities for players in Assassin’s Creed. They use Watch Dogs 2 as an example of a game packed with activities. Essentially they want to try to create the sort of mimetic effect that Rockstar has somehow mastered with GTA.

Part of the problem is that Ubisoft gets in the way of themselves. Assassin’s Creed is suffering from the brand fatigue, much like Call of Duty. We’ll see if Ubisoft’s “less scripted” approach to the narrative will help the upcoming game. Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate didn’t fare so well when it released in 2015, so maybe after a break for a year and an opportunity to refresh the franchise will help put the series back on track. Then again, if they go full SJW it won’t matter how little scripting they have for the narrative, they’ll simply have an IP dead in the water.

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