Ubisoft: More ‘present content’ in next Assassin’s Creed games

The next Assassin’s Creed games will feature more content set in the present than Unity did. That has been confirmed by writer Darby McDevitt. According to the Ubisoft employee, it was not possible to put more “present” in Assassin’s Creed: Unity.

Released in the fall of last year, Assassin’s Creed: Unity, unlike most other Assassin’s Creed games, contained little content set in the present. According to McDevitt, developing that before the release of Unity was too much to ask. “To develop a city for part gameplay in the present, or even just part of a city, it takes a large team of artists and designers over six months. And then you still have to make gameplay,” was the explanation of McDevitt during a community livestream on Twitch, which covered, among other things, why Unity didn’t feature gameplay in the present.

According to McDevitt, that will not become a trend. According to the writer, the next Assassin’s Creed games will be provided with gameplay that takes place in the present. Assassin’s Creed II: Brotherhood would be used as an example. In that game, the gameplay in the present took place in and around the small village of Monteriggioni. The reason for that was that Ubisoft could reuse that village from Assassin’s Creed II. According to McDevitt, people can expect similar “recycled” places in the “present” pieces that will be in the upcoming Assassin’s Creed games.

In addition to confirming that the present is returning in Assassin’s Creed, McDevitt also stated that the “First Civilization” story, which gamers have encountered in several Assassin’s Creed games, is still not finished. According to McDevitt, he and a team of writers have been working on a major document about the first civilization for two years. In total, the team would now have invented more than five hundred years of history for civilization. According to McDevitt, its content will be featured in the various games that Ubisoft will make within the franchise over the next ten to twenty years.

In Assassin’s Creed, the player traditionally takes on the role of an assassin in a certain historical era. That assassin is always an ancestor of a person living in the present, who has stepped into a special machine – the Animus – to be able to relive his ancestor’s memories. Most Assassin’s Creed games offer the player content on both sides of the story, but in Unity, the sharing set in the present was limited to a few cutscenes.