If reports are to be believed, Ubisoft has a slew of exciting Assassin’s Creed content on the way. The three games that are rumored to be in development offer some huge departures from what fans will be more familiar with, and the release of Rift, Nexus, and Infinity over the next few years could mark a turning point for the series. The change-up could help to battle the franchise fatigue that some players were suffering from, but amidst the range of new elements, the series shouldn’t forget the foundational Assassin-Templar conflict.
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Infinity And The Future Of The Franchise
With a lack of official information, what players know about Assassin’s Creed Infinity has mostly been garnered from leaks and speculation. Following the hugely popular recent trend in games, Assassin’s Creed Infinity is apparently adopting a live-service model, switching up the traditional narrative-focused single-player experience of previous franchise entries. While some fans love the idea of an Assassin’s Creed title that receives frequent updates and new content over the course of many years, others are worried that it will be too much of a departure from what they’ve come to love about the series.
Luckily, players could still have Assassin’s Creed Rift to look forward to, which seems like a more traditional Assassin’s Creed experience with a self-contained narrative and other classic elements. It’s rumored to center on Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s Basim and could have even been originally intended as story DLC for that title. There are also rumors swirling around another title called Assassin’s Creed Nexus, which could be a large-scale VR game. It’s clear that Ubisoft still has big ambitions for the franchise, even though recently its survival has been in question.
The Importance Of The Assassin-Templar War
With some potentially fascinating new directions for the franchise on the horizon, many players are expecting a seismic shift to take place in the world of Assassin’s Creed. Sometimes franchises have to take risks, especially when their formula starts to feel a little stale, and while some fans are still apprehensive, at least there seems to be a lot of new Assassin’s Creed content on the way. One thing that fans are hoping Ubisoft doesn’t overlook, however, is the importance of the Assassin-Templar war. This element has underpinned almost all the different games’ narratives and helps to tie them all together when some of the other story aspects get a little convoluted.
Across all the time jumps, historical settings, new characters, different protagonists, and branching plotlines, the Assassin-Templar conflict has been one of the only mainstays throughout the whole series. While it can take on different guises, like the nefarious Abstergo or the Order of the Ancients and the Hidden Ones, the war waged across millennia remains a central component. The conflict may have enjoyed a more prominent focus in the older games, but it has occasionally been overshadowed in other titles by bigger plot points or even been almost completely sidelined. It makes sense for individual Assassin’s Creed games to want to try new things and explore new avenues, but the Assassin-Templar war is what gives the overarching narrative its backbone.
Assassin’s Creed Infinity is Ubisoft’s chance to bring the conflict back to the forefront and help to ground the plot of the expansive live-service title. Sometimes the narratives of Assassin’s Creed games can get a little complicated, which is hardly surprising for titles that jump around in time and have so many separate installments to loosely bring together. However, this does present Assassin’s Creed Infinity with quite a challenge, especially if its narrative is going to be unfolding across multiple years in different chunks of content. Having something substantial and already established like the Assassin-Templar war is an easy way to link them and keep players engaged.
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Infinity’s Potential
While not much is currently known about Assassin’s Creed Infinity, it is reportedly utilizing multiple settings with the animus as a tool to navigate between the different locations, suggesting different points in time and a variety of protagonists. This would be a great way to explore the ebbs and flows of the Assassin-Templar war through various locations and time periods. While Assassin’s Creed games already show a historical setting and a modern one with actions in the past affecting the future, Assassin’s Creed Infinity could explore this more thoroughly as players jump about in time and see the direct consequences of their decisions and activities in the fate of the Assassin-Templar conflict.
Some players are hoping for a return to competitive multiplayer for Assassin’s Creed Infinity, with gamers able to pit their protagonists against someone else’s and perhaps even choose a side between the Templars and Assassins, waging war themselves in some epic PvPvE encounters. There are lots of new locations and an endless number of time periods that the next game could explore, but Assassin’s Creed Infinity could also retread old ground and revisit the stories of previous games as well. Its years of post-launch content will need to be worth the price tag, and hopefully Ubisoft has some exciting things planned.
With such an ambitious premise and the expectations of a live-service model to keep delivering significant content and updates to the base game as time goes on, Ubisoft seems like it has a lot on its plate when it comes to Assassin’s Creed Infinity. Multiple locations, time periods, and characters make sense for that kind of setup, but it also means that fans may be waiting a long time for the game to launch due to the amount of work this will take. They may be able to enjoy some other Assassin’s Creed content while they wait, but with so many questions surrounding Infinity and the potential it has to be something truly unique, lots of fans will be impatient for its release.
The next Assassin’s Creed game is reportedly in development.
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