So we made a few mistakes and… blatantly disregarded the core tenants of the very Creed that we swore to upheld. It happens, and certainly nothing bad can happen as a result, right?
Right!?
It’s no secret that the “modern day” elements of Assassin’s Creed were heavily criticized at the time of release. The common refrain was that players wanted to be the cool guy assassin from the third crusade, and not some whiny bartender from New York.
I’m not about to say that Desmond and that part of the franchise are some of the aspects of it. Personally, I think the modern day setting is “fine”: Serviceable, but nothing to write home about. However, regardless of how you may feel about it, it is a necessary component to the franchise. At the very least, even Ubisoft appears to understand this, for even now they make sure to tie each game to their long-running meta narrative in some way. However, such little time is giving to this aspect of the world and the overarching plots within it that it almost feels like the development teams are embarrassed that the have to include them.
As much as I enjoy the Ezio trilogy and much of what follows it, I look back on this original Assassin’s Creed game, often thinking that it was a mistake to capitulate to the naysayers who railed against the meta-narrative that frames the franchise. I confess to some degree of hubris as I write that, since clearly history has vindicated Ubisoft’s decisions when crafting the blueprint for the franchise going forward, yet I can’t help myself. I can’t help but wonder what might have happened if instead of trying to jettison the modern day setting, they refined it, taking feedback while staying true to the vision that I suspect was originally there. (And I could very well be wrong about that.)
With regards to this original game, that is a theme the plays out repeatedly in my thoughts on it.
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