The modern day storyline in Assassin's Creed has long been a topic of sometimes heated discussion amongst fans. Back in the early years of the franchise, when it was Desmond Miles and the gang, most people seemed interested in seeing where things would lead, but later instalments never really got the plot back on track after Desmond's era came to an end. It's been very stop-start ever since, and many would argue that the most recent modern day segments in the likes of Assassin's Creed Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla simply get in the way.
If you feel the same, then we've got potentially good news: Assassin's Creed's modern day storyline is being moved to Assassin's Creed Infinity — the new 'hub' for the franchise, which will house upcoming projects Assassin's Creed Red and Assassin's Creed Hexe. This, according to producer Marc-Alexis Côté, means that you'll never be torn from your historical adventures again.
"People who love just immersing themselves in the past will be able to jump right in there and never be interrupted or need to know who Desmond and Layla is," says Côté.
As speculated, Infinity will be a vehicle for the modern day narrative, with your own character exploring various simulations through the Animus. Côté explains: "The abstraction that we want people to have is [Infinity] is your Animus. It is your DNA Explorer on your desktop. You are the main story character."
Honestly, this sounds good to us. Although the modern day stuff in the latest games isn't hugely invasive, it does pull you out of the experience from time to time, forcing you to interact with, as far as we're concerned, crappy characters that we couldn't give a damn about.
But maybe you feel differently? What do you think about this restructuring in Assassin's Creed? Never get pulled out of the Animus again in the comments section below.
[source ign.com]
Comments 38
Gonna go against popular opinion and say this sucks! The modern day story, at least for me, was the biggest hook of the series. It was something unique that linked the franchise together.
This is a horrible idea
I loved the modern plot until they killed off Desmond so as far as I'm concerned yeah basically junking the current modern plot is probably for the best Layla is a garbage character
Kill it with fire. I hated those parts.
I get why people didnt like the present story but i wanted them to improve it, learn from past mistakes. However as Basim is now the protagonist for the next game it makes sense
@Zenne96 Opinions differ. For me modern line is something that ruins the immersion and atmosphere. But I'm perfectly fine with it if modern lines can be easily skipped throughout the game.
Good. It should’ve been canned years ago after it was so blatant they’d stopped caring with how little screen time they got in Origins - Valhalla, especially with how long those games are. Seeing as how neither the writers nor players are interested in the present day segments , best to just kill them off.
I liked the idea of the modern day storyline. But the execution has been poor to say the least over the past several games. It pulls you out of the experience with a storyline that personally I no longer care about.
I actually find the lore surrounding the modern day storyline fascinating but unfortunately the actual storytelling in the modern day segments has largely underwhelmed. That said I actually was intrigued to see where it was going after the end of Valhalla. I hope they don't just ignore it completely going forward.
This whole Infinity business has me rather intrigued. Playing as your own character through your own animus opens up the potential for some truly interesting modern day interactions. Perhaps something a little more 4th wall breaking…
@Korgon @Jayslow I feel like part of the reason why those parts have been underwhelming is because they minimized them after people complained about them existing in the first place.
I always enjoyed the sci-fi aspect of AC myself.
The modern/future day story line is the main reason I didn't play valhalla. Pulling me from my game for a dreadfully boring sitting is enough to boycot in my opinion.
Thank god. Valhalla was barely there, but still.
Never went back by choice, Ever... it is an awful idea that breaks gameplay. Characters/Narrative will also never be able to compete with iconic ones in the past.
I’d normally be happy about this but surely this doesn’t include Mirage? Basim looking into his own past would be really interesting.
I mean, there is no animus now... Other than the portable one Loki is using. It's mainly just Desmond and Layla floating around in a glowing orb within Yggdrasil connected to all of time, right? 😅😅 Hence infinity as a concept.
I didn't mind the modern stuff, but it was easy to miss parts of it and it was very convoluted at (all) times.
I'd quite like a modern story in Codename: Red, though. Set piece scenes where we're firing off Uzi's at the Yakuza section of the Templars as we zip around Tokyo on Yamaha's 😁
@nessisonett what interest would Loki have in Basim though? He's just spying on Eivor for a bit, looking for his own lost godly children, and I imagine that gets wrapped up when we find out why she is buried in North America etc in the final chapter.
I can understand this decision - its a part of the Franchise that has been very divisive among gamers. On the one hand, its what makes the storyline unique, ties up the lore and of course links all the different eras, protagonists etc together but on the other, the game-play has been 'dire' and interrupts the main focus of the game.
By relegating it to their Hub world makes sense and be the point of access to jump through different eras, different settings, different protagonists etc. Then the main game can be much more focussed on the 'period' setting and its story line. That then also can be used to expand the hub - adding another 'timeline' to explore and tie it in to the Modern era...
This really sucks. This was part of the AC idendity since the beginning. I really loved the stuff. It wasn't always great but it was never too intrusive. This is really bad news for me. Kills my hype a little.
The modern part was the only thing I liked about IV for example.
So they're removing the hook that made AC unique.
I think this is Ubisoft giving up on the idea.
It was never implemented well, but as many people said here it was basically the hook of the series.
Instead of doing something to integrate better they're relegating it to a optional hub.
GOOD I hate those with a passion, it always gets me out of the mood for the game
Number 16's story and revealing his mystery was one of my favourite things in the ezio trilogy so i dont think modern day stuff is bad , just needs to be implemented properly
im one of the happy to be gone, hated gameplay being broken for something boring.
however i get why they are there, those that enjoy them can do so from the hub
I actually thought the whole ancient Assassins vs Templars plot and the First civilisation/Adam & Eve, Apple of Eden etc story idea was excellent and really added a whole new dimension to just running around Venice, Rome, Greece, Egypt etc.
However, the storytelling for that plot was done poorly and got worse with almost every new game.
The modern day was a good idea, but as the series started to drift, it was clear they had no plan and it was an incoherent mess. It's unrecoverable unless the series just soft reboots the modern day and brings back Desmond with focused AC games (hahahahaha), or it just reboots entirely, which it quite frankly needs as the series overall story is a catastrophe at this point due to a complete lack of any artistic integrity with the series and shameless using the name for unrelated games. It would also allow for wasted settings to be reused.
Thank god for that indeed.
I hate to see this go - what I really wanted was to see it FIXED, with some real care and storytelling effort devoted to it. I enjoyed it with Desmond quite a bit, and in the original it truly helped make the game into something new that you actually cared about.
But if the choice is between a few awkward bits with severely underdeveloped characters and nearly no story because they can't be bothered to put in any effort or nothing at all, I suppose nothing at all is better. But that's a painful choice, and it didn't have to be this way.
Desmond was fine but Layla was absolutely dreadful.
This all only underlines that Ubi simply stucked in Animus... Present day story was heart of Assassin's Creed saga. This Infinity solution is the worst thing that could happend and therefore AC saga is as dead as Her Majesty... At least my PS3 works and AC1-ACSyndicate is on the shelf.
About time!!
Those never really went anywhere and it just took you out of the gameplay at odd points.
Started off strong but quickly became a chore to just finish it and get into the story again.
@Zenne96 I completely agree with you. The fact that they screwed up the modern story, or even forgot about it for a few games doesn't mean that its a bad idea. I want a lot more of it, just better written and thought out.
The worst thing that game developers do is listen to the loud minority complaining about things in their games.
That was one thing that I didn't like with the AC series the modern day stuff. It just threw off the games pacing to be honest and it always felt like it should have been it's own game to begin with. In fact the main reason that I never finished an AC game was because of those parts.
This is definitely great news.
@Zenne96 While I wouldn't say it was the 'biggest hook of the series' it WAS the thing that tied all the games together and had meaning. Hopefully this doesn't mean it will we weak/dialled in.
claps until hands are bloody and raw
@Zenne96 I would not mind a modern version of assassins Creed but without it being in the old game it was so stupid.
Completely lost interest in it after they killed off Desmond also don't understand why they killed off Lucy didn't make any sense it started off interesting but it never had any real progression & I found the Layla character just really annoying
I actually enjoyed the modern day elements. I agree that since Desmond died, they don't seemed to have grasped onto anything overly tangible, but still...
I think it needed a little more immersion and more impact on the story and their lives, rather than just running around and finding things.
More effort from Ubisoft could have easily made the later games as impactful as the first.
I'm honestly conflicted...while it makes more sense to keep them more separate now, I'm still too used to how it was handled before.
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