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I get it. Altaïr Ibn-La’Ahad’s adventure has a special place in our memory, but have you actually gone back and replayed the first Assassin’s Creed? The repetitive mission structure was already a major point of criticism back in 2007 even in GamesRadar+’s glowing Assassin’s Creed review. The parkour system – as novel as it was back then – was rather limited, and the original assassin’s arsenal of weapons and tools couldn’t even match the variety of the older Hitman games.
Assassin’s Creed is a crucial part of modern video game history, but as a video game, it was quickly surpassed by its much superior sequel and often ranks low among the best Assassin’s Creed games according to fans. Almost 19 years later, only unfiltered nostalgia can make anyone say it holds up beyond its immaculate vibes. With the buzz that surrounds Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced suggesting there’s a big interest in more remakes, I think Ubisoft needs to revisit the series’ beginning before an inevitable return to Renaissance-era Italy.
Structural problems with easy fixes
Like it or not, big-budget remakes from established publishers with vast IP libraries will continue to be churned out for the foreseeable. Personally, I don’t have a problem with them as long as the original titles are readily available to purchase and they don’t get in the way of new entries.
In the case of Assassin’s Creed, with a new instalment on the way in Assassin’s Creed Hexe, the opportunity to fully realize the original first game’s ambitious vision shouldn’t be skipped in favor of going after more popular old-school entries that have endured the test of time better.
Remakes are interesting to analyze. They often serve one of two purposes: to “rethink” already watertight games for a modern audience, adding a few improvements beyond graphics along the way, or to complete and polish up things that weren’t quite right (or there at all) originally. No matter how iconic you think Assassin’s Creed was and still is, getting to the game’s best parts feels generally miserable.
Even as a 15-year-old, eager to simply play the latest technological marvel without viewing it as a critic, I wasn’t impressed by Assassin’s Creed’s approach to investigations and side missions before the big assassination set pieces.
After the second city I visited, I began to worry. Most of the time and resources had clearly gone into cracking the tech required to bring bustling streets to life and make the player character seamlessly climb almost every surface in the game. This is the one thing a serious Assassin’s Creed remake should completely demolish and rebuild. Learn from the best – ahem, the Hitman series – and put those gorgeous environments to good use.
We don’t need anything too fancy, as I think AC1 should remain old-fashioned regardless of adjustments and additions, but I don’t want to track down and stab an informant half a dozen times before the credits roll. I don’t enjoy the meandering tasks that pad out the game’s length in exchange for exhilarating 30-minute hunts. Instead, I can see it transformed into one of the best open-world games to justify its scope in between story beats.
Graceful aggression
My other main gripe with the original Assassin’s Creed is that its combat encounters were never very good. Even if you’d rather stick with the traditional freeflow combat that the best Batman: Arkham games immediately improved upon, Ubisoft’s first go at more elegant button-mashing didn’t have much grace. Ezio’s trilogy and the pre-RPG entries that followed delivered something better, but even Black Flag’s refresh explored big changes to the system.
It remains to be seen how both longtime fans of the series and newcomers will respond to Black Flag Resynced’s combat when they actually play it, but I think we all can agree: finnicky action RPG-style battles shouldn’t touch past entries. I’d prefer smoother animations and more reactive combos, parries, and evasive moves instead.
We were supposed to believe Altaïr was one of the best assassins the Order ever had, yet he struggled to efficiently deal with four drunken guards due to clumsy controls and janky animations. Ubisoft veterans now have all the experience and tech required to make him a lethal warrior (with, hopefully, access to more weapons and items) too.
The Resident Evil effect
Will 2027 – the series’ 20th anniversary – mark AC’s return to the Holy Land?
By now, it’s abundantly clear Ubisoft is looking at past wins and mistakes to define the future of the Assassin’s Creed franchise, which isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
The mix of old and new – both in design philosophies and as a profitable creative roadmap – falls in line with Capcom‘s approach to Resident Evil, which is paying off big time. The gaps between major new releases facilitate the existence of remasters and remakes, providing both the perfect testing grounds for new features and building up a substantial financial cushion between mainline entries. It’s a win-win scenario, as long as the quality is there.
Still, triple-A development shouldn’t be overly tied to the whims of the market. Nostalgia for the sake of nostalgia isn’t a viable path forward for any IP, but there are cases where creatives and fans will agree a classic never quite reached its full potential. After all, classics needn’t be masterpieces (or at least that’s what I believe).
Assassin’s Creed 2 is undoubtedly an industry-shaking touchpoint that should be studied to understand the evolution of an entire genre, but for actual entertainment purposes, there’s a much better game waiting to be unearthed and cleaned up. Rumours suggest I might be right and an Assassin’s Creed 1 remake is happening next. Will 2027 – the series’ 20th anniversary – mark the return to the Holy Land? I’d bet a few coins on it.
With so few upcoming Assassin’s Creed games that we know of right now, the future of the franchise has never been more mysterious…