Whatever the next title is, it probably will come out this year after the movie was the focus last year. I will be very cautious before buying this upcoming game because it needs a serious return to the roots of what made Assassin's Creed great and engaging. Like stealth, crowd interaction and reaction to the player's actions, where they can even hinder you, collectibles being entirely optional, a good balance of historical and modern day story, ever since the first game.
Random ramblings on previous games
The first game truly shined to introduce something different, something new and interesting. The medieval feel of the Crusades was great, the modern-day was established and had a good balance between the two, a return to roots in Egypt may accomplish this again, where AC lately is stretching on the too-modern line of historical settings.
Micro-transactions for example, is not one of those features I wish to see return. Why the hell would I spend Erudito credits for something I can get in-game by just playing the game? Additional credits cost real money, who would pay money for time savers? If they have collectible maps, I want to be able to find that in-game preferably purchased with in-game currency not this weak premium currency BS. If I remember correctly, I saw a screenshot showing the upcoming game will have micro-transactions which is just terrible. I hope it is not more prominent.
In AC: Revelations, we have a rather short story, and a slightly improved multiplayer. One of my biggest gripes with the multiplayer was how careless and unbalanced the abilities were. The teleport ability was my most disliked ability IMO, it was not easy to counter and everyone was using the smoke bomb and teleport ability in artifact assault, and later any other game mode. Everyone was doing it, and if the whole enemy team does it and your team is doing jack-all, oh man prepare for frustration to even have a chance. Multiplayer was good besides that, but teleport ability just ruined it.
Ever since Assassin's Creed 3's end, where we, the player are no longer given a name to care for. Where in IV: Black Flag, we are simply an unnamed person which felt very jarring and bland IMO.
Unity was trying something different, but it lacked in many areas. And that is after the major day-one problems were fixed. Optimization was a huge issue, crashes randomly and some features not fleshed-out. You can team up with up to four players, in just co-op missions not the whole or even majority of the main story. The trailer led to believe the missions was important to the story, and that mission featured was not even in-game! Just the antagonist as an end game easter egg in the released version. They planned originally to include female assassins, but for the equipment loadout setup later said it was too much work. That was disappointing. One of my biggest gripes was how come I can no longer interact with civilian NPCs, they add more NPCs which can impact performance at the cost of not being able to pickpocket them, attack them, etc. I remember you can push them but that was it.
The last Assassin's Creed game I played was Syndicate, which was not terrible, nor the greatest either. It was an enjoyable game for me but it lacked in certain areas. This title was almost becoming too modern, Evie's chameleon ability makes no sense in-game other than the animus being a simulation. No multiplayer was a blessing this time IMO, but only because in Brotherhood, Revelations, III, Black Flag the multiplayer was the same with new features tacted on. The series needed a break from a multiplayer. Especially for how many games Ubisoft could continue to support the multiplayer feature.
This, and after playing to finish AC III was decent, AC: Rogue was solid too IMO.
As for the movie, have not seen it. Maybe that year was well spent on making the upcoming game better.
