Next Assassin's Creed may not have boats, but tech will be repurposed

"all of this technology, it might appear in future games--it might just not be on boats."

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Surprise! There's going to be an Assassin's Creed game this year. But, will it feature pirates? Will it even feature naval combat at all?

One of the big challenges inherent to Ubisoft's time-spanning adventure series is that settings can change drastically. If the next game takes place in Egypt, for example, there won't be much opportunity to reintegrate the excellent naval combat of Assassin's Creed 3 and 4. However, Ubisoft isn't too bummed at the prospect of loving naval combat in future AC games, noting that the tech can be used to build entirely new things.

"We always build on technology, nothing ever gets set aside," Ubisoft's Darby McDevitt told Edge. "There's often ways to creatively use old technology for new things. One of the things that made AC3's naval combat possible--and then of course AC4--is that we were able to have characters climb and walk around on dynamically moving objects.

"With AC3 we started working on that technology and it fed into the naval combat because the boats are constantly moving as opposed to being fixed to the ground, so all of this technology, it might appear in future games--it might just not be on boats. It might appear in a completely different way."

Of course, DeVitt isn't giving any hints on what the next game will be, noting that there are clues and red herrings hidden in Black Flag. However, given that it's tax season, it probably won't be too long before Ubisoft shows us this year's game.

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    January 29, 2014 10:00 AM

    Andrew Yoon posted a new article, Next Assassin's Creed may not have boats, but tech will be repurposed.

    "all of this technology, it might appear in future games--it might just not be on boats."

    • reply
      January 29, 2014 10:03 AM

      Intergalactic Planetary Assassin's Creed Confirmed!

      • reply
        January 29, 2014 10:05 AM

        Assassin's Creed V: IN SPAAAAAACE!

      • reply
        January 29, 2014 10:18 AM

        Exactly what I was thinking! Clearly they mean spaceships!!

        They are all... "hey... you see that Star Citizen shit? We can totally get people to spend $1,500 on Assassin's Creed Space Pirate Frigates!!"

        • reply
          January 29, 2014 1:28 PM

          Could you imagine going all Assassin's Creed on a docked Constellation?
          That would be some interesting boarding combat.

          • reply
            January 29, 2014 2:59 PM

            Oh, I'm not saying it would be a bad thing... as long as they don't try to sell me thousand dollar space ships! I'd totally play the shit out of Ass Creed Space Pirate!

      • reply
        January 29, 2014 10:40 AM

        Pretty much

    • reply
      January 29, 2014 10:03 AM

      Can't wait to play more AC. Black Flag was the best in series.

      • reply
        January 29, 2014 10:09 AM

        I've had a ton of fun with Black Flag.

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        January 29, 2014 10:21 AM

        I hadn't played an AC since the first one... so AC IV was a great place to pick the series up again. Besides one mission where I had difficultly (naval combat took some practice for me), I've had a lot of fun with the game.

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        January 29, 2014 10:36 AM

        I'd love to see the "You were spotted, start again" missions go the FUCK AWAY, but otherwise, fuck yeah, AC4 was great.

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          January 29, 2014 10:59 AM

          Agreed. 70 hours in. Amazingly fun game with a frustrating minority of fuck awful stealth missions.

        • reply
          January 29, 2014 11:03 AM

          I don't have a problem with them in limited quantities, but they did seem to be overused in AC4.

      • reply
        January 29, 2014 3:33 PM

        I tried the first two and got bored with the repetitive gameplay. AC4 is the corrected every problem I had with the series. I'd even like a more fully fleshed out pirate game.

    • reply
      January 29, 2014 10:12 AM

      Feudal Japan, damnit!

      • reply
        January 29, 2014 10:30 AM

        Meiji Restoration, not the purely feudal era. In general, times of change and conflict have the most potential IMO.

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          January 29, 2014 11:25 AM

          Can keep the guns in too. Probably the most fertile era, but lacking some in pure Bushido. I guess Bushido Against The World. (Personally, I'm a sucker for the couple of generations surrounding the Battle Of Sekigahara.)

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        January 29, 2014 10:33 AM

        The nomadic tribes under Genghis Khan could be fun.

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          January 29, 2014 10:39 AM

          Hard to do without major changes in game focus. Nomadic tribes don't tend to have a lot of tall vertical buildings.

        • reply
          January 29, 2014 11:52 AM

          This. With Dan Carlin's hardcore history on the khans as the background sound.

      • reply
        January 29, 2014 10:39 AM

        Cavemen dammit!

        Grok, why you have wrist club?

      • reply
        January 29, 2014 11:18 AM

        Exactly. Sword of the Samurai remake please

        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword_of_the_Samurai_(video_game)

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        January 29, 2014 11:28 AM

        It's gonna end up being Ancient Egypt. There was a leak a couple years ago and everyone assumed it was related to Prince of Persia and then there was a demo reel calling it Osiris, but I'm betting it's actually Assassin's Creed, has always been Assassin's Creed or at some point it was re-purposed as Assassin's Creed.

        Here's the screenshot:
        http://egyptianaemporium.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/prince-of-persia.jpg

      • reply
        January 29, 2014 2:21 PM

        [deleted]

    • reply
      January 29, 2014 10:17 AM

      Playing Black Flag made me yearn for an AC game that was like a modern interpretation of Privateer where you could get in a spaceship fight to disable the ship, then board them and get in a 3rd person firefight while stealing their cargo.

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        January 29, 2014 11:04 AM

        That would be so awesome

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        January 29, 2014 1:24 PM

        minus the third person, this sounds like what some people have built up Star Citizen in their minds to be

    • reply
      January 29, 2014 10:19 AM

      I would settle for a Sid Meier's Pirates'esque homage with the Black Flag systems and more demanding sail / wind use, that's the best part of the game.

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        January 29, 2014 11:14 AM

        That's what I really hope they make!

      • reply
        January 29, 2014 11:31 AM

        I would buy the shit out of that

    • reply
      January 29, 2014 10:28 AM

      Sweet, I hope they re-purpose the sitting in bushes tech.

      • reply
        January 29, 2014 10:40 AM

        I'd like to see them evolve that tech into a crouch button.

    • reply
      January 29, 2014 10:38 AM

      Grand Theft Assassin

    • reply
      January 29, 2014 11:05 AM

      I think it's obvious that Ubisoft is making a Pirates series spun off from AssCreed IV. There's been a lot of rumblings about that.

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        January 29, 2014 11:16 AM

        It's sort of a blatantly obvious direction to go with what they developed and how popular it was.

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          January 29, 2014 11:21 AM

          Oh, it's a great way to go. I'm actually surprised they haven't taken the Assassin's Creed formula and created more spinoffs into eras that they haven't done yet or have been done by other game series. Old West (Red Dead), Pirates, Ninjas or something in feudal Japan.

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            January 29, 2014 11:42 AM

            My problem is forcing the stealth aspect and the blades as cool as they are. Why am I a stealthy pirate? Stealth is only for Ninjas, the pirates natural enemy. Same if they went with a western, why a stealthy cowboy assassin? I am sure there are plenty of western type bounty hunters to model off of.

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              January 29, 2014 12:28 PM

              I'm just saying the open world stuff, not really being an assassin.

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            January 29, 2014 11:46 AM

            they would have to re-work the movement and combat pretty heavily. little more 3rd person shooter-y than press A to climb EVERYTHING.

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      January 29, 2014 11:19 AM

      I'm hoping for a Western themed AC

      • reply
        January 29, 2014 11:23 AM

        [deleted]

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        January 29, 2014 11:29 AM

        Isn't 3 kind of western themed? I didn't play it.

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          January 29, 2014 11:46 AM

          Interesting point. I can see why you might think that given how its set in the frontier but I wouldn't really think of new england as being western.

          Also there weren't enough guns in it imo to really qualify it as a western. Western to me means horses and peacemakers

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          January 29, 2014 12:44 PM

          Not western themed in the slightest. It's set during the American Revolution FFS.

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            January 29, 2014 12:54 PM

            Where are your rules as to what time period a 'Western' is allowed to take place. Is A Fistful of Dynamite not a Western because of the motorcycle? Western is a style of movie and they take place in different time periods. Like I said, I never played the game. The marketing seemed to imply a fairly western setting.

            • reply
              January 29, 2014 1:19 PM

              Justified is a Western.

              • reply
                January 29, 2014 1:22 PM

                Yup, you can have a western in any time period. You could consider Yojimbo and Sanjuro westerns. That's where Kurosawa got his inspiration for them.

            • reply
              January 30, 2014 2:30 PM

              Regardless of time period, New England cannot be a western. That's ridiculous.

    • reply
      January 29, 2014 11:29 AM

      Chariots

    • reply
      January 29, 2014 11:36 AM

      I heard from a very reliable source that it's going to be a crossover with Firefly/Serenity, and voiced by none other than some nerd king

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      January 31, 2014 2:03 PM

      Logically I see them doing the setting in "Thirteenth Century - Egypt and Northern Africa." which was one of the setting's suggested in a E-mail in Assassin's Creed 4's modern setting. I would rather see them do "Fourtheenth Century - Ashikaga Shogunate in Japan", I just find it would be very stylistic and fit the over-all appeal.

      Look at how the series has advances sense the first Assassin's Creed. If their wont be Naval combat in the next Assassin's Creed, then I trust their will be something just as exciting.

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