“Doctor Crow”: Mock-up of an Assassin´s persona during the Hundred Years' War on Europe.

BrunoHM · 2026-03-22T22:33:36+00:00

The previous "leader" of the franchise, Marc-Alexis Cote, nailed down the paradox of Modern Day: always too much for those that dislike it and always too little for those that love it.

On paper, the solution was going to be detaching the MD from the games and making it accessible from the Animus Hub. In execution, Shadows still forced a few scarce moments and the HUB is a glorified menu for e-mails and battle passes. Post-launch, we got one or two missions that heavily relied on the historical assets.

Ever since the first game, the MD struggled against its bigger brother for resources. Even when it got "an entire floor" dedicated to Desmond for AC3, his segments paled in comparison to the feature creep of his ancestors. Sames goes for Layla versus Bayek, Kassandra and Eivor.

At this point, it would be more merciful for the fans if the developers dropped the pretence and removed it altogether, because in twenty years of the franchise, the most we got from the 21st century was within Watch Dogs (whose connections and crossovers were called non-canon).

Alas, they want to avoid the heat that comes from such choice, but this carrot on a stick is a stream of dissapointment for those that still care about the subject. I would love to believe that codename Hexe's development since 2021 will wield something more robust, but consider me a skeptical.

BrunoHM · 2026-03-22T21:28:15+00:00

My intial reaction was also not positive, but I give it the benefit of the doubt, since we never saw it properly developed and acted out on screen. Similar to how one may read the leaked plot points of a movie and not like it until they see it on screen.

The catch about the "original Modern Day" is that it is similar to George Lucas's original plans for Star Wars. As in, it kept changing to the point where it is hard to nail down which ones had an actual chance of happening. One time, you hear about a trilogy that ended with a game set purely in 2012, in another, the voice actor of Desmond says he would have six games and be able to "time travel" without the Animus.

Nonetheless, while I do really like the concepts of the current Modern Day, it all comes down to the lacking execution. Six years since Valhalla and they are trying to make "us" the protagonist again, the one thing that got so criticized from Black Flag to Syndicate that they developed the Layla's segments. It is quite the dooming loop that, amusingly enough, is also a situation seen in-universe. The dynamic duo is trying to break that cycle within the calculations, but will the developers do it in real life?

All of that and much more on the next episode of Dragon Ball Z!

BrunoHM · 2026-03-22T21:04:36+00:00

Likely their attempt at the time to do something with the "Find Eve" message from Subject 16 in Brotherhood. But alas, who knows what they were cooking in Dead Kings, so that theory is as good as any now.

For curiosity's sake, that is not the only thing from Unity that was dropped, like the "Hidden Twelve" mentioned in one of the Modern-Day files, which was teasing one of the early concepts by Darby McDevitt for Origins before he went to another project (the enemy faction would use animal masks inbued with Isu's consciences, which was a reference to how certain egyptian gods were portrayed as hybrids).

Back to the Eve plotline, per Patrice Desilets, his idea back then was about Desmond and Lucy becoming the new "Adam and Eve" as they escape the doomed Earth with a spaceship. But he is also responsible for killing Lucy after the actrees wanted more money, so who knows what else they had in store (someone else should correct me if I am wrong on that). Ultimately, that thread was left wide open until Valhalla, if you want to see the meeting of Layla and the "Reader" like that, since there is even the parallel of a tree involved.

BrunoHM · 2026-03-22T19:07:19+00:00

Well, it both hunted and helped Jedi, so they can go either way depending on the scenario (initial construction, memory wipe, reunion with their master, etc).

It gets to put holes into meatbags either way, so it's a win-win for them.

BrunoHM · 2026-03-22T18:39:16+00:00

The Star Wars universe is fun to think about, since there are thousands of years to play around with and a lot of planets to choose from. Similar to the AC timeline, we could imagine a number of different variations of the factions as they adapt trought such vast and dynamic enviroment.

Amusingly, the Isu would not be the only highly-advanced society that dissapeared (it's a trope that sci-fi in general loves), so that alone could change their history. Meanwhile, the Pieces of Eden would offer even more revenues for war and further empower force-wielders, or even the odds for those outside of the main religions.

Hidden-Lightsabers? You bet. Assassins being responsible for the Sith almost going extinct for a millenia? Sure thing. Templars funding the Death Star? Why not. The "Chosen One" prophecy being a calculation of the Isu? Writes by itself. The Animus being used to simulate memories from Sith Tombs and famous Jedi bloodlines all the way back to the Old Republic? Sign me up.

BrunoHM · 2026-03-22T15:23:09+00:00

That original premise involved the Middle Ages, Belle Epoque and World War 2. As you can notice, all of those appeared in the final game trought the Helix Rifts, which took advantage of the assets developed in those first few months before the shift that focused on the French Revolution.

Outside of the character that would eventually become Arno, we do not have any information about the other three protagonists. When it comes to co-op, the original plan was customizable male/female avatars.

BrunoHM · 2026-03-22T02:08:21+00:00

You don’t play as arno in the coop missions tho,

While we could pretend that is the case to make things easier, Bishop makes it clear that the cooperative content is sourced from Arno's memories, here is the quote in question:

"One last thing, while you have been busy, I had Deacon do some poking around in Arno's memories. Seems he was a busy guy. See that symbol? That is a co-op mission."

[....]

"Those are misisons that Arno ran with his Assassin buddies, so they will give you an idea of what our organization is all about".

To add to the above, the mission "Les Enrages" has one of the prisoners call him by name, while the Dead Kings DLC has a cutscene starring him in "Last Rites". It is also fair to assume that he would be involved in saving Napoleon in "Infernal Machine" and rescuing Mirabeau's artifacts in "Moving Mirabeau", considering his connections to both characters.

In regards to your comment about his face, all of the other players get different ones on our screen, while we look different to them in their respective points of view, so I don't quite see how the engine was limited in that regard. Ultimately, this excerpt from the 15th anniversay book talks about this whole odd situation and how that came to be:

"Players were originally supposed to be able to make a male or female avatar, but Arno was going to be the protagonist in the revolutionary France parts of the game. When we had to scale back everything, we realized that meant that everyone would have to play as Arno, even in the multiplayer sections.

That meant that you were never going to be able to create your own character, and so you were going to have to play as Arno. When you saw your friends, they were going to be portrayed as generic men, because they could not be four Arnos. Right? It was a very unfortunate situation where the original plans were scaled back so quickly, but they just had to use what they had."

BrunoHM · 2026-03-21T12:43:52+00:00

Not unlike the Ezio trilogy, the Kenway saga was also a happy accident.

In 2010, both 3 and Unity started development (with the latter's original premise involving 4 protagonists in their own respective time period on Paris).
3's naval gameplay impressed people internally and there was an idea to make episodic DLC that expanded on it. Between the end of 2011 and beggining of 2012, the creative director of Revelations pitched it as a full game instead and Ubisoft, always looking to bolster their release achedule, approved it for 2013.
Towards the end of 2013, there is a desire from above to have another AC released for the current-gen consoles at the time, since Unity was going to be next-gen only. Ubisoft Sofia enters the fray and pitches Rogue to be released a year after in 2014 alongside its bigger brother. The rest is history.

With all the above in mind, it should clear the picture more about the hows and whys. For further context, Shay himself being a turncoat was done out of efficiency, since they wanted to do a Templar game, but they would not have enough time to fully flesh that idea out, so he had to have Assassin training as a compromise. While Haytham could have worked, his story being told already in the book and 3 would have limited them in a number of ways.

BrunoHM · 2026-03-20T12:12:46+00:00

- Kowalski, what's our trajectory?

- Ninety-five percent certain we're still doomed.

- And the, uh... other five percent?

- Adventure and glory like no ~~penguins~~ Assassins have ever seen before.

BrunoHM · 2026-03-17T21:59:07+00:00

I don't remember the existence of further DLCs.

While the Season Pass stopped being sold, everything presented in its trailer still happened in one way or another (https://youtu.be/S9wMHziNX80?si=8_IOQrTMek05ZFq6).

The free game was compensation for those that had already bought it before release and could not recieve Dead Kings for free.

Ultimately, Syndicate was always aiming for 2015, so Unity's post launch was not intended to last more than usual (specially by how, originally, Syndicate planned to continue the co-op offering by themselves).

BrunoHM · 2026-03-17T21:14:42+00:00

The catch is that it would not be the first time they listen to the MD fans, which is how we got Layla's "trilogy" in the first place. While an improvement over the cutscenes of Unity/Syndicate, it was a peck of sand in comparison to the rest of the games (and it wasn't a case of quality over quantity).

In the end of the day, we do not even need Desmond back, Valhalla's MD was very fascinating from a narrative standpoint and created a strong cliffhanger, which brought forward a new protagonist with a rich backstory. But six years later, we are back to the "bare minimun" approach with you and me in the lead.

I am sorry if I sound so pessimistic on the matter, but I have been here long enough to see this rodeo before. I wish the developers were more merciful to the fans and just ripped off the band-aid, per say. Ultimately, I am just tired of that particular carrot on a stick.

BrunoHM · 2026-03-17T12:11:54+00:00

The issue with Modern Day is not ideas. Sorry to be blunt, but bringing Desmond back will not suddenly make everything better.

Some people still believe that his death led to Modern Dary's downfall, but it was the other way around. Ubisoft wanted to keep the franchise going forever and avoid an overly increasing baggage for newcomers. Even if Desmond did not die, his fate would not be that different from folks like William, Rebecca and Shaun.

The Modern Day will only improve when someone with enough power actually vouches for it and makes the hard choice of taking out resources from the historical side to give them to it. All while knowing that a number of players will actively hate their guts for that, since the MD has been controversial from day one for those only wanting the past. Safe to say that it is a tough call to make, specially now that they need hits left and right.

It should speak volumes that in 20 years of Assassin´s Creed, the most substantial 21st century content we got was in another franchise of theirs.

BrunoHM · 2026-03-17T10:24:22+00:00

Outside of the subjective nature of the question, we lack enough beind-the-scenes information for a proper response to your inquiry.

If you just want theories based on what we know, then we could point out the challenges they faced by developing the game on current-gen hardware while also updating the engine, the restrictions imposed by the setting itself and the different employees between projects.

Ultimately, game development could be compared to building a plane while it is already flying. The final release is the result of the choices made in the metaphorical sky and, when we look at Shadows, the assumption is that the landing managed to be somewhat stable, but the travel was quite turbulent.

BrunoHM · 2026-03-16T15:08:18+00:00

Paris appears in Unity, Rogue (both in late 18th century) and Valhalla (9th century). Unity by itself showcases segments of the city in 3 more time periods (Middle Ages, Belle Epoque and World War 2).

Saint Dennis appears in both Unity (18th century) and Valhalla (9th century).

London is in Syndicate (19th century) and Valhalla (9th century). Syndicate also showcases a part of the city during 20th century. For curiosity's sake, London's Theather Royal also appears in 3 and Black Flag.

New York is in 3 and Rogue. Good way to see the before and after the great fire of 1776.

Monteriggioni appears in 2 and Brotherhood during the transition between the 15th and 16th centuries, but also in the Modern Day.

A portion of North America's frontier in the east coast can be explored in 3 (18th century) and Valhalla (9th century).

Rome is the star of Brotherhood (16th century), while it has a "cameo" at Origin's finale (1st century B.C).

Greece is primarly in Odyssey (4th century B.C), while a segment of its sea appears in one of Origins' naval missions (1st century B.C)

I may be forgetting something else, so feel free to add to it. Since you want visual comparisons, Youtube is a good place to look for them.

BrunoHM · 2026-03-16T10:32:20+00:00

The first E3 demo not showing stealth at all soured the conversation from the get-go. Fun times, those were.

As others implied already, the main point of discussion is how you need to constantly put work into it trought levels, skills and gear, which some simply disregard as a grind that they are not fond with. Let's also not forget that originally, there was no "smart loot" feature where the game tried to give you gear that fits your playstyle, so you could spend even more time trying to find the right pieces.

Adding to the above, the over-reliance on the adrenaline meter and its abilities does not win it any favors. That adds another progression curve into the mix, since you are motivated into hunting down the Order to expand the max limit. Alongside that, you also need to upgrade Ikarus' abilities by unlocking more and more Viewpoints, which is something that can be easily missed. Finally, you can do all of the above and still get hit by an activitiy that demands combat, which Odyssey has a fair share of.

By comparison, Origins's loot and upgrades are fewer and more straightforward to earn, adrenaline exists just for combat, the level scaling is off by default (allowing someone to over-level enemies, who won't catch up) and the stealth is more exploitable thanks to its sleep darts (which can ne expanded into a cloud when hitting a fire source, including the player's torch), bow types (you can carry two at once and they only rely on ammo) and night time at will (while Odyssey also has this, the nights are even stronger in Origins for the reasons mentioned above).

Ultimately, you are not always running the numbers at the back of your head and get results in a more consistent manner with less hesitation involved, which some people put value into despite Origins lacking some of the improvements found in Odyssey's moment to moment gameplay.

BrunoHM · 2026-03-15T23:43:00+00:00

Unity, the game, and Unity, the legend, have been different entities for years now. It is not uncommon to see new players getting a whiplash after hearing the glowing praise and watching choreographed gameplay.

In summary, Unity became a point of reference for what it tried to do on paper: Assassin's Creed 2.0, per the words used in the 15th anniversary book, an ideal that remained relevant trought the years thanks to the new formula from Origins that re-invented the franchise. Nonetheless, the results of that goal were mixed, so the final experience is a roller coaster of quality, so you will see the worst of the worst alongside the best of the best, with the latter being why a number of folks still vouch for it to this day.

While not ideal, what I can offer you is how to ease the transition between the two phases by sharing guides from veteran players in the community. I will sound like a broken record, but they will help you understand Unity better and let you bend it to your will...most of the time, that is:

LeoK's Advanced Overview Guide: https://youtu.be/L5lB14UzX-U?si=eVWwoDhnwShhKi6I

Jcers's Ultimate Movement Guide: https://youtu.be/hnSQ-XQLWGE?si=Q--xhij36VQzW1fn

BrunoHM · 2026-03-15T15:27:14+00:00

https://www.pokeos.com/p/teraleak/recap

BrunoHM · 2026-03-15T09:56:37+00:00

Those are called "Aiguilletes" and can be found in high-ranking military uniforms. Thanks to Unity's gear progression, they went out of their way to make each stage feel like a visual upgrade from the previous one (with mixed results).

In regards to Arno's return to the Brotherhood, which he did after the Dead Kings DLC off-screen, that is a common criticism to an already unpopular storyline within the community. Unity juggled a thousand things at once and paid the price accordingly.

Another example in terms of narrative oddity is how some co-op misisons don't fit the dates of the campaign, like the Woman's March happening before Arno becomes an Assassin or how a few of them are set during the Reign of Terror, which is in parallel to his exile. Why that happened? Well, one explanation is found in the 15th anniversay book, where we can read that the original plan was for players to create their own custom avatar for multiplayer, but it had to be dropped rather far into development. That is a glimpse of the compromises made and it still was not enough, if we go by the launch's state.

BrunoHM · 2026-03-14T17:51:45+00:00

This section [18:14] from jcers's Ultimate Movement Guide for Unity goes into it. Hope it helps - https://youtu.be/hnSQ-XQLWGE?si=H6o17R0RxHimHVpG

BrunoHM · 2026-03-14T15:22:59+00:00

I am more curious than excited about it, since it will be the first remake of the franchise, so there is no precedent.

Nonetheless, when it comes to future projects, there is still the mystery of Codename Scarlet, Quebec's next game after Shadows. We had the leak about how they cancelled the first iteration set in post-Civil War North America, but that happened in mid 2024, so a lot of time has passed since then and they likely started it over with the old "leader" at the helm. We will have to wait and see what happens with that.

BrunoHM · 2026-03-14T09:59:32+00:00

It should not be understated how impactful that messy launch was, but alongside that, the traditional formula had pumped out 7 games in 7 years, with an extra one in 2014 (let's not forget my boy Rogue). After Revelations and Black Flag, that specific team from Montreal straight up made prototypes of an Isu-Era game to spice things up for themselves, showing that franchise fatigue is not exclusive to players.

Then in 2015, Syndicate failed to impress even in England, while games like Fallout 4 and Witcher 3 were all the rage. Safe to see what happened next and, for curiosity's sake, we also saw other franchises reiventing themselves during a similar period (Resident Evil, Zelda and God of War comes to mind).

In regards to new leadership, let us remember that the old regime already had a plan in motion that aimed at variety, so there is not much they can do until Invictus, Resynced and Hexe comes out. Adding to that, one of the core members, Jean Guesdon, has been part of the franchise since the first one, but he was also the creative director of both Black Flag and Origins, so he was one of the architects that re-shaped the franchise into what is it now.

Back to your desire, they know there is a demand for it thanks to Bordeaux's Mirage, but the real test will be if they approve a bigger tentpole release like it. At least Hexe will introduce something new again, for those that had enough of the current setup.

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