**Note: This article is a theory based on available information**
This Tuesday marks the release of the fourth installment Ubisoft’s highly successful franchise, Assassin’s Creed in the form of Assassin’s Creed: Revelations but I am already looking to what the future may hold for this exciting series. While basically all of the promotional material for the games so far has focused on the gameplay featuring Ezio or Altaïr before him, we have to remember that much of the game is told through the perspective of modern day assassin Desmond Miles and his education of the order through reliving the memories of long-dead ancestors. That cannot be an accident as they seem to have taken the long road to introducing Desmond as one of the great leading characters in modern gaming.
My hat goes off to Ubisoft and the clever writers behind taking the true bad guys of the story, Abstergo Industries, and making them basically an afterthought to the overall gaming experience so far. Think about it, why have we been so exposed to all of this history and secret files, no to mention subtle story lines, if they do not plan on building them up from the start to an eventual big showdown set in modern times? Something big is in the works and has been since the very start of the first game. Maybe they did not expect the games to be so popular at first, which is why the last two games have not been numbered, but this might have been the destination all along.
It has already been announced that the next release for this series will be hitting stores next year, could this finally be the game that keeps us in the “current” world? Will we take the fight to Abstergo head-on? If you look at the evidence presented before us, such as the fact that the launch of the world-enslaving satellite “Abstergo-Eye” takes place on 12/21/12 and last week Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has stated during an investors call that the new game will bring the end of Desmond’s journey. “In Assassin’s Creed we set up a timeline with this whole end of the world plot of December 2012. That’s fast approaching, and the story we have to tell, we obviously need to do it before we arrive at that point,” Amacio said on the call. Makes lots of sense, huh?
Also, what about all of the background plot on the Animus itself? The multiplayer modes from Brotherhood and Revelations all take place the the point of view of an Abstergo employee who is going through some kind of training for something using the Animus itself as the key tool. In fact, the latest trailer for Revelations is ALL about the multiplayer and features a scientist talking about how rising through the ranks promises to unveil all that there is to know about the truth behind Abstergo. Could this be one last push at getting fans intrigued before a big announcement changing the series focus? I am not a big fan of multiplayer but if playing gets me just a little more info then I am in!
I have not been this intrigued by an alternate reality corporation since the days of the DHARMA Initiative. Even the Umbrella Corporation has nothing on the history behind these guys. The Templar Order that you spend much time fighting against in the historical periods of the game has evolved in tandem with the world around them and, using Abstergo as a front, are finally on the verge of global domination. What more can you ask for in a villain? And thanks to Desmond, the all-powerful pieces of Eden that people have shaped their world have finally resurfaced just in time for the closing number.
So tell me what you guys think, am I on to something or am I chasing the wrong waterfall? Drop a comment below or tweet us with your opinion!
