Assassin’s Creed Shadows Rebooting One Controversial Aspect May Help

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home November 6, 2024 67 Views 7 Min Read
Assassin’s Creed Shadows Rebooting One Controversial Aspect May Help

Assassin’s Creed Shadows, though caught up in Ubisoft’s ongoing internal problems, is ostensibly giving players what they’ve been asking for for years now. While the prospect of a samurai-focused Assassin’s Creed might be long overdue, AC Shadows‘ narrative might deliver something equally satisfying, if the developers handle it the right way.




Many fans attribute the downfall of Assassin’s Creed‘s modern day story to the death of Desmond Miles in Assassin’s Creed 3, arguing that Ubisoft simply didn’t know where to take the story after the excision of its leading man. There’s probably some truth to this—the modern-day component of the franchise’s narrative certainly grew less compelling once Desmond was out of the picture—but the story was more than likely flawed from the start. It should be clear that, if Ubisoft ever did have a plan in mind for Assassin’s Creed‘s overarching, modern-day narrative, it was abandoned fairly early on in the series’ life, once it became clear that ending the modern saga would mean the end of the franchise as a whole. But now that Assassin’s Creed Shadows is continuing the modern-day story, there’s a chance to redeem it in the eyes of these jaded players.


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Assassin’s Creed Shadows Would Be Wise To Restart Its Modern-Day Narrative

Assassin’s Creed Shadows Is Changing the Modern Day Story

Although Assassin’s Creed Mirage omits the modern-day portion of the narrative, series lead Marc-Alexis Coté recently confirmed that this tradition will be present in the upcoming Shadows. Speaking at a recent BAFTA event in London, Coté took time to acknowledge the shortcomings of the overarching present-day storyline, which has essentially served as the only connective tissue between entries. He highlighted a number of commonly expressed pain points regarding the modern-day story, including how it is often criticized for being unfocused and overly convoluted.


Looking forward, Coté said that Ubisoft is aiming to “put history back at the centre of the players’ experience,” noting that the modern-day narrative in Shadows will focus on “deeper themes” viewed through the lens of history. Of course, these comments don’t do much to illuminate Ubisoft’s plans for this part of the Assassin’s Creed formula, but Coté’s comments do suggest that the modern-day story of Shadows will be both more distinct and less pivotal than those that came before it, which could involve some sort of reset; perhaps AC Shadows will take a fundamentally different approach to its modern-day narrative, with new characters, conflicts, et cetera, giving it room to be less crucial to the historical storytelling and thematically unique.


Why a Full Reboot Would Be the Best Thing for Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ Modern-Day Story

Assassin’s Creed‘s modern-day narrative is rudderless—Coté’s aforementioned statement conveys as much. So many AC stories, especially post-AC3, have had an inescapable sense of improvisation, like the series has simply been experimenting with how best to continue the modern-day plot without making it feel too long in the tooth. But for a story to be satisfying, it has to be headed somewhere; it has to have an ending in sight. For years, it has felt like the overarching Assassin’s Creed story has lacked an architect, and if Ubisoft plans to continue the series indefinitely, which seems to be the case, then that can’t be the case much longer.

For Assassin’s Creed Shadows to change the franchise, it will need to make a tough decision regarding the modern-day story, and this decision should involve wiping the slate clean in some way. This aspect of the series’ plot can either take a back seat or it can present an existential, dramatic threat, but it cannot do both. In its current state, it’s attempting to have its cake and eat it too, so a culling is in order.

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