Assassin’s Creed took a much-needed break after the release of Syndicate back in 2015. The series had started to roll closer and closer to the 20th century and started to run into some unique issues where the real-world characters the player could run into would have descendants that didn’t want their family murdered in a video game. Ubisoft was using the year away from the series to improve game mechanics and address player complaints from Syndicate and the bug-plagued Unity. And now it seems that the company is ready to release a new game by the end of this year, with some details leaking out in some odd places.
A leaked screenshot from the rumored game appeared on Reddit at the start of May, seeming to confirm rumors that the next Assassin’s Creed would take us back to Ancient Egypt. Now another leak has come along, showing a t-shirt for the upcoming game that features a good look at the main character, his gear, a possible date for the setting, and a title:
The next Assassin's Creed protagonist has ostensibly been revealed via this T-shirt: https://t.co/tmqo37cTP8 pic.twitter.com/bRNEKFf80A
— Eurogamer (@eurogamer) May 30, 2017
Assassin’s Creed: Origins doesn’t seem like much of an inspired title, but the setting and time period could be. The shirt shows a date of 49 BCE, putting the events of the game right ahead of The Roman Civil War, the rise of Caesar, Cleopatra, and a few other events circling around these folks. Comic Book reached out to a source at Ubisoft for confirmation and also received some more info from the shirt and Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag director Ashraf Ismail who helps to give the leak some weight:
https://twitter.com/AshrafAIsmail/status/869596459204833280
Yeah, that’s not much, but it is the director of the best game in the series acknowledging something that hasn’t officially been announced yet and doing it in a positive manner.
Heading back to Egypt allows the series to weave in historical figures with the assassinations in the game, giving the game that classic feel it had before the last two entries failed to impress. More importantly, this game might actually move the series away from following the main quest and give players a chance to truly explore an open Egyptian world. With games like Zelda and Horizon Zero Dawn overhauling the open-world concept, hopefully, we can expect the games that lean heavily on them to evolve themselves to compete.
With E3 coming soon, we can likely expect to get an official announcement at the show and maybe even get a chance to play it. We’ll see if a year off was worth it for Ubisoft.
(Via IGN / Gamespot / Comic Book)