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Assassin's Creed for a New Era?

Wedbush Morgan analyst suggests that Ubisoft is moving its jumpy-stealthy sequel to a new era.

Artist's interpretation
Artist's interpretation
I recently had the pleasure of taping an episode of Geoff Keighley's Bonus Round for Gametrailers, alongside Kotaku blogger extraordinaire, t-shirt tycoon, and admirably committed trucker-hat enthusiast Michael McWhertor and Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter. This was my first legitimate interaction with Big Mikey P, and it confirmed my standing suspicion that he is a video-game information monster. He also knows all kinds of stuff that you and I do not. I think that--unlike your average member of the enthusiast press--his job as a financial analyst wouldn't benefit so directly from breaking specific details about upcoming games, so developers and publishers likely end up telling him all sorts of awesome secret business.

I myself, however, am a member of the enthusiast press, so I'll snatch up whatever breadcrumbs Pachter drops. During the taping of Bonus Round, Pachter let slip that Ubisoft would be changing the time-frame of the freshly confirmed Assassin's Creed sequel from 1191 to “several hundred years in the future” or more specifically, “sometime in the 1700s.” While the time change was presented by Pachter as fact, he went on to speculate that the French Revolution could be a potential setting. It's an interesting prospect, and like the original Holy Land settings, it's a time and place that hasn't been exhaustively explored by other games. I understand why people were hoping to see the series head to feudal Japan for some ninja action, but I personally find the mental imagery of an Altair surrogate wearing a powdered wig and being all “sacrebleu!” to be way more compelling. Whatever Ubisoft ends up doing, I just hope they can come up with a less anticlimactic ending for the sequel.

173 Comments

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DukeTogo

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Edited By DukeTogo
@ milkman

Three Musketeers, Guy Fawkes (English I know), Sharpe (again, English, but very much part of that milieu).  That time period was full of intrigue, backstabbing (both figurative and literal) and killing to achieve one's wishes.  Imagine something akin to the Thief games, but 3rd person with all the AC stuff.  Feudal Japan is too obvious a move and quite frankly has been over done by Tenchu and other japanese games over the last decade.  Ninja games are a dime a dozen, but a French ninja, that's original.

The games biggest hurdle will be how the character looks.  It's not often a game with a very familiar character you see all the time on screen is replaced.  The series revolves around (spoilers) the family tree of this assassin, so you're not Altair, but his distant decendant 600 years later, but it still will probably deal with the dude that was in the machine from the original and his story.  So it will be interesting to see how people will react to it, since the last time this was tried was MGS2 with Raiden being the new protagonist, and that didn't go over too well.

I loved AC and even though the game wasn't perfect, it had a very unique feel to it.  I've said before I love it when a game makes you feel like you're actually in a living world and you feel like you're going there when you boot the game.  This was one of those games.
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BiggerBomb

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Edited By BiggerBomb

Awesome? Yes!

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Thrawn1

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Edited By Thrawn1

the one thing that saddens me is that we have to say goodbye to Altair.

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ocdog45

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Edited By ocdog45

that game was dope enough so i don't care how the game ends. it did piss me off though.

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kenya24

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Edited By kenya24

Actually, I think I would prefer feudal Japan. That would be sick. I will however buy Assassin's 2 one way or the other, and both would be good. I really liked the original, and the ending really left me thirsty for more Assassin's.

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Chummy8

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Edited By Chummy8
CleverLoginName said:
"Didn't Napoleon die under mysterious circumstances? I wanna see Altair circle strafe around Napoleon."

Napoleon died in exile years after the revolution.  In fact he didn't even become Emperor until after the revolution.
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DoctorTran

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Edited By DoctorTran

When I think about it... that makes a lot of sense. I'd totally dig a game set during the french revolution, or some other time.

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Edited By AndrewB

I have to agree with the comments so far; that it's hard to imagine an assassin running across rooftops in a French revolution era. However, I do hope they can find a way to make it work, because I really love games that take us to untreaded ground in time periods that are hardly covered.

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Mjolnir

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Edited By Mjolnir

I had never even considered that period of time as a possibility, which perhaps makes this that much more intriguing. I like it.

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Chummy8

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Edited By Chummy8

French Revolution?  Absolutely brilliant.  I loved the first game and getting the second one just might be a no brainer.

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daniel_beck_90

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Edited By daniel_beck_90

I knew there is something special about Assassin's creed , from the travel back and forth in time and blur conspiracies to terrific gameplay and mind blowing graphics . I am really glad that they decided to change the time frame once more .
I think Assassin's creed franchise is a living breathing example of a true current generation game , a game that push aside the barrels that were previously surrounding gaming and let NEW Ideas flow in , I am just glad about this News .

@Ryan : thank you very much for the wonderful news , I think you along with Jeff are getting more and more popular in media , I am really happy about it .
Hope to see a day where Giant Bomb is the most credible gaming website on the net

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get2sammyb

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Edited By get2sammyb

I don't believe anything Michael Pachter says. The Bonus Round would be a much better show without him! Look forward to some Ryan Davis on the show though.

Is the topic '09 games?

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papercut

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Edited By papercut

could work, plenty of people to kill in the french revolution

as long as i dont have to do the same three side quests to get to an assassination im good.

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CleverLoginName

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Edited By CleverLoginName

Didn't Napoleon die under mysterious circumstances? I wanna see Altair circle strafe around Napoleon.

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lamegame621

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Edited By lamegame621

I really want to see the continuation of this series. The story was really compelling to me. Not the crusades part specifically, but the whole templars vs. assassins in the future (present day) thing

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Edited By ahoodedfigure

Considering how cut-throat the whole revolution was, and how closely tied it was to the American Revolution, it should be a rich and interesting setting.  Just hope they take full advantage of it.

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Thrawn1

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Edited By Thrawn1

that..........doesn't seem to fit with the gameplay of the original. i'll be more convinced once i see a screenshot of the assassin in his 18th century outfit.

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Milkman

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Edited By Milkman

One of the major reasons Assassin's Creed worked the first time was because you were assassinating actual real people from the time period. Now, I happen to know there was no assassin's running on rooftops during the French Revolution. But, hey, if Ubisoft could make it work, fine by me. But I'm not sold just yet.

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BlackCoffee

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Edited By BlackCoffee

hmm okay, well yeah ill see what jeff says in the review

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SleepyDoughnut

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Edited By SleepyDoughnut

awesome awesome awesome!
even though just the mention of pachter gives me some trepidation about this.
But still, that would be so original and genius and fun and, for redundancies sake, awesome!

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borgmaster

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Edited By borgmaster

hmmm......interesting

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StarwindX9

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Edited By StarwindX9

viva la revolution... err Assassin Creed

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Ryan

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Edited By Ryan  Staff
Artist's interpretation
Artist's interpretation
I recently had the pleasure of taping an episode of Geoff Keighley's Bonus Round for Gametrailers, alongside Kotaku blogger extraordinaire, t-shirt tycoon, and admirably committed trucker-hat enthusiast Michael McWhertor and Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter. This was my first legitimate interaction with Big Mikey P, and it confirmed my standing suspicion that he is a video-game information monster. He also knows all kinds of stuff that you and I do not. I think that--unlike your average member of the enthusiast press--his job as a financial analyst wouldn't benefit so directly from breaking specific details about upcoming games, so developers and publishers likely end up telling him all sorts of awesome secret business.

I myself, however, am a member of the enthusiast press, so I'll snatch up whatever breadcrumbs Pachter drops. During the taping of Bonus Round, Pachter let slip that Ubisoft would be changing the time-frame of the freshly confirmedAssassin's Creed sequel from 1191 to “several hundred years in the future” or more specifically, “sometime in the 1700s.” While the time change was presented by Pachter as fact, he went on to speculate that the French Revolution could be a potential setting. It's an interesting prospect, and like the original Holy Land settings, it's a time and place that hasn't been exhaustively explored by other games. I understand why people were hoping to see the series head to feudal Japan for some ninja action, but I personally find the mental imagery of an Altair surrogate wearing a powdered wig and being all “sacrebleu!” to be way more compelling. Whatever Ubisoft ends up doing, I just hope they can come up with a less anticlimactic ending for the sequel.