Future Assassins of the Past

Playing some AC III, I've noticed Desmond must be just about out of ancestors to call on for precursor knowledge. Might be time to retire the face-morphing Northie candidate for some fresh blood. Seeing how there's probably still a whole mess of Assassins out there with centuries of history they can tap into, it creates a whole host of possibilities.

Now, some of these suggestions for possible Assassin's Creed settings might skirt the edge of credibility, given even the series' already tenuous grasp on historical accuracy, but I was just given a recap tutorial on AC 2's notoriety system by Sam frickin' Adams so as far as I'm concerned the series has already air-assassinated the shark in that respect.

List items

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  1. 65,000,000 B.C.

  Now, of course, the whole Assassins vs Templars thing didn't start until Altair's era, but I imagine there's been some degree of their same good vs evil battle since as far as back as mankind's dawn. Mostly I just want to perform sick mid-air assassinations on pterodactyls. Maybe reserve this idea for one of the portable games, where nothing is canon (but everything is permitted).

• 2. The First Civilization

  The whole point of this series, at least beginning with 2, is to figure out what the heck the First Civilization had planned to stop this whole inevitable apocalypse thing. As with the Protheans, it might be a little backwards to ask an ancient civilization for help in stopping the thing that killed them all, but it's probably worth considering popping into one of the human ancestors that were actually around at the same time as these guys to get some first-hand info.

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  3. Three Kingdoms Era

  We're pre-dating the Altair era some 800 years here, but if Ubisoft ever thought of tapping into that period of history that Koei seems to have a stranglehold over, it might result in an interesting crossover. I mean, Koei have to be running out of ideas of how to frame that war for the dozenth time, right? They're probably contemplating putting everyone in mechs at this point. Why not have choice members of the Three Kingdoms be important Assassins and Templars (or equivalent) and stage a secret war between those guys?

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  4. William Wallace

  While we're riding the Anglophobe train in ACIII, why not set a game during the Scottish Wars of Independence? I don't think gamers will have had nearly enough stabbing English people in the neck, though a Scotish claymore makes for a far less subtle weapon.

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  5. Bladestorm: The Hundred Years' War

  Though if we're talking about a morally grey conflict that the two sides could easily fit into either camp, Bladestorm did it right with its idea of a playable side-changing mercenary group. The Hundred Years War has plenty going on (a hundred years' worth, even) to set up an interesting narrative. (Though, as Ubisoft is primarily a French organization, I suspect we'll be seeing a whole lot more Brit stabbing. Ah well, at least that sarcastic British guy will have some choice words for it.)

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  6. Warring States Period

  While we're tiptoeing around Koei's domain, we might as well follow "Dynasty Assassins" with "Nobunaga's Templar Ambitions". The Sengoku era is another one of these thoroughly explored periods of history that could use a new angle. It would also be an apropos time to finally bust out the ninjas.

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  7. London

  We saw a brief glimpse of 18th century London in ACIII, but I'm thinking the best time to visit England's capital is during the 1665 plague and subsequent 1666 city-wide fire. Believe me, there aren't very many other points in history where London has been interesting. I mean, unless you're really into big clocks.

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  8. Mount & Blade Warband: Napoleonic Wars

  I mentioned before how Ubisoft is very French, so I'd be curious to see how they'd depict an era of history during which the mighty French Empire was an adjective and noun one could legitimately put next to each other. If they have something like the generational time-skip of ACIII, we could even fit the relatively recent French Revolution in there too. I have to imagine the folk behind the games would have sufficient interest in that time period to put something spectacular together.

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  9. World War I

  Talking of splitting up the narrative, I wonder how interesting it would be to follow several Assassins of the early 20th century with several Animus-inhabiting Assassins simultaneously. We'd have a guy in Sarajevo at the Franz Ferdinand assassination (though maybe it was the Templars? Gasp!), a guy in the Allies' camp and one in the Central Powers and maybe even one poking around the Bolshevik massacre of the Russian royal family. World War I, true to its name, had plenty going on across the globe and it'd be an ideal place to try a multiple-protagonist experiment like that.

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  10. Sly Cooper

  Maybe at one point the Order of Assassins had a prominent cartoon raccoon member who used the thieving skills of their descendants to just shank various Templar-affiliated anthropomorphs instead of looting their treasures. Is Sucker Punch working on anything right now? Maybe get Sanzaru on it once they're done with SC4. No seriously, this is the only idea I've had so far that sounds like it would be at all worthwhile. I'm almost sorry I made you read the rest of this list. Almost.