Assassin’s Creed Ideas: Modern

Welcome back to Assassin’s Creed Ideas, where we look at possible settings for the next Assassin’s Creed game each and every Tuesday — there are a lot of possibilities after all…

If you missed any of our previous entries, you can catch up with the following links:

• Assassin’s Creed Ideas: Ancient Egypt
• Assassin’s Creed Ideas: World War One
• Assassin’s Creed Ideas: 1920s America

Before we talk about a possible modern setting in Assassin’s Creed‘s future, we need to talk about the modern setting that we’ve already seen in the series. Part of the AC games usually takes place in a modern world with a  character using a special machine – an Animus – to relive ancestors’ memories through DNA. If you’re new to the series or only started playing since “next-gen” consoles came out, you probably haven’t experienced a lot of this, as the games have been slowly waning out of their original plot.

Desmond Miles

In what I like to refer to as “the original trilogy” (Assassin’s Creed 1-3 including Brotherhood and Revelations as Assassin’s Creed 2.1 and 2.2) Desmond was the main character and pushed the rather confusing story forward in both modern and historical times. Let’s take a look at this guy’s backstory, how he changed Assassin’s Creed, and why he isn’t in the games anymore.

Originally part of the modern-day Assassin’s Order, Desmond decided to “pursue his own dreams” and ran away to become a bartender (it’s as ridiculous as it sounds). In September of 2012, a Templar organization known as Abstergo Industries kidnapped and forced Desmond to relive his ancestors’ memories through the use of the Animus so that the Templars could find “Pieces of Eden,” extremely powerful weapons/artifacts. Here marks the beginning of the original Assassin’s Creed game. 

After some time, Desmond breaks out with the help of an undercover Assassin. He then joins forces with her Italian-based Assassin cell and begins to train his abilities with the help of a new Animus in Assassin’s Creed II.

———— WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD! ————

Cut to Assassin’s Creed III and Desmond has become a fully fledged Assassin; players even get to bring him on a few missions throughout the game. He has learned of an impending doomsday (December 21st, 2012… no, really) and enters a special temple where an ancient device capable of preventing this disaster is held. Using yet another Animus, Desmond relives a different ancestor’s memories and finds the key to unlock the artifact.

When he goes to retrieve the device, Desmond is confronted by two goddesses (real talk: the original AC games were all over the place). He has the option to save the world now, releasing the goddess Juno’s power on it (killing everyone in the long run) or not save the world, get preserved and essentially become a god himself. Being the great hero that he is, he opted for death by releasing the Juno, stating that the remaining Assassins will deal with her. Thus ends Desmond’s story. 

Other Modern Gameplay

Apart from Desmond, the only modern day gameplay we’ve had access to is as an unnamed Abstergo Entertainment employee capturing footage from Edward Kenway’s memories in Black Flag, and as a gamer playing through the memories of Arno and the Frye twins in Unity and Syndicate.

But is that truly it? Some die-hard fans believe that we’ve already had a modern day Assassin‘s Creed in the form of Watch_Dogs. Check out this YouTube video on the subject as it can provide a better description of the supposed Ubisoft shared universe than I can:

The Time has come for a Modern Assassin’s Game

Whether you prescribe to the shared universe conspiracy or not, it is far past time we got a modern day Assassin’s Creed. With Desmond’s dying breath, he asked the remaining Assassins to fight off this goddess…so where are they all? We know a couple of them are running around trying to find more Pieces of Eden, but the Assassin’s Order is supposed to be this huge thing – so I ask again, where is everyone?

Sure the battle between Templar and Assassin is one that takes place in the shadows of the world and everything they do or say is kept hidden from the public eye, but the shadows are where these two forces live.

Let us take control of a modern day Assassin and send us into Abstergo to take out some high value targets and disrupt the Templars’ plans! Give us access to some crazy powerful black ops Assassin team armed to the teeth with weaponry and let us go wild! 

Critics claim year after year that the Assassin’s Creed franchise is getting tired, but that doesn’t need to be the case. With a modern setting, anything could be possible. 

That’s it for today’s Assassin’s Creed Ideas article. If you enjoyed, agreed with anything you read, found something wrong, have any input, or an idea for a future article, let me know in the comments section!

Don’t forget to read up on the last three articles: Assassin’s Creed Ideas: Ancient Egypt, Assassin’s Creed Ideas: World War One, and Assassin’s Creed Ideas: 1920s America. For all of the hottest Assassin’s Creed Ideas articles, follow the ACI landing page .

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