Assassin’s Creed: The Plastic Series That Lost Me

There is something about the Assassin’s Creed series that feels off, and I know that I can’t be the only one to feel that way. I say this as someone who was pushed into this current generation of consoles after a lengthy wait thanks to how amazing Assassin’s Creed looked and the gameplay that was promised. I finally broke down and bought an Xbox 360 thanks to Assassin’s Creed, and when I loaded it up for the first time and played it, I was mesmerized. This was what I was missing out on, this is what I knew I was going to get sucked into. I loved that first game, even if it had its faults, but it was a truly interesting concept of playing a game within a game and having two main protagonists.

Then, something happened. Assassin’s Creed II came out and introduced Ezio Auditore, and all of a sudden Desmond Miles, the modern day protagonist, became a whole hell of a lot less interesting and was less of a focus than in the previous game. Then a decision was made to stretch the Assassin’s Creed II story into a whole new game that would not be Assassin’s Creed III, but instead would be Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood. It was at this point where Ubisoft lost control of the series and the main point of the game and where Desmond Miles became completely secondary and just that guy that you know next-to-nothing about but are supposed to care about. When he goes through hardships or learns something new, it feels insignificant to say the least.

I finally mustered up the strength to pop in Assassin’s Creed Revelations after having it for a year and only playing around twenty minutes of it, and it is still a fun game to play (outside of that awful tower defense stuff), but it became very clear how muddled the narrative had become over the divergence from the main plot to focus on Ezio over the years. This game gives you little reason to care about Desmond, going as far as to give you the option to play as him, which not many will ever opt into on their own, and then for some reasons flashes back to Altair without much in the way of context. A game running three parallel narratives but only focusing on one just feels sloppy and forced and like an awkward hat tip to the film Inception by the way of Gameception (game within a game within a game, whoa).

Assassin’s Creed III is coming out soon, very soon, and as a fan of the series, I’m beginning to question what I ever saw in the series as it truly feels forced and contrived when it comes to the characters and the plots. There have been four titles already in the main series and I’m not really sure that I care about everything coming together in a neat package or playing as yet another new character. Yes, Desmond is simply a vehicle for the story to move to new locations and characters. He is a deus ex machina to help fill in the plot holes and keep things moving after you have fun killing quasi-historical figures that are somehow Templar Agents and mess around with glowing gold things that unlock the secrets to the universe or kill Templars.

I’m sure I’ll purchase Assassin’s Creed III, but there will be no excitement involved in it, no mystery and not only will I be going through the motions, but I get the feeling that the game will as well. It feels like plastic.