It looks like Assassin’s Creed III will be the last time we will see Desmond Miles as the modern day protagonist in the series. Assassin’s Creed III creative lead, Alex Hutchinson, said in a press conference that Desmond’s story is a “wrapper,” a story that needs to come to an end. What exactly does that mean? Will Desmond die? Who will replace him the foreseen sequels? Hutchinson said,
It’s more like the Twilight Zone. There’s always a guy introducing it and he’s there every episode, but each game completes its own story. Assassin’s Creed one was Altair’s story. Ezio has been and gone. You can engage with these historical stories individually without having to necessarily understand Desmond’s story. But yes, we eventually do have to wrap it up.
I think what you do is you finish it. I always pitched it to the guys on this game to think of it almost like Star Trek. Each game is a season… each big number is a sub-title. We’re not changing the universe, but we’re being given the reigns to the equivalent of The Next Generation. Yes, it’s the Star Trek universe, and that has certain immutable laws and there’s a base kind of tone to it, but within that you can do whatever you want.
Assassin’s Creed III will be the fifth installment in the series, and technically the third game of the franchise, but regardless, Desmond Miles has been the modern day protagonist for five straight games, and Hutchinson goes on to say,
I think Desmond needs to end, at some point. You know what I mean? Things that go on too long lack resonance. We’re asking people to remember seven years worth of story. Which is like saying you were in junior high and now you’re finishing college. And you need to remember what you were doing in junior high.
Ubisoft claims that Assassin’s Creed III is 90% a new game, and future installments will be a Desmond-free story. We already see this with the PS Vita game, Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation.
Without Desmond, we could have called it anything else, and people would have said okay. It’s just we like the wrapper of being an assassin and being in this continuing war against Templars. There’s huge value in that. But [AC3] is 90% a new game.
So where can we see the story take off after Desmond? What will happen to him? Will Assassin’s Creed III do justice for a character that we have been following for the last five years? I suppose we’ll find out on October 30.
By Billy Peitz
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