The “Assassin’s Creed” franchise has been in a bit of a strange spot lately. It started out very strong and quickly rose to prominence as one of the best-known gaming franchises. It had a lot to offer to many gamers, and had a fresh, innovative gameplay that quickly attracted many people. At the same time, it was accessible enough that even some more casual gamers were drawn to it, while the skill ceiling offered good opportunities for those looking for a bit of a thrill, despite being a single player game.
Later on, the franchise became more and more commercialized, and even though some fans were displeased with the increasingly frequent releases, they were still happy that the overall quality of the games was good enough. That is, until some time ago when “Unity” came out and completely shattered some people’s impressions of the franchise.
The game was far from the perfect installment that some were expecting, and it was full of various bugs and serious technical issues that made it a chore to play. On the other hand, Ubisoft were trying quite hard to push for even more microtransactions in that game, and the final result was a title that felt like a mix of different ideas put together in a rush to make a quick buck from people who still had some respect for the franchise.
After that, Ubisoft went quiet for a bit while apparently working on “Syndicate”, the next game in the series. We’ve already seen various aspects of the game, including its exciting new setting, but most people are worried if it’s going to properly address the issues created in “Unity” or if it’s just going to keep pushing forward towards total commercialization of the franchise without any regard for the actual quality of the games themselves.
Some things are not coming back, including cooperative play and the dreaded companion app. The studio apparently wants to focus entirely on crafting a good single player game, paying attention to what actually matters in this franchise. After all, single player is the feature that originally started the whole thing and drew so many people, not gimmicks like the companion app – so it would make sense for Ubisoft to pay more attention to this part of its development.
On the other hand, the technical state of the game should definitely be addressed more carefully as well. “Unity” came out plagued by various glitches and the next game in the franchise is not going to get far if it has similar issues. In fact, fans will be even more critical of such problems this time and they will really want to make sure that the game works properly before moving forward in it.
All of these factors mean that Ubisoft really need to be on top of their game for this release and not mess it up in any possible way. Otherwise, the reputation of the “Assassin’s Creed” franchise could be severely damaged in the future and people might lose all trust in the studio later on.
Gamers in general are already wary of Ubisoft, considering them to be one of the shadier studios around. Even though they are known for some good games, they have also been involved in some strange market practices which have led to criticism from various sides, fans and critics included. People are far less willing to let Ubisoft get away with poor release quality nowadays too, so “Syndicate” is going to be examined under a microscope.