A fascinating interview with Assassin’s Creed game director Simon Lemay-Comtois has revealed that the team is eager to learn from past mistakes and oversights for future Assassin’s Creed games, such as a lack of parkour focus.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows was a financial and critical success. It may not go down as peak AC, but it’s a solid return to form. Shadows, in particular, and its post-launch content are looking to bring back a classic gameplay tradition, and have spoken about the use of dual-player mechanics in additional releases down the line.
Future Assassin’s Creed Games Will Learn From Mistakes
An Insider Gaming exclusive revealed further details on the Assassin’s Creed Roadmap and what games to expect. There is clearly a long road ahead for the franchise, and Shadows was the latest mainline release.
Shadows game director Simon Lemay-Comtois told GamesRadar that the current release and future AC games should focus on one gameplay mechanic that’s been missing:
“Pay more attention to parkour in future games as its own pillar. We’re trying to rectify that in post-launch with Shadows and push that narrative internally to say, parkour matters. Let’s really push parkour forward.”
Old-school AC fans will remember scaling towns and cities across Italy, whereas recent games have placed less emphasis on verticality in favor of grander open-world design and combat.
There’s still an inherent desire for the basics of Assassin’s Creed roots. Speaking of which, another newer addition (opposing convention) in the last few years has been the incorporation of dual-player stories.
Lemay-Comtois has indicated that the system won’t be going away if it makes sense for the project:
“Dual protagonists can be divisive along very strange lines, right? It’s not just a ‘well, I prefer a war, therefore I prefer Yasuke.’ Some people just don’t like one character over the other, and they don’t like to spend time with one. It was true with Evie and Jacob, but with Naoe and Yasuke it’s more divisive. And we knew this. We knew going into it, but I think it can split our fan base a little too.
I think the learning for us is that, yes, we could do more dual-protagonist games in the future – if we have a good reason to do it narratively and for the setting.”
We know that the Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag Remake won’t be using two-player mechanics, and parkour will be very much part of its DNA. What do you want to see from future Assassin’s Creed games? Now’s your chance to tell the world through the Insider Gaming Discord Server.
Also, read about Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3’s Game Experience Being ‘More or Less Complete,’ and Tekken Director Katsuhiro Harada Leaving Bandai Namco After 30 Years.
Andy is Insider Gaming's Senior Evergreen Editor and has been in the games journalism sphere in one way or another for over 7 years. His video game taste is as…
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