Looking from the outside in,Assassin’s Creedseems like an interesting historical fiction adventure that sees players take on globe-trotting quests throughout world history. Jumping into the series for the first time, players soon realize that there’s an entire meta-narrative based in present day that permeates throughout the series as well. As a concept, it’s an interesting juxtaposition of the Assassin-Templar conflict compared to present day; in reality, its execution has become more and more uselessly complex and disappointing.
As the series has marched on annually, and now semi-annually, the modern day story continued while many of the historical locations tied up and moved on to new time periods. While this constant release schedule did in some way affect theAssassin’s Creedfranchise as a whole, one of the greatest victims was the modern day meta-narrative. The franchise has since seen a great rebirth in the adoption of more RPG-related mechanics, among other improvements, but the series' meta-narrative with Abstergo continues to lag behind.
The Merit of the Modern Day Story
Arguably, the modern day story wasn’t always this way and was genuinely interesting for a while. The establishment of the meta-narrative in the firstAssassin’s Creedand its subsequent continuationinAssassin’s Creed 2onwardhad an incremental buildup that was relatively enjoyable, even if it took a back seat to the meat of the game. There was merit in using science fiction to justify re-visiting these different points in history because it added context to the stories Desmond was reliving in the Animus. Beyond that, the timeless nature of the Assassins vs. Templars conflict and the doomsday prophecy added a unique aspect of encouragement for players, even when the series didn’t need it. Going as far asAssassin’s Creed: Revelations, the game’s modern day narrative was slow-going, but it had a legitimate rising action.
It wasn’t untilAC3where the series seemed to lose control of the complicated narrative eachAssassin’s Creedgame had built up to previously. The games leading up toAssassin’s Creed 3seemed to be setting up Desmond, the protagonist up untilAssassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag, to have a heightened importance in the franchise’s future. As it turned out, Desmond was instead sacrificed to save the Earth in an unfulfilling and sudden finale. The series basically killed off the protagonist it had been building up as an integral portion of the story. From there, Desmond’s progression was largely retconned and the modern day story just petered off.
The Present Day Narrative, Post-Desmond
Part of why the modern day took a backseat to the actual historical assassin gameplay was due to Desmond’s death. The game no longer had its central source justifying the journeying into the past in the first place. While initially it seemed the series was setting upJuno as the franchise’s next antagonist, she was eventually killed off in a comic book in the extendedAssassin’s Creeduniverse, not even in a mainlineAssassin’s Creedtitle. Now the more recentAssassin’s Creedtitles are trying to piece together the present day meta-narrative, but what used to partially be the backbone of the franchise is now over complicating a game about revisiting important era of history in fun, adventurous ways.
Much of the modern day story content inAssassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag,Rogue, Unity,andSyndicatetakes a very vague, hands-off approach. Likely in an effort to restructure the modern day content to suit a more cohesive and direct story, players take on the role of nameless drones who are literallyplaying Abstergo “virtual reality games"based on some of Desmond’s (and others) DNA history. If hardcore fans were wondering why not many people cared about the Animus or Abstergo, players can likely point them to any of those games as a justification.
Now it seems the series has reintroduced a new protagonist Layla for the present day story. To what end her purpose lies is still vague, consideringLayla’s story still continues afterAssassin’s Creed Odyssey. She quickly becomes an Assassin cell leader, beginning the search for First Civilization/Isu artifacts. She eventually finds the Staff of Hermes and is quickly corrupted by its great power and psychological effects. Things are more complicated for the modern day story now compared to any other entry in theAssassin’s Creedseries prior.
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Nix the Animus Project
While at first, this meta-narrative served as an important jumping off point forAssassin’s Creedgames, now its becoming more of an unneeded complication to the core of the series' plan. It’s hard to understand why there’s such a strong push by the franchise to continue focusing on the modern-day aspects of the story when the meta-narrative’s true purpose cannot be identified. Even the lorethat involves the Pieces of Eden, the First Civilization/Isu, and their powerful artifacts are more interesting when incorporated into the historical fiction.
How these artifacts affected key moments in history is what makesAssassin’s Creed’s story so special. The franchise’s story can still include that over-arching plot device without a person in modern day being the catalyst for visiting these moments in history.Assassin’s Creedshould focus on these moments in history entirely, and weave it into the meta-narrative ofAssassins vs. Templars throughout history. The games don’t necessarily need the Animus or more specifically Abstergo to achieve the narrative complexity or compelling universe it’s trying to craft.
Regardless, even withOdyssey’srather gruesome ending clueing players intowhat’s next for Layla and the modern-day story, it’s hard to say players are interested in what comes next. The core ofAssassin’s Creedhas always been about the history, not about the convoluted modern setting that the series seems to be beholden to.
Assassin’s Creed Ragnarokis rumored to be in development.
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