Oh Desmond Miles, the modern-day wrapper for our sweet historical filling, will you ever get a game of your own? While early signs in Assassin’s Creed 3 hype pointed to this, a recent interview with Assassin’s Creed 3 lead designer Steve Masters on OXM hinted that Desmond’s story might be wrapping up in the next game.
After being saddled with Desmond the last four games, Ubisoft is looking to bring a bit of finality to his story, and in the words of Masters, “To actually wrap up what you’ve opened and experienced with him”. Traditionally the Desmond segments of the Assassin’s Creed games have always been poorly received, right up from the moment in the first game when we realized that we weren’t technically going to be playing an assassin in the Middle Ages, but were experiencing the genetic memories of some poor kidnapped sod. It’s actually kind of interesting to see the lead designer of AC3 admit that the series did rotate around Desmond for a bit too long, as this part of the interview shows:
“And we wanted you to feel a good sense of progress in what’s going on in the story. A lot of the misdirection and the way we’ve been meandering a little bit has been kind of frustrating as a player and for the audience, so we wanted to make sure there was going to be more substance to get your teeth into.”
While I don’t hate Desmond as much as some, the cliffhanger at the end of Revelations did feel like the modern-day storyline was starting to wear out its welcome. I’m interested to see where the Assassin’s Creed story will go after three, and whether or not we’ll be saddled with another Desmond-type character to keep the sci-fi conceit going.
What do you guys think about this? Will we actually see Desmond’s story wrap up or is this just a developer telling us what we want to hear? Are we saying goodbye to Desmond for good, or will he be back?
Source – OXM
Whilst I don’t hate Desmond, I certainly cannot see how the AC combat would work in a modern context without a complete overhaul. If they do one in the future, that’s fine, but right now all I care about is having a really cool game set in a historical context, no doubt to make up for all o’ them shooters! This no doubt explains my love affair with the Total War series and any films like “Mongol” and “Kingdom of Heaven” right now.
I dunno, the end of Desmond seems like a bit too much to pull from this one little statement. At the least, it seems that they’re reaching for a less to-be-continued ending, wrapping up enough strands of plot as to be a bit more satisfying and leaving the next iteration with a clean enough slate to strike out in a new direction. Sounds good to me, Desmond or no, but I’d be shocked if they removed him from the equation altogether.
Now, hold on to your seats people, I know I’m in the minority here, but honestly, I always really enjoyed the Desmond part of the story, I think it’s a really cool concept and I’m rather anxious to grasp the end of it, pummel it, slice it and assassinate it until it reveals all of its secrets unto me.
I rush through the Desmond sections like you wouldn’t believe.