Assassin's Creed: What Could've Been
I have always dissed Assassin's Creed and considered it to be one of Ubisoft's most overrated franchises. But I always had a soft spot for AC1 and Unity. Mainly due to the fact that they were more interesting takes on open world rather than period piece GTA or wannabe RPGs or Arkham clones. In AC1, you had multiple assassination targets and you can assassinate them in any order. Every mission was about gathering intel on your target and performing the kill rather than have the mission be its own level like most open world games.
The problem was that the missions were the same thing over and over and the assassination methods were extremely limited when compared to Hitman or atleast the good Hitmans. But there was a solid foundation. AC1 was more of a proof of concept than a good game. Unfortunately, the sequels outside of Unity completely ignored this design template for GTA style bullshit. With Unity, I appreciate them trying to bring back the AC1 design and make it more of a stealth game, but the stealth system was on Dishonored levels of badly designed. Its like Ubisoft didn't want to use the Splinter Cell Conviction style stealth but wanted Unity to be different but had no idea how to accomplish this. So they just pissed all over everything. Its sad, this series could've been unique but it all it did was lay the groundwork for the death of who used to be one of my favorite devs. Its sad to see what Ubisoft has become.
In some ways, Middle Earth Shadow of Mordor and even MGS5 feels like a better AC sequel.
But I still think there is potential in the kind of game AC1 went for. Maybe have a world where if you kill one target, it'll drastically effect the outcome of the rest of the men you have to assassinate. Have the Black Box assassinations from Unity, but more expanded on and with a proper better made stealth system. Like do what MGS5 did with different times of day effecting assassination opportunities. Maybe have the nemesis system from Shadow of Mordor. Where if you botch an assassination attempt the target will be aware and take extra precautions, if you make it out alive. Hell, use the notoriety system from Hitman Blood Money too where the more bodies and more of a presence you make throughout the levels, the more enemies will be aware of your presence. Have the intel gathering be apart of the difficulty. Players can choose to gather intel, and it'll make the game easier but if you choose just to jump right in, it'll be a lot harder. Maybe add some secondary objectives that can make you stronger, or effect the assassination in some way. Maybe even tie parkour more to the assassination attempts as well. If you jump around too much, later assassinations will have more guards posted at the rooftops and more rifleman will be there.
