Assassin’s Creed 3 heads to America’s past—and we have a few guess on what that means
Earlier today, Ubisoft unveiled the box art for for the latest entry in the Assassin’s Creed franchise (seen above) on the game’s Facebook page, giving us the first taste of what we can expect from the Ezio-less sequel later this year. Shortly thereafter, Game Informer released the first official images from Assassin’s Creed 3 (see to the side and below), further hinting at what we can expect.
The images place the time frame of the next game to be during the American Revolution, and the action suggests that the main character will be fighting against the British. All of which just confirms the rumors that have been floating around for months.
Of course, the rumors of an American Revolutionary setting were just a few out of many. It was also rumored that the game may be set in Ancient Egypt, Victorian England, and Imperialist China to name just a few. One of rumors had to be true.
But taking what we know about the image and comparing it with the rest of the series, we can make a few more educated guesses as to what we can expect when the game is released (probably in November like that previous games in the series were, but that is unconfirmed).
The weaponry that the assassin is carrying suggests a Native American connection, possibly a Native American heritage. Due to the association between Desmond—who will be a major focus of AC3—the protagonist would need to be a continuation of the European bloodline in order to establish a genetic connection with Desmond, so the character may be half Native American. If so, that introduces some interesting story possibilities. Altair was already an accepted and high standing assassin when the original game began, while Ezio was born into nobility. If the game tries to keep somewhat historically accurate, then the protagonist would deal with at least some racial discrimination. The main character could always just have trained with Native Americans, but that would still lead to some possible conflicts on how other Europeans treated the indigenous people.
Although the image shows a battlefield, the game will likely stick to either multiple cities or a single massive city. Following the previous games’ focus on one major city (Rome and Constantinople respectively), it makes sense that Ubisoft would want to shake thing up a bit and return to the multiple city format. Besides, the American Revolution was fought across the Eastern Seaboard. It would be a bit disappointing if the game chose to narrow the scope. It seems far more likely that the game would feature the major cities of the time, including Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and possibly a few other locations.
Assassin’s Creed loves to use historical figures in the game, and AC3 will certainly follow suit. The question is who will they use? In the previous games, the protagonist inevitably crossed paths with the person that historically ruled whatever city. It seems like a near certainty that the Founding Fathers will make an appearance, probably several of them. The most obvious that come to mind would be Ben Franklin, who could easily take the spot of Da Vinci as a gadget maker for the protagonist, and George Washington, who would arguably be the single most important figure of the Revolutionary War (and who may be the American soldier in the image below, but that is just a guess). Incorporating Thomas Jefferson also just feels right, and others will certainly be mentioned, if not featured.
Of course, all of this is nothing more than guesswork—hopefully educated guesswork–but it is not based on anything more than the cover art.
The Assassin’s Creed 3 Facebook page is promising a major reveal over the weekend, so hopefully we will know more soon. Until then, do you think our guesses make sense? Are we way off the mark? We’ll know soon enough, but for now sound off in the comment section below let us know what you think!
This article was originally posted on Digital Trends
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