Thanks to the Japanese setting, varied gameplay, and good old racism, Assassin’s Creed Shadows has become the most talked about series entry for some time. Despite complaints that range from valid to stupid, Shadows looks like it could be a quality entry that gets fans into this long-running franchise.
Ubisoft has no plans to stop making entries for this series, but should the company consider pulling the Animus plot altogether?
The original Assassin’s Creed introduced fans to the Animus, a plot device that has people from the future reliving their ancestor’s exciting past lives. As Desmond Miles, players attempted to discover various conspiracies found in the past that could affect their future. For a while, it was an exciting subplot that gave players a unique reason to keep playing.
However, Desmond was killed in the series’ third numbered entry, and the Animus plot has been limping ever since.
After the death of Desmond, Ubisoft hasn’t done a great job with the Animus subplot, often switching characters around and trying to tie it in with the historical period they’ve chosen.
Games like Valhalla tried to tease major things with this futuristic machine, even hinting that Desmond could still play a major role, but fans have been numb to this storyline for a while.
Unless Ubisoft plans to set an AC game in the future where we see a modern-day conflict between the assassins and templars, they should consider dropping the Animus altogether. Most of the good stuff in Assassin’s Creed usually happens outside that futuristic hunk of junk.
Black Flag, the fourth numbered game of this series that might get a remake, succeeded in being a fantastic pirate adventure and gave way to the spinoff Skull and Bones. Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla were praised for being open-world RPGs, though some argued that they added too much filler in these games. Lastly, the original games were appreciated for being solid stealth titles, often feeling like successors to Prince of Persia.
Some fans have argued that this series wouldn’t be Assassin’s Creed without the Animus. Having context from the future for these historical adventures has a certain charm, almost simulating how a player feels controlling these characters. The Animus effect is also visually interesting, giving gamers an ethereal feeling when switching from a plain dude in the pseudo-future to their cooler historical protagonist.
Even with all that, this writer feels like the Animus can be thrown away, and players would only pretend to miss it after a month or two. When Assassin’s Creed Shadows has you killing fools as a giant samurai and an athletic ninja, who cares about normies trying to access their ancestral heritage? Granted, Shadows could make the Animus more interesting again, and this article could be rendered null and void, but we doubt that happens.
Based on this series ' track record, we could get the coolest plot twist ever with this Animus technology, and it still wouldn’t be a playable section. A plan needs to be developed to wrap up this storyline, as seeing it continue like this is just painful to watch.
Then again, Ubisoft does want Assassin’s Creed games to be accessed in some Animus-style hub in the future, so this plot point will likely remain forever.