Speaking with Edge in connection with their Assassin's Creed 3 cover story, Ubisoft Montreal creative director Alex Hutchinson assured the publication that the third numbered entry of the popular Assassin's Creed franchise would add a rich new layer to the historically unlikeable Desmond, the modern-day descendent of the more fanciful Altair and Ezio who fulfill the franchise's action quota.
Traditionally, Desmond has featured largely as a conceit, a (barely) walking MacGuffin on which the game directs its players toward the much livelier virtual universe of the genetic memories of Desmond's ancestors. Putting players in Desmond's shoes has rarely come across as rewarding and arguably has the ability to make the gameplay feel more disjointed. So it will be quite interesting to see how his developers plan to overcome those problems.
Says Hutchinson,
We've built [Desmond] up over the course of the games, and I really believe that we can pay that off, and in retrospect he'll be terrific. I don't think anyone really liked Luke Skywalker in A New Hope, but by the end of his character arc, this journey that he goes through, makes him amazing.
In addition to hoping to provide a narrative payoff for Desmond, lead gameplay designer Steven Masters told Edge that the development team is aiming to make Desmond more interesting on a mechanical level as well: "He has some really cool moments there, but nothing particularly challenging or threatening. We found the right sort of ingredients to actually bring him forward as a character that can do stuff."
We imagine all gamers aspire to control characters "that can do stuff," so we are already on the edge of our seats with anticipation.
Via Edge.
