In an interview with Ashraf Ismail, director of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, Digital Trends found out that the newest incarnation of the Assassin’s Creed series is drastically different in order to attract new players. In this reboot there will be an open-world sea-based setting, new characters, a fresh story, and a more morally ambiguous conflict. These changes will make it so that players who are unfamiliar with the lore of the game and the history of the battle between The Templars and The Assassins can play the game easily and just appreciate some pirate fun.
“We kind of looked at the whole scene and were like ‘We have to do a pirate game.’”
In the interview Ismail discussed the ways in which Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag will be a new direction for the series with Assassins and Templars being both understandable as factions instead of setting the Assassins up as the heroes and the Templars up as the villains. He commented that, “We kind of advertise the fact that it’s not good versus evil, it’s just two different perspectives, and you could disagree with one or the other, that’s no problem.” Most people will still chose to side with the Assassins because of memories involving a very evil Borgias family of Templars.
Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed s IV: Black Flag will be important whether fans respond well to comments by the director or not. Since 2007 the series has sold fifty-seven million games – so, whether players enjoy the new story or not, the two years of development will create a very intricate game. Some players are angry that the franchise abandoned many science fiction elements and its roots in the characters of Ezio and Desmond, but the developer said in this interview that he would have been worried about new players understanding a story that spanned four other titles.
“Desmond’s story ended in AC3, so we felt this was an opportunity to create a narrative that would bring new people into the brand.”
The story of Assassin’s Creed s IV: Black Flag will need no knowledge of Assassin’s Creed III; if new players were hesitant about being lost they needn’t be. That was made clear in this interview.
