Assassin’s Creed is a long-standing franchise that has attempted to add variety to some releases to mix up their otherwise basic formula. One of these forms of variety was in the form of a competitive multiplayer that we saw in Brotherhood and then a cooperative multiplayer that we saw in Unity. However, the series left out both of these features with Syndicate and it does not look like they will be making a return in Origins.
Now we cannot deny that Assassin’s Creed is a successful franchise with a large following, but the question remains if they need to add something to their formula again. While the competitive multiplayer feature was not the reason fans were playing, it had enough of a backing to last three games in the series.
The multiplayer was successful at blending the actions of the campaign with a competitive functionality that worked well in the Assassin’s Creed Universe. Unity allowed players to work in tandem on missions, and worked well with the themes of the game, but lacked the same excitement and contrast of the competitive features before it.
Without either of these features, the franchise left Syndicate feeling like an old Assassin’s Creed game, not that that was a bad thing. The game also did allow you to switch between two lead characters which was a nice twist without sacrificing the traditional Assassin’s Creed feel.
Now, most people are done with franchises that add a random multiplayer feature to a game that does not make a lot of sense and bogs down the overall presence of a good game. But if it makes sense with the game and has a user base, it is a nice function to enhance a game.
Even without the multiplayer function, Origins will still be successful for long-time fans of the franchise, but it leaves little to entice newcomers. Even more worrisome is how long the game will keep people interested without new features. Multiplayer without a doubt adds content besides the campaign and allows for developers to add some easy new content.
Will we see a return of the Assassin’s Creed multiplayer or is the franchise just going to keep doing what made them so popular since the beginning? We will have to wait and see. Let us know in the comments if you think Assassin’s Creed needs to bring back their multiplayer or what else they might need to change their formula.
