In 2010 and fresh off the great success of Assassin’s Creed II, Ubisoft had two ways to justify why a new chapter in Ezio’s story would arrive just a year later. The first was Rome, a big city that represented a paradigm shift in the series. The second was a multiplayer mode.
Focused on continuing the adventure of the Italian assassin, the multiplayer proposal seemed like a minor distraction to many, despite Ubisoft putting a great deal of effort into promoting it, including extensive coverage in their developer diaries that equated its importance to the individual adventure.
It turned out that the hype was justified. The multiplayer mode of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood was a fresh proposal that masterfully transferred the spirit of the series to new multiplayer dynamics, creating a clever cat-and-mouse game that once you were in, it was hard to detach from.
With 11 maps and 8 available modes, Wanted was the main experience of this mode and around which other modes were built. The objective is to assassinate a player assigned to us randomly, and do it with two important conditions: the first is that this player can disguise himself as NPCs roaming the map to confuse you, and the second is that someone else is also trying to assassinate you.
It was an exciting premise not present in the individual experience, and it was surprising how well it countered the somewhat rigid mechanics of the series. We had access to abilities that allowed us to cut enemy assassination animations and knock them out. Knowing how to escape was as important as being a good assassin.
Although there was a progression system that allowed us to customize our characters and unlock new abilities, the simple formula was enough to keep the interest. And it remained practically unchanged in subsequent games of the series until bidding farewell with Black Flag along with the generational change of the series.
With Assassin’s Creed Unity, another type of cooperative multiplayer was attempted that did not succeed, but that old formula never appeared in the series again. It’s a shame because it clearly left its mark on both players and other developers, with titles like Murderous Pursuits clearly inspired by that experience. Not to mention that the mechanics of social stealth and impostors are the driving force behind contemporary hits like Among Us.
An unnecessary trend now
For Ubisoft, it is probably water under the bridge, and something they won’t have much incentive to revisit despite fans’ nostalgia. Brotherhood was one of many triple-A games to introduce multiplayer experiences to traditionally single-player games, and there are many players who have great memories of online matches in titles like Uncharted 2 or Bioshock 2.
At that time, it was a move aimed at competing with big online games that captured general interest like Call of Duty. Creating multiplayer modes for offline titles was a way to adapt to a very popular formula and extend the life of titles that would have otherwise returned to the shelf sooner.
Priorities in the industry have changed, to the point that remasters like Assassin’s Creed III or The Last of Us remake have not seen the need to include their multiplayer modes despite player complaints. Call of Duty remains one of the few modern examples striving to include both experiences, and even then ensuring it has a separate multiplayer experience.
With development costs and times becoming longer and trends changing (Fortnite is the new benchmark, and almost unattainable), the bar for multiplayer modes is now as high as it was for individual experiences in its day. We have gone from a complementary pastime to a very aggressive market, one that has even scared companies of the caliber of Naughty Dog. With this perspective, we are left with the memory of an industry stage that probably won’t return.
In 3DJuegos | En qué orden jugar a Assassin’s Creed: Entérate bien de su historia con la cronología completa de la saga
In 3DJuegos | Sí, la saga Assassins’s Creed tiene una base histórica, pero en realidad parte de una novela eslovena de 1938
