Assassin’s Creed Egypt: 10 Leaked Details

[Destroid™]

1. It’s A Prequel/Full Reboot, Set In Ancient Egypt

At some point, the only thing Ubisoft could do to wrap up their horrifically maligned plot was to wipe the slate clean, and that was either going to be as a continuation of the main thread (probably by seeing some character in the Miles bloodline get trapped in an Animus forever) or what they’re actually doing – forgetting the other games and starting over from scratch.

A note from the leak mentions the era of Ancient Egypt has been chosen, as it has “the least amount of historical documentation, to [allow] freedom”. Even in the real world this time period tends to be discussed with just enough of a framework to allow for confirmed events and iconography, all alongside plenty of room to expand.

Interestingly, the entire thing is set before the events of all the past games, “before the Assassins and Templars even existed”, begging the question – are we going to see the origin of the order itself? What is an Assassin’s Creed game, without any assassins?

Answers in the comments, as at the very least, this is all very interesting considering at this stage in 2015 we knew all all about Syndicate’s release schedule later that year.

2. A ‘Big Focus’ On Story

Although the AC formula of fighting and super sleuthing your way around is pretty solid, the idea of trying to introduce an entirely new protagonist in every single game just made most of them completely forgettable. You could make some point about their identity being the assassin apparel and way of life, but it’s always what’s underneath that gave guys like Ezio or Edward Kenway a real reason to stick around.
AC III served up an entire hour of gameplay as Haythem Kenway before starting over as Connor, and for as much as Unity and Syndicate’s Arno and the Frye twins were well acted and believable in their roles, it was impossible to really care about anything they did in a wider sense, as there’s never any real continuity.
With a reboot comes an entirely new set of characters, and if Ubi the time to flesh out a completely new personality from the ground up to give their progression a solid arc across what would be around 100 hours, it could be the best one yet. The scope to tell an emotionally-involving tale around someone’s involvement with the assassin order as a means to enact any sort of personal tale has always been there – so let’s see Ubi pull it off again.

3. A 2017 Release

As mentioned earlier, Ubisoft are taking a year off to really focus on quality control for the next AC, and although adding just one more year probably won’t be enough to get a flawless AC experience, it’s a big step in the right direction.
Thanks to overlapping development schedules, Far Cry Primal is releasing two years after 4, which came two years after 3. The two year formula has worked wonders so far for Ubisoft, as it was what Assassin’s Creed started out with back in 2007-09.
Here’s to this idea of catching their breath actually fixing the numerous bugs and issues we’ve all had over the years, and not just rolling out more ‘pre-order now!’ bundle deals along the way.

4. Use Of Interiors For Questlines

Of all the games to factor interiors into their open-worlds, Assassin’s Creed has since proven it has no idea what to do with them. Brought in through AC III, it was more as a way to get between city blocks than anything else. Unity put some of your targets inside luxuriously-designed town houses and era-appropriate mansions, but the actual game mechanics didn’t change one bit when inside.
Splinter Cell had its split-jump and Tenchu Z even let you grapple directly up to the ceiling for hanging kills on any unsuspecting goons below, yet AC has never had you go indoors for any reason other than the sake of it.
The leak mentions using the inside of buildings directly for questlines, which again, could just be for eliminating targets, but the hope is that gameplay gets an injection of innovation too. Just imagine knowing you’ve got the immediate upper hand if you can get your quarry off the streets and out of sight – it’d bolster the idea of being an assassin tenfold.

5. You’re Still Not Getting Japan, We’re Heading To Greece After

Back in September there was quite the juicy new rumour going around that essentially pointed Assassin’s Creed in the direction of Japan as the next confirmed location. Now that this new leak is out though, it alludes to the fact Greece was a location thrown out in years past, that the devs are looking to bring back.

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“The original game included Greece, which you can travel to. But it was cut from the game due to scale issues [so] they might explore Greece/Rome next.”

You may remember Rome from AC Brotherhood where it featured as a prominent location during the period of the Italian Renaissance, however, with the idea of a prequel being the overriding ethos (more on that later), revisiting it during ancient times could be far more shall we say… ‘brutal’.

6. A Map ‘Three Times Black Flag’ With No Loading

Back in the early days of GTA, when open-world games were just finding their feet, load screens were out in force to ensure every last pixel loaded in properly. Even Assassin’s Creed would fall victim to this approach as you went between the main ‘zones’ of the landscape, and it’s something the leaked information is quick to point out.
They mention that “everything is seamless” which may be the case when sprinting around on-foot or horseback, but what about when we wish to fast-travel between areas?
Could it be that the transition from place to place takes on GTA V’s cross-city ‘zoom-out-and-back-down’ visual trick? Such a thing was what I personally expected when flicking between Jacob and Evie in Syndicate, but I got a cut to black instead.
Depending on how much the Animus/[CENSORED]ure aspects are used in the building of the new world/story, instantly zipping between points on a large map might look a little suspect, but if Ubi can wave it away as simply ‘loading’ into the new checkpoint, it should aid in gameplay and be believable enough.

7. No Recycled Assets – All New Climbing Mechanics?

There was a weird feeling watching AC Unity roll out on next-gen consoles back in 2013/2014, as through every piece of in-game footage, we knew exactly how it was going to play, precisely what the feel of leaping off a building into a haystack would be like, and just how unsatisfying the melee combat always is.

Then it came out, and we were right. It marked a point in time where complacency had set in over at Ubi HQ, and expectation for any [CENSORED]ure instalments would take a total overhaul to generate interest ever again. Luckily then, the leak has addressed this directly:

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“The world is made from scratch. No recycling. The only recycling is animation and even then, this one will change most of it. As far as recycling goes, this next one will have the least amount of it.”

The proof will be in the hooded-pudding, as if we get eyes on the next AC and its more of the same shambling up buildings and finishing off goons in canned animations with mistimed sound effects, all will be lost. However, if Ubi show off a new engine with climbing that looks to be tactile and rewarding, it’s a base staple of the AC formula that would be immediately well-received.

8. Scout Areas With A Pet Eagle (Yes, Really)

Ubisoft aren’t ones to miss a trick when it comes to porting over assets between their games, and as they’re currently developing both the all-singing, all-animal-controlling Far Cry Primal alongside Eagle Flight for the PlayStation VR, the same functionality is going to be front and centre in the new AC.
Scouting areas ahead hasn’t been done in the AC series, but the nearest comparisons are either Splinter Cell: Blacklist’s flyable drone camera or Darksiders II’s crow, Dust.
Either way, 2016 sees Ubisoft going up against Rayman-creator Michel Ansel’s latest game Wild, which also features various controllable animals and hey, also an eagle, making it something of a theme for this year right off the bat.

9. Co-Op Multiplayer Is Gone For The Foreseeable [CENSORED]ure

Praise the heavens, they actually listened. For the most part, 2015’s Syndicate was to Assassin’s Creed what The Force Awakens was to Star Wars – damage control. Ubisoft needed to get the series back on track after 2014’s genuinely disastrous Unity, and following the latest reception it’s definitely just as fun as the last generation’s high-points.

Case in point; the co-op campaign multiplayer that Unity was sold on. It just didn’t work, like, at all. The only other game to attempt such a thing was FromSoftware’s overlooked gem, Tenchu Z, and even that fell down, as there’s literally no way to do a game where you avoid all detection as a group of companions trying to teabag the guard in front of you.

As such, this feature was removed from Syndicate and shall remain axed for as long as possible, with the leak mentioning that “online (COOP) is completely cut from the series for the time being. Not sure it will ever come back, to be honest.”

10. A New Hero With A Whole New Trilogy

The revealing post on 4Chan notes;

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“You play as a slave or ex-slave. He looks a lot like Altair, but with a darker skin. He is not edgy, from my understanding. He’s a nobody that barely speaks […] There are talks about making a trilogy of this same character.”

As you’ll see with a lot of the information around this tantalising new leak, Ubisoft are clearly going back over their notes from the last five years to compile what should be the finest Assassin’s Creed yet.

“Remember how fans loved the Ezio trilogy, and enjoyed following one hero’s arc across three games?” Put that in. “Oh, and everyone who played the Freedom Cry DLC for Black Flag said that former-slave Adewale was one of the best and most underused characters we’ve ever had, so let’s try that again.”

It’s almost as if they should do more of what worked before, and although that’s cynical, occasionally what’s best for business will be in-line with fan interest, and that could be exactly what we need.