Assassin’s Creed’s Modern-Day Stories Have Always Been a Drag

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The initial trailers for *Assassin’s Creed* were fantastic and really helped launch the series successfully. They showcased a unique world and pushed the boundaries of what was possible with the new gaming hardware. Beyond the impressive visuals and Altair’s skillful combat, these trailers contained subtle hints of a larger story. These hints ultimately revealed the modern-day storyline that would become a key part of almost every *Assassin’s Creed* game. However, while the idea of a dual narrative was initially interesting, these modern segments have become a burden, holding the series back.

The initial games weren’t bad, actually. The mystery surrounding Desmond Miles’ captivity at Abstergo and his eventual commitment to the rebel cause was engaging, largely thanks to the supporting characters. But even then, problems started to appear in the modern-day storyline, and these issues only became more pronounced over time as the overall story became increasingly convoluted.

The story often included unnecessary details, particularly with the character of Revelations. These additions weren’t always logical and relied too heavily on unresolved plot points. Exploring the ancient Isu civilization and the doomsday themes created excessive and pointless narrative bulk, feeling more like a collection of unexplained, attention-grabbing secrets than meaningful story elements. It created a false sense of complexity and ultimately detracted from the core stories happening within the Animus.

Assassin’s Creed’s Modern-Day Stories Only Got Worse After Desmond’s Death

Desmond’s storyline, despite its occasional silliness, at least felt thoughtfully planned with a clear start, middle, and end. However, the games that came after seemed to lack that same vision and felt more like required installments. *Unity*, *Syndicate*, and *Rogue* barely explored the established themes, almost as if Ubisoft had forgotten about them until it was too late. *Black Flag* was at least self-aware and had a fun idea – even poking fun at the company itself – which allowed for some good humor. Still, even that game didn’t fully deliver on its potential, abruptly pulling players away from the engaging Caribbean setting and failing to build on its ideas in future titles.

The *Origins* storyline attempted to create a central character, Layla Hassan, similar to Desmond Miles from earlier games, to give these sections more focus. While Layla was engaging and appeared in several games, much like Desmond, her supporting characters weren’t very memorable and her dialogue felt overly safe. This made it hard to become invested in her story, which ultimately felt like extra content despite some effort being put into it.

Assassin’s Creed’s Modern-Day Story Won’t Have a Satisfying Ending (if There’s One at All)

The storylines in the later downloadable content for *Odyssey* and the game *Valhalla* started to become overly complicated and unbelievable. Things like Kassandra becoming immortal in *Odyssey* and the reveal that Basim in *Valhalla* was a reincarnation of Loki felt forced and highlighted a core problem with the modern-day segments of *Assassin’s Creed*: it’s hard to create a satisfying story when it’s designed to never truly end. These segments keep adding new plot points, but can’t reach a proper conclusion because they have to keep the conflict between Assassins and Templars going. This leads to bizarre twists that take a long time – or never – to resolve. For instance, the recent game *Shadows* doesn’t address any of the storylines left open in *Valhalla* or *Mirage*, leaving those threads unresolved for years.

Unnecessary plot twists and a very slow pace are annoying and ruin a good story. This installment also suffers from focusing on stories that are hard to connect with. By shifting to tales of long-ago wars and extinct gods, the game loses the close, personal connections between characters that make a video game story truly memorable.

Honestly, I’ve always struggled to get invested in the big, overarching mythology and the endless war between the Isu and Templars. It just feels…distant. But when I play as Bayek, Kassandra, or Ezio, and see their personal struggles – like Bayek and Aya dealing with the loss of their son – *that* really gets to me. It’s just so much more engaging! The modern-day story has always felt like it gets in the way, focusing too much on the grand scheme and not enough on the characters. It’s been especially noticeable since Desmond was gone; the series has felt lost without a strong personal anchor, and those segments just feel like unnecessary detours that have held the whole thing back from the beginning.

The ongoing requirement to develop the modern-day storyline, which often slows down the main plot, highlights a major weakness in the Assassin’s Creed series. What began as an interesting idea in the first game has become a detriment, as these segments frequently interrupt the core narrative without adding much substance. It’s increasingly apparent that Assassin’s Creed didn’t need these modern-day sections at all, and each new game reinforces that point.

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2025-09-22 16:11