Skip to main content

Assassin’s Creed Infinity could use less content, not more

Assassin’s Creed is about to get a whole lot bigger. Ubisoft confirmed that it’s working on a new project called Assassin’s Creed Infinity, which will begin a new future for the open-world series. While Ubisoft didn’t share official details on what the game will look like, leaks indicate that it could be a major departure for the franchise that sees it expanding into a full-on live-service game.

According to a Bloomberg report, Assassin’s Creed Infinity will actually consist of multiple interconnected games. Rather than simply living the Viking life in Valhalla, players could potentially jump from setting to setting as the game is consistently updated with new content. If that’s the case, we could be looking at a gargantuan game even by Ubisioft standards.

Recommended Videos

That’s as worrying as it is exciting. If anything, Assassin’s Creed needs less content, not more.

How big is too big?

The Assassin’s Creed series has built a legacy on game size. For those who want the most bang for their buck, a game like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is quite a value. It features an enormous open world that’s filled with objectives, secrets, and missions. One could spend well over 100 hours in the base game before even touching its post-launch content.

That’s a gift and a curse. While it’s great for players who want their games to last, the final product can suffer for its size. Valhalla is an impressive experience, but it’s also exhausting. It’s a bloated game that gives players a seemingly never-ending checklist of chores to tackle.

A Viking holds a shield durign a siege in Assassin's Creed Valhalla.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

This isn’t something that’s exclusive to Assassin’s Creed games. Valhalla is just one prime example of a “map game,” a type of open-world game where players see a giant collection of icons when they open their map, telling them exactly where to go next. It’s a common design trick in today’s biggest games that can be an effective way of hooking players — there’s something addicting about checking items off a list.

It’s not necessarily fun, though. Map games tend to create arbitrary excess by having players perform the same basic actions multiple times. In Ghost of Tsushima, completionists will follow a fox to its den over 50 times during the journey. It’s cute the first few times; it’s compulsory after the 10th or 20th.

That’s especially true of Assassin’s Creed, which fills its enormous maps with as many icons as it can fit. Players who want to hit 100% will repeat the same tasks ad infinitum. All of that adds time to fans’ final hour count, but doesn’t meaningfully improve the game. Instead, it bloats it, adding hundreds of little distractions that pull players away from the game’s sprawling story.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Quality suffers

The actual quality of the game suffers for it, too. Assassin’s Creed games constantly feel like they are bursting at the seams, collapsing under their own weight. At one point during my Assassin’s Creed Valhalla playthrough, a non-player character randomly dropped dead in front of me. Ten hours later, her rag-dolled body reappeared — still dead — in another location. Unfortunately, she was the character I needed to speak with to progress the story, so I found myself unable to continue the story.

That’s where the rumored premise of Assassin’s Creed Infinity starts to sound like a potential nightmare. The last thing these games need is to balloon even further. As it stands, open-world games are already an unsustainable idea. They take a ridiculous amount of time and money to create. They’ve become an exercise in careful corner-cutting to deliver the most content possible. Games like Biomutant reuse assets like buildings as many times as they can to fill the world. Then there’s Cyberpunk 2077, which sacrificed stability in service of an unwieldy world, kicking off an unending wave of controversy for CD Projekt Red.

Assassin’s Creed is a special series. It’s a historical spectacle that’s lovingly crafted and its alternate history narratives are some of the most intriguing stories you’ll find in any AAA game. But those strengths tend to get buried in superfluous open-world grinds that don’t move the story or its thematic elements forward.

Big game studios need to become more comfortable with reducing content, not increasing it. Video games have the power to tell stories that no other medium can through interactivity. That potential gets watered down when they start feeling like chores.

Giovanni Colantonio
As Digital Trends' Senior Gaming Editor, Giovanni Colantonio oversees all things video games at Digital Trends. As a veteran…
Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ blend of old and new is a recipe for success
Yasuke in Assassin's Creed Shadows fighting an enemy. He's dressed in his samurai armor.

Assassin's Creed Shadows was officially revealed a couple of weeks ago in a beefy cinematic trailer showing off its dual protagonists, Yasuke and Naoe. It's a big moment for fans of the series, as Shadows is finally the Feudal Japan Assassin's Creed game fans have been asking for since it was teased back in the very first entry in the franchise in 2007.

Does it live up to that long wait? Ahead of today's Ubisoft Forward stream, I saw an extended gameplay presentation for Assassin's Creed Shadows that gave me a much better sense of what to expect this fall. The team behind it is looking to blend newer series entries like Valhalla, Odyssey, and Origins into the more traditional Assassin's Creed titles from over a decade ago. And that seems like it could be a winning formula.
Out of the shadows
During the presentation, I saw both of Shadows' playable characters in action -- and they're quite different from one another. Yasuke's Samurai stature and hulking physique command respect from villagers when he walks by. They bow to him, move out of his way, and clearly show signs of admiration. His combat skills also match this, giving him access to actions like a shoulder charge to break down doors or knock enemies off balance.

Read more
Ubisoft Forward 2024: how to watch and what to expect
Yasuke in Assassin's Creed Shadows fighting an enemy. He's dressed in his samurai armor.

Ubisoft is having a great 2024. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown started the year off strong by being critically acclaimed, while the successful launch of XDefiant and a promising early access roguelike in The Rogue Prince of Persia continued that momentum in May. Next week, Ubisoft will hold its annual Ubisoft Forward game showcase to show us what's in store for the rest of the year.

More specifically, this is where we'll be getting our next looks at Star Wars Outlaws and Assassin's Creed Shadows. If you're interested in those upcoming Ubisoft games, you'll want to tune in. Here's everything to know about 2024's Ubisoft Forward showcase ahead of its airing.
When is Ubisoft Foward 2024
2024's Ubisoft Forward begins at 12 p.m. PT on Monday, June 10. There will also be a 30-minute pre-show that begins at 11:30 a.m. PT if you're interested in more minor updates for Ubisoft titles that are already out. Including the pre- and post-shows, Ubisoft Forward often streams for around two hours.
Where to watch Ubisoft Forward 2024
Ubisoft Forward: Official Livestream - June 2024 | #UbiForward

Read more
Can’t wait for Assassin’s Creed Shadows? Play these games instead
Yasuke in Assassin's Creed Shadows fighting an enemy. He's dressed in his samurai armor.

Ubisoft unveiled Assassin's Creed Shadows last week, giving us our first real glimpse at the first Assassin's Creed game to be set in Japan. Its Feudal Japan setting is something that fans of Assassin's Creed have craved for a long time, and while it's awesome that Ubisoft is finally delivering that concept, some other games did beat it to the punch. Many other developers have noticed how fruitful a historical Japan setting can be, from its feudal era all the way until the West started to intervene in the Edo period. As a result, there are quite a few games that I can recommend you check out while you're waiting for Assassin's Creed Shadows' November 15 launch.

The five games I'm recommending all range in size. Three of them are AAA action games, all set in different eras of Japanese history that immerse players in different ways. Meanwhile, the other two games I'm spotlighting are more experimental titles that, while not directly comparable to Assassin's Creed Shadows from a gameplay perspective, are still well worth your time if Japanese history and culture intrigue you.
Ghost of Tsushima

Read more