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Baffling new Assassin’s Creed Unity trailer sends Arno hurtling forward in time

A new trailer for Assassin’s Creed Unity takes an unexpected turn from what we’ve seen so far of the game’s murder-y historical fiction when Arno is sent forward in time to a more modern vision of Paris.

When it opens, a woman  warns that “the French Revolution simulation is collapsing,” and Arno — or presumably the modern-day Abstergo Entertainment employee reliving Arno’s existence via an Animus — needs to get out of there. A blind leap into a glowing, rift in the matrix, and suddenly Arno is dodging trains and shooting at fighter planes with a turret gun. The video ends with an energy anomaly appearing on top of the Eiffel Tower while blimps hover around it. A mysterious “V” adorns its front. Quoi?

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Related: Hang with Napoleon, Robespierre, and other famous French-folk in Assassin’s Creed Unity

The Assassin’s Creed series has always had a sci-fi framing structure with the story of Desmond Miles tapping into the memories of his forebears. Desmond’s story concluded in Assassin’s Creed III and the focus shifted to a nameless Abstergo employee in Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, but this episode seems somewhat anomalous for the series. We will just have to wait a few weeks to find out what it means: Assassin’s Creed Unity hits PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One on November 11, 2014.

Will Fulton
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Will Fulton is a New York-based writer and theater-maker. In 2011 he co-founded mythic theater company AntiMatter Collective…
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