Assassin's Creed cut its 'ambitious' co-op mode for Desmond
By
Martin Gaston, News Editor
Engine difficulties and Desmond's storyline meant huge co-op component was cut from original Assassin's Creed.
The original Altair-led Assassin's Creed once featured a "huge" co-op component that was later cut to make way for Desmond's Animus-dipping storyline set in the present day, Ubisoft has revealed.
Speaking to OXM, Assassin's Creed III mission director Philippe Bergeron revealed that the series' 2007 debut entry featured an "ambitious" co-op mode set across the Third Crusade timeframe.
"Before we knew about the Desmond story and Animus link, we had a huge co-op component in there," said Bergeron, "but it just became too hard to do: the engine couldn't support it, and then the metaphor we had above it didn't support it."
"Co-op was one of those big things at the beginning that just didn't make sense in the end," added Bergeron. Assassin's Creed would later inherit a form of multiplayer in 2010 as part of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, the third game in the series.
Each subsequent game has also featured a multiplayer mode, but no game in the series has yet attempted to integrate co-op into the single-player campaigns.
"For us it was really part of the single player experience," said Bergeron, "to have in-and-out co-op, and in the end we never thought it made sense in the storyline that we had for the Animus."
"There was no way to reconcile having multiplayer or co-op in an ancestor's memories. Your ancestor lived his life in a certain way, so assuming you had branching storylines, it creates a paradox. It didn't fit."
The latest three-part chunk of Assassin's Creed III DLC, the single-player Tyranny of King Washington campaign that's separate from the main game, will kick off on February 19.
By
Martin Gaston, News Editor
Martin Gaston has absolutely never at all had the song from Beauty and the Beast sung to him at any point during his life, ever.
83 comments
I'm still pissed at Ubisoft for killing off characters like they did in ACIII, god why didn't they swap Haytham for Connor... Even his fighting has a sort of Ezio finess to it... Jeez!
I can live with that
normally i don´t like cuts but these days they make modes only to shove them down our throats.
Two of the several games that are better with SP rather than MP or Co-Op:the Assassin's Creed series and the Batman series (Arkham Asylum and Arkham City).
I don't care for co-op at all, but that's not my point. My point is you guys should stop with the yearly installments and quit watering down the experience. Just look at ACIII and it's reception.
So, we should be grateful that Desmond didn't force horrible MP down our throats even earlier. Thank you, Desmond.
Meh...this is coming from someone who only played the first 2.5 games (quit halfway through Brotherhood), but:
The Desmond storyline was boring and felt tacked on. It felt cheesy and convoluted. Honestly, I think Assassin's Creed would have been better if everything had been focused on the particular time period of each game. Why do we need an overarching save-the-world story? Seems like a waste, especially with how people reacted to 3's ending.
@gutsallover I felt the same way for awhile but little by little I grew to like the Desmond story, but for the first 2 games I thought why not just keep this in the realm of Altair and Ezio?
I'm hoping they eventually work up to a full fledged modern day Assassin's Creed game, I think that would be awesome, but I still like the old World War 2 possibility.......
1 Like So ditch the terrible Desmond story. It was awful. I cheered when Lucy died, and only lamented the ending of AC3 cause I wasn't able to kill Shaun with my hidden blade.
Coop would have been fantastic.
This is not surprising considering Assassin's Creed began development as a co-op Prince of Persia game.
@Assemblent One more Connor game and then we need another character with the same charisma like Ezio or Haytham. I really missed that in AC3 even though Ubisoft said he was more serious than the other guys.
@PortalJumper93 @Assemblent I loved Ezio, the joyful playboy in search of revenge, Haytman the cool and stylish templar with an awesome way with words and Altair and his scholar attitude always searching for the truth and answers of everything, I did, but actually I relate alot more to Connor childlike naivety, sense of honor and love for nature as character. That's why I'd love one more game with him, it was the first time I totally related to a video game character.
1 Like @Shango4 @Assemblent There I want Assassin's Creed 4! I was reffering to a new game, like Brotherhood was to AC2. : )
2 Like Just stop with the Desmond storyline please. I have never once been interested in it. Not once. Every time they'd kick me back into his part of the story I'd groan. As for co-op... sure why not mess around with the lame spin-offs/cash-ins you have planned for AC3. Wake me when you make AC4.
I am disappointed they didn't have co-op. The possibilities would've been very interesting. The splinter cell co-op was fantastic.
Actually, yeah. What they should've done was have a separate campaign, maybe parallel, with Templar agents or other assassins.
@AncientDozer This sounds like an MP game of Manhunt mode (=_=*)
No story co-op , not even from another time line but official is equal to zero.
1 Like I'm glad there was no co op because I can't see co op working in Assassins Creed plus I like having Desmonds story. It is like he says, having co op wouldn't work because your ancestors lived a certain way.
7 Like If developers stop wasting resources on MP, coop, DRM, thinking of DLCs before the game is even out, microtransactions, restrictions, exclusive content, politics... etc. and focus 100% on making the best game they could, we might finally get some games worth remembering, games comparable to legends fron NES, SNES and Gameboy eras.
1 Like @theend3r Most NES games had some form of co-op. That's why they were so much fun. That's why they gave you 2 controllers right out of the box, remember?
2 Like This game would be so much better in IMO without the Animus thing. I hated that so much throughout the series.
2 Like My girl and I would love a co-op AC.
From the comments it seems like we're the only ones though.
1 Like Gaming companies, CEO's, Gamespot who has somewhat of the developers ear. STOP THE MP on SP games for f-ck's sake. There is no need for MP on most of the games they are forcing MP on, and most of the time the MP is terrible and short-lasting. Just becasue we hav the internet doesn't mean it's need to a vital part of the game for success, SP games where great back in the day and they lasted more than 4 f-cking hours.
Note to Ceo's step1. Listen to the community. step2 pull head out of the A--. Step3. grab gun shoot yourself and make way for a ceo who actually games. step 4 new ceo throw parade for hopefully a resurgence in better gaming in the next 10 years, sorry but the last 8 at least have been pretty horrible, a few decent titles but not much in creativity.
15 Like A perfect example of a game that didn't (and still doesn't) need a functioning MP component. I hope developers realize that a game DOES NOT need MP in order to be successful. We did it for the first 15 or so years of gaming, we can do it with the next.
Don't take what I say as saying I hate MP, I don't, but it isn't REQUIRED for EVERY game to sell well. It just isn't.
So kudos to Ubisoft for not putting it in and in turn fleshing out the SP experience.
@SweetPandaLove MP isn't even the problem, it's how its treated. Companies have fallen into the trap of short burst redundant formula game types. At its roots, Ac could in fact provide a great MP platform if taken seriously, but instead they just tried to see how they could put a AC spin on the FPS deathmatch model. It's ridiculous.
If companies are unwilling to put serious thought and effort into any type of co-op or multiplayer, they really shouldn't bother. Shoving in deathmatch is just insulting to the consumers.
1 Like @SweetPandaLove It's just unfortunate that they did succumb and put MP in for Brotherhood, Revelations, and III.
@a3thyr @SweetPandaLove Still its not like everyone plays MP.Most of those who played the game felt that the SP was really worth it and in many ways it is still a game better enjoyed Solo.
@a3thyr @SweetPandaLove I agree. However I was really happy to see III use the extra disc to separate multiplayer content and singleplayer content like Halo 4 did thus not needing to squeeze everything onto one disc, and removing content from the SP to fit the MP.
@CraZkid37 The issue isn't disc space, my friend (besides that's only an issue for Xbox players, not PC or PS3). The problem is that developers are taking away time and attention from single player so they can add these unnecessary multiplayer modes, all because it somehow bumps up the games appeal or value.
I find this hardly to believe. They've already released a co-op mode for AC3 and that wasn't such a big deal, so it's weird how they suddenly release this news on the market saying that the main storyline featured a co-op mechanic, but they couldn't because desmond and the animus. Here's a quick idea on the top of my head: 2 animuses and another character along Desmond, but in another room also trapped or just a templar to gain Desmond's trust in the animus. Togheter they fight along to find the apple of eden.
No, no no no. Ubisoft is testing us. They are testing the market, taking the same strategy as EA and Visceral did with Dead Space 3. They want a co-op storyline in the next AC.
@xsonicchaos There is no co-op in AC3 and having a second animus makes no sense in the context of the storyline. Your quick idea would never work nearly as well as the actual storyline.
That's stupid.... MP doesn't have to make sense. Co-Op can be a separate story line as well.
Halo is the biggest example: the story makes no sense Spartan vs Spartan multiplayer? who cares, just play and shoot each other.
@mr_azim "Co-Op can be a separate story line as well."
Yep - look at what Far Cry 3 did.
@EvilShabazz @mr_azim And what uncharted 3 did. A short co-op story, that was just a bit of fun. It didn't make sense, but it didn't need to.
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