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When the news came last week that Ubisoft is working on Assassin's Creed remakes, it's safe to say that we all rejoiced. The long-running stealth series is beloved for very good reason, as evidenced by the older cohort among the best Assassin's Creed games. Ezio and Altair helped Ubisoft carved an indelible mark upon third-person action games, with black box executions, memorable casts of characters, and rich historical settings aplenty.
But I'm turning one question over in my mind: why now? As exciting as the prospect is at face-value, Ubisoft taking a stab at remakes could be indicative of something greater. It feels like the series has reached a crossroads in terms of its creative vision, and remakes would offer a chance for Ubisoft to take stock of its roots. This approach worked wonders for Capcom – so why not Ubisoft?
Rudderless
The Resident 2 and Resident Evil 4 remakes are masterpieces, but which is better?
Remakes are an interesting entity when looked at under a microscope. From the players' perspective, it's a chance to see your old favorites given a modern spit and polish – or to broaden the net and bring new fans into the fold. But from a development standpoint, remakes allow studios to go back in time and get reacquainted with the basics.
While there are many reasons a publisher might decide to remake a classic game, it's something of a canary in a coalmine situation for ongoing franchises. You only need to look at how Resident Evil 6's disappointing launch in 2012 led to Capcom's decision to remake Resident Evil 2, the announcement coming three years later in 2015. This couldn't have been a wiser decision on Capcom's part: Resident Evil 2 went on to usher in the survival horror remake renaissance, setting new stylistic standards for the genre that the likes of Alan Wake 2, Silent Hill 2, and Dead Space have followed in suit. In starting a chain of remakes, Capcom is building an ongoing point of contact with the past that can help inform the series' future – and with Resident Evil 9 officially announced, things are definitely on the up for the Japanese publisher.
So how might this relate back to Ubisoft? Well, it is facing a similar creative conundrum to the one Capcom grappled with some ten or 12 years ago. Following Resident Evil 5 and 6, Capcom's struggle to tap into its audience revealed a disconnect between the developer and fans. It emerged as a result of attempts made to edge Resident Evil not-so gently into the action games sphere from its survival horror origins, a move that failed to click with much of its player base.
Likewise, the Assassin's Creed series now sits at a crucial juncture in its evolution: Ubisoft can keep going "back to basics", as was promised in Assassin's Creed Mirage, or it can break new ground with its RPG entries.
Return to shadow
The Assassin's Creed series has always felt like it's constantly searching for its groove.
It's true that you can't keep every person happy all of the time, but with remakes planned in tandem with Codename Hexe and other upcoming Assassin's Creed games that might come next, it could be the next best thing for Ubisoft.
Much like Capcom's decision to step back to go forward, the remake avenue will buy Ubisoft some time to reassess what players want most – and to reorient itself with plans for the series' next steps along the way by tapping into what made it special to begin with.
I have every confidence that it shall. After all, it's not like Ubisoft is known for being rigid in its approach to the shape, feel, and execution of Assassin's Creed. Different in-house studios are tagged in for each entry, a constantly revolving set of hands on deck that keeps the gameplay experience fresh and enables innovations to be made across all installments. Each new game experiments with the genetic makeup of its predecessor, whether that be the physical weightiness of climbing buildings – arguably perfected in Assassin's Creed Unity, and you can fight me on that one – or the ins and outs of its combat mechanics. That expectation does bring with it some snags, though, and it means that the series has always felt like it's constantly searching for its groove.
With Assassin's Creed Shadows slated to launch later this year, we're about to see Ubisoft try and have its proverbial cake and eat it in the form of our Ghost of Tsushima-like samurai action hero and stealth-assassin duo. It's cool and all, but it does feel a little bit like Ubisoft is throwing things at the wall to see what sticks. Perhaps with the remakes there to keep classic Creed fans happy, the publisher will be able to steer a clear path ahead in good conscience.
Check out our Asssassin's Creed Shadows summer preview for an in-depth look at Ubisoft's next stealth-RPG
