We finally get to see the canceled Assassin's Creed game set in China, and darn it, it looks pretty good
Ubisoft and Tencent were making it together
Any franchise that lasts a number of years always winds up with a few unrealized projects, whether from partnerships that fell through or ideas that simply just didn't come together. Assassin's Creed has a bunch of them, and details and footage of another one have emerged.
This particular game was called Assassin's Creed Destiny, and it was part of a collaboration between Ubisoft and Chinese conglomerate Tencent. You might be aware these industry giants are currently working on Assassin's Creed Jade, a mobile game first announced back in 2022.
They had a couple of other potential releases on the docket as well, and one of them was remarkably similar to Jade. In fact, according to details gleaned by MP1st, Assassin's Creed Destiny was also set in China, and during the same period, taking place around 206 BCE, nine years after the events of Jade.
It would've been a full, triple-A game on modern hardware, marking a grand return to Chinese history after Assassin's Creed Chronicles way back in 2015. Jade is still fulfilling that promise, but on a different scale. Destiny was being handled by TiMi group, and we now have a smattering of images and clips demonstrating what could've been.
This definitely looks like a full-on Assassin's Creed game. You've the player character skulking around a palace during the Qin Empire. Your mission is to prevent an invading army from stealing some form of treasure. Doing so gets bloodier and messier than anyone would like, but you spend the majority of your time in the shadows, taking out soldiers and other enemies.
It looks intriguing - the architectural layouts offer plenty of exploration and the swords and spears make combat feel weighty. There's a spinning blade, somewhat like an umbrella, that seems like it would've been very entertaining.
Destiny was only canceled last year, a casualty of restructuring at TiMi. It's unknown how far along the game ultimately was, or if any of its ideas live on in Jade. There's no release window for the mobile game yet, but at least we can now look at what could've been.
Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more
Anthony is an Irish entertainment and games journalist, now based in Glasgow. He previously served as Senior Anime Writer at Dexerto and News Editor at The Digital Fix, on top of providing work for Variety, IGN, Den of Geek, PC Gamer, and many more. Besides Studio Ghibli, horror movies, and The Muppets, he enjoys action-RPGs, heavy metal, and pro-wrestling. He interviewed Animal once, not that he won’t stop going on about it or anything.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.