Assassin's Creed III to 'bring finality' to Desmond's story

Assassin's Creed III may be the last game in the series to follow the exploits of perennial captive Desmond Miles and his ancestors. ACIII lead designer Steve Masters spoke with OXM UK about putting a bow on Desmond's plight, which will serve as the series' main narrative vehicle for the fifth time when the game releases on October 30.

"What we're trying to do is bring some finality to Desmond's story," Masters said. "To actually wrap up what you've opened and experienced with him. So we're trying to make it a little bit more direct with the storyline, but at the same time there are still going to be plenty of little mysterious bits for you to dig into, especially in the side stuff."

Masters said Ubisoft recognizes there was some fan frustration in Brotherhood and Revelations, as Desmond's tale was drawn out with some false starts and detours. Masters said that shouldn't be a concern for the next game, which will pack in a lot of new narrative meat right off the bat.

"We wanted there to be a big leap forward in the story," Masters said. "We wanted to make sure there was going to be more substance to get your teeth into."

Of course, this doesn't mean Desmond is gone for good. We wouldn't be surprised to see a game focus solely on him in the modern era, now that he's become a bit of a badass from all that Animus bleeding effect. A crazy badass, but still a badass.

Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.