Ubisoft’s historic Action Adventure Stealth series, Assassin’s Creed, has primarily garnered its hype by advertising, “where in history are we going next?” It’s the highlight of the advertising. Yet there’s a side of Assassin’s Creed that has also had its subsect of fans whose excitement for the series has constantly been hotly debated. Those who love the modern storyline. Even though the game is mostly about the history, the series has made clear that at the forefront, it’s rooted in modern-day sci-fi.
We’re not reliving historical events. We’re playing as a person using a machine called the Animus to access DNA memories of those who lived during these periods and experiencing the world through their eyes. This storyline has had extremes in how it’s presented, but the way that Assassin’s Creed: Shadows goes about it is a massive mistake in lessons learned and how to potentially build up hype for what’s about to happen to those we inhabit in the 21st century.
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So far, we’ve had about two and a half storylines encompassing the Modern-Day timeline of the Assassin’s Creed Universe. Starting with the original release in 2007, it followed Desmond Miles, a bartender kidnapped by Abstergo and forced into the Animus for his lineage’s secrets. From the first game, through the Ezio Trilogy, and ending in Assassin’s Creed III, we saw Desmond accept his Assassin family, learned about the creed, the threats of the Templar and how they still existed in the modern world via Abstergo, and an ever-present threat that has once destroyed the civilization before humanity’s dominance. This all culminated in Desmond sacrificing himself at the end of AC III to stop a solar flare and freeing a trapped deity, Juno.
It turns out that this past civilization called the Isu remains through echoes, DNA memories, and Isu artifacts, like the Apple of Eden, and is the basis of most Pantheonic Gods. Minerva tried to stop Desmond from this self-sacrifice by promising him he’d be the next Messiah and lead Humanity through the devastation caused by this solar flare. Desmond, wanting to save the greater good, chose the former, resulting in Juno’s release into the world, restarting her plans to control Humanity again.
Even without Desmond, the modern story still felt important and exciting.
It’s worth noting that each early entry had sequences that let players control Desmond and explore tiny snippets of the modern world. Like Abstergo’s offices, go on missions in Three to unlock keys to Juno’s vault, or explore within Desmond’s mind. They were like breathers that let us learn more about this world and what each side was ultimately fighting for after all these years. In other words, they continued the plot while also having parallels to what was going on inside the Animus.
Through the next several entries, Juno’s storyline continued. We also saw the fallout and rebuilding of Absergo and the modern-day Templar order after Desmond killed its leader. These experiences ranged from substantive gameplay in the modern day, like with Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, where we played as a video game developer at Abstergo. Instead of playing as a person with history in the Assassin order, we were just a guy who ended up being picked to explore more of Desmond’s ancestry.
This unraveled a plot to expose where Juno’s been, more about the Isu with the introduction of the Sage, and the new Templar/Abstergo leaders. This storyline continued in Rogue, where we played as a similar person to the previous entry, but ended up joining the Templar order, just like Shay. With Unity and Syndicate, the modern story was relegated to just cutscenes that pushed more of the fallout of Desmond’s choice.
There were major differences between these four entries in how the modern-day storyline was handled, from having actual gameplay and player involvement, to just cutscenes or influence of Juno and other Isu on what was being experienced in the Animus, like in Unity. If they were just cutscenes, they never felt too obtrusive.
If these portions had gameplay, they felt involved. Not just having players move from point A to point B, click a button for a lore drop, and go back to whatever we were doing. Every one of these sections never overstayed their welcome. But importantly, the Juno storyline never ended in these portions. Her story ended in a comic book.
Layla Hassan began a new modern era in Assassin’s Creed games.
With the release of Assassin’s Creed Origins, we got a new modern-day protagonist. Layla Hassan was an Abstergo employee and an artifact hunter. Layla believed that if these artifacts were so important, then maybe experiencing their historical significance through her portable Animus could give her an edge within the company. Instead, she ends up experiencing the truth about Abstergo and the Templars’ threat through their origins and joins the modern Assassin order.
Layla’s impact on the modern story was almost similar to Desmond’s. They were actual named people with a history, both fully playable in the modern day. But Layla’s sections were much sparser. Desmond’s sections were endpieces after every few chapters in the historical story. Layla’s emphasized major revelations that mostly came at the end of the Assassin (or Hidden One’s) storyline in the Animus. Her storyline ended at the end of Valhalla.
That pesky solar flare was returning, and Layla went on a quest to stop it by following Eivor’s footsteps. She ended up meeting an echo of Desmond within an Isu artifact, and together will find a way to stop the solar flares for good. But her choice ended up reviving one of Eivor’s allies turned enemies, Basim.
We learned through DLC that Basim is the reincarnation of the Isu, Loki, and rivaled Eivor’s Odin reincarnation. In Mirage, we learned how Basim’s nascent memories of Loki awakened, without any modern-day elements whatsoever. It felt like a prequel to what Basim would do now that he was in the modern era. So, where would we go next after such a massive cliffhanger?
Relegating the modern story to a battle pass and DLC is a huge mistake for Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
This leads us to 2025 and the release of Assassin’s Creed: Shadows. There is no Basim presence whatsoever. We don’t even see a glimpse of the modern world since Basim was freed. Instead, the entire modern storyline is pushed forward only ever so slightly by telling us we’re playing a videogame as an unnamed figure with no personality, no lines spoken, and no body features that make them unique.
They are a stand-in for us, the player. And the only hint that we get of all these previously mentioned threats and loose ends is… “something is coming,” spoken by a faceless entity called “The Guide,” who says they’re here to help us. This ends with introducing something called “Ego,” who is at odds with The Guide. No stakes are raised; they just bicker and point fingers. And that’s really about it.
Every section requires us to move ten to fifteen feet to shining objects for just a little bit of lore on our enemies or vague dialogue from this faceless speaker. None of these segments are skippable. And all feel like they drag on because of the slow movement. What’s even worse is that to get any more information on the modern world, you need to complete the free battle passes called “Shadow Projects.”
And to work on them, you must complete three to four anomalies a week. So it’s time-gated, relegated to a battle pass-like system, and can only be accessed outside of Shadows in the new Animus Hub. And nothing pushes forward what has been established so far.
Ubisoft has shown they can release an Assassin’s Creed game with little to no modern-day story. Or release them with minimal interference in the actual gameplay. But why diminish it so severely? It’s only fueling the argument for why this smaller portion of this series shouldn’t even exist. Every segment feels like an afterthought and is only added to give us a single crumb. Worse, it hurts the series’ legacy if major plot elements are relegated to future DLC for Shadows.
Removing the modern-day parts completely would be a major loss for the series. They’re critical in explaining why we’re going back in time. More importantly, they build the connective tissue between entries in the series and explain why each period was picked. They build a larger threat that feels real in today’s climate by making an intriguing conspiracy about our government, corporations, and entertainment, and what they’ve become today.
In a way, the story of the Assassin’s Creed modern timeline is more intriguing because it reframes everything we’ve seen and how history repeats itself. With modern tools and technological leaps, we see how these two timeless enemies are still fighting. And that’s why, if Ubisoft repeats what they’ve done with Shadows in its next title, Project Hexe, the series would be losing more than just a few hours of gameplay and story. It’d be losing its heart.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is available now on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC.
