The future of Assassin's Creed has never looked so enticing. Rather than pump the brakes on a franchise now approaching its fifteenth mainline installment, Ubisoft is seemingly dedicating more time and resources than ever to a series that has dominated the AAA market since its inception in 2007. While rumors have circulated of an upcoming VR title and with live service saga Assassin's Creed Infinity not set to debut until at least 2024, all eyes turn to the rumored next standalone title: Assassin's Creed Rift.

While Rift has not been officially announced yet, most sources agree that the game will see players return to the Holy Land for a title set to explore the classic era of Ubisoft's hugely successful stealth saga. Although not confirmed, it's likely that Basim Ibn Ishaq, introduced in 2020's Assassin's Creed Valhalla, will take over as the game's central protagonist. With the franchise finally set to return to its Middle Eastern origins, there is much it could learn from its early days as a budding AAA giant.

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Assassin's Creed Rift Should Focus on the Main Story

Assassins Creed Ezio and Altair

The longer Assassin's Creed has worn on, the harder it has been for Ubisoft to make concessions to the original story it had so meticulously crafted early on. The pretense that the games had pretty much anything to do with assassins or their creed was practically abandoned by the time of Valhalla, even if 2020's Viking-themed release did, ironically, Basim. Basim's story is said to take place in Baghdad before the events of Valhalla, meaning the game will likely be set some time in the early to mid-9th Century.

Connections to Valhalla aside, Basim's story is a chance for the series to reconnect with its Middle Eastern roots and the rise of the Assassin Order. The original title was set during the Crusades in around 1191, meaning that there would be roughly a 300-year gap between Basim's time and the time of Altair. That said, Altair was by no means the first of the Assassins, and a story that explained the events leading up to the founding of the "initial" Order in the Levant in 1090 might just be possible. The series has certainly made far greater narrative stretches than that in the past.

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Prioritize Stealth and Punish Mistakes

Assassins-Creed first game city

It's no secret that recent Assassin's Creed games have all but entirely abandoned the core concepts laid down in the earlier games. In fact, many would argue that only the first game is truly stealth-oriented, pushing players to research, tail, investigate, and dispatch their targets in a linear but, ultimately, rewarding fashion. Later games would stray from the concept somewhat, but it wasn't until the series made the leap to a true RPG that the necessity for stealth practically went out of the window. While clandestine tactics and sneaking could be employed to take down forts or encampments, it was hardly the core feature of games such as Origins, Odyssey, or Valhalla.

Rift is a chance to return to the old school mechanics, taking what the first game did and make tweaks and refinements to things that Ubisoft failed to recognize the first time around. Making enemy units stronger and more capable of withstanding direct melee combat, meanwhile, would be an effective means of pushing players towards the creed the original assassins were actually known for.

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Give Players the Right Kinds of Choices

Ezio diving into the canals of Venice of Assassin's Creed II.

Recent games often mistake the concept of choice with that of infinite variety. Odyssey, for instance, features hundreds of customizable weapons, pieces of armor, and cosmetics, but it rarely encouraged players to think about how to approach certain situations, instead relying on repetitive button-mashing to get the desired result. Player choice with regard to tactical gameplay, it seems, has gone out of the window.

No one is advocating a return to the format of the first game. 2007's Assassin's Creed was too restrictive and linear, but it did provide a clear framework in which stealth was key. Prioritizing espionage while also giving players a greater choice as to how they take down their target in a similar vein to the acclaimed Hitman series would be a satisfying compromise.

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Don't Make Basim a Superhero

Basim sits on a rooftop in front of the ocean in Assassin's Creed: Valhalla

It's perhaps understandable that each Assassin's Creed protagonist is stronger than the last. That isn't to say that combat is becoming easier, but more that each character is becoming less of a sly, sneaky, and ultimately vulnerable assassin and more of a burly action hero capable of storming a castle gate single-handedly or being compared to the gods themselves. In short, the Assassins have stopped being assassins.

Ezio, for instance, may have followed the classic superhero narrative arc, but there was no question that he was a very human protagonist, as was Altair. Great protagonists need faults and vulnerabilities, especially when dealing in life-or-death situations. To ratchet up the tension and raise the stakes, Basim must be allowed to have his flaws, whether he's the reincarnation of a god or not. With Rift, Ubisoft needs to strip away the gadgetry of Syndicate or the godlike powers of Odyssey and remind players what it's like to have to truly fight to survive.