by dkpatriarch
© 2010 David Hilton
When OXCGN did a poll last year asking readers where and when they would like to see Assassin’s Creed 3 go next, over 20% said into the modern times.
While I strongly disagree (and we already have Desmond in a near future time period) it does seem that the current mania for modern warfare is also reflected in the upcoming Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood.
The question is if this is a good gameplay direction or not?
It has been already revealed that Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood will have a form of artillery fired from a small boat that looks a lot like Leonardo Da Vinci‘s sketches of a multi-barrelled machine gun, an actual chariot machine gun, and Leonardo’s parachute sketch will also become a feature of the game.
The latest reveal from Gametrailers, however, takes Da Vinci’s versions of what would eventually become real modern warfare equipment into the incredible: a tank. Yes a tank, and one that fires explosive ordnance, no less, in the middle of Renaissance Rome.
The thing is that while all this looks very anachronistic indeed and just ways to spice things up with ‘modern warfare’ gameplay, Ubisoft are not just making it all up: they are using something Leonardo really did work on:
Leonardo’s armoured car contained many light cannons. These were arranged on a circular platform which was based on four wheels and provided a firing range of 360 degrees. The whole platform was surrounded by a conical cover with a sighting turret at the top. At the centre of the car, two cranks were used to set the machine in motion.
However, as with the mounted cannon on boats, which “would be much slower to reload…since the gunpowder would have to be replaced every time a shot was fired”, not to mention weight issues on a rocky boat, there are problems with the realistic usage of his ‘tank’ invention:
The project is technically unrealisable and the drawing also contains a mechanical error which prevents the car from functioning – the cams as drawn would turn the wheels in opposing directions. But this is a demonstration piece, not a working drawing for technicians.
What do I think?
As a person with historic training who has admired the somewhat plausible use of ‘what if’ history in the Assassin’s Creed series, my initial instinct when confronted with the integration of ‘modern’ equipment like flying machines, wrist guns, smoke bombs, parachutes, mounted cannons, and tanks into the Renaissance game makes me feel like the developer is sacrificing historical detail for ‘wow’ moments in the game.
I mean are we going to see a helicopter announced next, because Da Vinci sketched one? After all, games these days always seem to have a helicopter…
Having said that though, as a gamer it all looks really cool to me and using Leonardo’s sketches means that Assassin’s Creed keeps the ‘what if’ logic going, rather than dumping it and using “mystical magical” powers that are used in many other “historical-styled” games.
Sure it might be improbable or impossible, but if we treat it a bit like a James Bond film (except maybe Moonraker), we can suspend our disbelief of modern warfare in the Renaissance period both because Leonardo Da Vinci truly was so visionary and because having a ‘Q’ gadget maker does make the game more exciting.
I for one can’t wait to try the tank, despite my current loathing of the plethora of ‘me too’ modern warfare titles. How about you?
Please comment below.
And even more Assassin’s Creed:
- Next Assassin’s Creed Teased Via Da Vinci Disappearance DLC (Spoiler Alert) - Read More
- The Assassin’s Creed Effect: 3 Templar Games in 2011 - Read More
- Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood Review (Single Player)
- Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood Review (Multiplayer)
- Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood: (Almost) Modern Warfare – do you agree with new direction? Look Here.
- Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood novels HERE
- Assassin’s Creed Ascendance Animated Film teaser HERE
- Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood: Beta Kill Video and Verdict here.
- Assassin’s Creed 3 – Where and When to Next Part 1. – Read more.
- Assassin’s Creed 3 – Where and When to Next Part 2 – Read more.
© 2010 David Hilton
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Wasn’t the game supposed to be in Real Time anyways? I mean after the ending of AC2 you have the feeling the next game would be set in modern times to finally stop the Templars.
So wut?!
Are they really going to stop at Assassin’s Creed 3, do you think?
They have a franchise that is going well and could cover any time period.
Calling it part of the Modern Warfare bandwagon is hardly accurate. The reason for those 20%ers is that the series has been teasing the modern finale since its inception. You have a protagonist in the modern day and all of the past events are being used to set up something big in that setting. Starting with AC2, you even see him acquiring these skills and get some combat in with him.
It seems like a narrative eventuality.
True mate, but taking it too far into the future would just nulify the games unique style, which is what sets it apart from other games in the genre and similar genres.
If you think about it, if they bring it too far into the future, they’ll get close to a style like Splinter Cell, or similar. Cloak and dagger, guns, bombs and the like, making it no different from any other game of the period. There’s a heap of scope still within the 18th, 19th century to explore, and many of the different inventions to use without going too far. They could incorporate sections of it where Desmond spends time doing something within his own time period, but nothing combative per-se. But more like finding clues and seeking things out that help unlock the past and find out where the so-called treasure is hidden, if there is one.
The thing is that now that they have such gameplay mechanics as gun, tank and artillery as well as flight, would the next game have to come up with more that is new?
Da Vinci allows for some anachronistic play here, but who will it be in the future/ past that allows for new ‘wow’ tech to happen and will it work with the period?
If it is going modern next, then I guess it isn’t an issue, but it would be a shame to abandon the sense of history they have created so well in the previous games.