The Assassin's Creed addiction

 Get a doctor!

Many have been the blogs where I've come out and laid bare my feelings about that least creative of artistic studios, Ubisoft, and their industrialised effort to actively homogenise every aspect of our lives until we all become individuality deprived drones of one another. At least, that's the only reason I can find for why they insist on turning every single one of their franchises into lifeless clones of one another. Far Cry, Tom Clancy, Watch_Dogs- they all inherit the exact same ideas from one another in procession, those ideas of course being themselves stolen down the line from other games who actually tried to do something special back when 'humanity' was still involved in the game design process. Art is human, creativity is human, art is life- what Ubisoft does drags us kicking and screaming ever closer to the steel press reality of AI exhausted art. Entertainment churned up from fed extracts and regurgitated as a familiar, statistically financially viable, output. (And I'm not even being facetious there, Ubisoft have literally already shared their naughty dreams about automating line-writing and delivery using AI.)

But despite everything I've said, every condemnation I've shouted, every poisonous accusation I've levied- still I play their games. Never at full price, mind- not even at half price. I wait until the steepest of steep discounts, years after the games have done their prime, specifically so that my statistic winds up as nothing more than a tiny blip utterly brushed over during the quarterly sales call. But I'm burying the lead, aren't I? The fact of the matter is that I am something of a hypocrite. I condemn the compliancy of a studio that never dares to dream and yet I wallow in the sand pit right next to them, desperate to ignore the fact that sand has long since congealed into mud from the elements. Could that be down to mere curiosity? Desperation? Or could it just be the damnable Assassin's Creed addiction?

I used to love Assassin's Creed. Everyone did. Heck, the franchise used to be a Game of the Year contender, and I think it even won a few awards back in it's hey day. The franchise was fresh and exciting and cinematic and vast; potential seemed unstated to described the plethora of opportunity the franchise held as time and time again us fans got hit back the fact that these could go anywhere, at any-time, and the products would consistently get better with every single drop. And I'm belabouring the point because obviously that's not how it's happened. People can't maintain quality forever and Assassin's Creed of today is a shadow of what it was. The action adventure cinematic darling of the industry is now a tired and rickety grandpa with sore bones and blaring lumbago, hoping to impress the younglings by proving he can slip on the old middle eastern garb and backflip into a haybale like he used to, but succeeding only in brushing a few nostalgic curtains across the house of a fan club that is near abandoned by this point.

There's no passion for Assassin's Creed anymore, only obligation. Obligation for Ubisoft to continue making the only franchise they own which is officially too big to be a failure, obligation for the average gamer to pick up the only adventure game that everyone always owns before they give up on it ten hours in when the gameplay inevitably grows stale and the narrative dissolves into that Ubisoft-trademark 'holding pattern' style of telling that their team nails so very well. And obligation for me to continue my years long exploration into exactly what it is that went wrong for this franchise in as slow a pace as I can feasibly manage. I've been exposed to so much magic from the gaming industry of late, franchises that have blossomed new worlds of beauty in my eyes, that have refurbished my will to live again- I need my Assassin's Creed fix to remind myself that the burst of light is merely a flare- an eclipse against the indomitable might of the dark. That overwhelming, open world with mediocre RPG mechanics, night.

Yet here I am, more than 24 hours into my playthrough of Assassin's Creed Odyssey and circling around the drain as I go. Okay, so it's not quite as dire as Watch_Dogs: Legion; a game which made me want to weep everytime I booted it up, but I've never reached that point of 'excitement' or 'exhilaration' that a truly good game drags out of me at least once during it's playtime. In fact, playing through the game has been something of an emotionless task, methodical and categorical, driven by completion percentages rather than wonder and exploration. I try to infer some of that excitement when I see a new land or delve into another gorgeous parcel of ancient Greek land, but I know the gameplay that awaits there will be every bit the same as what I just left behind. Spongey soldiers populating identical forts, cultist targets who are literally just boss-scaled normal mobs, and quests so desperate for active objectives, that even the most innocuous street stroll will get interrupted by a random bobcat attack- all slathered around a narrative that drags on and on without any real transformative progress beyond the vague guide of the aforementioned 'cultist' hunt.

But in that description I think lies the clue as to what it is about this formula I find addictive enough to stick out, even with my misgivings. First off there's the concept of completing checklists which has been a guiding principle of Assassin's Creed world design since at least 'Brotherhood'. That's a sense of satisfaction one can get from crossing off a task, seeing some physical tally of their progress, even if it's just the greying out of cleared map markers across the world, can make a player feel like they're progressing towards something- more so then following the straits of a narrative if that story isn't particularly very good. Of course, a well designed RPG would know that a character's level should serve this roll well enough but... it's Assassin's Creed: they're far past trying.

And in a more abstract but no less as relevant angle, I think Assassin's Creed Odyssey's greatest weakness, heck Ubisoft's greatest modern weakness, is also what makes their games so appealing to their user base. They're safe. They don't try to do anything new or experimental, they don't push the boundaries of creativity, challenge the player to think, take advantage of the interactive medium to tell stories that a film couldn't. They're junk food. Standardised and formulaic. And they're comforting. There's a sense of worry whenever I've stepped into new genres, when I started playing Persona or Yakuza or even the new Zelda- I know I'm delving into the unknown, totally unaware if I'm going to be able to get into this new world. Of course, it's the relief and surprise of being satisfied which makes explorative gaming so much fun- but not everyone likes taking risks. And Ubisoft are there for you, lukewarm game lover.

Assassin's Creed enjoys the spot where it currently sits thanks to pure complacency, even as the rest of the industry is showing up these games more and more. The standard of production and presentation hasn't really dropped from Assassin's Creed in any significant fashion. (the RPGs are bloated, but that effects the overall experience, not the basic presentation of the product as it is.) but still the franchise games of today aren't really AAA anymore, they're kinda just AA. In the face of Resident Evil 4, Tears of the Kingdom, Final Fantasy XVI- it seems like Assassin's Creed has contented itself no longer being a contender with the best of the best, but unambitious and lazy titles resting on the laurels of their jet setting youth. And you know what? That really seems to be working for them, like aspirants of the Lotus Eaters, those who fall into their trap seem to lose sight in what actual ambition looks like anymore. I guess that's what it means to catch... the Assassin's Creed addiction.