Assassins Creed 3 will see Desmond become the Ultimate Assassin

Desmond and Lucy stand next to the Animus
Assassin’s Creed 2‘s creative director, Patrice Désilets, at E3 2009 exclaimed “I’m telling you. At the end of AC2 you’ll say‚ ‘Holy crap, I never saw it coming!’ There will be a cliffhanger. It’s cool to have a cliffhanger,” that leads into Assassin’s Creed 3.

The brains behind the Assassin’s Creed series feels that you need to experience a bit of frustration at the game’s completion, with a new way to replay completed missions countering some of that nagging feeling. As well as still having secrets hidden in the game, like the glowing writing on the wall at the end of Assassin’s Creed 1. About that Patrice says “It has nothing to do with Assassin’s Creed 2, what’s written on the wall has to do with the Assassin’s Creed universe, not the second one.”

“Assassins Creed has always been planned to be a trilogy, and Desmond is going back in time, using the Animus to eventually become the ultimate assassin.”

If the above didn’t hint at another sequel enough… Later that same week Ubisoft re-confirmed Assassin’s Creed 2 is the second game in an intended Trilogy, “with all parts telling the story of the ultimate assassin.”

When asked if in the game series’ future Desmond’s story will move away from the Animus, a representative said: “It’s always been planned to be a trilogy, and Desmond is going back [in time, using the Animus] to [eventually] become the ultimate assassin. Can’t tell you any more, though.”

Do you think Desmond will be a good enough assassin to stop the end of the world on December 21, 2012?

Now that we know more about the storyline in the Assassin’s Creed universe, we also get a clearer picture of the endgame in Assassin’s Creed 3. The highly advanced race of “The Ones Who Came Before” spoke through a hologram of Minerva to Desmond, through “The Propheth” Ezio, about their Temples. Several of these Temples were built around the globe to prevent the end of the world in 2012. The only known Temple so far is below the Vatican. In Assassin’s Creed 3 Desmond will have to find the other Temples in time. This to activate them in order to prevent a solar flare from reaching and scorching the Earth, which would kill nearly everyone once again. In a race against time, Desmond will have to re-enter the Animus 2.0 to continue his search for the exact locations of the Temples via his ancestor’s memories.

See what 1 of the Temples looks like at 4:30 into Assassin’s Creed 2’s ending video:

I guess Minerva was too busy looking at the future to give Desmond any sort of indication as to the locations of the Temples? Thanks a lot Minerva!

September 2009 update: Assassin’s Creed 2’s creative director Patrice Desilets is busy finishing the second game’s development, and mentions he’s looking forward to rounding out the trilogy. To quote the Joystiq & VG247 interviews: “I have many different ideas. I’m not ready yet to exploit them. I think I have some juice left in me left to continue this. I’ve been doing Assassin’s Creed games for the past six years. It’s tough to be bored. I was a bit bored with the Turk crusade and the monk aspect, and everything, but in this there’s a brand new setting. And it’s my first sequel; I never did a sequel before, because I didn’t do any Prince of Persia sequels. I love the idea of refining your ideas, the gameplay and what you can do with it. So I’m not bored yet.” I wonder what change of scenery we can expect in Assassin’s Creed 3?

Desmond and Lucy work with the Animus 2.0 to find The Truth
November 2009 update: The November issue of Xbox World 360 magazine has an interview with Assassin’s Creed producer Sébastien Puel, where he talked about Ubisoft’s ideas for Assassin’s Creed 3! To quote:

“We’ve had discussions on that very topic. It could be really interesting but we’d need to find the right time period and place for that. Where would that make sense? We don’t want to just decide we want to change and have a female hero as the first inspiration is always the time period, but if you’re talking about, say, World War II the economies in England and France were run by women because the men were off fighting. So maybe in this context you were a woman in England during WWII. Why not? Nothing prevents us from doing it. I’m often asked if we’re doing a third game after ACII… I mean, we could do 35 of these.”

Sounds like the developers are either thinking out loud or giving us a red herring with all this talk about Europe. I think that Assassin’s Creed 3 could take place in feudal Japan and off the coast you might find the lost city of Atlantis. — As you’ll recall from playing the game, Subject 16 left behind coded clues written in blood at Abstergo, as well as the 20 glyphs he hid in the Animus for the Assassin’s to find. All glyphs put together unlock a video that shows Adam and Eve were slaves who escaped from being controlled by the First Ones and took the Apple of Eden with them. As they climb the roof of a futuristic building complex a flash of binary code reveals their location as Eden. It could be that the other slaves were building a Temple there. — Coming back to my point about this being in Japan. In Assassin’s Creed 2, the environment Adam and Eve escaped into looks bushy with a large snow-topped mountain in the background. Which can be one of two of the world’s most famous landmarks, Mount Fuji in Japan or Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa! Take a look at the video and see for yourself:

December 2009 update: At the SpikeTV’s Video Game Awards 2009 on December 12th, Ubisoft’s Assassins Creed 2 won the Best Action-Adventure Game Award. When asked at the event where they’d want to set Assassins Creed 3. Jean-Francois Boivin, Production Manager on the second game, said “That’s something we don’t even know yet ourselves. Right now we’re just taking a break after shipping this game. But we’re thinking about where this license can go, and we’re working on concepts in the next few months.” Sounds like there’s plenty of time for YOU to tell them where you want the third game to take place…

November 2010 update: Jean-Francois Boivin, a Ubisoft associate producer, was recently asked if Assassin’s Creed 3 was on the way for a 2011 release. He responded by saying: “I can’t talk about next year or the following years. The only thing I can say is that it is our biggest franchise and we’re always thinking about new ways of keeping our fans excited and into the brand, so there could be surprises and announcement in the following months.”

Ubisoft’s marketing and sales chief for Europe, Geoffroy Sardin, expanded on his colleague’s statement by adding that more Assassin’s Creed is on the way for 2011. “Yves [Guillemot, Ubisoft’s Chief Operating Officer] mentioned it last week in our financials – and more details will be forthcoming. But what I can say is that next year we will have another big Assassin’s Creed game.” He then continued with a hint: “If you’ve read the comic books you will see that we took Assassin’s Creed to the USSR, or Caesar’s Rome – that’s a good example of what we could do in the coming years in the next video games. We never saw this as just a franchise – it is a 360 degree franchise, and touches a lot of other experiences. It’s not just a game, but an animated story, on comics, in books, and other formats too. There’s lots of scope for what we can do.” 😀

Desmond, Lucy, Shaun & Rebecca stand next to the Apple of Eden
With Brotherhood now released, we have learned more about the possible location of the Key. The Key to opening the Eden Temple is apparently the unknown descendant of Eve, whereas Desmond is a descendant of Adam, both of whom are hybrids of humans and the race that came before. We’ve also learned the location of Eden in Assassin’s Creed 3. Namely, the Phrygian Cap AKA Liberty Cap, shown as one of the light symbols emanating from the Apple of Eden at the end of Brotherhood, that symbolizes freedom and the pursuit of liberty. Before the Apple freezes time, Shaun is about to tell Desmond, Lucy & Rebecca that a Phrygian Cap and the other symbol, a Masonic Eye, only come together in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, a defining radical document of the French Revolution.

With them pointing it out, that is in fact the original question the team asked the Apple to answer (literally: “So where are the Temples?”). So that is their next lead on their hunt for the Temples: A visit to 18th Century France in the Animus may reveal where Eden is! Remember, once all Temples are activated in present day 2012 the massive solar flare approaching Earth can be stopped (if they can do within 72 days before the end of the world). As the Temples are said to house advanced technology of those who came before (the First Civilization) that might put a forcefield over the planet so it doesn’t get scorched by the flames from the Sun.

This video does a great job of showing the Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood ending, in it “the goddess’ Juno explains these events in more detail, in the closing scenes in Juno’s Vault.

Once again in Brotherhood The Truth sequence becomes especially important when you hear about what’s revealed by Subject 16. Namely, that Desmond has to find his “future wife” Eve. This may tie in to what Juno says about the two of them having a child (16 says a son) who will be a First Civilization pure-blood to revive their race. Which may explain why these ancients felt Desmond’s love-interest Lucy had to die. Have a listen…

December 2010 update: More about Assassin’s Creed 3 has been revealed in an official Ubisoft online survey. It details the first new features and asks which of them you would like to see in the third sequel. It asks about features ranging from crafting, to improved Eagle Vision, to online co-op play.


Here is the full Assassin’s Creed 3 survey:

Would you like to see ____ in the sequel to the ASSASSIN’S CREED: BROTHERHOOD?

    1) An upgrade to the assassin’s blade that increases the fluidity and speed of free-running.

    2) An enhanced Eagle Vision: see the patrol paths of guards, spot clues to complex navigation puzzles, detect when characters are lying during interrogations, etc.

    3) An intuitive crafting tool that lets you create custom bombs from dozens of ingredients found throughout the game world.

    4) Tactical use of a variety of bombs suited to unique contexts and situations (smoke, poison, flash, explosive, etc.)

    5) An additional objective where you and your Assassins guild fight against the Templars to gain control of a city, district by district.

    6) Playing as a new Assassin, in a different historical time period.

    7) A continuation of Ezio’s story as the leader of the Assassins, set outside of Italy.

    8 ) Deeper connectivity between all the Assassin’s Creed projects (eg. an action you make on the Facebook game will impact your game experience on the console; events that you read about in the comics will be related to the storyline of the videogames, etc.)

    9) Online Cooperative Mode.

    10) Offline Cooperative Mode.

    11) The availability of new maps for the Multiplayer.

    12) A choice of additional Multiplayer characters with new skill-sets.

    13) Playing new Multiplayer modes.

    14) A deeper team-based Multiplayer experience (guilds / squads that have common objectives, new tools for clan management, etc.)

    15) A customization of the Multiplayer experience (logos, avatars, objects, team names, etc.)

October 2011 update: Ubisoft’s Alexandre Amacio, game director of Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, has said that “In Assassin’s Creed we set up a timeline with this whole end of the world plot in December 2012… That’s fast approaching, and the story we have to tell, we obviously need to do it before we arrive at that point. It would be stupid of us to be centering a game on a semi-reality and then have that conclusion happen after that date in real life.” — He added it’s likely Assassin’s Creed 3 will bring Desmond’s story to a end, since he’s linked all main games together so far. But he was quick to add that it wouldn’t mean the end of the Assassin’s Creed series, as when the next Assassin’s Creed game comes out it’ll return with a new central character. To quote Mr. Amacio: “There are many cycles within the brand — that’s the whole point. History is our playground.”

Ubisoft’s Falco Poiker, senior level designer of Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, has said that fans would accept a female Assassin’s Creed lead character. To quote: “We know that the courtesan in multiplayer is the most popular multiplayer character so I have faith that people would respond well. — I don’t know how far people go in imagining that Desmond is Ezio. When I play the game I feel like I’m following the story of Desmond and I’m following the story of Ezio. And so, I’d love the play a female character. Like, as long as she was cool and badass and moved well. You know, I mean, it would be fun to hear those quips. It would be fun to have Desmond come out of the animus and say something and that would help you tie the two together.”

November 2011 update: The Assassin’s Creed 3 release date is expected to be Tuesday, October 30th 2012, now that Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has said: “There will be another great, full-fledged Assassin’s Creed title next year. It will be another major release and we will be communicating more about it in the coming months.”

More about Assassin’s Creed 3 has potentially been revealed in an official Ubisoft user survey. The online market research survey asked opinions about possible future directions for the series. Which of the below listed storylines and locations would you enjoy? I vote for Egypt! 🙂

Here is the brand new “Assassin’s Creed 3” survey:

    1) The violent conflicts of the Imperial Dynasties of Medieval China.

    2) The advent of the mighty British Empire during Victorian England.

    3) The culmination of the Pharaoh reign in Ancient Egypt.

    4) The invasion of the Americas by the Spanish Conquistadors.

    5) The confrontation between the British Colonists and native Americans during the American revolution of the 18th Century. (The Revelations ending leads to New York, USA)

    6) The overthrow of the Tsar Empire by the Communists during the Russian Revolution.

    7) The Warlord Battles in Feudal Japan.

    8 ) The rise of Caesar’s Empire in Ancient Rome.

Additionally, with Assassin’s Creed Revelations now released, we can put together more pieces of the puzzle. In the Assassin’s Creed Revelations ending, we get The First Civilization explained by Jupiter. In this video you can see what happened to end their existence, what the Vaults are for, and what Desmond must do next – in Assassins Creed 3 – to prevent it from happening to us present-day humans.

December 2011 update: Tony Key, Ubisoft senior VP of sales and marketing, has told Alistdaily that the meta story of the Assassin’s Creed series is supposed to be carried on forever. To quote: “One thing I keep hearing is, ‘How can you make it in one year?’ We work on it a lot longer than one year and that’s part of it; we have multiple studios. Assassin’s Creed is a blueprint brand. What that means is it has a lot of resources focused onto it. We constantly have people thinking about it, so we have a lot of people working on future iterations, while these games are being made we’re already thinking about the next one. — I hope people are getting over the idea that we rush them out; we don’t make Assassin’s Creed games in one year. That’s something we want people to understand, and hopefully the message can get out.”

March 1st 2012 update: Ubisoft has released the official boxart for Assassin’s Creed III showing the game’s animus-protagonist, who seems to be a Native American fighting in the American Revolution. Further leaks of artwork (since removed) showed this male Assassin ancestor of Desmond in the iconic painting of George Washington crossing the Delaware. Take a look at him and the pack shot below. — Ubisoft promises to confirm additional details of Assassin’s Creed 3 on Monday, March 5th, at 5PM GMT / 9AM PST.

Assassin's Creed 3 Official Boxart

March 5th 2012 update: Here’s the official Ubisoft announcement of Assassin’s Creed 3. The reveal trailer has been added below the press release!

“Assassin’s Creed III will hit store shelves on October 31, 2012, encouraging gamers to experience the American Revolutionary War not written about in history books. The largest project in Ubisoft’s history also introduces a brand new hero.

With a development cycle of over three years and twice the production capacity of any previous Ubisoft game, Assassin’s Creed III is set to release on the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system, Windows PC and is also in development for Wii U from Nintendo. Assassin’s Creed III is developed by Ubisoft Montreal in collaboration with six other Ubisoft studios.

Set against the backdrop of the American Revolution in the late 18th century, Assassin’s Creed III introduces a new hero, Ratohnaké:ton, of Native American and English heritage. Adopting the name Connor, he becomes the new voice for justice in the ancient war between the Assassins and Templars. Players become an Assassin in the war for liberty against ruthless tyranny in the most stylized and fluid combat experiences in the franchise to date. Assassin’s Creed III spans the Revolutionary War, taking gamers from the vibrant, untamed frontier to bustling colonial towns and the intense, chaotic battlefields where George Washington’s Continental Army clashed with the imposing British Army.

Assassin’s Creed III is powered by Ubisoft-AnvilNext, a revolutionary new game engine that delivers breakthroughs in visual quality, character models and artificial intelligence. Assassin’s Creed III will feature a ground-breaking level of stunning graphics that bring Colonial America to life.”

For clarity here’s a list of known installments of the series:

This trailer also shows Assassin’s Creed’s history timeline: