Is Ubisoft introducing a playable woman character for their next entry of the highly popular Assassin's Creed? With game title Assassin's Creed: Sydicate, players will have the option to switch characters in which one is a female during the course of the mission. Syndicate creative director also explains why the game opted for a sibling relationship between the lead characters.
Set during the Victorian Era of the 19th century London, Jacob Frye teams up with his sister Evie. The two, each having his/her own skill set, will be involved in some criminal undertakings in the city, reported Paste Magazine.
Ubisoft developers seem less interested in crafting female characters for their widely syndicated series and this afforded them some bashing from the fans. When Assassin's Creed: Unity creative director Alex Amancio made some remarks about the huge amount of effort required to put up the animation for another female assassin, the gamers insisted that hundreds of them working together should not perceive this as a tedious effort, and even if it is, it should be manageable considering the number of hands working, reported Kotaku.
It seems that the group finally saw some sense in the vehement demand and decided to work on it. "We recognize the valid concern around diversity in video game narrative," Ubisoft commented.
Added to that, game developers and critics brought their cause to Twitter with hashtag #womenaretoohardtoanimate. With the pressure of employing a female character in the Assassin's Creed heating up, Ubisoft might just have decided to introduce one a few hours from now.
According to some rumors, Jacob would still be in the center stage, taking up 75% of the missions, leaving Evie with 25% of the story. It is also reported one cannot switch to multiplayer mode, but he can swap the characters during the course of the mission.
Meanwhile, Syndicate creative director Marc-Alexis Cote explains why they choose to make the relationship of Jacob and Evie to be filial. He said that a romantic relationship is going to shadow the storyline that they would like to follow for the assassins, reported Game Spot.
"I wanted to stay away from the romance because it sucks everything out, it becomes all about the romance between those two characters," Cote said. "While that can be fun, I think the rivalry and complicity you can have with a brother and sister is something a lot of people will be able to better identify with.
"We've had our two actors [playing Jacob and Evie] spend a lot of time together so they can develop this brother and sister chemistry, and I actually think they've gone overboard with it," he added. "It's really transferred into the game, and it's a lot of fun.
"Jacob and Evie allow us to explore [the story] from different sides, they have these two personalities that bounce off each other," he added. "I think it'll freshen up the storytelling as well."
Join the Conversation