New reports claim the next major Assassin’s Creed game will star Assassin’s Creed Valhalla character Basim as the protagonist, and will serve as a standalone stealth-focused experience. The long-running, Assassin’s Order-centric series began with stealth at the forefront of the gameplay mechanics. As time went on, however, celebrated elements such as social stealth, or hiding in plain sight, took a backseat to larger-scale battles and the like.

Titles such as the underrated Assassin’s Creed Unity and Syndicate revisited the social stealth elements to an extent a few years ago. Yet, these once core tenets of the franchise returned to the sidelines with AC Origins and, especially, AC Odyssey. 2020’s AC Valhalla explored stealth a little more with the Siege of Paris DLC’s infiltration missions, though series faithful still clamor for the gameplay mechanics of old. Fortunately, the clamor may soon come to an end.

SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY

According to a new Bloomberg report, people familiar with Ubisoft’s operations claim the next Assassin’s Creed entry began as an expansion for AC Valhalla, then morphed into a standalone game to fill out its release slate. The adventure in question will allegedly star AC Valhalla’s Basim in a more stealth-focused experience. Eurogamer corroborated the report in a write-up of its own, adding that the Basim-starring game will take place in Baghdad. Fans who’ve grown tired of the increasingly large open-world settings are in luck, too, as the new installment apparently boasts a much smaller scope compared to Assassin’s Creed outings in recent years.

When taking the ending of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla into consideration, specifically as it relates to the present-day story arc, Basim as the main protagonist of a new game sounds like the obvious next step. The most recent game’s conclusion also suggests the supposed Baghdad-set part of the narrative will serve as a prequel to the events of the 2020 game. This is all speculative, though, and Ubisoft has yet to specify what it has in store for Assassin’s Creed post-Dawn of Ragnarok.

Following another report out of Bloomberg last year, the French publisher did confirm the existence of Assassin’s Creed Infinity. Developed as a cross-studio collaboration between Assassin’s Creed creator Ubisoft Montréal and its Québec-based sister studio, AC Infinity will lean into the live-service model, claimed Bloomberg, perhaps even more so than AC Odyssey and AC Valhalla. Ubisoft won’t corroborate as much just yet, though CEO Yves Guillemot did confirm that the tentatively titled AC Infinity project will not assume the form of a free-to-play experience.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is out now on Google Stadia, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S platforms.

See also  No Way Home's Posters May Secretly Reveal Tobey Maguire & Andrew Garfield

Source: Bloomberg, Eurogamer

LEGO Skywalker Saga Makes Star Wars’ Most Iconic Scene Weaker

About The Author


Brianna Reeves
(2060 Articles Published)

A Senior Writer on Screen Rant’s Game News team, Brianna Reeves graduated from Sam Houston Statue University in 2018 with a Master of Arts in English Literature. Brianna’s enthusiasm for games dates back to Mortal Kombat Trilogy on PlayStation 1, along with classics like MediEvil, Syphon Filter, and THPS2. However, Red Dead Redemption reinvigorated her love for the medium; hopefully, that passion reflects in the work she has contributed to Comic Book Resources, PlayStation LifeStyle, GVMERS, and Screen Rant.

More From Brianna Reeves