Ubisoft Has Confirmed Remakes, And Assassin’s Creed 1 Deserves To Be First

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Shaheer Zahid

At HI Digital I test and write about different hardware configurations to show other PC users what they can expect from their build. My end goal is to educate the masses to make the right decision when they are looking for new PC parts to buy

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Assassin’s Creed is still Ubisoft’s biggest IP. The series has been around for decades, with over a dozen entries. Obviously, the older entries have now become outdated, and Ubisoft has the potential to revisit them.

I’ve wanted Ubisoft to cycle between the old style and the new RPG style when it comes to new games for variety’s sake, so it was certainly encouraging when the team confirmed that it was working on remaking past entries.

The studio is working on multiple remakes, with Assassin’s Creed 4 almost certainly being the first. However, this entry isn’t even that old, and the mechanics are still quite acceptable by today’s standards.

In my opinion, the original Assassin’s Creed deserves a remake the most.

Why it matters: Everyone has been asking for this, and Ubisoft is also aware of the demand for a remake of the very first entry.

The Platform Argument

Can you get Assassins Creed 1 on PS4?
byu/Decapitated-Turtle inassassinscreed

This one’s quick and simple. Ubisoft has made the entire franchise playable on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC today, thanks to various remasters. Even spin-offs like Liberations have been remastered.

However, the publisher continues to ignore the very first game for some reason. While PC players can simply buy the original entry and Xbox users can fall back on backward compatibility, PlayStation users have no way of accessing this title.

This is because Ubisoft skipped this entry when it went on a remaster spree a few years ago. PlayStation does not support backward compatibility for PS3 games, though this may be in the works.

Anyhow, this means that millions of PS4 and PS5 users can’t play the original Assassin’s Creed, even if they wanted to. Also, millions of people on the Nintendo Switch don’t have access to this entry.

Assassin’s Creed 1 Had Really Unrefined Mechanics

The 2007 release was the first of the franchise, so I’d cut it some slack for that reason. Even though the title had many missing features and unrefined gameplay elements, it was still a decent start overall.

I must admit that it’s hard to replay the first entry in 2024, and here’s why. Firstly, the structure is quite repetitive. It’s based on a series of missions that lead up to the assassinations of the eight main targets.

While this sounds great on paper, the experience leaves much to be desired. Assassin’s Creed 1 adheres closely to this structure throughout its runtime, leading to a monotonous cycle by the end.

You have a set of smaller tasks that must be completed about two times before each major assassination. These range from helping citizens, pick-pocketing certain people, or eavesdropping on important characters.

After completing these tasks for clues, you can proceed to the main target, and these encounters are about as anti-climatic as they can get. By the end, this structure gets so repetitive that some may find it hard to beat the main story.

Moreover, the combat is plain and boring. Altair practically does things on his own since blocking requires holding one button, and parrying is an instant kill. Ubisoft also included very few actual cutscenes, with most of the game revolving around talking sequences for exposition.

This would be fine, but the quality of dialogue was far from ideal, and the ability to skip these sequences was nowhere to be found. Adding to the problems, Altair, as much as he is talked about, was the weakest protagonist to date behind Basim.

Even with the narrative centered around him, his personality barely had the opportunity to shine through. Let’s not forget how he didn’t even have an appropriate accent in this entry, which was later fixed in Revelations.

The list of what Assassin’s Creed 1 does wrong goes on. This is why this entry deserves a remake above everything else.

Modernizing The Older Releases

Assassin’s Creed 1 has the most potential as a remake simply because it’s the oldest of the bunch. Whether it be graphics, gameplay, or the story itself, it has the most room for improvement, making it the obvious choice.

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot stated that the remakes will offer a modernized experience since the franchise is extremely rich in story, and revisiting them will offer a new experience and perspective. As such, there’s no better place to start than where it all began.

Shaheer Zahid

[How-To Guides Expert]

Laiba, our tech guru at HI Digital, simplifies and crafts How-To Guides with a Google IT Support Certificate. Beyond tech, she captures the city’s aesthetics through her lens. Join her journey where tech meets creativity!

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