What is Assassin’s Creed Infinity, and which games will it support?
Want to know more about Assassin’s Creed Infinity?Assassin’s Creed Infinityis not a new game in the popular stealth franchise. Instead, it is a hub from which you can hop into a series of differentAssassin’s Creedgames, acting as an Animus (the device used to leap into the past canonically in Assassin’s Creed) on your gaming platform. It’s an odd concept, but one that will seemingly let you collect various upcoming Assassin’s Creed games in one place and hop between them easily, while also diving into the occasional free content drop.
Below, we’ll break down everything we know so far about Assassin’s Creed Infinity, with more information on what the hub entails, along with the expected release date, supported upcoming Assassin’s Creed games, details on how it impacts the modern day storyline, and what Infinity means for the franchise moving forward.
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What is Assassin’s Creed Infinity?
Assassin’s Creed Infinity is not a new game, but more likea standalone hub from which all future Assassin’s Creed games will need to be launched. There’s been a lot of talk and confusion about what exactly Infinity will look like when it launches, so let’s try to clear things up with what we know so far.
When it comes to new Assassin’s Creed games, Marc-Alexis Côté, project leader for Assassin’s Creed, has said in aninterview with IGNthat you can buy any future game as a standalone box product, just like before. But when you come to launch it, you’ll be directed first to the Infinity hub. From there, you can continue with a single button-press or two onto the Assassin’s Creed game you just launched; or you can stay in Infinity and have a look at everything else the hub has to offer its players.
Unlike traditional launchers, it sounds likeInfinity will have you control an actual in-universe avatar, which you’ll use to interact with in-game options in order to navigate to different Assassin’s Creed experiences. Think of it kind of like the starting hub screen fromAssassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag- or, if you haven’t played it, the in-game hubs of games likeMonster Hunteror Destiny, where you get to walk around and interact with various things before heading off on your next journey. But instead of being part of those games, Infinity stands alone.
As veterans of the past several games will know, Assassin’s Creed games tend to have sections of modern day story interspersed with the main storyline of each game’s chosen era. It’s been a source of contention among players for years now, and Ubisoft are finally looking to address this issue with Infinity, by placing all future meta storyline content purely within Infinity so that it doesn’t interrupt the stories that each future Assassin’s Creed game tells.
This is just one of the ways in which Côté is hoping that Infinity will become more than just a launcher. When it first launches, there may not be much to explore within Infinity beyond just launching new games, experiencing the meta storyline, and accessing the encyclopedia (which is also being moved to Infinity rather than being something that is added anew for each future Assassin’s Creed game).
But as time goes on, Ubisoft will be adding more content specific to Infinity. What they’ll be adding, we don’t yet know. But the eventual aim is to make Infinity feel like a true hub, rather than simply a place from which to launch Assassin’s Creed games.
Unfortunately we don’t have any exact release date details yet for Assassin’s Creed Infinity, but it certainly doesn’t look like it will be releasing anytime soon. It’s fairly early days for this rather ambitious new Ubisoft project.
There are several upcoming Assassin’s Creed games in the works, and several of them are already confirmed to be part of Infinity. However, the game closest to release,Assassin’s Creed Mirage, will not be part of Infinity as it will drop before Infinity is ready for release. Here are the games we know will be added to Assassin’s Creed Infinity:
Assassin’s Creed: Codename Red is the next flagship open-world RPG in Ubisoft’s biggest franchise. It is the first game in the series to be set in feudal Japan - a setting that has been requested by fans for years.
Côté described Assassin’s Creed Hexe as “a very different type of Assassin’s Creed game”. It’s being developed by Ubisoft Montreal, the team which created Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, but don’t expect the usual RPG experience. We already know from Côté’s discussions around Assassin’s Creed Mirage and other games that Ubisoft are starting to experiment with different genres and structures for the franchise - and given the occult leanings of the trailer, Hexe could be anything from a pared back VR experience to a full-on horror game.
One annoucement that definitely turned heads during this year’s Ubisoft Forward event was the development of Assassin’s Creed: Codename Invictus, a multiplayer game that looks like it might return the franchise to the PvP game modes of older Assassin’s Creed games such as Deathmatch, Manhunt, Steal the Artifact, and more.
Speaking to Eurogamer, Côté said of Invictus that “it is part of our creative intention to bridge the different Assassin’s Creed games together in a multiplayer experience”. This hints at the idea of multiple characters from previous Assassin’s Creed titles uniting as part of Invictus - a notion that Côté corroborated again speaking to IGN: “I think the concept art that we had for Invictus kind of hints to this possibility of crossing over characters from different periods. So I think you can see the intention there of Invictus allowing us again to bridge our different games together.”
Again, don’t expect Assassin’s Creed Invictus to drop anytime soon. We’re talking years in advance at the moment. But when it does release, there’s a chance that it will be free to play. This is not confirmed, but in Côté’s words while speaking to IGN, “it is a possibility”.
Once Assassin’s Creed Infinity releases to all, what will actually change? What will it mean for players of future AC games? Not much, to be honest.
It means that you’ll need to click an extra button or two when you launch the game, as you’ll be send into the Infinity hub first before the game itself loads up. That may be a slight turn-off for many players, but we’ll have to wait and see just how intrusive the hub becomes.
On the flipside, the arrival of Infinity should mean a slightly more streamlined and less messy experience for each standalone Assassin’s Creed game. There’ll be no more meta storyline interrupting the historical story of each game, and the codex entries will be moved to Infinity as well.
Otherwise, you’ll be able to play future Assassin’s Creed titles pretty much exactly as you always have. Infinity just adds a hub that you can either click straight past to get into the game, or stay and explore in awhile to see what new experiences Ubisoft will add over time.
