The Assassin’s Creed crossover stories in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Valhalla are a statement of intent from the developers at Ubisoft. They’re putting their name on the line and saying that this is what they want for the future of the series, and they want Ubisoft to allow them to do it. It’s a slightly different direction than I think Ubisoft’s executives have had in mind, but it will pay off if they allow it to go ahead. Initially, I think the plan was to create a portal where every Assassin’s Creed game can be accessed, but they’d all be self-contained adventures. Sure, they may have gotten updates, but they’d maintain that separation. This new direction muddies the water, and I love it.
What am I talking about? Well, without spoiling too much, the crossover stories between Odyssey and Valhalla link up. It starts in Odyssey and ends in Valhalla. However, you could just as easily have a thread that goes through every game in the series. Were all these titles in a single space like Assassin’s Creed Infinity, then they could all be updated with a new crossover story at once. This would give players a reason to go back and enjoy the games for what they were, and then experience the new content on top of it. I myself jumped directly into the crossover stories because I’ve already spent enough time in the base games of Odyssey and Valhalla. If I were a new player though, I’d happily go back through them just to get to the new crossover event.
I think the most crucial part of what this crossover content means is that there’s a future for every Assassin’s Creed game. While the older titles may not have a future with new content, every game from Origins onwards probably does. I’d be excited to see Ubisoft continue to add new content as it has each year with a big crossover story between the games. Maybe there’s a new character who has been lurking in the background all this time, and the new crossover story shows us who they are. To be honest, the stories justify full on DLC with new characters in older games if Ubisoft has the balls for it. This is all very promising, and I can’t wait to see more.
