Assassin’s Creed Hexe Could Finally Break Ubisoft’s Repetitive Formula

More and more people are excited about Assassin's Creed Codename Hexe, and not just because it's supposed to be set in the time of the witch trials. A lot of people are also excited about what it means for the show's future. No longer is when or where the movie will come out the most important question.

The real question is whether Ubisoft will finally change the long-standing pattern that makes many players feel like they're just wearing a different outfit while playing the same game. Today, the series seems to be at a new turning point. It has been years of big maps, complicated RPG systems, and well-known job structures.

Two games we really liked were Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Assassin's Creed Valhalla.

These games were very big, but they still made us feel like we were making progress and were a part of the worlds they built. That being said, Assassin's Creed Shadows didn't feel the same. It looked good. Yes, it did play well. It was a "wow" moment, but it wasn't there afterward. When you were done, you might not have felt the deep pleasure that used to be the brand.

There wasn't a lasting sense that something important had taken place. At this point, we often feel like we're playing the same game over and over. Vikings are the theme every year. The next year is Ancient Greece, and the year after that is Japan in the Middle Ages, with samurai and ninja styles. The main loop stays the same, though.

It's almost too easy to guess what the tasks are about because of how they're set up, how they grow, and how they look. The clothes are the only thing that changes. Over time, that habit takes you away from the event. This makes Hexe feel very important. Years ago, Assassin's Creed fans wished for a game that took place during the witch trials.

A lot of people were scared, shocked, and suspicious at this time. This place has stress, deception, and mental weight. You could either be someone who is being accused of witchcraft or someone who looks for witches. There is a chance to make the darkness and power that the series has ever tried to reach.

Even if Ubisoft changes the setting, it won't matter if they just add magical symbols and make the woods darker.

They can use the same open-world loop again. We've seen this before. Ubisoft changed things with Assassin's Creed Origins because the model felt stuck in Assassin's Creed Unity. After that reboot, the show did well for many years. We're both in the same place right now. Once more, the model looks and feels old, and if it doesn't change, the fun might keep fading. 

The fact that the series turned into an RPG is fine. It's possible for RPGs to work really well. When these features take away from what Assassin's Creed is all about, that's when things go wrong. This is best shown in The Hidden Blade. If you hit someone hard from behind, they should fall.

It breaks the assassination dream if you stay living because your level isn't high enough. Being tough in a fight is one thing, but the Hidden Blade is what the whole series is about. If you can't kill someone, being stealthy isn't useful anymore. We don't want a power fantasy; we want a killer fantasy. Keep the loot and progress, but make the rules clear.

A sure-fire way to kill someone, with heavier punishments if caught, could make things more tense again. Risk, not steady growth, should determine success. Side tasks are another thing that doesn't follow the rules. It gets old to say the same things over and over. This loop has been seen too many times: get this thing, clear this camp, kill this target.

With a story this big, it's especially hard to deal with filler.

You might not want as many side quests if each one had great writing, memorable personalities, and a real use. When you finish a side task, it shouldn't feel like a checkmark. Also, the way we tell stories has changed. Even though the early entries weren't great, they kept us interested. We heard people talking.

We were interested in what was happening right now. These days, it's easy to forget what's going on between tasks. The setting for Hexe can fix that. A lot of care had to be taken during the witch trials. Fear makes people betray others. Stories about other people get them killed. If Ubisoft makes these ideas part of the story instead of just adding to it, the story might have more weight.

It may be best for Hexe to make you feel like you're being hunted as well as chased. With new games, players don't have to be afraid to charge into groups of enemies. You shouldn't think that way during a witch trial. Suspicion can turn into a machine. Imagine that normal people are looking, talking, and setting off alarms.

As soon as someone yelled "witch," everyone in the room would get mad. That emotional stress would change the basic loop of the game. You should feel like you have to be stealthy, not like you can choose not to be. You shouldn't have to start over at a stop if you get caught. It is possible to question people, hurt their names, torture them, or force them to leave the country.

Having repercussions would make it more important.

Killing someone should be final, but it should be hard to get to the target because of guards, noise, light, and stress from other people. It's also important how long the game is. Not all games need to be 120 hours long. A 40–60-hour event could feel much stronger than a long epic if it's tough and well-made.

Players are getting tired of endless checklists, so quality over quantity is becoming more and more important. Hexe is more than just a different place in the end. It gives Ubisoft a chance to start over while keeping the core of the first Assassin's Creed. Give killing some meaning again. Return stealth to the center. Lessen the extraneous parts of the story and make the main point louder.

Do not just use the time of the witch trials as a dark setting. Center your whole story around it. We might finally feel that joy again if Hexe works. "Different era, same game" could become harder to ignore if it doesn't work. You could do something more dangerous, dark, and intimate. The future of the brand may depend on whether Ubisoft takes that risk.