DIALOGUE

Issue 376

Dialogue

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Creed is good

Aren’t you tired of Elden Ring? Doesn’t it just remind you of being 18 again and doing your Duke Of Edinburgh Gold Award, stuck on a Welsh hillside in January with a rickety tent and a compass that you have no idea how to read? Well, I might have just the game for you. Not only is it a breath of fresh air, I think it could even be the future of open-world games after FromSoft nearly ruined them. It’s by a little-known but up-and-coming studio called Ubisoft (the better ‘soft’, in my opinion), and the game in question is called Assassin’s Creed. Instead of bizarre and oblique lore that sounds like the mad mutterings of an opium addict, you get a clear story, good voice acting, and a world that draws credibly on real historical sources. Instead of gloomy rain-soaked landscapes, you get sumptuous, inviting vistas of lush oases and sprawling beautiful cities teeming with life. As you walk around, you are enveloped by the sights and sounds of ancient Greece or Egypt. Instead of an almost unusable UI, Byzantine levelling and a baffling crafting system, you get clear, user-friendly menus and well-thought-out level progression. Elden Ring says, “You see that mountain over there? You can climb it and then immediately get one-shot killed by an angry demon the size of a house 86 times until your thumbs bleed.” Assassin’s Creed says, “Hey, tired dads, we know you might no longer have the reactions of a fighter pilot. Take a stroll up that mountain, watch the sun go down over olive groves, take out a bunch of bandits and feel good, for just 15 minutes in your tired dad life. You’ve earned it.” So, let me put a metaphorical, non-tentacled arm around you, and let’s walk together into that bright, new 4K dawn. Here’s to the future. Here’s to Assassin’s Creed.