How It Ended: The Definition of Denouement

Written by: Adam "ManKorn" Korenman, CC2K Video Games Editor

Another notorious failed ending comes from the Assassin’s Creed series. The first game, while admittedly more of an awesome tech demo then a true title, had an amazing premise. You play as Altair, a trained assassin fighting against the Knights Templar. There is some religious high-talk and rumors of conspiracy, but the overall story seems pretty straight-forward. The one strange note, and the element that made us so excited to find out more, is that you are not actually playing the game as Altair. You are Desmond Miles, a bartender in American who has been kidnapped by a tech conglomerate for unknown reasons.

While the back and forth timelines can be confusing, the game does draw you in for a pretty epic finale. There are rumors of a coming attack in the modern setting, and plenty of stealthy murder to be done in the past. When it all finally comes to a head, you’ve just defeated your former mentor in a magical game of cat-and-mouse. Suddenly you wake as Desmond and realize your modern prison is under attack. As the player, you feel a sense of excitement and realize that this is about to be a race against the clock to escape alive. 

And then, instead, you get a cryptic vision and the game ends.

WTF?

AC2 came back with a vengeance, bringing better writing, better action, and a killer metagame (in Brotherhood). Since then, AC3 has been deemed “Passable” at best, and the sequel-prequel-side stories are just filler until Ubisoft decides if they really want to become the new EA. Unity was a mess, and who knows where this franchise can go in the future (considering the main character died at the end of AC3).

Though the franchise did deliver on some of the best gameplay of the last generation, I think it may be time for this dead horse to be laid to rest.