The lone character whose genetic strands have served to tie together the century spanning "Assassin's Creed" trilogy between three different characters won't be appearing in the new "Creed" game. Desmond Miles lived the lives of Ezio, Altair, and Connor, but it seems his sea legs aren't up to snuff (or, y'know, that whole, sacrificing-his-body-freeing-Juno-to-stop-the-solar-flares-thing).
"Desmond has been the main protagonist of the franchise so far. This won't be the case in [Black Flag]," says creative director Jean Guesdon in an interview.
Desmond may be gone, but he's not out. As the tie that binds, "Desmond will be referred to as a very important legacy of the AC universe."
This doesn't mean that players will be stuck to the shores of the 1700's. Guesdon promised there will still be present-day gameplay sections, but didn't offer any further details. But here's where it gets interesting. Guesdon mentions the same fictitious publisher of "Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation," Abstergo Entertainment.
"Abstergo Entertainment is a subset of the Abstergo conglomerate. It's a division specialised in Entertainment providing historical content for games or movies...Abstergo Entertainment is [Black Flag] present playground and players will be immersed like never before in the AC universe." Guesdon hinted at player meeting some of "Creed's" already well established characters, but didn't get into specifics. "They will become part of the AC universe, able to meet some already known protagonists of the AC franchise." As such, I wouldn't be surprised if the Erudtio Collective appeared again.
"Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag" will release on PC, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, and Microsoft's next-gen console.
