Assassin’s Creed might be ditching The Crusades and time-hopping forward to Renaissance-era Venice with a new protagonist, according to the latest rumors.
According to an anonymous focus tester who wrote to Kotaku claiming to have gotten a peek at a concept trailer and some art, Assassin’s Creed 2 won’t be set during the Crusades or, as previously rumored, during the French Revolution, but in Renaissance-era Venice.
In the trailer, the focus tester described, a woman is dancing with a pair of shady gentlemen at a masked ball when a mysterious costumed fellow steps out and stabs one of them in the neck with a wrist blade not unlike the trademark weapon from the first Assassin’s Creed. The other man tries to escape but the assassin has already made his way to the rooftops and is chasing him down. He confronts his target, who says some mysterious stuff about the assassin’s parents and why they died, at which point the assassin shoots him with a bolt pistol.
The tester goes on to say that after watching the trailer (which was most likely pre-rendered), Ubisoft showed him three pieces of concept art for the protagonist. Each picture had the word “Enzio” at the bottom, possibly implying that this is the character’s name. Enzio, apparently, likes to dress like Altair, with his face permanently hidden underneath a hood, which may imply that AC2 will have the same premise of a modern-day person living out the past life of a genetic ancestor via super-technology. “His face wasn’t entirely shown, so I assume it is the future reliving the past again,” the tester said.
MTV Multiplayer corroborated the rumors, claiming that their own source had hinted at similar things. Contacting Ubisoft for comment, they got this reply: “It’s great to see that the fans are enjoying speculation regarding Assassin’s Creed and we love and share their enthusiasm. We don’t comment on rumors or speculation, and rest assured that when we are ready to release information on the game, you will be among the first to know.”
The tester claimed that Ubisoft would be revealing the game at an expo this year, most likely E3. As previously reported, the game should hit by next March. All I can say is that, if this is true, it’s nice that there’ll be guns in the game because old-timey pistols are just cool, and I really hope that this time around the protagonist will be able to swim. Venice is full of canals, you know.
