Assassin’s Creed Shadows has served as both a return to form for the franchise while innovating its mechanics in an entirely new direction, most notably in how Shadows handles its dual protagonists. By separating its two protagonists into an incredibly powerful fighter and a bible assassin, Shadows‘ can better satisfy both its needs for classic stealth and modernized combat without detracting from the other. Although Shadows brings back reworked versions of classic additions like base-building and managing a recruitable team of assassins, there’s still one feature I can’t help but miss over a decade later.

It seems that despite Shadows‘s massive success for the franchise, its sales are still not enough to save Ubisoft and satisfy the studio’s financial needs for developing ambitious new games. While it’s hard to blame Assassin’s Creed for all of Ubisoft’s biggest problems, it seems like there’s one direction that could be the perfect fit for the series while helping the studio’s financial troubles at the same time. While it’s uncertain which of Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed projects will be released next, there’s one that I want to see more than ever after Shadows.​​​​​​

The Next Assassin’s Creed Game Should Have A Greater Focus On Multiplayer

Fully Realizing Assassin’s Creed’s Co-Op Capabilities

After witnessing the potential that Assassin’s Creed Shadows‘ dual protagonists can offer in terms of gameplay variety, it almost feels like a missed opportunity that Shadows didn’t release with more multiplayer-focused mechanics. While the Assassin’s Creed franchise has done fine on its own without multiplayer for several years, it finally feels like the perfect time to dive into the online capabilities of the series with the level of attention that it deserves.

It finally feels like the perfect time to dive into the online capabilities of the series.

Despite its controversies, Assassin’s Creed Shadows feels like a culmination of the potential the franchise has for a unique experience following years of experimental mechanics and new directions for the series, with the next Assassin’s Creed game having a lot to learn from Shadows​​​​. Incorporating plenty of mechanics from the original games, like dual assassinations, base building, and hirable NPCs already, multiplayer would have been another great feature to carry over into the next generation of the series.

Thankfully, it seems like the next major Assassin’s Creed project might already solve the absence of multiplayer while still having the chance to learn from Shadows‘ success. While not much has been revealed just yet about the project, Ubisoft has already announced Codename Invictus as an upcoming standalone entry in the Assassin’s Creed franchise that will be developed as a fully multiplayer experience. While the last entry to tackle a multiplayer-first design suffered plenty of headaches, more than enough time has passed to warrant a second try.

Ubisoft’s Lack Of Multiplayer Content Was A Surprising Move For The Series

Live Service Multiplayer Feels Right At Home For Ubisoft

Assassin’s Creed Unity was the last installment in the franchise to include a dedicated multiplayer mode. That means it’s been over an entire decade of solely single-player experiences for the franchise.

Although the gameplay of Assassin’s Creed more than lends itself to a predominantly narrative-driven single-player experience, the franchise has always had the potential for a massively popular multiplayer experience. While I’m a bit concerned over the new entry’s battle-royale-style minigames being compared to Fall Guys according to The Gamer, I’m still hesitantly eager to see what Ubisoft comes up with.

It’s been over an entire decade of solely single-player experiences for the franchise.

Even the design behind Brotherhood of Assassins feels like it’s begging to be used for a true multiplayer revival, even if the concept of the Brotherhood’s significance took a backseat in more recent entries like Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Given Ubisoft’s heavy push for live-service experiences and supporting profitable multiplayer experiences like Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege for over a decade, it’s honestly a shock Ubisoft hasn’t tried to implement multiplayer into Assassin’s Creed again in the past 10 years.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ Is Rumored To Be Getting A Co-Op Update

Letting Shadows Unleash Its Full Multiplayer Potential

Thankfully, it seems that Ubisoft might already be aware of the multiplayer potential that Shadows has thanks to its dual protagonists and varied gameplay mechanics. While it hasn’t been officially confirmed by the studio yet, it’s rumored that the studio is working on a co-op game mode for Assassin’s Creed Shadows under the codename LEAGUE. According to an ambiguous source connected to Insider Gaming where the rumor originally came from, the co-op mode had been in development alongside the base game “long before the postponement and that this wasn’t an addition because of the delay” -Tom Henderson.

Ubisoft might already be aware of the multiplayer potential that Shadows has thanks to its dual protagonists and varied gameplay mechanics.

While there’s no launch date just yet and little information available on what the mode would even look like upon release, it could be just the thing Shadows needs to take the experience to even greater heights. Rather than simply being another post-launch incentive, the idea that Shadows has been developed with multiplayer in mind from the start is a great relief if true, giving the game mode the proper treatment it deserves before the next big multiplayer push for the series.

Given how gorgeous Shadows’ real-life locations are to explore, the idea of traversing its detailed landscapes with a friend is a concept I’m incredibly excited to see become a reality. A fleshed-out multiplayer mode would also be a great way to provide more value to Shadows, as it’s on the shorter side of what fans have come to expect from the triple-A RPG-inspired gameplay of the series’ recent entries.

Despite Its Flaws, Assassin’s Creed’s Multiplayer Was Incredibly Addictive

Countless Hours Of Fun From PvE and PvP Game Modes

While it wasn’t the first game in the franchise to include multiplayer modes by any means, Assassin’s Creed Unity was the first and only game in the franchise to deliver an entirely seamless co-op experience between players. Despite being relatively well-received today for its impressive graphics and action-packed gameplay, the ambitious title was an absolute disaster on release, being filled with countless bugs and detrimental performance issues.

Unity felt like the first step into an exciting new direction for the series that never got to see its full potential.

Despite its issues, Unity felt like the first step into an exciting new direction for the series that never got to see its full potential following the swap to more RPG-focussed titles. I still have fond memories of racing around France for hours with friends in Unity, traveling from enemy bases to coordinate attacks on guards, or simply taking in the sights with its gorgeous environments and setting.

Co-op isn’t the only aspect of multiplayer in Assassin’s Creed that deserves to make a comeback either, as the series’ various PvP modes were an expected staple for years that suddenly disappeared after Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. While Assassin’s Creed‘s PvP modes changed frequently over the years through each installment in the series, its later versions saw a surprising amount of depth that encouraged higher skill-based gameplay while offering more replayability. Providing several unique game modes, unlockable gear, and cosmetics, PvP multiplayer was a fun addition to the series with some massively untapped gameplay potential.

Assassin’s Creed‘s PvP modes offered countless hours of fun that added to the experience of the game rather than detracting from it as a whole.

Utilizing both stealth, deception, and aggressive moments similar to what’s already seen in Shadows, Assassin’s Creed‘s PvP modes offered countless hours of fun that added to the experience of the game rather than detracting from it as a whole. While it’s true that adding a fleshed-out multiplayer takes up a significant amount of resources from an already ambitiously realistic title like Assassin’s Creed Shadows, a dedicated multiplier-focused experience could be just the thing the franchise needs to capitalize on its full potential.