Examples of Damage Control in Gaming: Assassin’s Creed Is Totally the New Mass Effect

Assassin’s Creed Origins mostly served as a soft reboot for the series, which made several changes to attract lapsed fans who drifted away from the franchise after several previous underwhelming installments — especially Assassin’s Creed Unity. Here, the series became less about straight steal action and more of a stealth action RPG, as it included levels, several different weapons and armor, and an increased amount of exploration.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey took that a step further by adding another key feature common to western RPGs: Relationships. The game allows for players to choose between a male or female protagonist, Alexios and Kassandra, and lets them to fall in love with several characters of both genders. This doesn’t make that big a difference in the main game, nor is initiating relationships as involving as it is in other RPGs. Nevertheless, several players considered it a nice activity to participate in, and appreciated the level of freedom it offered. For those who don’t like it, it was easy avoid the feature entirely.

This is exactly why one twist in the first expansion, Legacy of the First Blade, was immensely infuriating to those who spent a good amount of time with it. This occurs at the end of its second chapter (of three) meaning it’s impossible to discuss this without delving into serious spoilers. I’ll make sure not to spoil anything else, though.

Contrary to Odyssey’s other quests, this one has an unavoidable romance. The DLC involves teaming up with the first Assassin, Darius, who also travels with his son or daughter depending on the gender of the protagonist. They’ll have to help them defeat the Order and escape Greece mostly unscathed. Later, Alexios or Kassandra will settle down with either the daughter Neema or son Natakas, respectively, and they’ll eventually have a child.

It’s a pleasant development, but it also renders all the relationships players established in the main game irrelevant, which is why several fans are justifiably pissed off. And “pissed” may not be a strong-enough word for those who pursued gay relationships, since their character is suddenly straight. It’s also mind-boggling given how the DLC provides dialogue prompts that allow for the protagonist to rebuff the romantic advances of Darius’ child, but they’ll end up together regardless of which they choose.

The reactions were vicious enough that Ubisoft had to issue an apology. An even longer apology subsequently came from creative director Jonathan Durmont on the game’s forums, which included an explanation regarding how this came to pass. He claimed the story was intended to explain how the protagonist from Odyssey will have a lasting impact on the lineage of Assassins through the franchise’s timeline. He acknowledged how they missed the mark, and said players will have the option of making this relationship a utilitarian one rather than a romantic one in future content.

This wouldn’t have been an issue if the choices weren’t included in the game in the first place, and if Ubisoft hadn’t heavily promoted the amount of freedom players would be given. Taking away choices from players never goes well, and it’s surprising to think a team of developers at Ubisoft didn’t stop and consider how this would result in serious backlash as they were creating it. If they found it too difficult to write around all the possible romances players participated in for the main game, they should have chosen a different scenario.

The reactions here made it evident that Assassin’s Creed has truly become the new Mass Effect. The relationships possible in the game take a page out of Bioware’s titles — also including Dragon Age. But since Mass Effect Andromeda put the franchise in the grave, several who enjoy engaging in relationships in AAA games gravitated to Odyssey for their fix, despite the difference in settings. It’s nice that this audience had another franchise to occupy their previously Bioware-designated RPG time with, since the next Dragon Age game is a while off.

Assassin’s Creed is also the new Mass Effect in how the latter franchise ran into a remarkably similar situation to what Odyssey is facing now. It’s been a while, but the controversy that surrounded Mass Effect 3’s ending was massive when it released in 2012. It essentially showed how the choices several players made over the course of three games didn’t matter in the end, which upset so many of them that Bioware had to patch in an alternate ending that better acknowledged them. Perhaps Ubisoft might do the same here, though it doesn’t sound like that’s in the cards the creative director’s comments.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey director Scott Phillips said the company wants to keep the choice of gender around for future installments during an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, which is good. But the big question will be whether they also keep the romantic choices. After the reactions here, they now know they’ll have to respect their choices if they implement them from here on, or it will be better if they skip them entirely.