Assassin’s Creed 3 lead writer: Red Dead Redemption made us think “how can we do better than that?”
Jamie Donnelly April 3, 2012 - 8:39 pmNews: Assassin’s Creed 3 is set to feature wild hunting and the final frontier, ideas that cropped up in Red Dead Redemption. Upon playing Rockstar’s wild-west sandbox, Ubisoft didn’t panic, instead asking “how can we do better than do that?”
Taking place in the midst of the American Revolution, Assassin’s Creed 3 is turning a whole new setting into its murderous playground. While it’s new ground for the Ubisoft franchise, it won’t be the first game to walk through frontier towns and task you with hunting wildlife – 2010′s Red Dead Redemption from Rockstar already did that, but Ubisoft didn’t get their hands on it until after the ideas for Desmond’s latest ancestral adventure had been set in place.
According to lead writer Matt Turner in an interview with CVG, the similar features didn’t panic the developer, instead pushing them to take those ideas and deliver them in a superior fashion. He said: “When people are thinking about the same topic at the same time, they’re bound to have some ideas come around at about the same moment.
“We’d been working on the animal and the frontier stuff and then Red Dead Redemption came out. We saw it, played it cover to cover, and it was less of an ‘oh shit’ and more of a ‘aha! How can we do better than that?’”
He also noted Rockstar’s ability to constantly be the best, pushing their games forward and basking in the subsequent success. This is something that Ubisoft very much want to mirror with Assassin’s Creed 3. “Because that’s something that Rockstar does – it always strives to be the best,” Turner said. “They always try to push things in new directions and I think we need to do the same thing. As a team we saw how good it was and how they had tonnes of success and we were like, ‘OK, let’s look at their success and see how we can take it in new directions.’ That’s what I think we’ve tried to do.”
Can the latest entry into the Assassin’s Creed franchise be the very best, like no one ever was? Julian Benson isn’t sure about that, and while he expressed excitement for the game in BeefJack’s preview, it wasn’t without reservations.
You can find all the latest Assassin’s Creed 3 news right here at BeefJack.
