In the last couple of weeks it's been revealed that a third Assassin's Creed game in the Ezio saga (essentially Assassin's Creed 2: Part 3) will be released in November, this year. Though we don't have many details to go off, we do at least know that it'll take place in Constantinople and will feature Ezio, Desmond and Altair.
I'll say now that I didn't play the first Assassin's Creed but it's no secret that Altair wasn't well liked, so the decision to include him as a major player in Revelations is likely to be controversial. The word I often hear when people describe Altair is "blank", so perhaps he'll be receiving something of an overhaul so as to not be completely overshadowed by Ezio's lively and more colourful persona.
On the topic of less-than-popular characters, Desmond will also inevitably return. Since this has been described as the final chapter of Ezio's story, it's likely that the focus will still be on him with Desmond only appearing a couple of times throughout the game. But with the attention also shifting to Altair at various intervals, one can't help but wonder how that's going affect the game's immersion. The transitions between each story are going to be tough to pull off while allowing the player to retain a suitable amount of involvement in each one.
Giant Bomb brought up a rather frightening concept in their latest podcast; what if the shifting of time periods ends up becoming a game mechanic? For example, Altair could open a gate in his time which would then remain open in Ezio's, allowing access to a previously inaccessible area. The problem with that is that it's been done plenty of times before and would be such an obvious and unoriginal thing to do. It would go against the story telling greatly and further the feeling that you're just playing as Desmond playing a video game of his own. Can you imagine? "Desmond, to access this temple you'll need to go back to Altair's time and locate the 3 hidden switches that open it. Only then can you complete the assassination as Ezio. If you need help, open the strategy gui... I mean, DNA information... archive from your Animus desktop." Thankfully, with Assassin's Creed 2 and Brotherhood both receiving such critical acclaim, we can have a little faith in Ubisoft Montreal.
Revelations will continue the now annual release schedule of Assassin's Creed games. While this has caused certain video game franchises to be bled dry, I think we're far from that point with Assassin's Creed. In fact, it was almost surprising that Brotherhood was so exceptional despite being released only a year after Assassin's Creed 2 (I should also note that this also based on reviews; I'm still yet to play Brotherhood having only just finished Assassin's Creed 2). It's almost as if Ubisoft Montreal struck gold with the character of Ezio. His likeable and interesting personality has probably served as a large part of the success of the last two games and at this point it feels like he deserved a trilogy of his own, to do the character suitable justice by completing his story before the series, one can assume, moves onto a new assassin in Assassin's Creed 3.
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