After pictures leaked online last week, developer Ubisoft decided the cat was already out of the bag and officially announced the next chapter in the ‘Assassin’s Creed‘ franchise,  ‘Assassin’s Creed: Unity’. Here’s what the developer had to say about the game:

“Qu’ils mangent de la brioche [Let them eat cake]! We have been working on the new Assassin’s Creed for more than three years and although we weren’t quite ready to show you our full vision for a next-gen only AC,it seems Abstergo are trying to force our hand! So here’s a true first look at in-game footage from Assassin’s Creed Unity. Stay tuned – we’ll have many more exciting details for you in the months ahead!”

Designed specifically for next gen consoles, at least some of the game will be set in 18th century Paris and will feature a new protagonist named Arno. There is also rumored to be new “navigation mechanics” but details are vague other than the, Parkour Up, Parkour Down buttons spotted in the leaked screenshots recently on Kotatu. Hopefully ‘Unity’ will include an improved map and menu system which in my opinion were just awful in ‘AC3’. There has been dissent recently among ‘AC’ fans and critics that  Ubisoft are just out to milk the cow in a case of quantity over quality and as a consequence the plot has become somewhat of a convoluted mess while the game mechanics continue to suffer. On the one hand it’s good to mix things up and try different characters or even times and places but change things too much and you’ve lost the essence of the original story. This is exactly how I felt with ‘AC3’ which is the point where I gave up and lost interest but, I’m hoping Ubisoft can take the ‘AC’ franchise to a whole new level with some new game mechanics and a few minor improvements.

Check out the teaser trailer below:

Tell us your thoughts. Are you looking forward to a “new and improved” Assassins Creed? Or are you happy with it the way it is?