I hate to say this because of how misleading this sounds comparing to my initial “reaction” I posted on here, but the news had me in a bad mood for the rest of the day.
Thanks for sharing your opinion with us. I too am disappointed by the diluted modern plotline Ubisoft’s put together since AC4, and the subtle nods to Desmond are just becoming horribly redundant at this point. On top of your concerns about the choice narrative contradicting the rules of the animus, I’m also disappointed with the gameplay not being very Assassin-like anymore either. In earlier AC games, there was an emphasis on killing targets in the quickest and most discrete way possible. But in Origins and Odyssey there’s more of an emphasis on taking out guards with blunt and heavy weapons, making me feel that AC is becoming more of a generic hack-and-slash game, than a game about stealth and making clean assassinations. And yes, I get that changing the combat system adds variety and stops the game from being too similar to other instalments in the series. And I get that Odyssey takes place when the Assassin Order was still in its infancy, so they probably hadn’t created some clear cut rules on how to properly kill their targets. I just feel that the way Ubisoft’s presenting the games now; they’re more likely to alienate long time fans of the series than make them want to empty to their wallets to purchase the next game. JMHO though.
I believe it was after AC3 was released and AC4 was teased was when the devs explained that they’re going to focus on making the series available to new fans while staying faithful to the older fans. I didn’t think that was a bad idea at the time until AC4 was released and it turns out their idea of “staying faithful” was essentially a flimsy connection to pre-AC3 Modern Day plotline. I think that’s why you see many of the recent fans loving AC4 and beyond, but could care less about the Modern Day plot. I’m not saying that’s necessarily a bad thing, however. There’s nothing wrong with being an AC fan (or any game for that matter) but have only played one game out of the series. Just don’t expect them to understand the bitterness fans that have been here since AC1 feels.
Regarding gameplay, my understanding is since each Assassin is a different person from a different time period with different takes on what the Creed represents, their assassination styles will also be different (let’s not forget that some of the games gives you the option to take out your target like a traditional Assassin or go Rambo). However, like you said, the combat is starting to feel like they’re replicating other successful games like The Witcher. (Which I noticed their fans took great interest in Origins because of this).
All Sounds of Assassin's Creed 