Make no mistake: Ubisoft isn’t getting rid of the narrative conceit - explaining that for good or bad, “it’s part of the brand” - but with Black Flag, players will choose whether to spend minutes or hours unraveling the mysteries of Abstergo - finding some significant answers if they dig deep enough.

As much as players may criticize the Assassin’s Creed series for sticking with their premise of ‘modern day people re-living ancient memories’ instead of simply producing historical action games, Ubisoft has their reasons. They still claim that there is one massive story in the process of being told, and for our part, the closing scenes of Assassin’s Creed: Revelations alone proved that the dual timelines can offer something unique.

Even so, Ubisoft isn’t blind to the fact that the contemporary story of the series isn’t a high point for every player. For Black Flag, the writers have crafted a brand new twist on the fiction: players are no longer Desmond Miles, but themselves a recruit of Abstergo Entertainment, the secretly Templar-run company letting test subjects re-live genetic memories for recreation.

Even with the new Abstergo digs, there’s no question that fans aren’t particularly thrilled by office architecture. That’s the reason, explains director Ashraf Ismail, that they’re leaving it up to the player this time around to determine how deep they’d like to dig in today’s world:

And with that, skeptics or Desmond-haters can breathe a sigh of relief. But what about players who actually want to know how the modern-day Assassin/Templar conflict will play out? The story (and conclusion) of Assassin’s Creed 3 proved quite divisive among fans, but either way, the centuries-old war didn’t simply stop once credits rolled.

Ismail promises that fans who actually value the greater story won’t be left out in the cold either, as there is definitely a mystery to uncover in the Abstergo offices - and even some closure for the game’s previous protagonist (spoilers for Assassin’s Creed 3 ahead):

That tease might be enough to convince players on the fence to do a bit of extra digging once the game is released, since the ‘First Civilization’ allusions throughout the series have ranged from jaw-dropping to confusing. We can only hope that the gameplay required to unlock the information is less frustrating than the ‘Memories’ portion of Revelations.

“You have to hack computers and figure out how to access certain rooms and get through security. There is gameplay in just being able to access that stuff. When you access it, the content you find is a reward for us. Through this content you see what happens to Desmond after Assassin’s Creed III. We used it as an opportunity to say goodbye to Desmond.

It seems that the modern-day setting won’t exist only to deliver facts or story details to diehard fans, but a few laughs, as well. The parallels between modern video games and Abstergo Entertainment are easy to see, but Ismail confirms that the developers took the opportunity to take a few shots at the games industry as a whole, and their own studio in particular (note the Montreal skyline outside of Abstergo’s offices, the same city in which the studio is located).

All that being said, Ubisoft has been featuring the pirate-centric action surrounding Edward Kenway in their marketing, with little to no reference of the Assassins or Templars. At this point, it’s even unclear how Edward Kenway factors into the core story at all. We expect Ubisoft to employ some clever writing to connect the dots between not just Edward, but his first mate Adewale, and the return of AC3: Liberation heroine Aveline in her own PlayStation exclusive missions.

But Ismail makes it sound as if these disparate elements might not be so haphazardly included after all:

And on that note, we’d ask any of you to throw out your own theories on what the secret could be. Will you be interested in solving these mysteries from inside Abstergo? Or is it the pirate’s life that catches your eye? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag will be released on October 29, 2013 for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC, and on next-gen consoles.

Follow Andrew on Twitter @andrew_dyce.

Source: UbiBlog