Chapter 827: A Game Focused on the Sense of History
After working with Thunderbolt Entertainment and the Abstergo project for a week, Lin Mu felt a bit confused about his work this week.
It wasn’t quite what he had imagined…
Previously, as an independent game designer, making a VR game on the level of *Sheng Tang* meant being busy like a dog every day. Many plans were finalized and then overturned, revised again and again. The game flow had to be planned for a long time, not to mention the more complex later stages like arguing over art resources and perfecting game features.
Lin Mu had originally thought that Chen Mo, who could create world-class top-tier VR games like *Uncharted* and *The Last of Us*, must have had an even harder time, right?
For example, the script of *The Last of Us*—such a brilliant and stunning plot couldn’t have been made in just a few days. It must have gone through countless versions, incorporated opinions from many people, and been repeatedly revised before finally taking shape.
But after starting work, he realized it wasn’t like that at all…
The first project of the Abstergo Entertainment studio was *Assassin’s Creed: Origins*. According to Chen Mo’s introduction, this part would be the beginning story of the entire *Assassin’s Creed* series, telling the tale of Caesar, Cleopatra, and the founder of the Assassin Brotherhood. The game flow covered the entire northern part of ancient Egypt, and the game map was unprecedentedly vast.
Lin Mu initially felt very worried—how could such a huge setting be made?
But before he could worry for long, he received a very detailed design document from Chen Mo…
And not just him; every other member of the project team also got one. Designers responsible for the combat system, mission system, cutscenes, climbing system, and so on, all received very detailed design documents from Chen Mo.
As for Lin Mu’s document, it mainly introduced the story background of *Assassin’s Creed: Origins*, as well as the architectural features, culture, and historical background of ancient Egypt. Although this material wasn’t very detailed or professional, it basically covered the vast majority of the game’s content…
From then on, Lin Mu just had to do serious research, look up more information, or discuss and finalize some details with domestic and international experts and scholars—and that was basically it.
This workload wasn’t small, but compared to “planning the entire game from scratch,” it was much, much smaller.
Moreover, the others seemed to be used to this process. After receiving the design documents, they threw themselves into work with extremely high efficiency, and then everyone left work on time every day…
Some people voluntarily worked overtime, but no one stayed too late. As long as the work was done, they left. No one lingered in the office or did useless work.
Lin Mu had the illusion for the first time that he could “win by lying down”…
Not only that, but Lin Mu noticed that everyone in the project team seemed to have pretty quirky ideas. Needless to say, this was definitely influenced by Chen Mo.
An artist responsible for animations made a full set of animations for a camel. After Chen Mo saw it, he said it wasn’t realistic enough.
The artist was completely baffled: “Then how can we make it more realistic?”
Chen Mo thought for a moment: “Who can contact someone to buy a camel? Keep it in our motion capture studio.”
Lin Mu: “…”
…
…
The reason Chen Mo decided to release *Assassin’s Creed: Origins* first wasn’t just about the timeline of the story.
The more important reason was that *Assassin’s Creed: Origins* was the culmination of the *Assassin’s Creed* series, essentially integrating all the gameplay mechanics of the previous games, and had the highest level of completion.
After making *Assassin’s Creed: Origins*, they could use this game’s mechanics to remake the earlier series. It was like first building the framework of the entire *Assassin’s Creed* world, and then slowly filling in the other content.
This time, it was the same as the *Uncharted* series: release *Assassin’s Creed: Origins* first, then gradually add the content of the previous games.
Many classic earlier games, like the Ezio trilogy, were revered as masterpieces. But from a modern perspective, both the graphics and combat systems were outdated. After all, these were somewhat old games. To perfectly recreate them, they needed to be updated and remade in every aspect.
Since a remake was necessary, using the engine of *Assassin’s Creed: Origins* to do it was obviously the fastest and most efficient method.
Although Chen Mo didn’t know how to count to 2, releasing only one *Assassin’s Creed: Origins* for the entire series was clearly not enough.
Because the entire *Assassin’s Creed* series had a relatively coherent story, and each installment had its own unique features, some gameplay innovations, and different historical backgrounds. Taking any single installment alone couldn’t represent the full content of the *Assassin’s Creed* series.
Therefore, if they were going to make *Assassin’s Creed*, they had to make every single installment without exception to present the true charm of this classic series to the players.
As for the success of the *Assassin’s Creed* series, it hardly needs elaboration.
It could be considered one of the most outstanding IPs, one of the best scripts, the flagship of Ubisoft in Chen Mo’s previous life, and a game that could be called a work of art—although, as a freebie for buying bugs, it had a bit of a commercial smell.
*Assassin’s Creed* was a third-person action sandbox game that combined elements like parkour, exploration, stealth assassination, combat, puzzle-solving, and collection. Especially by the time of *Assassin’s Creed: Origins*, the game had more and more elements and had become a true open world.
The core charm of *Assassin’s Creed* lay in two things: the construction of its worldview and the shaping of its characters.
If combined into one, it was the “sense of history.”
Without exaggeration, *Assassin’s Creed* was one of the games that best captured the sense of history. Even in Chen Mo’s previous life’s gaming world, when many people thought of games that truly valued and could recreate history, their first reaction was often *Assassin’s Creed*.
Some people wanted to experience medieval warfare, strolling through the holy city of Jerusalem.
Some people wanted to experience the romance of the Renaissance or the fervor of the French Revolution.
And some people wanted to experience the American War of Independence, the naval battles of the Age of Exploration, or travel back a thousand years to those ancient, mysterious kingdoms…
At those times, their first reaction was always *Assassin’s Creed*.
It could be said that the true charm of *Assassin’s Creed* lay in taking every player back in time, back to the historical nodes of major events, allowing players to experience those real histories in the game and get to know a series of characters with distinct personalities.
Chen Mo hoped that the *Assassin’s Creed* he made in this parallel world could also achieve this goal, letting players feel the sensation of traveling through history.
That was why he had released the Animus promotional video first, as a warm-up for the entire game series.