A Review of Ubisoft's Facebook Take on Assassin's Creed Franchise, Project Legacy

Having been milling about in the social space for some time now, French developer Ubisoft is releasing one of its top franchises onto Facebook: Assassin’s Creed. Dubbed Project Legacy, this social rendition of the popular games steers a bit away from the stories of Altair and Ezio Auditore and focuses more on the history and storytelling that has made the series memorable. Project Legacy is the first significant Facebook role-playing game from Ubisoft, which has mostly released city building and sim games thus far. Unlike the console version of Assassin's Creed, which has players free running through the city streets as an assassin, players take a more passive look through history as Abstergo Industries investigates the “truth” behind truth, and history as it appears in the “genetic memories” of the player. As interesting as this concept is, Ubisoft does show its console roots with a significant lack of social mechanics. For context, the original Assassin’s Creed games have the player utilize a machine called the “Animus” to relive the time of their ancestors, by pulling memories from their genetic code. This science fiction concept is the core of Project Legacy, as players step back into the machine to investigate the lives, and deaths, of historic characters. Using basic Facebook RPG standards, players consume energy (Action Points) to complete various missions (Events) and unlock the story. As each mission is completed, new memories become available. These also use the Facebook-standard mechanic of repeating the quest multiple times to achieve 100 percent completion, but the storyline does a decent job of justifying the process. It’s worth noting that each time the event is repeated, new text or dialogue is presented to make it feel like a chain of events, rather than a repetitious action. Like other RPGs, many missions require items to proceed. In many cases, like needing swords, these can be purchased, but others require the presence of specific people or soldiers to advance. Many of the missions involve recruitment of some sort and will have a chance of rewarding some type of non-player character (soldier, villager, thief, etc.). Dubbed Chance Items, they cannot be bought, meaning that the player must return to these recruitment missions in order to rally the characters they will need to complete future ones (e.g. a major battle). There are also chance items such as supplies. For example, there is a mission to forge weapons, but players need iron bars to do so. In order to get the bars, they must do a different mission. However, these chance items are consumable, so in order to reach 100 percent synchronization with the original mission the supply mission must also be repeated. Doing missions also has a chance to acquire set items called “Mnemonic Sets.” These are no mere achievements, however, as once a set is completed, it can be claimed for various bonuses that will last a set amount of time. For example, should the player complete the Este Family set, they will receive a 25 percent experience bonus for one hour. Leveling up one’s character is unusual too. Unlike other RPGs, players don’t earn the typical stats of strength, defense, agility, and so on. On the contrary, every point is used to enhance the ability to play and earn rewards. The stats are four in number and consist of Endurance, Sleight, Usury, and Diligence. Each grant bonuses to Action Points, earning Chance Items, earning extra money, or gaining extra crafting slots (thus far, we have yet to unlock this feature) respectively . It’s certainly an interesting game, and the story is not half bad. That said, and knowing the past Assassin’s Creed titles, Project Legacy will likely get much better and much more confusing, story-wise. In fact, there is even a five question quiz right from the get go centered around one’s opinions and philosophies, and if playing the past titles taught anything, it’s that those answers will come back and play some role sooner or later. Additionally, for a 2D Facebook game, the presentation is done quite well with quality art work, Ken Burns effect movies, and a high quality user interface. Unfortunately, as a social game, Project Legacy is significantly lacking. As it stands, all players can do is conjure up a wish list of items they need and view achievements earned by their friends. It's possible the Ubisoft intentionally stunted social requirements, with an eye toward making the game friendlier to console game players who are logging on to unlock items in the main storyline. As a Facebook RPG, Project Legacy certainly has a different feel than most. It has a number of the same rules, but follows them much more loosely than other’s of the genre. Even the interface is starkly different from its predecessors. Regardless, the current build is focused heavily around the single player mode, and while interesting, lacks in many of the social elements that make other RPGs popular, such as battling in Mafia Wars. Traffic to Project Legacy over the coming weeks should prove whether or not this was a wise plan for Ubisoft.

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A Review of Ubisoft's Facebook Take on Assassin's Creed Franchise, Project Legacy

Christopher Mack

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Christopher Mack