85 Percent of Assassin’s Creed Story Already Written

Fans of the Assassin’s Creed series will certainly admit the series has been rather laden with twists and has certainly taken a few narrative risks. This isn’t all by chance, it seems, as the writers haven’t exactly been shooting in the dark. Reports from the latest interview with Assassin’s Creed series lead writer Darby McDevitt, reveal that the story is nearly written to completion – with an emphasis on the “nearly.”

“We have about – to give it a rough estimate – 85 percent of the Assassin’s Creed lore mapped out,” Darby told Xbox World 360 magazine. “Altair’s complete story arc has been mapped out for two years, and Ezio’s story in Revelations was being conceived and planned when the team started working on Brotherhood.”

Overall, the popular parkour-inspired, historical fiction, action game seems to mostly have all the pieces in place. With three games under the belt and a fourth on the horizon, we’re already pretty deep in the storyline. Though, in the scope of these four blockbuster titles, numerous side-project games, comic books, and a multitude of novels, perhaps that last 15 percent could be something huge.

Then again, this method of incomplete scripts is not exactly a new concept. In television, it’s quite common for many great and lengthy shows to have scripts that are only minor outlines and sometimes almost completely improvised. In the case of a show like Battlestar Galactica, some actors weren’t told they of their character’s big twists until a week or two before filming and sometimes even right on the set that very day. In that respect, it seems like 85 percent is a rather solid story outline.

Will the story go where you expect it? I know I’m not sure. So far, the series has managed to pull some serious left turns for me. Love it or hate it, it’s going to be real exciting to see where the series goes when Assassin’s Creed Revelations comes out this November for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.