Assassin’s Creed 3 is going in a new direction from its predecessors, with a new hero (Connor) as well as a new setting (Revolutionary America).
Creative director on the game, Alex Hutchinson, has spoken out about how the new character came to be, saying that the team wanted someone less shallow, more complex.
He said, “Altair is an assassin who’s driven by duty, Ezio is a character driven by revenge. We wanted someone who was fresh. We wanted a character who was more earnest, more real, a character with more depth.”
With this depth comes a developed back story and character development, explaining why Connor does what he does.
“You will go from his birth, through the motivating factors that drive him to join the Assassins, through the American Revolution and finally to a resolution,” Hutchinson said.
The story takes an interesting turn as Connor is part Mohawk Native American – his father an Englishman and his mother a Mohawk woman. This causes an internal conflict as Connor is pulled between his duties and allegiances.
“Not only is he trying to help the Assassins defeat the Templars,” said Hutchinson, “but he’s trying to save his own people and give them a place in the new America. It’s an endeavour that’s doomed to failure, of course.”
Due to his heritage, a lot of British players have been rolling their eyes, expecting the worst from an American developer’s portrayal. But Ubisoft insists Connor isn’t some anti-British crusader.
“He’s someone who helps the revolution because he thinks it’s the right thing to do,” Hutchinson said. “He helps his people because he thinks it’s the right thing to do. He doesn’t really hate the people on the other side.
Ubisoft isn’t expecting to have anyone convinced though, “We know we’re going to fight that argument of which side he’s on until the game comes out and people realise he’s not on any side. He’s just fighting the Templars.”
Ubisoft has been very careful in its research however, cautious not to falsely portray anyone and avoiding tired clichés. As Hutchinson notes, Connor scalping people for no purpose would be a little silly, as well as historically inaccurate – the Mohawks weren’t scalpers.
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