Whatever anyone says about Ubisoft, not many can deny that they make great trailers. Their cinematic trailers are so good that I sometimes think that such trailers should be banned as being a part of video games’ promotion because they aren’t at all representative of the actual product.
Below are the highlights of the show according to us. Apart from the games mentioned below, the conference also featured Transference (I can tell you nothing but for the fact that its VR and has Elijah Wood in it) and STEEP (who announced their Winter Olympics themed DLC for later this year) and finally Star Link which plays like Star Fox and continues the tradition of Amiibos. But enough of that, let’s get to the meat of the meeting.
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Mario+Rabbids Kingdoms
Its difficult to imagine the Nintendo head on a Ubisoft stage. Its just how rigid Nintendo has been with their games and franchises. But that’s what happened first thing in the Ubisoft show as Shigeru Miyamoto joined Yves Guillemot with mock Mario + Rabbids Kingdoms guns. I had mixed feelings about it. It was nice to see Mario (of all franchises) being collaborated upon by an external vision. On the other hand, Rabbids, I mean Rabbids.
Shigeru mentioned that his advise to Ubisoft was to make a completely different Mario game, and it did shine through in the trailer. A lot of people have been comparing it to XCOM, but I don’t think perma-death is going to be a thing in this game. Looking forward to this one.
2. Assassin’s Creed Origins
The modern Assassin’s Creed games feel devoid of any emotion at all. It was no different when it came to Origins. Not only were the character designs indistinct, even the voice over for the character was monotonous. I had expected the Eagle to be a drone and Ubisoft made it exactly that. While the Drone disguised as an Eagle has been taken from Watch Dogs 2/Ghost Recon Wildlands, the in-game UI and archery seems to has been lifted from Horizon Zero Dawn. I am not sure if some developers at Guerrilla Games are best buddies with developers at Ubisoft because it sure does look like they share game design ideas with each other.
The melee combat does have some improvements, but overall I feel that this is just another Ubisoft sandbox game with some new gimmicks that make an already easy to play franchise, even more easier.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfaSihDY5wk
3. The Crew 2
This is the second franchise this gen by Ubisoft that was met by considerable backlash and is still getting a sequel (the first one was incidentally Watch Dogs which was released in the same year). If Watch Dogs 2 is anything to go by, then we can expect some sort of improvement in the game, but might also get that feeling of- the game trying too hard to feel good.
There are cars, planes, boats, bikes and sand trucks thrown in for good measure, so it does seem to have upped the scale from the last game. The trailer offers too much in my opinion, which is Ubisoft’s modus operandi.
4. FarCry 5
I had predicted that FarCry 5 was going to be Ghost Recon Wildlands: Pure FPS Edition, and it seems that Ubisoft has done exactly that. They took the AI positioning from Ghost Recon and have kept the gameplay practically the same as FarCry 4. Just like Assassin’s Creed Origins, FarCry 5 is probably going to be just another Ubisoft open world sandbox game.
5. South Park Fractured But Whole & South Park Phone Destroyer
Ubisoft haven’t let the fans of South Park down. YET. But knowing Ubisoft its only a matter of time. This year would see 2 South Park based games. The Fractured But Whole looks like an RPG continuing the good work from Stick Of Truth.
Phone Destroyer on the other hand is a Handheld game which seems like an attempt to milk the South Park cow further. Will it be good, I doubt it. But I do hope with my fingers crossed that it is.
As long as it keeps delivering a South Park narrative. I can live with it.
6. Blood & Bones
This should have been called Assassin’s Creed IV: Naval Warfare minus everything else. From what is being shown of the game, it looks like they have taken everything from the Naval Warfare minigame of AC4, divided ships into classes, added some bells and whistles and made a whole game around it.
I was a little surprised that no comparisons were made with Sea Of Thieves. 2 years ago, Sea Of Thieves was the only Pirate simulator out there, it hasn’t hit shelves and its already got competition.
7. Beyond Good & Evil II
Right a cinematic trailer which could have been about anything but decided to call itself Beyond Good And Evil 2. The only thing we know that the game will act as a prequel to the first one, and would open a vast open world (or space) with various play style and characters. Not sure where I have heard of that before.
But I will give Ubisoft the props for this game. It looked new and different from what was on offer and it was an obvious decision to close the show with it. Fingers crossed for Beyond.
All in all this was a decent conference, Ubisoft churned out some pretty sweet games and some really good trailers along with them. How many of them would actually live up to their potential is yet to be seen. What did you think of this year’s Ubisoft conference? Do you think Ubisoft won E3 this year let us know in the comments.