For the most part, Assassin’s Creed has adhered to a tried-and-tested formula that’s remained consistent throughout the games, whether this comes in the form of the Animus protagonists use to explore the past or the iconic hidden blade. But each game has always sought to introduce something new, such as Assassin’s Creed Syndicate letting players pick between two gendered characters to Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s RPG-style in-game choices and dialogue options. Hexe could therefore be bringing with it tropes and traditions normally found in the horror genre to help distinguish it from the likes of Mirage or Red.
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Positioning Hexe Alongside Mirage and Red
Though several Assassin’s Creed projects were announced all at once by Ubisoft, Mirage, Red, and Hexe stood out, as the other projects did not appear to be fully-fledged traditional games. Assassin’s Creed Jade, for example, will be exclusively for mobile platforms, while Assassin’s Creed Infinity could be Ubisoft’s attempt at its own metaverse-style platform. Of these three projects, Red appears to be the continuation of the series’ current format, while Mirage is being characterized as a return to the games’ more classic beginnings. This means that Hexe will have to forge a different identity for itself.
Already, Ubisoft has made it clear that Hexe is going to be something a bit different, and the only avenue really left for Hexe to diverge down is its genre, and with limited options for genres to explore, horror seems easiest to adapt to Assassin’s Creed and ultimately the likeliest. Since players have already theorized based on the teaser that Hexe will be set in Germany and potentially analogous to Assassin’s Creed Valhalla in an early European setting, Hexe might lean more on the recent games’ fantasy elements to create a more supernatural story.
How Hexe Might Introduce Horror to Assassin’s Creed
Since “hexe” is German for “witch,” this not only supports the theory of the game’s setting but alludes to its potential historical framing and narrative focus. While Assassin’s Creed Unity and Syndicate both utilized their respective French and Industrial Revolutions as backdrops to their stories, so too might Hexe use Germany’s history of witch hunts and trials. With the series embracing its more fantastical elements like the Isu, Hexe could be preparing to take this further than any previous Assassin’s Creed game, as it could make “witchcraft” a direct part of its gameplay.
As a result, if Hexe is about witches - or rather characters perceived to be witches - then the game is likely to lean into this narrative. Connotations of evil, immorality, and more are surely going to follow, and Hexe’s teaser hints as much. Between the shadowy forest imagery and logo seemingly inspired by the likes of The Blair Witch Project, Ubisoft has already laid the foundations of a darker, paranormal game.
Consequently, the game might diverge from the traditional Assassin’s Creed experience and instead focus on areas of gameplay and story best fitting for horror interpretations. For example, Hexe could take influence from Assassin’s Creed Revelations and present a story where its modern-day protagonist is trapped in an Animus and forcibly reliving their ancestor’s memories, fighting for their survival with no outside help. This might then increase the need for greater stealth, give more nuanced moral weight to killing, and introduce monstrous enemies corrupted by “magic”, the Animus itself, or whatever supernatural forces lie within Hexe.
Assassin’s Creed Hexe is in development.
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