Despite its continued sales successes, Ubisoft Entertainment does not have the best reputation with gamers these days. After draconian DRM schemes, botched releases, and uninspired sequels, even diehard fans of the studio’s major franchises like Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry are getting fatigued. But a recent promise from Ubisoft shows that there may be hope for the French Canadian studio after all.

According to a Ubisoft spokesperson, the new Victorian London-themed Assassin’s Creed Syndicate will not feature a companion app, something Assassin’s Creed Unity had been criticized for (among many, many other things).

“There will not be a companion app,” the spokesperson told Eurogamer. “For Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, the team wanted to focus all their efforts on the core experience.”

The Odd/Even Rule

Could the new Assassin’s Creed game be good? If you go by past trends, there is a good chance that it might surprise you.

In my personal opinion, you can easily apply the odd/even rule from the Star Trek films to the Assassin’s Creed games. That is, the odd numbered games tend to be mediocre, but the even numbered games tend to be good.

The first game was ok, but it suffered from boring eavesdropping missions, a somewhat bland hero, and overly simplistic combat.

Assassin’s Creed II, however, put the franchise on the map with an excellent story and greatly improved gameplay. It also introduced interesting characters such as the game’s charismatic hero, Ezio, who was so popular he stuck around for two more games.

Assassin’s Creed III, like the first game, was also only ok. While it had a few bright spots such as ship combat (more on that soon), AC3 was clunky and weighed down with tacked on features that no one cared about. Its main character was also a block of wood.

The next game, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, took the one thing people liked about AC3 – ship combat – and made it the heart of the game. It also had pirates.

And then there was Assassin’s Creed Unity (we’re up to number 5 now). If people thought Ubisoft had redeemed itself with Black Flag, all of that progress was lost with Unity. The game was so buggy at launch that many players were unable to play it entirely. There was also the matter of the game’s companion app, a boring tacked on feature that – until a later patch – was required to unlock certain treasure chests within the game.

With my Nostradamus prediction of an even numbered game being good, as well as Ubisoft’s recent promise to swear off a companion app for Syndicate, there is a chance that Syndicate might just not suck.

Image credit: Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate | Ubisoft Entertainment