14 DAY TRIAL // Ubisoft emphasizes that, while Assassin's Creed Rogue protagonist Shay Cormac is going to hunt down assassins, he won't do that with a cheerful attitude, as he's not a ruthless killer bent on exterminating the brotherhood in the name of the Templar knights.
Assassin's Creed games have focused on the conflict between the assassin brotherhood and the Templar order, painting the assassins as warriors fighting to ensure that humanity remains free, while the Templars are trying to subjugate it by merely offering the illusion of free choice.
Of course, the conflict is much more complex than that, and in recent games Ubisoft has tried a bit more to flesh out the Templar order by allowing short playable sequences with their members, as well as other such memorable adventures.
Shay doesn't go from Assassin to Templar easily
With the upcoming Assassin's Creed Rogue, Ubisoft takes things further and allows players to control Shay Cormac, a former Assassin who joins the Templar order after he was left to die by his former comrades.
This transition doesn't happen overnight and Ubisoft is adamant that it won't see Shay become evil or ruthless. Instead, he just realizes that the strategy of the Templar order sounds good and joins to help push it further.
"Eventually he realizes these Templars’ motives are more in-line with what he believes is right," Producer Karl van der Luhe tells UbiBlog. "It’s not a case of I’m going to the dark side. It’s a case of I’m more aligned with their approach. The Templars and Assassins essentially want the same things, they just have very different ways of getting there."
Shay isn't ruthless, despite his activities
The protagonist soon starts hunting down assassins throughout the campaign, but this doesn't mean that he's a ruthless killer, as Shay's burden is a heavy one and each kill comes with a heavy price in terms of his emotions.
"We wanted Shay to be a proper human being who understands the consequences of his actions," Producer Ivan Balabanov explains. "Killing comes with a heavy emotional price, especially when it comes to killing your former comrades. It is certainly not something Shay does with a light heart. You see him carry the weight of his actions."
As such, players shouldn't expect to control an emotionless killing machine in Rogue, as it seems that the Ubisoft Sofia team wants to deliver a more complex experience with an intriguing main character.
The new game is set to debut for the PS3 and Xbox 360 next month and on the PC in early 2015.
