14 DAY TRIAL // Ubisoft has talked about its upcoming Tyranny of King Washington DLC for Assassin's Creed 3, confirming that the separate story of the new add-on allowed the developers to focus more time into other things than trying to tie it to the regular campaign.
Assassin's Creed 3 saw players take on the role of Connor (or Ratonhnhaké:ton, as he was known to his people) who plays a pivotal role in the American Revolution.
In the Tyranny of King Washington, however, Ubisoft takes things into a bold new direction, depicting George Washington as an evil tyrant who uses the power of the Apple of Eden to enslave the American colonies.
According to the expansion's Creative Director, Marc-Alexis Côté, the separate story allowed his team to focus more on making a great experience than on trying to tie it into the main campaign and use all of its mechanics.
"When we started work on this project, I did some research to find out what the qualities of great downloadable content are," he told CVG. "For me, a great DLC is an experience that's more focused, has a great narrative, and brings something new to the table."
"We really wanted the new gameplay systems to be the focus here, so we removed the economy because it didn't support the story, and also the notoriety meter because Ratonhnhaké:ton doesn't have Assassin training."
What's more, Côté also highlighted that adding new elements and making the experience a worthwhile one were extremely important during the DLC's creation process.
"Bringing in new gameplay has been super important for us. If someone has played Assassin's Creed 3 for 40 hours, and we want them to play for another 7, we need to add something new to the DLC. So strong narrative content, new powers, and length are the most important things, and we've tried to offer all of these, with all the same production values as the main game."
Assassin's Creed 3 will receive the first episode of the Tyranny of King Washington add-on, called Infamy, today, February 19, on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.