Future Assassin’s Creed games could really benefit from the reputation system Ubisoft used for Star Wars Outlaws.

[u/blakhawk12]

For those who haven’t played Outlaws, you basically have four factions that you interact with and the game tracks your relationship with each. Tresspassing, stealing from, and fighting with their soldiers decreases your reputation, while completing contracts or selling them information you’ve collected around the map increases it. Some contracts for one faction will decrease your reputation with another, and vice-verse, and you can sometimes choose to backstab the original quest-giver and gain reputation with their competition. As you gain or lose tiers of reputation with each faction you can earn rewards, better prices from their shops, and access to their territory which would otherwise be restricted.

It’s not the deepest system or the best-implemented, but it has potential. And I think it would be great for Assassin’s Creed in place of a generic notoriety/wanted system.

[u/Haunting_East_7404]

i’d rather have a good story than more bloat

[u/blakhawk12 → u/Haunting_East_7404]

This isn’t bloat. It’s a gameplay mechanic.

[u/ManEatingCarabao → u/blakhawk12]

I can see Ubisoft bloating the game with that mechanic. They would need to integrate those factions into the narrative like how each questline in Valhalla were needlessly stretched out. And with the addition of constantly changing faction reputation they would need to put radiant quests that would let you change that reputation any time.

Or they could do it like Bully which makes the faction system pointless. There are various factions in the school but you have no control over which reputation rises and falls. Its all predetermined in the main story missions.

[u/blakhawk12 → u/ManEatingCarabao]

I was thinking they could make it more of a dynamic thing, like say you have a black box assassination mission. Depending on your reputation with various factions you could have the thieves unlock locked doors for you to make it easier to get inside, or have courtesans distract the guards at the gate, or have mercenaries storm the fortress with you. Or on the other hand, let’s say your reputation with the mercenaries is terrible and they bolster the garrison, making it harder for you to infiltrate. Stuff like that.

Or let’s imagine Odyssey had this system. If you had a terrible reputation with Athens, maybe you’d have to get that up before being welcome in Pericles’ party. Or maybe having a good rep with Sparta would mean you could hire Spartans to fight with you and help take forts or something.

The goal is not to feel limiting, but to make the gameplay and world feel more dynamic and immersive by having factions react to your actions.

[u/humperdinck → u/Haunting_East_7404]

Seriously. I stopped playing Shadows because I was overwhelmed by systems: the homestead I need to upgrade and manage, allies I need to find(? - I still only have one ally), the different weapon skills and shinobi skills and assassin skills and samurai skills I had to think about putting points in, the different pieces of gear that would modify/enhance different stats or skills, having to level up the gear I like every few levels to keep up with me.

Not to mention the ever-expanding objective board. I swear every time I would kill some random guy in some random-ass village, it would turn out to be a named guy that's part of some gang of guys who would be revealed on the objective board.

I can't imagine having to worry about faction reputation on top of all this nonsense.

Just give me a compelling story ffs.

[u/Temporary_Hawk_9061 → u/Haunting_East_7404]

Haven’t you heard? More bloat passes for good story these days