“Haters gonna hate.”
No, Ubisoft didn’t quite say it like that, but they did say that the reveal of the addition of Evie Frye as a female protagonist to the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Syndicate was not a direct response to the controversy that surrounded the previous entry in the series, Assassin’s Creed Unity.
“[Evie and Jacob have] both been part of the experience from the very beginning,” said creative director Marc-Alexis Cote in an interview with GameSpot. “Cynics will be cynics, and it’s unfortunate, but we’ve been so focused on build this game the way we want with those two characters. It’s not done to pay lip-service, it’s done to build a great game.”
Prior to the release of Assassin’s Creed Unity, the game’s technical director James Therien created controversy by claiming that the game lacked playable female protagonists in its coop missions by claiming their addition would cause double the work as far as animations and voices go, saying “it was really a lot of extra production work.”
Evie Frye was “created a long time” according to level design director for Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, Hugo Giard.
“Nothing changed when that stuff happened,” he said, referring to Unity’s critics. “Seriously, if we had changed our vision last year when the controversy broke, Evie would feel completely shoe-horned, you would be able to sense it. But because we planned it for so long, everything about her flows perfectly in the story with Jacob. You would know if it didn’t.”
You can see for yourself how Evie Frye influences the story of Assassin’s Creed Syndicate when it’s released on October 23 for PS4, Xbox One, and at an announced “fall” date for PC. What’s your take on the addition of her as a female protagonist? As always, let us know in the comments below.