E3 in Review: Ubisoft

E3 in Review: Ubisoft

Not necessarily a review, as I can't exactly say I'm qualified to give that weight to words. However, I wanted to write my thoughts down so that I can maybe open up a discussion about the conference overall. This includes services, not just games.

In the immortal words of Jim Sterling, Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh Ubisoft. 

You can't deny that Ubisoft loves putting on a show. Live performances from dancers, specials guests and rapturous applause always make for a good time at the French publishers conference. Sometimes that style can often mask a lack of substance and, this year atleast, I thought that was true. 

Opening the show was an almost five minutes dance number for Just Dance 2019 in Ubisoft's never-ending quest to drive that franchise into the ground. I get it, I'm not the market for that title. But surely yearly instalments in an IP that barely upgrades mechanically must be tiresome by now. Also, they still are bringing this out on Wii and WiiU. If the PS2 had full motion controls, I'm sure we'd see if there aswell. With that said, I did feel my foot tapping away. Damn you and your infectious love of entertainment, Ubisoft.

I'm glad that Just Dance was done and out of the way because then we were treated to a new CGI trailer for Beyond Good & Evil 2. At this point, with that level of detail and hype, just make it a movie! It was gorgeous. It was a telling that this game is still very much being conceptualised, as last year I'm sure it was being penned as a prequel yet in this trailer we see a very different Jade than the one that players know. As it moves into action-adventure territory, we got a short reel of footage from in-engine gameplay. Again, the message that this is very early was apparent as the footage was never zoomed in on for those (like me) watching at home. It was off-screen footage, but we got an idea of the vision that the team is going for. 

Towards the end of that presentation, Joseph Gordon-Levitt appeared on stage to talk about his company's collaboration with Ubisoft on bringing user-created content to BG&E2 before release, immortalising the community in a way that no game has done before (save for the namesake items in a game like League, for example.) The difference with HitRecord is that any idea that goes up will instantly become a collaborative effort, reinforcing that sense of community. It's a very cool idea and those that may look to get a foot in the door in the industry could really use this is a viable avenue. Personally, my creative abilities may be lacking in that respect so I'll leave it to the die-hards. 

Community Developer Justin Kruger then followed up on the back of BG&E2 to talk about Rainbow Six: Siege and the incredible growth that the game has had since it's release in 2015. Chucking some numbers up like 35 million players bears no fruit on a stage like E3, but for the title that was very much knocked back by the community before it's release, the legs that this game has is a testament to Ubisoft's dedication to the games as service model. Aswell as annoucning their Operation Parabellum event, Justin also showed a teaser trailer for their documentary series "Another Mindset." Following ten members of the Siege community; be it personality, caster or pro player, this documentary series seems to be taking notes from the very popular True Sight series by Valve and Riot's absolutely incredible Life/Play short story series. These kinds of things are fantastic to watch in my opinion, but not necessarily something to show off at E3. 

Trials Rising was the next announcement, with Antti Il Vessuo coming in on a small pit bike. Again, Ubisoft sure know how to put on a show but this entrance was rather cringe-worthy in my opinion. It seems like a whole lot more Trials, which I'm happy with. Trails Evolution took alot of my time when I was younger and I still love the technical challenge of some of the later tracks, so I'm sure this will be right up my alley. Youtuber Professor FatShady came on to talk about how he and other Trials experts have assisted in the creation of the tracks in this title aswell as a comprehensive tutorial guide to help those that have never played the series before. It's cool and they seem to have taken things to eleven with the stages but, if priced right, I can see myself losing more time to this series come February 2019. 

More on a title that we'd seen earlier in E3, Julian Gerighty set the scene for the environment that players will be fighting their way through in The Division 2. Set around 7-8 months after the initial outbreak, it is beginning to burn itself out. Now the population in Washington begin to build anew. As an operative, your actions will dictate the future of the state and potentially America as a whole. It seems like Massive Entertainment have taken the community feedback to heart, heavily focusing on the endgame as well as real ways to differentiate the hardcore from the newbs. The gameplay that was shown yesterday at Microsoft's conference was nowhere to been. There was a new CGI trailer, however, showing just how certain factions have taken over and the reality they face is more dangerous than ever. 

I liked what I saw of the original title. I just got into it too late but am interested to see what the gunplay and if the endgame stuff, particularly the Dark Zone, can keep me around. With the road map of their content drops aswell and with them all being free it certainly is a tempting prospect.    

Just when I thought we had the silly show performances over with, Grant Kirkhope conducted Critical Hit through an original composition to a video displaying an expasion for last year's Mario and Rabbids title, Donkey Kong Adventure. The DLC drop is coming in only 2 weeks time so atleast there isn't long to wait. I hate the rabbids, they're just unsightly but it is cool to see Nintendo playing nice with other developers on their core IP's. But that wasn't the only Nintendo-centric to come out of this conference. 

Next up was another look at a title that just looked like an Black Flag expansion-turned-game, Skull and Bones (I still hate that title, it's SO generic.) I may have to eat my words on this one. It was announced a few months ago that this title had been delayed until 2019 and I think I know why. This game looks drastically different to its first showing last year. Instead of being a pure PVP ship battle and maybe a fight against a Kraken, Ubisoft Singapore seem have maybe looked at the mistakes that Sea of Thieves made and are potentially delivering a more authentic pirate experience. Ubisoft's mechanical cross-pollination continue, with what looks to be RPG elements and a loot/gear system for your boat. 4-player co-op in a shared world with other players and AI and it can turn into a mad fight for loot after working together fora common goal. The demo today actually shifted the tide in terms of opinion from me and I'll be keeping a closer eye on this to see if it can strike gold where Sea of Thieves couldn't. 

Another title that has been completely silent since last year was Ubisoft's collaboration with SpectreVision, Transference VR. A psychological thriller trying to bridge between games and movies, it seems like an ambitious project that'd probably scare the life out of me in VR. From the trailer alone it seems creepy. We'll see just how creepy later on this year. 

Finishing up the trinity of titles that were announced last year, we got a deeper look at Starlink: Battle For Atlas. What seemed to be a completely forgettable toys-to-life shooting title quick garnered alot more interest than I feel that it deserves with the Nintendo exclusive addition of Fox McCloud from the Star Fox series. One cool feature is the addition of a special Arwing that comes as a toy. I still have no interest in playing this, I think I'm very much out of the age demographic that they're aiming for. 

For Honor was very weirdly positioned in the conference. If Ubisoft were having specific franchise updates at the beginning (see: Just Dance & R6:Siege) then surely For Honor should have been put there aswell. A new Starter Edition was announced, via their PC service uPlay, for a week but will be there to keep after that period has ended. I have similar thoughts on this as what I had with Bethesda's Quake Champions announcement that was in the same vein. 

A new expansion was shown, with four Chinese warriors joining the other 3 factions. This is a cool addition, but I think that it's a little too late for For Honor and maybe they should've held off on this and kept it for a sequel. I can't imagine there being large numbers on their servers across all platforms right now and I don't think this will remedy that either. I will gladly eat my words if I'm proved wrong, as I liked what I played of For Honor. 

Personal opinion: The Crew 2 should've been out by now. The premise of the original was cool and I felt that it was maybe rushed out of the door. The steps forward that they've done with this iteration feels too much. Infact, it's reminiscent of that odd Criterion title that was pitched at EA's conference a few years back with almost every form of transport put into one title. Atleast Ubisoft ripped the band-aid here and announced the release date of June 26th. Then there's the "Open Beta" on June 21st. Small rant here: 5 DAYS BEFORE RELEASE IS NOT A BETA. THAT IS EITHER A GLORIFIED DEMO OR EARLY ACCESS. It's delusional to think that, 5 days before release, there is going to be anywhere near enough time to work on kinks and any major bugs. Take into account the certification process for DLC and patches and you have a recipe for a bunch of BS. /rant

Lastly, Ubisoft lifts the veil on what was leaked just weeks before E3; Assassin's Creed Odyssey. No, this isn't an Assassin's Creed/Mario crossover. Ubisoft are taking the foundations that last year's great Assassin's Creed Origins laid and really pushing the envelope by giving a heavier emphasis on RPG elements. For the first time in the series you can decide on the gender of your character, with Alexio and Kassandra being the protagonist. Dialogue options pop up for the first time, too, which they can have long lasting consequences on the story. Set in Ancient Greece during the Peloponnesian War, you act as a mercenary that really cool with Spartan gear on. The 300 kick is there aswell, which is a nice bonus. 

Origins took me by surprise last year with how refined the combat was and the seamless inclusion of gear. Odyssey looks no different in this regard and there seems to be even more to find or upgrade. There also seems to be a Nemesis-style system in place, with mercenaries that are contracted to kill you based on your reputation and bounty. The more you kill these, the higher the bounty and the better the bounty hunters. Which, in turn, means better loot when you kill them. They all have different abilities and bonus' which will make for some very interesting interactions come game time. October 5th, not far away at all.    


So that was Ubisoft. As I said at the top, there was alot of style there as the dancers and performances were trying to distract from the real lack of new information. Alot of the titles were just updates or we knew were coming, with the only real surprise being the inclusion of Fox in Starlink. I'm interested in Trials, I was pleasantly surprised with S&B's showing and Assassin's Creed looks like another great step forward for the franchise. I'll be honest for a minute though. No sign Spintercell was incredibly disappointing. With Sam Fisher's inclusion in Ghost Recon Wildlands back in March to Michael Ironside returning to the famous role for the cameo, I honestly thought that was a premonition of a new title. Maybe it's not ready to be shown yet or maybe it isn't happening at all. But I believed and I was let down. 

This year certainly wasn't Ubisoft's best ever showing, but they do know how to put on a show. Even if the crowd is 90% staff from their worldwide offices and are bound to clap.