Fans of Assassin’s Creed have an extremely high expectation level for Azteca: Open World RPG from Ubisoft.
One of my favourite aspects of Assassin’s Creed as a series is its flexibility in terms of time travel. Or should that read, anywhen travel? Either way, let’s stick with “anywhere”.
Assassin’s Creed has taken us on adventures through Greece, France, Egypt and Britain countless times; but never any where near as far back in time as Aztec civilization. Now there will be an open-world RPG set during that era that looks similar to an Assassin’s Creed game; unfortunately though this new RPG doesn’t belong in that series’ fold!
Ecumene Azted, developed by Giantscraft and set to debut sometime between 2025-2026 on PC is set for launch. Though console versions remain undecided at this stage, we should hear about that soon if PC versions perform well.
This game follows an Aztec warrior as they fight off Spanish inquisitors using both brute force and stealth tactics to defend a Mesoamerican city from Spanish inquisitors.
Giantscraft promises “an immersive narrative, RPG progression with blood sacrifices, gritty combat, stealth gameplay and crafting”. Unfortunately we know little more yet – though its early development makes its promises very intriguing indeed!
Players have three classes they can select for play: Jaguar Warrior, Eagle Warrior and Snake Warrior. Their abilities and characteristics remain unknown at present; we would assume each will possess special qualities specific to its class: Snake may offer stealthy moves while Eagle may excel with long ranged weapons or Jaguar could excel as either racing weaponry or more realistically be built for melee combat.
As with any good RPG, there will be skills available through a skill tree which must be unlocked; however, doing so might require human sacrifice in rituals in order to gain access to these abilities. While you won’t necessarily need to sacrifice people in rituals in order to progress further, having this option open would certainly present interesting moral quandaries: Should I sacrifice people so I can better fight my enemy or just use what resources I already possess against my adversary?
Ecumene Azted seems like something worth monitoring closely; however, with Ubisoft adding to their staff with multiple Assassin’s Creed projects such as Mirage in development presenting stiff competition to Ecumene Azted.
