Recent rumors and leaks surrounding Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Codename Nebula might suggest that, out of all the franchise's games currently in development, it may be the most ambitious, spanning multiple regions and potentially even time periods. Based on Insider Gaming's report about many upcoming Assassin's Creed projects, AC Nebula may take place across the Aztec Empire, the Mediterranean, and India. Though Ubisoft has not yet confirmed this, a larger global backdrop in AC Nebula could help distinguish it alongside other Assassin's Creed projects like AC Red, AC Hexe, and AC Jade.

But if these rumors are true, this raises new questions about how Ubisoft plans to explore and utilize AC Nebula's multiple settings in terms of both gameplay and story. Even while recent Assassin's Creed games have varied between RPG and stealth approaches, the franchise has traditionally limited each game to one historical period, with its latest examples including AC Valhalla's Viking time frame or AC Mirage's Islamic Golden Age backdrop. However, with AC Nebula's three rumored locations in mind, this could point to Ubisoft's potential direction for the game and when it will fit into Assassin's Creed's expanding timeline.

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Exploring Where and When Assassin's Creed Nebula Could Take Place

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As one of Assassin's Creed's most recently released games, AC Valhalla demonstrates how far Ubisoft will go when it comes to in-game exploration across multiple areas, such as Norway, England, Ireland, and more. Therefore, it shouldn't be too much of a stretch for AC Nebula to achieve its goal of various international locations, ranging from South America to South Asia. But unlike previous games, AC Nebula will have two options for where it fits into Assassin's Creed's expanding timeline, one where each region is set within its own time period or another that links all three locations together in a chronological, interconnected narrative.

Breaking Assassin's Creed Nebula Up Would Be Simpler

Though it might be the less interesting option for AC Nebula's historical setting, separating each specific region of the game into its own time frame would give the game's story room to breathe while avoiding any issues with real-world and in-universe accuracy. It would also allow the game to more effectively explore and take advantage of each region's distinct cultures, style, and history, especially when fans have long been interested in an Assassin's Creed game set during the Aztec Empire. Moreover, this multifaceted structure might reflect the meaning behind AC Nebula's codename with an expanded scope of multiple settings, time periods, and characters.

Yet despite the challenge AC Nebula faces if Ubisoft wanted to create a large, interconnected story, it doesn't mean it isn't a possibility, especially when the history of all three rumored settings appears to converge at a key point in the Assassin's Creed timeline. Specifically, each setting has significant coinciding historical events from around the early sixteenth century, ranging from the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire to the Portuguese colonization of India. Alongside older games like Assassin's Creed Revelations set during this same period, the list below offers potential historical events that AC Nebula can thread together.

  • The Portuguese colonization of India from 1505 onward.
  • The Ottoman Empire, as seen in AC Revelations set in 1511.
  • The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire between 1519 and 1521.
  • The Ottoman–Portuguese conflicts between 1538 and 1560.

While Ubisoft may need to take some creative liberty when plotting a story between these various years, it seems there are multiple connections that AC Nebula could capitalize on if it is set during the sixteenth century. In contrast to previous Assassin's Creed games that arguably had a Eurocentric focus on world history, AC Nebula could feature a globe-trotting story exploring how history impacted places beyond the European powers. With each potential setting in AC Nebula, players could follow one or more protagonists during the sixteenth century who were drawn into Assassin's Creed's ever-evolving Assassin-Templar War through conquest, colonization, and war.

Source: Insider Gaming