When Assassin's Creed's Infamously Dull Main Character Was Finally...

Desmond Miles? Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time. Assassin's Creed's original protagonist stood at the centre of the series' story from the 2007 original to Assassin's Creed 3. I remember him being pretty roundly mocked at the time, and wasn't much of a fan myself. This was partly because players only controlled him during the series' divisive Animus sections, where the games would yank you of their gripping historical settings to wander around sterile laboratories while NPCs yammered exposition at you.

But it was also because poor Desmond had all the charisma of a boiled cauliflower. This despite being voiced by Nolan North, best known for playing Uncharted's effortlessly charming thief Nathan Drake. Ubisoft tried to spice up Desmond's adventures in later games, but never really achieved this, ultimately opting to bump off Desmond in Assassin's Creed 3. Apparently, this came as a surprise to North, who didn't find out that Desmond was dead until a fan told him on Twitter.

Speaking on the Fall Damage YouTube channel (via GamesRadar), North was quizzed about some of the most famous lines he's voiced across his career. When Desmond's final line from Assassin's Creed 3 came up, North recognised it instantly. "That technically was Desmond's death scene," North explained, adding. "And I didn't know it."

North reveals that Ubisoft neglected to inform him that Desmond was dead. Instead, he found out "on Twitter" after a fan messaged him with "Are you upset Desmond's dead?" Needless to say, North was shocked. "And I'm thinking 'what'?" he said. "There's nothing that you'd expect [there] from a main character's death."

It's not wholly clear what North meant by this. The scene in which Desmond dies makes it pretty clear that he's dead. Maybe he just wasn't all that keen on how Ubisoft approached it. As he explained in the video, he also expected to play Desmond for considerably longer: "I think the original idea was eight or nine games with Desmond."

Meaning no disrespect to North's considerable talents, such a notion puts a shiver down my spine. Not that Assassin's Creed's modern day segments have been improved by Desmond's absence. In fact, Ubisoft's handling of the modern day storyline in subsequent games has led to some revisionism around his character. I was surprised to see so many people saying the series died with Desmond in the death-scene video's comments, which really goes to show how badly Ubisoft has bungled things since.

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Source: PC Gamer