Assassin's Creed Hexe already disappoints as it ditches standout feature

Assassin’s Creed Hexe is the next continuation of Ubisoft’s flagship series, following on from the recently released Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced.

Ubisoft has been celebrating the successful launch of the Assassin’s Creed Black Flag remake in the strangest way possible, by laying off 51 members of its Barcelona team.

Gamers are understandably outraged by this news as layoffs have been sweeping across the games industry as of late, with Xbox being the worst offender, culling several studios.

As Ubisoft endures the onslaught of criticism though, it continues work on the next Assassin’s Creed game. We got out first cheeky look at Assassin’s Creed Hexe earlier this month.

On paper, the promise of an Assassin’s Creed game set during the European witch trials is an exciting premise and would have delved deeper into the supernatural side of the series’ mythos. There’s even talk of the legendary Ezio Auditore da Firenze returning to guide our new protagonist.

Unfortunately, word on the street is now saying Ubisoft has lost its magic, or more specifically removed it entirely.

These Assassin’s Creed Hexe details could make-or-break Ubisoft’s next AAA

TheGameVerse recently shared a collection of information reported by Rogue TX, a Ubisoft leaker with a semi-decent track-record.

They’ve recently been revealing tidbits on more than one Ubisoft title such as the Splinter Cell remake, the multiplayer game Assassin’s Creed Invictus and, of course, Assassin’s Creed Hexe.

Now some of these details re-shared by TheGameVerse are bits we’ve heard before. The game being set in a “large-scale map” decorated with dark forests and a spattering of villages for instance.

The fear system from Assassin’s Creed Syndicate’s Jack The Ripper DLC is also set to make a return.

Additionally the game is said to boast “darker visuals said to be a major upgrade” over Assassin’s Creed Shadows, “revamped audio” to make stealth easier, but also “more suspicious” NPCs to make it harder in denser areas.

All of this sounds great, but the detail that sticks out like a sore thumb is “magic has reportedly been removed.”

You’re telling us that gods, monsters and aliens in games like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Assassin’s Creed Mirage are perfectly fine, but magic is where Ubisoft draws the line?

In a game meant to be about witchcraft you’d expect to do some witchy things right? We weren’t expecting a magic system comparable to The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, but something akin to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt would have been cool.

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Obviously this news needs to be taken with a pinch of salt because despite announcing the game years ago, Ubisoft is yet to share any more concrete details about it.

At the time of writing, it’s speculated to launch on the Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5 and PC sometime in 2027 for $69.99, but with more a more expensive deluxe and collectors edition which is par for the course with Ubisoft.

Going back to what we said at the start of this article, the concept of Assassin’s Creed Hexe sounds excellent on paper, but the more we hear about it, the less excited we get.

Hopefully, an official gameplay reveal will change our minds, and we’ll be looking towards Gamescom’s Opening Night Live or The Game Awards to deliver it.