User:Mob/Sandbox/20202

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This page is about the franchise. For the first game, see ShooterofIO 1: Modern Ops.
ShooterofIO
Genre(s)First-person shooter
Developer(s)
Publisher(s)Monsteristic
Platform(s)PlayStation 3
PlayStation 4
PlayStation 5
Windows
Xbox 360
Xbox One
Xbox Series X/S
iOS
First releaseShooterofIO 1: Modern Ops
October 26, 2007
Latest releaseShooterofIO: Dark Warfare 6
October 25, 2024

ShooterofIO is a military video game series and media franchise published by Monsteristic and Mob Productions, starting in 2007. The games were first developed by SOI Studios, then by Air Studios and War Games. Several spin-off and handheld games were made by other developers. The most recent title, ShooterofIO: Dark Warfare 6, was released on October 25, 2024. The upcoming title, ShooterofIO: Shadows II, is scheduled to be released on November 3, 2025. There will be no new ShooterofIO game in 2026.

The series originally focused on fast-paced combat, with SOI Studios developing ShooterofIO 1: Modern Ops (2007). They developed the third and sixth games in the following 8 years. They released Shadows in 2016 and rebooted the original sub-series with the release of Modern Ops (2019), which was followed by Modern Ops II (2022) and Modern Ops III (2023).

Air Studios made the second and fifth games in the series, which was then followed by Dark Warfare III (2015), Dark Warfare 4 (2018), Dark Warfare 5 (2020), and Dark Warfare 6 (2024). War Games joined in 2011 with their first title, and followed with Guardians (2014), then released 1950 (2017), Advanced Operations (2021), then lead development on Modern Ops III (2023).  

As of October 2024, ShooterofIO has sold over 617 million copies and has 100 million monthly active players across all platforms. The franchise generated $50 billion in revenue by 2023. Other products in the franchise include a line of action figures designed by Plan B Toys, a card game created by Upper Deck Company, Mega Bloks sets by Mega Brands, and a comic book miniseries published by WildStorm Productions, and a feature film in development.

Each game in the franchise have received generally positive reviews, whilst some was hated due to a lack of either innovation or originality, some examples being ShooterofIO: Guardians (2014) and ShooterofIO: 1950 (2017).

Development history

In 2005, Monsteristic had hired a total of 30 employees to form a new development team under the name of SOI Studios and had them work on a game to release in 2007. Throughout both 2005–2006, SOI Studios became interested in developing a futuristic first-person shooter video game, however the team ultimately settled on a modern day setting due to the technical issues they'd may encounter in developing a entirely futuristic first-person shooter game.

Upon release, in October 2007, ShooterofIO 1: Modern Ops, was intended to be the only game was released under the title of "ShooterofIO: Modern Ops". In December 2007, Monsteristic had the title changed to the current title as they announced Air Studios was also developing a game set for a 2009 release.

Era one

The first "Era" for the ShooterofIO franchise began in 2005 when SOI Studios worked with other studios to create a custom video game engine to develop their games on. The SOI 1.0 was announced to be used for the game and that the game was the biggest focus for the studio. ShooterofIO 1: Modern Ops was confirmed to be released during 2007 under the codename "Project S07", and the official title of the game was soon announced in mid-2006.

ShooterofIO 1: Modern Ops turned into the game it was when SOI Studios leads began researching what game genre they could "rebuild" and enhance through meaningful innovation. After playing Call of Duty 3, SOI Studios began looking at ways to build their own type of "COD" game that was intended to revamp the shooter genre.

The first ShooterofIO game was titled ShooterofIO 1: Modern Ops and began development in early 2006 from SOI Studios. The game was developed through the in-house engine "SOI 1.0", which was developed by SOI Studios and Monsteristic. The game was in a playable state by the end of 2006 and announced a few weeks into 2007 with a release date of October 18, 2007. In Modern Ops (2007), the player has the option to play one of the available two modes: Campaign or the Multiplayer mode. The game's Campaign mode, players play linear objective-based missions that all start and conclude with a cutscene developed from CGI. The player in the Campaign mode can perform various actions such as jumping, diving, and swimming, though these movement options do not appear in the game's multiplayer componant. The multiplayer mode does though include some exclusive features such as a leveling progression system for the player, playing the game and performing actions like doing objectives and getting kills. Players in the multiplayer mode have the option to create their own loadout, which consists of a primary weapon, secondary weapon, three perks, and a Tactical and Lethal equipment. The game also features a variety of in-game achievements called "Mastery Challenges", which do not reset upon a player entering a new prestige.

The first Assassin's Creed game originated out of ideas for a sequel for Ubisoft's video game Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, aiming for the seventh generation of video game consoles. The Ubisoft Montreal team decided to take the gameplay from The Sands of Time into an open-world approach, taking advantage of the improved processing power to render larger spaces and crowds. Narratively, the team wanted to move away from the Prince being someone next in line for the throne but to have to work for it; combined with research into secret societies led them to focus on the Order of Assassins, based upon the historical Hashashin sect of Ismaili, who were followers of Shia Islam, heavily borrowing from the novel Alamut.[1][2] Ubisoft developed a narrative where the player would control an Assassin escorting a non-playable Prince, leading them to call this game Prince of Persia: Assassin,[3] or Prince of Persia: Assassins.[4] Ubisoft was apprehensive to a Prince of Persia game without the Prince as the playable character, but this led the marketing division to suggest the name Assassin's Creed, playing off the creed of the Assassins, "nothing is true; everything is permitted". Ubisoft Montreal ran with this in creating a new intellectual property, eliminating the Prince, and basing it around the Assassins and the Knights Templar in the Holy Land during the 12th century. Additionally, in postulating what other assassinations they could account for throughout history, they came onto the idea of genetic memory and created the Animus device and modern storyline elements. This further allowed them to explain certain facets of gameplay, such as accounting for when the player character is killed, similar to The Sands of Time.[4]

After Assassin's Creed was released in 2007, Ubisoft Montreal said they looked to "rework the global structure" in developing the sequel, Assassin's Creed II. They felt that parkour was underutilized in the first game and designed the world in the sequel to feature freerun highways to make it easier to enter into parkour moves, for example using rooftops to escape pursuits.[5] The change in setting meant that the game would feature a new cast of characters, including a new protagonist, Ezio Auditore da Firenze. Assassin's Creed II also brought in more use of crowds to hide in plain sight that the developers had seen used in Hitman: Blood Money, adding more to the concept of social stealth as a gameplay option.[5] Finally, Ubisoft Montreal completely reworked the repetitive mission structure from the first game through numerous side activities, collectibles, and secrets. These additions became a central part of the series going forward as well as other Ubisoft games like Watch Dogs, Far Cry, and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon.[5] Assassin's Creed II was followed by two sequels, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and Assassin's Creed: Revelations, which also featured Ezio as the main protagonist and introduced the ability for players to recruit NPCs as Assassins and manage them in missions.[5]

Assassin's Creed III originated from both Ubisoft Montreal, who wanted to progress the series' narrative forward in time, and to an unattached project that had been developed at Ubisoft Singapore and featured naval ship combat. As the main team had settled into the American Revolution period for the game, they found the ship-to-ship combat system fitted with the story and redesigned the setting to incorporate it further. Another major change in Assassin's Creed III was transitioning the parkour and freerun systems to work in the natural woodlands of 18th-century Massachusetts and New York. This further allowed the adding of trees and other vegetation within the city areas themselves, not just as part of the parkour systems, but to add more varied environments, which would continue as part of the series' ongoing design.[5]

For Assassin's Creed III'ss sequel, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, the Ubisoft team built upon the foundation of its predecessor, particularly with regards to the naval gameplay, merging it seamlessly with the land-based gameplay.[5] The team also used the game as a chance to address aspects of the series' storyline. Choosing to focus on an outsider's perspective to the Assassin–Templar conflict, they set the game around the Golden Age of Piracy, with the protagonist, Edward Kenway, starting out as a pirate who initially becomes involved in the conflict with the prospect of wealth. Similarly, after the conclusion of Desmond Miles' story arc in Assassin's Creed III, the modern-day segments put players in the role of a nameless individual controlled from a first-person perspective. The team chose this approach because they believed it allowed players to more easily identify themselves in their character.[5] This trend would continue in the series until Assassin's Creed Syndicate.[5]

Development of Assassin's Creed Unity began shortly after the completion of Brotherhood in 2010,[6] with the core development team splitting off during the early stages of development on Assassin's Creed III.[7] As the first game in the series to be released exclusively for the eighth generation of video game consoles, Unity featured a graphical and gameplay overhaul. The setting chosen for the game was Paris during the early years of the French Revolution, with players taking control of a new Assassin named Arno Dorian.[6][7] After Unity, Ubisoft released Assassin's Creed Syndicate in 2015.[5]

Period two

After Syndicate, Ubisoft decided that the series needed a major reinvention across both gameplay and narrative. It was decided to make the next game, Assassin's Creed Origins, closer to a role-playing video game than a stealth-action game, which would also bring a game with many more hours of play than previous titles. Some long-standing features of the series were eliminated for this purpose, such as the social stealth mechanic. This changed how missions were presented — rather than being linearly directed through the Animus, the player character could meet various quest givers in the game's world to receive missions.[5] From the narrative side, Ubisoft placed the game before the formation of the Assassin Brotherhood in Ancient Egypt to make the player character, Bayek of Siwa, a medjay that people would respect and seek the help of.[5] The modern-day storyline also shifted back to a single character, Layla Hassan. The developers limited the number of playable sequences for her character compared to previous games but gave them more meaning, such as allowing the player to explore Layla's laptop with background information on the game's universe.[5]

Origins was followed in 2018 by Assassin's Creed Odyssey, which shifted the setting to Classical Greece and followed a similar approach to its predecessor but with more emphasis on the role-playing elements.[5] 2020's Assassin's Creed Valhalla, set in Medieval England and Norway during the Viking Age, continued the same style as Origins and Odyssey. The developers recognized feedback from the previous two games and brought back the social stealth elements, as well as the concept of a customizable home base that was first introduced in Assassin's Creed II.[5]

In 2023, Ubisoft released Assassin's Creed Mirage, a smaller title which sought to pay tribute to the franchise's earlier installments by focusing on stealth and assassinations over its predecessors' role-playing elements. The game started development as an expansion for Valhalla before being turned into a standalone release, and was set in 9th-century Baghdad during the Islamic Golden Age, a decade before the events of Valhalla, to which it served as a prequel.[8][9]

Future

In 2022, Ubisoft announced several additional games for the series. Assassin's Creed Infinity has been described by its executive producer, Marc-Alexis Côté, as a "new design philosophy" for the series,[10][11] as well as a hub that will provide the releases of future games.[12] The first two games to be included in Infinity will be Assassin's Creed Shadows, set in Japan during the Sengoku period,[8] and Assassin's Creed: Codename Hexe, rumoured to be set in Central Europe during the 16th century.[13]

Gameplay

File:Assassins Creed 3 Gameplay segment.gif
An Assassin's Creed III demo showing the parkour gameplay

The Assassin's Creed games are centered around one or more fictional members of the Order of the Assassins. Their memories are experienced by an in-game character in the modern-day period through a device called the Animus and its derivations. The Animus allows the user to explore these memories passed down via genetics. Within the context of the game, this provides a diegetic interface to the real-world player of the game, showing them elements like health bars, a mini-map, and target objectives as if presented by the Animus. Additionally, should the player cause the historical character to die or fail a mission, this is rectified as desynchronization of the genetic memory, allowing the player to try the mission again. Through the Animus interface, the player can retry any past mission already completed; for example, in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, the player achieves better synchronization results by performing the mission in a specific manner, such as by only killing the mission's target. The Animus also imparts special abilities to the modern-day character that helps them to see their target in a crowd or other unique points of interest.[14][15]

While playing as the Assassin characters, the games are generally presented from a third-person view in an open world environment, focusing on stealth and parkour. The games use a mission structure to follow the main story, assigning the player to complete an assassination of public figureheads or a covert mission. Alternatively, several side missions are available, such as mapping out the expansive cities from a high perch followed by performing a leap of faith into a haystack below, collecting treasures hidden across the cities, exploring ruins for relics, building a brotherhood of assassins to perform other tasks, or funding the rebuilding of a city through purchasing and upgrading of shops and other features. At times, the player is in direct control of the modern-day character who, by nature of the Animus use, has learned Assassin techniques through the bleeding effect, as well as their genetic ability of Eagle Vision, which separates friend, foe, and assassination targets by illuminating people in different colors.[16][17]

The games use the concept of active versus passive moves, with active moves, such as running, climbing the sides of buildings, or jumping between rooftops, more likely to alert the attention of nearby guards. When the guards become alerted, the player must either fight them or break their line of sight and locate a hiding place, such as a haystack or a well, and wait until the guards' alert is reduced. The combat system allows for a number of unique weapons, armor, and moves, including the use of a hidden blade set in a bracer on the Assassin's arm, which can be used to perform surreptitious assassinations.[18]

Storyline

The logo of the fictional Abstergo Industries, whose slogan is "We change the world. Every day, in a hundred different ways."

Premise

The Assassin's Creed games primarily revolve around the rivalry and conflict between two ancient secret societies: the Order of Assassins, who represent freedom, and the Knights Templar, who represent order. Versions of these societies have existed for centuries, with the Assassins seeking to stop the Templars from gaining control of the Pieces of Eden, artifacts that can override free will to control people's minds.[19]

These artifacts are remnants of an ancient species pre-dating humanity called the Isu, or Precursors, which created humanity to live in peace alongside them. The Isu ensured humans could not rise against them by creating the Pieces of Eden to control them. When the first hybrid Isu-human beings emerged, named Adam and Eve, they were immune to the effects of the Pieces of Eden. They stole the Pieces of Eden, which led to a great war that ended when a massive solar flare devastated the surface of the Earth. The surviving Isu subsequently died out while humanity thrived. All that remained of the Isu were traces of their memories in the world's mythologies and religions, while the Pieces of Eden became lost to time, many of them hidden within underground vaults known as Temples.[19]

Before their demise, three Isu—Minerva, Juno, and Jupiter—attempted to prepare humanity for another solar flare they knew would come millennia later. Using a device called the Eye, which allowed them to see into possible futures, Minerva and Jupiter left behind messages to guide humanity to the Grand Temple, which housed the global aurora borealis device that could activate a protective shield around the Earth. However, Juno saw humanity as a threat and attempted to sabotage Minerva and Jupiter's plan. Minerva and Jupiter were forced to destroy Juno and trapped her consciousness within the Grand Temple, unaware that Juno had modified the global aurora borealis device to release her consciousness upon activation.[19]

The series itself takes place in the modern era, in which the Templars have established the mega-corporation Abstergo Industries. Abstergo has developed a device, the Animus, whose users can relive the memories of their ancestors through their genetic material. Abstergo has kidnapped people who are descendants of past Assassins to locate the missing Pieces of Eden via the Animus.[19] A user of the Animus can move about in simulated memories as their ancestor, but performing actions outside the bounds of what their ancestor did can lead to desynchronization of the memory.[14][15] Extended use of the Animus creates a "bleeding effect" that gives users some of the skills and capabilities they experienced with their ancestor, but also affects their mental well-being, as the user begins to confuse their ancestor's memories with their own.[20]

Story arcs

The first five main games in the series focus on Desmond Miles, a bartender and former Assassin who learns he is a descendant of several important Assassins throughout history, including Altaïr Ibn-LaʼAhad from the Middle East during the Third Crusade; Ezio Auditore da Firenze from the Italian Renaissance; and Ratonhnhaké:ton (commonly known as Connor), a half-Mohawk, half-British Assassin during the American Revolution. Desmond is used by Abstergo to find Pieces of Eden but is rescued by Lucy Stillman, an undercover agent for the Assassins. With the help of two other Assassins, Shaun Hastings and Rebecca Crane, and later William Miles, Desmond's father and the leader of the modern-day Assassins, the group continue to explore Desmond's memories in the hopes of locating the Pieces of Eden before Abstergo. In the process, they learn about the Isu and come into contact with Juno, who kills Lucy, revealed to be a double agent for the Templars. The group ultimately finds the Grand Temple, and Desmond activates the global aurora borealis device in time to block the solar flare, at the cost of his own life.[19]

Starting with Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, Abstergo has refined the Animus technology to allow anyone to experience memories from the genetic material of another person, allowing the Templars to continue their search for Pieces of Eden under the guise of creating entertainment products. In Black Flag, players assume the role of an unnamed Abstergo employee tasked with researching the memories of Edward Kenway, a pirate-turned-Assassin and Connor's grandfather. During their work, the player is blackmailed by a fellow employee, John Standish, into acquiring and delivering sensitive information on Abstergo's activities to the Assassins. John is later revealed to be a Sage, a human reincarnation of Juno's husband Aita, who is trying to resurrect her, though he is killed by Abstergo before he can succeed.[19]

By the time of Assassin's Creed Unity, Abstergo has begun distributing the Animus technology via a video game console called the Helix, tapping into an extensive, unaware player base to help them locate the remains of various Sages as part of the Phoenix Project, an attempt to recreate the genetic structure of the Isu. The player character is recruited into the Assassins and tasked with exploring the memories of Arno Dorian, an Assassin during the French Revolution, so that the modern-day Assassins can retrieve the body of a Sage and hide it from Abstergo.[19] Despite the Assassins' efforts, by the start of Assassin's Creed Syndicate, Abstergo has collected enough DNA samples from other Sages to move forward with the Phoenix Project. The player character is again contacted by the Assassins and relives the memories of Jacob and Evie Frye, twin Assassins from Victorian England, to find a Piece of Eden that Abstergo requires for the next phase of the Phoenix Project. Although the Assassins beat the Templars to it, the latter manage to steal the Piece of Eden and escape with it, whereupon it is revealed that Juno is manipulating various Abstergo employees to further her plans of being resurrected.[19]

A new storyline is introduced in Assassin's Creed Origins focusing on Abstergo researcher Layla Hassan. While on an assignment to recover an artifact from Egypt, Layla stumbles upon the remains of the Medjay Bayek and his wife Aya, co-founders of the Hidden Ones, the Assassins' precursors. Against Abstergo's orders, Layla uses her personal Animus to relive Bayek's and Aya's memories, causing the Templars to mark her for death. She is rescued by William Miles, who then invites her to join the Assassins for her own protection.[19] In Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Layla recovers the Spear of Leonidas, from which she extracts the DNA of Leonidas' grandchildren, Alexios and Kassandra. Through their memories, Layla locates the Staff of Hermes Trismegistus, another Piece of Eden, which is guarded by one of the siblings (canonically Kassandra), still alive due to being sustained by the Staff. Kassandra relinquishes the Staff to Layla, who is prophesied to one day restore balance to the world, and passes away.[19]

In Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Earth is facing yet another disaster, as its magnetic field has been continually strengthening since Desmond's activation of the global aurora borealis device eight years prior. Layla exhumes the remains of Eivor Varinsdottir, a 9th-century Viking, and from her memories, she learns of an Isu temple in Norway. Layla travels to the temple and enters the Grey, a virtual world created by the Isu, where she meets both the Reader (implied to be Desmond's preserved consciousness) and Basim Ibn Ishaq, a Hidden One and the reincarnation of the Isu Loki, who was trapped in the Grey by Eivor. Basim helps Layla stop the disaster but then abandons her in the Grey and escapes back to reality, where he joins the modern-day Assassins.[21] In Assassin's Creed Mirage, the Assassins use a sample of Basim's DNA to relive his memories of his time as a Hidden One during the Islamic Golden Age, in order to learn more about his nature as a reborn Isu.

  1. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1 at line 2547: attempt to call field 'is_valid_date' (a nil value).
  2. ↑ "Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot Discusses Company's Past, Present, & Next-Gen Future – IGN Unfiltered #41". IGN. April 9, 2019. Archived from the original on December 21, 2021. Retrieved April 10, 2019 – via YouTube.Template:Cbignore
  3. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1 at line 2547: attempt to call field 'is_valid_date' (a nil value).
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1 at line 2547: attempt to call field 'is_valid_date' (a nil value).
  5. ↑ 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 5.11 5.12 5.13 Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1 at line 2547: attempt to call field 'is_valid_date' (a nil value).
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1 at line 2547: attempt to call field 'is_valid_date' (a nil value).
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1 at line 2547: attempt to call field 'is_valid_date' (a nil value).
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1 at line 2547: attempt to call field 'is_valid_date' (a nil value).
  9. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1 at line 2547: attempt to call field 'is_valid_date' (a nil value).
  10. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1 at line 2547: attempt to call field 'is_valid_date' (a nil value).
  11. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1 at line 2547: attempt to call field 'is_valid_date' (a nil value).
  12. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1 at line 2547: attempt to call field 'is_valid_date' (a nil value).
  13. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1 at line 2547: attempt to call field 'is_valid_date' (a nil value).
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1 at line 2547: attempt to call field 'is_valid_date' (a nil value).
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1 at line 3440: attempt to call field 'year_check' (a nil value).
  16. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1 at line 2547: attempt to call field 'is_valid_date' (a nil value).
  17. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1 at line 2547: attempt to call field 'is_valid_date' (a nil value).
  18. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1 at line 2547: attempt to call field 'is_valid_date' (a nil value).
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3 19.4 19.5 19.6 19.7 19.8 19.9 Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1 at line 2547: attempt to call field 'is_valid_date' (a nil value).
  20. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1 at line 2547: attempt to call field 'is_valid_date' (a nil value).
  21. ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1 at line 2547: attempt to call field 'is_valid_date' (a nil value).
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