Throughout all Assassin’s Creed games, the modern day segment never got an open world area as big or even close to being as big as those of the historical segment. In ACI, we’re in one big room. In ACII, we’re in that warehouse which is significantly bigger. 

In AC:B, we got to roam around Monteriggioni and within the Villa Auditore, and later, explore the Colosseum and Santa Maria Aracoeli along with the Temple of Juno, making it one of the most interesting MD segments in AC. In AC:R, we had a different kind of modern day and we were playing as Desmond Miles, again but in a cyberspace, within the Animus Island, as well as the Animus Core with Desmond’s Journey. 

ACIII, in my opinion, had a very remarkable and promising modern day. We had a base which was the Grand Temple, which had some interesting dialogues with fellow Assassins there as well as Juno’s hologram, revealing some secrets about her time and civilization. And in addition to that, we had separate standalone missions as Desmond Miles. 

Assassin’s Creed IV and Rogue had the same setting for modern day which is Abstergo Entertainment building, and AC Unity did not have any out-of-Animus experiences, except for the brief Time Rifts within The Helix and the video chats that Bishop. Those were the closest thing to the modern day experience from previous games. 

Now, whether we like or dislike the kind of missions and context of AC:B or ACIII modern day or it’s cutscenes and endings is not relevant in this theory, but the structure of it is what made it one of the most interesting modern day versions to me. 

I loved the idea of having one base to be in and learn more about the creed along with what’s going on with the overarching story by interacting with characters, watching cutscenes, reading emails, doing small missions, and I also love that we get to explore the world through linear missions in certain modern day locations. I believe Altair II makes a perfect candidate. 

First of all, it’s something newly introduced through Assassin’s Creed: Initiates and it’s basically the place where all the interesting and relevant modern day characters are, many of who we’ve never met and have been eager to do so for a while. Second, it’s a mobile bureau for the Assassins so there has to be lots of information within it, information that we truly care about, we can know a lot about the communications between the Assassins, what Abstergo is up to, what are the latest goals, so I believe it has the potential to be one of the most interesting modern day settings, by far, as well as bringing back the feeling of being in the middle of the war zone, in a race against time, doing something truly big that is directly related to the overarching story, rather than being a Helix user being contacted by the Assassins whom he/she does not know or being a tester for a game or a historical footage extractor at Abstergo Entertainment. Each one of those had its special flavor, but for me, I’ve always loved the idea of being in the center of the critical events and conflicts. 

Third, being a mobile base will make it more interesting because you can go to multiple locations for linear missions like ACIII, or be set on a fixed course throughout that you won’t reach till the end of the game, but might face some Templar attacks or mini-quests until you get there, and won’t feel like you’re locked inside a room or a building, you’re not in an open world, but rather in a limited space, yes, but it can be made big enough to be interesting, and the fact that it’s mobile will make it easier for the Assassins to reach and anchor near the shore of any location, send the modern day protagonist on a modern day mission or perhaps send some drones to eavesdrop and extract data from certain Abstergo bases near the shore that we’re anchored right next to, and then start a mission or know what what we need to do. 

Whether we can have multiple missions where we leave the ship or we’ll keep exploring history until the very last part of the game where we anchor somewhere and steal a Piece of Eden or Assassinate a Templar Master, is equally interesting to me, even though I lean more towards multiple missions, because they make the game feel a lot more fun, seeing the world and the two dominating factions and their conflicts through the eyes of time different time periods, with the historical portion and the modern day segment walking hand in hand, taking information and leads from one to help us in continuing through the other. 

In Assassin’s Creed: Rogue, there’s an Easter Egg that our fellow community member and owner of the page, The Ones Who Came Before, Col, found which is a magazine called DISCOVERING (see the figure below) found during the modern day segment of AC:R, at Abstergo Industries, that show the image of the Altair II ship. I’m not suggesting that this confirms anything, but it gives me hope to see the modern day of Assassin’s Creed: Victory of a future Assassin’s Creed game set in the heart of the modern day brotherhood in such a new and interesting setting, which is the Altair II ship.