Assassin's Creed: Syndicate will get a new modern story arc

One of the more controversial elements in the Assassin's Creed franchise has always been its modern day story arcs, which revolve around the conflict between the Templars and the Assassins.

These modern parts of the respective games took a backseat after criticisms from fans, after the end of what is referred to as the "Desmond cycle", which concluded with Assassin's Creed III.

Now it appears that these sections will become a much bigger focus once again, as Assassin's Creed: Syndicate will start a new present day story arc, as creative director Marc-Alexis Cote told Gamespot:

"The Assassin's Creed series story is still going somewhere, absolutely. The overarching story is divided up into cycles. So we had what we called the Desmond cycle, which ended with AC3. Black Flag was the transition point between the Desmond cycle and the new cycle."

According to Cote, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag and Assassin's Creed: Unity represented transitionary chapters in the story, and therefore Assassin's Creed: Syndicate will begin a new cycle for the overarching narrative:

"[Assassin's Creed III] was the end of the Desmond cycle. And then we started up the new cycle, which I think will become much clearer with Assassin's Creed Syndicate, without spoiling it. I can't go into details about the present-day story, other than to say it is coming back, it is going to make sense for our players, and they're going to understand the conflict between the Assassins and the Templars."

We'll find out more once the game releases on October 23rd.