Black Flag actor thinks series needs more Mo-Cap

Key Takeaways

Assassin’s Creed is one of the most profitable franchises in gaming, with dozens of titles released to date and even more planned in the future.
That said, some have taken issue with the game’s more RPG-like approach and want to get back to basics.
In an interview, Assassin’s Creed Black Flag voice actor and motion capture artist Ralph Ineson discussed the importance of motion capture in gaming.
He also said that the current games seem to be seriously lacking in that area.

It’s no secret that Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed franchise is extremely popular. Since its inception in 2007, the series has sold more than 200 million copies to date. And it won’t stop anytime soon either. That’s because Ubisoft is rumored to release ten Assassin’s Creed titles within the next five years alone.

That said, as popular as Assassin’s Creed is, the series has undergone a shift, for better or worse, towards a more action-RPG aesthetic that isn’t all that different from The Witcher. This shift has alienated some long-time fans, while also making the series even more popular than where it once was.

However, could the franchise’s ‘oldness’ be due to a lack of motion capture? Well, that’s what a former Assassin’s Creed voice actor has theorized.

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The secret sauce is motion tracking

In a new interview with GamesRadarRalph Ineson, an esteemed voice actor who was the voice and recording of Charles Vane in Black Flag, shared his thoughts on the importance of motion capture in gaming, as opposed to strict voice acting.

“[Motion capture] is brilliant, a completely different acting experience,” said Ineson. “I wish more video game companies would use mocap because I think the performance in Black Flag is brilliant.”

As part of the interview, Ineson, who also has an extensive TV background, talked about how much work he put into his role. “Once a month for about four months, I went to Montreal with Mark Bonnar and a few other British actors and spent a week in their motion-capture studio,” Ineson revealed of the process.

With that in mind, Ineson believes the current games are lacking. “If you compare it to some of the later Assassin’s Creeds, there might be a little bit of facial capture, but they don’t have the physical stuff, and I think you can tell,” Ineson said. “My son – who is more of an expert than I am – said, ‘Dad, the one you did was by far the best – they went downhill from there!’”

His theory is somewhat correct. With the later games shifting towards a more RPG-like aesthetic, much of the dialogue is choice-based, leaving scenes static as players can choose between a male or female protagonist. That can break the immersion, compared to the series’ roots in long cutscenes.

That’s not to say the current iterations of the franchise are bad. But it’s interesting to hear the perspective of someone intimately involved with one of the most popular games.