The Creator of Assassin's Creed Showed a New Game About Witches in Amsterdam, but Many Questions Remain

When you look at the new video of 1666: Amsterdam, you see a world that is dark and full of secrets. The game takes place in the city of Amsterdam in the year 1666. This was a very bad year in history because many people got sick and died from a big sickness called the plague. In the game, you play as a character who has dark, magical powers. People in the city might think you are a witch or a helper of the devil.

The video shows that you do not just walk around as a human. You can use magic to control different animals. In one part of the video, we see a black cat walking quietly on the wooden roofs of houses. In another part, we see a crow flying high in the dark sky to look at the city from above. You can also control a swarm of rats to scare people or run through small holes. This is very different from other games where you only play as a human soldier or hero.

But the video also shows that the game is still not finished. Some of the movements look a bit rough. The lights and shadows look nice, but we do not see how the whole game fits together. Is it an adventure game where you solve puzzles? Is it an action game where you fight guards? The video does not tell us. It only shows us the cool magic and the animals. We can expect a game that feels very dark, very historical, and very strange, but we do not know how much fun it will be to play for many hours.

To understand why this game is such a big deal, we have to look back at the life of Patrice Désilets. He is a very important man in the world of video games. He helped create the first Assassin's Creed game in 2007. That game was a giant success. He also made Assassin's Creed II, which many people think is one of the best games ever made. He worked for a giant company called Ubisoft. But in 2010, he decided to leave Ubisoft because he wanted to make his own creative ideas.

He went to work for another company called THQ. That is where he first started building 1666: Amsterdam. But then, something very bad happened. THQ went out of money and closed down in 2013. Ubisoft bought the rights to his new game. They also hired Patrice again, but then they fired him quickly after. Ubisoft took the game away from him. Patrice was very sad and angry. He did not give up. He fought a long legal battle in court against Ubisoft to get his game back.

In 2016, Patrice finally won. He got the rights to 1666: Amsterdam back. He had started his own small studio called Panache Digital Games. But instead of making the Amsterdam game right away, his team made a different game first. That game was called Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey, and it came out in 2019. In that game, you played as apes trying to survive and grow into humans over millions of years. Now that Ancestors is done, Patrice is finally looking back at his dream game about Amsterdam. But making games with a small team is very hard and costs a lot of money.

This new video is not just about a game with cats and rats. It represents a big test for independent game developers. Today, big video games cost as much money to make as Hollywood movies. Giant companies do not like to take big risks. They want to make the same games over and over again because they know people will buy them. This is why we have so many sequels.

Patrice Désilets is trying to prove that a creator can still make something highly original without a giant corporate boss telling them what to do. If 1666: Amsterdam can become a successful game, it will show other game makers that they do not have to work for giant companies to make their dreams come true. But if the game never comes out, or if it comes out and fails, it will be a sad sign that only giant companies can make big, historical games.

For the players, the stakes are simple. We want games that feel fresh and exciting. We are tired of doing the same things in every game. Playing as a witch in a dark, plague-filled Amsterdam sounds like a breath of fresh air. But we also need to know if we are looking at a real game that we can buy soon, or just a pretty video that will disappear into the dark again.