RPS Asks: How To Revamp Assassin's Creed?

A rumour is going round, based on anonymous 4chan posts supposedly by an Ubisoft employee, that we'll not see a new main Assassin's Creed game in 2016, but it'll return in 2017 with a complete overhaul set in Ancient Egypt. Not the most reliable of sources, that, and probably not a rumour to put money on. However, now we're all back at work and loitering around water coolers with idle hands and malevolent intent, let's gasbag and tell other people how to do their jobs. We ask: how would you revitalise the open-world parkouring murder simulator series?

Assassin's Creed has been unremarkable for several years. Ubisoft have released nine core games in the series since 2007, and about as many spin-offs. They're not bad they're just... very familiar. That's annualised sequels for you.

According to the supposed dev, in a thread archived over here, Assassin's Creed is skipping a year to come back refreshed and revamped. "The game is going for a Witcher feel, with player progression, freeform combat system," they say. "Horse is back, and boats too. It's made by the Black Flag team." Deeper down in the thread (search for the name 'Dev !!gVL0FyzPeMv') come claims that it'll be a prequel set before the Assassins and Templars even existed, that it'll be jolly colourful, and that you'll have a pet eagle. I can't stress enough that I'm mentioning this as fuel for idle speculation, not reporting it as fact.

So! If you were declared Ubisoft's Big Assassin Bossman, what would you want to see from the series? Are you happy with its steady evolution? Would you demand bold revolution? Where in time and space would the game go? What would you cannily swipe from other games?

Me, I'd like to play the Assassin's Creed Cyberfuture game they've teased since the whole dang series began, perhaps set around a single vast megablock - lots of vertical shenanigans and hidden nooks. And your murdergang roll in on glowing skateboards.