is shaping up to be a massive game. However, creative director Alex Hutchison said that they've avoided making it too big because that would be a "disaster.""There is only so much you can juggle in your mind simultaneously, and only so much variety you can add before it starts to feel random and not cohesive," Hutchison told VG247 . "Also, we have a very high completion rate on the franchise, and if you make it too long you start to lose that, which would be a disaster for a game like ours where we really value the consistency and continuity of the universe.”Hutchison added that they've taken out several gameplay mechanics from earliergames. I assume he's referring to a lot of the small features that accumulated in the Ezio installments over time. I wouldn't miss the urban renewal stuff fromor the bomb-mixing business from. Ubisoft engaged in some serious feature creep to keep the Renaissance era from feeling old. I like the idea ofbeing stocked solely with new features that fit the setting and era.What Ubisoft has shown of's side content so far looks fascinating. Players will get to man a ship and battle the British on the high seas . They can also join a hunting club . It seems like players will have plenty to do outside of the main campaign.I'm not really worried aboutbeing too short. None of the previous games in the series were. The bigger issue for me was that the side content with those games was a bit bland. Collect the feathers, kill all the knights, etc. It's easy to populate the world with this sort of content but it felt like filler to me. I'm fine with having less optional gameplay if it's all meaningful.