The trailer for Rainbow Six Siege’s upcoming Villa map has a delicious easter egg for fans of the Assassin’s Creed franchise.
Operation Para Bellum, the upcoming content release for Siege, will have all of the normal things you’d expect from a big update: a Pick & Ban system, a host of tweaks to the game, and a new map. What’s unique about it is that the map is called Villa, and it appears to be set in the beautiful Italian countryside. Do you know what other Ubisoft game series has entries set in Italy? That’s right, it’s Assassin’s Creed, specifically Assassin’s Creed 2 and Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood.
In Assassin’s Creed 2, protagonist Ezio Auditore works out of a small town called Monteriggioni. At the top of the town, lording over all of the small houses of the citizens, lies Villa Auditore. It has a whole system of tombs and secrets beneath it, and it’s a storied place for Ezio’s family and the Assassin faction in general.
Now, I’m not saying that the Villa map necessarily is Villa Auditore, but it’s hard to ignore that giant Assassin symbol nested in the middle of the fountain at the 0:17 mark in the video. I’m willing to accept that this is simply a cool easter egg. I would prefer if this were an elaborate setup that finally unites all of the Ubisoft games into some kind of Frankenstein video game shared universe. We already know that the Watch Dogs games take place in the Assassin’s Creed universe. Let’s go all the way!
Silly easter egg or serious content? I don’t know. I do know that I would play Siege regularly if I could spring down from a rooftop, defeat my enemy, and then have a seven minute conversation about if I made the right choice.