Assassin's Creed creator's dark and witchy action game 1666: Amsterdam is out in early access sooner than we expected

Sixteen years after its inception at THQ Montreal, the historical fantasy action game 1666: Amsterdam is finally reaching players. Led by Patrice Désilets, the creator of Assassin’s Creed, the project survived a high-profile corporate acquisition by Ubisoft, a subsequent firing, a bitter lawsuit over intellectual property rights, and a total reinvention at Panache Digital Games. Now, following a summer re-reveal and a currently available Steam prologue that drew early complaints over now-removed AI assets, the game is launching into early access on August 25 for PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store.

Priced at $30, the early access build will offer roughly 10 hours of gameplay, constituting less than half of the full scope envisioned by Panache. The core narrative is an elaborate, bewildering multi-timeline setup reminiscent of historical sci-fi dabblings in the Animus. Players control Noa Brooklyn, a witch living in 1666 Amsterdam tasked with stripping power from centuries-old demonic entities known as 'the originals.' Through a supernatural link, Noa is bound to Aaron, a civilian summoned from the year 1999 who has been transformed into a feline familiar. In a reciprocal twist, Noa becomes a cat when the perspective shifts to Aaron's timeline, while a modern-day descendant of Noa explores the overarching tale from the present.

Beneath the eccentric narrative lies a gameplay structure heavily indebted to classic Assassin's Creed design sensibilities, married to new supernatural mechanics introduced when development restarted in 2020. Additionally, the game incorporates a roguelike twist featuring randomized abilities that reset upon death, giving the rough-edged project an open-ended path toward its eventual full release.

While Patrice Désilets and his team have an open-ended timeline for early access, they maintain an internal target for completion while remaining flexible to community feedback. Whether this bizarre mish-mash of time-traveling witches, demonic overlords, and feline familiars can refine its mechanical rough edges remains to be seen, but its arrival marks the long-awaited resurrection of one of industry's most notorious development sagas.