1666: Amsterdam - the story behind the game and whether it's worth playing

Do you, dear reader, enjoy stories of witchcraft, ancient cults, shrouded in shadow and mystery, non-linear narrative and historical context, all of that in the middle of a plot that includes rights changing hands more than once, an extensive legal battle, and a creator being separated from his own creation, everything going far beyond the context of a game? If that’s a yes, the story we have to tell today will definitely catch your eye.

If you’ve kept up with the last gaming announcements, especially the Summer Game Fest, you’ve probably seen the trailer for a game that immediately captured thousands of people’s attentions, so much so that, a mere two days after the trailer release, it had already surpassed the number of 333 thousand Steam wishlists: 1666: Amsterdam. But do you know of the story behind this game’s announcement?

1666: Amsterdam is being developed by Panache Digital Games, and led by a famous name among fans of the Assassin’s Creed franchise: Patrice Désilets. A Canadian GameDev, he’s renowned for work in games such as Prince of Persia, but mostly due to being the creator of Assassin’s Creed, and creative director for the first game, Assassin 's Creed II and AC: Brotherhood.

In 2010, because of internal conflicts about the direction the franchise was being taken, Patrice Désilets left Ubisoft, the company who owned the franchise, of his own accord, with the goal of having more creative freedom over his projects. After a brief pause, he started working in 2011 with THQ Montréal, where he began development of his newest game: 1666 Amsterdam itself.

And that’s where the story takes a turn, and makes this game’s development a story to be told: In july 2015, a profile with the dev was published on Game Informer, and in it, Patrice Désilets told his side of the story that transpired and what happened surrounding himself, THQ, Ubisoft and the future of 1666.

In 2013, THQ filed for bankruptcy, and THQ Montréal was bought by Ubisoft in January, which put Désilets once again working for Ubisoft. However, disputes over the future of the game started immediately, with the company wanting to take the helm on the creative control. The matter was, Désilets had a contract which granted him nearly full creative freedom with THQ, an unprecedented contract which wasn’t aligned with how Ubisoft worked. After a few months of internal conflict, he was fired in May 2013, being escorted out of the building, according to himself in the profile mentioned above.

Not much time later, feeling professionally lost, Désilets decided, in his own words, not let what happened keep him down, and filed a lawsuit against Ubisoft, aiming at getting back the rights, assets, and the entire progress of 1666 so far, which had been in the company’s hands ever since his leaving.

Ubisoft fought the lawsuit, declining to comment on the same Game Informer profile because of the ongoing legal procedures, but the final word was left up to the justice system. In 2016, a verdict was reached, giving the game back to his original creator. He then co-founded Panache Digital Games, and his team continued, finally, with the original and unobstructed vision its creator had for it, which resulted in the announcement, 10 years later, of the final game.

Following the announcement of 1666: Amsterdam, both fans of the Assassin’s Creed franchise and fans of Désilets work quickly pointed out many similarities between the new game and the next announced entry for the franchise, Assassin’s Creed: Codename Hexe, which promised to take place during the witch hunts and brought themes, origin, atmosphere and even a few gameplay elements that were extremely similar to what we see in 1666. From that, a huge conspiracy theory was born on the internet, claiming Ubisoft had been “appropriating” Désilets’ ideas, but that’s only fan allegations, and it’s left to us players, once both games are out, to see if the similarities’ll be there.

Right after 1666: Amsterdam was announced on the Summer Game Fest, a free prologue was made available on Steam and Epic Games. So, now that we’ve told the story behind the game’s creation, should we get to the game itself?

Heads up! From this point forward, we’ll talk about every aspect of the demo, so there’ll be spoilers of everything that’s been revealed so far, including the plot of 1666: Amsterdam.

The playable prologue is pretty short, it’s possible to finish it in about 20 minutes (unless you spend another 15 playing around as a cat. Yes, you play some parts as a cat, and yes, it’s as adorable as you’re hoping). However, even in a short period of time, the game manages to get its central ideas and atmosphere through extremely well, and captivated many players on the spot, us included.

Gameplay

Sadly, there’s no battle in the prologue so that we can get a feel and test the fight mechanics shown in the trailer, which look well-made and fun to play, but a few others, not any less interesting, are there for us to try out.

The game has a central mechanic which involves a button to concentrate and another to take an action (this action changes according to the character you’re playing as, but the base mechanic is the same), on top of ones such as gathering LUX, the magical energy of this world. I played the demo on a mouse and keyboard instead of a controller, which makes everything a little bit harder, but it’s perfectly playable.

And, of course, we can’t leave out the most important mechanic in this game: Cat gameplay!

It’s not entirely clear from the prologue alone how this one’ll work in the full game, if we’ll be able to change between playing as the human and cat characters whenever we want or if the feline sections’ll be predetermined and unchangeable, but, as a cat, we can have a different view on the world, which will most likely have something to do with solving puzzles or accessing places that, as a human, we just can’t reach.

The Story

In 1666: Amsterdam, we have a non-linear narrative, telling a story that crosses centuries and generations, based on stories from Dutch mythology. It happens across 3 distinct moments: In 1666, in 1999 and in current days, and in each timestamp we follow the story of a different character, but profoundly interconnected with each other. In a panel at IGN Live, following the game’s announcement, Désilets described the game as: 5% of the time being spent in the modern days, around 15% in 1999 and the rest all the way back in 1666, adding that the 1666 and 1999 timelines are almost “a mirrored version of each other”.

The prologue starts in 1666, where we step into the shoes of Noa, a which destined by her bloodline to be The Collector, an important position in the Zaindaris tribe, responsible for identifying beings known as The Originals, who live for centuries. Noa, being the Collector, is tasked with defeating these enemies and taking back their powers. She takes part in a kind of initiation ritual, where she chooses, among various cats with different traits and personalities, one to be her Bateratze, a sort of familiar. The choice of the cat will definitely influence moments in the future, since every cat has its own “title” and unique traits, some more agile, some more aggressive, stealthy, etc.

From then, there’s a cut and we’re suddenly in modern days, playing as Clio, a young woman who seeks out a Professor, who’s a friend of her dad’s, searching for answers. It’s made evident, from the dialogue between both characters, that Clio’s dad is a very closed-off person, who hasn’t shared, not even with his own daughter, a lot of information about his life. So, when she gets a letter from him that’s apparently enchanted, written in an unknown language that moves across the pages, she asks for the Professor’s help in figuring out its mysteries.

After searching for books in a library and performing a very simplified version of the same initiation ritual Noa partook in, back in 1666, Clio gets the ability to read the mysterious magical language, which the professor says comes from the Zaindaris, and in this moment we get the second shift in perspective.

We end up in 1999, this time playing as Clio’s father, Aaron, who starts off his story promising her the time has come for him to tell her all about her mother. He retells a romantic night in Amsterdam with his girlfriend at the time, Agnes, which had a quite unexpected ending to it. They go to their room at the hotel they’re staying at, and once there, Agnes prepares a surprise for Aaron. It just so happens that the surprise is a sex ritual that culminates in him blacking out and, when we wake up again, we’re playing as a cat.

After making our way back through the hotel, in feline perspective and with everything empty and lit up with weird lighting, we cross a glowing portal and end up in a forest. Following the path, we realize where we’ve ended up: In the same scene from the start, in 1666, seeing Noa and the Zaindaris frozen in the position where the first time jump happened, with her chosen bateratze mid-air between jumping from the tree to the witch’s arms. Following along, we take the place of the chosen cat and the scene resumes.

It’s then revealed that the cat from the 1666 timeline is Aaron himself, sent back in time by the ritual performed by Agnes. Noa is surprised that he wasn’t informed of his purpose before ending up there, but, before we can know anything else, the demo ends.

A lot of emphasis is put on the fact that the bloodline has a lot to do with the magical aspects, so, since Clio was able to activate the artifact that allowed her to understand the Zaindaris language, it’s implied that Agnes was her mother, and that she’s the current heir to the bloodline, the powers and the potential dangers.

Is the prologue of 1666: Amsterdam worth playing? For sure! The game brings an immersive atmosphere to the table, promises exciting fights, the three timelines bring a nostalgic element to Assassin’s Creed fans, and the historical aspect, surrounding Dutch mythology, is quite interesting, on top of being a culture and mythos not really explored in depth in other games this size. The game promises to launch in Early Access still in 2026, for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

And, if all of that still wasn’t enough to convince you to give 1666 a chance, remember: Cat gameplay!

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you next time.