Ubisoft towers
CommonA game design pattern where you climb a viewpoint to reveal map icons, named after Ubisoft's heavy use of it.
Usually a criticism. Even when other studios do this, players call it 'doing the Ubisoft thing.' The term implies the design is formulaic and padding.
Real-world examples4 examples
| # | Example | What it means | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | oh it's just Ubisoft towers with a fantasy skin. pass | The game looks different visually but uses the same design formula, so the player is not interested. | x, 2023 |
| 02 | climb the tower, get 40 map icons, repeat for 60 hours. Ubisoft towers never died they just changed the studio name | The same formula persists across the industry even outside Ubisoft games. | reddit, 2024 |
| 03 | every time i see a tall structure in an open world game i get Ubisoft tower PTSD | The player has been conditioned to expect the viewpoint formula and reacts negatively. | tiktok, 2023 |
| 04 | elden ring said no Ubisoft towers and became one of the best games ever made. correlation is real | A game that avoided this formula succeeded, suggesting the design is actively harmful. | reddit, 2022 |
Use it when
- A game requires climbing viewpoints to unlock portions of the map.
- Criticizing a game for copying Assassin's Creed or Far Cry's map-reveal design.
- Any open-world game that floods the map with icons after an unlock mechanic.
- Pointing out formulaic open-world structure regardless of the studio that made it.
Do not use it when
- A game has towers but uses them in a genuinely creative or subversive way.
- You just mean the game is boring or repetitive.Use “open-world fatigue” instead.
Ubisoft towers vs open-world fatigue
Ubisoft towers
Ubisoft towers is the specific mechanic of climbing viewpoints to unlock map icons.
VS
open-world-fatigue
Open-world fatigue is the broader exhaustion that often results from this kind of design.
Origin and context
Named after Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed series, which popularized climbing tall viewpoints to synchronize maps. The term spread as players and critics noticed the same formula appearing across dozens of open-world games.
- First seen
- early-2010s
- Confidence
- medium
Cite this page
Use this stable URL to reference the entry.
https://slang.fyi/ubisoft-towersUpdated: 2026-08-29License: CC BY 4.0