Assassin's Creed is an acclaimed video game series by Ubisoft. The original game was launched in , and followed up by many sequels and spin-offs in other media, including a feature film and a novel series. The game features many authentic buildings and landmarks; and while the settings are not completely realistic, and the surroundings often have changed from each game's setting date to present day, many of the in-game environments can be visited in real life.
The frame story of Assassin's Creed takes place in the early 21st century, describing the climax of a millennial conflict between the Assassins and the Templars. Through revival of genetic memories through a device called the Animus , the player character experiences a selected ancestor's life centuries ago. The player character is Ezio Auditore; a banker's son who sees his family executed by a Templar conspiracy represented by the Borgia family.
His uncle trains him to become an Assassin to avenge his family and join the battle against the Templars.
Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines mostly takes place in Cyprus. Assassin's Creed: Unity takes place in Revolutionary Paris. So much was so close. Few gaming experiences have ever made me feel the wonder I felt when I first climbed a wall, ran along the roof tops or performed a perfect air assassination, but similarly, few have made me as frustrated as playing a stealth game for odd hours only to find that the final mission is wave after wave of combat or being hunted by half the guards in Jerusalem for running too quickly.
More than enough to warrant a sequel. The developers, with the animus frame, had the freedom to do something different. Rather than return to the Crusades, Renaissance Italy was chosen for the sequel.
A far more engaging and directed story was written. Rather than being presented with the same stock, research gathering, side missions before every assassination, the player was driven through the game by an exciting revenge narrative with close to side quests. The two main cities — Venice and Florence — were filled with things for the player to do and each had its own unique look and feel.
The villa at Monteriggioni gave players a home base to make their own. Again the developers used historical documents to recreate 15th Century Italy in as much detail as possible. Once again I had to deal with three days of hell. YouTube was far bigger now and gameplay footage was easy to find. The reviews were astounding. Critics loved it. When release day came, I was outside the same store ready to collect my preordered copy.
The whole weekend was going to be given over to assassinating Renaissance Italians. The critical acclaim the game had achieved had my expectations through the roof. Venice was the perfect city. The canals and narrow streets made for exciting rooftop routes. I got chills down my spine the first time I climbed to the top of a tower and looked out at the city below. There was so much to do!
I found every secret location, played every side mission and climbed everything bigger than a tree. It showed what games could be. II was far more fun than the original, and not only that, the developers were clearly taking everything less seriously. His greeting? The frame story was once again bonkers. Desmond had escaped from Abstergo with the help of a group of modern day Assassins.
The underlying mythology really began to solidify. I doubt anyone truly grasped what was happening on their first play through but with the help of online discussions it was possible to understand what was happening. The Pieces of Eden were credible McGuffins and the threat of a civilisation ending solar flare was a semi-plausible motivation for the whole series. The appearance of Minerva at the end was one hell of a cliff-hanger. Ubisoft was obviously delighted with the success.
After two blockbuster games Jade Raymond had done more than enough to earn a promotion to Managing Director of Ubisoft Toronto. Her time as the public face of the series had come to an end. Instead of two cities and the surrounding — and largely empty — countryside there was just the one: a huge reimagining of Rome that had to be reclaimed from the Templars district by district.
Even more side missions were added. These recruits could be sent off on missions on their own or help Ezio in a fight. New weapons , such as the crossbow, were added. Combat was tweaked again; no longer was sitting back and countering the only strategy. Players were rewarded for attacking first and could chain kills quickly eliminating whole groups of enemies. Desmond also became a more active character. For the first time, multiplayer was introduced. Rather than go the easy route and settle for standard player vs player combat, Ubisoft worked hard to include the core game mechanics.
Stealth was paramount. In an interesting twist, the best way to stay hidden was to act like one of the NPCs that populated the maps. While the first game took four years in development and the second took two, Brotherhood followed a year behind its predecessor kicking off the now familiar annual cycle.
November rolled around and things were as before. I settled in to play just as a cold snap hit bringing snow, making it impossible to leave the house. It was perfect. The critics loved Brotherhood. The reviews were just as glowing as they had been for its predecessor and the Game Of The Year awards soon followed. Sticking with what had worked, making minor tweaks and adding more side activities to a bigger city paid off for Ubisoft.
The new follower building mechanic was praised as was the innovative multiplayer. I loved it too. For me, Brotherhood was the best game. It was the one that stayed most true to the core mechanics that I loved and innovated enough to be new and exciting.
Da Vinci was being used by the Templars to create war machines. He wanted Ezio to destroy them. As Desmond searched for the Piece of Eden hidden by Ezio, the connection between the two stories became apparent. He then falls into a coma. Plourde went on to be the Creative Director for Far Cry 3.
Ezio returned as the lead, except he was now past Instead of Rome, the game was set in Constantinople. The famous Muslim ruler Saladin, in besieging the Assassin stronghold of Masyaf, is said to have found a warning next to his bed - pinned by a poisoned dagger - threatening to kill him if he didn't withdraw. This is despite Saladin supposedly setting extra security around his tent in light of the Assassin threat, as mentioned in a book by Stanley Lane-Poole, called Saladin and the Fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
It's sometimes difficult to tell fact from fiction with the group, since a number of myths were spread by their enemies and foreigners like Marco Polo. The very word "assassin" is sometimes claimed to based on the Arabic word "hashashin," referring to hashish users - the notion being that the the fida'is were plied with drugs.
That's an invention, as is Marco Polo 's claim that Assassin recruits were bribed with an earthly paradise, surrounded by milk, honey, opium, wine, and seductive women. The two factions came to blows multiple times, including a Templar siege mentioned by Baldwin, but of course there was no such thing as the Pieces of Eden. The groups were also motivated more by religion and power than any philosophy. The literal Assassin's Creed - "nothing is true, everything is permitted" - is supposedly based on Sabbah's last words, yet there's no evidence for this.
Back in the modern day, there are rumors that the Assassin's Creed series will return to the Third Crusade.
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