This article is about the series. For the first game in the series, see Assassin's Creed (video game).
Assassin's Creed is a
historical fiction action-adventure open world stealth video game series that consists of eight main games and a number of supporting materials, as of 2013. The games have appeared on the
PlayStation 3,
PlayStation 4,
Xbox 360,
Xbox One,
Microsoft Windows,
Mac OS X,
Nintendo DS,
PlayStation Portable,
PlayStation Vita,
iOS,
HP webOS,
[1] Android,
Nokia Symbian Windows Phone platforms, and the
Wii U.
The main games in the franchise were developed by
Ubisoft Montreal for the single player and
Ubisoft Annecy for the multiplayer, with the handheld titles developed by
Gameloft and Gryptonite Studios, with additional development by Ubisoft Montreal. The series has been well received by the public and critics, and has sold over 73 million copies as of April 2014, becoming Ubisoft's best selling franchise.
[2] The series took inspiration from the novel
Alamut by the Slovenian writer
Vladimir Bartol,
[3] and are considered by some to be the
spiritual successor to the
Prince of Persiaseries.
[4]
Premise
The
Assassin's Creed games primarily revolves around the rivalry between two ancient secret societies: the Assassins and the
Knights Templar, and their indirect relation to an ancient
species pre-dating humanity, whose society, along with much of Earth's biosphere, was destroyed by a massive
solar storm. The games' real-world chronological setting begins in the year 2012, and features
Desmond Miles, a bartender who is a descendant of several lines of prominent
Assassins; though raised as an Assassin, he left his nomadic family to seek out a more common lifestyle. He is initially kidnapped by the
megacorporation Abstergo Industries, the modern-day face of the Knights Templar, who are aware of Desmond's ancestral lineage. Desmond is forced to use the "Animus", a device that allows him to experience his "ancestral memories". Abstergo is seeking to discover the location of several artifacts, or the "Pieces of Eden", that hold great power, to control mankind and alter its fate, bringing humanity into one single unified group. Desmond also encounters a small team of modern-day Assassins; agreeing to work with them, Desmond uses their version of the Animus (the Animus 2.0) to continue to experience the memories of his ancestors to discover the locations of additional Pieces of Eden so they can be recovered before Abstergo can do so. While experiencing these memories, some of their abilities are genetically leaked into Desmond, known as the Bleeding Effect, giving him some of the Assassin skills of his predecessors at the cost of living with multiple sets of memories and personalities in his mind.
Within the Animus, Desmond explores the memories of a number of Assassins, including
Altaïr ibn-La'Ahad, an initially disgraced Assassin working to redeem himself during the
Third Crusade;
Ezio Auditore da Firenze, an Assassin in Italy during the late 15th and early 16th centuries of the
Italian Renaissance, and
Ratohnhaké:ton, otherwise known as Connor Kenway, a half-
Mohawk, half-
British Assassin during the
American Revolution. Throughout these events, Desmond learns of allusions to the prophetic
end of the world in 2012 from a former Animus test subject, Subject 16: the event turns out to be a repeat of the disaster which wiped out the ancient civilization, and he finds out that his memories hold the key to Earth surviving the second storm. During his experiences, Desmond is aided by holographic projections of three of the ancient race's rulers: Jupiter, Minerva and Juno. After Desmond dies to ensure Earth's survival, his memories, which have survived in
cyberspace,
[5] are accessed by Abstergo, which hires a new subject to enter the Animus. The new subject relives the memories of Edward Kenway, Ratohnhaké:ton's grandfather and a privateer-turned-pirate during the British colonial years.
[6]
Gameplay
While the game is presented through protagonist Desmond Miles, the bulk of the game is played as Desmond experiences the memories of his ancestors through an advanced device called the Animus. This provides a means of a diegetic interface, showing Desmond's ancestor's health, equipment, goals, and other features as part of the Animus interface. The Animus is based on the player controlling the assassin to maintain the synchronization between Desmond and his ancestor's memories. Performing actions that go against the Assassin's way or dying breaks the synchronization, effectively requiring the player to restart at a previous checkpoint. Furthermore, the player cannot explore outside areas that the assassin has not experienced yet. There are also abnormalities within the Animus from previous users of the device.
While playing as the Assassin characters, the games are generally presented as
third-person in an
open world, focusing on stealth and
free-running. The games use a mission structure to follow the main story, generally assigning the player to complete an assassination of public figureheads or a covert mission. Alternatively, several side missions are available, such as mapping out the expansive cities from a high perch followed by performing a "leap of faith" into a haystack below, collecting treasures hidden across the cities, exploring ruins for relics, building a brotherhood of assassins to perform other tasks, or funding the rebuilding of a city through purchasing and upgrading of shops and other features. At times, the player is in direct control of Desmond, who by nature of the Animus use has learned Assassin techniques through the bleeding effect, as well as their genetic ability of Eagle Vision, which separates friend, foe and assassination targets by illuminating people in different colors. Through the Animus interface, the player can go back to retry any past mission already completed; for example, in
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, the player achieves better synchronization results by performing the mission in a specific manner such as by only killing the mission's target.
The games use the concept of "active" versus "passive" moves, with "active" moves, such as running, climbing the sides of buildings, or jumping between rooftops, more likely to alert the attention of nearby guards. When the guards become alerted, the player must either fight them or break their line of sight and locate a hiding place, such as a haystack or a well, and wait until the guards' alert is reduced. The combat system allows for a number of unique weapons, armor, and moves, including the use of a hidden blade set in a bracer on the Assassin's arm, and which also can be used to quietly assassinate targets.
Games
Games, by year and platform
Bold title denotes part of the main series
| Time period | Title | Year | Consoles | Computers | Handhelds | Mobile | Other |
|---|
| Third Crusade | Assassin's Creed | 2007 | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 | Microsoft Windows | — | — | — |
|---|
| Assassin's Creed: Altaïr's Chronicles | 2008 | — | — | Nintendo DS | Android, iOS, Symbian, webOS, Windows Phone | — |
| Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines | 2009 | — | — | PlayStation Portable | — | — |
| Renaissance | Assassin's Creed II | 2009 | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 | OS X, Windows | — | Symbian | OnLive |
|---|
| Assassin's Creed II: Discovery | 2009 | — | — | Nintendo DS | iOS | — |
| Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood | 2010 | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 | OS X, Windows | — | Symbian | OnLive |
| Assassin's Creed: Revelations | 2011 | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 | Windows | — | Android, Symbian | OnLive |
| Colonial era | Assassin's Creed III | 2012 | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii U | Windows | — | Symbian | — |
|---|
| Assassin's Creed III: Liberation[a] | 2012 | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 | Windows | PlayStation Vita | — | — |
| Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag | 2013 | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii U, PlayStation 4, Xbox One | Windows | — | — | — |
| Assassin's Creed Rogue | 2014 | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 | Windows | — | — | — |
| Early modern period | Assassin's Creed Unity | 2014 | PlayStation 4, Xbox One | Windows | — | — | — |
|---|
| Imperial China | Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China[b] | TBA | PlayStation 4, Xbox One | Windows | — | — | — |
|---|
Notes
- Jump up^ Released under the title, Assassin's Creed: Liberation HD, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.
- Jump up^ Available with the purchase of the DLC season pass for Assassin's Creed Unity.
|
Main series
Assassin's Creed
Desmond is captured by Abstergo and forced to use a machine called the Animus to explore Altaïr ibn-La'Ahad's memories during the time of the
Third Crusade. Desmond begins to witness events after Altaïr breaks all three tenets of the Assassin Brotherhood while attempting to stop
Robert de Sablé from taking a Piece of Eden. Al Mualim, the Brotherhood's leader, demotes Altaïr to Novice and tasks him with assassinating the nine Knights Templars, including de Sablé, to regain his former status. Altaïr's quest eventually leads him to face de Sablé in the presence of King
Richard I of England warning the King of de Sablé's plot to kill him. Altaïr defeats de Sablé, but with his last words, de Sablé reveals that there were ten Templars, the last being Al Mualim, who now holds the Piece of Eden. Altaïr returns to face Al Mualim, struggling to fight through the illusions created by the Piece, but eventually kills Al Mualim. When Altaïr recovers the piece, he—and those watching the Animus—witness a holographic map showing locations across the globe where other artifacts are located. Desmond is pulled from the Animus, and was going to be killed, but his life is spared by Lucy Stillman, an Assassin working as a mole within Abstergo, as she claims they might need to further examine his memories later. He comes to learn that a former test subject had left messages only Desmond can see, foretelling of the end of the world in 2012.
The first
Assassin's Creed introduced elements that would remain cornerstones of the rest of the series. The game attempts to create historical versions of
Masyaf(the Brotherhood's location),
Jerusalem,
Acre and
Damascus, and incorporates a number of documented historical figures into the story. The virtualized Animus system, free running, climbing, stealth, and parkour elements were all present in this title, as well as the initial formulation of the combat system. The player would have to complete a number of side quests before they would be able to obtain an assassin quest from a local Brotherhood guidemaster in each city, though future games would abandon this prerequisite.
Assassin's Creed II
Lucy returns and breaks Desmond out of Abstergo, taking him to an Assassin safehouse and introduced to Shaun, a historian, and Rebecca, their technical support. Using an improved version of the Animus, Desmond takes witness to Ezio Auditore da Firenze, a young nobleman from the late 15th Century in
Florence, shortly before the execution of Ezio's father and brothers by order of a corrupt official working for the Templars. He and his mother and sister take to hiding at the Monteriggioni villa owned by his uncle Mario, who helps to train Ezio in the ways of an Assassin. Ezio and Mario discover that Rodrigo Borgia is the figurehead of a number of Templars all who were accomplices in the execution of his family, and with help of allies like
Leonardo da Vinci, methodically assassinate the lower-ranked Templars, while learning that Borgia has acquired a Piece of Eden called the Apple. Eventually, Ezio corners Borgia, who hands over the Piece and flees; Ezio is inducted into the ranks of the Brotherhood and believed to be a prophet based on their codex. A decade later, the Brotherhood learns that Borgia has since become
Pope Alexander VI, using the Church's influence to strengthen the Templars. Ezio invades
Vatican City and confronts Borgia, discovering that the Papal staff is also a Piece of Eden. Defeating Borgia but sparing his life, Ezio uses both the Apple and the Papal staff to reveal a chamber of ancient technology. Inside, he is addressed by a hologram of a humanoid female that calls herself Minerva who speaks directly to Desmond through Ezio. Minerva explains how her society had pre-dated humanity's, but a great disaster nearly wiped them out, and warns that another event is due to occur soon, putting the fate of humanity in Desmond's hands. At this discovery, Desmond and his allies find the safehouse has been compromised by Abstergo and flee.
Similar to the first game,
Assassin's Creed takes place in historical recreations of
Venice,
Florence,
Forlì,
San Gimignano, and the
Tuscan countryside, and incorporates events during that period as part of the story. Missions are divided into main story missions, themselves divided into memory sequences reflected points along Ezio's life, and side missions which can be accomplished at any time; this approach to mission structure remains consistent in the other games in the series. The Monteriggioni villa provides several functions which can be expanded on by paying money for upgrades of surrounding buildings, or by purchasing artwork, weapons, and costumes for the villa; in turn, the villa will generate wealth for the player at a rate influenced by the upgrades and acquisition of these items. Additional quests involve locating secret Assassin seals, and finding hidden marks left by "Subject 16", a former Animus user, that hint at the nature of Minerva's society.
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
Desmond and his allies retreat to the ruins of the Monteriggioni villa, and Desmond reenters the Animus to continue Ezio's memories, specifically to identify the location of the Apple. After facing against Rodrigo Borgia, Ezio returned to Monteriggioni, but the villa is soon attacked by forces under the command of
Cesare Borgia, Rodrigo's son. Mario is killed and the Apple is stolen. Ezio vows revenge by helping to free the people of Rome from the Borgia family. As Ezio works covertly to turn the city against the Borgias, he gains followers that want to join his cause, and Ezio trains them in the way of the Assassins. In an attempt to assassinate Cesare and Rodrigo at the
Castel Sant'Angelo, Ezio instead witnesses Cesare forcing his father to eat a poisoned apple that Rodrigo had prepared to kill his son. Ezio chases down Cesare and eventually captures him and recovers the Apple. Cesare is taken to prison in Viana, Spain but manages to escape with help of his allies. The Assassins lead the fight against Cesare and the remaining loyal Borgia troops, and eventually Ezio throws Cesare from the castle walls, killing him. With no perceived further threats, Ezio takes to hide the Apple under the
Colosseum. In the present, Desmond is able to navigate through the underground chambers beneath the Colosseum to locate the Apple. As he picks it up, Desmond is witness to another hologram figure, calling herself Juno, and who controls Desmond to stab Lucy (because Lucy has defected to the Templars) before he falls into a coma.
Brotherhood shares many of the same features as the previous game though it takes place primarily in Rome. Similar to the villa, the player is able to spend money to buy and upgrade shops and other facilities throughout the city as to increase revenue they can collect from it; however, the player will be required to destroy Borgia towers that control various sections of the city before they can do so. The Brotherhood of Assassins is introduced, by which, after saving citizens from certain events, the player can invite these citizens as Assassins; they can then be dispatched to remote locations across Europe to gain experience and money, or can be called in to help the player directly in a mission. For the first time in the series, the game features online multiplayer. Players play as Abstergo employees, who, through the use of the Animus, take on the genetic memories of Renaissance Templars in various game modes.
[7]
Assassin's Creed: Revelations
Desmond comes to consciousness in a virtual area within the Animus, the Animus Island, where he meets the digital personality of Subject 16. Subject 16 explains that from the trauma of stabbing Lucy, Desmond must complete the memories of both Altaïr and Ezio to be able to separate his mind from theirs and to allow him to come out of his coma; however, doing so will destabilize the island as the Animus recovers that memory segment and at one point Subject 16 sacrifices himself to allow Desmond to continue. Desmond rejoins Ezio's story many years after
Brotherhood, where Ezio is curious to the Assassin's origins and has traveled to Masyaf to locate their original headquarters. He finds Altaïr's library, though it is locked by five keys which the Templars are also seeking, believing there to be great power within it. Ezio travels to the Ottoman-era
Constantinople where the keys are said to have been hidden by explorer
Niccolò Polo, and finds the city embroiled by the feuding brothers
Selim and
Ahmet vying for the Sultanate, the Templars secretly behind the battle. While searching for the keys, Ezio meets and falls in love with
Sofia Sartor. Eventually, Ahmet is revealed as the agent for the Templars, and is killed by Selim, who thanks Ezio for his help but banishes him from the city for his own good.
Ezio - and through him, Desmond - uses the keys to witness Altaïr's memories following the death of Al Mualim. These show Altaïr having lost his wife and youngest son in the midst of a
coup d'etat within the Assassins followed by a twenty-year self-imposed exile. Eventually, Altaïr returned to Masyaf, killed the usurper, and retook control. Near death, Altaïr inscribed the keys with his memories and gave them to his friend Niccoló to hide at a distant location, before disappearing into his library forever. In Ezio's present, he and Sofia go to Masyaf and open the library to find Altaïr's corpse and the Piece of Eden he possessed. Ezio leaves the Piece as well as his assassin tools, and speaks directly to Desmond, knowing he was only a conduit for him, and hopes he finds the answer he needs. Desmond is then approached by another holographic figure, Jupiter, who explains that their society had tried to use technology to stop the destruction of the earth's surface by a massive
solar flare but failed, but they had stored their repository of knowledge in several vaults linked to a central vault which Desmond must use to stop another similar flare that will occur soon; Desmond recognizes the location in New England. Desmond wakes up from his coma, finding Rebecca, Shaun, and to his surprise, his father William, there. After learning that Lucy died from his stabbing, he informs of the location in New York, the Temple that will save humanity.
Revelations includes many new systems, including additional weapons. Bomb-crafting is now available, allowing the player to create explosive, distraction and tactical bombs, using materials found throughout the world and on Assassin's Guild missions. As the player progresses through, Ezio can train new recruits to defend "dens" (Assassin HQs) and an upgraded Assassin's missions section called "Mediterranean Defense" in which the player works to strip control of various cities from Templar hands. The hookblade is also introduced, which can be used in free-running (to travel along zip wires and climb more easily) and in combat (to manipulate enemies). Eagle Vision has been upgraded to Eagle Sense, which allows Ezio to not only see where his enemies and targets are but where they have been and where they are going to be. The multiplayer mode returns in Revelations, this time with more characters, modes, and maps, and by advancing up through levels of experience, the player learns more about Abstergo's history.
Assassin's Creed III
Desmond and his allies arrive at the Temple entrance in a cave in the New York area on October 31, 2012, and open its door using the Apple Of Eden, discovering a larger chamber of Precursor technology behind it, including another door requiring a key. Desmond suddenly falls into a
fugue state, and is put into the Animus. There, he experiences the memories of a half
Mohawk, half
British man named
Ratonhnhaké:ton (
//; "Ra-doon-ha-kay-doon"),
[8] later dubbed Connor (Achilles calls him this in memory of his dead son), who lived through the
American Revolution, as well as Connor's father, Haytham Kenway, who is later revealed as a British agent of the Templars. Kenway had gone to the Colonies in America with a stolen medallion, recruited Templar allies including
Charles Lee, and worked to gain the trust of the Mohawk people to get them to show him the location of the Temple, but to his annoyance, the medallion did not open the Temple for him. Connor, as a young boy, witnesses Lee and his troops set fire to his village, killing his mother; years later, he is shown a Piece of Eden, through which Juno speaks to him and instructs him to get training from Master Assassin Achilles Davenport. Achilles takes Connor and teaches him about Assassins and introduces him to Patriots in the Revolution, through which Connor stops several Templar plans to disrupt their efforts including an assassination attempt against
George Washington. During these memories, Desmond does recover from the fugue state, and helps his allies to recover power sources to power the Temple scattered about the globe, including one held by Abstergo.
Connor eventually encounters his father, but Kenway offers a cease fire, as he is also after Benjamin Church for usurping his authority. During their investigation, Kenway warns Connor that the Patriots, worried of the allegiance of the various tribes to the British, are seeking to remove Connor's people from their lands. Connor eventually hunts Lee down and kills him, taking the medallion and ending the Templar threat. He is despondent to find his tribe's village abandoned save for the Piece of Eden; through it, Juno tells him to bury the amulet. As December 21 approaches and signs of the solar flare begin to ensue, Desmond and his allies find the buried medallion, and use it at the inner Temple door, behind which is a control sphere. Juno appears and encourages Desmond to touch it, but Minerva appears and warns him to stop it, warning that this will release Juno as an entity that may protect against the solar flare but will be a threat to mankind in the future. Juno counters, explaining that Minerva would rather have most of humanity wiped out, with Desmond safe in the Temple to emerge as a religious figure to lead the survivors but ultimately leading into conflict. Desmond opts to release Juno, believing humanity will have a better chance fighting Juno. As his body is wracked by energy from the control sphere, an aurora surrounds the Earth and protects it from the solar flare. Juno tells the now fallen Desmond that his work is now done, and now it is time for her to do her work.
Assassin's Creed III is structured similarly to the previous games, with missions taking place on an open-world map based on Colonial Boston and New York, and offers a large wilderness area, the Frontier and in the Davenport Homestead, where the player can hunt animals for materials, which then subsequently can be used to construct goods to be traded and sold throughout the colonies. Naval battles were introduced, wherein the player must steer a warship named Aquila in dangerous waters and perform ship-to-ship combat with cannons and mounted guns. In Assassin's Creed III there are a large assortment of mini missions to play and many different outfits to purchase as the player progresses through the game. The modern-day aspects of the story were also significantly expanded, and featured missions taking place in, among other locations, Manhattan, Rome and Brazil.
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
Samples taken from Desmond Miles' body in the moments after his death have enabled Abstergo Industries to continue to explore his genetic memories using the Animus' newfound cloud computing abilities. The unnamed player character is hired by Abstergo's entertainment division to sift through the memories of Edward Kenway, an eighteenth-century pirate and the grandfather of Connor. Ostensibly, this is to gather material for an Animus-powered interactive feature film, but in reality, Abstergo and the Templars are searching for the Observatory, a Precursor structure that allows the user to see through the eyes of a subject. As Kenway, the player must unravel a conspiracy between high-ranking Templars to manipulate the British, Spanish and French empires into locating the Sage - later identified as
Bartholomew Roberts - who is the only man who can lead them to the Observatory.
In the present day, the player is contacted by John, Abstergo Entertainment's information technology manager. John convinces the player that his employer knows more than they are telling, and encourages them to investigate in more detail. He arranges for the player to access the Animus' core, at which point Juno materialises into an incorporeal form. She reveals that although it was necessary to open her temple to avert disaster, the world was not ready for her, and she is unable to affect it or possess the player character as her agents intended. John is unmasked as the reincarnated form of the Sage and attempts to murder the player to cover up the failed attempt at resurrecting Juno, but is killed by Abstergo's security before he can do so. As Roberts, the Sage admits to Kenway that he owes no allegiance to the Assassins or the Templars and instead uses whoever he thinks represents his best chance of achieving his ends.
Assassin's Creed Unity
On March 19, 2014, images leaked for the next game, titled or code-named
Unity, showing a new assassin in
Paris.
[9] On March 21, Ubisoft confirmed the game's existence, having been in development for more than three years, by releasing pre-alpha game footage.
[10] The game, which features up to four player co-op, a first for the series,
[11] will be set in Paris on the eve of the
French Revolution and follow Arno Dorian and his fellow assassins.
[12] It will be released in North America on the
PlayStation 4,
Xbox One and Windows on November 11, 2014 and in Europe and Australasia on November 13, 2014.
[13]
Assassin's Creed Rogue
By March 2014, a game titled or code-named "Comet", was revealed to be in development, for release on
PlayStation 3 and
Xbox 360.
[9] By the end of the month, additional reports indicated that "Comet" would be set around 1758 in New York, as well as feature sailing on the Atlantic Ocean. The game would be a direct sequel to
Black Flag, and would feature a Templar named Shay as the main protagonist. Haytham Kenway from
III and Adewalé from
Black Flag would also make appearances.
[14] On August 5, Ubisoft officially announced the game as
Assassin's Creed Rogue. The game features the Templar Shay Patrick Cormac, a first for the series, and is set during the
Seven Years' War across various locations in North America.
[15] It is meant to "fill the gaps" of the story between
III and
Black Flagand has "a crucial link to the Kenway saga", as well as connecting to
Unity.
[16] It will be released in North America on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on November 11, 2014
[15] and in Europe and Australasia on November 13, 2014.
[13] It will release on Windows in early 2015.
[17]
Other games
Assassin's Creed: Altaïr's Chronicles
Altaïr ibn-La'Ahad is sent on a mission from the Order of Assassins to retrieve a Chalice from the grasps of both the
Crusaders and the
Saracens. Altaïr quests to find three different magic keys then travels to
Jerusalem to face the head of the
Knights Templar, Basilisk. Upon arriving, he learns that the Chalice is not an object, but a woman named Adha who reveals that Altaïr has been deceived by an assassin named Harash, who is now a double-agent for the Templars. After killing both Harash and Basilisk, Altaïr attempts to save a kidnapped Adha from captivity but is too late. The game ends with a captured Adha sailing away and Altaïr left in the holy land.
Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines
Altaïr has traveled to
Cyprus from the Holy Land in order to assassinate the last remnants of the Templars. Here Altaïr again meets Maria and they travel together to kill the remaining Templars and learn more about the "Apple of Eden" and the mysterious Templar Archive where more of the artifacts are believed to be hidden. Altaïr manages to kill the new Templar Grand Master, Armand Bouchart, and his followers, but the Archive's contents are discovered to have already been taken from Cyprus.
Assassin's Creed II: Discovery
After losing the Apple of Eden to
Girolamo Savonarola, Ezio is told to meet Antonio, his fellow Assassin. When doing so, Ezio finds Antonio with another man named
Luis Santangel, who asks Ezio to rescue his friend
Christoffa Corombo from a presumed Templar trap set up by
Rodrigo Borgia. Ezio rescues Christoffa from this trap, and is informed that Assassins in Spain are captured and executed by
Tomas Torquemada. Ezio, who feels that it is his duty to rescue the Assassins, sets out for Spain to fight back against the Spanish Inquisition. Along the way, Ezio finds out that Torquemada was ordered to commit these actions by
Rodrigo Borgia, who leads Torquemada to believe that God desired it so. Ezio also finds out that his close allies, Luis Santangel and Raphael Sanchez, are in fact Assassins themselves. When finally confronting Torquemada, Ezio chooses not to kill him thinking that Torquemada is merely misled by Borgia and not a Templar himself. Ezio then returns to Italy to continue his search for the Apple of Eden.
Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy
Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy was a single-player
browser-based role-playing game Facebook application, designed as a promotion, and tie-in for
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. The game is mostly
text-based, but includes graphics and sound as well as some video.
Players are test subjects for Abstergo Industries who relive the lives of other test subjects' ancestors through the DDS (Data Dump Scanner) as opposed to the Animus. These ancestors are Assassins.
The second mission pack, entitled "Rome," was released November 16, 2010. The first chapter takes place between 1497 and 1503, and deals with the ex-courtesan, Fiora Cavazza. It deals with Fiora's involvement in recruiting an army for the Borgia, and her subsequent betrayal. The second takes place in 1503, and involves
Giovanni Borgia, fleeing his family and eventually joining the assassins. Chapter three involves Francesco Vecellio, and his training to be an assassin under Ezio Auditore. Chapter four again focuses on Giovanni Borgia, now an Assassin and joining
Hernán Cortés on his journey to
Tenochtitlan to acquire a "Piece of Eden," one of the
Crystal Skulls. Giovanni brought it to
Bombastus for study, resulting in the discovery of the formula for the
Philosopher's stone.
The third mission pack, entitled "Holidays," and its first Chapter called Ghosts of Christmas Past were released on December 21, 2010 with further missions to be released in 2011.
[dated info] The first chapter takes place at various times and places in history: during the
World War I Christmas Truce, the
Beagle 2 truth, the return of
Charles II back to
England, and the time of the
Shroud of Turin.
A fourth story pack, "The Divine Science Story Pack" was announced, but never released. Also, an updated user interface, referred to as the "DDS 2.0", was listed as coming soon, with enhancements and an easier way of choosing mission packs and crafting equipment, however this was also never released. The game is now offline and no longer available.
Assassin's Creed: Lost Legacy
Assassin's Creed: Lost Legacy was a planned title for the series. It would see Ezio travel to Masyaf. However, the concept evolved into what would become
Assassin's Creed: Revelations, and the 3DS title was announced as cancelled on July 15, 2011.
[18]
Assassin's Creed: Recollection
Assassin's Creed: Recollection is a real-time board game developed for
iOS. The game delivers a new experience to the
Assassin's Creed world in which fans and new players alike go head-to-head in real-time political battles with characters and locations from the franchise. Players can also unlock a collection of artwork, spanning the series. The game features over 280 Memories, reconnecting with characters from
Assassin's Creed 2 and
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. The single-player Story Mode has 10+ hours of gameplay, with 20 missions taking place from Barcelona to Constantinople and 10 challenge missions. In Versus Mode, players can challenge their friends and people from around the world, pitting their strategies and abilities against one another. The game supports
Game Center, allowing players to track achievements, challenge friends, and play against the world over. Go behinds the scenes with the Art Gallery, a collection of artwork spanning the entire franchise (
Assassin's Creed,
Assassin's Creed II,
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood,
Assassin's Creed: Revelations and
Assassin's Creed III) showcasing the high level of quality in character design as well as the attention to detail in the locations. Through the Store, players have the option to Buy Packs for the in-game currency, Animus Credits (Animus Credits may also be purchased through an In-App Purchase), or to Buy/Sell Memories from/to other players in the Market. The short film
Assassin's Creed: Embers is also featured within the game.
[19]
Assassin's Creed: Multiplayer Rearmed
Assassin's Creed: Multiplayer Rearmed is a multiplayer video game designed for
iOS. It is the only
Assassin's Creed Multiplayer driven by an in-game economy. The aim is to assassinate the assigned target and avoid being killed by your own hunter. The player can purchase additional items, characters and abilities as well as compete with friends and foes from around the globe in a 4 player realtime online multiplayer mode. Players can connect via
Game Center using either WI-FI or 3G. It is also possible to play against someone in the immediate area via Bluetooth. Available map locations include Jerusalem, San Donato, Venice and Alhambra.
[20]
Assassin's Creed III: Liberation
An original
Assassin's Creed title for the PlayStation Vita was announced to be in development during Gamescom 2011, and would feature a new story with new characters. On June 4, 2012 at E3,
Liberation was officially announced.
[21] The main protagonist is a Creole female, named Aveline.
[22] Aveline is the daughter of a French merchant father and an African mother. She is recruited into the Assassin Order by a former slave and fights against slavery as well as the Templars. Aveline uses a variety of new weapons in combat, including a machete and a blowpipe for ranged attacks.
It was announced on September 10, 2013, that the game would be re-released as
Assassin's Creed: Liberation HD for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows via the
PlayStation Network,
Xbox Live Arcade and
Steam, respectively, in January 2014.
[23]
Assassin's Creed: Utopia
Assassin's Creed: Utopia is a cancelled mobile game which was planned to be available on
Android and
Apple iOS devices.
[24][25] The game's story would have led into
Assassin's Creed III, though there would have been no links in terms of gameplay.
[26]
Utopia will take place in the 17th century, at the very beginning of the colonization of
America. It spans over 150 years, to help players "discover how the
Assassinsinfluenced history and helped shape the nation's original thirteen colonies."
[27] The gameplay involves "building your own
Assassin's Creed Utopian colonial city," and will have more of a "social slant" than any of the earlier games.
[citation needed] The Assassins of each colony will take on their enemies in "limited time epic battles," and players will be able to pit their strength against friends in asynchronous 3D brawls.
[27]
Assassin's Creed: Pirates
Assassin's Creed: Pirates is a mobile game, that was released on iOS and Android devices on December 5, 2013.
[28] Developed by
Ubisoft Paris,
[29] the game follows Captain Alonzo Batilla, who is neither Assassin nor Templar, as he commands a ship and crew, while crossing paths with the Assassins and Templars. Gameplay focuses on real-time battles between ships. The title is in 3D and features both wind and weather that will have an impact on how players proceed.
[30]
Assassin's Creed Memories
Assassin's Creed Memories is a mobile game that was released on iOS devices on August 20, 2014. Developed along with PlayNext and Gree, the game combines card collection and battling, target chasing, and strategy elements, along with the option of competitive multiplayer. Additional multiplayer options include allowing players to join a guild and then engage in 20 vs 20 guild combat scenarios.
Memories features different historical eras, including the Third Crusade, the golden age of piracy, feudal Japan and the Mongolian Empire.
[31]
Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China
Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China is an upcoming 2.5D action game for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows. The game is available with the purchase of
Assassin's Creed Unity ' DLC season pass, and features Shao Jun in
16th century China.
[32]
Assassin's Creed Identity
Assassin's Creed Identity is an upcoming game for IOS devices set to be released worldwide in early 2015. It is a 3D third person RPG game. Currently, it has been released as a soft-launch in Australia and New Zealand.
[33]
Future
Corey May, one of the writers for the series, stated in 2009 that
Assassin's Creed will never take place during
World War II.
[34][not in citation given] Asked about future of the series, Sébastien Puel from Ubisoft said that "[...] we could do 35 of these [
Assassin's Creed games]",
[35] while Laurent Detoc from Ubisoft said "we hope to reach
Assassin's Creed 10".
[36]
In November 2011, a Ubisoft survey was sent out, asking participants which locations and time periods they would like to see in the "next
Assassin's Creed games". These settings were
Medieval China,
Victorian England,
Ancient Egypt, the
Portuguese and/or
Spanish Invasion of the
Americas, the
American Revolution (which was used for
Assassin's Creed III), the
Russian Revolution,
Feudal Japan, and
Ancient Rome.
[37] Alex Hutchinson, creative director of
Assassin's Creed III, suggested the most requested
Assassin's Creed settings, World War II, Feudal Japan and Ancient Egypt, are "the three worst settings for an
Assassin's Creedgame".
[38] However, Hutchinson stated both he and May were open to the idea of a future entry set during the time of the
British Raj,
[39] which now consists of the modern states of
India,
Pakistan and
Bangladesh.
In June 2013, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot stated that there were three
Assassin's Creed games in development, with one presumably being
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, and another, the then-unknown
Assassin's Creed Unity. Guillemot said, "We are making sure the teams who are creating the different iterations have enough time—two years, three years, so that they can take risk and they can change the concept enough so that it can be appealing and fresh."
[40]
In August 2013,
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag 's director Ashraf Ismail, said that the ending of the franchise had been written. Ismail said "We have an idea of where the end is, what the end is. But of course Yves [Guillemot, Ubisoft's overall boss] announced we are a yearly title, we ship one game a year. So depending on the setting, depending on what fans want, we've given ourselves room to fit more in this arc. But there is an end."
[41] In a later interview, Ismail commented that he and the team would be interested in doing an
Assassin's Creed game in an Ancient Egyptian setting, along with reiterating an earlier statement that a female leading character was not an impossibility for the series.
[42]
In May 2014, Guillemot stated that
Assassin's Creed games would continue releasing on the last generation PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 "for the foreseeable future", despite the franchise moving to the current generation PlayStation 4 and Xbox One with
Assassin's Creed Unity.
[43]
Other media
Comics
Assassin's Creed: Graphic Novel
In the limited edition of
Assassin's Creed, an 8-page
graphic novel was included, that showed two side-stories of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad and Desmond Miles. The novel was also distributed to EB Games store managers in 2007 to promote the game. The story serves as a prelude to the first
Assassin's Creed game and is narrated simultaneously by both characters. In it, the novel covers Desmond's escape from Abstergo in the year 2012 and also one of Altaïr's assassination missions in the year 1191. The start of the novel involves the introduction of the two characters with Altaïr calling himself a hunter, while Desmond is a prisoner. Although initially they describe themselves otherwise, by the end of the novel they both re-introduce themselves as assassins.
Assassin's Creed, Volume 1: Desmond
Assassin's Creed Volume 1: Desmond is a French-language graphic novel written by Eric Corbeyran and drawn by Djilalli Defaux. It has been released only in France, Canada, Belgium, Poland and Italy. The comic book was published on November 13, 2009, a few days before
Assassin's Creed II was released.
[44] The story is a retelling of events from
Assassin's Creed and the beginning of
Assassin's Creed II, mostly from Desmond's modern perspective; for example it is revealed that Lucy helped the Templars to kidnap Desmond. It also features Subject 16 (referred to as Michael) and a
Roman assassin named Aquilus. However, events in the comic book are different from what happens in the game. It is said that Subject 16 is alive but trapped in the animus, a virtual reality simulator used to relive memories of ancient relatives, but there's no mention of Shaun or Rebecca.
[45]
Assassin's Creed, Volume 2: Aquilus
Assassin's Creed Volume 2: Aquilus is a French-language graphic novel written by Eric Corbeyran and drawn by Djilalli Defaux. The story opens with a young Desmond recalling his conversation with his father. He wakes up and has a conversation with Lucy. After meeting
Rebecca, Shaun and other assassins, they get into a truck and drive to
Monteriggioni.
In the meantime, Desmond relives memories of Aquilus through the animus after his apparent death in the first volume. The Roman assassin is rescued by his cousin, Accipiter, and is tasked with a quest to save
Lugdunum. He meets with his father and discovers an artifact of the first civilization: an
ankh which can temporarily revive the dead. The mysterious object is then stolen by a Templar senator, Vultur, who kills Aquilus' father.
The modern day story continues as Assassins fight Abstergo agents when they're ambushed on the road. Later, it is revealed that there's a traitor among in the Assassins' truck, and Desmond deals with the situation. The group finally arrives in Monteriggioni and at the end, it's hinted that the ankh artifact might be hidden within the town's walls.
Assassin's Creed, Volume 3: Accipiter
Jonathan Hawk was sent by a suited executive and a lab technician to relive Accipiter's memories. He was sent to 259 CE, when Accipiter's Alamans were crossng the Rodanus into Genava and Aube to face the Roman forces at Oppidum. The battle raged bloodily and long, but Accipiter's forces were eventually victorious. Accipiter was met by the Iberian Assassin Cuervo after the battle, the latter coming to congratulate the Alamans on their victory and to discuss the future.
Assassin's Creed: The Fall
In July 2010,
Ubisoft announced a three-part
comic book mini-series set in the world of
Assassin's Creed as a part of their
UbiWorkshop initiative.
[46] Ubisoft has hired illustrators
Cameron Stewart and
Karl Kerschl, both winners of multiple comic book awards.
[47] The first issue of the series was released on November 10, 2010, the second part on December 1, 2010. It was published by
WildStorm.
[48] The comic takes place between 1888 and 1908 in Russia and 1998 set in the United States. It follows Nikolai Orelov and his descendant Daniel Cross, a recovering alcoholic experiencing the bleeding effect in a therapist's office.
Assassin's Creed: The Chain
The Chain is a sequel comic to
The Fall that completes Nikolai Orelov's story as well as focusing on his descendant, Daniel Cross. The comic will also provide some light on the events of
Assassin's Creed III. It was released in mid-2012.
[49]
Assassin's Creed: Brahman
Brahman is set in 19th century India, and will introduce the new assassin, Arbaaz Mir. It is being written by Brendan Fletcher with art by Cameron Stewart and Karl Kerschl. It will be released in late-2013 in North America.
[50]
Films
Assassin's Creed: Lineage
Assassin's Creed: Lineage is a 36-minute film serving as a prequel to
Assassin's Creed II. The film, released in three parts on YouTube, promoted the game and is the first attempt for Ubisoft to make its first step in the film industry. It is about the story of Giovanni Auditore, Ezio's father, who investigates the mysterious assassination of Duke of Milan
Galeazzo Maria Sforza and first learns about Rodrigo Borgia's conspiracy.
Assassin's Creed: Ascendance
Ascendance is an animated short by
UbiWorkshop and
Ubisoft Montreal, which bridges the gap between
Assassin's Creed II and
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. It tells the backstory of
Cesare Borgia's rise to power. The animated short was released on November 16, 2010. The short story takes place in the middle of the events of Brotherhood as Ezio Auditore sits and gathers information about Cesare Borgia, from a hooded man who is later revealed to be Leonardo da Vinci. It is available for purchase on
Xbox Live,
PlayStation Store and
iTunes Store.
[51]
Assassin's Creed: Embers
Embers is an animated short film created by
UbiWorkshop. The film is included as a bonus in Signature and collector's editions of
Assassin's Creed: Revelations. UbiWorkShop released a teaser trailer on July 21, 2011, which was featured at Comic-Con 2011. The Embers trailer shows an older Ezio with his family. He fears someone is trying to get him.
[52][53] The developers described
Embers at the 2011 Comic Con, at the Assassins Creed panel as a final epilogue to Ezio's story, and although can be watched anytime, should be watched after the completion of
Assassin's Creed: Revelations story, to fully understand and complete the tale of Ezio Auditore da Firenze.
[54]
The short film follows an elderly Ezio, living a peaceful life in the Tuscan countryside with his wife Sofia and his children Flavia and Marcello and writing his memoirs. One day a stranger appears, a Chinese female Assassin called Shao Jun, who came to Ezio in order to seek knowledge of his life as an Assassin. Although Ezio prefers that Jun not stay, due to his desire to leave his days as an Assassin behind, Sofia allows her to stay for the night. The next day, Ezio catches Jun reading his memoirs and bids her to leave, but relents after she asks him about what it means to be an Assassin. While on a trip to
Firenze, Ezio then recounts his story of
how his father and brothers were executed in the town square, forcing him to become an Assassin, and how such a life is defined by the pain it brings and causes. As they leave, the two are attacked by a stranger, who appears to be of Asian origin as well. After killing him, Jun reveals that she was a former
concubine, now on the run from servants of the Chinese Emperor
Zhengde, and explains how her former master rescued her from his influence. After returning to his home, Ezio tells Sofia and his children to leave, knowing that others would come. He then teaches Jun the key to liberating her people from the Emperor's influence. Later that night, Ezio's villa is attacked by more of Shao Jun's enemies, and after a fight, he successfully eliminates them all. The next morning, Ezio hands Shao Jun a small box and tells her it may come to use one day, but only if "you lose your way". He then sends her away as two riders appear at the villa. Sometime afterward Ezio journeys to Firenze with his wife Sofia and their daughter Flavia, despite suffering from heart problems. While resting on a bench and after having a short conversation with a young man with a scar on his face, similar to the sort of man he used to be, he exhales and dies in view of his family. The film then ends as a final letter from Ezio to Sofia is read, saying that of all the things that kept him going throughout life, love for the world around him was the strongest of them all.
Theatrical film adaptation
"You know, we absolutely want to respect the game. There's so much cool stuff in the game that we're actually spoiled for choice in terms of what we can use and what we can't, but we also want to bring new elements to it and perhaps our own version of things that already exist in the game. But we're definitely making a feature film, and we're approaching it as a feature film, as opposed to approaching it as a video game. But I love the world... When I met up with the guys from Ubisoft and they started to explain this whole world and the idea of DNA memory – you know, I think it's a very feasible scientific theory. I just thought, 'This is so rich,' and about the possibility of it being this cinematic experience. So I'm really excited about it, and we're working very hard to make sure that we've got the best and most exciting, original package."
—
Michael Fassbender, star and producer of the film, on how much of the film would remain faithful to the game and how much would be an original story.
[55]
By October 2011,
Sony Pictures was in final negotiations with
Ubisoft Motion Pictures to make a film version of
Assassin's Creed,
[56] to be released in
3D.
[57] In July 2012,
Michael Fassbender was announced to star in the film, as well as co-produce the film through his DMC Film banner with Conor McCaughan.
[58] Jean-Julien Baronnet, CEO Ubisoft Motion Pictures, said Fassbender was the studio's first choice to star in the film. As well, negotiations between Sony Pictures and Ubisoft Motion Pictures was put on hold, with Ubisoft executives planning to develop the film independently in order to maintain greater creative control. Sony could still distribute the film, but Ubisoft Motion Pictures would not resume talks until packaging the project with a writer and director.
[59] In October, Ubisoft revealed the film would be co-produced with
New Regency and distributed by
20th Century Fox. New Regency will finance part of the film's production, in order for Ubisoft to not shoulder much financial risk, yet still be involved creatively. Baronnet also revealed Ubisoft hoped to release the film along with a new game launch for the series.
[60]
In January 2013, Michael Lesslie was hired to write the film.
[61] In May, it was announced that the film was to be released on May 22, 2015,
[62] which was later pushed back to June 19, 2015.
[63] In June 2013,
Frank Marshall entered negotiations to produce the film, along with Fassbender and McCaughan for DMC Film and Eli Richbourg for Ubisoft.
[64] In July,
Scott Frank revealed he was rewriting the script.
[65] In November, the film was pushed back once again to a new release date of August 7, 2015.
[66]
In January 2014, a
Linkedin profile for executive producer Fannie Pailloux stated filming was scheduled to begin in August 2014.
[67] In April 2014, Adam Cooper and Bill Collage were hired to rewrite the script.
[68] By the end of April,
Justin Kurzel was in talks to direct.
[69] In June,
Olivia Munn expressed interested in appearing in the film.
[70]
In early August 2014, FilmDivider cited inside sources as describing the setting of the film as being the
Spanish Inquisition, with Fassbender playing a Spanish Assassin named Aguilar de Agarorobo, as well as his modern day descendant - a convicted felon named Michael Lynch - who is being used by the Templars to further to cause in their war against the Assassins.
[71] In September 2014, the film was pushed to an unspecified 2016 release date.
[72]
Novels
Assassin's Creed: Renaissance
Assassin's Creed: Renaissance is a novel based on the
Assassin's Creed series written by
Oliver Bowden and published by
Penguin Books. It is a novelised version of the game
Assassin's Creed II; however, rather than spanning a vast period of time, it is set only in the 15th century with no mention of the game's present-day events.
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is a continuation of the Assassin's Creed series written by Oliver Bowden and published by Penguin Books. It is a novelized version of the game Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood just like its previous book. Also, it does not contain any of the game's present-day events including Desmond, only a reference to a "phantom" by Ezio. Unlike the events of the game which start in 1499, this version of the story starts in 1503.
Assassin's Creed: The Secret Crusade
Assassin's Creed: The Secret Crusade is the third
Assassin's Creed book by Oliver Bowden and published by Penguin Books. The story is told by
Niccolo Polo, father of
Marco Polo, and is about the life of Altaïr ibn la-Ahad. It was released on June 20, 2011.
[73]
Assassin's Creed: Revelations
Assassin's Creed: Revelations is the fourth novel in the continuation of the
Assassin's Creed series written by Oliver Bowden and published by Penguin Books. The novel release date is November 24, 2011 for the United Kingdom and November 29, 2011 for the North America. Like the previous novels of
Renaissance and
Brotherhood, it is a novelised version of the game
Assassin's Creed: Revelations. Additionally like the prior novels, it does not contain any of the game's present-day events including Desmond. Like the game, Ezio Auditore must leave his life behind in search of answers, in search of the truth. In Assassin's Creed: Revelations, master assassin Ezio Auditore walks in the footsteps of the legendary mentor Altair, on a journey of discovery and revelation. It is a perilous path—one that will take Ezio to Constantinople, the heart of the Ottoman Empire, where a growing army of Templars threatens to destabilise the region.
[74]
Assassin's Creed: Forsaken
Assassin's Creed: Forsaken is a continuation of the
Assassin's Creed series written by
Oliver Bowden. It covers the life of Haytham Kenway during his years before and during the events of
Assassin's Creed III.
Books
Assassin's Creed: Encyclopedia
UbiWorkshop released an encyclopedia of the
Assassin's Creed series in 2011. Initially intended as an art book, the project gathered so much material that the company decided to expand it into an encyclopedia. It will still feature works of artists, such as Craig Mullins, Tavis Coburn, 123Klan, Gabz and James NG. Artists were given creative freedom, as they were able to create a unique Assassin from the period of their choosing. The art book contains a "carte blanche" section, which is going to contain fan-submitted artwork. The original cost of this is $39.95.
[75][76]
In November 2012, to coincide with the release of
Assassin's Creed III, UbiWorkshop released a second edition of the encyclopedia. This Edition contained an additional 120 new pages of content, covering both
Assassin's Creed III and
Assassin's Creed: The Chain, as well as revised content based on feedback.
[77]
In other media
In the 2009
Wii game
Academy of Champions: Soccer, Altaïr appears as a playable character along with other Ubisoft characters.
[78] In the 2012 game
Soulcalibur V, Ezio appears a playable fighter.
[79] Sackboy, the player character from
LittleBigPlanet and
its sequel, can be costumed as Ezio.
[80] In
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands there is an unlockable outfit through Uplay.
[81] In
Prince of Persia (2008), Altaïr's Costume can be unlocked with a code obtained by pre-ordering the game.
[citation needed] Final Fantasy XIII-2 has a costume of Ezio from
Assassin's Creed: Revelations as an optional costume option as DLC.
[82] In PC/Mac versions of
Team Fortress 2, two promotional items were introduced in 2011 months before Assassin's Creed:
Revelations' release. These were both for the class Spy, the first item being the iconic hidden blade, the second a hood based on the one Ezio wore in
Revelations.
[citation needed] In
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, the outfit of
Altaïr is available as an unlockable, though, originally, it was only an April Fools joke by
Hideo Kojima.
[citation needed] In the 2011
Indian film
Velayudham, the superhero costume worn by the protagonist is visibly based on Altaïr's in
Assassin's Creed.
[83][84]
Reception
The
Assassin's Creed series, particularly the main games, have received acclaim from fans and critics, many of whom have called
Assassin's Creed "...the standout series on this generation of consoles".
[137] The series has sold over 73 million copies as of April 2014.
[138]
References
