Assassin's Creed is a science fiction series of video games, chronicling the experiences of Desmond Miles, a bartender, who has been caught up in ancient war between two mighty organizations, the Knights Templar, who wish for mankind to be united in peace under their enlightened control, and the Assassins, who believe that Humans Are Flawed and the desire to control other humans is the greatest flaw humans possess.Desmond, as it turns out, has ancestors who were prominent members of the Assassin organization, and through an invention known as the Animus, he can relive their genetic memory, which contains valuable information to the efforts of both the Templars and the Assassins...
Animal Motif: Eagles for the Assassins. Their symbol looks like a bird, Altaïr's cloak has a beak-like hood and slits at the back that resemble tailfeathers, eagles are seen circling View Points, and Altair and his descendants have a special ability called Eagle Vision. Altair and Ezio's names are both derived from the word for Eagle in Arabic and Greek respectively.
Annoying Arrows: Arrows don't do much damage to Altaïr or Ezio.
Arc Number: 9 (Altaïr kills nine men for Al Mualim, Ezio assassinates Savonarola's nine lieutenants during the Bonfire of the Vanities and Brotherhood and Revelations both have nine sequences) and 72 in Brotherhood.
Arc Words: "Nothing is true. Everything is permitted."
Desmond's white hooded sweatshirt. Just picture it with the hood up.
Altaïr, Ezio and Desmond all have a virtually identical scar on their lips. Ezio acquires his in the tutorial for the second game.
Audible Sharpness: The hidden blade has a very iconic "SCHWING!" sound that plays whenever you assassinate someone with it. By contrast, activating it when nobody is around just makes a slight clicking noise.
Badass Creed: "Nothing is true. Everything is permitted." "We work in the dark to serve the light. We are assassins."
Badass Family: Desmond's ancestors. By the time Desmond is born, the only remnant he has of his mighty ancestry is a penchant for white hoodies. This doesn't last, however.
Benevolent Architecture: Assassin's Creed does a marvelous job with introducing grab points throughout the city. With about 5 minutes of practice, you'll find yourself running through the rooftops and alleyways fluidly without stopping.
Color-Coded for Your Convenience: All factions' guards wear clearly distinctive armor colors so you can tell them apart at a glance. Revelations goes further in that the Ottomans and Byzantines have different dot colors on the minimap, since you can lure them into fighting each other.
Combat Pragmatist: Altaïr is a master at fighting dirty. Ezio follows in his footsteps. When they say "Everything is permitted", they mean everything is permitted.
Counter Attack: One of the highlights of the combat system is the elaborate and visually spectacular counters, to the point of having a different set of animations for each weapon type. In fact, counters are the only effective way to fight multiple opponents in Open Combat up until Brotherhood introduces kill streaks and combo kills, making it practical to go on the offensive for the first time in the series.
For starters, the Hashshashin themselves. IRL(as far as we know), they were Hassan-I-Sabah's private army, and brainwashed with drugs to boot. They built a reputation at the time as his enemies were Asshole Victims who they eliminated with a minimum of collateral damage.
King Richard I of England, however, got a fairly realistic representation: he went by the title "Lionhearted" even in his own day, and it did not refer to heroism but a love of combat. So, though he's driven to conquer Jerusalem, he keeps his promise to listen to Altaïr finally after he beats Robert De Sable in single combat, and lets Altair go free afterwards. He's undeniably a jerkass, but he's still portrayed in a relatively positive manner - basically a Noble Demon.
Lorenzo de'Medici is portrayed as being a devout republican and a benevolent ruler. In reality, like all the noble families in the Italian city-states, the Medicis were Machiavellian schemers who committed all sorts of immoral acts to maintain their power. If you click the extra-information tab, it's at least acknowledged how he did terrible things. At least it's shown in Lineage short how Lorenzo brutally tortures an agent of his enemies for information, and in Brotherhood Lucrezia Borgia claims, probably truthfully that he quashes the families of his rivals utterly, even those who had nothing to do with the plots against him.
Speaking of Machiavelli...
And who can forget how Leonardo da Vinci got an upgrade in heroism, despite only being the sort-of deuteragonist? Notable changes include that his inventions work, are completely functional and can be used at nearly any time. Plus he's the main character's BFF.
According to some fan-theories, the events of the games are filtered through Altair and Ezio's impressions of them. Such as the way beggars in AC 1 would bother Altair and only Altair.
Not to mention that with their advantage in information control, the Templars would obviously try to slander any historical figure who allied themselves with the Assassins.
Rodrigo Borgia was certainly a murderous, conniving asshole in real life and as Alexander VI, generally considered to be the worst pope in the history of the Catholic Church; it turns out he was secretly the cacklingmonstrousleader of the Templars during the Renaissance. Oh, and he thought Christianity was bunk, but became Pope anyway just for the power.
Savonarola in the Bonfire of the Vanities DLC, although in fairness AC was hardly the first to come up with this portrayal. Granted he was definitely extreme by modern standards, but people forget that the reason Savonarola was able to carry out his famous Bonfire was because the people of Florence were sick and tired of watching wealthy Italian families flaunt their vast fortunes by commissioning ludicrously expensive sculptures and paintings while the rest of society was beset by plague and poverty. By the standards of the time he was practically a popular revolutionary. Hell, in the 1990s he was even nominated as a candidate for sainthood (he didn't win though, obviously). Notably however, he is not a Templar and even crossed the Borgia, so in Brotherhood one of the Borgia-aligned heralds can occasionally be heard taking a potshot at his reputation.
Leap of Faith: The trademark skill of the Assassins (along with the Hidden Blade), consisting of a swan dive down into conveniently-placed haystacks. All recruits are required to perform this as part of their initiation as full Assassins.
Legacy Character: The basic premise of the games is that Desmond is a convergence of the bloodlines of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad and Ezio Auditore da Firenze (who are not related to each other despite the implications of the second game).
Le Parkour: Nearly everyone in the games who is either an Assassin or a target of an Assassin has amazing free-running skills, even people you wouldn't expect to like overweight (and heavily dressed) Church officials. Free-running is apparently a hereditary skill of the Assassin bloodline as a result of their unusual ancestry.
"Altaïr" is Arabic for "the flying one" or "the flying eagle." Altaïr is also the name of the brightest star in the constellation Aquila, which is Latin for "Eagle". In full: Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad is "Flying Eagle", "Son of None".
"Miles" means "soldier" in Latin.
The Italian name "Ezio" derives from the Greek word aetos, which means "eagle".
Al Mualim translates literally to "The Teacher".
'Animus' is Latin for "soul", and in Modern English usage it can refer to a grudge or purpose.
Malik Al-Sayf is Arabic for "King of Swords".
Mobstacle Course: Fortunately, you can shove them away. In the second game, Ezio can create these with well-aimed money tosses. It's a pretty convenient way of blocking pursuing guards for a few seconds while you're running away. In Revelations, Ezio can use a Pyrite Bomb to scatter fake coins at a distance, distracting guards and civilians alike.
The Assassins, both in the past and present. While the 1191 Assassins seemed fairly close to the historical Muslim sect, the Assassin Tombs that can be visited in AC II house the remains of a Mongol, Chinese, Egyptian, Persian, and Babylonian Assassin, amongst others. The Templars can also be seen as an evil version of this.
On start-up the player is assured that the game was created by one of these as well.
Altaïr and Ezio never actually die; Desmond gets "desynchronized" from their memories, so the Animus re-initializes the memory.
Both Assassins can deliver supposedly non-lethal finishing moves when fighting unarmed.
Notice This: The Animus causes all useful and/or quest-related objects to glow and emit Matrix Raining Code, and they frequently emit an audio cue when you're nearby as well. Eagle Vision/Sense is the ultimate version, allowing you to identify and distinguish all important objects by color.
Ezio starts each one of his games by getting injured and having to find healing.
Ezio climbs a tower with a close friend/family member/fellow Assassin near the start of every game.
Puzzle Pan: Used extensively in the various platforming sequences, especially in the vaults/tombs/crypts that are puzzle-based rather than stealth-based. A minor version is used whenever the game wants to call attention to a particular jump you're supposed to make, frequently resulting in Stop Helping Me! as it screws up the directional controls.
Refuge in Audacity: In-Universe, when Thieves steal from people, they openly run up to them and do the deed visibly. No one protests. But when Ezio does it sneakily, the victim can somehow recognise him and try to fight back.
Stop Helping Me!: In the platforming sequences, the camera will often helpfully pan over to demonstrate your intended jump, but throws off your directional controls since they are relative to the camera, not the character.
0 reviews