Altaïr ibn-La’Ahad,Ezio Auditore da Firenze and Desmond Miles
Those are the current characters we have played as in my personal favorite franchise, Assassin’s Creed. I have loved many games in our modern age, Fallout 3, Red Dead Redemption, No More Heroes, etc. However none of those games are as good, in my opinion, as what Assassin’s Creed currently is.
This franchise began following the wonderful Altaïr ibn-La’Ahad, an assassin born in 1165 who becomes the Master Assassin of his time. His name, and the locales he travels through, implies a Middle Eastern origin. He is a mostly no-nonsense man and gets his job done the best he can.
Ezio Auditore da Firenze is an Italian nobleman, dragged into the assassin’s order after his father and siblings are hanged in front of him. Ezio goes from a cocky young man out for revenge, to the head of the Italian order of Assassins.
Desmond Miles is the descendant of both Altaïr and Ezio and he relives their lives through the Animus technology. He works with a group of modern day Assassins in the year 2012 as they fight to stop the modern day Templars from finding every artifact of Eden. By the end of Altaïr’s story, Desmond has inherited and is able the use the Eagle vision that Altaïr was able to use. This demonstrates how Desmond inherits the traits of his ancestors through use of the Animus. During Ezio’s story, Desmond finds himself reliving a memory of Altaïr without the use of the Animus meaning that he is connecting with his family history on a level that could not have been seen. As Desmond breaks from Animus use, he finds he has inherited every ability of Ezio, from his parkour to his ability to use hidden blades. Desmond becomes the Assassin that his ancestors were and he is being trained for the inevitable battle between Templars and Assassins.
And that just sounds fucking epic.
One of my favorite parts of this series is that it isn’t even about the character you spend 99% of the time playing as. The series is about Desmond and what he is going through to stop the Templars. The entire series is leading to a modern day showdown between Assassins and Templars. Desmond is experiencing strong bleeding effects as he is able to do everything Ezio could, he has Eagle Vision and whatever else happened in Brotherhood. I unfortunately haven’t had a chance to play it yet.
The point is that Ubisoft has crafted a beautiful world full of things that are simply amazing and well thought out. The mysterious subject 16, whose secret in the glyphs was key to the storyline, shows that the Assassins are special, moreso than just by ancestry. Subject 16 is directly related to Adam and Eve of biblical fame who are seen running with The Apple, which gives humans many powers they would not otherwise.
The story is full of hundreds of things going on at any given point and it’s all so wonderful and amazing. A race that is essentially “living gods” and humans mated to create Assassins who have special powers that humans do not, Assassins are meant to protect the world from being destroyed, Desmond is the key to saving the world thanks to his genetics, the Assassins are spread throughout the world and so much more. The story is so amazingly crafted and the very concept of Assassin in this series is breathtaking in its own right.
I personally believe that the final Assassin’s Creed game, likely number 3 as it takes place in the year 2012, will be the best game in the ten years in which it is released. It will be a masterpiece of a videogame and I will be in love with it. Ubisoft is going to make it great and there are so many directions it can be taken. It is no secret that Assassin’s Orders are found throughout the world and the comics show Assassins from countries we have not played in. Just like the Templars, the Assassins are a global thing meaning that we only know a small portion of it all. Desmond may be the Assassin we are playing as, but there are thousands more out there. Though the men and women that Desmond is currently working with may not have the genetics of a true Assassin, they are definitely Assassins. The final Assassin’s Creed could be a global hunt for the last Artifact of Eden or even for the garden of Eden itself. Desmond must find Eve which implies that she exists in some form.
The last Assassin’s Creed could be a global unification of the Assassins fighting Templars off at every turn helping Desmond find Eve and the artifacts of Eden. Desmond is key but Assassins are definitively a special brand of human. They are a mix between Those Who Came Before and Humans giving them special abilities and connecting every Assassin to a similar origin. Desmond and Subject 16 are both related to Ezio and Altaïr and I’m sure hundreds more are as well. Desmond has always known of the Assassins and the Templars but now he’s been thrown into their world again and he is The Key to the survival of the world.
I am personally in love with this series because I think it’s wonderfully crafted and the single best new series in recent years. I love the character of Ezio and his story was wonderfully crafted. Desmond’s persona and his history is beautifully done and seeing a protagonist that is slowly going insane and still must save the world is a groundbreaking concept in my idea. The intertwining of history with fiction and games is fantastic and I simply cannot describe this series in its entirety. It’s fun, it’s great and each game improves. The second game fixed everything that was wrong with the first, Brotherhood is said to have fixed the combat and the multiplayer looks disturbingly addictive and the final one brings everything we’ve worked for into modern day. Climbing the Taj Mahal and the Burj Dubai would be the greatest thing in history.
The Assassin’s Creed series is a masterpiece and I cannot wait to shed tears of joy when the series comes to a close and this story is said and done.
