Assassin's Creed. A series of games created by the French Canadians (etc) about stabbing famous people and helping high school students do better in history class. The formula is pretty much the same for most of the games, lost of stealth coupled with socio political intrigue < thesaurus >. You take on the role of a recently inducted member of the Assassins' guild, an organization who's motives are unclear in the beginning of the series, however as you progress they let you know that stabbing people for money is good for the histories. The games take you to major cities all over the globe, simulated in a machine from memories of a guy I didn't care about at all.
Desmond is a vessel for the story, he's defended from long line of bad asses, and a la Dune all these memories are sleeping in him. Well the sleeper has awakened, indeed! I think fondly back on the first few iterations of game, like someone thinks back on their first car. It broke down a lot, it wasn't perfect, but it did the job nicely. The first Assassin's Creed game teaches us that parkour is not only an ancient form of travel, but is down right necessary to get where you're going in a hurry. Completing missions leads to jumps forward in time and story events so that you're not living our your ancestors lives as they buy groceries and go to the bathroom, getting us to the real point of the game. The stabbings. The hidden blade always dominated the weapon selection for me. There's nothing like dropping from the top of a church onto an unsuspecting foe forcing the blade bound to your wrist into his fleshy bits and watching him crumple like a poorly constructed IKEA hamper... there's something Freudian about that I'm sure...
The second Assassin's Creed game drops Altair Ibn-La'Ahad and picks up with Ezio Auditore de Firenze, a frisky young Italian man who develops a friendship with Leonardo da Vinci, has much coitous, and wants to stab the pope. A man's man. This game is very much the same as the first, new weapons and abilities are added to your arsenal, such as two... count em TWO hidden blades for twice the stabbing fun. The game and the 2 that follow it in Ezio's story line start to get a bit our there with the stuff going on in the "real" world... but hey, it's damn cool!
Assassin's Creed 3 is the most recent entry in the series and boy is it different. Where as the last few games introduced the ability to recruit new Assassins to your group, train them up and send them to do your dirty work, this one introduces naval battles! Yes that's right, you, your tall ship and it's many guns can roam the high seas obliterating pirates and the British alike. The game is set around the time of the American civil war... or something like that... you play as native American... *long breath in* Ratonhnhae:ton... or Connor for short. His into into the guild come as he stumbles upon a mentor after sleeping in his horse barn. Oh the stories. They went off the reservation with this one... and added a surprisingly fun game mechanic. Running over building has always been a fun and free part of Assassins' Creed, but this time... you're in the forest bro! Leaping from tree to tree in a way that would make George of the Jungle ashamed of himself. You hunt, you trade, you kill the English and eventually wind up making a giant cup of tea out of the Boston harbour. Good fun. Good game. Once again the combat is pretty predictable, guy 1 attacks and waits until it's his turn again before doing anything else. It's predictable but enjoyable as open combat is never the focus of these games. You get some distinctly native weapons, bows and arrows, tomahawks and snares. Connor is nowhere near as likeable as Ezio, but common... who is?
This game wraps up the series well without making it impossible to bring it back in the future. Long story short, good times though time.
No comments:
Post a Comment