History of Assassin's Creed (2007 - 2018)

welcome back everybody my name is Nick 930 and to celebrate the upcoming release of Assassin's Creed Odyssey I want to share with you the complete history of one of my favorite game franchises Assassin's Creed [Music] Assassin's Creed is a third-person action-adventure series set across various time periods that tasks players with exploring massive open world environments running across rooftops and assassinating key targets the game has evolved significantly since 2007 debut and to celebrate the upcoming release of the 10th main installment of the series depending on which games you consider to be part of the main installment I want to look back at the history of where this game series came from and how it's changed over the past decade before I began doing research for this video I had a slight suspicion that the Prince of Persia series in action-adventure franchise that Ubisoft has long abandoned despite its incredible success in the mid 2000s had some form of influence over the initial inception of the Assassin's Creed franchise and sure enough according to an article written by edge magazine this is exactly the case after development up 2003's Prince of Persia and the sands of time ended the director patrice désolé was tasked with creating a sequel called prince of persia assassin which would put more of a focus on a new assassin character and pushed the prince as a side character that the player would need to interact with Ubisoft decided this would not be a good decision for the Prince of Persia IP and allowed disel aid to continue work under a new intellectual property by 2006 a new trailer had released confirming the existence of Ubisoft's newest property called Assassin's Creed and gamers are created - one of the most unique upcoming game franchises for the next-generation consoles at the time players would assume the role of a legendary assassin and would be able to climb around a massive open world city environment evading soldiers armed with swords and jumping across rooftops it was a highly ambitious concept that seemed impossible at the time but the insane action of Assassin's Creed would indeed be possible and released for the next generation platforms in fall 2007 the original Assassin's Creed gave players control of a modern-day bartender named Desmond Miles the game starts off very mysteriously with Desmond undergoing a series of strange sci-fi tests in the Abstergo industries building mainly involving a memory simulation device called Dee animus the animus allows people to access their ancestors memories and relive moments in the past which conveniently allows the players to have direct control over those events and freely explore historical cows this modern day plotline is given mostly a backseat to the narrative that takes place during the Third Crusade and is a plot device that will be explored occasionally throughout the series back in 1191 players are good control of an assassin named after our eben Ahad a legendary Syrian assassin during the Third Crusade the assignments of the game have you exporting various large cities including akka Damascus and Jerusalem after failing an early mission Altair is stripped of his rank and required to hunt down nine targets throughout the region all of which belonged to a secret organization called the Knights Templar after eliminating the last of these temp bars Altair learns an unsettling truth about the ancient precursor civilization and the game ends on a massive cliffhanger the gameplay is what really made Assassin's Creed special 2007 though with a completely new style of fluid climbing controls never before seen in a videogame the most impressive part of the Assassin's Creed games was its seamless freeform climbing mechanics first simply need to run up walls and watch as out there grabbed onto every nook and cranny along the side of a structure making every object in the game world climbing ball it wasn't perfect with several walls not being scalable and some awkward controls resulting in some unfortunate deaths but when it did function correctly it looks awesome player combat was also unique in that very few games had attempted melee focused combat before pers could draw their swords and get into real sword fights with Knights on castle walls and if they felt like they were being overwhelmed it could run away resulting in an epic chase with onlooking guards joining in as he passed by Assassin's Creed despite its heavy emphasis on high-octane action and chases is also partially a stealth game and the original game implemented a cool feature rarely used in games prior social stealth players could move through crowds realistically without tire using his arms to push through people sit on benches to blend in and even join a group of praying monks these were not only cool moves but also fundamental to the game's mission structure targets often required a bit of finesse and careful movement to approach closely and eliminate with a secret hidden blade attached to the underside of the player's hand after eliminating a primary target an epic chase would begin with the entire city on alert and players need to use every tool at their disposal to escape the overall game concept was amazing but it did become repetitive after a few missions with each main assassination requiring to grind out repetitive investigation missions and al tires various abilities feeling severely limited when considered that he's supposed to be a master assassin still even with these issues the game introduced players to one of the most clever and unique concepts ever made and would only be expanded upon further with later titles graphically this original 2007 game still holds up surprisingly well it sported some high resolution textures decent albeit static lighting effects and some brilliant animation designs though a major complaint at the time was the game serious lack of color variety something that many titles in the late 2002 suffer from most of the game was a sea of white brown and red with trees looking washed out but this was excusable at the time when concerning the insane size of the open-world environment and it also worked well with the games setting ups at this point maps of the size and density were unheard of streets were filled with moving NPCs that would all be interacted with and the cities resembled actual real world cities from that time period thanks to extensive research by the development team Assassin's Creed was a very graphically ambitious title and one that would grow each year and continue to push the boundaries further critically Assassin's Creed managed to score in the low 80% range with many reviewers finding fault with the game's repetitive mission structure but praising the revolutionary visual direction and unique gameplay mechanics the original Assassin's Creed was a massive achievement not just for Ubisoft but for gaming in general it broke away from the mold of the first-person shooter and the typical stealth action genre and delivered an experience unlike any other and while it's a shame that its inception would also result in the untimely death of the Prince of Persia franchise this initial step would help make Assassin's Creed one of the biggest video game franchises of the next decade with sales often performing well past expectations and it was no surprise when a sequel was announced in the year gap between the original game and its upcoming sequel Ubisoft contracted Gameloft Bucharest to develop a mobile spin-off title featuring Alta air for the Nintendo DS and various other mobile platforms like Android and iOS LT airs chronicles would detail events prior to the original Assassin's Creed title but outside of a few introductory cutscenes there isn't much in terms of story here this game featured a sort of isometric game design with players capable of exploring a linear world assassinating enemies and climbing structures unique features included the ability to use a touchscreen to pickpocket enemies but not really much else Altair's chronicles received mixed reviews and was nothing more than a quick to fill the void as gamers waited for the next big entry to the series after the success of the original game Ubisoft tripled the development team size and began work on a sequel the game was officially revealed to the public in spring of 2009 and will release that fall under the name Assassin's Creed 2 Assassin's Creed 2 takes place soon after the present day events in the original game with Lucy Stillman the undercover assassin freeing desmond miles from the templars at Abstergo industries after this escape desmond is greeted by a team of underground assassins and is put through a makeshift animus device in an attempt to uncover more information about his ancestors this time the story takes players to the Italian Renaissance and players take control of fan-favorite Ezio Auditore da Firenze a Ezio is a reckless but lovable character and already huge improvement over the dull uncharismatic character that was out there after his father and brothers are falsely accused of treason and murdered Ezio vows revenge and works with his uncle Mario to become an assassin much like the first game players are tasked with hunting down a number of Templars only this time Ezio as a vengeance drives the action more and delivers a more compelling narrative as a result the game takes players to many Italian cities including Florence Forli and even the canals of Venice at sea as adventures also bring him to meet some famous historical figures including Leonardo da Vinci who helps invent all sorts of cool new weapons and gadgets to eight Ezio in his quest Assassin's Creed 2 improved on all the criticism that the original game received by making the open-world a far more enjoyable experience the game's missions were more varied and fun to complete with various objectives like races assassinations and stealth missions being mixed in taking full advantage of Ezio's expanded arsenal hidden catacombs inside massive cathedrals offered fun platforming and puzzle solving opportunities more in line with what was in the old prince of persia titles and completing all these tombs of reward players without tires master assassin outfit combat was improved allowing for counter attacks that better streamline the action making it so players could instantly kill enemies with brutal takedowns thanks to da Vinci Ezio is armed with an expanded arsenal including a second hidden blade allowing for double assassinations and a small hidden gun which could be used to shoot targets from a distance players also had more options for takedowns including air assassinations alleged takedowns and could even grab enemies and pull them into a hiding spot players could more easily blend in with crowds in the pritu further expanding on one of the franchise's most unique aspects and a notoriety system was added in which force players to carefully choose their actions to avoid detection Ezio was also the first assassin series to learn how to swim thankfully making navigating the canals of Venice a much more enjoyable experience when players weren't climbing around cities and assassinate people they could spend their earn Florence on various items from shopkeepers including character upgrades armor and even dyes to change the appearance of the character's clothes this features expanded upon even further when players visit their homestead in Monterey Joanie where they can invest money into fixing old broken-down shops in the area and collect earn revenue for themselves all these new features greatly enhance the gameplay experience making assassin's creed 2 and instant classic and the franchise and one of the most popular entries to the series Assassin's Creed 2 also features some excellent visual enhancements picking the Italian Renaissance as this games theme was genius as it allowed the developers to greatly improve the game's overall color variety though despite that more colorful setting the game still looks rather lifeless when compared to more recent titles character models also saw big improvements with more detail and smoother animations the open worlds were significantly larger than before and the AI felt more consistent and livelier Assassin's Creed 2 was met with high critical acclaim all round averaging in at around 90% with many plays in the game's expanding gameplay direction and excellent storyline gamers love the expanding arsenal and improvements to the move set and also loved the new character Ezio he was so popular even that Ubisoft felt they could move on just yet and while the core developers started work on the next main entry to the series a separate team was designated to work on a few spin-off titles featuring more Ezio alongside the release of AC to Ubisoft also released two mobile games Assassin's Creed bloodlines for the PlayStation Portable and Assassin's Creed 2 discovery for the Nintendo DS bloodlines featured a full 3d environment complete with many of the primary game mechanics like being able to climb buildings and assassinate guards but due to the technical limitations of the PlayStation Portable was significantly scaled back crowds were basically non-existent and combat felt overly simplified bloodlines expanded on the outs higher storylines slightly though ultimately adds nothing to the overall plot the game received poor reviews from critics with most finding fault in the game's scaled back experience when compared to the main entries discovery was a 2d stealth action game that incorporated some very rudimentary Assassin's Creed elements like climbing and assassinating and would add a tiny bit more to Ezio storyline discovery was received slightly better than bloodline with critics enjoying the 2d design choice but disliking the awkward control scheme and overall lackluster level design soon after the hugely successful Assassin's Creed 2 a production began on Assassin's Creed Brotherhood a direct follow-up to the story of Ezio Auditore the Brotherhood takes place immediately after the events of AC 2 with the modern-day assassins escaping the Templars in hiding out in the ruins of Montpellier Joannie Ezio's homestead in the previous game still focus on finding the apple of Eden the team sends Desmond back into the memories of Ezio and a story also begins where it left off in AC 2 with Ezio and his uncle Mario fleeing the city of Rome after recovering the Apple soon after returning home Rodrigo Borgia son seseri attacks the auditory bill with an army killing Mario and stealing the Apple for himself this forces Ezio and his remaining family members to once again flee only now they set up shop in the heart of Rome itself here Ezio must rebuild the weakened Assassin's Brotherhood back to its former strength and wage a shadow war against the Borgias and Templars controlling the city the game ends on a huge cliffhanger in the modern-day timeline after they discover the location of the Apple villain and attempt to recover it unlike past entries Assassin's Creed Brotherhood takes place mostly in a singular massive recreation of the city of Rome many of the same gameplay elements returned from the previous game but with even more simplified and refined combat controls a few new minor features like the ability to throw melee weapons or shoot crossbows and a few fun gadgets like da Vinci's parachute the horses which were featured in the past two were made to be more useful in Brotherhood and could be ridden throughout the entire map rather than being restricted to areas outside of castle walls one of the most notable new features in Brotherhood is the new Brotherhood management which function as a sort of meta game where you'd recruit civilians train them and have them fight for you these recruits could also be called upon during normal gameplay conditions taking out groups of enemies for you in assisting in battle there were also unique missions given by Leonardo da Vinci throughout the game that allowed you to test out some of his more bizarre inventions including a tank and a flying machine ac Brotherhood also featured its own multiplayer mode which tasked players with assassinating specific targets in crowded streets while also avoiding being killed by someone else it was a unique take on a donna of competitive multiplayer that shared a lot of similarities to classic quarry based games like the ship visually Brotherhood made some substantial improvements from a greater distance better environmental design any much richer color palette finally ridding the series of its ugly washed out tone once again critics loved Assassin's Creed Brotherhood praising its excellent level design engaging story and unique gameplay mechanics and Ubisoft saw fit to keep the streak going by revisiting Ezio story one more time in 2011 the head of Ubisoft confirmed that their goal for now on would be to provide an annual release for the popular Assassin's Creed franchise and that despite earlier reports that they'd be taking a year off that would in fact be a new main entry to the series in 2011 Ubisoft Montreal once again took the lead on the next entry and would attempt to close out the popular Ezio storyline with Assassin's Creed Revelations Revelations story continues where Brotherhood left off with Desmond now in a coma after the traumatic events that occurred in the finale of the previous game desperate to revive him Desmond is sent back into the Animas in hopes that uncovering his ancestors memories to completion or restore Desmond's mind back in the early 1500s players once again assume the role of Ezio Auditore as he attempts to uncover the secrets of the legendary assassin at the air this story brings Ezio back to the original assassin fortress from the first game where he discovers a secret door that can only be opened by locating a series of round keys hidden around Constantinople it's here where most of the gameplay takes place as players take down various temporal eaters expose corruption throughout the city and hunt for keys to unlock the mysterious precursor vault throughout the adventure players are also given a chance to play through segments buyers life after the events of the first game showing how out there came to be the leader of the assassins and while this story continues the excellent storyline fans have come to expect from the series that was very little innovation in regards to revelations gameplay features one of the biggest changes to the game was the addition of a hook blade which allowed Ezio to grab slightly higher ledges when climbing and also zipline at certain points in the city bombs were also pushed as one of the biggest new gadgets that Ezio could use with several different types of bombs ranging from smoke flash poison and explosive combat for the most part remains the same but players could make use of their hook blade to reach distant enemies and grapple them closer the assassin recruitment system introduced in Brotherhood has been expanded upon with new siege defense medicham's added in that function as tower defense segments outside of these minor changes revelations didn't really do much to mix up the formula and because of this it wasn't as well-received by critics as the past two entries while many praised the story for wrapping up Ezio and Al tires narrative nicely the game still failed to innovate and is ultimately a forgettable experience soon after the development for Assassin's Creed 2 wrapped up the lead development team in charge of the Assassin's Creed project had begun work on a true Assassin's Creed 3 with a new character a new setting and a conclusion to the Desmond Miles storyline which explains the very minimal improvements made with the previous two spin-off entries in spring of 2012 it was officially revealed that the next main entry to the Assassin's Creed franchise would take another huge leap forward in time to the new world during the American Revolution Assassin's Creed 3 was a highly ambitious sequel that promised to rework everything fans came to know about the franchise with a ton of new features significantly improved visuals and a closure for the modern day storyline Assassin's Creed 3 once again picks off directly after the events of the previous game with Desmond his father and friends all gathering in an ancient precursor vault in New York after accessing the vault Desmond is placed in the animus again and players have transported to 1750s England where they control a Templar leader named Haytham Kenway this introductory sequence drags on for a good threesome hours until finally the control shifts from the Templar - to his half Native American son Connor whose real name and I'm gonna try to pronounce from here players experience multiple stages of Connors childhood up until the pivotal moment where a group of Templars attack his village Connor out forever against a Templar leader named Charles Lee seeks out a retired assassin named Achilles who but grudgingly agrees to train him after this substantially long narrative opening players are finally given free rein of several large cities in colonial America like New York and Boston and begin hunting Templar leaders down while also assisting the Patriots throughout major events of the revolutionary conflict by completing these memories Desmond can discover the location of another precursor artifact which he then attempts to use to save the world from the impending apocalypse and as always with the Assassin's Creed story ends on a huge cliffhanger Assassin's Creed 3 once it finally gets going features vastly improved gameplay mechanics over its predecessors combat was made to be smoother and more accessible than ever with awesome counter-attack finishers that could sometimes be used to take down multiple enemies at the same time since this game takes place during the 1700s enemies now had access to muskets which players would need to avoid either by dodging or by grabbing a nearby enemy and using them as human shields new tools included the hatchet a bow and arrow and a more effective pistol which could more easily be incorporated into combat than in the past self mechanics were expanded upon again with more clear indicators that you were hidden in a crowd and more open-ended natural environments to navigate you could use rope darts to hang enemies from trees and attack from nearby bushes the environment didn't feature nearly as many large buildings as past entries to the series considering most of the buildings in colonial America were roughly three stories tall but a c3 made up for this with the ability to climb trees and swing from branches with new unique animations ace23 also added in an insane amount of side activities making it one of the most ambitious games in the series up to this point first could participate in massive naval battles where they could control ships and fire cannons while also adjusting the sail for wind direction first could also play various minigames and even manage a supply running business at their homestead the game was filled with things to do like viewpoints optional side missions collectibles and much more making it one of the first truly overwhelming titles in the series visually ac3 still looks great even to this day the cities and forests of colonial America look amazing with beautiful lighting enhanced weather effects and highly detailed environments that felt alive civilians in and around the towns all look like they're actually working on things and animals and children can now be seen running around the unfortunately even the ability to pet puppies wasn't enough to save this game from it's terribly drawn-out first act critics complained that it took far too long to get to the point and hurt the pacing substantially and we were given very little time to really get to know Connor others complain about Connor himself saying his personality was nowhere near the quality of Ezio Auditore but despite these shortcomings ac3 was still received very well receiving scores in the 85% range and I personally feel it's one of the more underappreciated entries in the series I loved it simple but awesome combat mechanics and it's tight presentation the theme was unique and the storyline well drawn out a bit is one of my personal favorites creating an interesting dynamic that the series hadn't really explored before in terms of whether or not the assassins and Templars we're really representing good and evil respectively Assassin's Creed 3 may not have been as groundbreaking as the last numbered entry to the franchise but there's no arguing that it wasn't ambitious and the excellent naval warfare design was so popular that it prompted the next main title to incorporate it as a fundamental part of the overall game aesthetic but before we talk about that I want to briefly mention the PlayStation Vita spin-off title called Assassin's Creed liberation liberation released alongside Assassin's Creed 3 in 2012 and will later be released on the main platforms in 2014 liberation unlike past entries would no longer feature Desmond Miles working in present day to embrace the Templars to ancient artifacts but instead puts players in a sort of consumer based simulation designed by Abstergo entertainment with modified data entries that hide the truth about the Templars and aim to villainize the assassins most the story centers on the simulation itself which this time revolves around the series first female assassin Evelyn Evelyn is an African French assassin that attempts to dismantle Templar control of Louisiana in the late 1700s the story doesn't really add much to the main scheme of things aside from a fun crossover between Evelyn and Connor at one point and is ultimately forgettable with the first female protagonist not really offering much in terms of character or personality liberation offered a few very unique features not seen in any other title in the series phones could choose between three primary disguises for Avalon each with their own advantage and disadvantage the standard assassin outfit would allow a Boleyn to climb around more easily but would be easier for guards to spot the slave outfit could be used to on most things and would also allow Evelyn to blend into the environment more easily and the noblewoman outfit limited her mobility significantly making it impossible to climb structures but also enabled her to charm certain enemies and bribe her way past guards the games environment looked almost the same as the towns built for Assassin's Creed 3 which is to be expected considering they take place around the same time period but due to the technical limitations of the PlayStation Vita the overall presentation wasn't nearly as polished even when it was later re-released as liberation HD liberation was met with mixed reviews with many criticizing the games of wasted potential by not letting players choose their outfit for missions and a story that doesn't meet the quality standards of the main entries though it's still the most impressive attempt at a mobile assassin's creed title to this day after such a positive reaction from fans regarding AC threes excellent naval combat Ubisoft decided to move forward with their next project which would take full advantage of naval warfare in Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag Black Flag would be the furthest departure from the Assassin's Creed core gameplay mechanics to date with no distinct present-day protagonist significantly less stealth action elements and a massive focus on sailing the Caribbean in a pirate ship and engaging in naval warfare in a sea four players take control of an unnamed character as they navigate the Abstergo entertainment building from a first-person perspective the players character takes part in a sort of beta testing for an upcoming animus based consumer entertainment product involving an assassin pirate named Edward Kenway father of Haytham Kenway from AC 3 and therefore grandfather of the assassin Connor Edward Kenway is another very likable character with a charismatic personality and more of an interest in piracy than any of the Assassin's ideologies but after several run-ins with various Templars attempting to disrupt pirate operations in the Caribbean Kenway and his crew set out to find the mysterious Observatory a precursor treasure that Kenley believes to be the fortune he had been dreaming of his whole life well an interesting backstory to the Kenway family a c4 doesn't really do anything to advance the story in any significant way and really comes off as a game trying to double down on the fun pirate ship gameplay they invented for AC 3 and that's okay because AC 4s pirate themed gameplay is easily one of the most fun introduced in the series sure fans that appreciate the game's original concepts of stalking from the crowds and performing epic assassinations were disappointed but there's no denying that the pie based gameplay of a c4 was a lot of fun and there were still a few quality of life improvements to the various AC game mechanics thrown in for good measure first the game embraced the upgrade system even more than before with players capable of not only hunting for supplies and upgrading Kenway with new weapons and equipment but also can we ship the jackdaw you could improve the armor of the weapons and even change the appearance slightly these upgrades required both money and specific materials that require the player to pillage various ships at sea and export a ton of different islands and underwater locations this emphasis on adventure and progression worked perfectly in providing an engaging experience and blended well with Assassin's Creed smooth combat controls and parkour abilities while the combat remained mostly the same as a c3 there were a few nice additions like the ability to use two pistols for a flurry of kills in epic pirate fashion can we also sported two primary cutlasses making him one of the most deadly assassins in the series weapons were even more easy to use than before with a free aim design more akin to a typical third-person shooter game the game still featured classic Assassin's Creed style missions like eavesdropping and sneaking through crowds but most of the action takes place on board the Jack doll as the player engaged in massive battles with man of wars hunting sea creatures and sailing through dangerous storms black flag was also the first title to appear on the next-generation console platforms this allowed the developers to really push the boundaries for what was possible with massive draw distances and a beautiful water simulation designed to go along with the gameplay players could seamlessly go from sailing their ship to exploring an island without having to worry about load times and the world was vibrant colorful sharp and ran far smoother than any Assassin's Creed game prior to it AC 4 despite doing so many things differently from more traditional Assassin's Creed games was received very well scoring in the 85% range across the board critics praised the sense of adventure and freedom that Black Flag offered though some did complain about the lack of focus regarding the story a c4 was a great game in its own right and oddly enough would be the last numbered entry to the franchise as Ubisoft abandoned the traditional naming convention and began to experiment with what they could do with the franchise and unfortunately the next main entry would be the biggest misstep in the entire series but before we get into that I want to briefly mention the old gen Time exclusive title named assassin's creed rogue in Assassin's Creed rogue players are given control of an assassin named Shay Patrick Cormac who under orders from the Brotherhood is tasked with recovering one of many pieces of Eden hidden in secret temples around the world but after recovering an artifact in Lisbon and causing a devastating earthquake Shave refuses to help the assassins any longer and turns over to the Templars instead throughout the game players are tasked with eliminating assassins to prevent them from moving more earthquake causing artifacts from their vaults and a lot of the character arcs explored helped to set up Assassin's Creed 3 rogue didn't really introduce much in terms of gameplay features the biggest selling point was the ability to sail through frigid Arctic waters requiring you to carefully navigate around icebergs and smash through thick layers of frozen water with special ice ramming upgrades for your ship combat function almost identically to what was in Black Flag but players could not utilize a silent air rifle to take out long-range targets and could utilize a grenade launcher visually rogue lagged behind black flag feeling more on par with the visuals used in ac3 the game was designed initially just for the old gen ps3 and xbox 360 but would later be re-released on modern platforms with a few enhancements the game featured many more load screens than its predecessor and the world just wasn't as interesting to explore assassin's creed rogue received average reviews around the 75% range with many complaining that have felt like a step back and just a quick way to wrap up loose ends in the storyline as the franchise moved on to bigger and supposedly better things soon after the completion of Assassin's Creed Brotherhood the development team split off to work on multiple Assassin's Creed projects but the main team moving over to help with Assassin's Creed 3 but a smaller team began work on a new title set during the French Revolution called Assassin's Creed unity the initial idea behind unity was inspired by AC Brotherhood's concept of having multiple assassins working together to take out targets and so AC unit E's focus was to build a fully cooperative Assassin's Creed experience but unfortunately this on top of the complete revamp of the games engine in coordination with the newer hardware resulted in one of the biggest technical disasters in the Assassin's Creed main series and various other controversies like gamergate only further exasperated its shortcomings unity takes place exactly where Assassin's Creed rogue left off with a Templar murdering an assassin Charles Dorian button unity players are given control of Dorian Sun Arno despite this traumatic event the story doesn't spend as much time centered around vengeance like past entries and instead focuses on the romantic relationship between Arno and his childhood friend Alize Oh ease is the daughter of a temporal Grandmaster and this creates a very interesting Romeo and Juliet style dynamic after all Lisa's father is murdered Arno is framed and locked up in the French Bastille where he escapes and begins his training to become an assassin after several successful assassinations the Brotherhood refuses to grant Arnold the master assassin status because of his association with the LEAs who at this point is also a known temper this tension between the Templars and assassins is the primary focus in the game's narrative and Arnaud is forced to confront both the assassins and the Templars to prevent the city from slipping into chaos the storyline is mostly solid but the games ending does fall flat out of nowhere and loses focus very quickly in terms of gameplay AC unity aim to overhaul the franchise's simplistic control scheme in the hopes of making a more engaging and challenging experience swordplay would no longer be as heavily focused on counter finishers but would now incorporate more RPG like elements like the specific damage based on the weapon type enemy health bars made a return and several of the combat abilities like using enemies as human shields were removed the world also featured less in terms of interactivity things like minigames were taken out in addition to horseback riding and even the ability to pet stray dogs a lot of these changes were either made to increase the game's difficulty to allocate development resources towards more core assassin based mechanics or we're done so the game function properly with its new cooperative multiplayer option first can now play together in groups of four to dismantle the Templars in Paris and could sneak around on rooftops assassinate guards and get into epic sword fights together unlike the past several entries AC unity returned to the game's roots with massive sprawling city streets huge structures to climb and a heavy emphasis on NPC crowds thanks to the advancements of Technology the designers behind unity were able to more easily generate city streets which resulted in a ludicrously large area to explore with easily one of the most excessive amount of side activities ever seen in a game the map was a completionist nightmare with so many icons that you couldn't even got the city streets side missions included fetch quests murder investigations collectible chess and even these lot crates are required you to spend real money to open using helix credits buildings often featured explorable interiors that could be seamlessly explored and were often featured in many of the game's missions indeed he also made some revisions to its stealth mechanics with players now capable of crouching to avoid detection though this mechanic felt sloppy when compared to other stealth action games that feature the same design players would frequently encounter the same three random events on the city streets making the experience feel increasingly more repetitive a mistake that was already rectified years ago after the repetitive side quests in Assassin's Creed 1 character upgrades and cosmetics made up a big part of AC unities progression and encourage exploration much like Black Flag did but they also introduced a skill tree that locked players out of the most basic abilities like being able to perform double arrow Sassa nations but not everything about AC unit each design was bad you can now hold a button to more easily descend from structures smoothly unlike past games where you were forced to either find a haystack or awkwardly jump down and hope you didn't kill yourself and the actual focus of the game's main mission structure was much more in line with what the series had originally set out to do emphasizing actual assassinations the higher profile assassinations were elaborate often allowing players to unlock opportunities to make their target more accessible and the locations of these missions themselves were often large and intricate AC unity was on the right track but it was held back by a ton of technical hurdles especially when it came to its visuals assuming the visuals weren't glitching out with floating NPCs and missing facial textures AC unity looked gorgeous with beautiful volumetric lighting global illumination reflective surfaces and an incredibly dense NPC crowd design Ubisoft boasted massive crowd sizes of over a thousand characters all with independent animations and again when it's working correctly it looks phenomenal and the overall game performance was miserable no matter what platform you try to play on even on today's Hardware AC unity is incredibly demanding requiring a top-of-the-line GPU just to maintain a steady framerate at higher resolutions and the dynamic time of day was also removed with the lighting only changing based on the selected mission a very odd change considering every entry since 2008 had allowed for a full dynamic time-of-day AC unity was met with average reviews despite the months of bad press the game received after the huge controversy involving Ubisoft other intellectual property watchdogs AC unity only further tainted their name and Ubisoft Montreal CEO even issued an apology offering the season pass free to players and giving early season pass adopters a free digital game download from the Ubisoft library but this would still not be enough to convince gamers and Assassin's Creed unity will forever go down as the worst entry to the series despite its excellent level design visuals mission structure and attempt to rework the franchise's aging formula in 2015 Ubisoft contracted climax studios to create a trilogy of spin-off titles called Assassin's Creed chronicles with the first title releasing as part of the Assassin's Creed unity seasonpass the first entry took place in China during the 1500s and would follow a Chinese female assassin named Xiao Qin after the Templars obliterate most of the assassins in China Jin trains with none other than Ezio Auditore after being trained in the way of the assassins she returns and eliminates the Templars responsible the franchise's modern plotline is mostly absent from this title which is understandable as chronicles focuses much more on its gameplay rather than its narrative chronicles is a 2d platformer with a semi 3d backdrop that utilizes a cel shaded art style to great effect most of the game requires players to sneak around enemies avoiding their line-of-sight and using various tools to dispose of them it's a much more arcade like approach to the franchise and probably one of the more effective mobile titles in series but unfortunately was not received well by critics with most saying it was too straightforward and simple after the overwhelmingly negative player response to AC unity Ubisoft Quebec the same studio behind Assassin's Creed rogue released the next main entry to the series only a year later featuring an overall far more stable experience in Victorian London Assassin's Creed syndicate would improve on all the issues players had with the previous title with improved game stability a more cohesive story and a far more interesting world to explore in response to the negative backlash regarding the game's lack of a female protagonists in the main series ac syndicate would also be the first main Assassin's Creed title to feature a playable female assassin ac syndicate focuses almost entirely on its Industrial Revolution storyline with the present-day story only rarely being mentioned first take control of two twins Evy and jacob frye unlike past stories syndicate starts off with both siblings already members of the assassins and much of the story focuses on the two characters conflicting personalities attempting to stop a templar threat in London well the story itself is pretty forgettable Evie and Jacob are excellent characters whose interactions with each other are often the highlight of the narrative Jacob is more in line with past Assassin's Creed characters like Arno and Ezio with a headstrong attitude as he intends to [ __ ] the Templars with a direct approach Evie on the other hand is more interested in recovering a piece of Eden and generally is more focused on the quiet stealthy approach these two character personalities influence the gameplay to some degree with players able to switch between characters and tackle different objectives throughout the world how they see fit the world of London is even larger than AC unities Paris with several large sub sections called bureaus that would need to be conquered to take control away from the Templars most of the gameplay is centered around completing various side quests within each Bureau and engaging in gang wars against bureau leaders combat was made to be far more enjoyable than what was featured in unity though instead of traditional swords players were armed with brass knuckles and cane swords while traversal was also improved substantially thanks to the new rope launcher which allowed players to climb buildings in record time and even travel between structures more easily to navigate the much larger open world players could take control of horse-drawn carriages and could even engage in fights along the top of them while they were moving it was also an additional smaller game hidden within syndicate with an entirely different female assassin Lydia in London during the Great War the map was slightly smaller and featured many of the same structures but updated to account for the change in the time period and most of the section of the game revolved around completing various side quests outside of these few features syndicate didn't really do much to change up the formula it was an incredibly solid experience that delivered the classic Assassin's Creed experience but with a new coat of paint despite the generally positive reviews syndicate received cores were beginning to go tired of the franchise after non-stop annual releases of gigantic and densely populated open worlds and Ubisoft decided that the franchise would need to take a year off and while the main series took a much-needed break Ubisoft made sure to stoke the fire by releasing a follow up Chronicles title that took place in 1840s India players would take control of the assassin other Boz Mir as they attempted to uncover a mysterious Templar plot but once again sticking around a 2.5 D environment and utilizing various tools to bypass patrols only a few months later Assassin's Creed chronicles Russia released closing up these spin-off trilogy by letting players explore Russia during the October Revolution of 1918 the story revolved around the assassin nikolay orlov as the escorted Tsar Nicholas the second child Anastasia away from the Bolsheviks which is a pretty cool idea considering the controversy that surrounded Anastasia's murder these two titles were received about as well as the China game and they ultimately as a whole felt like a waste of three potentially great locations that I still wish were featured in the main entries soon after work wrapped up on Black Flag Ubisoft Montreal began work on an epic Egyptian themed Assassin's Creed title but after the lower-than-expected sales numbers for ac syndicate and the growing fatigue around the franchise as a whole Ubisoft decided to delay the new Egyptian adventure until 2017 and the delay was well worth it as Assassin's Creed origins surpassed expectations and reinvigorated this stagnating series rather than just throwing the same tired game mechanics into a new massive open world and bumping up the visual quality a bit Ubisoft decided to completely remake the game mechanics from the ground up doubling down on the RPG concepts that they've been slowly introducing over the years origins story takes place in ancient Egypt during the reign of Pharaoh Ptolemy the eighth players but control of magi named byuk as they explored the greater part of egypt only further pushing the boundaries in terms of map size byuk story is mostly the same as past assassin's creed characters only his tragic beginning is arguably even more tragic after this event he swears vengeance against those responsible travelling between various civilizations along the Nile and exterminating them one by one occasionally those scenes that explain what's happening in the present-day timeline but again it's not nearly as relevant as it used to be the overall theme behind the story in AC origins is right in the title explaining the origin behind the entire Assassin's Creed Brotherhood and while that does explain some cool things like where the symbol came from I still feel as though the story as a whole has been stuck in place ever since 2012 that being said the gameplay in origins is one of the most refreshing experiences in the series in years Ubisoft made the right choice in pursuing this RPG approach as it gave more meaning and purpose to each area of the open-world rather than just throwing players into a gigantic map with enemies that can all be easily killed just the same worked in the sections off portions of the map based on player experience this is much like how Black Flag's opensees were designed steering players towards a smooth difficulty increase and maintaining a steady pace without making the game feel too easy or difficult weapons found in the world now featured randomized statistics making each location worth searching from top to bottom combat mechanics were changed with different buttons for attacking and blocking and a heavy emphasis on performing dodges enemies now featured distinct hit boxes as well the coring cars to make use of manual locks to ensure that their hits land whereas the older titles automatically attacked the nearest enemies even assassinations which previously were always a guaranteed instant kill now could end up only hurting an enemy depending on your characters progression animals made up a very large portion of origins with horses making a return in addition to available camels first could fight wild creatures like lions hippos and crocodiles and there were even special simulation based missions that had players fighting massive mythical monsters the world featured tons of secret tombs often hiding valuable treasure and city areas offered tons of activities like quests and arenas the skill tree also made a return with an insane amount of new abilities added in that veteran players may have been surprised to see it first purse can now summon animals to fight alongside them control arrows in midair and even control an eagle directly to spot enemies all these features resulted in a wildly different experience from the past several entries with the focus shifting away from performing stealth assassinations and more into adventure and exploration visually origins expanded even further with beautiful lighting solid performance and even more advanced water simulation effects origins was met with high scores all around with most scoring the game at around 85% and many praising the excellent open will design and emphasis on fun gameplay mechanics assassin's creed was finally umbrella v'n again and because of this ubisoft pushed forward with their original annual release schedule with a surprising 2018 announcement of a follow-up title and now we get to this year's upcoming title Assassin's Creed Odyssey Odyssey much like origins will focus on delivering a massive open world experience with RPG mechanics only this time in an ancient Greece setting players will be allowed to choose from two characters at the start of the game either Alexius or cassandra both of which I believe are supposed to handle exactly the same regardless of which character you choose the main protagonist is supposedly the descendant of the spartan king leonidas the very same from the Battle of Thermopylae against the Persians based on the trailers Ubisoft has shown so far it looks like we'll get a chance to experience that epic battle in a flashback sequence and there's plenty of things to please fans of the popular film 300 the open world environment looked to be just as ambitious as before with massive draw distances and tons of various historic locations to explore new to Odyssey will be the ability to choose your own dialogue during conversations with NPCs only further pushing the series in the RPG direction Ubisoft has even confirmed that you'll be able to develop relationships with various NPC characters though it's unclear how this will affect the actual gameplay experience I'm really looking forward to trying this game out and if it's anything like origins then I'm sure we're in for a massively ambitious experience but the real question now is where will the series go from here Assassin's Creed has given us a chance to explore moments in history no other video game series has dared to show us from the Third Crusade the Italian Renaissance the Industrial Revolution and even the American Revolution surprising how well a franchise with such a complex idea and storyline based on historical events continues to be one of the top grossing titles in the video game industry it may have struggled to find its place with its awkward present-day storyline often confusing newcomers and its various shortcomings regarding its control scheme as it matured but Assassin's Creed has become somewhat of a household name at this point and despite over a decade's worth of titles I'm still looking forward to seeing whether Ubisoft has planned next for the Brotherhood but in the meantime I hope you guys enjoyed this look back at the history of the Assassin's Creed franchise so far be sure to stay tuned to my channel for a deep look at the upcoming Assassin's Creed Odyssey as we compare various visual and gameplay elements to its predecessor in a direct comparison in addition to a full game review if you want to see more retrospective pieces like this please consider being part of my patreon also don't forget to Like and subscribe for more videos posted every week [Music]

Channel: Nick930

Views: 2,692,441

Rating: 4.8643374 out of 5

Keywords: Assassin's Creed, Altair, Ezio, History, Retrospective, Ubisoft, Montreal, Development, Story, Gameplay, Features, Review, Impression, Summary, Full, Analysis, Fan, Favorite, Best, professional, High Quality, Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, Origin, Black Flag, Unity, Syndicate

Id: S0k2oSu-nSo

Length: 44min 51sec (2691 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 28 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

oh god, assassin's creed II. such a fun game, so engrossing, so many memories. staying up late at night bouncing around venice is something I will never forget

[u/Rob_Cram]

At over 44 minutes long, this is really good. Only downside is he doesn't include any real details about Odyssey. It was made just prior to its release by the looks of things.