Assasins Creed

Assassin's Creed is an award-winning historical science fiction third person action-adventure game series that as of 2011 consists of four main games and a number of supporting materials. The games have appeared on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable, iOS, HP webOS,^[1] Android, Nokia Symbian and Windows Phone 7 platforms. The main games in the franchise were developed by Ubisoft Montreal, with the handheld titles developed by Gameloft and Gryptonite Studios, with additional development by Ubisoft Montreal. All games in the franchise are published by Ubisoft.

The main story arc of the series revolves around a bartender named Desmond Miles as he is captured by secret megacorporationAbstergo Industries. Using a machine known as the Animus, Desmond is forced to relive the memories of his ancestors, who were allAssassins, in order to recover artifacts, called the "Pieces of Eden," for Abstergo. While the original assassin ancestor of Desmond isAltaïr Ibn la-Ahad (Arabic for "Eagle, Son of None"), the most recent games feature another assassin from Florence, Italy named Ezio Auditore da Firenze. Assassination targets are mostly actual historical figures, although the timelines for their lives and causes of death have been changed to suit the games' plot (in-game these inaccuracies are attributed to the Templars rewriting history to cover up their actions, as well as honest mistakes on the part of historians).

The gameplay varies slightly from game to game, consisting of a mixture of third person adventure with a heavy emphasis on stealth inopen world recreations of historical locales. The series has sold over 28 million units.

Series

Assassin's Creed

Main article: Assassin's Creed (video game)

Altaïr's memories are solicited by Abstergo in their attempt to find the Piece of Eden. Altaïr, still in Jerusalem, ventures to Solomon's Temple to confront crusader Robert de Sable and retrieve the Piece of Eden for Al Mualim, head of the Assassins. Betraying many tenets of the Creed of the Assassins and failing his mission, Altaïr is demoted to a novice assassin upon return to the Assassin's Fortress. To redeem his previous status, Altaïr is sent by Al Mualim to assassinate nine targets in three different cities. With each kill, Altaïr learns there is a connection between his targets; they are all Templars united by Robert de Sable to take control of the Holy Land independently from the Saracens and Crusaders, although they all claim to pursue a noble goal.

After assassinating all nine targets and discovering that his ninth target was in fact a trap, Altaïr confronts Robert in front of King Richard I of England, leader of the Crusader army. Altaïr informs Richard that Robert is plotting to betray and kill him, which causes him to encourage a duel to the death between Altaïr and Robert. Richard then believes Altaïr. Upon dying, Robert confesses to Altaïr that they were not nine, but ten Templars conspiring to take the Piece of Eden. The tenth being Al Mualim, who wanted to keep the Piece of Eden for himself and therefore sent out Altaïr to kill the others. Back at the Fortress, where Al Mualim had taken over the minds of the people inside, Altaïr manages to defeat and kill him in a duel. The memory Abstergo was searching for, which located the Piece of Eden, reveals it is only just one of 28 that are scattered across the world.

Back in 2012, Abstergo sends a team to recover as many Pieces as possible. Deciding they do not need him any more, they give orders to kill Desmond. Lucy Stillman, an Abstergo employee who revealed to Desmond that she is an undercover Assassin, convinces them not to kill Desmond until they recover the Pieces, buying him time. Desmond is left alone in the Animus room, and by the use of Altaïr's Eagle Vision inherited from the 'bleeding effect' caused by the Animus, he sees many symbols drawn in blood on the wall in his room and on the floors of the lab.

[edit]Assassin's Creed II

Main article: Assassin's Creed II

Lucy returns and breaks Desmond out of Abstergo. He is brought to a hideout and introduced to her Assassin allies Shaun and Rebecca, as well as an updated version of the Animus. Knowing what is at stake, Desmond volunteers to enter the Animus again, and explore the memories of Ezio Auditore da Firenze, a young nobleman from 1476 in Florence, Republic of Florence. He hopes to gain Ezio's abilities through the Bleeding Effect so he can aid the Assassins.

Ezio's father and brothers are executed by the hand of Uberto Alberti, a corrupt official in league with the Templars. Ezio kills Uberto in revenge, and after fleeing with his mother and sister to their villa in the Tuscan countryside, he learns of his Assassin heritage and begins training under his uncle Mario. Ezio also befriends local inventor Leonardo da Vinci, who helps Ezio with his work by decoding an encrypted codex that contains Altaïr's memoirs, as well as plans for advanced assassin weaponry. As Ezio looks at them with Eagle Vision, the thirty codex pages come together to form a hidden map of the vaults across the world. Over the course of a decade Ezio assassinates the conspirators involved in his father's death, leaving Rodrigo Borgia, a nobleman and Templar who has retrieved the Apple of Eden and is the center of the conspiracy. Ezio and other Assassins reclaim the Apple of Eden, but Borgia flees. Ezio is formally inducted as an Assassin, and is told that he may be a prophet as described in the codex.

During the course of the game Desmond experiences a number of unusual occurrences. First he discovers strange glyphs apparently left by a previous test subject (Who died because the Abstergo staff left him in the Animus for too long), similar to the symbols seen at Abstergo, which hide a secret history of the world. He later dreams of appearing as Altaïr again, chasing after Maria, a Templar he had earlier spared, and then romanced her. Finally, several memories are skipped, throwing the timeline forward by more than a decade to the Vatican, where Borgia now resides as Pope Alexander VI. The "skipped" memories are available as downloadable content, and deal with the Battle of Forlì and the Bonfire of the Vanities.

Borgia is now the Pope and has in his possession the Papal Staff, another Piece of Eden. He attempts to use it to enter a vault that the prophet as described in the codex must enter. Ezio intercepts Borgia, but spares his life, and enters the vault himself. He encounters the hologram of a woman, who claims to be once known as Minerva, and who also claims to come from a civilization whose members were also seen in the same light by ancient peoples. Minerva tells of a great disaster that had befallen and destroyed her civilization, and warns that it will occur again soon. Talking directly to Desmond, she tells him "The rest is up to you," leaving Ezio extremely confused.

Desmond is pulled out of the Animus as Abstergo has located their hideout. He, Lucy and the rest of the team manage to flee to safety, and soon prepare to return Desmond to the Animus to search for clues that may help them.

[edit]Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is the title for the previously code-named "Episodes". It is not Assassin's Creed 3 as it is based on the same engine as Assassin's Creed 2. The game was announced by Ubisoft and was released on November 16 (USA) and November 19 (UK), 2010.^[2] The game is a continuation of Ezio Auditore's story, the Assassin's Creed IIprotagonist, as he returns to the city of Monteriggioni. The day before his sister's surprise birthday party for him he spends the night with Caterina Sforza, waking up armourless to find the city besieged by Cesare Borgia. Ezio joins the attempt to fight off Cesare's troops but during the raid his uncle Mario is killed by Cesare, who then steals the Apple of Eden, leaving Ezio to escape the city without him. Ezio, wanting to exact justice, and retrieve the Apple, travels to Rome in order to liberate its people from the influence of the Borgia family. In order to do so, Ezio recruits new assassins, as well as forming alliances between the various factions of the Roman underground. There are several times that Ezio goes to the Castel Sant'Angelo to assassinate Cesare and Rodrigo Borgia but they escape. When Ezio comes back to the Castel, he sees Cesare kill Rodrigo by forcing him to eat a poisoned apple, an apple which Rodrigo himself had poisoned in an attempt to kill Cesare. Ezio chases Cesare to the Apple of Eden and manages to claim it, and uses the Apple to kill many of Cesare's men. Cesare is arrested but he says that no man can kill him and chains won't hold him for long. Cesare then escapes to Spain and Ezio goes to Viana. After killing Cesare's men he fights Cesare and defeats him, throwing him off the ledge and leaving his life in the hands of fate.

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.^[3]

[edit]Assassin's Creed: Revelations

Assassin's Creed: Revelations is an upcoming video game in the Assassin's Creed franchise to be developed and published by Ubisoft. Throughout the course of the game, the three protagonists from the previous games will be featured: Altaïr, Ezio and Desmond. The game is set to be released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on 15 November 2011. A trailer was released at E3 2011 ^[4] displaying Ezio in his older years, along with a video demo of the game play. ^[5] Ezio will be searching to find out more about the origins of the Assassin Order and connections to Altaïr's past. The game will be set in Ottoman-era Constantinople (modern day Istanbul).