TOP 10 Surprising Facts You May Not Know About the Assassins Creed Series (Topic)

The Assassins Creed series can be viewed in different ways, but you certainly can't blame it for its lack of success: more than 10 major releases in the franchise in 13 years and over 140 million copies sold are hard to ignore. And we have little doubt that after the release of Assassins Creed Valhalla, the franchise will experience a new wave of popularity. In the meantime, half a year is left until the release of the next part, we propose to delve a little into history and recall interesting facts about the Assassins Creed series, which have gathered a lot over more than 15 years.

1. Prince of Persia: Assassins

Let's start with a fairly well-known fact in fan circles - Assassins Creed was originally not conceived as a separate series, which would then grow into a multi-million dollar franchise. The first concepts for an "assassin game" come from the canceled project Prince of Persia: Assassins. As the name suggests, the game was meant to be part of the Prince of Persia series, but focused primarily not on the Prince, but on the order of assassins. Moreover, the developers decided to take a risky step and chose one of the assassins as the main character, which did not correspond to the canons of the Prince of Persia series and caused misunderstanding on the part of the Ubisoft management.

Among other interesting details of the game, one can recall the presence of a cooperative passage and a story, well known to fans of the Assassins Creed series, focused on the murder of officials, priests and other historical figures with a dark past. As a result, the project under development was so far removed from the "Prince of Persia" that in 2004 the development was officially stopped, and all the best developments were used to create the Assassins Creed released in 2007.

2. Deadly precision

If you are a third generation certified historian and historical inaccuracy is causing you anger, then please stay away from all parts of Assassins Creed for your own health. Despite the fairly high-quality recreated environment, Ubisoft freely interprets historical events, which is why the series should clearly not be taken as a historical textbook.

However, in no case should you blame the absolutely careless attitude to the history of Ubisoft. In addition, the developers have come up with a rather curious and at first glance not noticeable way to beat the murder of historical figures. We would even call it “deadly precision”. Almost all historical characters that you eliminate in the framework of the game die according to the plot exactly in the same year when their prototypes in real history die.

3. Ezio's Bizarre Adventure

By the will of fate (or, more precisely, the Ubisoft scriptwriters), a lot of incidents full of dangers and oddities fell on the life of Ezio Auditore da Firenze. But none of them compare to the battle against Lizard Man and the deadly and at the same time seductive warrior Ivy, which happened after the appearance of the Assassin as one of the additional heroes of the fighting game Soulcalbur V.

4. Journey into the unconscious

The presence of the Abstergo Corporation Animus apparatus in the game, which allows you to relive the memories of ancestors, is another reason not to take the plot twists and turns of Assassins Creed with strict seriousness. Of course, the likelihood of creating a device operating on the principle of the Animus is extremely doubtful, but as a concept, the technologist is quite curious and, moreover, directly refers to the theory of the nature of the unconscious, compiled by the famous psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung.

Carl Jung was of the opinion that genetic memory exists and is inherent in the collective unconscious. Another point that clearly refers to Ubisoft is Jung's introduction to psychiatry of the concepts of animus and anima, meaning the male and female unconscious, respectively.

5. Princess in another castle

With the release of the tactical RPG Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, there is no doubt that Ubisoft has warm feelings for the iconic character. However, attention to Mario is not limited to one game, and even in the Assassins Creed series, specifically in the second part and the Brotherhood add-on, the developers made several references to the Italian plumber.

The most obvious example is Uncle Mario, who met Ezio with the legendary phrase "It's a me, Mario!" You can also remember the achievement in Brotherhood called Principessa in Another Castello, which refers to the imperishable and always disappointing Mario phrase "Princess in another castle".

6. Desmond Miles' appearance and voice

Desmond Miles, Altair, and Ezio's looks were modeled after Canadian actor and model Francisco Randez. It didn't take much of him to develop the first game - just sit still for a few minutes and let the developers scan his face. In the next parts of the series, along with the improved animation of the face, the requirements for the actor also changed - for a better embodiment of Ezio in the game, Francisco had to grimace and portray a varied palette of emotions.

Things are a little more interesting with the voice of Desmond Miles. The character was voiced by none other than one of the main stars of acting in the gaming industry - Nolan North. He's Drake from Uncharted, David from The Last of Us, Modi from God of War, Deadpool from Deadpool, as well as voice actor and Mo-Cap animation for several more high-profile AAA games and smaller projects.

7. Real Indians

As we mentioned above, the plot of the Assassins Creed series should be treated more like fanfiction of events known from school textbooks, than as a serious work that claims to be authentic. And that's not bad at all. But in fairness, we note that in some details Ubisoft surprises with a serious approach, trying to reproduce the era as authentically as possible.

For example, you can remember Assassins Creed III, where the real descendant of the native Indians Noah Watts was invited to voice the main character Conor. The decision is understandable if only due to the fact that the main character and some of his tribesmen speak the Mohawk language. And as if this were not enough, Ubisoft hired a team of specialists who helped the developers without errors to recreate in the game the historically correct Indian dialect, characteristic of those places and times in which the events of the game take place. Separately, we note that it was thanks to the historical consultants that Assassins Creed III had to abandon scalping due to unreliability.

8. Speaks the truth through the mouth of a child

A rather curious fact about the first Assassins Creed was revealed this year by the programmer Charles Randall, who participated in the development of the first parts of the series. It seems that no one will argue that monotonous side missions are one of the main problems of the first game? And as it turned out, five days before the disc with the game was sent to print, Assassins Creed did not even have such primitive entertainment. As Randall Told, he received a message at the last moment that the game was getting too boring, there was simply nothing to do in it. The claim came from the child of one of the heads of Ubisoft, which forced the developers to rush the game to complete the game.

True, one of the developers from Ubisoft, John Lethbridge, had time to doubt that it was the child who hinted at the lack of content, to the same extent the developers and the team of testers could declare this to the developers. But it’s true when it comes to adding optional content at the last moment.

9. A series of novels

With its rich coverage of settings, the Assassins Creed series has proven that the ongoing conflict between Templars and Assassins can serve as a solid foundation for storytelling. Therefore, if for some reason you want even more pseudo-historical plots with familiar heroes, but new conflicts, we advise you to pay attention to the series of books based on Assassins Creed. At the moment, 11 books have been written, of which all have been translated into USA.

10. Real evil

Let's finish the top 10 facts with a not very pleasant discovery, which turns out when trying to study historical sources about the Assassins (originally - Ashshins) and the Templars. Despite the rare desire of the Ubisoft writers to give the conflict a "gray" moral, throughout all parts of the series it can be traced that the Assassins are still kinder guys than the Order of the Poor Knights of Christ, who are often portrayed in a negative light in Assassins Creed. Everything would be fine, but only according to historical sources, the Assassins killed primarily for selfish purposes, when the Templars, despite the accusations of the Holy Inquisition, kept order on the roads and trade routes, which contributed to the economic development of states.

As a reminder, the Assassins Creed Valhalla release date is set for December this year. while you wait for the release, we suggest reading the material where we choose the best settings for future parts of the series.

The Topic of Article: TOP 10 Surprising Facts You May Not Know About the Assassins Creed Series.
Author: Jake Pinkman