Author’s Note: This Article Contains Spoilers

Ubisoft has been responsible for many different game series over the years, many of which you might know the name of. Just Dance, Ghost Recon, Prince of Persia, Far Cry, Watch Dogs and more all made under the publisher. One such series that holds weight and is still going strong in the modern day is Assassin’s Creed. Originally released in 2007, we have witnessed many different stories spanning centuries detailing the battle between the Templars and Assassin’s in a bid to control or free humanity respectively. If you were to ask any gamer, I would say there is a pretty fair chance they have played at least one of the games in the series.

For me, my experience started with Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, which was the 3rd game in the series. From there I have played through good chunks of the series here and there. Even more recently I have played a little bit of their more RPG focused entries like Origins/Odyssey/Valhalla. Although I haven’t stuck with them all that much since they haven’t held my interest as well as the older games used to. In order to test whether its the games or my own taste as a gamer growing up, I’ve decided to play back through the whole series from the very beginning.

Starting with Assassin’s Creed (2007), I have begun said journey through the series and am back to Brotherhood at the time of writing this piece. I’ll share my thoughts on those series later, however, let’s talk about where it all began. We play as Desmond Miles, a bartender who tried to escape his Assassin heritage but is instead being held hostage by Abstergo and forced to use the Animus to live through his ancestors memories. All of this effort is used to try and descover the locations of ancient articfacts known as Pieces Of Eden, which have the ability to control the world around it.

We take control of the Assassin Altaïr who is extremely gifted but arrogant. On our first mission, we botch an assassination and end up getting a fellow brother killed and furthermore put the rest of the Assassins in trouble. This leads to some tension between us and our leader Al Mualim. In order to restore our rank and gear, we are sent across multiple cities in the Holy Land of the 12th Century Middle East to assassinate 9 different targets of the Templars. Along the way we meet many different friends and foes who help us learn more of the world we, as the player, find ourselves in.

Upon completing our missions and bringing our targets to an end, it is revealed that our own mentor has crossed both the Assassins and Templars in order to maintain posession of the Apple of Eden, the aformentioned artifact that lays at the center of the motivation for the game’s narrative. This means that all is left for Altaïr is to kill his mentor and secure the artifact. Altaïr proves himself able to resist the powers of the Apple and ends up unlocking a map to the other Pieces of Eden. The game then ends with Desmond getting to overhear a deadly battle where Assassins die in vain trying to rescue him. Luck has it that Lucy is an undercover Assassin and she buys us our lives before the game ends with a message hidden under our noses the whole time, the infamous 2012 apocalypse.

Now, let’s talk about my thoughts on the game. Assassin’s Creed is, overall, a good game. I do believe that some stuff is clunky and outdated compared to its modern counterparts. For example, parkour is way easier and fluid, in my opinion, in the modern adaptations than these older games. I have my own gripes with the new games, but that’s for another day. The amount of times I can see clear handholds and not be allowed to go up can be frustrating at times. I also will always have a bad habit of getting myself killed by accidentally diving into the earth below.

With that said, this game really shines in its story. Historical fiction is always a cool concept because its easier to relate to than a lot of fantasy that I love. Getting a chance to take a look at ancient locations and peoples will always spark joy in the part of my brain that wants to learn. While an abstraction from reality, nothing beats seeing these places and details used in a unique way to hook you into the story and world. Outside of the narrative, I believe the combat is also actually pretty good. While it can be annoying to have to slowly unlock a lot of the good stuff in the game, its nice to have a lot more tools at your disposal because of your hard work to get there. Nothing is granted freely and they make the smart decision of giving you the max at the beginning and stripping you of that power so you, as the player, have motivation to earn it back.

At the end of the day, I belive this game holds up a lot better than I really expected it would. There is a lot to explore and although not a lot to do in modern gaming standards, I love that this experience is digestible in a smaller setting instead of another 80-hour RPG that is filled with lots of down time or repetitive tasks that make the story a slog. You can easily beat this game in about 10 hours or so, enjoy a good story and move onto the next one, much like I have been doing here recently.

Next time, I’ll share my thoughts on Assassin’s Creed 2, a beloved beginning to the series’ favorite character, Ezio Auditore. Thank you so much for reading and remember that Nothing Is True, Everything Is Permitted! <3