Assassin’s Creed Franchise Turns 15 Years Old!
Last Updated on November 14, 2022
As of yesterday, the famed Assassin’s Creed series turned 15 years old, with their first game in the series, Assassin’s Creed, releasing on 13th November 2007.
Ubisoft has taken pride in this series’ continuation with its latest release Assassin’s Creed Valhalla still a huge success. A new game, Assassin’s Creed Mirage, is in the works and set to release in 2023.
The series has sold over 200 million copies as of this year spanning across 12 main series games released since 2007.
For those who do not know, Assassin’s Creed is third person action adventure and stealth game which normally involves a set of missions involving assassinating targets or completing other stealth related tasks (athough this has varied over time).
Assassin’s Creed‘s roots stem from being a Prince of Persia game but with that concept originally scrapped we were treated to having our own Assassin protagonist in each game.
This decision turned out to be a great one as we now know, with the franchise being responsible for the creation of some of the most iconic characters in gaming history such as Ezio Auditore, the main character in Assassin’s Creed 2, Brotherhood and Revelations.
One of the most iconic characteristics of the Assassin’s Creed series is the beautiful settings of each game.
The Order of the Assassins has been in many iconic destinations in many iconic time periods such as renaissance Italy, Revolutionary France, Civil War America, Ancient Egypt and Industrial Revolution England.
These are just to name a few.
The first game, that started it all however was set in Masyaf, Syria and play as Altair Ibn La Ahad.
This game started it all and fans fell in love with the idea of being an assassin as well as the simple yet epic, battle mechanics and the addition of stealth in the mix.
The first game was released on Xbox 360, PS3 and Microsoft Windows platform.
The game received good plaudits from IGN with them awarding it Best Action/Adventure Game at E3 2006 and was a masterpiece for its time.
It is however probably not the highest rated game in the series but Ubisoft learned and improved for their next few games set in Italy.
Many envy the simple battle mechanics in the original Assassin’s Creed game as Ubisoft have changed it in more recent games, with many fans complaining the games no longer feel the way they used to.
There are rumours that with the release of Assassin’s Creed Mirage the mechanics will revert to the fundamentals set by the original game in the series by popular demand.
The niche concept of Assassin’s Creed includes the fact it is all in fact a simulation taken place in modern day, with your character, originally named Desmond Miles reliving these historical memories as simulations in order to acquire information or skills needed to fight the ongoing fight in the modern world.
This allows for the series to connect the dots between games but still be able to vastly change the settings of each game and character without interrupting the story being told.
This concept also further latches on to another great aspect of the Assassin’s Creed games and that is historical accuracy.
Throughout the games you will meet well known historical figures.
Figures featured in the Assassin’s Creed games include Leonardo Da Vinci, Charles Dickens, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Cleopatra and Julius Caesar.
Creative director of the franchise Alex Hutchinson has stated before “We have a rule: everyone dies in the right year” and that “They die in the right place.”
Assassin’s Creed has followed this rule very well with only a few occassions in Assassin’s Creed and Assassin’s Creed 3 they were more lenient to tend to their own creative storyline.
You may or may not have known them before but the Assassin’s Creed games will educate you on their charcters, their relevance in history and give you an entire experience of knowing them, something that a textbook at school cannot do.
With this anniversary could we see a remake onto new gen platforms anytime soon with Ubisoft having released a remastered bundle in 2016 named “The Ezio Collection” could this now follow suit?
Overall it is clear that the Assassin’s Creed games may not be as popular as before with some but the series is still going strong and attracting new fans to the game.
It is a series that has forever written its name in gaming legend, and it all started 15 years ago.
