Assassin's Creed (video game)
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''Assassin's Creed'' is an action-adventure game developed by
Ubisoft Montreal Ubisoft Divertissements Inc., doing business as Ubisoft Montreal, is a Canadian video game developer and a studio of Ubisoft based in Montreal. The studio was founded in April 1997 as part of Ubisoft's growth into worldwide markets, with sub ...
and published by
Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Assassin's Creed'', ''Far Cry'', ...
. It is the first installment in the '' Assassin's Creed'' series. The
video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
was released for
PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on November 11, 2006, in Japan, November ...
and
Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generati ...
in November 2007. A Microsoft Windows version titled ''Assassin's Creed: Director's Cut Edition'' containing additional content was released in April 2008. The plot is set in a
fictional history Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other t ...
of real-world events, taking place primarily during the
Third Crusade The Third Crusade (1189–1192) was an attempt by three European monarchs of Western Christianity (Philip II of France, Richard I of England and Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor) to reconquer the Holy Land following the capture of Jerusalem by ...
in the Holy Land in 1191. The player character is a modern-day man named
Desmond Miles Desmond Miles is a fictional character from Ubisoft's ''Assassin's Creed'' video game franchise. Introduced as the protagonist of the modern-day sections of the first game in the series, he has maintained this role for the next four installment ...
who, through a machine called the Animus, relives the genetic memories of his ancestor,
Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad ( ar, الطائر ابن لا أحد, meaning "The Bird, Son of No One") is a fictional character in Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartere ...
. Through this plot device, details emerge about a millennia-old struggle between two factions: the Assassin Brotherhood (inspired by the real-life Order of Assassins), who fight to preserve peace and free will, and the Templar Order (inspired by the Knights Templar military order), who seek to establish peace through order and control. Both factions fight over powerful artifacts of mysterious origins known as Pieces of Eden to gain an advantage over each other. The 12th-century portion of the story follows Altaïr, an Assassin, who embarks on a quest to regain his honour after failing to recover one such artifact from the Templars; he does so by finding and assassinating nine targets across the Holy Land. The gameplay focuses on using Altaïr's combat, stealth, and parkour abilities to defeat enemies and explore the environment. The game features counter-based
hack-and-slash Hack and slash, also known as hack and slay (H&S or HnS) or slash 'em up, refers to a type of gameplay that emphasizes combat with melee-based weapons (such as swords or blades). They may also feature projectile-based weapons as well (such as ...
combat, social stealth (the ability to use crowds of people and the environment to hide from enemies), and a large open world comprising various regions of the Holy Land, primarily the cities of
Masyaf Masyaf ( ar, مصياف ') is a city in northwestern Syria. It is the center of the Masyaf District in the Hama Governorate. As of 2004, Masyaf had a religiously diverse population of approximately 22,000 Ismailis, Alawites and Christians. The c ...
,
Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
, Acre, and Damascus, all of which have been accurately recreated to fit the game's period. While most of the game takes place within a simulation based on Altaïr's memories, the player will occasionally be forced out of the Animus to play as Desmond in the modern day. Here, they are restricted to exploring a small laboratory facility, as Desmond has been kidnapped by a shady corporation looking for specific information within Altaïr's memories that will further their enigmatic goals. Upon release, ''Assassin's Creed'' received generally positive reviews, with critics praising its storytelling, visuals, art design, and originality, while criticism mostly focused on the repetitive nature of its gameplay. ''Assassin's Creed'' won several awards at the 2006 E3 and several end-year awards after its release. The game spawned two spin-offs: '' Assassin's Creed: Altaïr's Chronicles'' (2008) and '' Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines'' (2009), which exclude the modern-day aspect and focus entirely on Altaïr. A direct sequel, ''
Assassin's Creed II ''Assassin's Creed II'' is a 2009 action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft Montréal and published by Ubisoft. It is the second major installment in the ''Assassin's Creed'' series, and the sequel to 2007's '' Assassin's Creed''. The g ...
'', was released in November 2009. The sequel continues the modern-day narrative following Desmond but introduces a new storyline set during the
Italian Renaissance The Italian Renaissance ( it, Rinascimento ) was a period in Italian history covering the 15th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Europe and marked the trans ...
in the late 15th century and a new protagonist,
Ezio Auditore da Firenze Ezio Auditore da Firenze () is a fictional character in the video game series ''Assassin's Creed'', an Italian master assassin who serves as the protagonist of the series' games set during the Italian Renaissance. His life and career as an assas ...
. Since the release and success of ''Assassin's Creed II'', subsequent games have been released with various other Assassins and periods.


Gameplay

''Assassin's Creed'' is an action-adventure game, set in an open-world environment, which is played from a
third-person view In 3D video games, a virtual camera system aims at controlling a camera or a set of cameras to display a view of a 3D virtual world. Camera systems are used in video games where their purpose is to show the action at the best possible angle; m ...
in which the player primarily assumes the role of Altaïr, as experienced by protagonist Desmond Miles. The game's primary goal is to carry out a series of assassinations ordered by Al Mualim, the Assassins' leader. To achieve this goal, the player must travel from the Brotherhood's headquarters in
Masyaf Masyaf ( ar, مصياف ') is a city in northwestern Syria. It is the center of the Masyaf District in the Hama Governorate. As of 2004, Masyaf had a religiously diverse population of approximately 22,000 Ismailis, Alawites and Christians. The c ...
, across the terrain of the Holy Land known as the Kingdom, where the player can freely ride a horse, to one of three cities—
Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
, Acre, or Damascus—to find the Brotherhood agent in that city. There, the agent, in addition to providing a
safe house A safe house (also spelled safehouse) is, in a generic sense, a secret place for sanctuary or suitable to hide people from the law, hostile actors or actions, or from retribution, threats or perceived danger. It may also be a metaphor. Histori ...
, gives the player minimal knowledge about the target and requires them to perform additional
reconnaissance In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, terrain, and other activities. Examples of reconnaissance include patrolling by troops (skirmisher ...
missions before attempting the assassination. These missions include
eavesdropping Eavesdropping is the act of secretly or stealthily listening to the private conversation or communications of others without their consent in order to gather information. Etymology The verb ''eavesdrop'' is a back-formation from the noun ''eaves ...
, interrogation, pickpocketing, and completing tasks for informers and fellow Assassins. The player may also take part in several side objectives, including climbing tall towers to map out the city and saving citizens being threatened or harassed by the city guards. There are also various additional memories that do not advance the plot, such as hunting down and killing
Templar Knights , colors = White mantle with a red cross , colors_label = Attire , march = , mascot = Two knights riding a single horse , equipment ...
and flag collecting. After completing each assassination, the player is returned to the Brotherhood and rewarded with a better weapon or upgrade before going after the next target or given another set of targets, with the player free to select the order of certain targets. The player is made aware of how noticeable Altaïr is to enemy guards and the state of alert in the local area via the Social Status Icon. To perform many assassinations and other tasks, the player must consider the use of actions distinguished by their type of profile. Low-profile actions allow Altaïr to blend into nearby crowds, pass by other citizens, or perform other non-threatening tasks that can be used to hide and reduce the alertness level; the player can also use Altaïr's retractable hidden blade to attempt low-profile assassinations. High-profile actions are more noticeable and include running, scaling the sides of buildings to climb to higher vantage points, and attacking foes; performing these actions at certain times may raise the local area's awareness level. Once the area is at high alert, crowds run and scatter while guards attempt to chase and bring down Altaïr; to reduce the alert level, the player must control Altaïr as to break the guards'
line of sight The line of sight, also known as visual axis or sightline (also sight line), is an imaginary line between a viewer/observer/ spectator's eye(s) and a subject of interest, or their relative direction. The subject may be any definable object taken ...
and then find a hiding space, such as a haystack or rooftop garden, or blend in with the citizens sitting on benches or wandering scholars. Should the player be unable to escape the guards, they can fight back using swordplay maneuvers. The player's health is described as the level of synchronization between Desmond and Altaïr's memories; should Altaïr suffer injury, it is represented as a deviation from the actual events of the memory rather than physical damage. If all synchronization is lost, the current memory that Desmond is experiencing will be restarted at the last checkpoint. When the synchronization bar is full, the player has the additional option to use the Eagle Vision, which allows the computer-rendered memory to highlight all visible characters in colours corresponding to whether they are allies (blue), foes (red), neutral (white), or the target of their assassination (gold). Due to Altaïr's memories being rendered by the computer of the Animus project, the player may experience
glitch A glitch is a short-lived fault in a system, such as a transient fault that corrects itself, making it difficult to troubleshoot. The term is particularly common in the computing and electronics industries, in circuit bending, as well as among ...
es in the rendering of the historical world, which may help the player to identify targets, or can be used to alter the viewpoint during in-game scripted scenes should the player react fast enough when they appear.


Plot

In 2012, bartender
Desmond Miles Desmond Miles is a fictional character from Ubisoft's ''Assassin's Creed'' video game franchise. Introduced as the protagonist of the modern-day sections of the first game in the series, he has maintained this role for the next four installment ...
(
Nolan North Nolan North (born October 31, 1970) is an American actor best known for his voice acting roles. After his breakthrough role as Dr. Chris Ramsey on the ABC soap opera '' Port Charles'' in 1997, North moved into voice acting when the show ended ...
) is kidnapped by agents of Abstergo Industries, the world's largest pharmaceutical conglomerate, and is taken to their headquarters in
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
. Under the guidance of
Dr. Warren Vidic The ''Assassin's Creed'' media franchise, which primarily consists of a series of open-world action-adventure stealth video games published by Ubisoft, features an extensive cast of characters in its historical fiction and science fiction-based ...
(
Philip Proctor Philip Proctor (born 1940) is an American actor, comedian and a member of the Firesign Theatre. He has performed voice-over work for video games, films and television series. Career Of the four members of Firesign Theatre, Proctor has had ...
) and his assistant Lucy Stillman (
Kristen Bell Kristen Anne Bell (born July 18, 1980) is an American actress. Beginning her acting career by starring in stage productions while attending the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, she made her Broadway stage debut as Becky That ...
), Desmond is forced to participate in a series of trials revolving around the Animus, a machine capable of translating the genetic memories of his ancestors into a simulated reality. Vidic instructs him to relive the early years of
Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad ( ar, الطائر ابن لا أحد, meaning "The Bird, Son of No One") is a fictional character in Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartere ...
( Philip Shahbaz), a senior member of the Assassin Brotherhood during the
Third Crusade The Third Crusade (1189–1192) was an attempt by three European monarchs of Western Christianity (Philip II of France, Richard I of England and Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor) to reconquer the Holy Land following the capture of Jerusalem by ...
. His investigation reveals that Altaïr, blinded by arrogance, botched an attempt by the Assassins to retrieve an artifact from their sworn enemies, the Knights Templar, leading to the death of one Assassin and severely wounding another in the process. Although Altaïr manages to partially redeem himself by fighting off a Templar attack on the Assassin home base of
Masyaf Masyaf ( ar, مصياف ') is a city in northwestern Syria. It is the center of the Masyaf District in the Hama Governorate. As of 2004, Masyaf had a religiously diverse population of approximately 22,000 Ismailis, Alawites and Christians. The c ...
, his mentor and superior, Al Mualim (
Peter Renaday Peter Renaday is an American actor. His career spans several films and television shows. His major roles include Master Splinter in the ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'', as well as Abraham Lincoln in the Hall of Presidents, and Henry in Count ...
), demotes and orders him to assassinate nine individuals in order to regain his previous position and honour: * Tamir (Ammar Daraiseh), an arms merchant in Damascus selling weapons to both sides. * Garnier de Nablus (Hubert Fielden), the
Knights Hospitalier The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headq ...
's grandmaster, who conducts mind-altering experiments on the patients at his order's hospital in Acre. * Talal (Jake Eberle), the leader of a gang of slavers in
Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
. * Abu'l Nuquod (
Fred Tatasciore Fred Tatasciore (; ) is an American voice actor who has provided voices in animated and live-action films, television shows, and video games. He is known for voicing the Hulk and Beast in various Marvel media and Solomon Grundy in various DC ...
), a pompous trader and regent of Damascus stealing money from the city's citizens that was meant to fund the war. *
William V, Marquess of Montferrat William V of Montferrat (occ./piem. ''Guilhem'', it. ''Guglielmo'') ( 1115 – 1191) also known regnally as William III of Montferrat while also referred to as William the Old or William the Elder, in order to distinguish him from his eldest s ...
(
Harry Standjofski Harry Standjofski (born May 22, 1959) is a Canadian actor as well as a theater director and playwright. He has appeared in films such as ''Guy X'', '' The Aviator'', '' Protection'', '' X-Men: Days of Future Past'' and '' Hidden Agenda'' and has ...
), Acre's cruel and abusive regent. * Majd Addin (
Richard Cansino Richard Elias Cansino (born August 10, 1953) is an American voice actor. He is also known as Richard Hayworth because he is the nephew of Rita Hayworth. Richard is best known for his voice work as Kenshin Himura in the anime adaptation of ''Rurou ...
; based on Baha ad-Din ibn Shaddad), a tyrant who rules Jerusalem through fear and decides who lives and who dies in countless executions. * Master Sibrand (
Arthur Holden Arthur Holden (born August 28, 1959) is a Canadian actor and writer. Known for his roles such as Mr. Ratburn in ''Arthur'', Baba-Miao in ''Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat'', Mayor Mallard in ''The Little Twins'', and Mr. Larkin in later episode ...
), the paranoid grandmaster of the Knights Teutonic, who plans to betray the Crusaders by blocking the ports of Acre. * Jubair al Hakim (also Tatasciore), a scholar using his position to seize and destroy all written knowledge in Damascus. * Robert de Sablé (Jean-Philippe Dandenaud), the
Grand Master of the Knights Templar The grand master of the Knights Templar was the supreme commander of the holy order, starting with founder Hugues de Payens in 1118. Some held the office for life while others resigned life in monasteries or diplomacy. Grand masters often led ...
, who has been taking advantage of the Crusade to further the Templars' ideological goals. As Altaïr eliminates each target, he learns that all nine are secretly members of the Templar Order and were conspiring to locate the Apple of Eden, a relic of a long-forgotten civilization said to possess god-like powers. While attempting to assassinate Robert at a funeral in Jerusalem, Altaïr is tricked by a decoy, a young Templar agent named Maria Thorpe ( Eleanor Noble), who reveals that Robert anticipated that the Assassins would come after him and went to negotiate an alliance between the Crusaders and Saracens against them. Sparing Maria's life, Altaïr confronts Robert in the camp of
King Richard I Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199) was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and was ...
(Marcel Jeannin) and exposes his crimes. Unsure of whom to believe, Richard suggests a one-on-one duel to decide the truth, remarking that
God In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...
will decide the victor. After Altaïr mortally wounds him, Robert confesses that he did not act alone, revealing that Al Mualim betrayed the Assassins and eventually the Templars, seeking the Apple for himself. Returning to Masyaf, Altaïr finds Al Mualim using the Apple to control its residents, including most of the Assassins. With the help of several Assassins brought in for backup, Altaïr storms the citadel and confronts his mentor in the gardens. Using the Apple, Al Mualim battles his apprentice with illusions before resorting to single combat. Altaïr stabs him with his hidden blade and tries to destroy the Apple, but instead unlocks a map that reveals the locations of countless other Pieces of Eden around the world. In the present, the Assassins launch an unsuccessful attack on the Abstergo facility to rescue Desmond, resulting in most of them being killed. After completing Altaïr's memories, Vidic reveals to Desmond that Abstergo is the modern-day incarnation of the Templars, seeking to find the remaining Pieces of Eden. With Desmond having outlived his usefulness, Vidic's superiors prepare to kill him, but Lucy, who is implied to be an Assassin
mole Mole (or Molé) may refer to: Animals * Mole (animal) or "true mole", mammals in the family Talpidae, found in Eurasia and North America * Golden moles, southern African mammals in the family Chrysochloridae, similar to but unrelated to Talpida ...
, convinces them to keep him alive for further testing. Desmond is left alone in his room, where he discovers strange drawings on the wall foretelling a catastrophic event, referencing the
2012 phenomenon The 2012 phenomenon was a range of eschatological beliefs that cataclysmic or transformative events would occur on or around 21 December 2012. This date was regarded as the end-date of a 5,126-year-long cycle in the Mesoamerican Long Count cal ...
, that will wipe out humanity.


Development

After completing '' Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time'' near the end of 2003, Patrice Désilets was instructed to begin work on the next '' Prince of Persia'' game, with plans to release it on the
seventh-generation consoles The seventh generation of home video game consoles began on November 22, 2005, with the release of Microsoft's Xbox 360 home console. This was followed by the release of Sony Computer Entertainment's PlayStation 3 on November 17, 2006, and Ninte ...
. As Microsoft and Sony had not yet revealed their next consoles, the game's initial development from January 2004 was aimed as a PlayStation 2 title, following the same linear approach that ''The Sands of Time'' had taken. As more information came in about the capabilities of the next-generation consoles by September 2004, Désilets' team considered expanding the ''Prince of Persia'' acrobatic gameplay into an open world that would be feasible on the newer systems. Désilets wanted to move away from the lead character being a prince simply waiting for his reign to start, but a character that wanted to strive to be a king. He came upon one of his university books on secret societies and its first material related to the Order of Assassins and recognized that he could have the lead character in the game as the second-highest Assassin, seeking to be the leader of the group. The game began work under the title ''Prince of Persia: Assassin'', inspired by Hassan-i Sabbah's life and making heavy use of
Vladimir Bartol Vladimir Bartol (24 February 1903 – 12 September 1967) was a writer from the Slovene minority in Italy. He is best known for his 1938 novel '' Alamut'', the most popular work of Slovene literature around the world, which has been translated int ...
's novel '' Alamut''. The assassin character was fleshed out throughout the game's three-year development in an iterative fashion. The team had some idea of how the character dressed from ''Alamut'' and other historical works in all-white robes and a red belt but had to envision how to detail this in the game. One of the first concept sketches, drawn by animator Khai Nguyen, suggested the concept of a
bird of prey Birds of prey or predatory birds, also known as raptors, are hypercarnivorous bird species that actively hunt and feed on other vertebrates (mainly mammals, reptiles and other smaller birds). In addition to speed and strength, these predat ...
, which resonated with the team. The assassin was named Altaïr, meaning "bird of prey" in
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
, and eagle imagery was used heavily in connection to the Assassins. The team took some creative routes to meet narrative goals and avoid the technical limitations of the consoles. Altaïr was to be a heroic character with a bit of a badass edge, and the artist borrowed elements of the '' G.I. Joe'' character
Storm Shadow Storm Shadow is an Anglo-French low-observable, long-range, air-launched cruise missile developed since 1994 by Matra and British Aerospace, and now manufactured by MBDA. Storm Shadow is the weapon's British appellation. In French service, it is ...
, a similarly skilled hero. Rendering long flowing robes was impossible on the newer hardware, so they shortened the robe and gave it a more feathered look, resonating the bird of prey imagery. Similar routes were taken with other parts of the gameplay to take liberties with accuracy to make the game fun to play. The team wanted Altaïr's parkour moves to look believable but sacrificed realism for gameplay value, allowing the player to make maneuvers otherwise seemingly impossible in real-life. Having leaps of faiths from high vantage points into hay piles and using hay piles to hide from guards was a similar concept borrowed from Hollywood films, but Désilets observed that ''Alamut'' described similar actions that the Assassins had undertaken. To drive the story, the team had to devise a some goal that both the Assassins and Templars were searching for. Philippe Morin suggested using the apple of Eden, which the team initially thought humorous for everyone to fight over an apple; however, as they researched, the team found that many medieval paintings of royalty and other leaders holding spherical objects similar to globus cruciger that represented power and control, and recognized that an artifact named the Apple of Eden would fit well into this concept. Among this work was the idea of the Animus, which came about after the team decided to focus on the Assassins. The team considered that the player would travel through several cities and potentially recount numerous assassinations over the past thousand years, including notable ones such as
John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
's, which would require some time travelling. Désilets had seen a program on DNA and human history and was inspired by the idea that DNA could store human memories, then they could have an in-game machine that could be used for time and location jumps and explain other aspects of the game's user interface to the player. Désilets considered this similar to what they had established in ''The Sands of Time''. There, the game effectively is a story told by the Prince, and while in the game, should the player-character die, this is treated as a mistelling of the Prince's story, allowing the player to back up and retry a segment of the game. Ubisoft's marketing was not keen on the Animus idea, believing players would be confused and disappointed that the game was not a truly medieval experience. Due to this, the game's first trailer shown at the 2006 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) focused heavily on medieval elements. Later marketing materials closer to the game's release hinted more directly at the science fiction elements of the game.


Design

Initial work on the game was to expand out various systems from ''Prince of Persia'' to the open world concept with a team of 20 at Ubisoft Montreal. A new next-generation game engine, the Scimitar engine, was created to support the open world, though this would take about two years to complete, during which the team used the ''Sands of Time'' engine for development; Scimitar eventually was renamed to
AnvilNext Ubisoft Anvil (until 2009 known as Scimitar and until 2020 as AnvilNext) is a game engine created by Ubisoft Montreal and used in 2007 game ''Assassin's Creed''. The engine is used on Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 3, PlayStatio ...
and been used for most of the following ''Assassin's Creed'' games and other titles at Ubisoft. Elements like wall-climbing were made more fluid, and the team worked to smooth other animation sequences; much of the improvements here came from programmer Richard Dumas and animator Alex Drouin, both of whom had worked together on the same elements in ''Sands of Time''. Level designers and artists recreating historical structures had to work together to ensure nearly every building could be climbable while still holding the game's historical appearances. This also helped them to give the feeling to the player that they had as much freedom as possible within the game, a concept that had originated from the success of the ''
Grand Theft Auto ''Grand Theft Auto'' (''GTA'') is a series of action-adventure games created by David Jones and Mike Dailly. Later titles were developed under the oversight of brothers Dan and Sam Houser, Leslie Benzies and Aaron Garbut. It is primarily d ...
'' series. In contrast to ''Prince of Persia'', where the general path that the player takes through a level is predefined, the open-world approach of this game required them to create cities that felt realistic and accurate to historical information but which the player had full freedom to climb and explore. Outside of special buildings, they crafted their cities like Lego bricks, with a second pass to smooth out the shapes of the cities to help with pathfinding and other facets of the enemy artificial intelligence. To encourage the player to explore, they included the various towers that help to reveal parts of the map. Historically, these cities had such landmark towers, and inspired by those, the developers incorporated them into the map, making these points of interest and challenges for players to drive them to climb them. Another factor was guiding the player and devising missions for the player that still gave the player freedom for how to approach it but still created specific moments they wanted the player to experience. For these cases, they used simple animations developed in
Adobe Flash Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a multimedia software platform used for production of animations, rich web applications, desktop applications, mobile apps, mobile games, and embedded web browser video players. Fla ...
to lay out the fundamentals of what actions they wanted and then crafted levels and missions around those. As they started to recognize the need for cities in this open-world game, Désilets wanted to make sure they were also able to simulate large crowds, as this had been a limiting factor due to hardware limitations during the development of ''The Sands of Time''; with the PlayStation 2 hardware, they could only support having up to eight characters on screen for ''The Sands of Time'', but the next-generation hardware was able to support up to 120 people. Having crowds in the game also led to the concept of social stealth, where the main character could mask themselves in the open, in addition to staying out of sight on rooftops. Désilets had come from an acting background, and one element he had incorporated into the game was to make the player-character feel more like they were controlling parts of a puppet so that the character would appear more human. This led to the use of high- and low-profile action in gameplay, which partially expressed the character's emotions and allowed the player to continue to control the character during the game's
cutscene A cutscene or event scene (sometimes in-game cinematic or in-game movie) is a sequence in a video game that is not interactive, interrupting the gameplay. Such scenes are used to show conversations between characters, set the mood, reward th ...
s. The fundamentals of gameplay were completed within nine to twelve months, and another year was spent improving it before they presented the game to Ubisoft's executives in Paris.
Jade Raymond Jade Raymond (born 28 August 1975) is a Canadian video game creator, best known for helping create the '' Assassin's Creed'' and ''Watch Dogs'' franchises, and for building the Ubisoft Toronto and EA Motive Studios. On 16 March 2021, Raymond a ...
was brought in in late 2004 to serve as the game's producer, helping with the team's growth and the game's direction. From late 2005 to early 2006, following nearly two years of development, the concept for ''Prince of Persia: Assassin'' had the game's titular prince AI-controlled, watched over by the player-controlled Assassin that served as the Prince's bodyguard and rescued the Prince from various situations. Ubisoft's management and the development had debates on this direction; Ubisoft's management wanted another game in the ''Prince of Persia'' franchise and was not keen on releasing a game with that name where the Prince was not the lead character. The development team counters that with a new generation of consoles, they could potentially make it a new
intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...
. Near the 2006
Game Developers Conference The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is an annual conference for video game developers. The event includes an expo, networking events, and awards shows like the Game Developers Choice Awards and Independent Games Festival, and a variety of tuto ...
, Ubisoft's marketing team came up with the idea of naming the game ''Assassin's Creed'', which Désilets recognized fit in perfectly with the themes they had been working on, including tying into the creed of the Assassins that "nothing is true; everything is permitted". The prince character was dropped, and the game focused solely on the assassin as the playable character. Following the 2006 E3 presentation and the name change to ''Assassin's Creed'', the Ubisoft Montreal team grew to support the last year of the game's development, with up to 150 persons by the end of the process. Added team members included those that had just finished up production on '' Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones'', as well as former staff that had recently been let go from
Gameloft Gameloft SE is a French video game publisher based in Paris, founded in December 1999 by Ubisoft co-founder Michel Guillemot. The company operates 18 development studios worldwide, and publishes games with a special focus on the mobile games ma ...
, another publisher owned by Ubisoft's co-founder Michel Guillemot. The Scimitar engine was completed, allowing the team to transfer their work and improve detail and art assets. According to Charles Randall, the lead AI developer for the game's combat systems, the game was initially only based on the main missions of assassinating the main targets and had no side quests. About five days before they were to have sent the final software version for mass production, they were contacted by their CEO, who said his son had played the game and found it boring and gave them a missive to add side quests. The team spent the next five days hastily rushing to add the collecting side quests to give it more depth and ensure these were bug-free to make their mass production deadline. While a few noted bugs fell through, they had otherwise met this target.


Voice acting

On September 28, 2006, in an interview with '' IGN'', producer
Jade Raymond Jade Raymond (born 28 August 1975) is a Canadian video game creator, best known for helping create the '' Assassin's Creed'' and ''Watch Dogs'' franchises, and for building the Ubisoft Toronto and EA Motive Studios. On 16 March 2021, Raymond a ...
confirmed that Altaïr is "a medieval hitman with a mysterious past" and that he is not a time traveller. In a later interview on December 13, 2006, with ''IGN'',
Kristen Bell Kristen Anne Bell (born July 18, 1980) is an American actress. Beginning her acting career by starring in stage productions while attending the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, she made her Broadway stage debut as Becky That ...
, who lent her voice and likeness to the game, talked about the plot. According to the interview, the plot centers on genetic memory and a corporation looking for descendants of an assassin. On October 22, 2007, an '' IGN Australia'' interview with Patrice Desilets mentioned that the lead character's climbing and running were done by "Alex and Richard – the same guys from '' Prince of Persia''". Actor Philip Shahbaz voices Altaïr, whose face is modelled on Francisco Randez, a model from Montréal. Al Mualim's character is roughly based on
Rashid ad-Din Sinan Rashid al-Din Sinan ( ar, رشيد الدين سنان ''Rashīd ad-Dīn Sinān''; 1131/1135 – 1193) also known as the Old Man of the Mountain ( ar, شيخ الجبل ''Shaykh al-Jabal'', la, Vetulus de Montanis), was a ''da'i'' (missionary) a ...
, who in 1191 was the leader of the Syrian branch of the Hashshashin in the
Nizari Ismaili state The Nizari state (the Alamut state) was a Shia Nizari Ismaili state founded by Hassan-i Sabbah after he took control of the Alamut Castle in 1090 AD, which marked the beginning of an era of Ismailism known as the "Alamut period". Their people we ...
and was nicknamed "The Old Man of the Mountain". Al Mualim was referred to as Sinan in '' Assassin's Creed: Altaïr's Chronicles''.


Release

The game was released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on November 13, 2007, in North America, November 16 in Europe, and November 21 in Australia and New Zealand. It was made public in April 2008 that ''Assassin's Creed'' would be sold digitally and available for pre-order through
Valve A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically fitting ...
's software distribution, Steam. The PC version of ''Assassin's Creed'' was released in North America on April 8, 2008. Four bonus mission types, not seen in the console versions, are included. These four missions are archer assassination, rooftop race challenge, merchant stand destruction challenge, and escort challenge. Because of these four exclusive missions that are only available on the PC, it was released and is sold under the name of ''Director's Cut Edition''. A
pirated Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, s ...
version of the game has been in existence since late February 2008. Ubisoft purposely inserted a
computer bug A software bug is an error, flaw or fault in the design, development, or operation of computer software that causes it to produce an incorrect or unexpected result, or to behave in unintended ways. The process of finding and correcting bugs i ...
was purposely inserted into the pre-release version to unpredictably crash the game and prevent completion as a security measure; however, players were able to use extra content available on the Internet to bypass it. The pirated version of ''Assassin's Creed'' was one of the most popular titles for piracy during the first week of March 2008. The presence of the bug and performance of the pirated version of the game was believed by Ubisoft to lead to "irreparable harm" for the game and resulted in low retail sales;
NPD Group The NPD Group, Inc. (NPD; formerly National Purchase Diary Panel Inc. and NPD Research Inc.) is an American market research company founded on September 28, 1966, and based in Port Washington, New York. In 2017, NPD ranked as the 8th largest mar ...
reports that 40,000 copies of the PC title were sold in the United States in July, while more than 700,000 copies were illegally downloaded according to Ubisoft. In July 2008, Ubisoft sued disc manufacturer Optical Experts Manufacturing, believing the company to be the source of the leak, citing poor security procedures that allowed an employee to leave with a copy of the game. A digital rights management-free game version was later made by GOG.com, a digital distribution store and a subsidiary of
CD Projekt CD Projekt S.A. () is a Polish video game developer, publisher and distributor based in Warsaw, founded in May 1994 by Marcin Iwiński and Michał Kiciński. Iwiński and Kiciński were video game retailers before they founded the company, whi ...
and
CD Projekt Red CD Projekt S.A. () is a Polish video game developer, publisher and distributor based in Warsaw, founded in May 1994 by Marcin Iwiński and Michał Kiciński. Iwiński and Kiciński were video game retailers before they founded the company, whi ...
. It is available on the GOG Store and GOG Galaxy. On July 10, 2007, during
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...
's E3 press conference, a demo was shown taking place in
Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
. Features that were demonstrated included improved crowd mechanics, the chase system (chasing after a target trying to flee), as well as deeper aspects of parkour. This was the first time when Altaïr could be heard speaking. It was again showcased for 20 minutes on July 11, 2007. A video showed an extended version of the E3 demo and included Altaïr trying to escape after assassinating of Talal, the slave trader.


Music

Jade Raymond Jade Raymond (born 28 August 1975) is a Canadian video game creator, best known for helping create the '' Assassin's Creed'' and ''Watch Dogs'' franchises, and for building the Ubisoft Toronto and EA Motive Studios. On 16 March 2021, Raymond a ...
, the producer of ''Assassin's Creed'', said: "For ''Assassin's Creed'' we wanted the score to capture the gruesome atmosphere of medieval warfare but also be edgy and contemporary." The musical score was composed by Jesper Kyd in 2007. Six tracks were made available online to those who have purchased the game; a password was given to people to insert at the soundtrack section of the Ubisoft website. The soundtrack is available from various
online music store A digital music store is a business that sells digital audio files of music recordings over the Internet. Customers gain ownership of a license to use the files, in contrast to a music streaming service, where they listen to recordings without ...
s. Several tracks are also available on Kyd's MySpace and his official website. The released tracks have the archaic
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
chorus and dark orchestral music, while "Meditation Begins" features a kind of
Saltarello The ''saltarello'' is a musical dance originally from Italy. The first mention of it is in Add MS 29987, a late-fourteenth- or early fifteenth-century manuscript of Tuscan origin, now in the British Library. It was usually played in a fast tr ...
with a very ominous, dark, ambient overtone with men whispering in Latin. The atmosphere in these tracks is what Jesper Kyd is known for and is effective ''
in situ ''In situ'' (; often not italicized in English) is a Latin phrase that translates literally to "on site" or "in position." It can mean "locally", "on site", "on the premises", or "in place" to describe where an event takes place and is used in ...
''.


Reception


Critical reception

''Assassin's Creed'' received "generally favorable" reviews from critics according to
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, a
review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
. ''
Famitsu formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the f ...
'' awarded the Xbox 360 version of ''Assassin's Creed'' a 36 (9, 9, 9, 9) and the PlayStation 3 version a 37 (10, 8, 9, 10) out of 40, positively citing the story, presentation, and acrobatics, while criticizing the one-button combat, map layout, and camera problems. ''
Game Informer ''Game Informer'' (''GI'', most often stylized ''gameinformer'' from the 2010s onward) is an American monthly video game magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of video games and associated consoles. It debuted in August 1991 w ...
'' awarded ''Assassin's Creed'' a 9.5 out of 10, praising the control scheme, replay value, and intriguing story, and expressing frustration over the repetitive information gathering missions. On ''The Hotlist on
ESPNews ESPNews (pronounced "ESPN News", stylized ESPNEWS) is an American multinational digital cable and satellite television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney Company (which owns ...
'', ESPN's Aaron Boulding called the game's concept of social stealth "fairly original" and added: "Visually, the developers nailed it." '' GameTrailers'' praised the story (giving a 9.7 score to its story), and also cited repetitive gameplay and bad AI as somewhat stifling its potential. It wrote that "''Assassins Creed'' is one of those games that breaks new ground yet fails in nailing some fundamentals." The game also received a 10 out of 10 from '' GamesRadar''. In Andrew P.'s review for ''
Electronic Gaming Monthly ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' (often abbreviated to ''EGM'') is a monthly American video game magazine. It offers video game news, coverage of industry events, interviews with gaming figures, editorial content and product reviews. History The m ...
'', he wrote that the game features "a challenging parkour path of escape". While still awarding the game decent scores, several publications cited a number of significant shortcomings. ''
Eurogamer ''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 and owned by alongside formed company Gamer Network. Its editor-in-chief is Martin Robinson. Since 2008, it is known for the formerly eponymous games trade fair EG ...
'' stated that the gameplay "never evolves and ultimately becomes a bit boring, and quite amazingly repetitive." According to '' GamePro'', ''Assassin's Creed'' is one of the "finest gaming experiences ever created" if one is willing to be patient due to the lack of fast-paced action. '' Hyper''s Darren Wells commended the game for its "great story, great graphics and intuitive controls". At the same time, he criticised it for "some missions that don't feel right on the PC and its loopy menu system." Hilary Goldstein of '' IGN'' gave the game a 7/10, stating that "a bad story, repetitive gameplay elements, and poor AI lead to the downfall of one of the more promising games in recent memory." Conversely, he complimented the combat animations and the climbing mechanic, and admired how accurately Ubisoft depicted the major cities of Jerusalem, Acre, and Damascus to their real-life counterparts. Michael Donahoe of '' 1Up.com'' gave the game a B- for the story concept but felt the game could have done more, writing: "But it's apparent that these grandiose ideas may have been a little too much to master the first go-round. But hey, at least the groundwork is laid for a killer sequel."


Awards

''Assassin's Creed'' won several awards at the 2006 E3. ''Game Critics'' awarded it "Best Action/Adventure Game"; "Best Action Game", "PS3 Game of the Show", "Best PS3 Action Game", and "Best PS3 Graphics" from ''IGN''; "Best PS3 Game of the Show" from ''
GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
'' and '' GameSpy''; "Best of Show" from ''GameTrailers''; and "Best PS3 Game" from ''1UP.com''. ''Assassin's Creed'' was nominated for several other awards by ''
Xplay ''Xplay'' (previously ''GameSpot TV'' and ''Extended Play'') is a TV program about video games. The program, known for its reviews and comedy skits, airs on '' G4'' in the United States and had aired on ''G4 Canada'' in Canada (and briefly on YT ...
'', as well as Spike TV. It was listed by ''Game Informer'' at 143 in their list of the top 200 games of all time. It also received the editor's choice award from ''GameSpot''. In December 2015, ''Game Informer'' ranked it as the third-best game in the ''Assassin's Creed'' series to date.


Sales

Sales for ''Assassin's Creed'' were said by the publisher to have "greatly outstripped" their expectations. In the United Kingdom, ''Assassin's Creed'' debuted at number one, knocking
Infinity Ward Infinity Ward, Inc. is an American video game developer. They developed the video game '' Call of Duty'', along with seven other installments in the ''Call of Duty'' series. Vince Zampella, Grant Collier, and Jason West established Infinity Wa ...
's '' Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare'' from the top; the majority of the debut sales were on the Xbox 360, which claimed 67% of the game's total sales. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 releases of ''Assassin's Creed'' each received a platinum sales award from the
Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association The Association for UK Interactive Entertainment (Ukie) is a non-profit trade association for the video game industry in the United Kingdom (UK). Ukie was originally founded as the European Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), and the ...
, indicating sales of at least 300,000 copies per version in the United Kingdom. On April 16, 2009, Ubisoft revealed that the game had sold 8 million copies.


Sequels

A prequel for the game, titled '' Assassin's Creed: Altaïr's Chronicles'', developed by
Gameloft Gameloft SE is a French video game publisher based in Paris, founded in December 1999 by Ubisoft co-founder Michel Guillemot. The company operates 18 development studios worldwide, and publishes games with a special focus on the mobile games ma ...
, was released on February 5, 2008, for the Nintendo DS. A port of ''Assassin's Creed: Altaïr's Chronicles'' has also been released for the iPhone and the iPod Touch and
Java ME Java Platform, Micro Edition or Java ME is a computing platform for development and deployment of portable code for embedded and mobile devices (micro-controllers, sensors, gateways, mobile phones, personal digital assistants, TV set-top ...
on April 23, 2009, as well as for the
Palm Pre The Palm Pre , styled as palm prē, is a multitasking smartphone that was designed and marketed by Palm with a multi-touch screen and a sliding keyboard. The smartphone was the first to use Palm's Linux-based mobile operating system, webOS. Th ...
. ''
Assassin's Creed II ''Assassin's Creed II'' is a 2009 action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft Montréal and published by Ubisoft. It is the second major installment in the ''Assassin's Creed'' series, and the sequel to 2007's '' Assassin's Creed''. The g ...
'' was released in the United States and Canada on November 17, 2009, and in Europe on November 20, 2009.


References


External links


''Assassin's Creed'' UK website''Assassin's Creed'' U.S. website
*
Assassin's Creed
on MobyGames {{authority control 2007 video games Action-adventure games Assassin's Creed Palestine in fiction PlayStation 3 games Single-player video games Stealth video games Ubisoft games Video games scored by Jesper Kyd Video games developed in Canada Video games set in the 12th century Video games set in 2012 Video games set in Acre, Israel Video games set in Damascus Video games set in Jerusalem Video games set in the Middle East Video games set in Rome Video games set in Syria Video games set in Italy Video games using Havok Video games with historical settings Video games set in the Middle Ages Order of Assassins in fiction Windows games Xbox 360 games Xbox One X enhanced games Xbox One games Video games set in the Crusades Open-world video games