With our third successful assassination under our belt, we’re starting to get a handle on how to deal with our assigned targets. And with six more left to neutralize, it’s up to us to maintain the momentum.
I am still genuinely surprised that “The Who Came Before” started here and not in Assassin’s Creed 2. I had somehow completely forgotten, or more likely never even registered, that Vidic refers to them in this conversation. I have long maintained that the aspects of the plot that revolve around the precursor race, and specifically the Mayan Apocalypse, in Assassin’s Creed are the least interesting parts. (I’m not linking the essay I wrote on it because it’s from my early days and one of the most poorly written things I’ve ever produced.)
I disliked it because at the time I perceived it as taking away from the overall conflict of the Templars and Assassins. To an extend, I don’t think that’s entirely incorrect. However, what my younger self failed to understand was that these precursors and the relics they left behind actually were driving the story the entire time: A fact which is evident in hindsight given the direction they took new series protagonist, Layla Hassan, in the Origins trilogy.
One could argue that the development team could have chosen a different vehicle for the conflict established here in the first game, but then we wouldn’t have Assassin’s Creed in its current form at all.
I honestly still don’t know if it’s even good that so much of the series revolves around “Those Who Came Before” and their machinations throughout world history. However, as the seemingly throwaway comment from Vidic demonstrates, it was always part of what made Assassin’s Creed what it is today. It simply wouldn’t be what it is, or was, without it.
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