So we’ve had some complications while conducting our investigation, but it’s still proceeding apace. Soon, we’ll be able to go after our 4th target.

Thank you YouTube, for giving me a copyright strike on this video for daring to not talk for a few seconds over in-game music.

I have criticized Far Cry 5 for a plot whose premise is “What if the Doomsday Cult was actually right all along?”. Many have criticized works from well-known industry veterans like Ken Levine’s Bioshock: Infinite for the way they like to “both sides” whatever conflict is central to their game’s lore and fiction.

What I didn’t understand when that form of criticism was taking shape, was that this “plot structure” was always there. I just didn’t see it because at the time I had put almost no thought whatsoever into my beliefs and where I stand morally and ethically. This of “both sides” ethical thinking goes as far back as Thief or System Shock 2.

I point this out because the more we listen to our targets in their final moments, the more I realize that this is exactly what happened with Assassin’s Creed 1, and I was too naive to notice. At the time, I believe the pivot towards the Templars being cartoon-villains in the Ezio trilogy was an abomination. However, if anything it was more of a correction.

Thus far, the only substantive arguments the Templars have in support of their cause amount to the sheer force of raw charisma and little else.

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.

With one fell swoop, the good doctor has gone straight to heaven. And then there were seven.

As a narrative setup and plot device, being demoted down to Novice for our hubris and blatant disregard, so that we can build ourselves back up to Master, is a tried-and-true story for a reason. It works. And though Altair’s voice performance is too dry to pull it off, the rest of the voice cast does enough work to compensate for it.

In particular, the heads of each of the Assassin Bureaus each sell how much Altair is hated at the start of the game with their initial interactions all veering towards some level of snide and sneering attitude towards him. Watching how all of them start to change their tunes as we earns back their trust, especially Malik, is a nice touch that further sell the idea that Altair is learning and maturing from the experience of getting humbled.

It’s not perfect, but very few things about this or any Ubisoft game are.

Our second target is in sight, and all we need to do is wait for our moment to strike!

Since we’ve already spent so much time comparing Assassin’s Creed to Hitman, I think it’s also worth pointing out that both franchises were scored by legendary video game composer Jesper Kyd, who still works in the industry to this day.

Unfortunately, I lack the grounding in music theory that one needs to truly criticize a body of work like his and tell you why it is so excellent. Instead, I would encourage you to listen to his songs to get a idea for yourself, particularly Vegas for Hitman and Ezio’s Theme from Assassin’s Creed 2.

Enjoy your irregularly scheduled Jesper Kyd appreciation post.

One target down: The first of nine. But there’s no rest for the wicked, and more targets remain in the Holy Land.

Way back in 2009, when I was first exposed to Assassin’s Creed, I remember believing that it was a deeply and profoundly philosophical game. That was primarily because the writing took great pains to frame the villains as people who weren’t necessarily evil. Instead, they simply disagreed with our protagonist on a philosophical level, and those differences were irreconcilable. It was simply up to the viewer to decide which viewpoint was correct between the Assassins and their targets.

I was what would be mockingly referred to as an “enlightened centrist” back in those days, who believed that “the truth must always be somewhere in the middle because both extremes are wrong”. I remember arguing that the series needed a third faction whose goal was to keep both extremes in check, and genuinely standing firmly behind that terrible opinion. As the Obama years progressed, and I both learned from those wiser than myself and grew increasingly dissatisfied with the state of America politics, I realized I was wrong. I started engaging more actively and sincerely with left-leaning politics, and that’s only grown more true through the Trump and Biden years.

So I sit here, almost 15 years later, watching the same cutscenes presented the same way they were way back when. With a far greater grasp of media literacy and knowledge of the modern political landscape, I can safely that that I was hoodwinked back in 2009. It’s easy to see how, as the discussions between Altair and his targets are framed in such a way that deeper meaning and understanding in the game’s central conflict is implied. However, it only exists as implication.

When we drill down to the actual spoken words, there is shockingly little substance behind them. At the time, I remember thinking that it was a shame for Assassin’s Creed 2 to turn the Templars into card-carrying cartoon villains, but that is the correct interpretation of the organization as presented in the first game: The true fool was myself back in 2009.

I will need to grapple with that as we continue to play.

When we last left off, the game rudely interrupted me by crashing just before we escaped from our first successful assassination. So before we can proceed, we’ll need to perform the hit just one more time.

During the last recording, we experienced an issue where whenever we performed a Leap of Faith at a Viewpoint in the Kingdom, we would die 100% of the time instead of safely landing in a bail of hay. As it turned out, stream chat was correct and it is a frame rate issue. Turning on VSync fixed it, as you saw in the episode above.

Having said that, there’s a delightful irony in retrospect. This open world Kingdom region is easily the weakest area of the game, and yet it will became one of the most defining aspects of the franchise going forward, since Ubisoft doubled down on it. If anything, Assassin’s Creed would grow to become the blueprint for the “standard Ubisoft open world” that repeated itself across multiple franchises, including both Far Cry and Watch_Dogs among others.

Admittedly, other factors were at play. Not only was the formula new, but there was a desire to make use of all the processing power that was afforded to development teams thanks to the new consoles, the PS3 and the 360. Making “bigger” playable zones was one such way of doing that, so many games at the time became open world.

It’s hard to call that a “mistake” given how wildly successful Assassin’s Creed was and still is, but I can’t help but wonder what that alternate reality would have looked like where they cut the open world and created a more focused play space.

We’ve reach the city: The site of our first assassination. Without further ado, let us get started.

The core gameplay loop for the original Assassin’s Creed is fairly simple. First, we are assigned a target at the beginning of a chapter. With that target in mind, he investigate their wrong doings both to understand what wrongs they’ve committed and determine our avenue of approach so that we have a clean method of infiltration and escape. Then, after getting permission from the assassin in charge of the district, we perform the deed and move on to our next target.

In essence, it is similar to Hitman in the sense that it is attempting to create the fantasy of being a skilled and practiced killer, planning out and executing an audacious murder in broad daylight before disappearing into the crowds, impossible to trace. And part of that fantasy is, largely, in the planning and preparations that facilitate the mission’s success.

Unfortunately, the investigation missions, similar to the Modern Day aspects of the game, were widely criticized. In this case, the critics had stronger footing since the complaint was that these investigation segments were too repetitive. While I agree with the critique, I disagree with the solution. Rather than try to reiterate on the investigations and make them more mechanically interesting, Ubisoft would instead choose to do away with them completely.

In doing so, they lose a significant driver for that fantasy of planning out the murder to ensure that we can both pull in off and escape with our lives, taking the core concept in an entirely different direction. That said, I can’t complain about this part too much, because evidently there are forces on the design team that agree with me. Recent games like Assassin’s Creed: Mirage have started returning to this style of gameplay and structure, and I think they’re stronger for it, at least in this respect.

It makes me look forward to Shadows, when it comes out later this year.

In the midst of the Third Crusade, we’ve been stripped of our rank and made novice once more. In the modern world, we’ve been kidnapped by an evil corporation who wants to use us for their own nefarious ends.

It’s not looking great, but we’ve been through worse.

In developer interviews, the developers at IO Interactive have said before the reason Agent 47 was given a barcode tattoo was so that the player had a way of determining which character on screen was the player character even when disguised. A core mechanic to the franchise is dressing up in different outfits, so the protagonist’s character design had to accommodate that.

And I use this example to explain why I’m so fond of Altair’s design in the original Assassin’s Creed. Like Agent 47, he needs to have an appearance that stands out from the crowd he is canonically blending into for the sake of the player. The combination of white robes, red sash, and visible armaments make it so that player always knows which character on screen is their avatar. As the franchise progress, this aspect of character design has held true. No matter which Assassin’s Creed one plays, the main character is always immediately recognizable by the outfit and silhouette.

What is still important is about Altair’s design is the often overlooked practical in-universe purpose for it. The white robes are designed to be almost identical to the robes worn by scholars across the city. Not only does this allow Altair to pass himself off as a scholar to avoid suspicion from guards, but it allows him to blend in with groups of scholars to bypass security discreetly. It’s a queue that I wish other assassins in later games took for their own designs: Outfits that stand out while still feeling as though they had practical purpose for the assassin wear them.

It makes for strong characterization.

So we made a few mistakes and… blatantly disregarded the core tenants of the very Creed that we swore to upheld. It happens, and certainly nothing bad can happen as a result, right?

Right!?

It’s no secret that the “modern day” elements of Assassin’s Creed were heavily criticized at the time of release. The common refrain was that players wanted to be the cool guy assassin from the third crusade, and not some whiny bartender from New York.

I’m not about to say that Desmond and that part of the franchise are some of the aspects of it. Personally, I think the modern day setting is “fine”: Serviceable, but nothing to write home about. However, regardless of how you may feel about it, it is a necessary component to the franchise. At the very least, even Ubisoft appears to understand this, for even now they make sure to tie each game to their long-running meta narrative in some way. However, such little time is giving to this aspect of the world and the overarching plots within it that it almost feels like the development teams are embarrassed that the have to include them.

As much as I enjoy the Ezio trilogy and much of what follows it, I look back on this original Assassin’s Creed game, often thinking that it was a mistake to capitulate to the naysayers who railed against the meta-narrative that frames the franchise. I confess to some degree of hubris as I write that, since clearly history has vindicated Ubisoft’s decisions when crafting the blueprint for the franchise going forward, yet I can’t help myself. I can’t help but wonder what might have happened if instead of trying to jettison the modern day setting, they refined it, taking feedback while staying true to the vision that I suspect was originally there. (And I could very well be wrong about that.)

With regards to this original game, that is a theme the plays out repeatedly in my thoughts on it.

Now that we’ve spent so much time solving murders, we get to start causing them. That’s right. It’s time to go back to the first game, released in 2007, in one of Ubisoft’s longest running franchises: Assassin’s Creed.

While setting up to stream Assassin’s Creed, I was actually surprised at how difficult it was to access it. Somehow, it holds the distinction of being the only game in the franchise that was never ported to, released on, or remastered for modern day consoles like the PS4 or PS5. That meant that if I wanted to play on console, using my capture card (which would be ideal for me), then I would have to dust off my PS3, unhook the old PS VR setup on it, and hook up my capture card. Not impossible, but more trouble than I wanted to go through.

That’s when I remembered that I had, at some point through an Twitch Prime giveaway or some other such deal, acquired a copy of the game through GOG. I remembered the horror stories of Ubisoft games from back in that era, and the performance issues resulting in the horrendous DRM attached to them. Since GOG is renowned for being a DRM-free platform, I figured this would be my best shot at avoiding those and similar issues.

Unfortunately, I was incorrect. Even though I was running a game from 2007 on my modern PC with an NVIDIA GeForce 3080 inside of it, I was experiencing unbearable freezing. It only took a few minutes of playing the game to make itself known. Thus, I had to do a bit of independent research to uncover what might be causing it.

Lo and behold, the solution was fortunately fairly easy to find since it’s a common issue with the PC port. Even the “DRM free” GOG version calls out to a server that has, in the years since, been taking offline. Several users recommended disabling my internet connection while playing, a fix that is not viable when my intent is to stream the game on Twitch. Thankfully, after still more digging, I found a solution on YouTube, which recommended making a change to configurations on my computer.

With my issues resolved, and a renewed disdain for Ubisoft and its business practices in my heart, I was finally ready to stream Assassin’s Creed. So here we are!