titular creed, Ezio Auditore, a charismatic playboy and a Florentine nobleman, who has since joined the likes of Mario and Master Chief in the pantheon of video game icons.( A confession: I referred to Ezio as an Italian Batman running on Roman rooftops in my college application essay, a sentiment I fondly chuckle at.)
If the first Assassin’ s Creed was a gateway for my interest into history, the second opened a floodgate of passion that gushes to this day and refuses to abate. History was not relegated to the background in these games. It was brought to life through vivid design and rich detail, which were woven into the historical tapestry of the games, and not placed upon it like eye-popping candy on a carpet. The improvements to the graphics and the fast-paced combat made the pleasure of playing even greater. No longer was I at the mercy of a sticky joystick over whether I’ d leap over a chasm or plummet into it face-first; instances of me ragequitting diminished considerably. The overall effect of these updated but familiar elements was the sense of a world that actually existed beyond the dry lectures of middle-school teachers.
This was and still is partly due to a little disclaimer that appears at the beginning of each game( with minor rewording depending on the title), following the sparkly Ubisoft icon that brings to mind the vague shape of a shellfish:“ INSPIRED BY HISTORICAL EVENTS AND CHARACTERS, THIS WORK OF FICTION WAS DESIGNED, DEVELOPED AND PRODUCED BY A MULTICULTURAL TEAM OF VARIOUS RELIGIOUS FAITHS AND BELIEFS.”
So by the company’ s admission these games demonstrate a collective effort to import a sense of cultural complexity, if not always in fidelity to accuracy, to the emotional richness of its human characters. The vast array of stories they’ ve told, spanning time periods of different cultures, customs, and religions- be it Renaissance Italy, Colonial America, Victorian England, the Caribbean during the Age of Piracy- always seemed to have an eye for the stray detail that made the games that much more involving, whether it was an attention to costume configuration, or an architectural replica of Brunelleschi’ s Duomo for you to explore. Their