Leaked Assassin's Creed 3 Screenshots Show American Revolution 100
An anonymous reader writes "After three years, Ubisoft is finally finishing the newest installment of their Templars vs. Assassins series, set during the American Revolution. PC Magazine reports that 'If the cover art is any indicator, the new Assassin is pals with George Washington, Paul Revere, Ben Franklin, and the other leading American revolutionaries of the day.' A team of developers at Ubisoft reportedly dedicated a full three-year development cycle to re-examining every element in the franchise to improve the game — although it could've taken even longer."
Fantastic franchise, great story arc (Score:5, Informative)
Ubisoft, while consistently putting incredibly restrictive and obstructive DRM on their games, sure know how to make a compelling story. It creates dissonance because I don't want to support the studio which implements such draconian DRM, but I want to support the artists and developers who make such a great game.
SPOILER ALERT.
To anyone who hasn't played the franchise, or hasn't kept up with it through the latest game, Revelations, I believe you are missing out on a fantastic work of fiction. The entire story has dealt with the protagonist Desmond's uncovering of an ancient civilization on earth which were wiped out by a massive solar event. He is able to discover this through "re-living the memories of his ancestors in his DNA" by hooking up to a special machine called the Animus. By doing this, he is able to re-live characters throughout time, be it the crusades in the 1190s (Assassin's Creed) or the Renaissance (Assassin's creed 2 and it's two spinoffs). Eventually, Desmond discovered the ancient race, and they instruct him to find something (which we still don't know what it is) that will prevent the Earth from suffering the same cataclysmic fate. In the mean time, the order of the Knights Templar, and their current incarnation, Abstergo Corporation, has been secretly pulling strings on humanity since at least 1198 AD.
My favorite part of the game is how Ubisoft has been able to link have the massive conspiracy of the Knights Templar throughout history and even into modern times. The game leads the player to believe that almost every major player and every major event in history has been part of this conspiracy. Through the story and the puzzles, the game implicates Robert de Sable [wikipedia.org], The Borgia Family and Pope Rodrigo Borgia [wikipedia.org], Chief Justice John Roberts [wikipedia.org], Hitler [wikipedia.org], and an unnamed [wikipedia.org] modern day [wikipedia.org] telecommunications company [wikipedia.org] as being all part of the templars. Meanwhile, Da Vinci [wikipedia.org], Niccolo Machiavelli [wikipedia.org], and Suleiman the Magnificent [wikipedia.org] are all part of the other side, the Assassins, whose mission it is to stop and expose the templars.
I find it interesting they pull no punches even with modern day public figures. In Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, one of the puzzles requires you to figure out that John Roberts and Scalia decided Citizens United v. FEC specifically so that the templars, under the guise of Abstergo Corporation, could elect and influence any politician they want.
I hope Ubisoft gives this game and this franchise the due care and attention to detail and presentation that they have in the past, and aren't trying to just push out a product every year for financial gain. I am excited to see how they will continue the arc in the American revolution.
BEN FRANKLIN WITH HIDDEN BLADES, YO!
Re:"US Patriotism" -- Be careful what you wish for (Score:4, Informative)
Nationalism is the wish to subject other countries and peoples to the dominion of one's country.
No, it's not. Just as patriotism is the love for one's country ("patria" - fatherland), nationalism is the love for one's nation. Since countries are not always matched up with nations one-to-one, they don't always coincide. Either can be defensive or aggressive etc.
Re:Swell (Score:3, Informative)