Assassin's Creed

 

Assassin's Creed came out much later compared to Legacy of Kain, Max Payne or Warcraft III. It was not my first game that makes you question things and raises complicated questions as who is really are the bad guys or can you trust your own leaders.

Back in the days I played both first and second parts as well as Brotherhood and Revelations. I planned to play the third part but was skeptical it did turn out well.

However, Assassin's Creed was possibly the most comprehensive of them all. It was not telling you to question things in subtle way like Legacy of Kain would. I basically revolved around the very idea that nothing is what it seems. It showed you two sides of the coin and let you choose for yourself.

The game lets you see people at their base primitive selves with their flaws, fears, insecurities, blatant stupidity and subtle cunning wisdom. 

At times you were dealing with pretty much straight face hypocrites who fully understand that what they do is wrong but do it anyway. People like Majd ad Din pretend that it is their victims who are at fault. 

Other times you face people who commit atrocities, but actually believe they are doing a good thing.

However, at the same time game tries to weave a complex 'mother of all conspiracy theories' plot where every event in history was actually a proxy war between Assassins and Templars. Story that makes you wonder if some of it indeed has some connection to reality. Aside from things such as Masyaf was indeed a fortress of the Assassins during the Crusades times, and they assassinated both Christians and Muslims. Castle there looks just like in game and you can visit the place.

The Pieces of Eden, produced by the advanced civilization of the past have near supernatural powers in the eyes of the ordinary person of the times. Because of that Pieces of Eden can be used by cunning and ambitious people to rule over other as near gods. Templars want to use Pieces of Eden to control the entire humanity and lead it into their idea of utopia, that is more of an Orwellian dystopia in the eyes of the freedom loving people. Assassins fight to prevent them from doing it.

Gameplay wise games offered not only an open world in a beautifully recreated historical setting with many landmarks present in the game, but also many innovative ways of traversing it. Before this game you could only walk the surfaces, jump over obstacles or climb ladders. Prince of Persia games also allowed you to run on walls briefly. 

In Assassin's Creed however you could finally climb pretty much any building. Walls no longer limited where you could go, but merely offered a different way forward. Wandering around and sightseeing is very enjoyable part of the game experience.

They took it even further in the second game, by implementing 4 vastly different cities. Traversing Venice with its canals and gondolas that you could actually ride was different from Florence or Forli. Not to mention you can easily tell in which city you were based solely on how buildings looked like.

In the second game they also let you fly Leonardo da Vinci's flying machine and pilot his tank. You can also meet Niccolo Machiavelli, Lorenzo Medici and Rodrigo Borgia.

Story alone I would say the first game was a lot more focused on the core idea, while the second was much longer and somewhat more eventful and entertaining but was somewhat baser. It also had some feminist influence that first game lacked.

Overall, I would say Assassin's Creed was the game that influenced Millennial generation in many subtle ways. I encouraged people to question what elders and authority figures tell them and think for themselves.