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Assassin's Creed is an award-winning historical fantasy video game series that currently consists of five games, several short films, and a novel. Between the five games, they have made appearances on the iPhone, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable and Xbox 360 platforms. The two main games in the franchise were developed by Ubisoft Montreal, with the handheld titles developed by Gameloft and Gryphonite Studios, with additional development by Ubisoft Montreal. All games in the franchise are published by Ubisoft.

The main plot arc of the series revolves around a bartender named Desmond Miles as he is captured by megacorporation Abstergo Industries (a front for the Knights Templar). Using a device known as the Animus, Desmond is forced to relive his ancestors' memories, who were all assassins, in order to recover artifacts, called the "Pieces of Eden", for Abstergo. While the original assassin ancestor of Desmond was Altaïr, the most recent games feature another assassin from Renaissance Italy named Ezio. Assassination targets are mostly actual historical figures, although the timelines for their lives and causes of death have been changed to suit the games' plot (in-game these inaccuracies are attributed to the Templars rewriting history to cover up their actions, as well as honest mistakes on the part of historians).

The gameplay, varies slightly from game to game, consisting of a mixture of action and adventure, with a heavy emphasis on stealth, in open world recreations of historical cities.

Games

Overview

Template:Assassin's Creed chronology The overarching plot for all of the games takes place in the year 2012. It is implied that the 2012 of the game's timeline is rife with chaos and destruction. In-game emails report of a plague that has wiped out the population of Africa, a story about the Mexican President increasing border security in response to "American Refugees" crossing the border, an extreme number of hurricanes across the world, and the closing of the last major film studio in an unnamed country.

Amidst this strife, megacorporation Abstergo has devised a plan to seize control of the minds and free will of every person on Earth. To achieve this goal, they must locate artifacts called "Pieces of Eden". Abstergo captures Desmond Miles, a former assassin trainee turned bartender, to search his ancestors' memories stored in his DNA in order to find the Pieces of Eden. Desmond is forced to enter the Animus, a machine that allows for the viewing of such memories.

Assassin's Creed: Altaïr's Chronicles

Canonically, the first of Desmond's ancestors' viewed memories (albeit, without any mention of Desmond) take place in Assassin's Creed: Altaïr's Chronicles during 1190, where the Third Crusade is waged in the Holy Land. Altaïr ibn La-Ahad, a medieval assassin, is sent on a mission from the Order of Assassins to retrieve a Chalice from the grasps of both the Crusaders and the Saracens. Altaïr quests to find three different keys then travels to Jerusalem to face the head of the Knights Templar, Basilisk. Upon arriving, he learns that the Chalice is not an object, but a woman named Adha who reveals that Altaïr has been deceived by an assassin named Harash, who is now a double-agent for the Templars. After killing both Harash and Basilisk, Altaïr attempts to save a kidnapped Adha from captivity but is too late. The game ends with Adha sailing away and Altaïr left in Jerusalem.

Assassin's Creed

In Assassin's Creed, Altaïr's memories are solicited by Abstergo in their attempt to find the Piece of Eden. Altaïr, still in Jerusalem, ventures to Solomon's Temple to confront crusader Robert de Sable and retrieve the Piece of Eden for Al Mualim, head of the Assassins. Betraying many tenets of the Creed of the Assassins and failing his mission, Altaïr is demoted to a novice assassin upon return to the Assassin's Fortress. To redeem his previous status, Altaïr is sent by Al Mualim to assassinate nine targets in three different cities. With each kill, Altaïr learns there is a connection between his targets; they are all Templars united by Robert de Sable to take control of the Holy Land by force, although they all claim to pursue a noble goal.

After assassinating all nine targets and discovering that his ninth target was in fact a trap, Altaïr confronts Robert in front of King Richard, leader of the Crusader army. Altaïr informs Richard that Robert is plotting to betray and kill him, which causes him to encourage a duel to the death between Altaïr and Robert. Upon dying, Robert confesses to Altaïr that they were not nine, but ten Templars. The tenth being Al Mualim, who wanted to keep the Piece of Eden for himself and therefore sent out Altaïr to kill the others. Back at the Fortress, where Al Mualim had taken over the minds of the people inside, Altaïr manages to defeat and kill him in a duel. The memory Abstergo was searching for, which located the Piece of Eden, reveals it is only just one of several, the "Apple of Eden", and that over fifteen different other Pieces are scattered across the world.

Back in 2012, Abstergo sends a team to recover as many Pieces as possible. Deciding they do not need him anymore, they give orders to kill Desmond. Lucy Stillman, an Abstergo employee who revealed to Desmond that she is an Assassin, convinces them not to kill Desmond until they recover the Pieces, buying him time. Desmond is left alone in the Animus room, and by the use of Altaïr's Eagle Vision inherited from the 'bleeding effect' caused by the Animus, he sees many symbols drawn in blood on the wall in his room and on the floors of the lab.

Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines

Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines takes place before the events of Assassin's Creed II but after the events of the original Assassin's Creed. Altaïr has traveled to Cyprus from the Holy Land in order to assassinate the last remnants of the Templars. Here Altaïr meets Maria and they travel together to kill the remaining templars and learn more about the "Apple of Eden" and the mysterious Templar Archive where more of the artifacts are believed to be hidden. Altaïr manages to kill the new Templar Grand Master, Armand Bouchart, and his followers, but the Archive's contents is discovered to have already been taken from Cyprus.

Assassin's Creed II

At the beginning of Assassin's Creed II, Lucy returns and breaks Desmond out of Abstergo. He is brought to a hideout and introduced to her Assassin allies Shaun and Rebecca, as well as an updated version of the Animus. Knowing what is at stake, Desmond volunteers to enter the Animus again, and explore the memories of Ezio Auditore da Firenze, a young nobleman from 1476 in Florence, Republic of Florence. He hopes to gain Ezio's abilities through the Bleeding Effect so he can aid the Assassins.

As a young man, Ezio's father and brothers are executed by the hand of Uberto, a corrupt official in league with the Templars. Ezio kills Uberto in revenge, and after fleeing with his surviving family to their villa in the Tuscan countryside, he learns of his Assassin heritage and begins training under his uncle Mario. Ezio also befriends local inventor Leonardo da Vinci, who helps Ezio with his work by decoding an encrypted codex that contains Altaïr's memoirs, as well as plans for advanced assassin weaponry. Over the course of a decade Ezio assassinates the conspirators involved in his father's death, leaving Rodrigo Borgia, a nobleman and Templar who has retrieved the Apple of Eden and is the center of the conspiracy. Ezio and other Assassins reclaim the Apple of Eden, but Borgia flees. Ezio is formally inducted as an Assassin, and is told that he may be a prophet as described in the codex.

During the course of the game Desmond experiences a number of unusual occurrences. First he discovers strange glyphs apparently left by a previous test subject, similar to the symbols seen at Abstergo, which hide a secret history of the world. He later dreams of appearing as Altaïr again, chasing after Maria, a Templar he had earlier spared, and then romanced her. Finally, several memories are skipped, throwing the timeline forward by more than a decade to the Vatican, where Borgia now resides as Pope Alexander VI.

Borgia has in possession the Papal Staff, another Piece of Eden. He attempts to use it to enter a vault that the prophet as described in the codex must enter. Ezio intercepts Borgia, appears to take his life, and enters the vault himself. He encounters the hologram of a woman, who claims to be once known as the goddess Minerva, and who also claims to come from a civilization whose members were also seen in the same light by ancient peoples. Minerva reveals of a great disaster that had befallen and destroyed her civilization, and warns that it will occur again soon. Talking directly to Desmond, she tells him "The rest is up to you".

Desmond is pulled out of the Animus as Abstergo has located their hideout. He, Lucy and the rest of the team manage to flee to safety, and soon prepare to return Desmond to the Animus to search for clues that may help them.

Assassin's Creed II: Discovery

Assassin's Creed II: Discovery takes place during the events of Assassin's Creed II, specifically between the Battle of Forlì and the Bonfire of the Vanities: the downloadable content packs for Assassin's Creed II. Ezio, after losing the Apple of Eden to Girolamo Savonarola, was told to meet Antonio, his fellow Assassin. When doing so, Ezio found Antonio with another man named Luis Santangel, who asked Ezio to rescue his friend Christoffa Corombo from a presumed Templar trap set up by Rodrigo Borgia. Ezio rescued Christoffa from this trap, and he was informed that Assassins in Spain were captured and executed by Tomas Torquemada. Ezio, who felt that it was his duty to rescue the Assassins, set for Spain to fight back against the Spanish Inquisition. Along the way, Ezio found out that Torquemada was ordered to these actions by Rodrigo Borgia, who led Torquemada to believe that this was the way God wants it to happen. Ezio also found out that his close allies, Luis Santangel and Raphael Sanchez, were in fact Assassins themselves. When finally confronting Torquemada, Ezio chose not to kill him as he was just ignorant and misled by Borgia while not a Templar himself. Ezio returned to Italy to continue his search for the Apple of Eden.

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is the title for the previously code-named "Episodes." The next game in the franchise has been announced by Ubisoft and will be released November 16, 2010. Little is known about the plot, but it has been confirmed that it will be the continuation of the Assassin's Creed II protagonist Ezio's story, but as seen in the E3 trailer, Ezio is seen sleeping with Caterina Sforza, as the Papal soldiers are about to siege all of Monteriggioni. At the end of the trailer Ezio is seen catching sight of his uncle Mario being killed by Cesare Borgia as an invitation from his family to Ezio's to Rome. Ubisoft has also confirmed online multiplayer for the first time in the series. There is a teaser trailer online which gives you an insight into the new game. In this game you, as Ezio, turn to Rome and recruit new assassins and attempt to put an end to the Templar order.

Assassin's Creed: Lost Legacy

Assassin's Creed: Lost Legacy shows how Ezio travels East to find the lost castle of Masyaf to find out more about the origins of his order. When the game takes place, is not known as of yet.

Other media

There is a short film called Assassin's Creed: Lineage and a novel called Assassin's Creed: Renaissance.

Reception

This section needs expansion. You can help by making an edit requestadding to it . (February 2009)

The Assassin's Creed games have received a generally positive reception from critics. The series has also been financially successful, with the first game selling over 8 million copies to date and also the second game selling 8 million copies to date.

References

1. http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/xbox360/file/930278/51551
2. http://uk.ps3.ign.com/articles/109/1096945p1.html
3. http://kotaku.com/5531849/gamestop-placeholder-art-names-assassins-creed-brotherhood-+-update
4. "Ubisoft Unveils Assassins Creed II" (PDF). Ubisoft. Retrieved June 4, 2009.

External links

• Official site

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