Hey everyone! I had a lot of fun talking about Assassin’s Creed 1 even though it’s a pretty strange game from a story perspective; I love this series and at some point I’d love to go through all of them. Just a heads-up, I did my first recording for this when I had a bit of a cold and I ended up coming back on a later date and rerecording some of the messier bits. It’s probably noticeable but hopefully not too bothersome, just one of those things I’ll feel less anxious about if I acknowledge it.
I think Dawnguard is up next for hopefully a festive Halloween-ish release? Thank you all for watching!
I vehemently believe that assassin's Creed as a series is so interesting because of this ideological conflict at the heart of this game, and all it's pockmarks and contradictions, I'm not half as well read as you it seems, but this video really demonstrates my firm belief that assassin's creed consistently is a series that is less than the sum of it's parts, the series is so enrapturing to me partly because every new release is an opportunity to live up to the potential that it's never achieved. I'm excited to see your coverage of the sequels, as I've grown older I've decided that this game is unfortunately the series narrative peak, even while the ideas for a compelling sequel are there for AC2; much like AC1, there is not enough connective tissue to follow through on the amazing story on paper.
@colewebb2409 I remember playing when I was younger and I was so enraptured by the death confessions. It felt like I was hearing thigs that were way beyond my understanding. The twists and turns really did catch my off guard. AC1 is one of my favorite games. The latter ones may be better on a technical level. But the story was amazing. Ezio was damn near close. His character is more interesting from a broader perspective but I think Altair is more interesting as an actual character study. Might be nostalgia but no other character tops Altair for me.
"It's here we get the most obvious sign of Vidic's evil nature: The sick bastard appears to be a morning person." That came out of leftfield so fast, I choked lol
I have a funny memory about this game. I rented it from the video store, and was playing it at my brother's house. His wife's very religious father and her 9 year old nephew were also there, and the young boy wanted to play this game. No qualms from his religious grandad for playing this violent killing game. But he got increasingly angry at the boy when Altier bumped into an NPC woman. There's hundreds of NPC people in the crowded streets and he was bumping into them trying to kill enemies brutally, and his grandfather was yelling at him not to bump into women.
Yeah so, the reason why both Robert and Al-Mualim mention God in those scenes is not because they believe in God, but because their soldiers do. It's a way to improve morale. That's also why Al-Mualim tells Altair and the other 2 assassins to throw themselves off that cliff while Robert's men were looking - in that case it's both a demoralization tactic to show Robert's men that those of the Assassin order are loyal and fearless to the point of killing themselves when commanded to, as well as a way for those 3 assassins to circle around the cliff unseen and activate the trap.
Well said. That way of showcasing the faith of the disciples, by having three of them jump off a tall structure and into seemingly certain death, was also something that happens in Alamut, the book which Assassin's Creed took inspiration from
@@kiwaminski that book was great! And I believe Altair was inspired by the only successful Assassin in the book, Ibn Tahir. I loved how the AC devs used the novel as an inspiration for the game.
@@seiferwolfhart1144 It really was! And I think you're spot on about Ibn Tahir likely being the inspiration for Altair. Both were the only ones that questioned their faith and their leader and both were the only ones that ended up enlightened about the true nature of the scheme they were a part of by the end. Both were also wise and introspective about their place and role in the world. Cherry on top being that the next castle the hashashins would migrate to in the book would be the castle of Masyaf haha
@@kiwaminski Great of you to catch those details! You can get an idea of how Ubisoft tweaked the plot of Alamut to fit AC1! But men, I just love the parallels between Ibn Tahir and Altair. Not only do their names sound the same, but both of them had a family member who was murdered and both fell in love in strange circumstances with a woman whose name starts with the letter M.haha
@@seiferwolfhart1144 Right on! Honestly, whenever we followed Ibn Tahir in the book and especially during his venture at the end of the novel, I had always envisioned him looking just like Altair. Especially during the assassination at the end, hood and all haha And I never realized those strong parallels between their names, love interests and family histories! Nice catch! Also something I found really fascinating is the book's and the games' implied meaning of the book's maxim Nothing is True, Everything is Permitted and how they're somewhat different from one another. In the book, it held more of a religious and personal meaning, as in no God, moral or law shall forbid you to use any means possible to achieve your goals, political and otherwise. Whereas in the games it spoke more about the politcal and controlled way information and facts are spread amongst society and how history was painted by only a few certain individuals of power. Was that something that stood out to you as well by any chance?
One thing I disagree with is when the player is introduced to the leap of faith. Al Mualim says to his men "Go to god!" not because he or Robert believes in God, but because he wants to scare the enemy soldiers, by making them think that the Assassins don't fear death. It's scarier to fight someone who's not afraid to die and that's the point. That scene is also taken from the book Alamut. The Seljuk Sultan sends an emissary to basically threaten the Assassins, as a demonstration of the total devotion of the Fedayeen (assassin soldiers), Hasan Sabbah has two of his best men take their own lives, one by stabbing himself with a dagger, and the other by jumping off a tower. Both do it with a smile. It's a way to fuck your enemy up psychologically and scare the shit out of them.
@mumumeme8496 yes thats true on the surface level, but no matter what, it's telling a story. You're not looking at the narrative context, and it makes you seem ignorant
Honestly looking back at Altiar’s redemption over the game makes me appreciate when they make the Templars and Assassins more morally grey and bendable. I kinda wish we could see that corruption angle more when they did the Templar perspective in Rogue.
I think Rogue is such a terrible game. The idea behind giving us the perspective of a Templar for a game is superb, but the execution is so horrible that I would have rather not had it. The only interesting plot point in that game is the fact that in their race to prevent the Templars from finding artifacts, the Assassins forget to preserve innocent lives. The other parts presented, where the Assassins act like lawless thugs and gangs, I feel is very weird and out of place. And the conviction in Shay's conversion is very awkward, as well.
Its quite interesting how this is literally the only game in the swries that actually has any motivation for the Assassin/Templar conflict. Even by AC2, it was completely dropped in favour of a generic, Flanderised "mmm yummy power tastes good" story. AC1 has so many reasons to doubt your mission and the results. The characters are barely intoduced and seen, and yet in their minute long interactions with Altair expound huge amounts of philosophy, observations, or motivations. Garnier is probably the most important, and after his detah has the most visible effect. Hes completely correct- without him, the cities of the Holy Land are flooded with lost crazies unable to help themselves. How much does freedom truly matter to someone who has no home, no family, no money, no food, no future? By AC2 these sorts of questions entirely disappear. Rodrigo Borgia essentially says he wants to take over the universe by defeating God with the Apple and Staff, and the rest of the Templars are essentially one-note- Rodrigo even berates them in Venice for attempting to have their own plans. This doesn't mean AC2 is jot great, its just interesting how quickly the franchise abandoned the original intent/theme of the story, despite being written and guided by the same people. One is a thematic stealth adventure, the other is an action stealth adventure. One focuses on the ethics and moral quandries of being a killer, means and endings, the other focuses on the story and revenge fueld rampage of an orphaned killer.
I really disliked that about AC2 as well, the game seems to be building up to some kind of extremely pointed commentary explicitly about religion and Catholicism in particular by having you assassinate the literal pope mid sermon. But then Rodrigo looks straight into the camera and goes "ahh but you see it was never about belief or religion I just chose to be an evil pope because abusing the goodwill of the masses grants easy access to money and power mwahahaha!" I honestly believe at some point in development there was a scathing critique of the Catholic church that was torn out because they were worried about audience backlash, as it is now the story straight up has no discernable message to take away from
@@Legacy0901 well, it was made by the French, who are intensely anti-clerical and almost repressive with religion in public life. It's pretty clear they don't like religion in the first game though - every character who breaks through the illusion understands there is no God. Those who cling to the illusion and delude themselves, well that way of thinking shows their position.
@@lewisyeadon4046 Made in Montreal by French Canadians. I think that's a fair distinction. There's a much different history of the involvement of the Church and its power in society there than mainland France.
In no uncertain terms this channel is the most promising up and comer I have ever seen. One day when this channel has a million subscribers I can't wait to be able to say "I was among the first few thousand"
In defence of saving citizens through the game: It's clear that Altair only benefits from this action. At the start of the game, aiding civilians is quite useful for what they provide, vigilantes especially. Altair isn't fully skilled yet at destroying whole armies, so running away is serviced by Altair helping people and getting something in return. Towards the end of the game, Altair doesn't need to save people anymore, however chances are players have simply gotten used to this, even if they're no longer running away or using the streets to get around due to experience and ability in the game, especially since previously saved civilians in past districts can still be used. This in turn transforms Altair's motivations from self service to pure heroism, aided by Altair not saying a single line of dialogue, letting you infer whatever motivation is appropriate.
Another defence, this time of Templar possession of the Apple: Using only this game as a reference, we can see from the ending that there are multiple Apples. It's not unreasonable to think they have already had one, or perhaps they are aware of some form of literature that describes how they work. Afterall, de Sable clearly knows the Ark will help him attack Masyaf, and Al-Mualim describes events related to it from the past. It seems therefore likely that knowledge of these artifacts is rare, but not that no one knows anything. While AC1's Templar Order only just started, it's not like you can't read the story as sort of El Doradan in nature, but actually happening. The invaders want to find this treasure and exploit it, they know about it, and where they heard about it doesn't exactly matter since we know from the opening, it is in fact real.
The go to god scene does not require either man to believe. The entire crusader army believes and those are the only ones that can be worth influencing in that situation.
1:28:01 Little detail I just realized in hindsight, Lucy says Abstergo already found the Apple in Masyaf, the same one Ezio found in Revelations, meaning they had to overcome that stone door. Cool little detail
The 'go to god' thing isn't directed to the Assassin's or Robert.. It's to lower the morale of the knights behind Robert.. Robert is a grandmaster.. that doesn't mean the soldiers don't believe in God.. especially when looking at history Tempkar knight ( at least the soldiers ) were highly religious
Yes, this! To me this video at first seemed very good. But soon I realized that a lot of the criticism isn't valid at all. A lot of the stuff went over this guy's head. AC 1 is written extremely well.
In the beginning I think you said to perfectly and it was something I had never realized, “it lacks confidence”. The sluggish tutorial, the bad pacing all stem from that lack of confidence that slows down an excellent game. I also love your vids you show me a great insight on my favorite games!
There is a different interpretation to Altaïr's ressurrection when he gets stabbed by Al Mualim early ingame than it actually happening ingame & being weirdly unaddressed: It was an illusion. The apple of eden can, among other things important in Mualim's bossfight, generate realistic illusions of people & events as if they actually happened. I think this was the case there. It didn't actually happen, but it was a convincing illusion generated by using the apple.
@@BleydXVI It has been a while since I played the game, I'm working off your video + my memory, but I never got the impression he wanted to pass it off as an actual resurrection rather than metaphorical. Immediately before & after the scene, we are cut off in some way so we never really get to see the full context from an observer perspective. For all we know Al Mualim was talking literally - he wanted him to experience that as if it had been an actual execution for Altaïr within that moment. Not to make anyone think it's a ressurection, but as a tool for manipulating or influencing behaviour.
@@Argacyan I was just quoting the scene played in the video, it's not my video. I think we agree. Al Mualim didn't want to make Altair or anyone think that he had actually been killed and resurrected, rather instilling a sense of mortality and humility into Altair that would make him easier to control. It's one thing to punish Altair and have him do your missions, all while keeping his arrogant pride. It's another to turn his far off knowledge that you could have him executed, and actually make him experience it. This "rebirth" definitely backfires on Al Mualim though
I think you’re both right and whole thing being an illusion is the most logical explanation we’re left with. I wish they played a bit more fair with that though, fast-forwarding right to that moment from the log trap makes it hard to tell if anything is amiss and feels like a missed opportunity to build some mystery.
I always thought he probably just drugged Altair supposed to using the Appel to me it makes more sense than the Apple Altair could (at least parsley) see through and why you health goes down as you slowly get it back through out the game(all tho that could represent armor to) and with his (albeit very veg) relation with the Templars who were experimenting with similar substances. Unfortunately to my knowledge they never give more context to the situation than what me whales showed in his video
Ac1 is one of my favorites in the series. I really love the hazy filter on the game at all times that gives it a dream-like quality. Specifically I think of Desmond in abstergo where you can’t see outside the windows which makes you wonder if anything that’s happening is real (a little on the nose ik). Ultimately the series would never continue to present itself in such an uncanny manner, but I still love it in this first entry
About the "Paradise" in Masyaf, it's a reference to the real assassin's brotherhood lead by Hasan in the fortress of Alamut. He built a garden inside of the fortress and when he was recruiting new assassins, he drogued them with haschich and then putted them in this garden claiming it was a vision of the paradise that was waiting for them in the afterlife by seving him
..I think moreso than this, it's clear that both the AC1 garden & Alamut are based upon the traditional quadrangle Islamic garden. It's meant to be a representation on Earth of the fourfold promises of paradise. The exact format of the garden the fight takes place in is extremely common in the Islamic world, albeit with some features missing in the game such as specific fruit trees. From wikipedia: 'Persian gardens were traditionally enclosed by walls and the Persian word for an enclosed space is pairi-daeza, leading to the paradise garden.' Google Islamic Paradise Garden for more info on this. It's actually not a self-referential thing within the franchise, but a straightforward naming convention from this culture IRL. My source is just visits to certain of these gardens; I'm not Muslim or from an Arabic background so I'd yield on the subject to anyone who has more real standing, but I'm pretty sure this is it.
Not true. This idea was popularized in the Vladimir Bartol novel "Alamut". Where many other story ideas and also the maxime were taken from. Ironically we never visit Alamut in the first game, but masyaf instead. According to archeologists neither castle had any such gardens tho. And houris would have been a myth as the real hashshashiyin were hardline ismaeli muslims
I can confirm the bench montage was objectively funny. I very much enjoy your videos, You actually add something to the conversation and that in 2023. I really need to replay the series, it has been a good while.
I don't normally comment, but this video is absolutely amazing and very well detailed. I hope you don't drop your effort or rush any of these vids because some receive fewer views. If you keep making content of this professionalism, it's just a matter of time before you get lots of attention. Keep it up man
1:43:32 The thing is: Looking to AC4, Ubisoft still maintained that Al Mualim was never a Templar; meaing he was an assassin during the Templar expedition to find the apple the first time. Maybe Al Mualim was under cover, having to reveal himself before escaping with the apple? Maybe he was just corrupt, and made a deal? But if that was the intent, it needed clarification.
It doesn't need a clarification. It's like people forgetting that Assassin and Templar has the possibility to work together without converting to the other group.
from my own observation, Al Mualim was an Assassin, once he found out what the piece of eden can do (possibly from watching the templars from the dark), he decided to work with them, and then he started to use both the Assassins and the Templars for his own benefit, simply put. for me, Al Mualim was neither an Assassin or a Templar, he's nothing but a man who takes power for himself.
The Knights Templar order and the Templar "brotherhood" that controls the crusader conflict through the shadows are different things. Al Mualim was only part of the latter group and wasn't even the only "muslim" to do so.
I've been thinking of a video like this for a long, long time. Because the narrative and storytelling of AC1 is what really elevated it as the "true" Assassin's Creed concept that Ubisoft abandoned with AC2. Yes, it's plotting is wonky and nowhere as solid as it CAN be, but I miss this style of storytelling and the topics it touches on. I knew I couldn't do it justice, but even with summarizing the entire plot even scene by scene, you show that core, the foundation that made Assassin't Creed compelling to me. The initial 1 hour tutorialization is horrible on replay, absolutely arduous, but what it allowed afterwards was a story that could properly expand its scope. AC1 was undercooked, it walked so AC2 could run, and Richard's Kingdom could've been easily just cut and save so much resources, if it wasn't already developed by the time they figured out that part and were investing into making it just OK for playing.
This is actually a great video and analysis. I enjoyed that you went into so much detail even if I don’t agree with every single point (and the "snarky bench montage" made me actually laugh out loud). One significant criticism I have, however, is that I don’t think you quite manage to put yourself in the shoes of someone playing this game for the first time in 2007, without having played any other game in the series, without even knowing that it was going to BE a series in the first place. You say that when the Templar twist comes your reaction is "Haven’t we been killing templars all along?". and I think that really would be a player’s reaction - IF that player starts playing AC in 2024 with some vague idea of how AC is about "Assassins vs Templars" which they’ve absorbed through friends and social media. Of course, looking back now, it is BONKERS to think that "All of our enemies are Templars" was actually a plot twist at one point, when that is just a given from AC2 onwards. But back then we knew nothing of the secret shadow organization capital t Templars - as far as we knew, during the Crusades they were just a Christian order that was part of the Crusader army, like a lot of other orders at the time. And I don’t think that them having beef with the Assassins from the beginning really changes that, bc we ALSO didn’t know ANYTHING about the Assassins at that point - they might actually be a Muslim sect (like they were in history), so it would absolutely make sense for them to have a combative history with the Templars. And so, yes, the fact that Saracens, or seemingly Saracen-aligned people like Tamir, Talal, ect., are part of the Templar Order, a Christian order in the Crusader army, WAS actually a twist. In the same vein, I don’t think the Al Mualim twist is that obvious either for a first time player. Now at this point of course we know that the Assassins are the Good Guys (TM), and so yes, Al Mualim’s behavior is immediately suspicious. But playing this game for the first time, without any prior knowledge, I don’t think his behavior seems out of place for the leader of a mysterious, somewhat creepy order that lives in the mountains and sends out men in hoods to stab people with their sleeve-blades. It doesn’t help that Altair is such a dickhead at the beginning of the game, so it seems even more justified that he gets brought down a peg. The thing that DOES make him suspicious, over the course of a few assassinations, is how secretive he is, that he refuses to answer any questions, but I think that the game actually handles this quite cleverly by putting the first big confrontation with Al Mualim, together with the ~Templar Twist~, at the midway point. I remember, when I first played the game way back then, I grew suspicious of Al Mualim, but then, just like Altair, during this confrontation I too got manipulated into trusting him again, with the whole "I only withheld information for your own good" and "ACTUALLY it's YOUR behavior that made me not want to tell you the truth" etc. That way you could add in a lot of foreshadowing without it ruining the twist at the end (imo), bc it had seemingly come to a head at the midway point - I remember after that point I just dismissed anything suspicious he said or did bc that confrontation was basically confirmation that he’s a good guy, right? but maybe I’m just easily manipulated idk lmao ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I guess some things work for some people and not at all for others, which is fine, but I don’t think it’s fair to say that EVERY player will have IMMEDIATELY guessed the twist, especially considering how little we knew in 2007. (Also, can I just say, I love coming back to that moment of Al Mualim saying that "there can be no peace without order, and order requires authority" during a replay after having played all the other games, bc I find it really cool in hindsight that, while we do learn that that's Templar ideology in the first game as well, after ALL the other games, it's become so natural to associate Templars with "order" and "authority" that it feels insane to remember that we DIDN'T know that back then, and even though it did seem suspicious, that was more bc Al Mualim refused to answer questions and not bc of those WORDS specifically. Though tbh, it also kind of makes me sad that the whole "Templars = order & Assassins = chaos" has become such a given to the point where these words don’t even really feel like they have any meaning anymore, and the fact that Templars want PEACE - THROUGH order is just completely forgotten most of the time) Welp, guess I just had to get all of this off my chest in a UA-cam comment that no one's gonna read. Well, if anyone should find themselves going through the comments and reading this one in its entirety - congrats, we're BOTH losers.
Hello. As a loser myself, I decided to read your entire comment and I disagree with your first point. I really do think the Templar twist was too obvious and while I didn't play the game back in 07 before it became standard for the series I think that the story's twist should still hold to Altaïr and especially to Desmond. Vidic's pin, Robert attacking Masyaf on a whim (that is to say, presumably, without authorization from higher ranked individuals like the King), the change from the Assassins' historical mutual tolerance for the Templars and the obvious hints from the first few targets about working together all point to the obvious. The twist essentially consists of nothing but the fact that they're called "Templars" and since we know that people like Tamir or Abul don't work with King Richard we understand that Robert's Templars are entirely separate to Richard's who were never relevant to the story. The nine were always presented as a collective and as soon as we get to Garnier we learn that they were all after the Apple, hsnce the medical treatments for the insane. We knew they were a single secret group, that they were after the Arc of the Covenant and that they had beef with the Assassins (Al Mualim and Robert being on a first name basis makes it even more obvious there's something special going on). Not to mention the marketing was all about it. The "Altaïr was here" trailer had the nine all dressed in Templar robes, clearly as a secret order. It's the same as with Ezio’s family being killed being spoiled in the cinematic trailer.
The first AC is what got me into history, and is one of my favorite games 😅 my favorite thing was getting a horde of guards to chase me before I whip out the dagger and kill them all with the counter kill moves
So as someone who has just started to play AC1, first game in the series , too, I really needed that long tutorial. This game tried to get me to grasp a lot of new mechanics pretty quickly, at least that's how it felt for me. Upon returning visits I would probably love an option to skip it, but the first time I found it pretty helpful. Maybe I'm just a slow learner lol, that's definitely possible.
Love how there are no subtitles and no Arabic or Turkish localization despite both languages being spoken by the guards, but it for some reason supports Czech
I would love to see a whole series of these with this level of thoughtful, considered analysis! I've been a fan since this first game, and I deeply love the AC mythology and metanarrative, despite (and sometimes because of) its flaws. I really appreciated seeing someone else talk about it who seems to feel the same way I do. Ezio trilogy next? 🙏
Bro this video was fire, please make more for the rest of the series, seriously great job i never comment and never subscribe but i had to do both cuz this video was so good lol keep it up g
I love this video, though I disagree with some things. One: Altair being stabbed by Al Maulim. I think it's meant to be an Illusion and the reason nobody brings it up is because Altair is the only one under that illusion, Altair doesn't question it past the initial cutscene because he is too arrogant and unwise to bother looking into past "Urgh, I'll go kill these 9 people to get my honor back" and once the Templars start dying other thoughts take his time. After all it's weird for Masayf's tutorial section that while people treat Altair by his demoted rank, nobody notes he has been labelled a traitor and been stabbed. What really would have happened is that Masayf knows that Altair has failed and been demoted to a novice and nothing more. Two: I think the Twist is better on replay because it's repeatedly hit on Altair's head something so obvious. "Question everything but not your master" is very blatantly suspicious phrasing. One that is designed that set alarm bells that Al Maulim is not exactly the good mentor. The fact the Templars are very similar to the Assassins may raise question into what ways Al Maulim would be similar to Robert. But the main point, Altair has been raised in the Brotherhood all his life, Revelations has a line by Al Maulim that he fits his father's shoes like they were made for him. I think like in real life, disillusionment is not one big event, it's multiple smaller bits. For Altair: Templars have some good points, Al Maulim refuses to answer questions but wants you to question others, Showing the Apple, the consequences of these assassinations. A lot of Disillusionment comes from a lot of minor events being put together. Altair gets closer but it's hard to get out of what you're born in as if you'd ask a Atheist who was raised into a very religious family, they'd tell you a similar story. Another series that does this alot is Star Wars with Jedi going to the dark side. Darth Vader didn't just flip a switch and choose violence, this was a lot of failings of the Jedi with also some manipulation by Palpatine. The inverse is true as multiple events tugged Vader back to the light. Palpatine's lies being revealed, Vader having a son despite being told his wife and unborn kids were dead, Luke having faith in him that he's good, seeing his son be hurt. I think we see the obvious side as poor writing because we're on the other side of the fence whereas someone who's been told "You're doing good by doing all of these assassinations" probably didn't question things, especially if they're a young player like I was when I first played AC1. It's why I think AC1 aged like a fine wine to me despite the flaws. Three: The reason nobody would remark Al Maulim's absences is the probably the same as why Altair took so long to break though his mentor's lies. They were ingrained into the Brotherhood after all the whole line of "Question everyone but not me" was there so they didn't find it strange and once Altair got enough information to make his opinions he did notice his mentor acting strange and Templar-ish. Four: Why didn't the 8 targets before Robert tell Altair about Al Maulim's betrayal? Well gameplay and story for one. But logically? Templars would be ready to die for a goal, my guess is that this was Robert's plan. Either the Templars would have the Holy Land under their rule sooner or later or if they died, it made a good case to the King to go after the Assassins who I doubt would be able to repel the combined forces. If Altair didn't show up and kill Robert it's assured that Robert would have convinced the King to go after the Assassins. I imagine the other eight were told not to mention this to help a back up plan of Robert convincing King Richard.
This channel may just be my new favorite. You have nowhere near the credit you deserve! Please continue to make these videos, I will watch every single one
I just watched all of your videos in one sitting. All excellent watches, well written, funny and tight editing, and I could feel the steady improvement and your increasing confidence in your voice over. Thanks for the wonderful content and I am waiting excitedly (but patiently) for more
Altair's Creed had godlike dialogue. I don't understand how dialogue could go down the cliff after only the first entry in the franchise. Night and day difference in the conversations in Altair's Creed VS Ezio's Creed
What an amazing video. I felt the exact same way about the al mualim twist. Id seriously love you to talk about the other ac games, especially 3, since that one has a sadly small amount of conversation around its narrative.
Crazy looking back at this game. I remember when I was a kid and I got this game because it looked cool, and since then it's developed into one of the largest video game franchises of all time.
I really appreciate that you make an effort to make a video like this entertaining as well as informative - too many multi-hour long video essays are too dry to be as long as they are. This one could be even longer and Id lap up every second.
Over all a good video. It actually made me realize a question I've had for years: why the Assassin's stopped fighting for peace but fought for free will from AC2 forward. Its because of Altair's decision at the end of AC1, peace isn't worth it if there is no free will so the Assassins' goal was consistent all along. Now you say that the reveal that all 9 targets as Templar members falls flat because we have been killing Templars all along. The point they are trying to make is that the Templars don't need to look like a knight with a red cross in order to be one. That they follow and idealogy that revolves around peace and order through control is what makes them Templars. Anyone regardless of their background, ethnicity or sexuality can be a Templar so long they follow the Templar ideology. That is the big reveal. The common Knights Templars are not in on the plan, they actually believe in God hence why the "Go to God" scene works and why only 10 Templars know about the Treasure.
It's absolutely crazy, I say one hour after my last comment, listening to the latter half of assassins creed 1 when i never got past the first few missions. You see i first started playing assassins creed with the second game, and in that game you see all of the first civilization shit through these weird puzzles set up by 17. I played these puzzles not having any o the context from the first game and it was a genuinely amazing experience. You can get details about the first civilization stuff much sooner than when it comes up in the main story. It almost cheapens that aspect of AC2 to know they dropped all this stuff in the first game
So glad this popped up in the recommended, adore these type of analysis videos, especially since you're covering some of my fav games! Keep up the amazing work, would love to see assassins creed 2 or far cry 3 covered!
UA-cam recommends at it again giving me another new favourite channel Looking forward to future videos on the later AC games, I always mourned the loss of my boy Desmond ever since I was a kid
Man this is a welcome suprise to have pop up in my recommended. This game is easily the strangest of the first 3 (see: 5) games, and bizarrely the _least_ similar to *every* game that it would spawn. Ive often wanted to see discussion of this title just due to HOW bizarre the title feels to play. Its clunky, its awkward, the missions suck, the gameplay is repetetive, and yet the game *is* captivating in its own ways. Story-wise, idk if the Ezio trilogy is as wonky as this title, but they certainly didnt feel it. Strangely though, i felt that Assassins Creed 3 was THE most wonky, and that was where i stopped playing the series. Would be interested in seeing a thoughtful dissection of the ones I've played as well as the ones I've foregone, as ill never play them but the Ezio trilogy was my early teenage-dom, so the series will forever have a place of nostalgia reserved in my heart. Thanks for the video!
Aw man the mystery box and conspiracy stuff mixed with real life anxieties about 2012 made AC up to Revelations so promising. The first game brings up so many ideas that were later dropped. The plague, the hurricanes, the world silently ending. None of that is brought up again. I think there’s even some emails and conversations with Lucy about a PoE that made time traveling possible and Nolan North hinted I think that around AC2 there was a plan that Desmond would go back in time.
I find it interesting that the main way Lucy comforts Desmond throughout the game is by telling him to have faith, a word usually associated with religiously placing trust in a force that we can’t see nor understand, and yet she keeps telling him to hold it. Who is he supposed to have faith in, Lucy? In lore we know there is no “spiritual” force to guide Desmond’s fate, so I think it’s an interesting clue to her true nature that the only way she gives Desmond any comfort is by telling him to trust in her entirely.
dude you are on a fucking roll with these videos, good job and thank you cause i pay full attention until i pass out for the night, then pick it right back up in the morning
I’ve been waiting for a narrative focused AC video, and I’m so glad you decided to give it some attention. The ambition of the original narrative makes the decision to completely ditch it in the later games much more disappointing.
This is up there with some of the best critiques i've seen. Your narration makes it easy to listen and stay interested, the jokes land and the footage shown always relates to your point. If you keep up a regular upload schedule this channel will go places. Great work.
Al Mualim's religious references are a holdover from Hasan-i-Sabbah's Hashashin order, including the true purpose of the garden. It's heavily implied that his Shiite version still has a significant influence on the current brotherhood. It's structured like a reveal cult, so only once Altair gains status and trust does he learn of the inaccuracies in the religious history he knows, and presumably no one else. Assassin's Creed in particular is based on Vladimir Bartol's portrayal of Hasan and religious epistemology in his 1938 novel Alamut. He portrayed Hasan as having discovered a lack of evidence of God after reaching the highest levels of religious study, and instead of building his order around faith, based it on a deconstruction of Shia that positions him as the intermediary between heaven and Earth. Why exactly his subordinates believed this so fervently is far too compelling to spoil here in spite of its importance to understanding the Assassins' behavior in this game. I highly recommend it to any scholar or superfan of Assassin's Creed, especially the kind with two hours worth of thoughts The reward structure of AC1’s city activities is a very important part of Altaïr’s motivation. Within each district you only have one target, which means you’ll probably only have to enter one restricted area and flee from one guard chase as long as you’re not running into everyone like a maniac. This positions saving citizens not as a heroic deed, but as a locational resource, most of which you will almost certainly not need. Once your infiltration plan begins to come together, that’s when you can identify the most important ingress and egress routes and render them safe by saving the nearest citizen. Besides that your motivation is the same as Altaïr’s: Kill the target. Anything that doesn’t help you do that is white noise to be filtered out I don’t think we’re meant to believe that Altaïr was ever stabbed at all. I think Al Mualim, testing his newfound capabilities with the Apple, carried out an elaborate and segmented illusion to further humiliate Altaïr in front of his peers (at least the way Altaïr saw it) without the need to explain his apparent redemption to the rest of his followers who are clueless of ancient artifacts and false gods. Even Desmond desynchronizes from this because Altaïr *believed* he died Alright, I think it’s safe to assume you’re not reading the memory logs for the majority of your playthrough, and thus further disengaging from the reward structure. The mission beginning and complete updates don’t offer much insight, but you’ll probably find the letters between main conspirators the most interesting part. When Al Mualim reveals they’re working together, he sort of glosses over this elaborate conspiracy to raise a loyal army. These outline the particulars of shipments and training and such, and establish their connections to each other well in advance. The gameplay reward comes in the form of valuable intel on expected target behavior, guard patrol patterns, and potential infil and exfil routes. Cross-referencing these is how you make a detailed mission plan to ensure you have a clean run on your first try. Seriously, they make the difference between a tense stealth infiltration and a massive city-wide brawl
You gotta remember just how much time is between these cutscenes. But also alot of people when it comes to watching or playing games are really not great at thinking and need the story to beat them over the head with everything so they can get it.
Soaking in your work again, re-watching everything. I really dig your sense of humour + digressions as well as how you organize the material, write, & edit. I know you mock your "vocal fry" in I think ?? the Skyrim video but I find your voice really soothing tbh. I believe YT is its own medium with several art-forms evolving within it. Your instincts are good. I hope you trust your practice to lead your growth as an artist & the criticisms + requests that besiege Creators don't make you doubt yourself or your progress or projects. Obviously, take good advice where you find it. But I hope it's easy for you to distinguish between what will help your art grow + what offerings don't speak to you. Happy workings!
One thing I find interesting is that your critique here reminds me about my feelings in Bioshock, which I have not thought about this game. The difference? I played this game when it was new and I was like 13 - so I felt the full impact of how ambitious and different this game was coming off the PS2 (I was also raised in a religious household, and this game brought up questions I had quite frankly never seen discussed openly before). I played Bioshock when I was in college, well after it had made its impact and after game narratives had come a long way. The twists were obvious immediately, so much so I thought they would be part of the tutorial. And for this reason I picked the game apart as I played. Great video - love the thoughtful critique of a game I love so much.
Can I just say that I LOVE Assassin's Creed 1 cinematography, and wish that Assassin's creed had really kept to it rather than moved away from it? These wide open shots, often from above. It's like the story is consciously not taking us into a character's perspective through emotional camera angles and a bunch of close ups, but giving us a matter of fact view from the outside, where the world around is kept stationary, taking up so much screen space, seeming almost as important as the characters themselves. Where we have to judge based on actions, not being convinced by camera work. I don't know, it's hard to describe, but there is something so COOL about it. It's one of the most iconic cinematography styles I've ever seen in a game, even though it seems so simple, and I love how it fits the series in general. It feels so immersive and really adds emphasis to the events of the game to me.
Man you really made me excited for a remaster of this game. Imagine what they could do with modern graphics and fixing some of the weaker elements of the story. It's truely remarkable how they managed to make such an interesting story for this game. The amount of subtle details to real life myths and religions is such a brilliant move. I wish they somehow managed to keep the story more coherent after brotherhood. I haven't played the newer games but to me it seems like they never reached the peak of the story telling in ac1-ac2 again.
1:15:15 This. This the biggest truth about this saga. That's why after 3 I stopped really caring about it: every main mistery was pretty much resolved. We had Juno's threat afterwards but they decided to kill her off in a comic and with that my interest died aswel.
I still remember the shivers when I reached my beloved Damascus for the first time, the same goes for Jerusalem. Assassins creed used to be revolutionary especially in the Ezio series, as i feel I've visited half of Italy without even going there irl 👌🙏🏻
One of my best memories of this game, was showing it to my best friend, who lived in Israel for years and frequented Jerusalem. The moment I entered Jerusalem, he immediately asked for the controller, and began to marvel at the accuracy of the buildings in-game next to the few historical sites that remain of the old city. He mentioned that some 10 to 20 feet of the ground floor of the city had been demolished or entombed in cement, so he couldn't a test for the lowest buildings' accuracy. He went on to take me to various approximate points around the city where a McDonalds and various other modern establishments would be, present day.
46:30 When Desmond steals Vidics pen, is this a foreshadowing to the bleeding effect? As Altaïr, we do quite some pickpocketing and its always items they have around their waist
About why the garden in the Assassin castle is called paradise - the young men who would become the Hashashin would be made very high using hashish and put in the garden, surrounded by beautiful women etc and would be told later that that was a vision of paradise which is promised to them if they remain loyal and die in the service of the „order”. I’m paraphrasing, but you’d need to read up on the original assassins :) And on that note, fantastic channel, a very good listen and interesting dives into stories from unconventional angles. You got a sub, and keep up the fantastic work.
just found ur channel, so unbelievably excited for the Ezio Trilogy analyses. cant even estimate how much time i spent on Revelations, it'll be nice to view the narrative in a different perspective
Watching this after finishing the AC2 video. Incredible job on both, looking forward to watching the rest of the backlog as well as future videos. Also I feel like the bench montage followed by a deep dive political analysis on benches showcases the duality of your videos and I am all for it.
I don't think Assassin's Creed rejects the existence of God, but rather takes a deistic approach to Him, saying that God has abandoned us and that he doesn't interact with this world, we can see even Altair respect the religious beliefs by saying religious statements of "let go of your burdens" and "go with your God" and even in the beginning Al Mualim quotes scripture, ecclesiasties "so I set my heart to know madness and folly, and I too saw that this was but a striving after wind, which much knowledge comes much vexation" and even though the creed isn't explicitly spiritual, it does have spiritual themes of having peace in all things and seeking knowledge, even how they act and treat Al Mualim is very similar to religious organizations and how they treat their figureheads, I guess how it is, is similar to Assassin's Creed 2 towards the end when Rodrigo became Pope, it wasn't because of genuine belief but because he wanted power and Ezio even says "aren't you the pope, isn't God suppose to be all knowing and all powerful? do you really think a couple of artifacts will control him?" so the game in 1 in how the conversations go, really do acknowledge the existence of God, but disagree on his role in the universe I disagree, Altair's actions have brought attention to the Templars, while yes Robert was intending on attacking Masayaf, Altair decided to expose himself and the order, if Altair followed the creed and did what he had to, but still failed, he wouldn't have been branded traitor, but because he put himself and his whole pride over the Creed that's what got him stabbed. I think that was the whole thing between Altair and Al mualim, why Altair was Al Mualim's favorite student and this is just my own interpretation, that Al Mualim saw much of himself in Altair I think the whole thing about Al Mualim and the Templars is that he was at one point a templar or the Grand Master of them but they had a falling out because Al Mualim wanted the apple for himself so he used the Assassin's to cut them down and thus started the beginning of the game, that's my own interpretation and viewing of the subtext though Edit: I just finished the video, while I disagree with some of the criticisms you made I still found the video to be well thought out and deep in its analysis, I want to add with the whole catholic doctrine, though myself am not catholic, it is true that the chaos and disorder came from the disobeying God not from the act of eating the fruit itself as throughout the Old Testament God constantly commands his people to "seek out knowledge" and it's a value that he holds most valuable
This is a really interesting point and probably a distinction I could’ve spent more time talking about. I think because of the truth videos in AC 2, showing that Adam and Eve were humans escaping from the Isu, my reading would still lean towards this universe not having a God at any point. That’s not to underplay the role of faith in this first game or the series, like you said it’s so central to these first few games especially, but with all the information we’re given over this game and the next few I think we’re left with either ‘God is gone/hands-off’ or ‘There was/is no God’ and I think I lean towards the latter. Although now that I’m thinking more about it, were one so inclined, one could also read the miraculous success of Altair (canonically never getting hit, winning his trial by combat against Robert and his men, defeating an Apple-wielding Al-Maulim) as evidence of an active God favoring him. TL;DR: I think you’re right in that I don’t think AC 1 or even AC 2 explicitly rejects the existence of God, like everything else in these games we’re not exactly given a firm answer and players are going to be left to come to their own conclusions. The games are vague enough to absolutely support a deistic reading or even a more spiritual one.
@@DukeofWhales yeah I think the question of God existing in this universe is very much up to the audiences own interpretation, King Richard proclaims that God favored Altair, I wish this was something they poked around but I understand why they took a step away from that But something that peaked my interest as I was playing through the games was in Revelations where Desmond's journey, going through all of it the way he was raised sounds a lot like how some people grew up in fundamentalist households, though I'm not one myself, how Desmond describes it sounds similar, how they're told to just accept the truth and not really question it, how a lot them ended up growing being afraid of the world and doing something wrong same as Desmond grew up being afraid of the outside world but it ended up being afraid of what he was going through more, Desmond even goes to say that he grew up with a family that's in a cult. At the end he says that if they had only answered his questions, show him the truth instead of sheltering him from the world he probably wouldn't have ran away from them, and that just sounds almost verbatim how a lot of Christians who grew up in fundamentalist households sound
This video is a good example of seeing these games within their own little bubble and in that way one can dissect and understand each individual game and the story being told. I do as such now and it's how I can continue to enjoy the series as is. Obviously, it isn't just a blind following ready to throw my money at whatever new game they provide but just think critically about what it is you are experiencing.
i don’t comment a lot anymore but your channel is surprisingly small; i really expected you to have a 100k subscribers at least haha. great content! i’ll be joining the cozy club who use your videos as sleeping aid aka ill finish watching this video over the span of a week or so, constantly falling asleep to it & rewinding it to watch it from the part i last remember. keep it up!! looking forward to seeing what you’re upto next :)
I remember this game because the very first time I played it, I made it almost to the end... And then my mom said "come, we are going to pick up your brother from school", so I had to turn off my PS3. When I turned it on again, I was stuck between two memory barriers and couldn't do anything. And had to start it all over again. I wanna say that I bought the game several years after release (I was barely 6 when it launched 😅), so it was the definitive game, updated and "fixed", so very unfortunate of me... But anyway, I still miss this game, and sometimes I wish to play it again.
Something you touch on that I don’t see enough is the idea of wisdom being a meeting of knowledge and emotion. I was one of those kids who got called wise by the time I was like 8, and ignoring what we could unpack in regards to that, my philosophy to like,,,, everything, really, has been objectivity with compassion. Do I sometimes forget empathy and become to objective? Yes. Do I sometimes forget common sense and critical thinking when it involves the people I love? Yes. But the fact that I’m open about those flaws and try to take a step back and recognize when it’s happening is what makes people see me as wise. I’m not sure if I’m actually wise. I just often have the answers that people need. I guess I’ve thought a lot about stuff that not everyone tends to. None of that is really the point, though, is it? It’s the fact that I’ve always tried to balance wisdom and emotion, not letting one rule the other. As a 22-year-old it’s a lot easier NOW than when I was a teen, but that doesn’t mean I’m necessarily an expert. And therein lies the second part of wisdom. Knowing that the best you can do is try.
Bro is over here dropping Hegel and Gramsci in an essay about a video game I played in middle school because "history is cool or whatever, also parkour". Instant sub, good shit
This is the type of analysis of Assassins' Creed that I've been waiting to watch. I'm very interested to see your critique on the story of Assassins Creed III as I feel the Ezio trilogy lacked much of the nuance and philosophical conflict present in the first title. I may be wrong, it's been a while since I've played them.
So I watched your Gollum video and had a bit of a binge. (I NEED MORE!) I love your work, it honestly reminds me how much I appreciate the stories in the games you have covered. The Skyrim video alone got a 'Oh yeh I liked this game once upon time.' reaction from me.
Just binged all 4 of your videos. I love the way you break it all down and your analysis. I can’t wait for whatever the next video is and I hope to see a Mass Effect series soon!
I love videos like this. I feel like when we look back on AC there are aspects of it that are mediocre, or changed with our nostalgic rose-tinted glasses. But it was also ambitious, it had incredible moments, an incredible concept, AC2 exist - idk… I feel like the storytelling across all games as a franchise, AC is mid tier. Yet the fans are impassionate for it; we critique and make videos like this because we care and love these games. Despite its flaws. We want it to succeed and be better and we dream it reaching bigger narrative heights. And it’s certainly reached them a couple of times across the games’ existence. Idk I just think it’s beautiful that this video exists.
Hey I really love your videos I think you do a great Job at explaining the story and your opinion on it I enjoy the editing you’re doing a awesome job man
Amazing analysis. There are a couple of things I'd like to add to the discussion. Firstly, there is some context missing when analyzing the story of Altair, as well as the artistic vision of the Holy Land and the Assassin's Order. If you read up on the history and legends behind the hashashins (Isma'ili Assassins), you will see that the game takes great inspiration from them. As others have mentioned, this is the case with the "Garden of Eden" behind Masyaf's castle, as well as the moment where Al Mualim orders his Assassins to jump to their death, to "go to God". History paints a very different story for the Assassins, but some real aspects still reflect in the game's environment and scenes. Secondly, and this is only my additional thoughts on the story of Altair, I feel like Altair is the perfect assassin, in his personality. We see him in the beginning as an arrogant, young, brash fool, that misinterprets the core tenets of the brotherhood. He takes away his own understanding, mostly motivated by his extraordinary skills, much past his peers. Knowing he is the best guides his arrogance. That, coupled with missing authority figures throughout his life (he's an orphan, according to the book), sketches a weird and edgy composition for a protagonist. But it is exactly this way of thought, his arrogance and individuality that enlightens him and even protects him from Al Mualim's lies. We are shown a re-educated Altair after his supposed "death", one that is under the Al Mualim's illusion. But as he reintegrates himself in the Creed, following the tenets, pondering on the words of the men he has slain, he brings back that questioning, that fight against authority that we see in the beginning. He is the perfect rebel, a perpetual spark for the fire of liberty. Which is why it couldn't have been anyone else that could have taken Al Mualim down. None of the other assassins would have even dared questioned him. And we see this from Altair in the beginning AND the middle of the game, much before he has completed his trials for wisdom. The only person who understands that "Nothing is true, everything is permitted" viscerally, intuitively. You mention at one point that one conversation between Al Mualim and Altair seems to undermine Altair's intelligence. I disagree, I think Altair doubts his master's words all the way since that particular conversation. To me it seems like Altair is being sarcastic, even. Taunting Al Mualim: "Interesting theory" - he says in response to the paradoxical doctrine the master presents as tautology. Also, super minor lore tidbit - I think the (later) in-game explanation to why Altair could resist the Apple was because of his higher percent of precursor DNA, right? Although literary, I think the original game meant to play on the idea that Altair forges his own understanding of the world, unswayed by illusions. Exactly because of his rebel nature, as I've said above. That said, I am merely an amateur in literary analysis, I think you could do a much better job at portraying what I'm trying to say in the lines above. Thanks a lot for the video, it brings a lot of the subtle greatness of the first game to light. Personally, I think this is the best in the series and the other games have strayed far from what this one was trying to portray.
Hey everyone! I had a lot of fun talking about Assassin’s Creed 1 even though it’s a pretty strange game from a story perspective; I love this series and at some point I’d love to go through all of them. Just a heads-up, I did my first recording for this when I had a bit of a cold and I ended up coming back on a later date and rerecording some of the messier bits. It’s probably noticeable but hopefully not too bothersome, just one of those things I’ll feel less anxious about if I acknowledge it.
I think Dawnguard is up next for hopefully a festive Halloween-ish release? Thank you all for watching!
Where’s the lie
I vehemently believe that assassin's Creed as a series is so interesting because of this ideological conflict at the heart of this game, and all it's pockmarks and contradictions, I'm not half as well read as you it seems, but this video really demonstrates my firm belief that assassin's creed consistently is a series that is less than the sum of it's parts, the series is so enrapturing to me partly because every new release is an opportunity to live up to the potential that it's never achieved. I'm excited to see your coverage of the sequels, as I've grown older I've decided that this game is unfortunately the series narrative peak, even while the ideas for a compelling sequel are there for AC2; much like AC1, there is not enough connective tissue to follow through on the amazing story on paper.
Please touch on Assassins creed Rogue.
@colewebb2409 I remember playing when I was younger and I was so enraptured by the death confessions. It felt like I was hearing thigs that were way beyond my understanding. The twists and turns really did catch my off guard. AC1 is one of my favorite games. The latter ones may be better on a technical level. But the story was amazing. Ezio was damn near close. His character is more interesting from a broader perspective but I think Altair is more interesting as an actual character study. Might be nostalgia but no other character tops Altair for me.
Junos story ended in syndicate in a side mission where she's about to get a body
"It's here we get the most obvious sign of Vidic's evil nature: The sick bastard appears to be a morning person."
That came out of leftfield so fast, I choked lol
To be fair, as a swing shifter, I felt it
Came here to see if anyone else spit out coffee 😂
I have a funny memory about this game. I rented it from the video store, and was playing it at my brother's house. His wife's very religious father and her 9 year old nephew were also there, and the young boy wanted to play this game. No qualms from his religious grandad for playing this violent killing game. But he got increasingly angry at the boy when Altier bumped into an NPC woman. There's hundreds of NPC people in the crowded streets and he was bumping into them trying to kill enemies brutally, and his grandfather was yelling at him not to bump into women.
Manners are very important.
Glad he didn’t get to the beggars pour kid would have a real rough time thin
Grandad sounds like the type of guy to stop at the traffic lights in gta.
@@eveningstar4543hey I do that
And then everybody clapped.
Yeah so, the reason why both Robert and Al-Mualim mention God in those scenes is not because they believe in God, but because their soldiers do. It's a way to improve morale. That's also why Al-Mualim tells Altair and the other 2 assassins to throw themselves off that cliff while Robert's men were looking - in that case it's both a demoralization tactic to show Robert's men that those of the Assassin order are loyal and fearless to the point of killing themselves when commanded to, as well as a way for those 3 assassins to circle around the cliff unseen and activate the trap.
Well said. That way of showcasing the faith of the disciples, by having three of them jump off a tall structure and into seemingly certain death, was also something that happens in Alamut, the book which Assassin's Creed took inspiration from
@@kiwaminski that book was great! And I believe Altair was inspired by the only successful Assassin in the book, Ibn Tahir. I loved how the AC devs used the novel as an inspiration for the game.
@@seiferwolfhart1144 It really was! And I think you're spot on about Ibn Tahir likely being the inspiration for Altair. Both were the only ones that questioned their faith and their leader and both were the only ones that ended up enlightened about the true nature of the scheme they were a part of by the end. Both were also wise and introspective about their place and role in the world. Cherry on top being that the next castle the hashashins would migrate to in the book would be the castle of Masyaf haha
@@kiwaminski Great of you to catch those details! You can get an idea of how Ubisoft tweaked the plot of Alamut to fit AC1! But men, I just love the parallels between Ibn Tahir and Altair. Not only do their names sound the same, but both of them had a family member who was murdered and both fell in love in strange circumstances with a woman whose name starts with the letter M.haha
@@seiferwolfhart1144 Right on! Honestly, whenever we followed Ibn Tahir in the book and especially during his venture at the end of the novel, I had always envisioned him looking just like Altair. Especially during the assassination at the end, hood and all haha And I never realized those strong parallels between their names, love interests and family histories! Nice catch!
Also something I found really fascinating is the book's and the games' implied meaning of the book's maxim Nothing is True, Everything is Permitted and how they're somewhat different from one another. In the book, it held more of a religious and personal meaning, as in no God, moral or law shall forbid you to use any means possible to achieve your goals, political and otherwise. Whereas in the games it spoke more about the politcal and controlled way information and facts are spread amongst society and how history was painted by only a few certain individuals of power. Was that something that stood out to you as well by any chance?
One thing I disagree with is when the player is introduced to the leap of faith. Al Mualim says to his men "Go to god!" not because he or Robert believes in God, but because he wants to scare the enemy soldiers, by making them think that the Assassins don't fear death. It's scarier to fight someone who's not afraid to die and that's the point.
That scene is also taken from the book Alamut. The Seljuk Sultan sends an emissary to basically threaten the Assassins, as a demonstration of the total devotion of the Fedayeen (assassin soldiers), Hasan Sabbah has two of his best men take their own lives, one by stabbing himself with a dagger, and the other by jumping off a tower. Both do it with a smile. It's a way to fuck your enemy up psychologically and scare the shit out of them.
it's a video game with fictional video characters, they are programmed and always fight the same. no matter what is spoken.
@mumumeme8496 yes thats true on the surface level, but no matter what, it's telling a story. You're not looking at the narrative context, and it makes you seem ignorant
@@mumumeme8496 🤓
Honestly looking back at Altiar’s redemption over the game makes me appreciate when they make the Templars and Assassins more morally grey and bendable. I kinda wish we could see that corruption angle more when they did the Templar perspective in Rogue.
I think Rogue is such a terrible game. The idea behind giving us the perspective of a Templar for a game is superb, but the execution is so horrible that I would have rather not had it. The only interesting plot point in that game is the fact that in their race to prevent the Templars from finding artifacts, the Assassins forget to preserve innocent lives. The other parts presented, where the Assassins act like lawless thugs and gangs, I feel is very weird and out of place. And the conviction in Shay's conversion is very awkward, as well.
As if there even was a perspective switch in Rogue. They just switched personalities lol.
Its quite interesting how this is literally the only game in the swries that actually has any motivation for the Assassin/Templar conflict. Even by AC2, it was completely dropped in favour of a generic, Flanderised "mmm yummy power tastes good" story.
AC1 has so many reasons to doubt your mission and the results. The characters are barely intoduced and seen, and yet in their minute long interactions with Altair expound huge amounts of philosophy, observations, or motivations.
Garnier is probably the most important, and after his detah has the most visible effect. Hes completely correct- without him, the cities of the Holy Land are flooded with lost crazies unable to help themselves. How much does freedom truly matter to someone who has no home, no family, no money, no food, no future?
By AC2 these sorts of questions entirely disappear. Rodrigo Borgia essentially says he wants to take over the universe by defeating God with the Apple and Staff, and the rest of the Templars are essentially one-note- Rodrigo even berates them in Venice for attempting to have their own plans.
This doesn't mean AC2 is jot great, its just interesting how quickly the franchise abandoned the original intent/theme of the story, despite being written and guided by the same people. One is a thematic stealth adventure, the other is an action stealth adventure. One focuses on the ethics and moral quandries of being a killer, means and endings, the other focuses on the story and revenge fueld rampage of an orphaned killer.
AC3 has that too, but it's mostly just Connor and Haytham.
@@nnnnmhughuuhhjiijj9457 they all do, but compared to AC1 it's just lip service.
I really disliked that about AC2 as well, the game seems to be building up to some kind of extremely pointed commentary explicitly about religion and Catholicism in particular by having you assassinate the literal pope mid sermon. But then Rodrigo looks straight into the camera and goes "ahh but you see it was never about belief or religion I just chose to be an evil pope because abusing the goodwill of the masses grants easy access to money and power mwahahaha!"
I honestly believe at some point in development there was a scathing critique of the Catholic church that was torn out because they were worried about audience backlash, as it is now the story straight up has no discernable message to take away from
@@Legacy0901 well, it was made by the French, who are intensely anti-clerical and almost repressive with religion in public life.
It's pretty clear they don't like religion in the first game though - every character who breaks through the illusion understands there is no God. Those who cling to the illusion and delude themselves, well that way of thinking shows their position.
@@lewisyeadon4046 Made in Montreal by French Canadians. I think that's a fair distinction. There's a much different history of the involvement of the Church and its power in society there than mainland France.
In no uncertain terms this channel is the most promising up and comer I have ever seen. One day when this channel has a million subscribers I can't wait to be able to say "I was among the first few thousand"
He’s amazing I fully agree super high quality videos ❤
Reminds me of “lessons from the screenplay” during his come up
In defence of saving citizens through the game:
It's clear that Altair only benefits from this action. At the start of the game, aiding civilians is quite useful for what they provide, vigilantes especially. Altair isn't fully skilled yet at destroying whole armies, so running away is serviced by Altair helping people and getting something in return.
Towards the end of the game, Altair doesn't need to save people anymore, however chances are players have simply gotten used to this, even if they're no longer running away or using the streets to get around due to experience and ability in the game, especially since previously saved civilians in past districts can still be used. This in turn transforms Altair's motivations from self service to pure heroism, aided by Altair not saying a single line of dialogue, letting you infer whatever motivation is appropriate.
Another defence, this time of Templar possession of the Apple:
Using only this game as a reference, we can see from the ending that there are multiple Apples. It's not unreasonable to think they have already had one, or perhaps they are aware of some form of literature that describes how they work. Afterall, de Sable clearly knows the Ark will help him attack Masyaf, and Al-Mualim describes events related to it from the past. It seems therefore likely that knowledge of these artifacts is rare, but not that no one knows anything. While AC1's Templar Order only just started, it's not like you can't read the story as sort of El Doradan in nature, but actually happening. The invaders want to find this treasure and exploit it, they know about it, and where they heard about it doesn't exactly matter since we know from the opening, it is in fact real.
The go to god scene does not require either man to believe. The entire crusader army believes and those are the only ones that can be worth influencing in that situation.
1:28:01 Little detail I just realized in hindsight, Lucy says Abstergo already found the Apple in Masyaf, the same one Ezio found in Revelations, meaning they had to overcome that stone door. Cool little detail
The 'go to god' thing isn't directed to the Assassin's or Robert.. It's to lower the morale of the knights behind Robert.. Robert is a grandmaster.. that doesn't mean the soldiers don't believe in God.. especially when looking at history Tempkar knight ( at least the soldiers ) were highly religious
Yes, this! To me this video at first seemed very good. But soon I realized that a lot of the criticism isn't valid at all. A lot of the stuff went over this guy's head. AC 1 is written extremely well.
@@RYPA190 How so?
In the beginning I think you said to perfectly and it was something I had never realized, “it lacks confidence”. The sluggish tutorial, the bad pacing all stem from that lack of confidence that slows down an excellent game.
I also love your vids you show me a great insight on my favorite games!
"He appears to be a morning person"
It got me so off guard I almost dropped my coffee. Great stuff man
Came for Dawnguard, stayed for the format. You could do a 3 hour analysis of the Sven/Faendal Riverwood quest and I'd probably watch it.
The writing in this game was significantly better than the rest of the series.
Can I get an amen brother. The new games just “need a little faith “ and a lot of help.
2 and 3 had better writing
delusional cope. Play AC: Origins and the first DLC, its the best writing in the series.
The writing in Origins is terrible and Odyssey is even worse
Bro has NOT played ac4
I love how over the past few months, I've seen many channels making AC1 Retrospectives/Critiques.
Lazerzz video is one of my favorites
It's a true hidden diamond. It's just deep in the rough
Game is 16 years young now
@@benharder7816I love Lazerzz to my fav UA-camr
Ironic, considering I started playing 1 a while ago
There is a different interpretation to Altaïr's ressurrection when he gets stabbed by Al Mualim early ingame than it actually happening ingame & being weirdly unaddressed: It was an illusion. The apple of eden can, among other things important in Mualim's bossfight, generate realistic illusions of people & events as if they actually happened. I think this was the case there. It didn't actually happen, but it was a convincing illusion generated by using the apple.
I don't know why Al Mualim would say "you saw what I wanted you to see" if he was going to try passing it off as an actual resurrection.
@@BleydXVI It has been a while since I played the game, I'm working off your video + my memory, but I never got the impression he wanted to pass it off as an actual resurrection rather than metaphorical. Immediately before & after the scene, we are cut off in some way so we never really get to see the full context from an observer perspective. For all we know Al Mualim was talking literally - he wanted him to experience that as if it had been an actual execution for Altaïr within that moment. Not to make anyone think it's a ressurection, but as a tool for manipulating or influencing behaviour.
@@Argacyan I was just quoting the scene played in the video, it's not my video. I think we agree. Al Mualim didn't want to make Altair or anyone think that he had actually been killed and resurrected, rather instilling a sense of mortality and humility into Altair that would make him easier to control. It's one thing to punish Altair and have him do your missions, all while keeping his arrogant pride. It's another to turn his far off knowledge that you could have him executed, and actually make him experience it. This "rebirth" definitely backfires on Al Mualim though
I think you’re both right and whole thing being an illusion is the most logical explanation we’re left with. I wish they played a bit more fair with that though, fast-forwarding right to that moment from the log trap makes it hard to tell if anything is amiss and feels like a missed opportunity to build some mystery.
I always thought he probably just drugged Altair supposed to using the Appel to me it makes more sense than the Apple Altair could (at least parsley) see through and why you health goes down as you slowly get it back through out the game(all tho that could represent armor to) and with his (albeit very veg) relation with the Templars who were experimenting with similar substances. Unfortunately to my knowledge they never give more context to the situation than what me whales showed in his video
Ac1 is one of my favorites in the series. I really love the hazy filter on the game at all times that gives it a dream-like quality. Specifically I think of Desmond in abstergo where you can’t see outside the windows which makes you wonder if anything that’s happening is real (a little on the nose ik). Ultimately the series would never continue to present itself in such an uncanny manner, but I still love it in this first entry
Assassout of the assassins is honestly a pretty underrated joke
About the "Paradise" in Masyaf, it's a reference to the real assassin's brotherhood lead by Hasan in the fortress of Alamut. He built a garden inside of the fortress and when he was recruiting new assassins, he drogued them with haschich and then putted them in this garden claiming it was a vision of the paradise that was waiting for them in the afterlife by seving him
..I think moreso than this, it's clear that both the AC1 garden & Alamut are based upon the traditional quadrangle Islamic garden. It's meant to be a representation on Earth of the fourfold promises of paradise. The exact format of the garden the fight takes place in is extremely common in the Islamic world, albeit with some features missing in the game such as specific fruit trees.
From wikipedia: 'Persian gardens were traditionally enclosed by walls and the Persian word for an enclosed space is pairi-daeza, leading to the paradise garden.'
Google Islamic Paradise Garden for more info on this. It's actually not a self-referential thing within the franchise, but a straightforward naming convention from this culture IRL. My source is just visits to certain of these gardens; I'm not Muslim or from an Arabic background so I'd yield on the subject to anyone who has more real standing, but I'm pretty sure this is it.
Not true.
This idea was popularized in the Vladimir Bartol novel "Alamut".
Where many other story ideas and also the maxime were taken from.
Ironically we never visit Alamut in the first game, but masyaf instead.
According to archeologists neither castle had any such gardens tho.
And houris would have been a myth as the real hashshashiyin were hardline ismaeli muslims
@@enkitahiri4153 Thanks for the debunk ! But i think that the game is mostly inspired by the book ?
AC Mirage is partly set in Alamut.
Btw, I've read the book "Alamut", it's really an interesting and good read, can recommend.
@@enkitahiri4153the game was heavily inspired by the book, so op's points remain.
I can confirm the bench montage was objectively funny. I very much enjoy your videos, You actually add something to the conversation and that in 2023. I really need to replay the series, it has been a good while.
I don't normally comment, but this video is absolutely amazing and very well detailed. I hope you don't drop your effort or rush any of these vids because some receive fewer views. If you keep making content of this professionalism, it's just a matter of time before you get lots of attention. Keep it up man
yes 100% agree, keep doing you
1:43:32 The thing is: Looking to AC4, Ubisoft still maintained that Al Mualim was never a Templar; meaing he was an assassin during the Templar expedition to find the apple the first time.
Maybe Al Mualim was under cover, having to reveal himself before escaping with the apple? Maybe he was just corrupt, and made a deal? But if that was the intent, it needed clarification.
It doesn't need a clarification. It's like people forgetting that Assassin and Templar has the possibility to work together without converting to the other group.
from my own observation, Al Mualim was an Assassin, once he found out what the piece of eden can do (possibly from watching the templars from the dark), he decided to work with them, and then he started to use both the Assassins and the Templars for his own benefit, simply put. for me, Al Mualim was neither an Assassin or a Templar, he's nothing but a man who takes power for himself.
The Knights Templar order and the Templar "brotherhood" that controls the crusader conflict through the shadows are different things. Al Mualim was only part of the latter group and wasn't even the only "muslim" to do so.
Maybe he was a Sage
@@Apurbo_ he's not, even if he is, he's not coming back, Altair burnt his body to ashes.
I've been thinking of a video like this for a long, long time. Because the narrative and storytelling of AC1 is what really elevated it as the "true" Assassin's Creed concept that Ubisoft abandoned with AC2. Yes, it's plotting is wonky and nowhere as solid as it CAN be, but I miss this style of storytelling and the topics it touches on.
I knew I couldn't do it justice, but even with summarizing the entire plot even scene by scene, you show that core, the foundation that made Assassin't Creed compelling to me. The initial 1 hour tutorialization is horrible on replay, absolutely arduous, but what it allowed afterwards was a story that could properly expand its scope.
AC1 was undercooked, it walked so AC2 could run, and Richard's Kingdom could've been easily just cut and save so much resources, if it wasn't already developed by the time they figured out that part and were investing into making it just OK for playing.
This is actually a great video and analysis. I enjoyed that you went into so much detail even if I don’t agree with every single point (and the "snarky bench montage" made me actually laugh out loud).
One significant criticism I have, however, is that I don’t think you quite manage to put yourself in the shoes of someone playing this game for the first time in 2007, without having played any other game in the series, without even knowing that it was going to BE a series in the first place.
You say that when the Templar twist comes your reaction is "Haven’t we been killing templars all along?". and I think that really would be a player’s reaction - IF that player starts playing AC in 2024 with some vague idea of how AC is about "Assassins vs Templars" which they’ve absorbed through friends and social media.
Of course, looking back now, it is BONKERS to think that "All of our enemies are Templars" was actually a plot twist at one point, when that is just a given from AC2 onwards. But back then we knew nothing of the secret shadow organization capital t Templars - as far as we knew, during the Crusades they were just a Christian order that was part of the Crusader army, like a lot of other orders at the time.
And I don’t think that them having beef with the Assassins from the beginning really changes that, bc we ALSO didn’t know ANYTHING about the Assassins at that point - they might actually be a Muslim sect (like they were in history), so it would absolutely make sense for them to have a combative history with the Templars.
And so, yes, the fact that Saracens, or seemingly Saracen-aligned people like Tamir, Talal, ect., are part of the Templar Order, a Christian order in the Crusader army, WAS actually a twist.
In the same vein, I don’t think the Al Mualim twist is that obvious either for a first time player. Now at this point of course we know that the Assassins are the Good Guys (TM), and so yes, Al Mualim’s behavior is immediately suspicious. But playing this game for the first time, without any prior knowledge, I don’t think his behavior seems out of place for the leader of a mysterious, somewhat creepy order that lives in the mountains and sends out men in hoods to stab people with their sleeve-blades. It doesn’t help that Altair is such a dickhead at the beginning of the game, so it seems even more justified that he gets brought down a peg.
The thing that DOES make him suspicious, over the course of a few assassinations, is how secretive he is, that he refuses to answer any questions, but I think that the game actually handles this quite cleverly by putting the first big confrontation with Al Mualim, together with the ~Templar Twist~, at the midway point.
I remember, when I first played the game way back then, I grew suspicious of Al Mualim, but then, just like Altair, during this confrontation I too got manipulated into trusting him again, with the whole "I only withheld information for your own good" and "ACTUALLY it's YOUR behavior that made me not want to tell you the truth" etc.
That way you could add in a lot of foreshadowing without it ruining the twist at the end (imo), bc it had seemingly come to a head at the midway point - I remember after that point I just dismissed anything suspicious he said or did bc that confrontation was basically confirmation that he’s a good guy, right? but maybe I’m just easily manipulated idk lmao ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I guess some things work for some people and not at all for others, which is fine, but I don’t think it’s fair to say that EVERY player will have IMMEDIATELY guessed the twist, especially considering how little we knew in 2007.
(Also, can I just say, I love coming back to that moment of Al Mualim saying that "there can be no peace without order, and order requires authority" during a replay after having played all the other games, bc I find it really cool in hindsight that, while we do learn that that's Templar ideology in the first game as well, after ALL the other games, it's become so natural to associate Templars with "order" and "authority" that it feels insane to remember that we DIDN'T know that back then, and even though it did seem suspicious, that was more bc Al Mualim refused to answer questions and not bc of those WORDS specifically. Though tbh, it also kind of makes me sad that the whole "Templars = order & Assassins = chaos" has become such a given to the point where these words don’t even really feel like they have any meaning anymore, and the fact that Templars want PEACE - THROUGH order is just completely forgotten most of the time)
Welp, guess I just had to get all of this off my chest in a UA-cam comment that no one's gonna read. Well, if anyone should find themselves going through the comments and reading this one in its entirety - congrats, we're BOTH losers.
Hello. As a loser myself, I decided to read your entire comment and I disagree with your first point.
I really do think the Templar twist was too obvious and while I didn't play the game back in 07 before it became standard for the series I think that the story's twist should still hold to Altaïr and especially to Desmond. Vidic's pin, Robert attacking Masyaf on a whim (that is to say, presumably, without authorization from higher ranked individuals like the King), the change from the Assassins' historical mutual tolerance for the Templars and the obvious hints from the first few targets about working together all point to the obvious. The twist essentially consists of nothing but the fact that they're called "Templars" and since we know that people like Tamir or Abul don't work with King Richard we understand that Robert's Templars are entirely separate to Richard's who were never relevant to the story. The nine were always presented as a collective and as soon as we get to Garnier we learn that they were all after the Apple, hsnce the medical treatments for the insane. We knew they were a single secret group, that they were after the Arc of the Covenant and that they had beef with the Assassins (Al Mualim and Robert being on a first name basis makes it even more obvious there's something special going on).
Not to mention the marketing was all about it. The "Altaïr was here" trailer had the nine all dressed in Templar robes, clearly as a secret order.
It's the same as with Ezio’s family being killed being spoiled in the cinematic trailer.
I greatly enjoy long form videos that get in detail about cool concepts. Great job! Can't wait for more
The first AC is what got me into history, and is one of my favorite games 😅 my favorite thing was getting a horde of guards to chase me before I whip out the dagger and kill them all with the counter kill moves
Same. I'd do this outside city walls in giant hordes
So as someone who has just started to play AC1, first game in the series , too, I really needed that long tutorial. This game tried to get me to grasp a lot of new mechanics pretty quickly, at least that's how it felt for me. Upon returning visits I would probably love an option to skip it, but the first time I found it pretty helpful. Maybe I'm just a slow learner lol, that's definitely possible.
I found your channel recently and you by far have the most in depth narrative critiques on youtube
We Czechs have a special relation with this game because it came with Czech dubbing, which is very rare.
Love how there are no subtitles and no Arabic or Turkish localization despite both languages being spoken by the guards, but it for some reason supports Czech
@@icarusgaming6269 ČESKO JE JEDNIČKA! 🇨🇿 🇨🇿 ‼️‼️
I would love to see a whole series of these with this level of thoughtful, considered analysis! I've been a fan since this first game, and I deeply love the AC mythology and metanarrative, despite (and sometimes because of) its flaws. I really appreciated seeing someone else talk about it who seems to feel the same way I do. Ezio trilogy next? 🙏
Bro this video was fire, please make more for the rest of the series, seriously great job i never comment and never subscribe but i had to do both cuz this video was so good lol keep it up g
You've made Assassin's Creed feel fresh again which is crazy. I can't wait for you to cover the next ones!
I love this video, though I disagree with some things.
One: Altair being stabbed by Al Maulim. I think it's meant to be an Illusion and the reason nobody brings it up is because Altair is the only one under that illusion, Altair doesn't question it past the initial cutscene because he is too arrogant and unwise to bother looking into past "Urgh, I'll go kill these 9 people to get my honor back" and once the Templars start dying other thoughts take his time. After all it's weird for Masayf's tutorial section that while people treat Altair by his demoted rank, nobody notes he has been labelled a traitor and been stabbed. What really would have happened is that Masayf knows that Altair has failed and been demoted to a novice and nothing more.
Two: I think the Twist is better on replay because it's repeatedly hit on Altair's head something so obvious. "Question everything but not your master" is very blatantly suspicious phrasing. One that is designed that set alarm bells that Al Maulim is not exactly the good mentor. The fact the Templars are very similar to the Assassins may raise question into what ways Al Maulim would be similar to Robert. But the main point, Altair has been raised in the Brotherhood all his life, Revelations has a line by Al Maulim that he fits his father's shoes like they were made for him. I think like in real life, disillusionment is not one big event, it's multiple smaller bits. For Altair: Templars have some good points, Al Maulim refuses to answer questions but wants you to question others, Showing the Apple, the consequences of these assassinations.
A lot of Disillusionment comes from a lot of minor events being put together. Altair gets closer but it's hard to get out of what you're born in as if you'd ask a Atheist who was raised into a very religious family, they'd tell you a similar story. Another series that does this alot is Star Wars with Jedi going to the dark side. Darth Vader didn't just flip a switch and choose violence, this was a lot of failings of the Jedi with also some manipulation by Palpatine. The inverse is true as multiple events tugged Vader back to the light. Palpatine's lies being revealed, Vader having a son despite being told his wife and unborn kids were dead, Luke having faith in him that he's good, seeing his son be hurt. I think we see the obvious side as poor writing because we're on the other side of the fence whereas someone who's been told "You're doing good by doing all of these assassinations" probably didn't question things, especially if they're a young player like I was when I first played AC1. It's why I think AC1 aged like a fine wine to me despite the flaws.
Three: The reason nobody would remark Al Maulim's absences is the probably the same as why Altair took so long to break though his mentor's lies. They were ingrained into the Brotherhood after all the whole line of "Question everyone but not me" was there so they didn't find it strange and once Altair got enough information to make his opinions he did notice his mentor acting strange and Templar-ish.
Four: Why didn't the 8 targets before Robert tell Altair about Al Maulim's betrayal? Well gameplay and story for one. But logically? Templars would be ready to die for a goal, my guess is that this was Robert's plan. Either the Templars would have the Holy Land under their rule sooner or later or if they died, it made a good case to the King to go after the Assassins who I doubt would be able to repel the combined forces. If Altair didn't show up and kill Robert it's assured that Robert would have convinced the King to go after the Assassins. I imagine the other eight were told not to mention this to help a back up plan of Robert convincing King Richard.
To this day I still maintain that AC1 is the best AC game, and I've been saying that since AC2 disappointed me.
This channel may just be my new favorite. You have nowhere near the credit you deserve! Please continue to make these videos, I will watch every single one
I just watched all of your videos in one sitting. All excellent watches, well written, funny and tight editing, and I could feel the steady improvement and your increasing confidence in your voice over. Thanks for the wonderful content and I am waiting excitedly (but patiently) for more
This video was increadibly well made. Very surpirsed there aren't more eyes on it. Would love to see similar videos on all the games!
Theres little i like more than browsing my feed and seeing "_____ analysis" with no further desctiption and an hours long runtime, I always click
Altair's Creed had godlike dialogue. I don't understand how dialogue could go down the cliff after only the first entry in the franchise. Night and day difference in the conversations in Altair's Creed VS Ezio's Creed
What an amazing video. I felt the exact same way about the al mualim twist. Id seriously love you to talk about the other ac games, especially 3, since that one has a sadly small amount of conversation around its narrative.
You taking an aside to go on a historical rant about benches was SUCH a power move. You're one of my new favorite creators. ^^
The only bad thing is, that I stumbled upon this video only a day after it was uploaded and now have to wait for vids on other ACs
Same (2days)
Crazy looking back at this game. I remember when I was a kid and I got this game because it looked cool, and since then it's developed into one of the largest video game franchises of all time.
I really appreciate that you make an effort to make a video like this entertaining as well as informative - too many multi-hour long video essays are too dry to be as long as they are. This one could be even longer and Id lap up every second.
this dude's videos might be one of the only video essayist who actually uses every hour instead of it just being filler and half baked ideas.
Over all a good video. It actually made me realize a question I've had for years: why the Assassin's stopped fighting for peace but fought for free will from AC2 forward. Its because of Altair's decision at the end of AC1, peace isn't worth it if there is no free will so the Assassins' goal was consistent all along.
Now you say that the reveal that all 9 targets as Templar members falls flat because we have been killing Templars all along. The point they are trying to make is that the Templars don't need to look like a knight with a red cross in order to be one. That they follow and idealogy that revolves around peace and order through control is what makes them Templars. Anyone regardless of their background, ethnicity or sexuality can be a Templar so long they follow the Templar ideology. That is the big reveal. The common Knights Templars are not in on the plan, they actually believe in God hence why the "Go to God" scene works and why only 10 Templars know about the Treasure.
It's absolutely crazy, I say one hour after my last comment, listening to the latter half of assassins creed 1 when i never got past the first few missions. You see i first started playing assassins creed with the second game, and in that game you see all of the first civilization shit through these weird puzzles set up by 17. I played these puzzles not having any o the context from the first game and it was a genuinely amazing experience. You can get details about the first civilization stuff much sooner than when it comes up in the main story.
It almost cheapens that aspect of AC2 to know they dropped all this stuff in the first game
Same! Puzzle box pacing was much better in Ac2
So glad this popped up in the recommended, adore these type of analysis videos, especially since you're covering some of my fav games! Keep up the amazing work, would love to see assassins creed 2 or far cry 3 covered!
UA-cam recommends at it again giving me another new favourite channel
Looking forward to future videos on the later AC games, I always mourned the loss of my boy Desmond ever since I was a kid
bro i just went to your channel expecting more videos. I didnt even watch this one yet but Im excited to watch it, please make more
Man this is a welcome suprise to have pop up in my recommended.
This game is easily the strangest of the first 3 (see: 5) games, and bizarrely the _least_ similar to *every* game that it would spawn. Ive often wanted to see discussion of this title just due to HOW bizarre the title feels to play. Its clunky, its awkward, the missions suck, the gameplay is repetetive, and yet the game *is* captivating in its own ways.
Story-wise, idk if the Ezio trilogy is as wonky as this title, but they certainly didnt feel it.
Strangely though, i felt that Assassins Creed 3 was THE most wonky, and that was where i stopped playing the series. Would be interested in seeing a thoughtful dissection of the ones I've played as well as the ones I've foregone, as ill never play them but the Ezio trilogy was my early teenage-dom, so the series will forever have a place of nostalgia reserved in my heart.
Thanks for the video!
Twin Peaks was the first mystery based hit tv show that at least partially inspired X Files, Lost and Stranger things and million other media.
Aw man the mystery box and conspiracy stuff mixed with real life anxieties about 2012 made AC up to Revelations so promising.
The first game brings up so many ideas that were later dropped. The plague, the hurricanes, the world silently ending. None of that is brought up again. I think there’s even some emails and conversations with Lucy about a PoE that made time traveling possible and Nolan North hinted I think that around AC2 there was a plan that Desmond would go back in time.
I find it interesting that the main way Lucy comforts Desmond throughout the game is by telling him to have faith, a word usually associated with religiously placing trust in a force that we can’t see nor understand, and yet she keeps telling him to hold it. Who is he supposed to have faith in, Lucy? In lore we know there is no “spiritual” force to guide Desmond’s fate, so I think it’s an interesting clue to her true nature that the only way she gives Desmond any comfort is by telling him to trust in her entirely.
dude you are on a fucking roll with these videos, good job and thank you cause i pay full attention until i pass out for the night, then pick it right back up in the morning
I just watched this today and went back to find your channel to see part two… then I saw the upload date. Keep this up! I love essay based content!!!
I’ve been waiting for a narrative focused AC video, and I’m so glad you decided to give it some attention.
The ambition of the original narrative makes the decision to completely ditch it in the later games much more disappointing.
This is up there with some of the best critiques i've seen. Your narration makes it easy to listen and stay interested, the jokes land and the footage shown always relates to your point. If you keep up a regular upload schedule this channel will go places. Great work.
I've really enjoyed all your videos so far mate, can't wait to see even more, keep up the great work!
Al Mualim's religious references are a holdover from Hasan-i-Sabbah's Hashashin order, including the true purpose of the garden. It's heavily implied that his Shiite version still has a significant influence on the current brotherhood. It's structured like a reveal cult, so only once Altair gains status and trust does he learn of the inaccuracies in the religious history he knows, and presumably no one else. Assassin's Creed in particular is based on Vladimir Bartol's portrayal of Hasan and religious epistemology in his 1938 novel Alamut. He portrayed Hasan as having discovered a lack of evidence of God after reaching the highest levels of religious study, and instead of building his order around faith, based it on a deconstruction of Shia that positions him as the intermediary between heaven and Earth. Why exactly his subordinates believed this so fervently is far too compelling to spoil here in spite of its importance to understanding the Assassins' behavior in this game. I highly recommend it to any scholar or superfan of Assassin's Creed, especially the kind with two hours worth of thoughts
The reward structure of AC1’s city activities is a very important part of Altaïr’s motivation. Within each district you only have one target, which means you’ll probably only have to enter one restricted area and flee from one guard chase as long as you’re not running into everyone like a maniac. This positions saving citizens not as a heroic deed, but as a locational resource, most of which you will almost certainly not need. Once your infiltration plan begins to come together, that’s when you can identify the most important ingress and egress routes and render them safe by saving the nearest citizen. Besides that your motivation is the same as Altaïr’s: Kill the target. Anything that doesn’t help you do that is white noise to be filtered out
I don’t think we’re meant to believe that Altaïr was ever stabbed at all. I think Al Mualim, testing his newfound capabilities with the Apple, carried out an elaborate and segmented illusion to further humiliate Altaïr in front of his peers (at least the way Altaïr saw it) without the need to explain his apparent redemption to the rest of his followers who are clueless of ancient artifacts and false gods. Even Desmond desynchronizes from this because Altaïr *believed* he died
Alright, I think it’s safe to assume you’re not reading the memory logs for the majority of your playthrough, and thus further disengaging from the reward structure. The mission beginning and complete updates don’t offer much insight, but you’ll probably find the letters between main conspirators the most interesting part. When Al Mualim reveals they’re working together, he sort of glosses over this elaborate conspiracy to raise a loyal army. These outline the particulars of shipments and training and such, and establish their connections to each other well in advance. The gameplay reward comes in the form of valuable intel on expected target behavior, guard patrol patterns, and potential infil and exfil routes. Cross-referencing these is how you make a detailed mission plan to ensure you have a clean run on your first try. Seriously, they make the difference between a tense stealth infiltration and a massive city-wide brawl
You gotta remember just how much time is between these cutscenes. But also alot of people when it comes to watching or playing games are really not great at thinking and need the story to beat them over the head with everything so they can get it.
Soaking in your work again, re-watching everything.
I really dig your sense of humour + digressions as well as how you organize the material, write, & edit. I know you mock your "vocal fry" in I think ?? the Skyrim video but I find your voice really soothing tbh.
I believe YT is its own medium with several art-forms evolving within it. Your instincts are good. I hope you trust your practice to lead your growth as an artist & the criticisms + requests that besiege Creators don't make you doubt yourself or your progress or projects. Obviously, take good advice where you find it. But I hope it's easy for you to distinguish between what will help your art grow + what offerings don't speak to you.
Happy workings!
your videos are so good; i honestly can’t believe you don’t have more subscribers bc u rly deserve them 💕
Played this game when it came out and I was 13
I knew I was killing templars and I was confused why it was a reveal
One thing I find interesting is that your critique here reminds me about my feelings in Bioshock, which I have not thought about this game. The difference? I played this game when it was new and I was like 13 - so I felt the full impact of how ambitious and different this game was coming off the PS2 (I was also raised in a religious household, and this game brought up questions I had quite frankly never seen discussed openly before). I played Bioshock when I was in college, well after it had made its impact and after game narratives had come a long way. The twists were obvious immediately, so much so I thought they would be part of the tutorial. And for this reason I picked the game apart as I played.
Great video - love the thoughtful critique of a game I love so much.
this was amazing id love to see you tackle the Ezio storyline
Can I just say that I LOVE Assassin's Creed 1 cinematography, and wish that Assassin's creed had really kept to it rather than moved away from it?
These wide open shots, often from above. It's like the story is consciously not taking us into a character's perspective through emotional camera angles and a bunch of close ups, but giving us a matter of fact view from the outside, where the world around is kept stationary, taking up so much screen space, seeming almost as important as the characters themselves. Where we have to judge based on actions, not being convinced by camera work. I don't know, it's hard to describe, but there is something so COOL about it. It's one of the most iconic cinematography styles I've ever seen in a game, even though it seems so simple, and I love how it fits the series in general. It feels so immersive and really adds emphasis to the events of the game to me.
Man you really made me excited for a remaster of this game. Imagine what they could do with modern graphics and fixing some of the weaker elements of the story. It's truely remarkable how they managed to make such an interesting story for this game. The amount of subtle details to real life myths and religions is such a brilliant move. I wish they somehow managed to keep the story more coherent after brotherhood. I haven't played the newer games but to me it seems like they never reached the peak of the story telling in ac1-ac2 again.
Its crazy how well done this is. I hope you gain the sucess you deserve.
1:15:15 This. This the biggest truth about this saga. That's why after 3 I stopped really caring about it: every main mistery was pretty much resolved. We had Juno's threat afterwards but they decided to kill her off in a comic and with that my interest died aswel.
The joke about evidence of Vidic being found in how he is a morning person made me burst out laughing.
I still remember the shivers when I reached my beloved Damascus for the first time, the same goes for Jerusalem. Assassins creed used to be revolutionary especially in the Ezio series, as i feel I've visited half of Italy without even going there irl 👌🙏🏻
I do not think that our Duke of Whales understands the history of the relationship between science and god very well
Finished watching the AC 2 critique and came straight back to this one.
Love ur work so far man, I hope you decide to do more AC videos.
I love the story of the og AC games always excited for more videos about them.
One of my best memories of this game, was showing it to my best friend, who lived in Israel for years and frequented Jerusalem. The moment I entered Jerusalem, he immediately asked for the controller, and began to marvel at the accuracy of the buildings in-game next to the few historical sites that remain of the old city. He mentioned that some 10 to 20 feet of the ground floor of the city had been demolished or entombed in cement, so he couldn't a test for the lowest buildings' accuracy. He went on to take me to various approximate points around the city where a McDonalds and various other modern establishments would be, present day.
I love that you ended up reading a essay on the history of benches in Florence, that's so cool
46:30 When Desmond steals Vidics pen, is this a foreshadowing to the bleeding effect? As Altaïr, we do quite some pickpocketing and its always items they have around their waist
I always know I’ll have a good next hour or so when Duke of Whales uploads
About why the garden in the Assassin castle is called paradise - the young men who would become the Hashashin would be made very high using hashish and put in the garden, surrounded by beautiful women etc and would be told later that that was a vision of paradise which is promised to them if they remain loyal and die in the service of the „order”. I’m paraphrasing, but you’d need to read up on the original assassins :)
And on that note, fantastic channel, a very good listen and interesting dives into stories from unconventional angles. You got a sub, and keep up the fantastic work.
just found ur channel, so unbelievably excited for the Ezio Trilogy analyses. cant even estimate how much time i spent on Revelations, it'll be nice to view the narrative in a different perspective
Watching this after finishing the AC2 video. Incredible job on both, looking forward to watching the rest of the backlog as well as future videos. Also I feel like the bench montage followed by a deep dive political analysis on benches showcases the duality of your videos and I am all for it.
I don't think Assassin's Creed rejects the existence of God, but rather takes a deistic approach to Him, saying that God has abandoned us and that he doesn't interact with this world, we can see even Altair respect the religious beliefs by saying religious statements of "let go of your burdens" and "go with your God" and even in the beginning Al Mualim quotes scripture, ecclesiasties "so I set my heart to know madness and folly, and I too saw that this was but a striving after wind, which much knowledge comes much vexation" and even though the creed isn't explicitly spiritual, it does have spiritual themes of having peace in all things and seeking knowledge, even how they act and treat Al Mualim is very similar to religious organizations and how they treat their figureheads, I guess how it is, is similar to Assassin's Creed 2 towards the end when Rodrigo became Pope, it wasn't because of genuine belief but because he wanted power and Ezio even says "aren't you the pope, isn't God suppose to be all knowing and all powerful? do you really think a couple of artifacts will control him?" so the game in 1 in how the conversations go, really do acknowledge the existence of God, but disagree on his role in the universe
I disagree, Altair's actions have brought attention to the Templars, while yes Robert was intending on attacking Masayaf, Altair decided to expose himself and the order, if Altair followed the creed and did what he had to, but still failed, he wouldn't have been branded traitor, but because he put himself and his whole pride over the Creed that's what got him stabbed. I think that was the whole thing between Altair and Al mualim, why Altair was Al Mualim's favorite student and this is just my own interpretation, that Al Mualim saw much of himself in Altair
I think the whole thing about Al Mualim and the Templars is that he was at one point a templar or the Grand Master of them but they had a falling out because Al Mualim wanted the apple for himself so he used the Assassin's to cut them down and thus started the beginning of the game, that's my own interpretation and viewing of the subtext though
Edit: I just finished the video, while I disagree with some of the criticisms you made I still found the video to be well thought out and deep in its analysis, I want to add with the whole catholic doctrine, though myself am not catholic, it is true that the chaos and disorder came from the disobeying God not from the act of eating the fruit itself as throughout the Old Testament God constantly commands his people to "seek out knowledge" and it's a value that he holds most valuable
This is a really interesting point and probably a distinction I could’ve spent more time talking about. I think because of the truth videos in AC 2, showing that Adam and Eve were humans escaping from the Isu, my reading would still lean towards this universe not having a God at any point. That’s not to underplay the role of faith in this first game or the series, like you said it’s so central to these first few games especially, but with all the information we’re given over this game and the next few I think we’re left with either ‘God is gone/hands-off’ or ‘There was/is no God’ and I think I lean towards the latter. Although now that I’m thinking more about it, were one so inclined, one could also read the miraculous success of Altair (canonically never getting hit, winning his trial by combat against Robert and his men, defeating an Apple-wielding Al-Maulim) as evidence of an active God favoring him.
TL;DR: I think you’re right in that I don’t think AC 1 or even AC 2 explicitly rejects the existence of God, like everything else in these games we’re not exactly given a firm answer and players are going to be left to come to their own conclusions. The games are vague enough to absolutely support a deistic reading or even a more spiritual one.
@@DukeofWhales yeah I think the question of God existing in this universe is very much up to the audiences own interpretation, King Richard proclaims that God favored Altair, I wish this was something they poked around but I understand why they took a step away from that
But something that peaked my interest as I was playing through the games was in Revelations where Desmond's journey, going through all of it the way he was raised sounds a lot like how some people grew up in fundamentalist households, though I'm not one myself, how Desmond describes it sounds similar, how they're told to just accept the truth and not really question it, how a lot them ended up growing being afraid of the world and doing something wrong same as Desmond grew up being afraid of the outside world but it ended up being afraid of what he was going through more, Desmond even goes to say that he grew up with a family that's in a cult. At the end he says that if they had only answered his questions, show him the truth instead of sheltering him from the world he probably wouldn't have ran away from them, and that just sounds almost verbatim how a lot of Christians who grew up in fundamentalist households sound
This video is a good example of seeing these games within their own little bubble and in that way one can dissect and understand each individual game and the story being told. I do as such now and it's how I can continue to enjoy the series as is. Obviously, it isn't just a blind following ready to throw my money at whatever new game they provide but just think critically about what it is you are experiencing.
I absolutely love coming back to the older assassins creed games and seeing how well they still hold up.
i don’t comment a lot anymore but your channel is surprisingly small; i really expected you to have a 100k subscribers at least haha. great content! i’ll be joining the cozy club who use your videos as sleeping aid aka ill finish watching this video over the span of a week or so, constantly falling asleep to it & rewinding it to watch it from the part i last remember. keep it up!! looking forward to seeing what you’re upto next :)
I remember this game because the very first time I played it, I made it almost to the end... And then my mom said "come, we are going to pick up your brother from school", so I had to turn off my PS3. When I turned it on again, I was stuck between two memory barriers and couldn't do anything. And had to start it all over again.
I wanna say that I bought the game several years after release (I was barely 6 when it launched 😅), so it was the definitive game, updated and "fixed", so very unfortunate of me...
But anyway, I still miss this game, and sometimes I wish to play it again.
Goddamn listening to this felt good while doing my Uni tasks. I look forward to your critique of the Ezio trilogy.
Your channel is so underrated I love your uploads so much
Something you touch on that I don’t see enough is the idea of wisdom being a meeting of knowledge and emotion. I was one of those kids who got called wise by the time I was like 8, and ignoring what we could unpack in regards to that, my philosophy to like,,,, everything, really, has been objectivity with compassion. Do I sometimes forget empathy and become to objective? Yes. Do I sometimes forget common sense and critical thinking when it involves the people I love? Yes. But the fact that I’m open about those flaws and try to take a step back and recognize when it’s happening is what makes people see me as wise. I’m not sure if I’m actually wise. I just often have the answers that people need. I guess I’ve thought a lot about stuff that not everyone tends to.
None of that is really the point, though, is it? It’s the fact that I’ve always tried to balance wisdom and emotion, not letting one rule the other. As a 22-year-old it’s a lot easier NOW than when I was a teen, but that doesn’t mean I’m necessarily an expert. And therein lies the second part of wisdom. Knowing that the best you can do is try.
Bro is over here dropping Hegel and Gramsci in an essay about a video game I played in middle school because "history is cool or whatever, also parkour". Instant sub, good shit
It's really cool to see a new video from you, I really enjoyed your other ones and I'm looking forward to watching it! Rock on
Great video! Would definitely like to see analyses on the rest of the series.
This is the type of analysis of Assassins' Creed that I've been waiting to watch. I'm very interested to see your critique on the story of Assassins Creed III as I feel the Ezio trilogy lacked much of the nuance and philosophical conflict present in the first title. I may be wrong, it's been a while since I've played them.
So I watched your Gollum video and had a bit of a binge. (I NEED MORE!) I love your work, it honestly reminds me how much I appreciate the stories in the games you have covered. The Skyrim video alone got a 'Oh yeh I liked this game once upon time.' reaction from me.
Just binged all 4 of your videos. I love the way you break it all down and your analysis. I can’t wait for whatever the next video is and I hope to see a Mass Effect series soon!
I love videos like this. I feel like when we look back on AC there are aspects of it that are mediocre, or changed with our nostalgic rose-tinted glasses. But it was also ambitious, it had incredible moments, an incredible concept, AC2 exist - idk…
I feel like the storytelling across all games as a franchise, AC is mid tier.
Yet the fans are impassionate for it; we critique and make videos like this because we care and love these games. Despite its flaws. We want it to succeed and be better and we dream it reaching bigger narrative heights. And it’s certainly reached them a couple of times across the games’ existence.
Idk I just think it’s beautiful that this video exists.
Hey I really love your videos I think you do a great Job at explaining the story and your opinion on it I enjoy the editing you’re doing a awesome job man
Amazing analysis. There are a couple of things I'd like to add to the discussion.
Firstly, there is some context missing when analyzing the story of Altair, as well as the artistic vision of the Holy Land and the Assassin's Order. If you read up on the history and legends behind the hashashins (Isma'ili Assassins), you will see that the game takes great inspiration from them. As others have mentioned, this is the case with the "Garden of Eden" behind Masyaf's castle, as well as the moment where Al Mualim orders his Assassins to jump to their death, to "go to God". History paints a very different story for the Assassins, but some real aspects still reflect in the game's environment and scenes.
Secondly, and this is only my additional thoughts on the story of Altair, I feel like Altair is the perfect assassin, in his personality. We see him in the beginning as an arrogant, young, brash fool, that misinterprets the core tenets of the brotherhood. He takes away his own understanding, mostly motivated by his extraordinary skills, much past his peers. Knowing he is the best guides his arrogance. That, coupled with missing authority figures throughout his life (he's an orphan, according to the book), sketches a weird and edgy composition for a protagonist. But it is exactly this way of thought, his arrogance and individuality that enlightens him and even protects him from Al Mualim's lies. We are shown a re-educated Altair after his supposed "death", one that is under the Al Mualim's illusion. But as he reintegrates himself in the Creed, following the tenets, pondering on the words of the men he has slain, he brings back that questioning, that fight against authority that we see in the beginning. He is the perfect rebel, a perpetual spark for the fire of liberty. Which is why it couldn't have been anyone else that could have taken Al Mualim down. None of the other assassins would have even dared questioned him. And we see this from Altair in the beginning AND the middle of the game, much before he has completed his trials for wisdom. The only person who understands that "Nothing is true, everything is permitted" viscerally, intuitively.
You mention at one point that one conversation between Al Mualim and Altair seems to undermine Altair's intelligence. I disagree, I think Altair doubts his master's words all the way since that particular conversation. To me it seems like Altair is being sarcastic, even. Taunting Al Mualim: "Interesting theory" - he says in response to the paradoxical doctrine the master presents as tautology.
Also, super minor lore tidbit - I think the (later) in-game explanation to why Altair could resist the Apple was because of his higher percent of precursor DNA, right? Although literary, I think the original game meant to play on the idea that Altair forges his own understanding of the world, unswayed by illusions. Exactly because of his rebel nature, as I've said above.
That said, I am merely an amateur in literary analysis, I think you could do a much better job at portraying what I'm trying to say in the lines above. Thanks a lot for the video, it brings a lot of the subtle greatness of the first game to light. Personally, I think this is the best in the series and the other games have strayed far from what this one was trying to portray.