I find it particularly worthy in our era of endless sequels & remakes. Often aspects of an original work get dropped or downplayed in later titles, and the teams behind such titles completely change. There's that lingering question of "what if" the sequels went a different direction, emphasising a different part of the original work.
@@Pan_Z There is things that really can't be replicated If they really want to do remakes, why don't do it with games that were bad and not get well received like Dead Space 3, or games that got cut content like Crash Twinsanity?
Thank you, Hero. Assassin's Creed is one of the most unique games ever made, and I often say that it unfortunately never received a sequel that genuinely followed-up on its essence and the creative things it was actually trying to do. I feel like a lot of players who give it an honest try today, be open to its nuances and weird idiosyncrasies would find something really special that's like no other videogame -- in both narrative and mechanics. (And the crazy-interesting merger of both that results.)
I’ve tried ac1 nearly 15 years after it came out and it’s become one of my favorite in the whole franchise. Unfortunately, the general gaming audience just hates anything that doesn’t fit what’s standard, trendy, or modern, which the franchise has unfortunately become still to this day.
@@yodaddyrc1220 I remember picking up EDGE magazine (UK games mag) and within the first sentence/paragraph they mentioned how they were having an amazing time until you are suddenly pulled out and the real world story starts. This actually held me back from playing it for a while, learnt to look at varying reviews from then on, then again youtube was a newborn baby at the time so didn't have all the news like today. I think they gave it around 6/10.
@ liked it. I got into the mechanics, although I thought the stealth was going to be harder than it first appeared (I've played Tenchu and similar beforehand) and I could enjoy the story as it was fairly self contained and not the crazy sprawl it's become now. Without going back and playing it again I'd say 4/5 as a great debut.
The entire game being a computer simulation also is like Prince of Persia. That game also uses a framing device of the titular Prince telling a tale. Pretty clever way of contextualising game overs and such.
One of my favourite aspects of AC1 was its use of the chase theme Access The Animus. The rest of the OST feels very fitting for the environment Altair explores but when you assassinate a target, you get this haunting almost tech-y sounding tune that plays while you're incognito until suddenly BAM. You get caught my favourite part of the tune when you're caught by a guard or fleeing after an assassination and it shifts to this high octane adrenaline filled tune that does not fit the era but in a good way. Coupled with the noise of the bells ringing when you've assassinated and it sells the tension, you've assassinated not only your templar target but a public figure high in the food chain and the entire city guard is on your ass, especially if you've done the sidequests (Which, due to being part of getting 100% synchronization means that Altair DID indeed help out the civilians of the cities.) where you help out civilians who in turn will grab and hold off guards chasing you. It's like the mere act of assassinating your target while you flee to the Bureau to hide out till the heat dies off has ignited a full scale war between the civilians and the corrupt guard and YOU were the catalyst. I like the chase themes in later games but I remember as a kid during a second playthrough of AC2 I got to the target after you get your hidden gun and out of curiosity I muted the game and played the main chase part of Access The Animus and lo and behold it was just as effective as it was in AC1, goes to show just how good and atmospheric the OST for AC1 was.
The chase is one of the most important parts of the franchise imo. It really goes to show that assassins weren't these warriors they portray them as. It showcases how much of an insect you are. Also I loved the fact that to the crowd, they weren't seen as knights in shining armor, but as killers. You see people scared and panicking in the trailer, and in game. Also, the mpact of killing a target is so great. When that stab happens, you're left fending for your life with high adrenaline. When you're finally safe and in hiding mode, as the music simmers down, you're sort of left with the guilt of killing someone. What I love about the themes of the original game was how death wasn't treated as some comedic gag, it was treated seriously, uncomfortable even. The music slowing down and ringing bells leaves you to rethink the actions you did when assasinating a target. Especially after the target just previously gave their thoughts, beliefs, and inputs.
Access the animus is the one soundtrack i wish they brought back. But then again, that’s what makes AC1 special. Im glad im not the only one that sees the value of that song. Its just so immersive and the adrenaline you get from it is crazy.
I've been really big on the idea that AC1 is probably the best in the franchise for a while. Fundamentally I think it is a cool and gritty game, that has an amazing plot. The slow unravelling of the conspiracy in the past and present is genuinely a treat and we will never get anything like that in an AC game ever again. The "leap of faith" dialogue you put in the start is such a cool line, and it makes me appreciate how serious the game takes itself without being self indulgent. I think a lot of work went into creating such a sinister and oppressive atmosphere.
The writing and atmosphere really were top-notch in the game. As I said in my own comment, exploring Abstergo felt a lot like the original Portal to me, I was so excited to continue that slow build-up of autonomy in the sequel(s), eventually to escape the facility in some climactic fashion and see what the assassins had evolved (or devolved, Desmond's commentary on them paints them as pretty crazy themselves) into in the modern era, and seeing how screwed the world was beyond those sanitized laboratory walls. And that's even without getting into the whole historical side of the plot, with Altair's redemption and the "Apple of Eden" macguffin and whatnot. Just, so good.
My boi Altair redeemed himself, worked his way back to a Master Assassin, had to kill his Mentor, took over the Assassin's, exhiled asfter a coup, lost his oldest son, returned to the Assassin's, then led them again until he was 92. And people skipped his game.
Bro FINALLY. AC1 actually felt like you were traversing a hostile environment, especially as there are more and more guards in the cities later into the story. I enjoyed the later ACs, but AC1 was awesome.
To this day it's my favorite entry in the series. Stealth was more important, the game as a whole was way more atmospheric. I swear it was the best looking game in the series until Unity. The climbing to lookout point stuff hadn't been done to death. Assassin's Creed was pretty fresh for its time and I feel it still holds up rather well. More so than it's sequels because it's not so ingrained in today's standard Ubisoft formula
Another cool implication of trading the traditional health bar for a synchronization bar implies that Altair never took damage in combat, as taking damage causes de-synchronization.
It just means you're getting closer to Altair's death at a time he wasn't dead in history. You lose bars, but you don't desynchronize. The bars increase when you are getting farther away from death, without medicine, proving Altair isn't healing his wounds. Therefore, the synchronization bar does not represent Altair taking damage; it just represents Altair getting closer to death at a time he wasn't meant to die, which means that the animus user is not following our Altair's life accurately. I am Ilham, and this is my perspective.
First off, been following you since the old days, so welcome back! Second, this game is shat on unnecessarily by so many people because AC2's mechanical improvements but the narrative & philosophy of AC1 cannot be beat. Thank you so much for doing this.
Even if it's the most repetitive AC in the franchise, Its still my favorite. The mistery in the past and present time , the different ambient and color palette between each city making it very unique, how fun and realistic the parkour felt back in the day and even now, etc. Even if AC2 is considered the better game, I still prefeer the setting and novelty of AC1.
I will get around to watching this but I'm happy to see someone championing this idea. The original AC felt like a cross between Prince of Persia and Hitman, with a methodical slow pace and heavy sci-fi and historical elements. The sequel was great, but in restrospect was the blueprint for nearly every single open world Ubisoft games to follow (and wear out their welcome). Something was missed along the way. I remember being a generation behind on consoles and going round a friends house who owned this and a PS3, I was geniunely blown away by how it looked and handled. Edit: Watched and agreed on everything. Also god damn is that how the game looked? I think the ACII remaster sullied the original vision in my head because from the footage you're showing it still looks great and not far at all from what I remember.
I dig these types of videos you make highlighting how underrated the first game in it's insert franchise is. Most people will tell you how bad they are and "tough them out" just to rush their sequels without respecting or understanding the evolution of a franchise starting from its core root that started it all
Although AC2 expanded on and improved many things and made the franchise popular, I honestly think the artistry, originality and innovation behind the original Assassin's Creed is Ubisoft's greatest achievement. A game with a vision above all else.
This is quite a step up from the usual assasins creed content i find since no one talks about the original. Its is might i even dare to say it 00:05 a leap of faith
18:17 On this whole tirade, you can plan your assassinations to a very detailed degree, scoping out the assassination venue, the route to it and back to the bureau, eliminating any guards en route, saving scholars to give you access or citizens to help you escape. This will all be extremely helpful if you plan an escape route and know what you will climb, where, which hiding places will be available along the way, etc. If you define the point where you first climb to the roofs after an assassination as the point where you break line of sight with the guards, save a citizen right next to that climbing point, for instance. That way you can be sure the guards won't follow you or pelt you with stones as you climb. You can half ass all the assassinations, but if you plan them out it's really cool to see things go exactly as planned and rehearsed. Took me a bunch of playthroughs before I actually bothered to do it though lol
As a kid I was always pretty intrigued by the modern day aspects of AC, I remember spending a lot of time just walking around the lab to find whatever tidbits I could and spent a decent amount of time thinking about the potential of a fully modern day game. Glad I'm not the only one who found that stuff interesting.
So sad that no-HUD mechanich hasn't been mentioned because it is genuinely amazing to know that dev-team made the Kingdom and cities in such a way that you can navigate the world without the map, Altair's animations make it easy to discern the stance he is taking, when to attack and to parry and those glitches actually work as hits for combat as well. Those who were interested in playing through the first installment - definitely at least try to play a little bit without HUD.
After having played most AC games (as an adult), I can confidently say that the Ezio Saga (even though it is a lot of fun) completely ruined the essence of the first game. The tonal differences between AC1 and AC2/B/R are SO GREAT that they are essentially in different genres altogether imo. And it all boils down to the protagonist of each game, and his relationship WITH the story. As in the story contained within the life of the protagonists, if that makes any sense. AC1 is a spy thriller, where the MC, Altair, is an inducted member to a shadowy organization that hides throughout history and uses assassinations to influence politics against ANOTHER equally shadowy organization who attempts to do the exact same thing but usually through politics itself, rather than exclusively through assassination. All because both groups cannot agree on the fundamental values that they both hold to higher standards. The Templars are active, they manipulate and coerce through industry, commerce, politics, religion, etc, whatever the cost, so they can maintain "control" on mankind, as they believe the greatest danger to their ideals is freedom. The Assassins are reactive, they kill the Templars as a way to stop their plans and schemes. They believe a life under the thumb of the Templars to be an insult to mankind. AC2/B/R is a Hollywood spy movie, where the MC, Ezio, is a cunning, smooth talking, and dressed to kill type of assassin, who comes into a dying organization to revitalize it, as a means to fulfill a vendetta against the death of his family. Eventually it becomes about revitalizing the Brotherhood, and making you into a god amongst men and assassins, turning you into a living legend. Do you get the difference? Yes, Ezio's quest is a much more personal one, but it sheds the complexity of the first game. It's no longer shades of gray, it's just evil vs good. In AC1 Altair kills his marks and ANYONE who stands between him and them, because it is what Assassins do. Yes, they won't kill the "innocent", but you can see Altair kill guards who are doing nothing but their jobs, and you kill those who are indirectly connected to the Templars even IF they didn't even knew about it before meeting Altair. In AC2/B/R Ezio kills his marks as well, and he kills the guards, but the game always tries to show all these people as being evil. The guard are ALWAYS corrupt, killing them is cool. They aren't people, they are "eViL" because they stand against you, Ezio. The hero. The Templars are purposefully hiring evil guards across Italy and that makes it okay to kill them. They are mooks for the bad guys always. The success of Ezio's saga made EVERY. SINGLE. AC GAME. Into the same game genre, where the Templars are evil and the Assassin's the good guys. When both should be much more complex than that.
You can blame Ubislop for demanding the change in the story's tone for Ezio's trilogy. Seeing things in black and white seems more comfortable to them than seeing them in grey.
I'd have to play the games again to think about this more deeply, but what I remember is that they continued to degrade the protagonist further and further. Connor gets mocked by Haythem for being naive, so it doesn't seem he knows what he's doing. And Kenway just gets to pretend to be an assassin by chance. I wondered how moronic the next protagonist would be, but I stopped playing the games after that. So I think saying every game since Ezio is the same tonal genre is missing the point. They actually kept getting worse.
I feel like AC1 needed a follow up so badly that kept the stealth focus it had while ironing out so, so many issues like the insane repetition. I feel like there's such a great framework here for a masterpiece of stealth games. Just need to make the assasinations more open ended, integrate the parkour with the stealth better, give a wider toolset, make it so you dont have to do the pre mission 30 minute grind every time you want to replay a mission, etc. Bloodlines on the PSP is the closest we got to a proper follow up to AC1, including the same cold nihilistic digital feel. But that's a handheld side game and doesn't fix much of the issues (plus is even worse with the repetition and pre mission grind) that AC1 had.
After this first game, AC lost almost everything that made the first game special. The compelling writing, the atmosphere, the social stealth, and anything worthwhile at all happening in the Desmond storyline. Ubisoft refined parts of the experience for 2 and beyond, like having better mission structures, but this remains my favorite. Even after, god knows how many other entries, there's still never been an Assassin's Creed quite like the first, and that's not something you can say about any of the other AC games.
Ubisoft games are (or at-least were) almost always worthwhile just for their unparalleled art direction and aesthetic sensibilities especially with their premiere franchises like assassins creed and far cry inspite of the often lacking fun and video gamey elements. When they eventually sell ubisoft i hope the art team stays intact and rehabilitated to a more worthy studio or company because they are hands down one of the best in the industry. Love to see some nuanced takes on their games.
When guards react to a takedown, one of them chosen at random will do something special that sets his animation apart from everyone else. There are a bunch of different options the game can choose from. This is your telegraph to switch weapons, because it means that specific guard is vulnerable to being assassinated with the hidden blade - yes, in the middle of combat. When they taunt you it also has the same effect. The trick is getting to your target fast enough before your window of opportunity closes. Quickstep can help, but if there's another guard or obstacle in the way you might bump into them. In the settings there's something called "hold to lock." Turn this on. You now have to keep left trigger held down to stay in combat stance, but it also makes it easier to break free from the movement restrictions and run circles around guards like Dark Souls speedrunners do with bosses. You can even break the game by exiting high profile just before you assassinate your target so you can exit the animation faster and reach the next cowering target, and the next one after that, and so on and so forth until they're all dead. If you're having trouble I have a playlist full of examples You can draw a blade to make beggars flee with minimal social consequence. Maniacs are always a risk to approach, but punching can pacify them Okay, so I wrote a whole section on intel and planning like I normally do with the assumption you didn't find the memory log, but in this case you did and still didn't find much strategy, so I'm not sure how to handle this. Most of the strategy in the main assassination missions comes from before they even begin. The idea is to plan out how you're *going* to do it, not to reference the intel by the time you're already compromised. Some of it does require additional context. Static guards you kill before triggering the intro cutscene stay dead for the duration of the mission so you'll know where you can safely go without getting swarmed. The allied crowds stay in the same place, so you can plan to meet them at a certain point. While I wish you could view multiple pieces of intel at once, the cross-referencing is part of your analysis skills the game is testing. Try taking screenshots of them to make things easier, especially since they sometimes need to be rotated to orient towards North. You may even want to visit the location ahead of time and practice any complex parkour your plan relies on. The trick to avoiding the city alert is either be blending inside a scholar group or eliminate every guard who could hear you assassinate the main target since you're otherwise locked to high profile. You can account for pretty much everything that could go wrong during an assassination before it even happens. Granted, this games gives you way too much HP to get away with bad planning, but if you're not finding strategy in these systems you're not trying hard enough, I don't know what else to tell you. There's a certain roleplaying aspect to the game allowing you to be this overprepared assassin, like how Batman has contingency plans for everything, except you're actually coming up with them yourself The side missions are especially rewarding if you seek them out using only diegetic information. You've already had your attention grabbed by some of them by accident, but you can reach that point intentionally without using map markers too. When the rafiq briefs you on your mission, he'll outline three points of interest by name and which direction they are from the bureau. Try using Wiktionary to help parse the Arabic. Once you head off in the right direction you should be able to see it by climbing a viewpoint and not synchronizing it - just use your eyes. Once you parkour doen to ground level that's where the noise of the streets and crowd behavior will narrow it down, like how one herald will be saying something different than all the rest. If you're not sure you can always just can the person of interest with Eagle Vision to see if they're an objective. AC1 was originally designed to be played with no HUD at all, and it takes many considerations to make that possible, like how you can identify the bureau by its green, onion-shaped tower, which viewpoints you haven't synchronized by the eagles circling them, when you're at low health by the flashing red VFX, and even which weapon you have equipped by pressing the button to select it again so Altaïr draws it. Map markers, mission reminders, detection indicators, wallhacks - these are artificial assists we've come to rely on in place of organic information that immerses you in the world and requires strategizing how you obtain it, but many games that have these things such as Marvel's Spider-Man can absolutely be explored naturally if you train yourself to reject them. The "Ubisoft formula" of scouting a district's side content and then robotically collecting it is not mandated by the game, it's not a design philosophy, it's a player philosophy. AC1 is the perfect game to start you on this journey that makes open worlds so fresh to engage with again As established, the hidden blade is required to kill cowering guards, but the same restriction applies to floored guards, otherwise you'll just hack away at them with your sword or short blade. Ground stabs with the hidden blade are considered a takedown and will make an enemy cower. Counters with the hidden blade are also guarunteed kills, but they're very risky since they have such a tight timing window. The short blade will throw a knife at any out of range guard, killing them instantly (except Templars and main targets). The main way I like to use this is as a followup to a counter throw since that move will almost always put the target out of melee range, but you can also use it for sort of a pursuit combat style by jumping away to create space or even just backing off from guarding enemies since they move very slowly. Finally the sword has the widest counter window, making it your primary defensive tool. It will automatically draw when you lock back on so you have the best chance of saving yourself from an unexpected attack while repositioning Yep, not consistently mandating good combo timing is a huge issue with this game's combat. You can also do heavy combos to reduce the number of consecutive inputs required to earn a finisher by holding attack, then releasing it just as the blades connect and holding it again. Technically you can even mix any combination of light and heavy attacks into your combo as long as you time the beginning of each strike correctly While waiting for enemies to attack, they can grab you or break your defense, robbing you of your counter opportunity. If you don't have the counter throw or dodge unlocked respectively, you may not even be able to deal with this. If you mess it up, they can even do combos on you! Anything you can do with the sword, they can do too. That's the risk you take by relying on defensive moves and only one weapon. The only way to get an advantage is by using weapons they don't have and are unprepared for You can get extra leg breaks by mashing legs during those really long counters where the enemy slowly falls over (I didn't notice any pictured in your footage). This will give you both a cowering enemy *and* a ground stab opportunity so you can really capitalize with the hidden blade afterwards. Alternatively you can mash attack to turn it into a special kill, which is mostly useful near the end of a fight to make the whole group flee Finally it's hard to tell where you're at with parkour. Most of your clips have constant fishtailing, overshooting, and accidental ejects, but there was one that looked very deliberate and even a clean air vault, so maybe you figured it out later. As always, I recommend Leo K [Rogue]'s "[Rogue Academy] Classic Assassin's Creed | Movement Guide." He's currently the top commenter, so his channel is hard to miss. The idea is to minimize the use of free climbing because it's so agonizingly slow, that's just the glue to hold together the acontextual platforming you can do from any altititude and any position. Uncontrolled jumps are a result of having the extremely dangerous sprint button held down at all times. The way you get down from things safely is by letting go. If you've got it down already we also have Ultimate Parkour Mod now, which can inject a ton of depth and a whole new learning curve into a replay
I always loved the way you articulated your thoughts on games. It’s funny cuz we share so many similar favorite games, your takes really challenge yet educate my knowledge of this medium. Great job man.
Maaaaan, I haven't finished the video yet, but thank you for this. People look at me like I'm crazy when I tell them AC1 was my favorite (followed closely by Black Flag, but let's be real, that's because it looks like Sid Meier's Pirates! looks in my childhood memories).
One of my favourite things you didn't mention was the manual! The manual was written in universe as a draft operating manual for the animus, with hand written notes by the characters. My favourite note in it was on the control page where Lucy (I think) writes that she's adapted the system to be closer to video game controls to make it more accessible to every day types and the doctor writes a note about how stupid he thinks that is. I always interpreted the death scenes as being isolated because these are important to Altair and he holds them in high regard, so when these memories surface the whole world fades away to him and desmond is experiencing how Altair remembers it.
The first Assassin's Creed still holds up as a fantastic action adventure game with a fun pulp narrative and exquisite gameplay. And apparently, Assassin's Creed II is meant to be even better, so once I get off my butt and finish the story of Altair unearthing a Templar conspiracy involving the Apple of Eden, I'll happily wash it down with Ezio's coming of age journey.
The scenes with Al Mualim in this game are some of my favorite scenes in this series. Even though the game's structure got repetitive, I always looked forward to seeing Al Mualim after killing each target since he always had something interesting to discuss. The voice work and presentation for those scenes were honestly top notch.
I recently played this game on my channel. The best part about this game for me at least was that you have to follow a creed. Altair was the best Assassin in my opinion as he lived and died by the Creed. He is the one who completely changed the Assassins. The Mentor who'll always be loved and remembered by the true AC fans.
AC1 really puts into context how much AAA gaming and especially Ubislop has fallen. Excellent graphics that have aged very well, awesome soundtrack and great story mixing conspiracy theories with medieval intrigue. Even little things like the beggars that would throw rocks to knock you off buildings if you ignored them or the crazy people that would smack you around, breaking your cover.
Amazing vid, i always felt AC1 was underrated even tho its such a well known mainstream game, people criticize it unfairly considering its easy to make mistakes when youre innovating so much and so much time and effort was spent into these new ideas that its completely understandable if other minor parts got neglected
True dat. It’s actually the best one in terms of a raw stealth game. I’m still mad Ubisoft got rid of the multiplayer from Brotherhood to Unity, though.
Apparently he wanted to do a Persian voice for him in that game to make it sound more authentic but the voice directors wanted him to just do his normal voice.
@@TheMockingjay74 I remember he came back and did one for assassins creed revelations but they replaced before release for some reason. You can find cut dialogue by him on UA-cam.
I got into Assassin's Creed relatively late, and I remember picking up the first game out of curiosity one day and being so affected by the cliffhanger at the end that I IMMEDIATELY drove to GameStop to buy the second game.
If you don't like Desmond, you aren't an Assassin's Creed fan. I hate that people basically memed Desmond into irrelevance and now Ezio is the face of the series.
I remember me and my cousin playing this around launch and getting mindblown at the whole modern day twist. The PS360 era really is the last time I remember being impressed by tech getting better in gaming, it feels like devs used the power of the new consoles to try and actually make gameplay systems that you couldn't realistically pull of on the PS2/GC/Xbox but by the PS4/Xbone generation most of the gameplay trends where already just re-threading ground from the end of the PS360 era.
i played through 2 a while back recently after remembering it as a pretty good sequel and literally once you get to the point where you can perform parries/counters on enemies it like literally completely breaks the combat - you have to be paying such little attention to take literally like any damage at all in an encounter lol. i also remember in brotherhood and onward they specifically seemed to build into your ability to just counter-one shot enemies by making it possible to chain them together which on one hand makes for an almost interesting kind of arcadey power fantasy gameloop, but also showed a point where 3 games in they'd already drifted too far from keeping stealth as the focus. i think a lot of people shared your theory about desmond and a lot of people assumed a third game would be all modern day stealth action. we're like a dozen titles in at this point and its clear thats never happening and if anything, ubisoft regret the whole abstergo-sim framing and much rather the series sticks to really just being a historical action-adventure sim with light stealth elements at this point - which i think is a real shame. 1 isnt a perfect game by any means, but you highlight a lot of the ways they were trying out some really interesting things that would've been fertile ground to expand on properly in a sequel. it's frustrating to see how visibly derailed the series became between all the spinoffs and sequels and how much of the core identity has been lost at this point. even if altairs white hooded robes made the most sense specifically in 1, it was a really cool visual trademark for all the player characters from that point onward, and felt like something way too iconic to the series to be disgarded - but now your "assassin" just looks like a stereotypical roman soldier or viking. i legitimately do not know if they still even have the hidden blades in there anymore.
Ubisoft, give the rights to Patrice Desilets. I honestly don't care about any new AC game Ubisoft releases at this point. Patrice was one of creatives, him and his team helped make the AC franchise. Now after being fired/quitting Ubiosft, he has his own developers team called Panache Digital Games, under the publisher Private Division.
FINALLY someone respecting the og AC, this is the only one in the franchise that has true intentionality in every aspect of it's design. Never has such a promising game been ruined so quickly by it's own developers, 2 was already extremely confused and uncohissive
Very well done video. I agree with so many things. Like Altair and the targets having the mental battle of minds as they're about to pass on is such a unique feature, and it ultimately leads to Altair discovering that his own master having a sinister agenda. I also hate how many people had problems with the repetitiveness of the missions, when I always appreciated that it was a more realistic take on how spying actually worked, especially how spying back in those times would have been. For the time, this game was so revolutionary, and I still love it to this day. But if I had one complain about the video that wasn't just a difference in opinion, it's the fact that I hate the severing of the finger constantly being misunderstood. Being able to properly use the hidden blade is only a secondary reason. The primary reason Is to show your commitment to the Brotherhood.
Ditto. I read the book based on Altair's further adventures - it's a shame they couldn't have put them on PS and made adjustments to the game, not go out, assassinate your target, and come back. Then you had to kill your mentor. Masyaaf was beautiful, and having three cities, Jerusalem, Acre, and Damascus was exciting. Even the "Kingdom" was fun to explore. Desmond was the heart of "Assassin's Creed", so when he died, the main part of the storyline was just sacrificed.
They actually explain why Desmond looked like both Altair and Ezio in AC 1-Revelations. Basically it's because the Animus was originally programmed to just copy paste the subject's head and face, and it wasn't until later Animus iterations where it recreates the ancestor's actual appearance.
Insane! my AC1 thoughts more than 10 years ago are laid out exactly as a remembered (written and narrated well) - SciFi conspiracy adding to the lore, UI design, creed rules, assassination sequences. You even suggested AC games to be more like Hitman, which I thought AC1 to be a proto-Hitman. Would add that the historical angle helped creating intrigue in the era, so when I read about the actual Hashashin order, made the game (and most AC sequels even more special)
So much is lost with the newer games. Assassins creed odyssey didnt even have social stealth. The modern day portion which although confusing was really interesting is a shell of its former self. The focus on historical accuracy and authenticity is gone. They didnt even add the crossbow in the first game bc it wasnt accurate.
It was, and still is, my favourite implementation of the hidden blade. Insta kill with the counter, but you couldn't block with it. Even the final boss was one shot-able. High risk, but high reward. From AC2 onwards you could block, and it took away the stakes, making it far too effective and easy. But then again every game got progressively easier until Unity, and then doubled down on it afterwards
AC1 feels more unique than other AC games for some reason same goes for AC2 as well while it has colorful aspects it yet still has dark atmosphere of AC1 in sometimes.
I've never played an Assassin's Creed game and I had no idea that the setting is simulated. That said, this game is fascinating. I had no idea the white HUD/UI elements started here, and the fact that a game from 2007 looks that good really goes to show how much the PS3/360 generation is slept on.
Excellent look back at an underappreciated game! Crazy to say that about the first entry in a franchise as big as AC but most people seem to start with AC2. Personally, I only ever really gelled with the first entry. Something about AC2 just didn't impress me in the same way and I haven't given the franchise another shot since. AC1 is a little underbaked but it was a novel, ambitious stealth title for its time and was arguably the end of Ubisoft at their peak creativity and prestige.
I wasn't aware of the meaning behind altair's name and the bird like aspects of his design, but that kinda makes me appreciate how unique his design was. I never was super into the other designs other assassin's in the series had as they just felt sorta gimmicky and not quite as inspired. Assassins'creed 1 really stands as one of the defining games of that generation and a stand out game in the stealth genre and I think you summed it pretty well. While I liked the second back then, the first one was the more interesting and inspired game by comparison. It works well enough as a stand alone game and experience that games just lost the magic and doubled down in frankly more idiotic directions. That original idea for what desmond was gonna be would've been really great to see pan out and it sucks ubisoft dropped that. Conceptually it sounded like a new way of progressing in a game and series both in narrative and in gameplay. Assassin's Creed like many series of the 7th gen started off with promise and really had a strong foundation that was never realized or followed up on and is probably one of the bigger offenders of that, next to Mass effect. This and your infamous vs prototype vids I think are your best material and subject in a while.
i always hated how people hated the Desmond storyline, to me it was always essential to the entire point of assassin's creed
Desmond is gay
I freaking loved the sci-fi aspect. That's why I stopped playing AC after AC3, basically no more sci-fi.
The moment desmond died AC died
They really wrote themselves in the corner when they did the end of the world story.
I actually hate the fact that he had such a bad end instead. Every modern scenes now feels bland even Black Flag's imo
I approve of this "respect the original X" format returning
I find it particularly worthy in our era of endless sequels & remakes. Often aspects of an original work get dropped or downplayed in later titles, and the teams behind such titles completely change.
There's that lingering question of "what if" the sequels went a different direction, emphasising a different part of the original work.
I approve the channel returning
@@Pan_Z There is things that really can't be replicated
If they really want to do remakes, why don't do it with games that were bad and not get well received like Dead Space 3, or games that got cut content like Crash Twinsanity?
Thank you, Hero. Assassin's Creed is one of the most unique games ever made, and I often say that it unfortunately never received a sequel that genuinely followed-up on its essence and the creative things it was actually trying to do. I feel like a lot of players who give it an honest try today, be open to its nuances and weird idiosyncrasies would find something really special that's like no other videogame -- in both narrative and mechanics. (And the crazy-interesting merger of both that results.)
I’ve tried ac1 nearly 15 years after it came out and it’s become one of my favorite in the whole franchise. Unfortunately, the general gaming audience just hates anything that doesn’t fit what’s standard, trendy, or modern, which the franchise has unfortunately become still to this day.
@@yodaddyrc1220 I remember picking up EDGE magazine (UK games mag) and within the first sentence/paragraph they mentioned how they were having an amazing time until you are suddenly pulled out and the real world story starts. This actually held me back from playing it for a while, learnt to look at varying reviews from then on, then again youtube was a newborn baby at the time so didn't have all the news like today.
I think they gave it around 6/10.
@@LeeONardo Mainstream gamers and many gaming journalists truly do think every game should be mindless action. But I disagree. What do u think of ac1?
@ liked it. I got into the mechanics, although I thought the stealth was going to be harder than it first appeared (I've played Tenchu and similar beforehand) and I could enjoy the story as it was fairly self contained and not the crazy sprawl it's become now.
Without going back and playing it again I'd say 4/5 as a great debut.
@ 👍
The entire game being a computer simulation also is like Prince of Persia. That game also uses a framing device of the titular Prince telling a tale. Pretty clever way of contextualising game overs and such.
One of my favourite aspects of AC1 was its use of the chase theme Access The Animus. The rest of the OST feels very fitting for the environment Altair explores but when you assassinate a target, you get this haunting almost tech-y sounding tune that plays while you're incognito until suddenly BAM. You get caught my favourite part of the tune when you're caught by a guard or fleeing after an assassination and it shifts to this high octane adrenaline filled tune that does not fit the era but in a good way.
Coupled with the noise of the bells ringing when you've assassinated and it sells the tension, you've assassinated not only your templar target but a public figure high in the food chain and the entire city guard is on your ass, especially if you've done the sidequests (Which, due to being part of getting 100% synchronization means that Altair DID indeed help out the civilians of the cities.) where you help out civilians who in turn will grab and hold off guards chasing you. It's like the mere act of assassinating your target while you flee to the Bureau to hide out till the heat dies off has ignited a full scale war between the civilians and the corrupt guard and YOU were the catalyst.
I like the chase themes in later games but I remember as a kid during a second playthrough of AC2 I got to the target after you get your hidden gun and out of curiosity I muted the game and played the main chase part of Access The Animus and lo and behold it was just as effective as it was in AC1, goes to show just how good and atmospheric the OST for AC1 was.
The chase is one of the most important parts of the franchise imo. It really goes to show that assassins weren't these warriors they portray them as. It showcases how much of an insect you are. Also I loved the fact that to the crowd, they weren't seen as knights in shining armor, but as killers. You see people scared and panicking in the trailer, and in game.
Also, the mpact of killing a target is so great. When that stab happens, you're left fending for your life with high adrenaline. When you're finally safe and in hiding mode, as the music simmers down, you're sort of left with the guilt of killing someone. What I love about the themes of the original game was how death wasn't treated as some comedic gag, it was treated seriously, uncomfortable even. The music slowing down and ringing bells leaves you to rethink the actions you did when assasinating a target. Especially after the target just previously gave their thoughts, beliefs, and inputs.
Access the animus is the one soundtrack i wish they brought back. But then again, that’s what makes AC1 special.
Im glad im not the only one that sees the value of that song. Its just so immersive and the adrenaline you get from it is crazy.
I've been really big on the idea that AC1 is probably the best in the franchise for a while. Fundamentally I think it is a cool and gritty game, that has an amazing plot. The slow unravelling of the conspiracy in the past and present is genuinely a treat and we will never get anything like that in an AC game ever again. The "leap of faith" dialogue you put in the start is such a cool line, and it makes me appreciate how serious the game takes itself without being self indulgent. I think a lot of work went into creating such a sinister and oppressive atmosphere.
The writing and atmosphere really were top-notch in the game. As I said in my own comment, exploring Abstergo felt a lot like the original Portal to me, I was so excited to continue that slow build-up of autonomy in the sequel(s), eventually to escape the facility in some climactic fashion and see what the assassins had evolved (or devolved, Desmond's commentary on them paints them as pretty crazy themselves) into in the modern era, and seeing how screwed the world was beyond those sanitized laboratory walls. And that's even without getting into the whole historical side of the plot, with Altair's redemption and the "Apple of Eden" macguffin and whatnot. Just, so good.
My boi Altair redeemed himself, worked his way back to a Master Assassin, had to kill his Mentor, took over the Assassin's, exhiled asfter a coup, lost his oldest son, returned to the Assassin's, then led them again until he was 92.
And people skipped his game.
I didn't skip Bloodlines, don't worry :D
Bro FINALLY. AC1 actually felt like you were traversing a hostile environment, especially as there are more and more guards in the cities later into the story. I enjoyed the later ACs, but AC1 was awesome.
It's like 2016 all over again, HyperBitHero rolling out hit after hit.
Best timeline
To this day it's my favorite entry in the series. Stealth was more important, the game as a whole was way more atmospheric. I swear it was the best looking game in the series until Unity.
The climbing to lookout point stuff hadn't been done to death. Assassin's Creed was pretty fresh for its time and I feel it still holds up rather well. More so than it's sequels because it's not so ingrained in today's standard Ubisoft formula
Another cool implication of trading the traditional health bar for a synchronization bar implies that Altair never took damage in combat, as taking damage causes de-synchronization.
It just means you're getting closer to Altair's death at a time he wasn't dead in history. You lose bars, but you don't desynchronize. The bars increase when you are getting farther away from death, without medicine, proving Altair isn't healing his wounds. Therefore, the synchronization bar does not represent Altair taking damage; it just represents Altair getting closer to death at a time he wasn't meant to die, which means that the animus user is not following our Altair's life accurately. I am Ilham, and this is my perspective.
First off, been following you since the old days, so welcome back! Second, this game is shat on unnecessarily by so many people because AC2's mechanical improvements but the narrative & philosophy of AC1 cannot be beat. Thank you so much for doing this.
"They'll beg for money that Altair doesnt carry"
*Cut just before decking a poor woman.
Great bit
Altair my beloved
Even if it's the most repetitive AC in the franchise, Its still my favorite. The mistery in the past and present time , the different ambient and color palette between each city making it very unique, how fun and realistic the parkour felt back in the day and even now, etc. Even if AC2 is considered the better game, I still prefeer the setting and novelty of AC1.
Ppl say this but will do 50 different side quests 20 times to get a different colored cape 😂
@@finalrambobino I rather have different cape than NOTHING at all after collecting buttload of flags
I will get around to watching this but I'm happy to see someone championing this idea. The original AC felt like a cross between Prince of Persia and Hitman, with a methodical slow pace and heavy sci-fi and historical elements. The sequel was great, but in restrospect was the blueprint for nearly every single open world Ubisoft games to follow (and wear out their welcome). Something was missed along the way.
I remember being a generation behind on consoles and going round a friends house who owned this and a PS3, I was geniunely blown away by how it looked and handled.
Edit: Watched and agreed on everything. Also god damn is that how the game looked? I think the ACII remaster sullied the original vision in my head because from the footage you're showing it still looks great and not far at all from what I remember.
I see "respect ac1", i like, then watch.
I dig these types of videos you make highlighting how underrated the first game in it's insert franchise is. Most people will tell you how bad they are and "tough them out" just to rush their sequels without respecting or understanding the evolution of a franchise starting from its core root that started it all
Oh my god! A video talking positively about AC1??
Thank you hero for highlighting this forgotten and often overlooked gem of a game
Although AC2 expanded on and improved many things and made the franchise popular, I honestly think the artistry, originality and innovation behind the original Assassin's Creed is Ubisoft's greatest achievement. A game with a vision above all else.
This is quite a step up from the usual assasins creed content i find since no one talks about the original. Its is might i even dare to say it 00:05 a leap of faith
I had no idea about the glitches. I am really loving this analysis. Really making me appreciate this game!
AC 1 is my favorite game, even Ac 2 being the First game i've played, there's something about Altair and the atmosphere that are unique even now
My favorite game all time idk why the atmosphere, parkour and combat makes me euphoric
AC1 has one of the best atmospheres in gaming, and I still remember each assassination scenario.
18:17 On this whole tirade, you can plan your assassinations to a very detailed degree, scoping out the assassination venue, the route to it and back to the bureau, eliminating any guards en route, saving scholars to give you access or citizens to help you escape. This will all be extremely helpful if you plan an escape route and know what you will climb, where, which hiding places will be available along the way, etc. If you define the point where you first climb to the roofs after an assassination as the point where you break line of sight with the guards, save a citizen right next to that climbing point, for instance. That way you can be sure the guards won't follow you or pelt you with stones as you climb.
You can half ass all the assassinations, but if you plan them out it's really cool to see things go exactly as planned and rehearsed. Took me a bunch of playthroughs before I actually bothered to do it though lol
As a kid I was always pretty intrigued by the modern day aspects of AC, I remember spending a lot of time just walking around the lab to find whatever tidbits I could and spent a decent amount of time thinking about the potential of a fully modern day game. Glad I'm not the only one who found that stuff interesting.
A man of culture
So sad that no-HUD mechanich hasn't been mentioned because it is genuinely amazing to know that dev-team made the Kingdom and cities in such a way that you can navigate the world without the map, Altair's animations make it easy to discern the stance he is taking, when to attack and to parry and those glitches actually work as hits for combat as well. Those who were interested in playing through the first installment - definitely at least try to play a little bit without HUD.
After having played most AC games (as an adult), I can confidently say that the Ezio Saga (even though it is a lot of fun) completely ruined the essence of the first game.
The tonal differences between AC1 and AC2/B/R are SO GREAT that they are essentially in different genres altogether imo.
And it all boils down to the protagonist of each game, and his relationship WITH the story. As in the story contained within the life of the protagonists, if that makes any sense.
AC1 is a spy thriller, where the MC, Altair, is an inducted member to a shadowy organization that hides throughout history and uses assassinations to influence politics against ANOTHER equally shadowy organization who attempts to do the exact same thing but usually through politics itself, rather than exclusively through assassination.
All because both groups cannot agree on the fundamental values that they both hold to higher standards.
The Templars are active, they manipulate and coerce through industry, commerce, politics, religion, etc, whatever the cost, so they can maintain "control" on mankind, as they believe the greatest danger to their ideals is freedom.
The Assassins are reactive, they kill the Templars as a way to stop their plans and schemes. They believe a life under the thumb of the Templars to be an insult to mankind.
AC2/B/R is a Hollywood spy movie, where the MC, Ezio, is a cunning, smooth talking, and dressed to kill type of assassin, who comes into a dying organization to revitalize it, as a means to fulfill a vendetta against the death of his family. Eventually it becomes about revitalizing the Brotherhood, and making you into a god amongst men and assassins, turning you into a living legend.
Do you get the difference?
Yes, Ezio's quest is a much more personal one, but it sheds the complexity of the first game.
It's no longer shades of gray, it's just evil vs good.
In AC1 Altair kills his marks and ANYONE who stands between him and them, because it is what Assassins do. Yes, they won't kill the "innocent", but you can see Altair kill guards who are doing nothing but their jobs, and you kill those who are indirectly connected to the Templars even IF they didn't even knew about it before meeting Altair.
In AC2/B/R Ezio kills his marks as well, and he kills the guards, but the game always tries to show all these people as being evil. The guard are ALWAYS corrupt, killing them is cool.
They aren't people, they are "eViL" because they stand against you, Ezio. The hero. The Templars are purposefully hiring evil guards across Italy and that makes it okay to kill them. They are mooks for the bad guys always.
The success of Ezio's saga made EVERY. SINGLE. AC GAME. Into the same game genre, where the Templars are evil and the Assassin's the good guys. When both should be much more complex than that.
You can blame Ubislop for demanding the change in the story's tone for Ezio's trilogy. Seeing things in black and white seems more comfortable to them than seeing them in grey.
yeah but ac2 is actually a fun game
I agree
@@callumrolston AC 1 writing was insane though.
I'd have to play the games again to think about this more deeply, but what I remember is that they continued to degrade the protagonist further and further. Connor gets mocked by Haythem for being naive, so it doesn't seem he knows what he's doing. And Kenway just gets to pretend to be an assassin by chance. I wondered how moronic the next protagonist would be, but I stopped playing the games after that. So I think saying every game since Ezio is the same tonal genre is missing the point. They actually kept getting worse.
I feel like AC1 needed a follow up so badly that kept the stealth focus it had while ironing out so, so many issues like the insane repetition. I feel like there's such a great framework here for a masterpiece of stealth games. Just need to make the assasinations more open ended, integrate the parkour with the stealth better, give a wider toolset, make it so you dont have to do the pre mission 30 minute grind every time you want to replay a mission, etc.
Bloodlines on the PSP is the closest we got to a proper follow up to AC1, including the same cold nihilistic digital feel. But that's a handheld side game and doesn't fix much of the issues (plus is even worse with the repetition and pre mission grind) that AC1 had.
end of the yakuza 1 kiryu pfp era
After this first game, AC lost almost everything that made the first game special. The compelling writing, the atmosphere, the social stealth, and anything worthwhile at all happening in the Desmond storyline. Ubisoft refined parts of the experience for 2 and beyond, like having better mission structures, but this remains my favorite. Even after, god knows how many other entries, there's still never been an Assassin's Creed quite like the first, and that's not something you can say about any of the other AC games.
Ubisoft games are (or at-least were) almost always worthwhile just for their unparalleled art direction and aesthetic sensibilities especially with their premiere franchises like assassins creed and far cry inspite of the often lacking fun and video gamey elements. When they eventually sell ubisoft i hope the art team stays intact and rehabilitated to a more worthy studio or company because they are hands down one of the best in the industry. Love to see some nuanced takes on their games.
never were. the company never did anything good
@@tsartomato dimwit
@@tsartomato far cry 2 and 3, splinter cell chaos theory, AC2 and 4
@@riverblack123 why are you listing the worst garbage of eternity?
@@riverblack123 all bad
When guards react to a takedown, one of them chosen at random will do something special that sets his animation apart from everyone else. There are a bunch of different options the game can choose from. This is your telegraph to switch weapons, because it means that specific guard is vulnerable to being assassinated with the hidden blade - yes, in the middle of combat. When they taunt you it also has the same effect. The trick is getting to your target fast enough before your window of opportunity closes. Quickstep can help, but if there's another guard or obstacle in the way you might bump into them. In the settings there's something called "hold to lock." Turn this on. You now have to keep left trigger held down to stay in combat stance, but it also makes it easier to break free from the movement restrictions and run circles around guards like Dark Souls speedrunners do with bosses. You can even break the game by exiting high profile just before you assassinate your target so you can exit the animation faster and reach the next cowering target, and the next one after that, and so on and so forth until they're all dead. If you're having trouble I have a playlist full of examples
You can draw a blade to make beggars flee with minimal social consequence. Maniacs are always a risk to approach, but punching can pacify them
Okay, so I wrote a whole section on intel and planning like I normally do with the assumption you didn't find the memory log, but in this case you did and still didn't find much strategy, so I'm not sure how to handle this. Most of the strategy in the main assassination missions comes from before they even begin. The idea is to plan out how you're *going* to do it, not to reference the intel by the time you're already compromised. Some of it does require additional context. Static guards you kill before triggering the intro cutscene stay dead for the duration of the mission so you'll know where you can safely go without getting swarmed. The allied crowds stay in the same place, so you can plan to meet them at a certain point. While I wish you could view multiple pieces of intel at once, the cross-referencing is part of your analysis skills the game is testing. Try taking screenshots of them to make things easier, especially since they sometimes need to be rotated to orient towards North. You may even want to visit the location ahead of time and practice any complex parkour your plan relies on. The trick to avoiding the city alert is either be blending inside a scholar group or eliminate every guard who could hear you assassinate the main target since you're otherwise locked to high profile. You can account for pretty much everything that could go wrong during an assassination before it even happens. Granted, this games gives you way too much HP to get away with bad planning, but if you're not finding strategy in these systems you're not trying hard enough, I don't know what else to tell you. There's a certain roleplaying aspect to the game allowing you to be this overprepared assassin, like how Batman has contingency plans for everything, except you're actually coming up with them yourself
The side missions are especially rewarding if you seek them out using only diegetic information. You've already had your attention grabbed by some of them by accident, but you can reach that point intentionally without using map markers too. When the rafiq briefs you on your mission, he'll outline three points of interest by name and which direction they are from the bureau. Try using Wiktionary to help parse the Arabic. Once you head off in the right direction you should be able to see it by climbing a viewpoint and not synchronizing it - just use your eyes. Once you parkour doen to ground level that's where the noise of the streets and crowd behavior will narrow it down, like how one herald will be saying something different than all the rest. If you're not sure you can always just can the person of interest with Eagle Vision to see if they're an objective. AC1 was originally designed to be played with no HUD at all, and it takes many considerations to make that possible, like how you can identify the bureau by its green, onion-shaped tower, which viewpoints you haven't synchronized by the eagles circling them, when you're at low health by the flashing red VFX, and even which weapon you have equipped by pressing the button to select it again so Altaïr draws it. Map markers, mission reminders, detection indicators, wallhacks - these are artificial assists we've come to rely on in place of organic information that immerses you in the world and requires strategizing how you obtain it, but many games that have these things such as Marvel's Spider-Man can absolutely be explored naturally if you train yourself to reject them. The "Ubisoft formula" of scouting a district's side content and then robotically collecting it is not mandated by the game, it's not a design philosophy, it's a player philosophy. AC1 is the perfect game to start you on this journey that makes open worlds so fresh to engage with again
As established, the hidden blade is required to kill cowering guards, but the same restriction applies to floored guards, otherwise you'll just hack away at them with your sword or short blade. Ground stabs with the hidden blade are considered a takedown and will make an enemy cower. Counters with the hidden blade are also guarunteed kills, but they're very risky since they have such a tight timing window. The short blade will throw a knife at any out of range guard, killing them instantly (except Templars and main targets). The main way I like to use this is as a followup to a counter throw since that move will almost always put the target out of melee range, but you can also use it for sort of a pursuit combat style by jumping away to create space or even just backing off from guarding enemies since they move very slowly. Finally the sword has the widest counter window, making it your primary defensive tool. It will automatically draw when you lock back on so you have the best chance of saving yourself from an unexpected attack while repositioning
Yep, not consistently mandating good combo timing is a huge issue with this game's combat. You can also do heavy combos to reduce the number of consecutive inputs required to earn a finisher by holding attack, then releasing it just as the blades connect and holding it again. Technically you can even mix any combination of light and heavy attacks into your combo as long as you time the beginning of each strike correctly
While waiting for enemies to attack, they can grab you or break your defense, robbing you of your counter opportunity. If you don't have the counter throw or dodge unlocked respectively, you may not even be able to deal with this. If you mess it up, they can even do combos on you! Anything you can do with the sword, they can do too. That's the risk you take by relying on defensive moves and only one weapon. The only way to get an advantage is by using weapons they don't have and are unprepared for
You can get extra leg breaks by mashing legs during those really long counters where the enemy slowly falls over (I didn't notice any pictured in your footage). This will give you both a cowering enemy *and* a ground stab opportunity so you can really capitalize with the hidden blade afterwards. Alternatively you can mash attack to turn it into a special kill, which is mostly useful near the end of a fight to make the whole group flee
Finally it's hard to tell where you're at with parkour. Most of your clips have constant fishtailing, overshooting, and accidental ejects, but there was one that looked very deliberate and even a clean air vault, so maybe you figured it out later. As always, I recommend Leo K [Rogue]'s "[Rogue Academy] Classic Assassin's Creed | Movement Guide." He's currently the top commenter, so his channel is hard to miss. The idea is to minimize the use of free climbing because it's so agonizingly slow, that's just the glue to hold together the acontextual platforming you can do from any altititude and any position. Uncontrolled jumps are a result of having the extremely dangerous sprint button held down at all times. The way you get down from things safely is by letting go. If you've got it down already we also have Ultimate Parkour Mod now, which can inject a ton of depth and a whole new learning curve into a replay
I always loved the way you articulated your thoughts on games. It’s funny cuz we share so many similar favorite games, your takes really challenge yet educate my knowledge of this medium. Great job man.
One more great thing about 1st game is that it's the ONLY part you can fully complete without HUD
It's really immersive this way, you should try it
Maaaaan, I haven't finished the video yet, but thank you for this. People look at me like I'm crazy when I tell them AC1 was my favorite (followed closely by Black Flag, but let's be real, that's because it looks like Sid Meier's Pirates! looks in my childhood memories).
Two videos in less than a month?!
ikr, we're getting spoiled
One of my favourite things you didn't mention was the manual! The manual was written in universe as a draft operating manual for the animus, with hand written notes by the characters. My favourite note in it was on the control page where Lucy (I think) writes that she's adapted the system to be closer to video game controls to make it more accessible to every day types and the doctor writes a note about how stupid he thinks that is.
I always interpreted the death scenes as being isolated because these are important to Altair and he holds them in high regard, so when these memories surface the whole world fades away to him and desmond is experiencing how Altair remembers it.
The first Assassin's Creed still holds up as a fantastic action adventure game with a fun pulp narrative and exquisite gameplay. And apparently, Assassin's Creed II is meant to be even better, so once I get off my butt and finish the story of Altair unearthing a Templar conspiracy involving the Apple of Eden, I'll happily wash it down with Ezio's coming of age journey.
I always forget how good the music was in the first game. Great video lad!
Are you telling me the monologing to the camera was present from the very first game? Shit man, time to replay the trilogy again. This is amazing
The scenes with Al Mualim in this game are some of my favorite scenes in this series. Even though the game's structure got repetitive, I always looked forward to seeing Al Mualim after killing each target since he always had something interesting to discuss. The voice work and presentation for those scenes were honestly top notch.
I've been watching your channel for over a decade and you never disappoint, gonna enjoy this one.
2 uploads within a week? We eating good this year
I still remember the first time I saw the parkour of this game, it blew my mind so hard.
I've always held that AC1 was the best story.
Also AC1 was the only ac game that was serious and didn't want to be funny. The tone was deadly and mysterious.
I recently played this game on my channel. The best part about this game for me at least was that you have to follow a creed. Altair was the best Assassin in my opinion as he lived and died by the Creed. He is the one who completely changed the Assassins. The Mentor who'll always be loved and remembered by the true AC fans.
was literally just talking about how much I really liked Ass Creed 1 to my coworker the other day. We love to see it.
AC1 really puts into context how much AAA gaming and especially Ubislop has fallen. Excellent graphics that have aged very well, awesome soundtrack and great story mixing conspiracy theories with medieval intrigue. Even little things like the beggars that would throw rocks to knock you off buildings if you ignored them or the crazy people that would smack you around, breaking your cover.
The writing is certainly better in this game than every other game in the franchise.
Amazing vid, i always felt AC1 was underrated even tho its such a well known mainstream game, people criticize it unfairly considering its easy to make mistakes when youre innovating so much and so much time and effort was spent into these new ideas that its completely understandable if other minor parts got neglected
True dat. It’s actually the best one in terms of a raw stealth game. I’m still mad Ubisoft got rid of the multiplayer from Brotherhood to Unity, though.
Thumbnail is Altair surrounded by waifus while blended in
Josh Brolin Old Boy Remake profile picture is kino ngl lmao
Nolan North would voice the Prince in the 2008 Prince of Persia game too. Guy really was ubiquitous at one point.
Apparently he wanted to do a Persian voice for him in that game to make it sound more authentic but the voice directors wanted him to just do his normal voice.
@@NomadMonkey396You are thinking Phillip Shabazz
@@TheMockingjay74 I remember he came back and did one for assassins creed revelations but they replaced before release for some reason. You can find cut dialogue by him on UA-cam.
@@NomadMonkey396 Yeah. Cas Anvar from Lost. I think for that very reason. Oddly I heard he got into drama years after the launch of ACR
@@TheMockingjay74 That's cool, good on him. I remember seeing him on 24 and the expanse aswell.
I got into Assassin's Creed relatively late, and I remember picking up the first game out of curiosity one day and being so affected by the cliffhanger at the end that I IMMEDIATELY drove to GameStop to buy the second game.
I love AC1 so much, but I learned some new things by watching this. Thank you so much.
The Sly comparison is something that’s been in my mind for a while. Thank you for pointing it out.
The man who saved the Yakuza series himself has just uploaded two videos in one month 🙀
Wipe your mouth when you're done
Clean the tip once you're done
If you don't like Desmond, you aren't an Assassin's Creed fan. I hate that people basically memed Desmond into irrelevance and now Ezio is the face of the series.
I remember me and my cousin playing this around launch and getting mindblown at the whole modern day twist. The PS360 era really is the last time I remember being impressed by tech getting better in gaming, it feels like devs used the power of the new consoles to try and actually make gameplay systems that you couldn't realistically pull of on the PS2/GC/Xbox but by the PS4/Xbone generation most of the gameplay trends where already just re-threading ground from the end of the PS360 era.
Abstergo was always more interesting than the ancient locations. A lot more mysterious and foreign.
Friggin' like AC1 the most. The same way I like FC2 most in that series.
This is so nice thank you ♥️
i played through 2 a while back recently after remembering it as a pretty good sequel and literally once you get to the point where you can perform parries/counters on enemies it like literally completely breaks the combat - you have to be paying such little attention to take literally like any damage at all in an encounter lol. i also remember in brotherhood and onward they specifically seemed to build into your ability to just counter-one shot enemies by making it possible to chain them together which on one hand makes for an almost interesting kind of arcadey power fantasy gameloop, but also showed a point where 3 games in they'd already drifted too far from keeping stealth as the focus.
i think a lot of people shared your theory about desmond and a lot of people assumed a third game would be all modern day stealth action. we're like a dozen titles in at this point and its clear thats never happening and if anything, ubisoft regret the whole abstergo-sim framing and much rather the series sticks to really just being a historical action-adventure sim with light stealth elements at this point - which i think is a real shame. 1 isnt a perfect game by any means, but you highlight a lot of the ways they were trying out some really interesting things that would've been fertile ground to expand on properly in a sequel.
it's frustrating to see how visibly derailed the series became between all the spinoffs and sequels and how much of the core identity has been lost at this point. even if altairs white hooded robes made the most sense specifically in 1, it was a really cool visual trademark for all the player characters from that point onward, and felt like something way too iconic to the series to be disgarded - but now your "assassin" just looks like a stereotypical roman soldier or viking. i legitimately do not know if they still even have the hidden blades in there anymore.
Intro made me remember 13 year old me choosing whether Altair should face towards or away from who he's talking to depending on what looks cooler.
Ubisoft, give the rights to Patrice Desilets. I honestly don't care about any new AC game Ubisoft releases at this point.
Patrice was one of creatives, him and his team helped make the AC franchise. Now after being fired/quitting Ubiosft, he has his own developers team called Panache Digital Games, under the publisher Private Division.
FINALLY someone respecting the og AC, this is the only one in the franchise that has true intentionality in every aspect of it's design. Never has such a promising game been ruined so quickly by it's own developers, 2 was already extremely confused and uncohissive
Very well done video. I agree with so many things. Like Altair and the targets having the mental battle of minds as they're about to pass on is such a unique feature, and it ultimately leads to Altair discovering that his own master having a sinister agenda. I also hate how many people had problems with the repetitiveness of the missions, when I always appreciated that it was a more realistic take on how spying actually worked, especially how spying back in those times would have been. For the time, this game was so revolutionary, and I still love it to this day. But if I had one complain about the video that wasn't just a difference in opinion, it's the fact that I hate the severing of the finger constantly being misunderstood. Being able to properly use the hidden blade is only a secondary reason. The primary reason Is to show your commitment to the Brotherhood.
Ditto. I read the book based on Altair's further adventures - it's a shame they couldn't have put them on PS and made adjustments to the game, not go out, assassinate your target, and come back. Then you had to kill your mentor. Masyaaf was beautiful, and having three cities, Jerusalem, Acre, and Damascus was exciting. Even the "Kingdom" was fun to explore. Desmond was the heart of "Assassin's Creed", so when he died, the main part of the storyline was just sacrificed.
They actually explain why Desmond looked like both Altair and Ezio in AC 1-Revelations. Basically it's because the Animus was originally programmed to just copy paste the subject's head and face, and it wasn't until later Animus iterations where it recreates the ancestor's actual appearance.
Insane! my AC1 thoughts more than 10 years ago are laid out exactly as a remembered (written and narrated well)
- SciFi conspiracy adding to the lore, UI design, creed rules, assassination sequences. You even suggested AC games to be more like Hitman, which I thought AC1 to be a proto-Hitman.
Would add that the historical angle helped creating intrigue in the era, so when I read about the actual Hashashin order, made the game (and most AC sequels even more special)
thank you for the video, my fav AC
Assassin's creed 2 is not when the series got bad lol
AC2 is awesome 👍
That's such an AWESOME thumbnail!!
Damn, you had really good ideas for how to improve on the first game. Especially the gentle pushing actions would've made a great addition.
Ohhh he's at it again
So much is lost with the newer games. Assassins creed odyssey didnt even have social stealth. The modern day portion which although confusing was really interesting is a shell of its former self. The focus on historical accuracy and authenticity is gone. They didnt even add the crossbow in the first game bc it wasnt accurate.
I already have a respect for Altiar, the OG.
We really need a remaster of AC1. that game deserves a remaster than Black Flag.
@@Sonicman4155 Personally I would like to see a remake, but either would do at this point.
17:05 I love that perfectly cut punch lol
I respect AC1, i don't have as much fun playing through it as AC2, but it's still a cool time.
If only Ubisoft cared more about creating something remarkable instead of investors and trends...
It was, and still is, my favourite implementation of the hidden blade. Insta kill with the counter, but you couldn't block with it. Even the final boss was one shot-able. High risk, but high reward. From AC2 onwards you could block, and it took away the stakes, making it far too effective and easy. But then again every game got progressively easier until Unity, and then doubled down on it afterwards
Man, now I really want that desmond ultimate assassin game
2 videos in the same month?! 2025 is gonna be the year of the Hero!
AC1 feels more unique than other AC games for some reason same goes for AC2 as well while it has colorful aspects it yet still has dark atmosphere of AC1 in sometimes.
I've never played an Assassin's Creed game and I had no idea that the setting is simulated. That said, this game is fascinating. I had no idea the white HUD/UI elements started here, and the fact that a game from 2007 looks that good really goes to show how much the PS3/360 generation is slept on.
Excellent look back at an underappreciated game! Crazy to say that about the first entry in a franchise as big as AC but most people seem to start with AC2. Personally, I only ever really gelled with the first entry. Something about AC2 just didn't impress me in the same way and I haven't given the franchise another shot since. AC1 is a little underbaked but it was a novel, ambitious stealth title for its time and was arguably the end of Ubisoft at their peak creativity and prestige.
Didn’t even watch the video yet, but YESSSS!!! I agree. Will be back to edit later with what I thought of this. Lol
To this day, my favorite of the series.
Respect the original devil may cry in the future please? Great to see you uploading again after all these years
Great video, I often forget this franchise originated from a generally interesting game and premise
Crackdown prototype infamous is better your opinion is irrelevant
@TheSoCalledZoner1 who are you?
I appreciate the nostalgia
Desmond saved us all back in 2012
23:15 still on the fence on whether or not time travel is a good idea for this franchise...
I wasn't aware of the meaning behind altair's name and the bird like aspects of his design, but that kinda makes me appreciate how unique his design was. I never was super into the other designs other assassin's in the series had as they just felt sorta gimmicky and not quite as inspired.
Assassins'creed 1 really stands as one of the defining games of that generation and a stand out game in the stealth genre and I think you summed it pretty well. While I liked the second back then, the first one was the more interesting and inspired game by comparison. It works well enough as a stand alone game and experience that games just lost the magic and doubled down in frankly more idiotic directions. That original idea for what desmond was gonna be would've been really great to see pan out and it sucks ubisoft dropped that.
Conceptually it sounded like a new way of progressing in a game and series both in narrative and in gameplay. Assassin's Creed like many series of the 7th gen started off with promise and really had a strong foundation that was never realized or followed up on and is probably one of the bigger offenders of that, next to Mass effect.
This and your infamous vs prototype vids I think are your best material and subject in a while.
Ezio also means "the eagle" as well.
2 videos within a week?