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Historically, Nizari Ismailis, the much-feared hashashins known to modernity as assassins, constituted a Shia Islam sect that employed political murder as a chief means of dismantling their political and religious enemies. The 11th Century Muslim missionary Hassan-i-Sabbah founded the religio-political movement in support of Nizār, the Fatimid Caliph heir-designate who led an ineffective revolt following the denial of his succession. Interestingly, details about this Order of Assassins relayed in Arkon Daraul’s A History of Secret Societies, as well as development on a sequel to Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, inspired Patrice Désilets to spearhead the creation of Ubisoft’s multimillion dollar Assassin’s Creed property.

But what started as an experiment of swapping out a Prince for an action-oriented hero quickly morphed into a sandbox adventure built to accommodate player freedom. The advent of the second Assassin’s Creed in 2009 saw this simplicity slowly begin to fade, as the scale of the narrative and open-world structure expanded considerably. Such growth never slowed either, with each mainline installment proving more ambitious than the last by hopping between time periods and protagonists, establishing larger worlds, and introducing role-playing mechanics that once seemed foreign to the core pillars of the franchise.

Thus, fans have found themselves caught in the middle of an Ancient Greek conspiracy, traversing the sweltering sands of Ancient Egypt, navigating the squalor of Victorian London, and nearly everything else in between. And it’s been nothing short of a bumpy road, replete with missteps and triumphs. Given the brand’s storied past, then, its future could give way to an infinite number of possibilities.

This is the history of Assassin’s Creed.

 

[ManaByte]

Do they talk about how they shoved the real creator of the game out of the spotlight to heap credit on a producer who was more PR friendly and photogenic?

 

[adamsapple]

Do they talk about how they shoved the real creator of the game out of the spotlight to heap credit on a producer who was more PR friendly and photogenic?

It's 75 minutes, haven't started watching yet lol.