by Ana Vasile, published on 25.11.2011

Following the launch of the Assassin’s Creed: Revelations video game, we are continuing with our overview of the saga, which has sold 28 million units worldwide

 

 

Assassin’s Creed : Project Legacy

In September 2010, Ubisoft achieved a coup with the launch of a strategy game on Facebook: Assassin’s Creed: Project Legacy, aiming to prepare the way for the arrival of Brotherhood, the saga’s third console game. The game offers web-users the opportunity to synchronise their Facebook and Uplay accounts.

Using this synchronisation, a bonus system interlinks the gaming experience of both games: playing Project Legacy, the web-user gains experience and money that can be transferred to the console game. Similarly, playing the console game gives the web-user the opportunity to unlock 25 exclusive missions in Legacy.

http://www.dailymotion.com/videoxfq4cc Assassin’s Creed: Project Legacy / Facebook-Uplay interconnection

Assassin’s Creed : Aquilus

The second volume of the Assassin’s Creed graphic novel series, an integral part of the campaign preceding the launch of Brotherhood, came out in November 2010. Writer Eric Corbeyran and artist Djillali Defali, who created the first volume in 2009, return to the story of Desmond to recount the next chapter. Entitled Aquilus, the graphic novel presents events which take place after Assassin’s Creed II, leading to the search for an artefact with great unknown potential.

Assassin’s Creed : Ascendance : a short animated film

Created by UbiWorkshop, the animated short Assassin’s Creed: Ascendance was released in November 2010. The animated adventure, which was produced and developed by Ubisoft Montréal, was available on Xbox Live, PlayStation Store and iTunes for around 2 Euros. The short film was designed to fill in the narrative gaps between Assassin’s Creed II and Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. Plots, betrayals and assassinations… The film brings together all the ingredients behind the series’ success, with a focus on the irresistible rise of Cesare Borgia and Ezio’s role behind the scenes.

http://www.dailymotion.com/videoxfm3ys

According to Louis-Pierre Pharand, director of UbiWorkshop, Ascendance was a profitable exercise.  “Even today it’s in the top twenty short films sold on iTunes,” confirms the film’s producer.

 

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood: becoming the perfect assassin in “multiplayer” and “training-ground” modes

Released in November 2010, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is a direct sequel to Assassin’s Creed II. Surprisingly, while Wired reviewed this new version as a novelty-free retread of the previous title, it was also awarded best video game scenario by the Writers Guild of America in the same year.

In this instalment, Desmond is again controlling Ezio, and the player is called on to explore Renaissance Rome, a city under the thumb of the infamous Borgias. Ezio re-forms the ancient Order of Assassins, recruiting opponents to the Borgias’ power, and together they work to confound the actions of the corrupt family.

On the gameplay side, Brotherhood brings two significant improvements to the saga: multiplayer mode and a training environment to become the perfect assassin.

Developed by Ubisoft Annecy, multiplayer offers several playing modes, based on the solo dynamics. So, depending on mission aims, the player may have to assassinate other players, or become defenceless prey with no option but to hide. This particular mode received strong criticism from the Wired reviewer, who was, however, impressed with “Manhunt” mode, where the player can work as part of a team, with other online players.

In less than a week, Brotherhood sold over a million copies in Europe, making it the fastest selling Ubisoft game ever on the continent. In May 2011 the games developer announced that this third episode in the Assassin’s Creed saga had sold over 8 million copies.

Assassin’s Creed : The Fall

At the end of 2010, the assassins’ saga attracted a major US comic publisher! The Fall is a series of three Assassin’s Creed comics published by DC Comics, where we follow the adventures of a Russian assassin and his descendant. Published in the US and the UK, the series steps away from the characters we have met so far in the saga.

In Russia in 1888, Nikolai is a member of the Russian order of Assassins, who we meet at the start of his new mission: to assassinate Tsar Alexander III and retrieve a mysterious artefact. As with the games, the reader also follows the story of Nikolai’s descendant in modern day America…

According to Cinecomics.fr, the series contains “excellent revelations and a taut and well-developed plotline, alternating between 1888 and 1998 in a perfect rhythm.”

In the Around the Transmedia World interview series, Louis-Pierre Pharand, transmedia producer and director of UbiWorkshop, adds some extra insight into this transmedia approach to the franchise:

“Whatever the medium, we never tell the story of the game: that would be cross-media. With transmedia we open up a new narrative avenue within the brand, which is connected to the brand and respects the parameters of the brand, but is entirely independent, a stand-alone product which will give someone who doesn’t play the video game an excellent experience within the given medium. We also call it an entry point into the brand.”

That’s certainly what has been achieved with The Fall, which can be read, understood and enjoyed without ever having played one of the games. The comic book remains within the framework of the brand, without becoming a derivative product or a mere marketing tool.

For more details, why not listen to what series’ creators Karl Kerschl and Cameron Stewart have to say, talking in this video about how they created a comic book that contributes to expanding and enhancing the game’s world.

Assassin’s Creed: Oliver Bowden’s novels

The writing may be excellent, but Oliver Bowden’s series of linked novels is above all a “novelisation” of the games, a common phenomenon in the video game industry. By remaining faithful to the plotlines of the games, these books bring little in the way of new insight, making them crossmedia rather than transmedia.

Nevertheless, enthusiasts have been able to appreciate this opportunity to get to know the characters better, to learn more about “their thoughts, feelings, fears, pains and hopes… a worthwhile addition to the video game, certainly enjoyable.”

Assassin’s Creed: The Secret Crusade is the third book in the series, published in June 2011. Bowden plunges the reader into the childhood of Altaïr, hero of the first video game; the narrator is none other than Niccolo Polo, father of Marco Polo and… a member of the Brotherhood of Assassins, tracked down by Ezio in Revelations, the latest game in the series.

So while part of the book faithfully follows the events of the first game, The Secret Crusade moves away from it to successfully link to an additional storyline. Fans of the series were therefore able to detect hints in the book of the premise of Revelations, launched a few months later.

 

Assassin’s Creed : Embers

Released on Xbox Live, PlayStation Store and UbiShop, a few days after the publication of the comic book Assassin’s Creed: Accipiter, Embers is a 22 minute animated film and an epilogue to Ezio’s story.

According to Louis-Pierre Pharand, Embers was “produced in a way that is entirely unique and different from usual production methods. We reused the game environments as well as the characters, animations and models, pulling them together within a more traditional pipeline of linking animations and images. We took our material from inside the game!”

The production technique may be interesting, but can Embers reach a public beyond the fans of the game series? What if, by dabbling in animated production, expectations are raised even higher? Reactions to its premiere screening at the Montreal Festival du Nouveau Cinéma provide a good indication of the sort of debate this kind of ambition can provoke.

 

What next?

Assassin’s Creed Revelations is now on sale, and like its predecessors, provoking plenty of reaction. Whether from hardcore gamers or fans of the game’s world, opinions will differ, and if one chapter of the saga is now complete, another will surely follow, and with it, a new departure resolutely anticipated by the most demanding.

Meanwhile, we can wind up this analysis with a promise for the future: Variety has announced that Sony is hoping to adapt the Assassin’s Creed universe into a film franchise. Crossmedia? Transmedia? We’ll just have to wait and see!