For the second game given to us to play, it was Assassin’s Creed. I chose to play the second game in the series, where we follow the main character Desmond Miles who is an assassin forced to help Abstergo. In the game prologue Desmond Miles is put into the Animus which is a machine that goes into the person’s DNA and bloodline and has Desmond Miles link with one of his ancestors, Ezio Auditore. WIth this Abstergo plans to find the pieces of Eden in order to create an artifact that can essentially make people do their bidding,
Throughout the game, when it comes to historical accuracy, there are several inaccuracies. However, for the most part the stories told through the game and some of the characters were accurate. After looking through some online forums that discuss similar topics such as the post “Assassin’s Creed II [1459-1499] AD/CE] - Historical Accuracy and Fact Checking the “series.” which was found on the “R/Assassinscreed,” subreddit. One of the most satisfying pieces of historical accuracy that came up several times in the story was the attention to detail with the stories and characters based on or referenced from real life people. An example of this is Vieri de’Pazzi. As reddit user U/VestigialLlama4 states, “Vieri de’Pazzi is a fictional character, but his dad and uncle were real,” (Reddit, 2019).
Many events that occur are also historically accurately, albeit with small inconsistencies such as the setting or the date. One such example was midgame when The Pazzi attacked the Medici. As Vestigial describes, “The Pazzi attack on the Medici didn't happen outside il Duomo, it happened inside it. Lorenzo hid in the sacristry of the Church. The part where the entire city goes on alert and panic when the Medici are attacked is accurate however. Francesco de'Pazzi, Archbishop Salviatti, and Bernardo Baroncelli were all hanged from the windows of Palazzo Vecchio, rather than just Francesco de'Pazzi as we see in this game. The conspirators didn't flee to San Gimignano. They went to nearby villages and towns, were caught, identified and brought back to Florence and executed in public,” (Reddit, 2019). Similar scenes that happened in game of the same nature were also toned down for the game whereas the reality was far more gruesome. On the topic of the conspirators, in game it took quite a long time, whereas in reality it only took a few days (Reddit, 2019).
While playing there were some small things I had noticed that give a more realistic feeling to the game. One of those things was seeing that some of the npcs would react to each other. Now, in modern days this isn’t a new concept at all as many games have npc interaction in them. However, back in the days it was a rather new mechanic for AI to work without the need to trigger actions from the npcs. When it came to mechanics such as stealth, it felt a little less realistic as if Ezio successfully assassinated someone it would trigger a cutscene and combat. In real life Ezio should be able to get away without others noticing but with the AI set in game, you would be forced to battle guards after you assassinate someone.
Another part of the game I enjoyed while playing was the fact that overtime Ezio ages as the story go on. With the hard work of Ezio’s voice actor, Devon Bostick, the game was able to pull off Ezio aging with Bostick making changes to the way he presents his voice over 40 years. Of course, as actual Italians have gone over the topic, the Italian accents used in game were a bit much and not very accurate.
Overall, I did enjoy playing the game, especially because I had only played the first game and that was when I was young, so I have little to no memory of it. Though there were some slight inconsistencies, for the most part it was highly historically accurate. If one were to teach using this game, it would be wise to keep track of what isn’t accurate as it isn’t completely accurate. I would definitely recommend this game to others, though it is slightly old. But, despite how old it is the graphics are surprisingly okay. This game would be a hit for those who want a historical experience with a slight side of fantasy, with 85% being historically accurate. Even if one doesn’t want to learn the history in the game, this game is good at giving information and history lessons without making it seem like a lesson. After playing this game, I am tempted to look into the other games, and possibly even buy one in the future. With that said, I’d rate this game a 8.5/10!
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