Detailed Analysis - Narration & Context
Assassin Tombs
When arriving at the Villa Auditore, Ezio’s Uncle Mario takes him to an underground Sanctuary with 7 statues depicting 7 Assassin heroes. These assassins are heroes that helped the brotherhood and humanity at a time when their freedom and existence were most threatened. At the center of the statues is the legendary Altair. In the years since we left him, Altair became a legendary figure amongst the Assassins and changed the very building blocks of the Assassins forever. It is shown that Altair had armor and a sword crafted for him with Italian features and he had his men hide the armor. They can only be unlocked by collecting 6 seals that are scattered throughout Italy and only an Assassin with incredible skill and knowledge and claim them. While the location of the seals doesn’t hold much storytelling value the seals do help to tell us exactly who the Assassins are, who they assassinated, and what they used to do it. Several of these assassins would be members of the brotherhood that we would revisit at another time as main characters in future games.
Hidden Glyphs
As Shaun creates Database entries for you he will also ask you to perform some investigations on certain locations that have had their data changed. When Desmond and Lucy escaped from Abstergo they took the Memory Core from that Animus which Rebecca installs into hers. It is discovered that Subject 16, the Animus subject before Desmond had installed memory data into the memory core which hides glyphs in the current Animus that hide interesting data and information. This helps the Assassin’s Creed world build upon itself by giving the player several puzzles that add incredible ramifications for past events. Little things like an Apple of Eden being an item that Idunn found and that Queen Elizabeth the 1st possessed her own Apple of Eden. All these things add up to a beautifully crafted fast paced sequence where we see Adam and Eve take off with an Apple running away from an unknown party. The Glyphs would lead further into what we will refer to as “The Precursor Storyline”.
Database Entries
Throughout the story, Shaun will create database entries for us so that we can learn more about the historical locations that we come across. Learning about the fascinating histories of these buildings entices you to find more of these entries and the game is hardly short of them as the cities of Florence and Venice are full of them. These entries are also made for any allies that you make during your journey. Instead of wasting time on pointless exposition that could bog down the story, the database entries allow us to learn more in-depth information about the younger years of the people we meet. While often these moments are touched upon throughout the story by Ezio speaking with the characters, it helps to get a better sense of these characters because it’s our choice.
When pursuing our targets, Shaun will create database entries for them as well but these entries are also accompanied by an actual character profile on the targets and it shows us exactly what the targets have done in the past, why and how they have a hand in the current conspiracy that Ezio is trying to uncover and stop and more importantly they give us an idea of how much more dangerous these targets could be if they are allowed to thrive. The database entries would become an interesting standard for the series.
