ASSASSIN'S CREED

Novel ideas save Altaïr from falling on his face.

- Joseph Knoop

According to Assassin’s Creed, the fine people of Damascus, Jerusalem and Acre only had about three lines of employment: carrying breakable vases on their heads, accosting citizens accused of petty crimes, or just getting 30 miles a day in on their medieval Fitbits. It’s a far cry from the endless realms of Valhalla, Odyssey and Origins.

The original Assassin’s Creed cares not for your RPG mechanics, however, fixating almost solely on exploring the world of the Crusades, collecting intel, and assassinating nine Templar leaders. I’ve contended for years that its brand of social stealth was where the franchise ought to have focused, rather than going bigger and bigger with each successive entry. I may have been wrong, though.

From the get-go, it’s shocking to see an Assassin’s Creed game where the protagonist is an unlikable dick. Future entries lived and died by how popular the player character was, and Altaïr is nothing short of a murderous bad boy. Within minutes of knowing him, he stabs an innocent old man in the back, gets one accomplice killed and the other dismembered, and mouths off to his elder like a teething child. When one of Altaïr’s fellow assassins chides him for an unnecessary murder, saying “this is not the way,” Altaïr responds with “my way is better,” which sounds like a phrase you’d see on your 12-year old cousin’s T-shirt.