Most of my friends will know I love Assassin's Creed; or maybe better : used to love Assassin's Creed. Since Assassin's Creed III and it's DLC, I feel this franchise will go down and not really in beauty. All the elements that previous games had to be interesting seemed lost. The story was mostly boring (since you do not play with Connor from the start), the side missions were ridiculous (Naval missions in Assassin's Creed? Come on
Although the Naval missions were new in the series and well thought, in my opinion it didn't really belong in a game like this. Assassin's Creed was about research and killing your target effectively. Not about derping around in a boat and shooting the crap out of pirates. The DLC on the other hand is stupid. I know Connor was a Native American and I know wolves and eagles are linked to those cultures; a human can't simply disappear or fly from one rooftop to another. I really looked forward to the new single player story (as I did with the Da Vinci Disappearance), but it let me down. The season pass was about to have 4 DLC packs and 1 free DLC pack. Guess what?! Ubisoft trolled us with giving us pre-order content.
Anyway, I was about to discuss the books. Some of you don't know there are books about the series but they are and they are written very well. Uptil now, 5 books have been written by Oliver Bowden and they are based on the games. But are they really?
The first book ('Renaissance') is based on Ezio's adventures during Assassin's Creed II. The game might be awesome, the book is even better with descriptions of situations Ezio might have been in. In his quest to take down Rodrigo Borgia, you actually live more with the written character then the one in the game. But as I said before, the game is awesome and explained everything we needed to know.
The second book ('Brotherhood') is based on Ezio's adventures in Rome (or in other words AC: Brotherhood). Again, the situations are worded better then Ubisoft could show us in the game but that might be the power of words. But in this book, I've began to see that the author adds more details to the story and thus making it more interesting. Does anyone know (if you only played the games) what happens with the sister of Cesare Borgia, Lucrezia? Does anyone knows what happened between Ezio and miss Sforza? You probably think 'Who cares', but a story is way better with the details and to avoid spoilers I won't even mention it here.
The third published book is based on the very first Assassin's Creed-game and was titled 'The Secret Crusade'. You probably think 'Why didn't he wrote this book first' and I really don't have an answer to that question. What I do know is that Bowden had to write this book due to the connections in the next book ('Revelations'). Since Altaïr is still my favorite character of the series, I was really happy to read about his adventures and I did so before reading the previous mentioned books. Once again, more details are added towards the story and it's nice to see the story still continues after Al Mualim has betrayed you and the Assassin-order. It's nice to know why Altaïr had a conflict with Abbas and it's also nice to see an epilogue described by Niccolò Polo.
The fourth book is named 'Revelations' and based on the game with the same name. And again, the book stunned me with better descriptions then I experienced while playing the game. Everyone who played this know how it goes and that's exactly how it is described but the interactions with Yusuf, Da Vinci or Machiavelli are totally different. Even a nice epilogue which describes the last days of Da Vinci or those from Ezio had me moved in many ways and I felt kinda sorry for finishing this too soon (read it in 2 days only ).
The fifth book is where the difference is the biggest one. The book gets the title 'Forsaken' and instead of getting throwed into a story (like the game), you get to read this as a dairy of Haytham Kenway. Haytham is a happy 10 year old in the beginning but his luck changed fast. His family was attacked and his father gets killed. His sister gets captured and his mother gets a mental breakdown. Haytham gets adopted by a man named Reginald Birch, who was Grand Master in the Templar order. As you might have guessed, Haytham gets a Templar education and throughout the book he evolves and he sure did after he found out that his father was actually an Assassin and he was killed by the order of his Grand Master and mentor: Birch. After a while, Connor gets into the story as well; but the relationship is difficult. In the game, you fight a couple times along with him and against him but in the book some deep conversations takes place and Haytham even saves Connors live when he was accused of planning the murder on General Washington .
Since I revealed enough spoilers, I'll keep it there. My point is, although the games get worse and worse, the stories on the other hand keep getting more interesting. In the books, Desmond (and other present Assassin's) is (are) never mentioned so you get the feeling you actually read a history book. The books could provide some background on each of the characters you encounter and could also entertain you more then the games did and since the main character for AC4 is Haythams father, I am really looking forward to play the game or read the book. But I also hope Ubisoft goes back to where Assassin's Creed started: stealth, eavesdropping, pickpocket, ... All those sea missions aren't really needed since the story can provide better side missions then bombing ships. But that's my two cents, I'm sure people liked the Naval Missions...
Anyway, I'll get towards some gaming now. I just wanted to share my thoughts
Thanks for reading and as always; keep it safe!
