There’s something truly unique about the Assassins Creed video game series that keeps me coming back.
I think that the older I get, the less inclined towards traditional video game themes, I’ve become. There’s only so much shooting or beating the crap out of the bad guy that you can do before you begin to question what the hell you’re doing covered in potato chips at 2am and developing carpal tunnel syndrome.
Designed as your classic hack and slash gone horribly wrong, the Assassins Creed series is now three entries in and continues to get better. Anyone can adapt to suit a video game, just look at the number of Samurai video games out there. Assassins Creed takes Renaissance Europe, tacks the Templars and the Crusades on top and then throws in a proper solid amount of modern conspiracy theory for good measure.
It shouldn’t work, it has all the elements that would beg for not only controversy but a stiff dose of convoluted. But it does work, thanks to beautifully designed imagery, a script that actually makes sense while referencing everything from the bible to the Borgias and game play that avoids being a traditional button masher with just the right amount of complexity. It’s the sort of thing that you want to keep coming back to in tradition of Rockstar opuses like Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto.