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Assassin's Creed 2 - Spoiler Thread (Discuss all plot and story here)

fernoca

Member
duckroll said:
There will NEVER be an AC game where you play exclusively as Desmond. Here's why:

The appeal of the series is that it is a historical simulation, allowing you to explore a period era location with awesome architecture and learn about historical structures while being able to climb and examine them in a virtual setting. This cannot change, or the game will bomb. There's no point trying to complete the "story" at the expense of the main selling point of the series. No one really wants that.
Wasn't the original plan/rumor of the series, to have a few games (a trilogy?) of people controlling Desmond's memories/ancestors and then have a final game controlling a Desmond with all the acquired memories/abilities as an assassin to put an end to ....everything?

Basically the current games are trainings to the final game..or so the original plan/rumor implied it, unless they changed something..
 

duckroll

Member
fernoca said:
Wasn't the original plan/rumor of the series, to have a few games (a trilogy?) of people controlling Desmond's memories/ancestors and then have a final game controlling a Desmond with all the acquired memories/abilities as an assassin to put an end to ....everything?

Basically the current games are trainings to the final game..or so the original plan/rumor implied it, unless they changed something..

Most recently when asked about sequels to AC2, they said that they could make "50 of these games" because there are so many different historical eras, and they have so many ideas. That doesn't sound like they're very interested in stuff ultimately "leading" to a final game with Desmond if you as me. Seems more like Desmond's story is a narrative tool used as an excuse to let the player go through various different eras and settings with essentially the "same" main character. :p
 

duckroll

Member
Linkzg said:
Just curious, do either Assassin's Creed PSP or Assassin's Creed Discovery (DS/iphone game) have any important story points in them?

From what I heard, Bloodlines takes place after AC1, covering Altair's story as leader of the guild and his relationship with Maria, and what he does with the Apple of Eden. Or something like that.

Discovery seems to take place in Spain, and might be somewhere in Sequence 12 and 13, where Ezio is already an assassin, and he's fighting to free some of his brotherhood, while uncovering a Templar plot to create a New World Order.

I hear both games are pretty awful though, and not worth the trouble for a tiny scrap of story which ultimately has no bearing on the overall saga.
 

jett

D-Member
Rez said:
it seems to me like very, very early on in the dev process they had considered having Rome as one of the major cities, but ultimately decided to scrap it.

The worst thing for me is that one of the tardbuckets that worked on the game let it slip that Rome was in the game...so I kept anticipating it. When I kept reaching the max number of viewpoints I figured it was meant to be, not as a huge open world anyway. When I saw Rome appear though, I was like FUCK YEAH...and then it turned out to be SO LINEAR after that epic city creation intro. :lol What a fucking tease.
 
Just beat the game not 10 minutes ago.

I really don't know how I feel about the ending.
For me it was hard leaving Altair behind for Ezio, but as I progressed in the game, he grew on me a lot.

But that being said, I wasn't entirely a fan on how Ubi developed him, or didn't I should say.
I thought that he was a great, funny, interesting character, but he was pretty much stonefaced the entire time after they murdered his parents. I wanted to see some emotion.

Also I really wanted to bang out Rosa. Maybe that's the subtext, but she was awesome.
Ubi has a knack for creating charming "alternative" female characters.

I don't mind being Desmond in AC3, but I wish we had more time with both Ezio and Altair, not to mention another ancestor.

So was subject 16 Adam's direct ancestor? I didn't totally get that...
 

jett

D-Member
Buckethead said:
So was subject 16 Adam's direct ancestor? I didn't totally get that...

Must've been...you gotta wonder how what video was recorded though, it seemed like someone was following adam and eve.
 

megalowho

Member
Seeing George Washington with a Piece of Eden got me wishing for a game set during the American Revolution.. plenty of great source material there to comb. Plus it looks like there's a vault in New England somewhere. I think that codex map with all the markings will play a role in future locations, and I can definitely see Desmond's bleeding effect allowing for multiple historical settings in the next game. I still hope for one strong central time period though, and not modern day - it will be interesting to see how they balance everything.
 

wRATH2x

Banned
First thing, guys it Al-Mualim. Being Arab helps sometimes. :D

Anyway, this games ending was easily the biggest mindfuck I had since playing MGS2. I didn't see that coming.

About AC3, I would love it if we can play as Altair, Ezio and other ancestors through the course of the game. That would be so freaking awesome.
 

duckroll

Member
I just thought of something for AC3. We've all talked about the bleeding effect, and the possibility of AC3 being in different time periods, and even of Desmond being the entire game. But there's something we haven't mentioned, and I just realized it would fit perfectly with all the hints given in AC2.

So, Desmond is almost a trained assassin now, and he has encountered a little bit of the bleeding effect. But he hasn't mastered that yet. Lucy said if he does, which no one has so far, it could be "very useful". What's their mission in AC3? It would be to find the temples mentioned by Minerva right? Where are the temples? They could be hidden anywhere in the world, they could be disguised as famous structures we know today, or some could even be underground.

So, what if AC3 starts off with the player playing as Desmond while he and his team of assassins now travel across the globe in search of the temples. They have general ideas of where each temple is based on other clues/information, but now WHERE it is, or how to get in. So each location would have two designs - modern day AND period. It would be like Soul Reaver, where Desmond explores the modern version of the city, but has to "bleed" into a period ancestor to explore the older version of the same city to pick up clues and discover changes in the city's design and layout in relation to the temple, before he can successfully get into it in modern day. The changes would be in realtime, so if you bleed, the city morphs dynamically, and you can climb certain areas, and then bleed back, to continue, etc.

And to add to the "assassin" nature of the storyline, they could make it even cooler by making it such that Templars have taken over these installations in modern day, while in period era, the assassins had to remove a Templar presence in the area in order to construct or finish the temple. In this sense, it means that different "targets" exist in both eras, but they'll ultimately be the same target in the same place at the finale of that chapter. Ie: When the assassin in the past leaps and strikes the target, the game will shift in realtime into the modern era with Desmond striking the target in the real world.

That would be REALLY cool! :O

Okay, I feel like a fucking insane fanboy now. This obsession with AC has to stop! :lol
 
Ether_Snake said:
Of course it would. The further you go in time the further you are from the origin. We need to find out more about Minerva and her likes, not more templars trying to get their hands on apples. We already went around that part of the story enough already.
Right except that would several thousand years before Rome.

Ether_Snake said:
They need to cover the origin of the mythology of the game. The more you go back in time, the more likely it is that you could have direct interaction with the aliens/gods. Heck, the chapel Sistine was built on top of a vault. That means the Romans knew about it.
There is no clear indication of when the vault was built or that anyone before ever found it.

Edit: Except isn't it implied that pretty much the ones that built all the vaults and temples died during the first solar flare or whatever it was?

Buckethead said:
So was subject 16 Adam's direct ancestor? I didn't totally get that...
Well all of the assassins are their descendants. Unless there were more of them than just Adam and Eve.
 

Alucrid

Banned
duckroll said:
And to add to the "assassin" nature of the storyline, they could make it even cooler by making it such that Templars have taken over these installations in modern day, while in period era, the assassins had to remove a Templar presence in the area in order to construct or finish the temple. In this sense, it means that different "targets" exist in both eras, but they'll ultimately be the same target in the same place at the finale of that chapter. Ie: When the assassin in the past leaps and strikes the target, the game will shift in realtime into the modern era with Desmond striking the target in the real world.

That would be REALLY cool! :O

Okay, I feel like a fucking insane fanboy now. This obsession with AC has to stop! :lol

Sounds interesting. I can imagine after you kill some knight or something, the entire world does that fall apart sequence, then starts a rebuilding one set in the present as your "target" shifts into his present self as Desmond holds him like in all the other games. Pretty cool.
 
Neodiablo22 said:
I must have missed something but I didn't understand what the whole ac1 flashback was about. Anyone want to explain it to me?

I thought it was supposed to show the passing of the memory chain, and the end of Altair's importance to the overall goal. After Altair knocked up that woman, the camera focused on her belly and left Altair.
 

Linkified

Member
Something occured to me could in theory Minerva and others like her be like Arthur Dent in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy where in the end they go all the way back in time. So effectively the Solar Flare destroyed the Earth twice in the future so they deceided to go back in time to speed up the growth of mankind - yet effectively destroying her species in the future?
 

duckroll

Member
megalowho said:
I'd just like to add that you beat up the Pope with your bare hands to win the game. That is all.

You're making the scene sound far less awesome than it it. Let's try again.

You beat up the Pope with your bare hands, in an ancient technological chamber hidden under the Vatican, while he denounces his own religion and takes about taking power from God himself.
 
V

Vilix

Unconfirmed Member
Lostconfused said:
Edit: Except isn't it implied that pretty much the ones that built all the vaults and temples died during the first solar flare or whatever it was?

I don't believe so. Minerva said that her kind and humans came together and rebuilt what was destroyed in the first flare. They built the vault in order to preserve history and carry on the message to future generation of what's to come.
 
jett said:
The worst thing for me is that one of the tardbuckets that worked on the game let it slip that Rome was in the game...so I kept anticipating it. When I kept reaching the max number of viewpoints I figured it was meant to be, not as a huge open world anyway. When I saw Rome appear though, I was like FUCK YEAH...and then it turned out to be SO LINEAR after that epic city creation intro. :lol What a fucking tease.

Exactly what I was thinking. I had read that Rome wasn't in, then I heard it was. Waiting and waiting I finally learn Ezio is headed to Rome in the final sequence. I was really bummed out that it was so linear. But it was a good plot device if you ask me and did what it was supposed to do. Hell, I didn't even realize Sequence 12/13 were skipped?! No wonder I finished the game a lot sooner than I anticipated.

Also I'm a bit confused on something. All this with the Pieces of Eden and such; is this something that the Assassin's were meant to protect all along, or is it something that they too stumbled upon just like the Templar? I hope that question makes sense; After beating the game it kind of seems like the Assassin's always existed and guarded the secret of the Pieces of Eden.
 

Ether_Snake

安安安安安安安安安安安安安安安
jett said:
Must've been...you gotta wonder how what video was recorded though, it seemed like someone was following adam and eve.

Maybe Subject 16's ancestor is... God?:p

EDIT: Yeah AC3 being set in the foundation of the US, with George Washington and Benjamin Franklin would be great, if they really want to go further in time. Ben would be the Da Vinci of AC3. It would be pretty a damn good marketing move at least for the US. Certainly better than France or London. But I'd still prefer the past like Rome or Greece.
 

Ether_Snake

安安安安安安安安安安安安安安安
duckroll said:
I just thought of something for AC3. We've all talked about the bleeding effect, and the possibility of AC3 being in different time periods, and even of Desmond being the entire game. But there's something we haven't mentioned, and I just realized it would fit perfectly with all the hints given in AC2.

So, Desmond is almost a trained assassin now, and he has encountered a little bit of the bleeding effect. But he hasn't mastered that yet. Lucy said if he does, which no one has so far, it could be "very useful". What's their mission in AC3? It would be to find the temples mentioned by Minerva right? Where are the temples? They could be hidden anywhere in the world, they could be disguised as famous structures we know today, or some could even be underground.

So, what if AC3 starts off with the player playing as Desmond while he and his team of assassins now travel across the globe in search of the temples. They have general ideas of where each temple is based on other clues/information, but now WHERE it is, or how to get in. So each location would have two designs - modern day AND period. It would be like Soul Reaver, where Desmond explores the modern version of the city, but has to "bleed" into a period ancestor to explore the older version of the same city to pick up clues and discover changes in the city's design and layout in relation to the temple, before he can successfully get into it in modern day. The changes would be in realtime, so if you bleed, the city morphs dynamically, and you can climb certain areas, and then bleed back, to continue, etc.

And to add to the "assassin" nature of the storyline, they could make it even cooler by making it such that Templars have taken over these installations in modern day, while in period era, the assassins had to remove a Templar presence in the area in order to construct or finish the temple. In this sense, it means that different "targets" exist in both eras, but they'll ultimately be the same target in the same place at the finale of that chapter. Ie: When the assassin in the past leaps and strikes the target, the game will shift in realtime into the modern era with Desmond striking the target in the real world.

That would be REALLY cool! :O

Okay, I feel like a fucking insane fanboy now. This obsession with AC has to stop! :lol

That's way too complicated technically. You need cities you can go to from one another at any time, back and forth. I would make the vaults the equivalent of the PoP-like sequences in AC2. In the past you have the cities, but in the present you have those linear sequences in the vaults. The last one being the Abstergo HQ or wherever the final showdown should take place. You find their location in the past, actually visit them in present.

Also, they hint that if Desmond becomes good enough he will be able to connect to his memories without the animus (guy with the glasses says it's possible but no one mastered it, and Desmond manages to relive Altair's memories without the animus). So if they are moving around in AC3 I would expect no animus. But I wonder how they would deal with the HUD at that point. Probably review its visual style, which could be cool. Or they have a Mini Animus. iAnimus:p
 
V

Vilix

Unconfirmed Member
INDIGO_CYCLOPS said:
Exactly what I was thinking. I had read that Rome wasn't in, then I heard it was. Waiting and waiting I finally learn Ezio is headed to Rome in the final sequence. I was really bummed out that it was so linear. But it was a good plot device if you ask me and did what it was supposed to do. Hell, I didn't even realize Sequence 12/13 were skipped?! No wonder I finished the game a lot sooner than I anticipated.

Also I'm a bit confused on something. All this with the Pieces of Eden and such; is this something that the Assassin's were meant to protect all along, or is it something that they too stumbled upon just like the Templar? I hope that question makes sense; After beating the game it kind of seems like the Assassin's always existed and guarded the secret of the Pieces of Eden.

I wouldn't say that the Assassin's were always meant to guard the PEs against the Templars. I believe the Assassin brotherhood grew out of the necessity to guard the PEs from people who would want to use them for something other than what they were meant for.

My guess is a group of humans wanted to use the PEs to shape the world they wanted and made up stories to further their vision. As time went by they were able to exist under a guise of a false religion of one divine creator. Assassin's came to kill them and get back the PEs that were taken.
 

megalowho

Member
What I don't exactly get is if the Pieces of Eden themselves are corrupting devices that have their own will or if their power is completely based on those in control of them. Altair could not bring himself to destroy the apple at the end of his arc and Ezio didn't think twice about both taking the Piece of Eden for himself and comfortably wielding its power during his final fight.

Is the ability to create godly illusions so great that none can resist? Do assassin's believe the pieces are rightfully theirs, to both protect and wield? Or do the PE's themselves, created by those who came before, seek to ensure they survive history no matter who comes into contact with them?
 
V

Vilix

Unconfirmed Member
megalowho said:
What I don't exactly get is if the Pieces of Eden themselves are corrupting devices that have their own will or if their power is completely based on those in control of them. Altair could not bring himself to destroy the apple at the end of his arc and Ezio didn't think twice about both taking the Piece of Eden for himself and comfortably wielding its power during his final fight.

Is the ability to create godly illusions so great that none can resist? Do assassin's believe the pieces are rightfully theirs, to both protect and wield? Or do the PE's themselves, created by those who came before, seek to ensure they survive history no matter who comes into contact with them?

PEs are not self aware. They are inanimit (sp) objects. It's not the PEs themselve that corrupt, but the power they have. It's like having money/power. They themselves do not hold the ability to corrupt. But, the pleasure they could bring to someone is quite tempting for many.

The assassin's objective is to protect and use the PE agaisn't the next solar flare that is to come. And will kill (assassinate) those who use them for their own selfish gains (ie Templars).
 
V

Vilix

Unconfirmed Member
duckroll said:
Here's another question. What the fuck is a piece of eden doing.... on the moon? :lol

I thought they brought it with them to get to the moon? But, if it was on the moon to begin with, my guess is that humans, with the help of the Ancients, were able to build a temple there that held a PE.
 

duckroll

Member
Vilix said:
I thought they brought it with them to get to the moon? But, if it was on the moon to begin with, my guess is that humans, with the help of the Ancients, were able to build a temple there that held a PE.

I thought it symbolized the templars using NASA as a cover to get on the moon to retrieve the piece of eden. After all, the spacecraft was referred to as "the eagle" in the puzzle. The eagle is always what is drawn to the "apple".
 

jett

D-Member
duckroll said:
Here's another question. What the fuck is a piece of eden doing.... on the moon? :lol

2001-space-odyssey.jpg
 

Linkified

Member
duckroll said:
Here's another question. What the fuck is a piece of eden doing.... on the moon? :lol

You know from that movie where Nazis built a base on the moon, can't remember the film title.
 
V

Vilix

Unconfirmed Member
duckroll said:
I thought it symbolized the templars using NASA as a cover to get on the moon to retrieve the piece of eden. After all, the spacecraft was referred to as "the eagle" in the puzzle. The eagle is always what is drawn to the "apple".

Yeah, it just occured to me that's right. If you put the identifing block over the US flag it shows that it was really the flag of Abstergo.
 

Ether_Snake

安安安安安安安安安安安安安安安
Well the Truth video shows some really high-tech buildings, so they may have gone on the moon too. But I thought it just meant they brought it with them.
 

Gribbix

Member
duckroll said:
I thought it symbolized the templars using NASA as a cover to get on the moon to retrieve the piece of eden. After all, the spacecraft was referred to as "the eagle" in the puzzle. The eagle is always what is drawn to the "apple".
Trivia time. LM-5, the first lunar module to bring man to the moon, was called Eagle. The name of NASA's new lunar module to bring man back to the moon: Altair
NASA said:
Altair finds its origins in Arabic and is derived from a phrase that means "the flying one." Altair is the brightest star in the constellation Aquila and is the 12th brightest star in the night sky. In Latin, Aquila means "eagle," reminiscent of the historic lunar exploration module Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon in 1969.
 

duckroll

Member
Gribbix said:
Trivia time. LM-5, the first lunar module to bring man to the moon, was called Eagle. The name of NASA's new lunar module to bring man back to the moon: Altair

Mind blown. Is AC fact or fiction? Are the Templars reading this thread? How much time do we have? I'm scared now. :(
 
V

Vilix

Unconfirmed Member
duckroll said:
Mind blown. Is AC fact or fiction? Are the Templars reading this thread? How much time do we have? I'm scared now. :(

I'm sure quite a few Republicans read GAF. :lol
 

duckroll

Member
Vilix said:
I'm sure quite a few Republicans read GAF. :lol

Roosevelt was a Templar too though. I don't think any of us are safe honestly. Who's to say Obama isn't a Templar too? He always seemed too smooth to me. :(
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
I saw 2012. And then I beat the game the next day.

I feel like I've seen a 20 hour version of that awful movie now.
 
Whoa... that was a pretty wicked, yet absurd, ending. Much better than the ending for the first game. I like the idea of running around in the cities in the past with the modern day being the Assassin's Tomb-esque sequence. I was really hoping that I could kill Vidic, but he got away.

How'd a PE get to the moon? Bizarre. So, how many are there exactly? Did we get a number or something?

I feel bad for Subject 16. I wonder if there will be an equivalent to the Truth glyphs in AC3. That entire thing was interesting (though the final few puzzles pissed me off).
 
2012 didn't have awesome MGS2 style player fuckery. I saw people hating on the ending before I knew what it was, then I saw it and thought it was hilariously awesome.

Ezio is like 30-some by the ending, spend many years fighting to reach this moment, has just beat up the Pope in a fist fight--I should mention that during this, the Pope has renounced religion--then walks into the vault and has a hologram tell him that his entire purpose in life was to help convey a message to some asshole in the future. The hologram sub-human woman even tells him "I don't want to talk to you, but rather through you". And when the woman looks directly at the monitor as Ezio looks around :lol So good.
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
Ezio's way older than that. Supposing he's 20 when the game starts in 1476, by 1499, when the game ends, he's like 43. He's going to break his hip when he jumps off a bridge.

I'm sort of unhappy with how loose they are with time. No one ages at all in the game except for Ezio's stupid facial hair. Time passes, but it has no meaning. His sister SITS AT THE DESK FOR 25 YEARS STRAIGHT GUARDING THE ACCOUNTING RECORDS
 

Gribbix

Member
Y2Kev said:
Ezio's way older than that. Supposing he's 20 when the game starts in 1476, by 1499, when the game ends, he's like 43. He's going to break his hip when he jumps off a bridge.

I'm sort of unhappy with how loose they are with time. No one ages at all in the game except for Ezio's stupid facial hair. Time passes, but it has no meaning. His sister SITS AT THE DESK FOR 25 YEARS STRAIGHT GUARDING THE ACCOUNTING RECORDS

Ezio was born in 1459. He headbutts the pope in 1499 which would make him 40 years old at the end of game.

Also, you continue getting assassination requests from Lorenzo despite him being dead.
 

Ether_Snake

安安安安安安安安安安安安安安安
Would have been nice if you saw the evolution of his family over that time, his mother starting to talk again, his sister having a husband and kids, etc. They should have put more focus on the family. Heck even Mario has no family. Would have been better than time wasted on stupid races or other side stories for side missions. I think the story sort of missed a good chance to explore "why we fight to protect those we love" kind of deal. You heard that more from the Templars actually. Also, it means Ezio still doesn't have a child. I guess it will be with Rosa, but he's going to be rather old by then.
 
D

Deleted member 30609

Unconfirmed Member
yeah, it was jarring to me. I didn't realise that time was actually passing between each memory block, and as such, when someone said he'd been in the city for years or whatever, I was like, what the fuck?

the unconvincing passage of time is probably the weakest narrative device in the whole game. Ah well.
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
Gribbix said:
Ezio was born in 1459. He headbutts the pope in 1499 which would make him 40 years old at the end of game.

Also, you continue getting assassination requests from Lorenzo despite him being dead.
Okay, so he's 17 when the game starts. I buy that. I just don't buy that's he 40 and still doing the same stuff he was when he was 17 :lol

It would have been interesting if they focused a little more on aging and the passage of time. They pretty much mention it only two or three times, and it's explicit-- as in, "It's been x years."
 

Toski

Member
Y2Kev said:
Okay, so he's 17 when the game starts. I buy that. I just don't buy that's he 40 and still doing the same stuff he was when he was 17 :lol

It would have been interesting if they focused a little more on aging and the passage of time. They pretty much mention it only two or three times, and it's explicit-- as in, "It's been x years."
When Ezio said its been ten years I was blown away. Either each assasination took YEARS to complete, or Ezio can hold a grudge.

Does anyone think the Templars know about Atlantis and Adam and Eve? It seems to me they are still ignorant to the ancients and only want the Pieces of Eden for their mind control satellite.
 
Y2Kev said:
Ezio's way older than that. Supposing he's 20 when the game starts in 1476, by 1499, when the game ends, he's like 43. He's going to break his hip when he jumps off a bridge.

I'm sort of unhappy with how loose they are with time. No one ages at all in the game except for Ezio's stupid facial hair. Time passes, but it has no meaning. His sister SITS AT THE DESK FOR 25 YEARS STRAIGHT GUARDING THE ACCOUNTING RECORDS

and yet she still doesn't realize that I only talk to her so I can look at the book

Rez said:
yeah, it was jarring to me. I didn't realise that time was actually passing between each memory block, and as such, when someone said he'd been in the city for years or whatever, I was like, what the fuck?

the unconincing passage of time is probably the weakest narrative device in the whole game. Ah well.

I agree. I remember after the fighting training early on, they say it's been 2 years since you've been with Mario. 2 years? what? it has been barely three minutes and the training took seconds!

and I don't see why it's bad that Ezio was still doing this stuff at 40. In Lineage, his dad was still an assassin while Ezio was a teen.
 
D

Deleted member 30609

Unconfirmed Member
Linkzg said:
and yet she still doesn't realize that I only talk to her so I can look at the book
I dunno, she always seemed pretty damn passive aggressive when I talked to her.

"oh, I suppose you want to look at the BOOK"
 

jett

D-Member
The passage to time is definitely the most poorly handled aspect of the narrative. Thankfully it wasn't that jarring to me, as I noticed early on that 2 years had passed from the first time you leave your villa to go to Florence. After that I kept checking the year dates on the DNA strain when a new sequence started. :p

I'm gonna chalk this up to this being the first time the team has attempted anything this massive, they'll learn from this just like they learned from AC1 no doubt. :p Something as little as an animation displaying the change of one date to another would have fixed this instantly.
 
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