Speaking to Edge, Patrice Désilets, creator of Assassin’s Creed gives a very detailed account of the making of the game, as well as revealing his favourite entry to the series so far.
The idea for Assassin’s Creed first originated after he read a book about the history of secret societies. Within the book one chapter contained information on Hassam-i-Sabbah, a Muslim missionary in the 11th century who went on to form an assassin society. You can see where this ties in with Assassin’s Creed. What’s more is that the game stemmed from the Prince of Persia series.
Désilets further goes on to say that he considers the first game to be the best of the series, as it’s the “purest”. An aspect he very much enjoyed was that “There’s a bunch of stories that you can have, but it’s all in your head. You have to create your own adventures”.
His own example, “Out in the kingdom, with your horse, there are so many places with little setups with Crusaders where you can tell a story. When you get close to Damascus, there’s a guy on a stage and he has 35 soldiers in front of him. If you kill him, they all chase you. I played that and it became my little story”.
In Assassin’s Creed 2 “we created the adventures for you and you’re following them…The second one is the real game”. Considering the second Assassin’s Creed received the best critical reception, it’s quite surprising to see the first game being the most preferred from the creator of the series.
Which Assassin’s Creed has been your favourite entry so far? Personally I’ve always preferred the first adventure as well.
cc_star
First, by a long way!
Feels dated now as it was obviously much earlier in the gen, but I’ve liked each AC less & less until I’ve turned my back on the series altogether.
Taylor Made
And gamers prefer 2 & brotherhood
doomsday619
I love Brotherhood the whole Borgia storyline was amazing.
Haydar
Any game with Altair ibn La-Ahad. He’s one the greatest characters in gaming i think. So there are two choices for me. (1st and 4th games)
If you know all those stories about Hasan Sabbah, Omer Khayyam and Nizam al-Mulk, those games become greater.
elpablo79
I am genuinely enjoying the 3rd one possibly, the most. AC1 didn’t quite do it for me but then the 2nd brought me back in. I enjoyed Brotherhood and Revelations, but Assassin’s Creed 3’s story and setting really have drawn me in. I agree with what Haydar has said above in that, any prior knowledge or interest in those periods in time make the experience greater
dizwod
AC2 for me. Borrowed first one off a friend and got bored doing the same ease dropping and following.2nd one just seemed better to me, I dont know what it was if was Italy or Ezio but I havent been able to connect with Connor in AC3 like I did with Ezio, weather its the character or the locations i dont know.
gazzagb
Assassins Creed 2 was definfitely my favourite game, and is one of my favourite games of all time in fact.
If you read the books though, I think the first one (the secret crusade) was actually the best book.
I can see why he still loves the first, he had total control over it, where as I suppose the sequels all had to think how they could tie into the story, whereas when they were making the first game, they didn’t have to think about sequels.
The Lone Steven
The first one was flawed but an excellent game. It did suffer from being repitive but i have a rule about the first game in franchises. I will overlook any major flaws if there is a sequel to it and the game is excellent.
The second one was an excellent sequel to it and is my favorite AC game. Ever since then, the franchise has gone downhill. I didn’t enjoy Brotherhood and found parts of it to be tedious. AC3 was a letdown but the naval battles were my most enjoyable part of the game.
Hopefully, AC4 or Blackflag, whatever they decide to title it will be as good or even better then AC2. Although the lack of naval mp battles is a massive disappointment as i would break my no MP rule as i would love to take part in naval battles online.
I would say that Ezio is clearly the best main character in the franchise and did get a lot of character development. He started out as a cocky Italian that didn’t really care about much then slowly became the master assassain. As for Conner, what a boring sod. I understand that they wanted to give us a serious protagantist but he just came off as boring and most of the time, miserable sod. Hopefully, AC4’s main character will be like Ezio but at the same time, is more serious and importantly, likeable.
Although i do find that AC’s version of assassaination is not actually stealthy based and just consists of running up to the target, killing them, in broad daylight then fighting off a small army.
Klart
I lost my horse in the first one while on the road and couldn’t be bothered walking for miles (I had no earlier save), so I stopped. It was a bit boring/samey as well.
RocketSOL
Yup, first one for me as well.
It’s the only game in the franchise where I actually felt like an assassin. Learn who your target is, explore the city and investigate the area, which in turn provides you with more information that will help you achieve the assassination effectively. Yes, this became repetitive and some parts were flawed/ didn’t work right (like those awful maps you had to pickpocket off people and the whole city being alerted to YOU as soon as the deed was done…but I still felt like an assassin!
After AC1, the gameplay improved considerably but I felt less and less like an assassin. Just because you own a fancy white suit and carry a wrist blade doesn’t make you one. The assassins and the use of the word felt more like a club/ secret gang fighting another secret gang who decided to call themselves templars from AC2 onwards.