So let me talk to you about Assassin's Creed, which has become one of the most successful video game franchises in the world since it first began in 2007. You know the point, traveling back in time through a device known as The Animus playing as a guy dressed up in a jacket always up to no good killing bad guys that are members of a society known as The Templar Order in various forms. I believe that to get inspired before starting any one of these games, you should definitely watch a movie. Plus, I may know a thing or two about history. By the way, Freedom Cry and Liberation will not be included in here. Sorry. This is just my own personal opinion.
So I think I should start with the first one:
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Yes, The one that started it all. The game featuring the greatest Assassin of them all, Altair Ibn La'Ahad. I have great respect for Altair since he was the one who made The Assassins what they are today. The game truly shows how the series begins and how it all started. The game does seem to take place during the Crusades. Plus I can only find one movie about the Crusades and this is it:
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So Kingdom of Heaven (2005) is probably the best movie out there right now about the Crusades and is directed by one of the top modern directors today: Ridley Scott, who did such great works as Gladiator (2000), Thelma & Louise (1991), The Martian (2015), Black Hawk Down (2002), Robin Hood (2010) and Blade Runner (1982). The movie begins in the year 1184 in France and we meet Balian (Orlando Bloom), a blacksmith who is in a state of grief after losing his wife and child and then a knight named Godfrey (Liam Neeson) who claims to be his father offers a chance to come to The Holy Land in hopes of finding salvation for himself and the souls of his dead wife and child in the Kingdom of Jerusalem and then he finds himself caught in the Crusades: A holy war between 2 of the largest religions in the world: Christianity and Islam with it finishing up in the Siege of Jerusalem in 1187 and,in the end, Balian accepted Saladin's terms of surrender and so the Muslim occupation of Jerusalem had begun as the Christians evacuate the city. Now you've got to admit that Kingdom of Heaven would be a VERY different movie if Altair was consistently in the background fighting and killing Templars. For all of you Orlando Bloom fangirls, I wonder how a fight between Balian and Altair would end up!!
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The movie's good too, but, wow!! It is a pretty violent movie with lots and lots of blood. It has a good cast too, including Orlando Bloom (Balian), Eva Green (Princess Sybilla), Jeremy Irons (Tiberias), Liam Neeson (Godfrey), David Thewlis and Edward Norton as King Baldwin the Fourth. To give yourself a better perspective of the first game and how Altair became, well, Altair, Watch this amazing animation:
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So next we move on to The Ezio Saga, made up of Assassin's Creed 2, Brotherhood and Revelations, which is set during the Italian Renaissance, a era in history when the Arts, Culture, Religion, Philosophy and Science all flourish under the guidance of inspired minds. . Now there are several movies set during The Renaissance. The first one is what appears to be the sequel of Assassin's Creed 2 called Assassin's Creed Lineage. If you want, you can watch the movie here on Youtube. The story features Ezio's father, Giovanni Auditore who is sent to investigate the murder of the Duke of Milan and what he discovers implicate Italy's most powerful families that reach all the way back to The Vatican, and then the game takes over from there because it seems to happen in 1476, the year Giovanni and Ezio's other 2 brothers were murdered and when Ezio began his life as an Assassin. You have to admit that all 3 cinematic trailers for the games are really, really good. Especially Brotherhood & Revelations:
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That poor guy at the beginning of 2 looked like he was having such a good time, at least until he got bladed by Ezio. 2 and Brotherhood are such important games in the Assassin's Creed series because it very well shows how it has evolved and they also add more detail to how it began and Revelations is also very important because it shows the Ezio's link to Altair and how he follows in his footsteps.
One movie, no, 2 movies I would highly recommend watching is Elizabeth (1999), featuring Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Richard Attenborough and some other people and its follow-up movie Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007) with Clive Owen as Sir Walter Raleigh. Although they both take place in England, that doesn't mean they are about the Italian Renaissance, but they both have Renaissance influences. For Brotherhood, definitely watch The Borgias. The show gives you a little insight on the lives of The Borgia family. I technically didn't see it yet, but I hope to soon and I haven't played the game yet either.
Next to we move on to Revelations, The final game of The Ezio Saga and one of the hardest games I have ever had the pleasure of playing (it's true!!). Taking place after the events of Brotherhood in 1511, Ezio is much older and travels to Turkey aka the Ottoman Empire, one of the greatest empires to have ever existed; lasting for about 500 years until the end of World War l and then became a republic, The Republic of Turkey. After discovering a letter written by his father 1 year before Ezio was born, it describes a library that lies underneath Masyaf Castle in modern-day Syria, with a vast treasure trove of knowledge. To get to it, Ezio must find 5 Masyaf keys to access the library, of course, before the Templars do and must also visit Altair's past and met a very nice young woman named Sofia who is very helpful in his attempts to find the Masyaf keys.:
So then, we time travel to 1524. Ezio is much older and is retired from the Assassins and is living with Sofia with two children in the Tuscan countryside and then he meets a young Assassin from China named Shao Jun, who comes to Ezio seeking advice, hoping to help rebuild her Order in China. All of this takes in the Assassin's Creed movie: Assassin's Creed Embers and it is right here:
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I have to admit, I had a little something in my eye at the end when Ezio passed away. It was pretty sad. Other than that, the movie has very good action in all of its Assassin's Creed glory.
Well, I'm glad we can finally get the The Ezio Saga out of the way, Thank God!! Time to move on to:
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Yes!!! This is my favorite game of the entire series: Assassin's Creed 3 (for several reasons)!! The American Revolution is probably one of the most important events in our nation's history because it's, well, how we became a nation. Now I feel more like an American!! I learned a lot more about The American Revolution from playing the game and Connor is definitely my favorite Assassin of them all and you've gotta admit Connor got pretty famous pretty quick. So famous, he even got his own Smosh video!!
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Without a doubt, this is my favorite Smosh video and it is pretty damn funny. The #1 movie to watch before starting the game is The Patriot (2000) with a very resilient Mel Gibson and Heath Ledger. Let me tell you something: before I started Assassin's Creed 3, I decided to watch The Patriot for the first time and I felt inspired. For those who haven't seen it, The Patriot is about Benjamin Martin, a reluctant farmer and father of 7 children from South Carolina who experienced the horrors of war before in The French and Indian War, the prelude to The American Revolution in France (with some help from several Native American tribe) and England began an all-out fight for possession of North America. The British won the war, but were left heavily in debt. So Benjamin is forced back into war, and to pick up his guns after his son, Gabriel is captured by the very evil Colonel Tavington aka Lucius Malfloy who, by the way, has done some pretty douchebag-type things:
A list of douchebag deeds by Colonel William Tavington in The Patriot (in order):
Shot and killed Ben's son, Thomas for trying to save his brother
Burned down Ben's house
Ordering the death of The Rebel wounded after Thomas was shot
Called Thomas "a stupid little boy"
Killing American troops in The Battle of Camden
Taking prisoners
Murdering innocent people
Depopulated an entire town by locking up everyone, including Gabriel's wife, Anna, their unborn child and her family inside the town's church and burning it down (very messed up)
Killing off Gabriel and impaling him with his sword right when Gabriel was about scalp him as an act of revenge (I was so pissed off when that
Killed The Reverend
Disobeying General Cornwallis' orders and charges into battle anyway
Yeah, I think that's about it.
Connor has also made some pretty good TV appearances. Let me show you just one:
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Next up is the 1957 movie adaptation by Walt Disney of Johnny Tremain, based on the 1943 children's novel by Esther Forbes that won The Newbery Medal. It is a perfect movie to watch to get inspired before starting Assassin's Creed 3. Now the next video I will show is a scene from the movie with probably the catchiest songs I have ever heard. After the end of the famous Boston Tea Party, The Sons of Liberty sang this song meeting at the famous Liberty Tree and hung lamps. It's very catchy, but very patriotic. Walt Disney also decided to do the same thing by bringing in a tree and putting on 13 lamps, representing the original 13 colonies. If you want to see the real thing for yourself, it's at The Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World in Florida. By the way, I heard that Walt Disney's daughter, Sharon, is in this scene.
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Have you ever noticed how George Washington, Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Paul Revere, Israel Putnam, Benedict Arnold and The Marquis da Lafayette were in the game but not John Adams? Well, neither did I. However, our 2nd President managed to get his own HBO mini-series starring Paul Giamatti as John Adams himself and Laura Linney as his wife, Abigail and, wow, it's really, really good, covering John Adams' life from 1770 after the Boston Massacre up to his death on July 4th, 1826. Which, by a staggering coincidence, is the same day when President Thomas Jefferson died. The theme song is also very epic, something you would expect from a HBO mini-series. If you don't believe me, take a look at the Assassin's Creed 3 trailer set to the theme song, known as "Don't Tread On Me". Warning: brace yourself because things are about to get slightly more patriotic around here:
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So next, let me talk to you about The Culper Spy Ring: a spy system that was created by George Washington after The British began their occupation of New York City winning The Battle of Kip's Bay (09/15/1776); the largest land invasion in American History (almost kinda like a Revolutionary version of D-Day) and the biggest attack on American soil up until September 11th, 2001. The British managed to land 4,000 troops successfully onto Manhattan Island.
Then the next day came The Battle of Harlem Heights which the Americans won. After losing The Battle of White Plains, Washington was forced to leave New Jersey and had plans to cross back into New Jersey in December and this is where The Culper Ring comes into play and how Turn: Washington's Spies begins. In it, we meet Abraham Woodhull, a farmer from the small hamlet of Setauket, New York where a he and a group of childhood friends form the Culper Ring. The series takes place one month after The Battle of Long Island, a British victory that put New York City, Long Island and Staten Island back into British control and The British managed to outflank The Americans.
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New York City during occupation was mostly a Loyalist city and there was some rebellion throughout. In Assassin's Creed 3, when you visit New York City, you get to help the rebels by doing stuff like beating up officials for information to their leader, preventing executions, planting fake documents on traitors as a way to defy martial law and to retake the eastern district of the city for the Assassins. The series has a pretty good number of villains in it and one in particular, John Graves Simcoe, is by far one of the best villains I have ever seen.
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The Culper Ring had such an important role to play in The American Revolution because they were critical to winning several battles in New York and New Jersey including the decisive victory at Trenton on the morning of December 26, 1776 surprising 1,500 Hessian mercenaries while they were celebrating Christmas while Washington crossed The Delaware River.
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See, The Culper Ring was such an important asset to the war because they helped win America her independence and we became a free nation. It also helped keep America in the war and convince The French to come help us out.
Finally, to finish up Assassin's Creed 3, I would also highly recommend National Treasure (2004) because it perfectly ties in well with the game. The movie claims that the Templar treasure, which had begun to grow about 900 years ago, managed to find its way to America. Could it have happened? The game also features, which included famous figures from the Revolution like George Washington, Paul Revere and Benjamin Franklin, who were considered allies of the Assassins. Assassin's Creed is not just a game, oh no, they feature clues being left behind by the Masons.
I think we are finished with this one now it's time to move on
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Yes, It's time to move to the one about pirates: Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag. One of the best games I have ever had the honor of playing featuring one of the best Assassins of them all: Edward Kenway. To begin, there are quite a bunch of of pirate films to watch if you are interested including Pirates of the Caribbean (all of them). We all await that fateful day when Jack Sparrow meets Edward Kenway, like in this cosplay movie. Don't worry, there's a happy ending to it:
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Probably one of the most exciting parts of the game is the naval warfare because you get to sail all across the Caribbean to Cuba, The Bahamas, Jamaica, Mexico in probably the biggest open space-world in Assassin's Creed history. I say that because the first movie that I would recommend is Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), one of my all-time favorite movies based on a series of books by Patrick O'Brian set during The Napoleonic Wars which I would highly recommend you start reading.
So Russell Crowe plays Captain Jack Aubrey, who served with Lord Horatio Nelson, and is the captain of the HMS Surprise along side his friend Stephen Maturin, the ship's surgeon and naturalist, played by Matt Bellamy, who is stationed off the coast of South America are given orders to track a larger, much more dangerous French ship with the intention of bringing the war into the Pacific. Now his job is to make sure that does not happen and he is free "to sink, burn, or take her a prize" and their wild goose chase takes them along the coast of South America from Brazil to Cape Horn in Argentina to Ecuador, where The HMS Surprise's wild goose chase brings them to the beautiful Galapagos Islands.
Fact: Master and Commander is the first movie to ever be shot in The Galapagos Islands and all of the shots of that place are so beautiful with it being set to Johann Sebastian Bach's 1st Cello Suite by Yo-Yo Ma.
I don't know why, but when I play this game I like to listen to classical music and it is so relaxing and it puts my mind at ease. Especially when I listen to this lovely piece by Luigi Boccherini which was in the movie:
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The movie itself is beloved, winning 2 Oscars in Best Sound Editing and Best Cinematography. All of the other categories it was nominated for, it lost to The Lord of The Rings: The Return of the King (2003).
Next I am gonna have to ditch Assassin's Creed: Liberation HD and Freedom Cry and move on to Unity and I can talk for hours on end about the French Revolution and how brutal, bloody and gruesome it truly was. Plus, I really like the hero of the game: Arno Dorian. He's charismatic, brave, heroic and he has also had a rough past. For instance, his father was murdered, lost his adoptive father and the poor guy is definitely suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and then he becomes an Assassin for a chance to redeem himself and his childhood friend is a Templar.
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I still have yet to play to Unity since I do not have a Xbox One but I hope to get one soon and play it. The French Revolution was probably one of the gruesome periods in Earth's history. People being guillotined for no good reason, bloody murder, blood and guts everywhere, decapitated heads on a pike, riots and a bunch gory stuff. But with the Revolution came: The destruction of the French monarchy, France turning into a democracy and the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte and The Napoleonic Wars. Thank God, I didn't live in Paris,France back in 1789. But wait until you see this amazing Assassin's Creed: Unity movie that was directed by Rob Zombie:
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Look, I know dying is inconvenient, but if you were sentenced to die by guillotine, that would friggin' suck. Before I get to recommendations, I will share this video by John D Ruddy, who does these really good cartoons and talks about history with these cartoons. Here is his video on The French Revolution which is very educational.
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So my first recommendation would have to be Les Miserables (2012) based on the book by Victor Hugo. Les Miserables, by the way, was not set during The French Revolution, it was set during The June Rebellion in 1832. To show the difference between the French Revolution and The June Rebellion take a look at this scene from the movie, but the resemblance is close enough:
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Now you might recognize the kid from Into The Woods (2014) as he played Jack. I love that movie and I don't see why people hated Les Mis, I loved it. But if you want to trade in singing for gore and guts, you might wanna check out The Lady and The Duke (2001) which provides an unvarnished view of Revolutionary violence and the 1980 adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. The French Revolution is probably one of the most popular historical periods to do a movie or a video game on like Assassin's Creed Unity. As you play the game, you'll see why.
Next up is Assassin's Creed Rogue, The game that is definitely the dark horse of the game. In the game, we meet Shay Patrick Cormac, A young Assassin who was loyal to the cause, but he began to question the Assassin's motives and its Creed. Then he got a big slap in the face after accidentally causing an earthquake in 1755: The Great Lisbon Earthquake and a lot of people died. So he decides to leave the Assassins to make sure that his former brothers do not do it again and what does he do you ask? He becomes a Templar and he has a kick-ass awesome ship: The Morrigan and begins killing off all of the Assassins in North America during the height of the French and Indian War: The prequel to The American Revolution. The game takes place around the time when Connor was born in 1756 and during all that time when Haytham was gone. Shay has also become the greatest Irish video game character of all time. Number 2 would have to be Aiden Pearce from Watch Dogs.
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There's only one movie that is good enough to be recommended for such a game about The French and Indian War: The Last of The Mohicans (1992). A great movie with one of the greatest movie theme songs of all time!! I don't see how it ties in with Rogue but it's good enough to be recommended.
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Other than Last of the Mohicans, Master and Commander and The Patriot also come highly recommended for Rogue: The dark horse of the Assassin's Creed franchise
And finally the new one that recently came out this past October,Assassin's Creed Syndicate, the newest and most modern game of the Assassin's Creed franchise to date which is set during the height of The Industrial Revolution in 1868.
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In the game you play as both Jacob Frye and his twin sister Evie, who were born and raised in The Brotherhood. There are plenty of good movies about The Industrial Revolution.
The first one I would have to pick is The Prestige (2006), directed by Christopher Nolan, who also did The Dark Knight Trilogy and Inception. It stars Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Michael Caine, Scarlet Johansson and David Bowie as Nikola Tesla. It's about these 2 rival magicians who used to best friends and they read each other's diaries to learn the secrets of their magic tricks and their personal life. As you watch the movie, you go back in time and see the diary entries unfold as they happen and both magicians become obsessed with the best tricks in each other's arsenal. The tricks, as they are shown to the audience, look the same, but neither magician can figure how his opponent does it. It's that good.
In Syndicate, you get to work with famous figures from 19th Century British history. Here is a list:
Alexander Graham Bell- the inventor of the telephone
Charles Darwin- the naturalist who became well known for his contributions to evolutionary theory and was the author of The Origin of Species
Charles Dickens- English novelist and social critic. Author of such works as A Tale of Two Cities, A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations & Oliver Twist
Arthur Conan Doyle- Creator of Sherlock Holmes.By the way, in the game, he's about 9 years old, since the game was set in 1868.
Karl Marx- German philosopher, economist, journalist, sociologist and author of The Communist Manifesto & Das Kapital. Many revolutionaries such as Vladimir Lenin, Mao Zedong and Fidel Castro have cited him as an influence.
Florence Nightingale- Social reformer, statistician and also the founder of modern nursing
Winston Churchill- There is a mission where you time-jump to 1916 and you play as Jacob's granddaughter, Lydia and you encounter him and you get to fight Germans.
Here is a video of what exactly will happen and then after that we will move on with recommendations:
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I also made a playlist on Spotify that is totally dedicated to the game. The rules were strict: No other types of music except Celtic punk, mostly The Pogues; The quintessential band to listen to when you visit Ireland, also English folk songs are allowed and punk music is too, music that you would wanna fight to.
I haven't seen it yet, but the 2001 Oscar-winning film Moulin Rouge! is a good film about the Industrial Revolution. In France, right at the start of the 20th Century, there was a period of cultural flourishing called the French Bohemian Revolution. It's about this poet falls in love with a courtesan who is also coveted by a duke.
The classic Charlie Chaplin comedy, Modern Times (1936), is a romantic comedy about an American industrial worker struggling to live in a modern industrial world with the help of a young homeless woman starring Charlie Chaplin, Paulette Goddard and Henry Bergman.
Next is Oliver Twist. A 2005 adaptation of the classic novel by Charles Dickens. Set in 19th-century London. It centers on an orphan boy who meets a pickpocket and joins a household of boys trained to steal for their master. The film depicts the harsh life and environment of many orphans and urban children during the Industrial Revolution in England.
Sherlock Holmes and its sequel Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is also a good movie idea. In many ways, it is similar to Assassin's Creed Syndicate.
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Finally, in conclusion, Movies are the best inspiration for any video game. Especially history video games whether it's pirates, The Crusades, The American Revolution. The French Revolution, The Italian Renaissance or whatever.