top of page
Writer's pictureNick Saward

Assassins Creed : Relevations

Updated: Mar 31, 2023



The fourth game in the franchise, Assassin's Creed : Revelations was released November 15th 2011. It features all 3 of the games main characters up until this point ; Desmond Miles, Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, and Ezio Auditore da Firenze. The main storyline is where Ezio is taken to Constantinople (now Istanbul) in 1511 AD during the rise up of the Ottoman Empire, and explores four of the country's districts ; Constantine, Bayezid, Imperial and Galata. He travels to an underground city populated exclusively by the Templars, Cappadocia, and goes to Masyaf where the old Assassin's stronghold is located that is seen in the first Assassins Creed game. He discovers that Altaïr has sealed an ancient artefact within this fortress said to be a powerful weapon that could permanently end the Templar-Assassin war and the key is hidden in Constantinople.


It continues the storylines of Desmond and Altaïr alongside this from the previous games in the franchise. After Desmond fell into a coma at the end of the previous game Assassins Creed : Brotherhood, he finds himself trapped in the Animus 2.0, which was used on him as a way to live out the memories of his past ancestors and descendants of whom were highly ranked Assassins, but while stuck Desmond finds a safe mode known as 'The Black Room.' He finds help from the preserved consciousness of Clay Kaczmarek / Subject 16, who were Abstergo Industries previous test subject for the Animus, and Desmond must find a Synch Nexus - a key memory to pair him with Altaïr and Ezio. This will reintegrate his splintered subconscious and wake him from his coma.


Shaun Hastings, following the events of the previous game, stays in Rome to attend Lucy Stillman's funeral after she was killed by Juno, which Rebecca Crane takes Desmond to his father while he is still in his comatose state. He is placed in the Aminus as they think of it as a way to save his mind, and it works, placing him in the safe mode. Clay tells Desmond that fully reliving his ancestor's memories can separate Desmond from them and awaken him.

While all of this occurs, Prince Ahmet and his brother Selim are arguing over who will be the one to inherit the Sultanate. During this event, Ezio discovers that with Templar support, Manuel Palaiologos is attempting to raise an army that will overthrow the Ottomans and re-establish the Byzantine Empire. Ezio travels to Cappadocia and kills Manuel, recovering the final key until he learns that Prince Ahmet is the true mastermind behind the Templars plot to open Altaïr's library.

During these events, Ezio experiences many key moments in Altaïr's life. He learns that he tried to reform the assassins until a former friend, Abbas Sofian, challenged him. Upon returning to Constantinople, Ezio learns that Ahmet has killed Yusuf and kidnapped Sofia, who Ezio had begun catching feelings for, and Ahmet demands the keys in exchange for her. After saving Sofia, he returns to pursue Ahmet and gets the keys back. Clay sacrifices himself meanwhile in the Animus to save him from being deleted.


Ezio and Sofia return to Masyaf and Ezio is able to unlock Altaïr's library - it is empty bar Altaïr's skeleton and a sixth key. Ezio discovers that the library was to house Altaïr's Apple of Eden and Altaïr had died when he sealed himself to protect it. Ezio decides to leave the apple there and speaks to Desmond who he knows is watching, and hopes he will find the answers to his questions.

Jupiter, a member from the First Civilisation, explains that his race had been studying ways to save the planet from destruction and had transmitted all of this data into the Grand Temple. Jupiter tells Desmond he must get to the Temple before an impending solar flare reaches Earth and kills all of humanity. Desmond awakes from his coma and fins Rebecca, Shaun and William sat beside him and tells them he knows what they must do just as they are arriving at the location of the Grand Temple.

The game originally was a Nintendo 3DS game called Assassins Creed : Lost Legacy which makes it different from other Assassins Creed games that were all released on consoles. The DS released in February 2011 and the game came in November 2011, meaning they were tackling new territory by bringing the game onto a new console that could make it more marketable. The game took inspiration from Castlevania (1986), a popular video game series set as a dark medieval fantasy - it is a Japanese media franchise following Dracula. Revelations is compared to Resident Evil Village a lot which also took inspiration from Castlevania. The game also inspired the Witcher 3 which released in 2015, which inspired Resident Evil Village.


Henry Jenkins presents the fandom theory saying that fans are active participants in the construction and circulation of textual meanings. He suggests that fans have an influence on the product they are fans of, and their input can have an effect on what it becomes and how it adapts and evolves. Fans can also read texts and appropriate them in ways that were not intended by the producers of the media, otherwise known as 'textual poaching.' They can use a product to construct their own social and cultural identities by borrowing mass culture images.


The Assassin's Creed franchise has a strong, well-developed fan-base. There are different forms of adaptations of the game made by fans such as fanfiction, YouTube videos and even cosplays where they take their own preferred reading. Ubisoft is a company that interacts widely with their fans and even bring them on to work for them, and their recognition for fans shows how much they care about their community.


George Gerbner theorised that the exposure to repeated patterns of representation over long periods

16 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


bottom of page