On October 29, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag will be released in North America. As a huge fan of this series, I am extremely excited for this game. But here is where I have some questions about this game and about Assassin’s Creed III. So if you haven’t beaten AC3 yet, I would suggest not to continue reading as I will be giving some spoilers to the end of the game, even though it’s been over a year since the game came out.
So…Spoiler Alert!
AC3 was about Desmond Miles’ ancestor, Connor, who was half Native American and half British. His father, Haytham Kenway, a former Assassin turned Templar, travels to the newly established American Colonies to recruit people for a mission (for the Templars). Kenway meets a Native American Woman, Ziio, who impresses him with her attitude and fighting ability. They have an intimate moment and Kenway leaves. Connor is born 9 months later.
Now, Kenway has a sidekick, who started out as his guide in Boston and eventually got recruited into the Templar Order, Charles Lee. Charles Lee, under orders of his superior, burns down Connor’s village, causing the death of his mother and many of his fellow tribesmen. Connor being around 9 at the time, cannot do very much to help save his mother and is brought out of the village to a safe spot. Connor becomes enraged by the death of his mother and vows to find Charles Lee to seek revenge. They rebuild the village and Connor continues to grow up into a young warrior for their tribe. When threat of taking their land is brought upon them by the “white-folk”, Connor sets out in hopes of reclaiming their village. He meets Achilles, an old man living in the frontier outside of Boston. After some coercing, Connor eventually convinces Achilles to train him to fight.
Now we’ll skip ahead multiple years, Connor proves to Achilles he’s a good fighter, and becomes an Assassin. He goes around trying to find who is the cause of his mother’s death and who is trying to take over his people’s land. He eventually joins George Washington and his men to fight against the British Army in the Revolutionary War. Which is eventually won by the Americans and George Washington becoming President. During this time Connor reunites with his dad and they try to take out Charles Lee and the other defected soldiers who are trying to keep America for Britain. Haytham, however turns on Connor and Connor is forced to kill him. Well eventually Connor catches up with Charles Lee and they have a long chase and fight and eventually Connor catches up with Charles in a tavern in the middle of nowhere. They have a drink and give each other nods of admiration and Lee walks out…..And that’s how it ends. Connor spent all that time chasing down Charles Lee to seek revenge on him for killing his mother and he just lets him go? I have to say…I was not very pleased with this ending. It was extremely confusing and left a bunch of questions. But that’s not the worst of it.
To the present time with Desmond Miles. At the end of Revelations, they had found an old cave that used to be the home of an ancient civilization that have been talking to Desmond throughout the AC series. Desmond had to find different artifacts to unlock the powers locked away for centuries to discover the secret Minerva and Juno have been trying to tell him. Everytime he unlocks something in this ancient cave, they tell him a story about how they failed in their ambitions in their world and how the end is coming. Desmond eventually gets to the Apple of Eden. Minerva and Juno warn him of what will happen when it is touched. If he leaves it alone, an apocalypse will reign down on the world, wiping out everything. Starting the world anew (what happened to them in their ancient world), they will be the ones to reshape the world, eventually Desmond being worshipped as a god and eventually everything will become a tyranical world, turning it into what the Templars want for the world. On the flip side…if he touches it, he will die, however saving the Earth from it’s inevitable destruction, allowing the world to continue on as it is. Well, Desmond goes and touches it and he dies…..Ok so….being someone who played this since the beginning and payed attention fully to all of the storylines…I was quite upset about this…I was extremely upset at the end of Brotherhood when Desmond killed Lucy and we thought he was going to die as well. I enjoyed the two of them together and I thought they made a good team. Now with Desmond dying at the of the AC3….it makes you wonder….how the hell are they going to continue this? Desmond is the main character. Who all of these games are based around.
Now in AC4, the past protagonist is Edward Kenway. Haytham Kenway’s father….Obviously an ancestor of Desmond. I am extremely curious as to how they are going to make this work. If Desmond is dead, how are they able to go back into the Animus to explore Edward’s life? Not to mention, if they thought he was a useful tool, why did they skip over him to begin with and go straight to Connor? Apparently in AC4 the present day is taking place at Abstergo Industries, the modern day Templar Order, and they are the ones going into the Animus as Edward. But I do not know how they are going to do this without Desmond. Unless they have managed to capture Desmond’s father, who was traveling with Desmond and his companions, which is plausible. Now I could be wrong about it being Abstergo and Ubisoft could be going in a completely different direction. But I am excited to see where they take the present day storyline and what happens with it. As well as Edward’s storyline and whether or not they are going to work Haytham in there in someway. I liked Haytham’s personality, He reminded me of Ezio a bit, He was very suave and sarcastic all at the same time. So I would like to see him return. But if not, that’s quite alright because Edward Kenway just looks like a straight up badass.
So Ubisoft, I’m hoping that you are going to step up your game (quite literally) with AC4 from what happened with AC3. AC3 was not nearly as good as the previous games, and I’m hoping you guys learned from that and were able to tweak the problems wrong with it and made them better in AC4.
