The Assassin's Creed Series Overview

The Assassin's Creed Series Overview

In Assassin's Creed (2007) we meet the bartender with a secret, Desmond Miles, for the first time as he is kidnapped by what we first see as thugs from the multinational corporation Abstergo Industries -- but who we quickly learn are the modern day representatives of the Templar Order, which was long through to have been disbanded in the 18th Century.

Desmond was kidnapped because he is the son of members of the Assassin Brotherhood and more important than that, part of a bloodline that goes all the way back to the second founding of the Assassin Brotherhood and thus, carries in his body the genetic memories of key Assassins from the past.  The Templar have a machine that can be used to place a subject in a state disconnected with reality and then read and insert them into the genetic memories they contain.

Called the "Animus," while the device can recall ancestral memories there are negative side-effects to its use -- something that they failed to tell Desmond, who they intend to kill anyway once he unlocks the secret of the location of supernatural objects that were taken by his Assassin ancestors and hidden to prevent the Templar from enslaving the world.

The adventure begins with the exploration of Desmond's ancestor, Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, a member of the Assassin Brotherhood in the year 1191.  The first third of the game rotates between success and failure as Desmond becomes used to the Animus but once he gets the hang of it the action picks up very nicely, and we see how Altair's life and fortunes go up and then back down due to a screw-up that gets him demoted largely due to the failure that takes place at the hands of Robert de Sable, Grand Master of the Templars.

Altair must assassinate nine historical figures, which he does, and then he uncovers a betrayal on a massive scale in both the Assassin and Templar camps, and the story concludes.

In Assassin's Creed II (2009) the situation at Abstergo comes to a head and Desmond finds that he has had an unknown ally (there were hints before) in Lucy, the Lab Assistant -- who helps to free him before the Templar can kill him,  pausing briefly to grab a copy of the data from the Templar Animus to use in the improved version that the Assassin's have built.  Desmond joins Lucy's Assassin Cell, and goes back into the Animus to explore the memories of Ezio Auditore da Firenze.

Part of the plan this time is for Desmond to use the side-effect of the Animus to absorb the powers of his Assassin ancestor -- in the process of living through them to learn the location of the remaining pieces of Eden.

A long and complicated adventure leads Ezio to a final confrontation over the pieces of Eden that culminates in his claiming both and opening what was thought to be a repository but turned out to be a message for Desmond -- though Ezio does not know who Desmond is...

In Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (2010) the story of Desmond and Ezio continues, with the need to locate the Apple of Eden as well as the other pieces growing even more critical to stopping the Templar -- the story that unfolds is a very cleverly put together adventure that takes Desmond into memories that, while they were not the ones he really wanted to relive, nonetheless leads to information of the first order.

Desmond/Ezio must undertake to help with the restoration of Rome and see to the Borgia family, and in the process he learns what he needed to know (and did not suspect was part of this particular memory line) so that the Assassin Cell is able to locate and enter the vault in the real world, obtaining more information and the Apple of Eden.  But then tragedy strikes as Desmond is taken control of by the Other named Juno and made to stab Lucy, and then is put into a coma, thus ending that chapter of the adventure.

Assassin's Creed: Revelations picks up where Brotherhood left off, with Desmond in the coma...