Summary
Those first few hours of a newAssassin’s Creedgame are always special. While players will get to see first-hand the new environment that they’ll be exploring, they will also learn more about the game’s protagonist, along with the general tone of the story. Still, before any of this can be established, the first glimpse into the adventure is provided by an opening line that can define the game yet to come.
While opening lines are always important in games, considering they act as the hook to get players intrigued right from the get-go, in the case ofAssassin’s Creed, they need to go above and beyond to make an impression, considering the sheer number of titles that have been released. Luckily, Ubisoft is well aware of this and has inserted some truly memorable and even impactful opening lines across this much-beloved series, with the ones below being prime examples.
While the story of theAssassin’s Creedseries is packed full of intriguing lore andsudden plot twists, when looking at it on the surface, it’s a pretty bizarre tale. Nobody is more aware of this than Desmond, the man at the center of the series’s beginning narrative. While players could spend hours looking up plot details on the wiki, Desmond kindly summarizes much of the story up to this point with a single line that manages to be both informative and hilarious.
At the same time, it also feeds into Desmond as a character, who starts to receive a lot of development throughoutBrotherhoodandRevelations. Despite starting off as a guy who doesn’t really want anything to do with the Animus, he eventually learns the importance of taking on the Templars and the responsibility he must bear as an ally of the Assassins.
When compared to the games that came before it,Assassin’s Creed 3raises the stakes drastically. The modern-day portion of the game is set in 2012 where an oncoming apocalypse threatens to destroy the entire world, that is unless Desmond and the gang are able to avert it by going back in time through the Animus. This line, which is actually said byDesmond’s father, William, does a great job of setting the stage for the story, while also demonstrating just how far the Templars have gone this time around.
It also establishes the bleak tone that is often associated withAssassin’s Creed 3, not just for the modern world, but also for Connor, who goes through quite a hellish ordeal throughout the American Revolution during his own period.
5"The Past Is Not Lost. The Past Lives Inside Us" - Assassin’s Creed Unity
An Opening Line Which Highlights The Heart And Soul Of The Series
At the heart of theAssassin’s Creedseries is the idea that, in order to understand our current world, we need to reflect on the past. As a result, history will always be relevant and important to learn about, but this quote said in the first few moments ofUnity’sopening cutscene, highlights the notion that the past lives on through people, considering that everyone has ancestors that can be traced back through history.
This is also a clear reference to the Animus, which allows Desmond to re-trace his ancestors' memories, making him a kind of modern-day vessel who can usher past information into the present day. It’s, therefore, a clever line that perfectly sums up the core ideas of the series.
Desmond is put in a pretty awkward position when he shows up in the series and is kidnapped by a shady group of researchers who decide to plug him into the Animus. The truth is, because Desmond is a distant relative of legendary Assassins like Ezio and Connor, he would be the only way to go back in time to reveal enough information aboutthe Templarsto take them down for good.
However, Desmond is also a pretty ordinary guy who initially has no idea about the ongoing war between the Assassins and Templars, which he explains in this opening line where he describes himself as a “prisoner of war”. It just goes to show how unlucky Desmond is to be caught up in this whole fiasco, while also acting as the introduction to the character who would ultimately prove instrumental in bringing the fight to the Templars in the present day.
Admittedly, this line can seem a little baffling upon first hearing it, but then again, it’s this aura of mystery that makes it such a compelling introduction to the long-awaitedViking entryin the series. This “tale” that the narrator refers to is actually the story of how the world came to be in Norse mythology, as a few moments later, they begin digging deeper into specific gods such as Ymir, and how they contributed to forming the world as we know it.
Ubisoft knew that players had been eager to jump into the world of Vikings ever since the series first began, and as a result, they usher them right into the experience by giving them a quick history lesson on Norse mythology, and how it relates to the story being told.
Assassin’s Creed: Roguekicks off its story withShay, the protagonist of the game, reciting the basic principles of the Assassins. While this passage of quotes grants players an insight into the mindset of the Assassins and their teachings, what makes this opening line so impactful is how Shay eventually turns on the Assassins midway through the story to join the Templars, after exposing the wrongdoing of the group in putting civilians in harm’s way.
As a result, it’s an effective way to immediately establish just how devoted Shay is to the brotherhood, making it feel like a truly shocking moment when he decides to leave them later on in the story.
In order to justify players being able to transport themselves to the past to explore all the vast and wonderfulhistorical periodsthey find themselves in, Ubisoft came up with the Animus. Originally, this was a device that was only used by Desmond, but by the timeAssassin’s Creed Syndicaterolled around, the Animus had become an entertainment service that was open to anyone and everyone, as emphasized in this opening line, which could essentially act as the tagline for the entire series.
On the one hand, it’s an eerie quote coming from Abstergo, who clearly are up to no good behind the scenes, but it also feeds into the thing that makes theAssassin’s Creedseries such a draw; the chance to travel through history. Needless to say, it’s an intriguing line that pulls players right into the experience as soon as they enter the game, and could very well be used as a way to summarize what this beloved series is all about.
