Assassin's Creed 2 set during French Revolution?

  • By thorsen-ink, GameSpot
  • Posted Nov 27, 2008 12:51 am GMT

Source: Former GameSpotters' game-review start-up Giant Bomb. What we heard: One of the highlights of Assassin's Creed was its medieval setting. After starting with a futuristic flourish, the well-reviewed and wildly popular platformer transported players to the Holy Land in the 12th century. As...

Source: Former GameSpotters' game-review start-up Giant Bomb.

What we heard: One of the highlights of Assassin's Creed was its medieval setting. After starting with a futuristic flourish, the well-reviewed and wildly popular platformer transported players to the Holy Land in the 12th century. As the hooded killer Altair, players leaped from rooftops in Jerusalem, strolled through souks in Damascus, and slit throats in Acre.

All of Assassin's Creed's locations were re-created via detailed graphics based on an all-new engine crafted at Ubisoft Montreal. Thanks to the aforementioned sci-fi twist, the game's recently revealed sequel could be set in virtually any time period, opening near-limitless possibilities for an all-new locale.

But while such places as ancient China and feudal Japan would seem likely suspects for Assassin's Creed 2's setting, a dark horse candidate appears to have merged. While taping an upcoming episode of Gametrailers' show Bonus Round, Giant Bomb cofounder (and ex-GameSpot editor) Ryan Davis chatted with fellow guest and analyst par excellence Michael Pachter.

During the course of the show, the Wedbush Morgan game-industry soothsayer said that Assassin's Creed would be set "several hundred years" after the original game, "sometime in the 1700s." Not content with a time frame, Pachter went on to "speculate that the French Revolution could be a potential setting." Said revolt, which began in 1789 with the storming of the Parisian fort-cum-prison the Bastille, was among the bloodiest changes of government in history. During the subsequent Great Terror, led by proto-Stalinist strongman Maximilien Robespierre, thousands of nobles and political opponents were sent to the guillotine en masse. Eventually, the ranks of the beheaded included Robespierre himself, who got the chop in 1794.

The official story: When asked to elaborate, Pachter politely declined to comment. Ubisoft had not responded to requests for comment as of press time.

Bogus or not bogus?: Too little to go on. With so much bloodletting and urban chaos, the French Revolution would be an interesting setting for Assassin's Creed 2. The subject is also close to Ubisoft's collective heart, given that the cash-flush francophonic publisher is itself based in Paris.

That said, keep in mind that even by Davis' account, Pachter was "speculating" about a "potential setting." Also, the breeches-and-powdered-wig era would likely be much less appealing to 21st-century gamers than the original's medieval environs.

536 Comments

  • tableto

    Posted Nov 23, 2009 1:28 am GMT

    Hope it will be good.

  • Madmaker11

    Posted Sep 22, 2009 5:31 pm GMT

    errentos,you,my friend,are a complete idiot,Altair is right,face it.....

  • errentos

    Posted Jun 28, 2009 4:19 am GMT

    Going back to altairs comment [although i dont know why i bother] about the priory of sion templars, I think that he has been watching too much da vinci code, a work of fiction, and not enough reading of the Freemasonic bible, and the freemason's emulation manual. Did you know that the Freemasons house over 80% of the worlds superbrands and largest companies, such as Ubisoft I might add, and in the seventies, in England they started a dangerous conspiricy, by using the mebers of the police force to their own advantage, and the connection i have with the brotherhood is through the police.

  • EL1CHEF

    Posted May 4, 2009 4:26 pm GMT

    GOOD GAME

  • errentos

    Posted Apr 10, 2009 2:58 am GMT

    I've just watched the trailer for assassins creed 2, to watch it go on http://www.assassinscreed.com

  • errentos

    Posted Apr 9, 2009 1:57 pm GMT

    you don't know what they are shamarke? [sigh] I have a lot of work to do...

  • shamarke

    Posted Apr 6, 2009 6:40 pm GMT

    illuminati freemason???:S

  • errentos

    Posted Apr 3, 2009 10:45 am GMT

    You know, I've sent you a message

  • --ALTAIR--

    Posted Mar 30, 2009 11:01 am GMT

    Jacques de Molay was the last "grand maestre"...

    Did you just send me a web address with a documentary? And... Do you really believe that web page of Templars is for real?

    Templars, Hospitalers and Teutonic were different orders, however all of them used the eight-pointed red cross, not the "maltese cross". Philippe IV tried to fuse them to destroy the Templars and keep with their richness, he was in a big financial trouble in all France.

    Get this kid, do not come to me with that kind of senseless things for retarded people. What are you trying to do? Impress me? Review your history lessons and then we talk. Do not investigate in the net, use books, real info.

    I'll give you a last opportunity to contact me, I think this is worthless... Anyway...

    Oh!!! And stop saying deceits, you are going to get in a real problem.

    See you around then...

  • errentos

    Posted Mar 28, 2009 2:17 pm GMT

    This is Jacob's ladder, it shows the order of rank in the freemasons, at he top, the order of the knights templar consists of the order of the temple, which were the Templar knights you have to assassinate, I believe there were mainly seven council members, the order of malta were the Hospitaliers, set up in malta as a hospitable organisation, the St. Johns Ambulance you may have noticed (If you're English) bears the same emblem, the maltese cross.

  • errentos

    Posted Mar 28, 2009 2:05 pm GMT

    by the way Grand master of the freemasons was once King Solomon http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwdP2Cf_knA

  • errentos

    Posted Mar 28, 2009 2:01 pm GMT

    I am no ghost, maybe something closer to God. ha ha.
    but seriously: This is not a crime, this is serious busyness and some would say quite dangerous, who knows what the Freemasons truly do in there ever-so-secret meetings.
    In their public figure, they are a charitable organisation, however there are thousands of conspiracies about them. oh, if you want to keep in contact more confidentially we need each others emails or something like that.oh and check this out:
    http://www.templars.org.uk/

  • --ALTAIR--

    Posted Mar 26, 2009 11:26 am GMT

    Evidence...? Well, errentos, that would be something that I really want to see...

    First of all this is not a game, if you really have some connection with the Freemasons and you can tell me that, then you are ghost, otherwise you can't be for real or exist... Literally. Do you know what I mean?

    Be careful with this kind of bluffing stuff... Want to show me the light or do you want to keep seeing the light? Want to exchange information? Let's make contact...

    MGS4 Rocks? No no no no... I think you are missing the point here... Snake doesn't steal or climb... He isn't an assassin... Got it...

    For further contact, let me know, errentos...

    Thanks.

  • errentos

    Posted Mar 23, 2009 12:46 pm GMT

    Sorry altair but I have some connection with the freemasons and I can tell you that the Templars still exist, the army of templars do not exist however the knights Templar still do.
    Hey, I'll even send you evidence if you give me your email adress, you a Mason? Either you are higher than master mason and so are protecting the orginisation or you just don't like the idea of the templars still existing. whatever you be I would be glad to show you the light. shame, now we're changing the subject a little, ah well. MGS4 Rocks.

  • --ALTAIR--

    Posted Mar 19, 2009 12:07 pm GMT

    Hello... Anybody out there?

    Come on, for all the people who said that the "French Revolution" would be a good time to continue with the origins of the game, I'll give you an advice: Try to see over your noses...

    You guys obviously have to review your history lessons, because the "Templars" do not exist anymore, that it's because the pope Clement V ordered to annihilate all the knights because they were increasing their power and that represented a menace to the church. Anyway, the "Priory of Sion" were part of the Templars and continue at nowadays, despite of the Templar's annihilation in 1314 AD, that's what Errentos refer as "highest rank in the Freemasons".

    - Has been 8 crusades in the history in many different places like Constantinople, Dammietta and Cairo in Egypt and Italy and France as countries were involved too. The last crusade ended in 1270.
    - Templars Order were destroyed in 1314 AD.
    - Happened the Fall of Acre.
    - Mongolians and Mamelukes were implicate.

    More things happened and for Ubisoft this could be a great material to use in the next game.

    For Ubisoft you should keep with the original story be cause Altaïr Ibn La-Ahad is the star of the game, who doesn't want to be Altaïr? And another important thing is that remember that he obtained the "artifact" and he wrote in the last chapter that he was really attracted to that strange artifact, he didn't destroyed it, he said that he would keep it to see what happened next...

    I wrote about the 8 crusades be cause you have many time to continue with this in the game, besides Altaïr was a kid with no more than 24 years old.

    Do what the people unexpected and surprise them. Do not let go the original story changing the time or age what is expected for all the users. Don't disappoint the audience with un solving about what happened with Altaïr. Remember that he is the hero and an amazing and enveloping character which many of us identified.

    - Use medieval stages, think about Rome, climbing in the Coliseum or fighting even better.
    - Don´t let the game being repetitive, this is very important be cause this kills the game absolutely.
    - Let the Altaïr's character do more stealth movements like kill with his bare hands, drag and hide the bodies to avoid alert the guards and giving him chances to escape, add also secret places to explore.
    - Let him interact with the people, like talk and do favours to win money for let him buy or sell or even exchange some weapons.
    - I particularly liked that you can steal, keep whit this mode with more variety of things to stealing and different modes to do it.
    - A very important thing is that you should let the character get in the buildings, opening and closing doors to give more variety of actions to the game and doing it less repetitive.
    - Do not forget to let him swim and dive for a short period attaching to the reality for give him another way to escape when he's detected.

    Well, the people who works in Ubisoft most been genius, so I could be wrong, but I think this advices maybe make better the experience game play and who knows? This could let you and opportunity to make a trilogy, which let to change the time of the game in the next sequels if that's what you really want. Personally I try to keep with the story to then let a great and unexpected ending with the future main character who is Altaïr's descendant named Desmon Miles. But don't let unsolved what happened with the artifact and most important... with Altaïr.

    Thanks

  • NewbieDeMentor

    Posted Mar 15, 2009 9:21 pm GMT

    French Revolution era?

    Right on! Something REALLY different for a game environment. And we could learn a little history that most of us aren't too familiar with.

    Although I gotta say, so long as it is equal to (ideally, even betters) the original, it will be an absolutely awesome game not matter where, and in which time period, its located.

  • errentos

    Posted Mar 4, 2009 12:53 pm GMT

    Sorry Punkrockernik, but the Knights Templar still exist, the Order of Templar is the highest rank in the Freemasons.

    French revolution. I suppose that would be a good time, the Nepolionic war would have been better for me, but I guess there wasn't much assassination back then. Like EvrenDawn said, guns were quite primitive back then, well the first rifles were only just being invented and introduced, so the only guns in use would be the 2 shot per minute muskets that didn't usually shoot strait be cause they didn't revolve, and flintlock pistols only really worked once (If they worked at all) before a long reloading session, so guns wouldn't be that big, you'd only have to fire once before it would be out with the swords.
    Wouldn't it be funny, a hidden pistol. haha.
    The French revolution would be a brilliant time in my opinion. If not then then perhaps sometime like Ancient Roman times, one of the targets could be Julius Caesar ha.
    I also once had an idea that it could be set in England after the crusades, in key places back then like York, Lincoln and Nottingham. Ha! Robin Hood could be a contact, he was a crusader in the Holy land. Or it could be based in the fourth crusade, in Constantinople.
    The possibilities are endless...

  • EvrenDawn

    Posted Feb 19, 2009 12:40 pm GMT

    Gun back then were quite primitive. So much so that a skilled swordsman like Altair (or his later reincarnation) would have no trouble besting in combat so long as he's faster.

  • instinctgamer54

    Posted Feb 14, 2009 10:48 pm GMT

    i agree with punkrockernick, there will be guns at that time and that would be a dumb idea to have it in that time (unless altair learns to use a gun lol)

  • punkrockernick

    Posted Feb 8, 2009 9:08 am GMT

    I doubt it'll be the French Revolution because things were just so different then. Guns obviously would play a big role, and the platforming mechanic would just seem out of place in 18th century France. With those two facts in mind it would be a completely different game than the original. I don't see how it would fit into the play-style. I doubt they'll be going back in time to the construction of the Great Pyramids or Rome because the main antagonists, The Templars, didn't exist before the Crusades. As for the Far East, I also doubt it because there really wasn't a cultural connection between these two places until the 1500s and the age of exploration. Staying in the Holy Land would probably be a good plan because historically the Knights Templar were disbanded in 1312.

  • samiup

    Posted Feb 2, 2009 8:57 am GMT

    France renaissance time is good but not as good as the Jerusalem neighborhood.
    they will have to compensate with other things, otherwise its gonna be a failure or in the best case just an ok game... at least comparing to the massive success of the first one.

  • GTAfan88

    Posted Jan 31, 2009 12:16 pm GMT

    it would be nice to have him not in one place but all over the world doing deeds for his bosses china russia arabia the caribean south america and us western europe etc but int he 18th century that way gunpowder horses and swords are involved

  • ZachBobBob

    Posted Jan 23, 2009 4:28 pm GMT

    they should set it in the roman empire or china. i think. da french rev. remineds me too much of acre

  • Outlaw-X13

    Posted Jan 23, 2009 1:26 pm GMT

    Sounds good!

  • WizengamotX

    Posted Jan 23, 2009 12:28 pm GMT

    I would enjoy an eighteenth century setting.

  • vietboi89

    Posted Jan 23, 2009 12:05 am GMT

    i hope everyone has a french accent that would be awesomely hilarious

  • sherif77

    Posted Jan 22, 2009 10:36 pm GMT

    I would recommend Egypt over France. I could just picture climbing the pyramid, or witnessing them get built. That would be great. I am sure they could build a huge story around that time. Maybe this time would be with the chick that was in the first game and helped put us to sleep

  • rvd123

    Posted Jan 21, 2009 5:18 pm GMT

    hope it good as the first one

  • Halo_Gears_COD

    Posted Jan 21, 2009 1:23 pm GMT

    no way they btter not do it in france that would just be boring. they should do it somewhere more fun. But if it's anything close to the first one i will buy it!!!

  • Mottus

    Posted Jan 21, 2009 1:29 am GMT

    The first one was good.
    I hope they don't screw up the second.
    France might be all right..

  • bluefishhead

    Posted Jan 20, 2009 3:24 pm GMT

    ac1 was good, for about 3 hours, if they can get a good variety of gameplay and just make the game a little harder, then they will have made a game i will certainly enjoy, i loved the first one until i got bored of gathering infomration on where to perform the assassination, this was a good concept, just not very well executed, the physics etc, were amazing and doing the first 5 or 6 asssassinations was terrificly xciting, but after that the blandness set in....

  • Darth_Pietrus

    Posted Jan 20, 2009 1:12 pm GMT

    Woah they might actually do this, I thought the whole idea of AC2 was just bogus.

  • NEOGRA

    Posted Jan 19, 2009 8:20 am GMT

    wat is this

  • Xzakuter

    Posted Jan 15, 2009 4:30 pm GMT

    looking forward to it. hope it's like part 1 or even better!

  • spider-manfan45

    Posted Jan 14, 2009 7:43 pm GMT

    um Mr hotbodyboy_2006 its made the same people who made the 3D prince of Persia.

  • mojo_man86

    Posted Jan 12, 2009 4:03 pm GMT

    hope it will be good.!

  • zakryah

    Posted Jan 10, 2009 7:35 am GMT

    Prince of Persia can suck my !)!>

  • socal982

    Posted Jan 9, 2009 8:38 pm GMT

    I couldn't get into this game, I really couldn't.

  • hotbodyboy_2006

    Posted Jan 8, 2009 11:23 am GMT

    ahh, the prince of persia rip off is back. "Great"

  • imawsomeness

    Posted Jan 7, 2009 7:04 pm GMT

    tee-hee fort ''cum''

  • cheatspy

    Posted Jan 7, 2009 6:38 pm GMT

    fort "cum" prison i mean come on thats freiking hilarious. Why the french revoulotion anyway. Are we going to be running around with a musket and have to reload for five minutes after every shot!

  • Pfilosophy

    Posted Jan 7, 2009 12:40 am GMT

    "Also, the breeches-and-powdered-wig era would likely be much less appealing to 21st-century gamers than the original's medieval environs."

    Yes, but how excited were people for a game set during the Crusades before AC? The Jacobims were crazy - if this is set in Versailles in 1789, I think it could work out real well.

  • zurco

    Posted Jan 3, 2009 4:44 pm GMT

    I second bobbyrk. This article didn't further my understanding of AC2. All it did my increase my anxiety for it.

  • Vito-Tarantino

    Posted Jan 2, 2009 5:57 am GMT

    I cant see how the game would be set in the past again... surely it would pick up where it left off with Desmond escaping and trying to stop the Templars from launching the sattelite with the pieces of eden. I want to know how that ends lol. Also there is a comic that apparently got leaked from a game show that hints at the story of Assassin's Creed 2 and it shows clips of Altair and the Desmond trying to escape. Search it in google.

  • bobbyrk

    Posted Jan 1, 2009 6:05 pm GMT

    You guys have to understand - this Michael Pachter doesn't work for Ubisoft or any other game company - unless Ubisoft told him he could state what time the sequel would be in, which I highly doubt - he doesn't know jack about when the game is gonna be set.

    Wedbush Morgan is an investment banking and brokerage firm.

    Seriously people, read the article thoroughly - it even states he's speculating. You know what a speculation is? A theory, a guess, a conjecture. You know what the first definition of conjecture is? The formation or expression of an opinion or theory without sufficient evidence for proof.

  • alien100000

    Posted Dec 31, 2008 10:12 pm GMT

    Sounds good. Can't wait

  • Han411

    Posted Dec 31, 2008 7:46 pm GMT

    can't wait for sequel

  • pesa11

    Posted Dec 31, 2008 5:30 am GMT

    yessssss! finally i've been waiting 4 no2 to come out .the first one, the ending is like earrrrh! waiting,wondering like a dumb man.good game thought

  • kingcrow1

    Posted Dec 30, 2008 10:58 am GMT

    i think this time perod couldnt be better for an assassin but i want to be able to get thrown in jail if you surrender a fight and senteced to death then try to escape.
    oh and you wont get to play as mr miles untill the end of the trilligy sorry sasa_furian

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