Task 1.5 - Relationship between modern practice and historical sources (2/2)

Assassin’s Creed

Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines - Bird's eye view

Assassin’s Creed is a game with a mixture of action and adventure in recreations of Italian historical cities, which is based on the Renaissance period (late 15th century). It revolves around a man who is captured by Knights Templar. By using a machine known as the Animus, he is forced to relive his ancestors’ memories who were assassins. It is mainly filmed in Rome and Venice and some chapters include the Palace of Lorenzo de’ Medici who was an Italian political leader during the Renaissance period. Assassins really existed in the Twelfth Century and the action takes place during the Third Crusade (1189–1192).

In the game one travels in real cities such as Damascus, Acre and Jerusalem. The creator stated that he wanted to keep the historical aspect but also adding some style and a number of details giving the game a god sense of depth. The character team used a number of 3D software programs such as Autodesk and MotionBuilder to create high-resolution models.

This game took inspiration from specific movies such as ‘Kingdom of Heaven’. Major places such as ‘The Dome of the Roc’ and ‘The Holy Sepulchre Church’ in Jerusalem are also recreated with extreme detail. The buildings have different play points since all of them are fully climbable by the Assassin character.

The following is a summary of an interview with the Assassin's Creed 2 creative director, Patrice Désilets by Ludwig Kietzmann  on Jun 10th 2009. I found these points relative since the director explains how there is a relationship between interactive media and historical sources. According to Désilets, the game consists mainly of realism (Italian historical cities - Venice).

Interviewer: "So, you are going back in time and you have all these locations that are fairly realistic, right?"

Patrice Désilets : "Yes."

"But where do you draw the line with realism? Where can you break the rules?"

"We are always asking ourselves that question, you know? For sure, the official answer is: fun is always first. But sometimes historical matters will bring you fun also. I like to say that histories are licensed. So, yes we can take some liberties, but not too much, otherwise ... what's the point, right? For example, we had a big debate at work about the Rialto Bridge in Venice. "

"Oh?"

"Rialto Bridge, historically, at the time of making our game, wasn't wood, it wasn't the bridge that you can see now in Venice. That was in 1586, if I remember correctly. So, it's roughly 100 years later. They were talking about doing the bridge like that, but all the political people couldn't agree upon how to make a bridge, and that's why it was still in wood -- and we are making it in wood. We could have taken the decision, saying, "Oh, let's do the bridge and everybody understands or sees or knows that." But what's the point in going there and saying we're historically accurate if we're not? But other times, you know, the flying machine never flew."

"Right."

"It was only a drawing. Sometimes we are going into the what ifs. Because Assassin's Creed is also about telling you what isn't written in the historical books. So it's always a balance between the two." (Kietzmann L., 2009)

Bibliography: 

BusinessWire, 2014. Ubisoft® Uses Autodesk Games Technology in Ubisoft “Assassin’s Creed® Brotherhood” Production Pipeline. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20101123006567/en/Ubisoft%C2%AE-Autodesk-Games-Technology-Ubisoft-%E2%80%9CAssassin%E2%80%99s-Creed%C2%AE.. [Accessed 03 March 2014].

Keitzmann L., 2009. Interview: Assassin's Creed 2 creative director, Patrice Désilets. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/10/interview-assassins-creed-2-creative-director-patrice-desilet/. [Accessed 03 March 2014].

Ubisoft, 2014. Assassin's Creed. [ONLINE] Available at:http://assassinscreed.ubi.com/en-gb/home/. [Accessed 03 March 2014].

Total War: Rome II

Total War: Rome II is developed by The Creative Assembly and published by Sega. It was released for Microsoft Windows in September 2013 and it is the most popular within other games in Total War series.

The campaign begins in Rome in 272BC.  Rome has powerful empires with various strengths and opportunities. It includes different terrain; from deserts in the Sahara to forests in the North (as stated in CVG interview below). It is approximately three hours long where the player has to organize troops and use special units.

Rome II - Naval Battle

According to an interview with the creative director, Mike Simpson stated that “Rome II was hugely ambitious for our studio.” (IGN Entertainment, Inc.,1996-2014).

The following is an interview with The Creative Assembly's Jamie Ferguson where he explains what Rome II is all about; therefore the relationship between modern practice and historical sources.

CVG: "Rome II is your biggest game yet - not only in terms of budget (up 40% from TW: Shogun 2), but in terms of the overall playing area, we're told?"

FURGUSON: "That's right - in terms of environments we stretch all the way from Spain right out to Afghanistan, Scotland and down to Saudi Arabia and the Horn of Africa. With an entire continent to represent, we had to be sure to include all the different terrain you might encounter. So you'll see deserts, forests in the north, rolling planes to the east and when you reach the Lavant [modern day Slovenia] you'll encounter some very harsh terrain."

FURGUSON: "ELEPHANTS WERE USED BY THE CARTHAGINIANS, WHO HAVE ACCESS TO A WIDE VARIETY OF MERCENARY UNITS"

CVG: "What other lengths do you go to to ensure historical accuracy?"

"All of those elements actually make for perfect gameplay and that's how we actually bring the history into the game, and how the game is formed by the history.

WE GO THROUGH ALL THE HISTORY BOOKS AND READ NOVELS ABOUT THAT PERIOD, AS WELL AS WATCH THINGS LIKE SPARTACUS AND ROME HBO" (CVG UK, 2013)

Bibliography: 

CVG UK, 2013. How history inspires gameplay in Rome 2 [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/421999/interviews/how-history-inspires-gameplay-in-rome-2/. [Accessed 19 May 2014].

IGN, 2014. Total War: Rome II Review [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/09/06/total-war-rome-2-review. [Accessed 19 May 2014].

Total War, 2014. Total War- Rome II. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.totalwar.com/en_us/rome2/. [Accessed 19 May 2014].