Why Assassin’s Creed is Great for Learning History

6 min readAug 5, 2020

Figure 1. Assassin’s Creed synchronized screenshot. Source: Ubisoft

“History is our playground.” That was one of the opening sentences in 2012’s Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation by video game developer and publisher, Ubisoft. Video games today are still primarily consumed as an entertainment product. Despite this, some video games, and in this case video games with rich historical context, rise above others as being more than just mere entertainment.

This article will examine what Assassin’s Creed is and why it is great for learning history. It will also look at how it does so through the story, characters, environments and how it mash up together to deliver a engaging and fun experience that makes history a more enjoyable subject. It will also highlight some area of improvements the series can take.

It should be noted that while Assassin’s Creed strives to be as authentic as possible when it comes to environmental details, video games have their own sets of limitations and challenges. It does not make sense for virtual location to be one-hundred percent accurate, geographically or otherwise (compared to something like Google Earth).

For example, in open-world games such as Assassin’s Creed, locations might need to be compressed to make in-game traversal more manageable or buildings could be placed closer than in real-world to make jumping from one building to another possible. Props such as advertisement posters, signage, and other decors might be fictionalized as well due to copyright/legal issue, or that there is no known sources (such as photographs or paintings) of how a specific place looks liked at that time.

The main idea of these games is to deliver the feeling of being in a particular time and place which in a way, they can be compared to historical films or a stage plays — fictional stories/retelling of stories told of a real time period, about a real world location.

Assassin’s Creed series (2007 — present)

Figure 2. Timeline of all *Assassin’s Creed* games, both main games and spin-offs, showing their date of release as well as their settings in terms of historical date, time period, and location. Image source: VALUE foundation. Used in journal article: “History Is Our Playground”: Action and Authenticity in Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey

The Assassin’s Creed series originated as a Prince of Persia sequel, where it eventually developed into its own franchise. In each of the games (the mainline entries at least), you play as a fictional character (usually a member of the “Assassin Brotherhood”) inside a simulation called the “Animus” with each game featuring their own time period and location. The unique thing about the Assassin’s Creed series is that the time period and historical settings are all based on real historical facts, and extensive research has gone into recreating them. The effort can be seen from Ubisoft hiring of actual historians and behind-the-scene work that goes into each of their projects.

Figure 2. Assassin’s Creed II protagonist Ezio listening to Leonardo. Source: Ubisoft — Figure 3. Assassin’s Creed II protagonist Ezio listening to Leonardo. Source: Ubisoft

Story and Characters

All of the games features real historical characters as well, and it is amusing to see them get integrated to the fictional tale of the Assassin verse the Templar. For example, Leonardo da Vinci (figure 3) appears as a support character in Assassin’s Creed II and Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, where he will create and upgrade weapons for the main character. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (2018) and Assassin’s Creed Origins (2017), the first two games chronologically in the series timeline (figure 2), contains numerous major historical figures such as Pythagoras, Hippokrates, Sokrates, Cleopatra, and Julius Caesar, and are artfully woven into the the games’ fictional narrative.

The games’ stories and missions often intersect with real historical events as well, such as in earlier games where the assassination of real historical characters roughly correspond to their actual death date. Later games such as Odyssey take a more liberal approach, such as Perikles being assassinated by Odyssey’s main antagonist Deimos instead of dying from the Plague of Athens, although he is shown to be ill and affected by the plague in the game.

Environments and Settings

The level of details in the games’ historical buildings, structures and landscape deserve a mention as well. From the vast ocean and islands of the Caribbean, to the colonial city of 18th century New Orleans, Ubisoft spare no expanses in recreating iconic environments that span over the course of human civilizations. An example can be seen in Notre Dame Cathedral in Assassin’s Creed Unity, with the level artist Caroline Miousse taking two years to recreate the iconic cathedral both inside and out.

In Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, which take place in Victorian London, the game unitize a traffic system that mimics the real world as horse carriages are available as a travel option. In this GDC video, Ubisoft’s Damien Bastian talk about the technical aspect of bringing that world to life through their in-house development toolset, which helps to produce “road mesh generation, creation and placement of buildings, and sidewalk decoration”. While the generic buildings such as residential buildings might not be accurate to the real world, it nevertheless are true to the spirit of that time and makes creating and playing the game possible (although not always perfect), especially with the series infamous development cycle.

Little details such as sea shanties from Assassin’s Creed Black Flag also adds to the authenticity of the game.

Some of the earlier games also contain database entries where player could read up more on a particular historical person or building. These provide fun little tidbits of information while taking a break from the exploration and combat. Some of the games’ entries also feature interesting comments from the games’ characters which make them even more entertaining to read.

Discovery Tour

Adding toppings to the cake is the implementation of the Discovery Tour mode for Assassin’s Creed Origins and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. Not wanting to waste the efforts of the developers, the studio created a free update to the base game (also available as a standalone software) where players can freely explore the combat-free vast world of ancient Egypt (Origins) and ancient Greece (Odyssey) at their own leisure. One main feature is the Guided Tours, which walk you through many of the locations in the game while a voiceover explains the different aspect of life in ancient Egypt and ancient Greece. The tours are also supplemented with photos of related artwork or artefacts to give context to the players. In a way, this mode function similarly to a virtual museum.

Areas for Improvements

There are rooms for improvement however. While the game feature many period-appropriate art, culture, architecture and weaponry, it still lacks in many key areas, mainly food, flora and fauna.

While food of a specific period and place is sorely lacking, attempts were at least made for flora and fauna. It would be nice to integrate the exact plants species into the environment and highlight unique and special plants (perhaps through a side-mission). Opportunities should be provided with additional information to learn more about them (such as the aforementioned database entries).

Animals have made numerous appearances in the series as props, enemies and allies (horses and eagles), but they felt generic and flat. It was also a missed opportunity for Origins and Odyssey as these games allow you to tame most of the animals in the wild to fight by your side. Although to expect the series to be as informative as a game like Animal Crossing would perhaps be too much, as the player is playing as an assassin, not a zoologist or botanist.

Conclusion

There is merit in the use of storytelling elements in video games which makes learning certain historical facts more effective. The combination of detailed settings, plot, characters can really immerse you and makes learning more fun and engaging, while the Discovery Tour mode allows for the games to be used in a school, especially for kids that are not old enough for games’ age rating.

The main challenge at the end of the day is to be able to tell the differences between fact and fiction (no, George Washington did not become king).