Assassin's Creed III Alternate History DLC Is Canon

Marshall Honorof

New member
Feb 16, 2011
2,200
0
0
Assassin's Creed III Alternate History DLC Is Canon


An evil King Washington and Native American superpowers fit into the story.

After the Revolutionary War, there was a great deal of concern that next DLC pack [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbRom1Rz8OA]. If you follow the series, you probably already knew that, but here's what's new: The Tyranny of King Washington will be a canonical part of the Assassin's Creed story - and protagonist Connor will get some Native American superpowers, to boot.

Since the Assassin's Creed story has generally cleaved to real history as closely as possible, making a fictional scenario part of the overarching narrative may sound strange. Marc-Alexis Côté, ACIII's director, promises that Ubisoft's commitment to historical accuracy hasn't changed in spite of some DLC weirdness. "By the end of the last episode you will see how this relates to Connor and the real George Washington," he says. "This experience is canon." As with most Assassin's Creed games, The Tyranny of King Washington will invite players to solve a meta-mystery about the story by hunting down glitches in the Animus: the sci-fi system which allows series protagonist Desmond to relive the memories of his ancestors. "[Solving the mystery] requires an investment from the player to discover and to believe that answer."

Since the DLC is already playing fast and loose with historical fact, it will also grant Connor some unusual superpowers along the way. These superhuman abilities are rooted in Iroquois myth: a wolf cloak of invisibility, flying like an eagle, and short-distance teleportation (although this writer is not sure which native story involves the last one). Connor will gain these powers after a hearty swig of hallucinogenic tea, which a Native American consultant deemed less offensive than a trip to the sky world by way of animal-inscribed spirit stones. "It's something that we've been really sensitive to throughout the development of the game, respecting the culture of the people we portray," insists Coté.

Coté explains that the rationale behind this story won't just be "it was all just a dream [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AllJustADream ]," so players who invest in all three DLC installments should get an interesting resolution. Experiments like this are arguably one of the reasons why Assassin's Creed works better as a hybrid sci-fi/history story rather than just one or the other, but it will be a few months before gamers can gauge the quality of this unusual twist.

Source: Eurogamer [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-02-15-assassins-creed-3s-wacky-the-tyranny-of-king-washington-dlc-features-superpowers-hallucinogens-and-an-alternate-history-storyline]

Permalink
 

FFP2

New member
Dec 24, 2012
741
0
0
Blablahb said:
You can't even make a videogame without incurring the wrath of militant ethnic extremists unless you obey their list of things which are forbidden and censored to mention or depict.
Yeah. Why would any minority not want to be misrepresented? They just love people incorrectly assuming shit about them.

OT: I kinda like that they're going a Saints Row kinda route. Hopefully it will have a lighthearted tone; it's hard to imagine George taking a teleporting Connor seriously.

Will it take place in new areas? 'Cause the Boston & NY lag like crazy on the PC version.
 

Omeene

New member
Oct 14, 2009
18
0
0
Blablahb said:
"which a Native American consultant deemed less offensive than a trip to the sky world by way of animal-inscribed spirit stones"

That little sentence should tell us something about the extent to which political correctness and closely asociated to that, anti-white racism among some minorities, has poisoned even the business climate.

You can't even make a videogame without incurring the wrath of militant ethnic extremists unless you obey their list of things which are forbidden and censored to mention or depict.
Or it could be an extreme simplification of a group's cultural elements that one finds offensive? What does it have to do with "anti-white racism"? That is like calling the outrage about the SMITE game "anti-white racism". People don't like cultural aspects, even if they are mainly traditional now, being overly-simplified and often misused for commercial purposes.

And they never forbidden it or censored it, they just said it would be less offensive (The standard of offensive was never even mentioned either, was the consultant saying that "Yeah, if you use this...some more traditionalist native groups could be offended, but if you go the tea route, very little chance of someone getting offended" or saying, "This is offensive to native American culture and shouldn't be used!".

Seriously mate, do you think if the development team was majority African-American, the consultant would say something different. "Yeah, if white people did this story-telling aspect, we would be all ticked off...but you know, minority bro-code!"
 

GonzoGamer

New member
Apr 9, 2008
7,063
0
0
So Connor has some peyote that gives him superpowers.
Then in a drug fueled haze, knocks off power crazy Washington and replaces him with Adam Weishaupt. How very Illuminatiey.

Blablahb said:
"which a Native American consultant deemed less offensive than a trip to the sky world by way of animal-inscribed spirit stones"

That little sentence should tell us something about the extent to which political correctness and closely asociated to that, anti-white racism among some minorities, has poisoned even the business climate.

You can't even make a videogame without incurring the wrath of militant ethnic extremists unless you obey their list of things which are forbidden and censored to mention or depict.
Yea facing the near extinction of their entire race can make some people testy. Who knew?
It doesn't sound like any Native Americans drew a line in the sand in this case, but I can understand if they did.
Personally, I commend the devs for taking Native American sensibilities more seriously than paranoid parent sensibilities, when deciding between cultural BS hocus pocus, and culturally accurate hallucinogenic use.
 

Musicfreak

New member
Jan 23, 2009
197
0
0
WTF. As someone who skipped revelations and Brotherhood because I was tired of the franchise and then picked up 3 I was immediately struck by how bizarre the story had become. You certainly can't start the series with 3 and hope to have any idea whats going on. At least then it still was mostly keeping to historical accuracy now its just gone completely off the rails. I was excited when they announced this dlc because it sounded really fun but i didn't think it was going to be cannon. And Superpowers???? An invisibility cloak, the ability to fly, teleportation, WTF is that shit. This is the 1700s what bullshit are they going to use to justify that? With each successive game assassins creed gets farther and farther away from what I liked about the first one.
 

Zydrate

New member
Apr 1, 2009
1,914
0
0
Part of what I liked most about the AC series is that it tiptoed around the truth with class.

This kind of shoots that in the foot.
 

Scribblesense

New member
Jan 30, 2013
169
0
0
I really hope that the next Assassin's Creed is silly sci-fi weirdness like this. I got tired of running around historical locales a while ago.

What I'd love to see them do is introduce a spin-off series that goes the alternate history route, and keep the main series as the historically accurate one. Like with Modern Warfare and Black Ops. They're going to be releasing AC games annually until the heat death of the universe anyhow, might as well make some interesting.
FFP2 said:
Will it take place in new areas? 'Cause the Boston & NY lag like crazy on the PC version.
They originally planned to release Philadelphia as a major city along with Boston and New York, but cut it because the grid layout of the city made it too boring to explore. It's why you just occasionally show up in Independence Hall throughout the game. Point being, it was the capital of the United States before DC, so it would make sense for Washington to set up his reign there.

They could reuse the art they had already developed and make it "interesting" enough to explore since they don't have to stick to an accurate depiction. There's no guarantee that Philly will make it into the game with this DLC, but it seems likely and I really hope it does.
 

Scrythe

Premium Gasoline
Jun 23, 2009
2,367
0
0
I don't know what the issue concerning canon is supposed to be, considering that Ubisoft has established that George Washington gets ahold of an Apple of Eden way back in Assassin's Creed II.

Oh... I know where the confusion lies: side quests.

You'd be surprised how many people don't know of any of the reveals from the AC2 and AC:B side quests.

- Subject 16 being a direct descendant of Adam and Eve
- George Washington, Napleon Bonaparte, Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler and more get ahold of Apples
- Yes, Churchill and Hitler. They were in cahoots, apparently.
- Joan of Arc's sword and Excalibur were a piece of Eden
- The Papal Staff is a Piece of Eden
- The Shroud of Turin is a Piece of Eden
- A shitload more. Seriously, just glance at the wiki
 

Carrots_macduff

New member
Jul 13, 2011
232
0
0
Daystar Clarion said:
Superpowers?

Because the combat wasn't already as easy as mashing counter while blindfolded ¬_¬
in ac3 you need to press 2 buttons one after another to counter, instead of two at a time. much more challenging :p

actually invisibility would be great in ac3 since all the gaurds can see you from miles away.

flight would be pretty neat too since they ruined free running, cause of the huge gaps between buildings and whatnot. seriously think about how much time you spend running across open ground compared to all the other games. i was so dissapointed by this game and i wont be buying any assassins creed stuff unless im positive i will like it.
 

GAunderrated

New member
Jul 9, 2012
998
0
0
Zydrate said:
Part of what I liked most about the AC series is that it tiptoed around the truth with class.

This kind of shoots that in the foot.
Same here I liked how they tried not to grossly misrepresent certain areas but now this DLC is just telling me to not buy and wait for the youtube videos to find out how they went full retard.
 

FFP2

New member
Dec 24, 2012
741
0
0
Scribblesense said:
They originally planned to release Philadelphia as a major city along with Boston and New York, but cut it because the grid layout of the city made it too boring to explore. It's why you just occasionally show up in Independence Hall throughout the game. Point being, it was the capital of the United States before DC, so it would make sense for Washington to set up his reign there.

They could reuse the art they had already developed and make it "interesting" enough to explore since they don't have to stick to an accurate depiction. There's no guarantee that Philly will make it into the game with this DLC, but it seems likely and I really hope it does.
Ahh, I did not know that. Though I wonder if their DLC budget is big enough to add in an entire city.

I just really hope that they make the free running as fun as it was in previous games.
 

Doclector

New member
Aug 22, 2009
5,010
0
0
Honestly, this being canon doesn't concern me as much as the mention of "episodes".

If they're reasonably priced, then fine. If not, then screw that. I'm not paying for a full DLC and only getting a part of it.
 

RicoGrey

New member
Oct 27, 2009
296
0
0
All good things must come to an end. If they don't they become convoluted, terrible, repetitive, and nonsensical. Just like every soap opera and every long running comic book series.

Once I learned this game doesn't really have an ending they are eventually shooting for(cause of episodic content) I lost all interest. You know it is just going to get dragged out until it doesn't make any sense, just like Lost or the X-Files.
 

Woodsey

New member
Aug 9, 2009
14,553
0
0
The entire series operates on the notion that half of history has been completely manipulated. I don't really see the issue in that regard.

Besides, I can't imagine anyone would buy it anyway, considering how fucking blergh AC3 is.