The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

I wouldn't mind playing as a female assassin either. The thing is, that would probably freak Desmond out. If they could get it to make sense, like put Lucy in the Animus while Desmond looks for a few Vaults, then I'd feel more comfortable. Nothing sexist here, just pointing out the awkwardness of re-living memories in your great-great-great-great-great-grandma's body if you're a dude.

Hi, JoeyFogey. I responded to your post, but I moved it to another topic in the "Other Gaming" forum, because I was going off the subject in my reply.

What's the shroud?? is it what makes Altairs armour so strong?

Nope. That's based on the Golden Fleece. The Shroud is the Shroud of Turin, which if you don't know was claimed to be the burial shroud of Jesus. The actual use/ability of the Shroud in the game is unknown, though it's rumored to be able to heal any wound/sickness, and even possibly raise the dead.

I think we just found Vault #1.

http://www.gamespot.com/images/6261329/assassins-creed-brotherhood-confi...

Check out the back cover of AC2B, I'm 99% sure that's the Acropolis. Stab, is there a confirmed PoE spot here?

No. There were no dots anywhere in Greece on the Piece of Eden maps in AC1 and AC2.

Perhaps it's one of the ancient temples of Those Who Came Before Minerva was talking about, and therefore, a Vault.

No, the dots shown in AC2 were temples and Stab just said there wasn't any on that map, was there?

it's been a long time since i played but i don't remember any dots in AC2, what map do you mean?

The map created by the Codex.

So I just took a look at the Truth again on youtube where I now have the ability to pause. Didn't really find anything interesting that we didn't already know about (overlooking Kilimanjaro, climbing up a Piece of Eden factory, Adam looks like Chuck Norris, etc.) except this: There's a number sequence at the end of the video that reads:

01000101
01000100
01000101
01001110

Nothing too big right? Well if you count the numbers there are a total of 20 zeros and 12 ones. 2012. A little bit interesting...

The binary translates to EDEN.

That's interesting. EDEN could be a red herring, or part of the mystery.

Well considering the artifacts are called "Pieces of Eden", and the binary shows up after the camera pans out to reveal the towers, I'd say it's a safe guess that it's talking about the Garden of Eden. Not to mention the whole Adam, Eve, and Apple bit.

Yeah, obviously it's not a serious red herring; but it has taken over half a year since the game came out for one of us to realise it's also 2012 which is another instrumental puzzle piece entirely.

Third Crusade, Italian Renaissance... Those are the events that we might not know.. how about the French Revolutionary?

Supposedly Ubisoft hired researchers with knowledge of that period a while back...but that's probably just a continuation of the baseless "AC2 in France" rumor. I think something to do with Conquistadors and South America might be more likely [considering Ezio's connection to Columbus, it would make sense, also the Nazca lines and Aztec pyramids in the vault/S16's murals].

Not to mention the Mayans....who created the Bakun long count calender that predicted the end of the world as being 21 December 2012. Perhaps the Mayans used a POE to see the future and saw the destruction of Earth by a solar flare on that date?

All the Mayan symbols and features make a Mayan setting seem likely. And I thought most people knew about the 2012 in the binary...? I really really want an Ancient Egyptian setting which was suggested in a piece of artwork mentioned somewhere on the site but it seems unlikely.

EDIT: Inside the Vault there were a few Egyptian depictions showing the human revolt against The Ones Who Came Before but I think they were just to show the history of the Pieces Of Eden

I'm glad you posted this topic. Here are some things that can be useful: At the end of ac1 it mentions stuff in the computer in the secret room such as the bleeding effect and "other artifacts". There could be other types of pieces of eden besides the apple and staff. And you know how there's a lineage of assassins? Well how about a lineage of templars? Just think about it, I noticed similarities between Al Mualim and Vidic in ac1; and in ac2 Vidic and the guy you kill in the Doge's palace. And for who you play I think you should have a choice between two people, a male or female assassin. They will both show up in scenes so it doesn't matter who you play. And it can either be two player co op or the other character can follow you like an ally. Everyone is happy that way.

Assuming that there was an Assassin ancestor of Desmond from the Mayan people, maybe that Assassin had the apple or another PoE that allowed them to see when the Templars would launch their satellite. Then they created the "doomsday calendar" for 2012.

I had already assumed Vidic was a descendant of Al Mualim due to the fact that they have virtually the same facial construction with the exception of Al Mualim's longer beard. It's harder to tell with Carlo Grimaldi, but there very well might be a connection there as well.

"That's interesting, the machine seems to be seeking out our DNA across time." "There's always a Vidic and there's always a Desmond"

But seriously, I never noticed the similarity of Carlo Grimaldi, but Vidic and Al Mualim is inescapable.

I believe that the temples Minerva mentions contain technology prevent this catostophic event(the polar flip which Lucy refers to) and the PoEs are needed to power that device. I say this cause i'm reminded of what S16 says, "the peices were once part of a whole". This could mean a lot of things but i think it means they need to collect all of the PoEs in one place.

There is one thing that i'm not entirely clear on. On the Codex map there are the dots which indicate the location of all the PoEs but there's also 8 assassin symbols on the map aswell. There was a theory that i read that these 8 symbols could mark the location of the other temples. There is also the 8 god statues found in Moneriggioni and one of those statues is of Minerva, it's possible that those other temples are connected to the other "gods".

I still wanna see an AC game in London in the late 1800's-early 1900's, but i have a feeling that guns will be extremely used if an AC game passes the 1600's. But I also want to see either an Egyptian-based AC or an American Revolutionary/Civil war AC.

The only place I can see the third one taking place in, is right before or during the american revolution. It just seems to make sense in my mind. The writers have done their homework on conspiracy theories, and freemasons often factor into quite a few of them. America is sometimes referred to as the masonic experiment, and they have ties in "theory" to both the templars and assassins. Here are a few things to keep in mind.

1) The war was fought for independence by men who valued liberty, instead of tyranny. Sounds like the assassins versus the templars and their goals in the game.

2) Many of the founding fathers were masons

3) What event happened in 1776 besides signing the DOI? The founding of the Bavarian Illuminati, who infiltrated the freemasons.

4) Guns were still muzzle loaded, so their wouldn't be a giant gap in gameplay. Brotherhood is supposed to have riflemen on the rooftops, so we can see how it works out.

5) The map on the codex, and Ezio mentioning the lands that "don't exist." Foreshadowing?

6) Didn't the iphone/ds games mention sailing west to the americas?

There are more I had thought of, but I am riding the NyQuil pony at the moment so my thought process is far from 100 percent.

p.s. Anybody notice the similarity between the assassins logo and the masonic square and compass?

solliz, you've done your homework. Great thinking!
I was liking assasino's idea of an 1800's London, and was very skeptical of the US. Now it all seems to fit pretty well after reading your theories. Also, I looked up the square and compass, and I think it would really fit well with the Assassins.

Characters like Jack the ripper, and the masonic theories around him, and spring heeled jack had me thinking about london for awhile, but didn't seem to fit in my noggin

Don't forget theres that supposed Templar treasure on Oak Island, Nova Scotia.

http://istina.rin.ru/eng/ufo/text/180.html

*The TL'DR version: theres this famous carving that some people worked out talked about Nova scotia, and there is supposed to be this really deep pit with this mechanism that when anyone tries to get into the pit, it floods with sea water, and there's conspiracy theories that the Holy Grail is at the bottom* That's the short version, I saw a History channel documentary that explained it a lot better and showed how ingenious the pit was supposed to be, and how some of the timbers holding up the pit have supposedly been carbon dated to the 12th century. Honestly, watch the History channel documentary if its on, it really makes you wonder what could possibly be at the bottom of the pit to require such protection.

There is also the supposed templar carved on some boulder in Massachussettes. I could see the game taking place in Boston, Philly, and New York/New Amsterdam. The cities would be big enough, and buildings tall enough for the assassin to climb and run around on. Plenty of fortifications to sneak into, and ships to swim out to. Besides, who wouldn't want to throw some tomahawks at a few red coats. The era is also full of interesting characters. I could even see Benedict Arnold as a target.

The biggest problem with American Revolution, in my opinion, is the lack of great big cities that could have free-roaming on the same level as Venice. Also, I believe the portable games only mentioned "sailing to America" because they featured Columbus.

New York, Philly and Boston would be large enough. The census taken bake then is really under reported as many people were avoiding being drafted into the kings army. You are starying at 10k- 15k per town. Granted, that is not huge, but it is easily enough to work with, besides, it's a game and a bit of exaggeration would be ok. The portable games may have featured Columbus, but AC2 didn't, and Ezio mentioned the lands that didn't exist. I may very well be wrong, I mean, who would have predicted italy, but america is my guess, and I'm sticking to it.

I'm to lazy to google, but anyone know the populations of Venice, Rome, florence, Acre, Jureaselm, and Damascus at their respective times in game?

One last rambling, I miss the kingdom of assassins creed, I want red coats roaming the roads between towns.

I think the problem with having the game during the American Revolution is that the environments are too one-dimensional. You have to remember that cities back then weren't that well developed, many of them were still just colonies. That figures to be roughly 20 one-story homes spread apart from each other with a church at one end (a viewpoint) and a government building at the other (location of target). If you thought AC1 was repetitive (I didn't, I'm just saying if YOU did), then you'd hate AC3 during the American Revolution.

Yeah. Plus I doubt a Montreal, France, and Singapore-based team of developers would want to make an American game if they didn't have to.

Personally, I've been thinking that a British Empire would be a great setting. Not just Victorian London, but London, India, Canada, Australia, or Egypt. It'd be a good way to get a bunch of settings that fans want out of the way [have London, Cairo, and Mumbai?] and would offer gameplay improvements that a just-England or just-Canada game couldn't.