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success is a testament to the fact that while history can be pushed through events and forces outside of human control , the emotions driving our narratives and connecting us to the past are not artificial . Rather , they are necessary to anchor us within our own predicament .
Time has allowed me to collect my memories and scrutinize my opinions . In all honesty , they haven ’ t changed very much . I always recognized the games were fictional at heart , and were not healthy substitutes to a well-written dose of nonfiction . Of course , certain technical aspects were annoying and criticism was commonly thrown at its merits as plain , time-sucking entertainment .
But what I admired most about Assassin ’ s Creed as a series was how each entry deftly manipulated historical elements for exciting , story-driven motives . That is how these games retain their defining charm . Now of course Leonardo da Vinci never flew a makeshift glider into the Palazzo Ducale . But he did draw a rudimentary design of it , and in the world of Assassin ’ s Creed II , that became as real as pigeon guano on Venetian docks . Elements like these allowed me to delve into differing realms of history with a newfound passion . I began to realize that historical topics did not need to be connected by bloodshed despite its apparent omnipresence in most human drama . These games are no exception , but were only richer for it because they explored annals of history often overshadowed by war . Without the soil of Assassin ’ s Creed , fertilized with both imagination and reality , I doubt my love of history would have grown as stoutly and sternly as it did . No entry in the series did this better than Assassin ’ s Creed : Revelations ( 2011 ), which capped Ezio ’ s story , seeing him as an aged man seeking wisdom through a journey eastward . Through carefully placed flashbacks , Altair also returned from the original game , adding a circular , reflective tone that brought characters
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