The Future of Assassin’s Creed at UbiForward 2023 Part 4 - Assassin's Creed Mirage Gameplay Trailer Breakdown Share 18 Jun 2023 Written By: Edited By: Michael Smith Colum Blackett Back To Database Banner by Thea Marie Rivedal (Moonchildgecko) from TOWCB Art Team. Welcome to the forth and final part in our series breaking down all of the Assassin's Creed content presented at Ubisoft Forward 2023. In part four, we take a look at Assassin's Creed Mirage Gameplay Trailer reveal! Related articles: The Future of Assassin’s Creed at UbiForward 2023 Part 1 - Pre-Show & Assassin's Creed Nexus The Future of Assassin’s Creed at UbiForward 2023 Part 2 - Assassin's Creed Codename Jade The Future of Assassin’s Creed at UbiForward 2023 Part 3 - Assassin's Creed Mirage Story Trailer The AC Mirage Gameplay Walkthrough opens above the streets of Baghdad with what appears to be the Great Mosque of al-Mansur. The developers show with this space alone that the map of the round city of Baghdad has been changed for the game from its historical reference. This is mainly due to the space in the center of the city around the building being a lot more dense with flora and gardens, where in historical images, the space around was much more empty. Basim looks at a Wanted poster for himself that reads “Cutthroat (Killer/Murderer) Wanted for Justice”. These posters are part of the game’s notoriety system and the first time since Assassin’s Creed Revelations that we have had the multi-tier system. With previous trailers also showing city criers, we should see a similar system with posters, payoffs, and dispatching authoritative figures being the way to lower your wanted level in game. A short montage of scenes follow, with Basim running from the Caliphate, and parkouring over a stack of wood. A corner assassination where Basim helps align this guard's neck and drags his body away from view. Lastly, we see the Assassin performing a Leap of Faith from within the second ring of the city walls. Basim on horseback galloping through a flock of ostriches, a new animal in the Assassin’s Creed series. Could these animals provide crafting or trade materials? Their features, meat, and bone could provide monetary gain or be used for the blowgun we see later on, similar to the blow darts in AC IV: Black Flag. Basim runs across a rope over the streets. The layered carpets over and under the awning of this building could represent a shop, possibly the tailors for new outfit dyes, or maybe to get decorations for the bureau, like how Edward and Ezio would purchase art for their own bases. Basim rowing a wooden boat through the city canals with nearby civilians going on with their daily tasks. This image alone provides a great sense of the life that we will see in this dense city. Who knows what kind of chatter we will be able to hear and learn from. Rumors, arguments, comments? I think of Origins and the lines of dialogue that were recorded to make the city stand on its own. Basim takes a pause in front of the ziggurat of Dur-Kurigalzu , west of the city of Baghdad. While this may appear to be a large landmass, it actually housed a city with temples before being abandoned in the 12th Century BCE. Could we have an opportunity to explore the ruins, or will they be occupied by factions, or even the Order of the Ancients? This set of shots could be from the same scene, where Basim and friend Nehal appear one after the other. Is this a reunion? Basim standing behind the flame of a brazier is drawing the attention to him. Did he just appear before Nehal, and if so, is she happy to see him, or upset at seeing his Assassin’s garb? Is this where she asks, “Swallow your questions. Serve without complaint. Who is she to tell you when to strike?” that we heard in the story trailer? More combat between Basim and the Caliphate guards. Kicking one away and countering another with a spin, kicking up sand. How many counter animations will we get to see? Will the sand be used to blind opponents like in AC II? More scenes of Basim with one where he rolls over the back of a Caliphate, the counter roll that we used in Valhalla and the Hook and Run in Revelations. Lastly, Basim releases his hidden blade before launching into a sprint assassination on a Caliphate guard from behind, ending the pre-roll before the gameplay begins. Gameplay begins in the streets of Baghdad. Basim’s current mission: Branching Out (located in the top left corner) is wrapping up and Basim must report to Roshan to complete it. The lush greenery and flowers are giving life to the brown and tan colored city. In the Developer Gameplay Breakdown (DGB) ( link ) Art Director, Jean-Luc Sala & Creative Director, Stéphane Boudon describe Baghdad as a “garden city”. Basim parkours across the balconies and beams on the right of the screen, stopping on top of a decorative rope to assassinate a target before sprinting from the nearby alerted guards. In the third image above, we see the player HUD for the first time. (From L-R, top to bottom) We see the mission details again, then the compass in the top-center, the player Health/Stamina bars and what appears to be this game's “rations” icon, a health tonic. Lastly, in the lower right we see the wanted system with three stages “Aware”, “Range Attack” and “Combat”. While these names are not the official titles for the system, it provides an idea of what we can expect. At Stage 1, enemies will be aware of you, the red “!” icon at the top of the HUD activating. At Stage 2, range based enemies will start looking for you and attacking, and at Stage 3, you will be hunted by the Caliphate. Basim makes a hard turn down a side street and pulls down a scaffolding, an obstacle that players may remember from previous AC titles. This results in a cinematic camera angle where the collapse kicks up a cloud of dust to hide Basim from the sight of the guards. While I do not believe that the camera change will be part of the game, and is used here for show, it would be interesting to see more cinematic angles if it doesn’t hinder the player experience or controls. Basim rushes up a stack of crates and uses the returning “corner swing” to turn without stopping, rushing across beams and up a roof where one of the new Marksman types sees the Assassin and draws his bow. Basim luckily drops out of sight and into the canal where he will jump to a zipline. Once he drops out of range, we get a better look at the compass and the various icons used to tell players where points of interest are. Before him we see the Assassin’s Emblem which indicates the nearby bureau within 43 m of Basim. To the far right we see two crossed swords, a blacksmith’s shop most likely as next to it are two sewing needles which have been used in the past for the tailors. To the right of the bureau icon and on the right of the screen we see an orange sun which is the marker for the current mission location. A classic way to locate an Assassin’s Bureau is the rooftop is the open air entry and nearby Assassin’s Emblem. Basim drops into the covered entry where we see multiple Assassins of different positions and a very lived-in environment. This is great for world building as previous entries felt barren. Basim enters the bureau to be greeted by Fuladh and Abu Jafar Muhammad with the Arabic greeting “Alhamdulillah” or “ praise be to God”. Abu Jafar is noted to be an historical figure in the DGB and from what I could locate, is most likely to be al-Tabari ( link ) a historian of the period. He will be in charge of your gear and creating new tools for players. Basim hands Fuladh the feather from his first assignment, the man who we saw him kill in the story trailer video; the man with the Golden Moustache Mask. In return, Abu Jafar provides a paper of some form, possibly further information on what they have learned in his absence, or possibly payment for his work as paper currency was used at the time in Asia. Basim joins Fuladh and Roshan at the map table where they inform Basim that they have been looking for new locations to erect Bureaus while he focused on Al-Ghul (the first assassination target, the Golden Moustache). Having found three districts that are unassuming. With this information, we now know that there are four potential bureaus minimum (including the one they are in) and four Order of the Ancient members (as we learned in the story trailer). It would be easy to suspect that we will have one OotA member per district, and I still believe that we will see at least eight members total. Two off-screen Assassins, Tabid and Rebekah have joined from Alamut and are splitting up to look into bureau locations in Al-Abbasiyah and Karkh. Al-Abbasiyah sounds like it may be home to the Abbasid Caliphate, and Karkh is western Baghdad. Fuladh also mentions traveling to Sharqiyah while Roshan goes to meet Rebekah in Karkh. Researching these names I got locations around the Middle East, but nothing definitive to Baghdad (except for Karkh). Abu Jafar invites Basim to look at his tools, where Basim is able to unlock the last of six tools. Starting from the highlighted orange tool, the Blowdart, in a clockwise order we have the smoke bomb, trap automaton, noisemaker, throwing knife, and torch at the top of the circle. The tutorial panel on the right informs you to wisely choose a tool to unlock, but that all tools can be unlocked later in the game. In the DGB we learn that each tool can be upgraded via a skill tree so there will be plenty of opportunity to strengthen your tools. Hovering over the Blowdart, we see a description of the tool, the ammo capacity, range, and duration. With the return of the tailors as seen on the compass, ammo patches will most likely be an upgradable option to purchase and unlock. Later in this trailer we see the sleep darts being used, from the DGB we know that damage darts (Poison) and Berserk darts will also be available? Once you select the tool to unlock, you will need to confirm your selection. After unlocking the Blowdart, Basim walks to the Contracts Board (labeled with a quill and parchment) where players will be able to find additional missions to unlock currency and materials to upgrade his tools. In the top left corner we see the three token types that are accumulated by completing these missions and their optional “Contractor Requests”. The pentagon bronze token is the “Power Favor Token” (as we see gained later on), the silver appears to be the “Assassin Favor Token” based on the use of a feather in its design, and the jade colored one the “City Favor Token” is assumed based on the building design. These lead me to believe we will have tokens for weapons, stealth, and environmental/social abilities or tool upgrades using them. One of our newest members @HiddenOnesN translated the text on the wall behind the contracts. Click her name to read the full thread on these. The highlighted contract, “The Bronze Mirror Heist” is presented with a hand reaching into a fortress with a silver color (as well as jade) as it is related to the Assassin Token. This appears to be the symbol for a stealth mission where you must steal an item, such as the Bronze Mirror. There is also a silver pair of swords over a pathway which is most likely an escort mission where we must defend a target. In orange we see the escort and the last contract type, a skull and Hidden Blade which is an obvious assassination contract. The reward for completing “The Bronze Mirror Heist” is 2x of a sword/bird icon (I assume ability points), 45x Components (crafting materials), and 1x Assassin Favor Token. IF the player also completes the mission without killing anyone, they meet the requirements for the Contractor Request and will unlock a second Assassin Favor Token as well as 65 Dirham (currency). We get a glance at the selected Assassination contract, “The Concubine” where Basim is tasked with killing whoever is holding one of the Caliph’s concubines, a rebel spy, hostage at the Prince’s Palace. This mission will reward a Power Favor Token, 45x Components, 135 Steel Ingots (materials to upgrade armor?) and if they do not take damage, additional rewards of a second Power Favor token and 65 Dirham will be provided. We transition to Basim using a bench to “Pass Time” as we have used in previous titles such as the RPG titles. He stands fromt he bench and moves forward to climb higher on the nearby wall to reach a vantage point over the city square. Basim calls Enkidu to look around the area, but his companion is shot down by a nearby Marksman and becomes unavailable until the enemy is removed from the area. This not only provides a challenge to the character, but is also a component of deciding how to complete a mission and which direction to take. After Basim performs a Leap of Faith to a haystack below, he crosses the square and climbs the second wall before him to activate his “Eagle Vision”. In Mirage’s style, the world is darkened in shadow while enemies are highlighted in red, and their vision cones are also displayed (a great addition as I always got confused on which way they faced). Treasure chests are highlighted in gold and hiding spots such as the haystack in the corner are shown in white (as all stealth options will be). Bassim drops down to a pile of flowers and walks swiftly to a group of civilians, telling them to act casual. This is a look at the return of Social Stealth, a key component that fans have been missing for quite some time. Outside of organic opportunities like this, we also learn from the DGB that you can pay merchants and groups to create additional stealth opportunities. As Basim hides we see the nearby guard walk past with a visible health and focus bar next to a difficulty indicator as we saw last in Valhalla. This guard appears to be inactive with the white diamond, but later we will see one that is on the offensive. Basim sneaks past the guard into a flowerbed where he equips his Blowdart and knocks out a nearby guard. We see from the tool wheel that players can track their ammo levels as well as assign three tools to “Quick Use” hotkeys on their keyboard/controller. This wheel will also slow down time to allow players time to make decisions (per the DGB). Basim dispatches the second guard and continues past the sandbags to another flowerbed underneath the Marksman that shot at Enkidu earlier. However, before he can reach the Marksman, he has a few more guards to take care of. Basim equips the Noisemaker and tosses it into the doorframe of the nearby entryway, the highlighted arch showing where it will land. The Noisemaker explodes with a loud snapping noise drawing the attention of the nearby guards. Basim kills the first and then a double assassination of the guard on the stairs with a throwing knife. We see here with the second guard, that there is a red bar under his difficulty indicator which shows that he is attacking. Basim climbs the tower, the wanted icon at the top now in yellow with a “?” showing that Basim’s location is unknown. The Marksman has a crossed out eagle icon (the Enkidu restriction) and a skull meaning that the guard is either a higher difficulty or still hunting for Basim. The Assassin performs a ledge assassination to kill the Marksman and is informed that Enkidu is available from use again. Enkidu takes off and shows Basim where his target is using the orange sun icon again as well as a gold chest icon on the right side of the roof. Basim reaches the ropes above his target and activates his Eagle Vision again, moving then into the new “Assassin Focus” where Basim can chain assassinate enemies. The gauge for this is shown with the five bars at the bottom of the screen. The controls will allow players to target up to five enemies and target them if needed before launching the attack. However, Basim must perform stealth kills to recharge it. This will trigger a series of ghostly assassinations as Basim movies like an apparition, teleporting to each kill. Basim arms and tosses a Trap automatron and then moves in for his assassination. Basim moves from the target kill to double assassinate a guard on the right before countering the guard on the left and breaking his focus. The heavy Caliphate guard at the entrance triggers the trap which appears to be poison. Basim runs past and turns at the staircase down towards two more guards and uses a smoke bomb to cloud the space in a red smoke as he escapes. Basim air assassinates a guard outside of the contract area, completing the Contractor Request of not taking damage and receives his rewards of a Power Favor Token, Components, Steel Ingots, and Dirham. The trailer ends with Basim blending into the crowd as the Caliphate hunts for him. We also see the red hand icon for Pickpocketing before the camera raises to the closing Mirage logo. This ends The Ones Who Came Before’s coverage of UbiForward. We hope that you have enjoyed these articles and are excited to discuss everything with our fans on our Discord and socials. comments debug Comments Write a comment Write a comment Share Your Thoughts Be the first to write a comment. About the Author Mike Smith is a collector of all things Assassin's Creed and a major supporter of transmedia who joined TOWCB as a writer from 2021 - 2024 With nearly a full library of Assassin's Creed media, his work explored the universe in order of Genetic Memory. Notably, his Assassin's Creed Timeline became an essential tool for fans of the franchise looking to complete their collection and consume AC media in a particular order. Michael Smith

Best quotes in Assassin's Creed I (2007) Share Written By: Edited By: TOWCB Team Back To Database Welcome to the first article in a new series written by TOWCB Team, outlining our favourite quotes from the franchise. We begin by revisiting the original Assassin’s Creed game, which was released back in 2007. Undoubtedly a slow burner, the game grows into its own and provides the building blocks that future games expand upon. Although it is often criticised for tedious gameplay mechanics such as tailing missions and pickpocketing, the game provides clarity over what it means to rise within the Assassin Brotherhood, and to follow the tenets of the Creed or face the consequences. comments debug Comments Write a comment Write a comment Share Your Thoughts Be the first to write a comment. About the Author A collection of articles from The Ones Who Came Before team. TOWCB Team

AC Community Questions: Ben Weal (TOWCB Digital Analyst) Community Interview Share 14 Apr 2023 Written By: Edited By: Colum Blackett (Col_96) Ashlea Blackett Back To Database For this round of Assassin's Creed Community Questions, we invited Ben Weal, Digital Analyst for The Assassin's Creed Partnership Program // TOWCB's Core Team. Col: Hi Ben. Thanks for joining us today! Please could you tell us a little bit about yourself, and your role within the Assassin's Creed Community. Ben: First of all, hi Col and thank you for welcoming me to The Ones Who Came Before. So, at the moment I am currently working in London in private healthcare but would like to move more into a marketing role. That is what led me to get in contact with you to try and get some experience by working with you on TOWCB community. So, my role within the community will be to help with the analytical side of things, helping us understand what our audiences like and what they want to see more of. I will also be assisting with the social media side of things to help increase our following within that department. Col: How did you end up joining The Ones Who Came Before Team, and how are you finding it so far? Ben: As I was saying I am currently in private health care but I am interested in moving into a more marketing type role. I am specifically interested in the numbers and the statistics of things. For example, seeing how many people visited a certain page and the percentage of those people who returned to that page. So far, I’ve just been going over the analytics side of things and making notes on what pages are performing well and what can be improved on. I’m excited to delve deeper and get my teeth stuck in! Col: Do you have any project plans for 2023, and what are you hoping to achieve by joining TOWCB? Ben: I don’t have any specific plans for 2023 but I am excited to be a part of the TOWCB team and to help you guys grow as a community. Col: Do you have any personal AC goals you would like to achieve, or for The Ones Who Came Before? Ben: I think the main goal for me is to help increase TOWCB presence and improve the site's SEO throughout the coming year. Col: Are you looking forward to working alongside the team to help boost The Ones Who Came Before on social media channels and search engines. Ben: I’m very excited to get cracking with the rest of the team and to help out in any way I can. I believe me and Michael will be working alongside each other on some social media projects to help improve the community's presence. This will be very interesting and insightful for me as I know Michael has quite a good knowledge around this sort of area. I’m looking forward to learning lots of new things from the whole of the team! Col: Which game would you consider to be your favourite? Ben: I first started playing Assassin's Creed when I got an Xbox 360 which was a while ago now. I believe it was Assassins Creed II but I have been playing the games ever since then. The franchise has come so far since then, it’s crazy. I think my favourite game at the moment has to be Odyssey. I’m big into Roman times and love all films that have to do with that period of time. So the fact that I could Sparta kick NPCs non stop was such a win for me. Valhalla is a close second but it has to be Odyssey. Col: Do you have a favourite piece of Assassin's Creed merchandise? Ben: I do not have any merchandise myself but I am a big fan of the replica sword that you own Col. I remember the first time I went round to yours and it was the first thing you showed me. Very cool! Col: Have you visited any of the locations from the games? Ben: When I went to Greece on holiday it was my plan to try and visit some of the places from the game but unfortunately I did not manage it. Maybe next time. Col: Which Assassin's Creed character would you say you have the most in common with? Ben: Difficult question. I cannot remember the characters name but it was in Odyssey on the first island you start on. The character gives Alexios tasks to do which eventually helps him to leave. The character was just very chill and laid back; not much stressed him out. I like to think I am similar in that respects. Col: Are you excited for the launch of Assassin's Creed Mirage? Ben: I am looking forward to the new game. I have not seen too much about it as I like going into it without knowing too much. From the same bits that I have seen though it kind of looks like the Assassin's Creed of old, which is very exciting. Col: What would be your dream setting for the upcoming AC Netflix TV series? Ben: My dream setting for the series would obviously be based around Greece like the Odyssey game. Col: Are there any cut features from the series you would like to see return in the next installment? Ben: One of my favourite side quests within any game has always been hunting mythical creatures and collecting their special items. It was done well in Odyssey and Valhalla so Im excited to see if they will keep that in Mirage. Col: Where can our community members find you online? Ben: I can be found on instagram under BGW1703. We would like to say a huge thank you to Ben for joining us for this round of AC Community Questions! . His work behind the scenes will massively boost our digital profile, and we look forward to working alongside him and the rest of the team to leave our mark on the Assassin's Creed community. comments debug Comments Write a comment Write a comment Share Your Thoughts Be the first to write a comment. About the Author Col is one of the UK's leading Assassin's Creed Community members, and is best known for establishing both 'The Ones Who Came Before' fan community and 'Isu_Network' content creation program. As Team Leader for The Ones Who Came Before, Col was officially recognised by Ubisoft, becoming one the UK Assassin's Creed community ambassadors in 2016. He has attended many events after spending a decade in the AC Community, and has worked on countless projects, all of which you can find here on TOWCB website. He is also a former Ubisoft Star Player and member of The Mentors Guild, two recognisable community programs which opened doors and took his status within the AC Community to the next level. Colum Blackett (Col_96)

Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Huntsman Gear Guide Guide Share 26 Mar 2021 Written By: Edited By: Aaron Young Ashlea Buckley Back To Database After the relatively long intro in Norway, you will no doubt be eager to find a new armour set when you arrive in England. One of the easier sets to claim is the Huntsman, which can be found in the opening areas of England. All items can be found in-game without the need for DLC or micro-transactions. The Huntsman Set All gear sets in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will not only provide the player with an aesthetic look, but also stats and bonuses that increase Eivor’s strength. Further to this, your gear will also be aligned to one of the three branches of the skill tree. The Huntsman set follows the wolf skill line and therefore will benefit from any skill points you have placed here. It is also good to consider the set bonus perks that are different for each armour set. The Huntsman gear provides you with a nice Viking look and leans heavily into an archer playstyle. The two bonuses for equipping the Huntsman set are in the image below. It is good to remember that the more pieces of the set you wear, the bigger the bonus. It is not essential though, and you can mix gear for interesting perks. How to Get the Huntsman Gear Set Unfortunately you cannot obtain all of the set pieces in the same region. There are five gear items to collect, with three in Grantebridgescire and the other two in Ledecestrescire. The Power Levels of these regions should not pose too much of a problem, as when you arrive in England both Grantebridgescire and Ledecestrescire are early story destinations. That being said, all of the Huntsman armour is well guarded so you will need to either fight your way to it or use stealth. Grantebridgescire and Ledecestrescire are both Power Level 20, so following the story would be the best way of attaining this set. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla has four tiers for gear pieces: Grey (Fine) Red (Superior) Blue (Flawless) Gold (Mythical) When you fine each piece of the Huntsman set it will already be Superior. It is wise to use what resources you have to bring the gear to its highest level, and save your nickel ingots to upgrade the armour to flawless when you return to Gunnar at the Settlement. It is important to note that Ubisoft recently patched Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, implementing the transmogrification feature. This means you can upgrade your gear to the highest level but not have to worry about not liking the look. You can pay fifty coins to Gunnar and he will amend the aesthetic to one of the previous iterations but with the highest stats. The Huntsman Cape This seems like it could be more difficult than it actually is. Your best route is to take your Longship up river to Templebrough Fort in Ledecestrescire. The cloak can be found in a tower situated in the middle of the river. Just climb the tower and shoot the wood hanging to break the floor below. From here jump down and open the chest. There are a few guards so be careful not to been seen, but it is possible to avoid them altogether. The Huntsman Helm This one can be a little trickier. The helm can be found at Tonnastadir fort in Ledecestrescire. It is a heavily guarded area, which can be difficult early in the game. You will come here as part of the Ledecestrescire story arc, and I would suggest waiting until then to collect the helm. The helm is locked behind a gate, so you will first need to head to the longhouse. The key can be found on a table, but be careful as sometimes there will be guards in the room. Once you have the key, head to the metal gate where three guards will be waiting. There is some debris you can drop on them. Either way you will need to dispatch the guards before entering. The helm can be found at the end of the hallway in a chest. The Huntsman Armour The chest piece is probably the most difficult to obtain. It can be found in Ravensburg outpost, Grantebridgescire. This outpost is part of the story arc so waiting until then is a good option. You will find the chest containing the armour in the main hut at the centre of the enemy camp. Despite the camp being well guarded it is possible to get all the way to the hut unnoticed. You may wish to tactically remove some of the guards just so if you are caught you will not be overwhelmed. The Huntsman Vambraces The vambraces are hidden behind a waterfall in Grantebridgescire. The location is not too far from your settlement. Just head south of Ravensthorpe and you will see an area with two sections of water. The vambraces can be found in the first section of water, behind a waterfall. Once you enter the cave you will find another section of water. You will need to dive in and swim underwater until you reach the end. Straight after exiting the water you will see the chest in front of you. The Huntsman Breeches Your final piece to collect will be the breeches. They are situated in Soham hideout, which is on a patch of land not too far from Isle of Ely Monastery, Grantebridgescire. You will want to sneak into the camp and head towards the large stone building in the centre. Inside you will find a chest containing the breeches. You may also need to dispatch some of the guards. There are two sat at a table in the main building, making it difficult to sneak up on them, so be careful. Once you have all the gear items, you can return to Gunnar to upgrade them. Don’t forget to take a look at the transmogrification feature. It is also worth mentioning that you can pay travellers for information regarding the location of gear items (represented on the map by a question mark) Hopefully these tips will help you get started on your Viking adventure. Valhalla is a wonderful game full of intrigue and mystery with a story that sucks you in slowly. Be patient and take your time, you will not regret it. comments debug Comments Write a comment Write a comment Share Your Thoughts Be the first to write a comment. About the Author Aaron is a passionate Assassin's Creed fan who joined our AC Partnership Program as an Online Article Writer back in 2021 after the release of Assassin's Creed Valhalla. After building momentum and interest on TOWCB website for Virtual Photography, Aaron established TOWCB Virtual Photography Team, of which he is now Team Leader. Throughout 2024, TOWCB VP Team will be sharing community captures in dedicated articles, and providing a positive environment on Twitter for gamers to share their shots. Aaron Young

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced Preview Event in Paris Event Share 22 May 2026 Written By: Edited By: TOWCB Team TOWCB Team Back To Database TOWCB Team Leader Col attended a preview event for Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced in Paris! The event featured exclusive early access to the game, interview opportunities with developers and voice actor Matt Ryan, and a glimpse at upcoming merchandise! Massive thank you to Ubisoft for the opportunity! Vlog Interview with Matt Ryan Interview with Julien Koch comments debug Comments Write a comment Write a comment Share Your Thoughts Be the first to write a comment. About the Author A collection of articles from The Ones Who Came Before team. TOWCB Team

This Week in Assassin's Creed Virtual Photography: 14th - 20th May 2022 Community Share 20 May 2022 Written By: Edited By: Aaron Young Ashlea Blackett Back To Database Welcome to the new weekly virtual photography roundup hosted by Aaron Young from The AC Partnership Program. Every week, we will be picking our top 5 favourite Assassin’s Creed shots and showcasing them on The Ones Who Came Before website, in order to promote virtual photography and talented content creators within the community. Aaron is a keen virtual photographer and loves to post his journeys through Assassin’s Creed on Twitter. Keep an eye on the site as more weekly shots are added, we are looking for capture across all Assassin’s Creed games. Tag your photos to the #TOWCBWeeklyCapture for a chance to be featured. 1) Burning Sands Game: Assassin’s Creed Origins This week’s first capture comes from @missroseplays over on Twitter. Photo number one this week is all about the colour. I am loving the deep red of the sand and the purple in the sky. The hero under a shadow walking away from his last mission gives me endgame vibes. It is as if Bayek has fulfilled his destiny and is walking off into the sunset. Such great use of lighting and colour. 2) Arno the Assassin Game: Assassin’s Creed Unity Photo number two comes from @babidk1 over on Twitter. I picked this capture due to the mood, as it has such an Assassin feel to it. You get a real sense of ‘we work in the dark to serve the light’ from this. I love how Arno is on what looks like a Sync point watching over his city. My eye is always drawn to the lighting on the tower, it just looks so mysterious. 3) Traveller Game: Assassin’s Creed Origins This week’s third shot comes from @GirlWYellowEyes over on Twitter. This capture is really cool. What an array of detail and colour amongst a sandy desert. I must admit I have played Origins many times and I do not remember this outfit. Bayek and his camel are very much coordinated in this shot. I am definitely getting Geralt and Roach vibes here, incredible shot. 4) On Point Game: Assassin’s Creed Origins VP number four comes from @juanmawl using the #TOWCBWeeklyCapture hashtag on Twitter. Photo number four brings me right back to the launch trailer of Assassins Creed Origins. Bayek atop a Pyramid looking out across the sun-drenched desert. The standout here for me is the positioning of this capture, as it is lined up so well. I am also a fan of Senu circling Bayek on the Pyramid. 5) The Norse Medjay Game: Assassin’s Creed Valhalla The final capture of the week comes from @kingforever008 over at ACFirstCiv Community. I cannot quite make out how this shot was taken but it seems like Eivor is mid leap to me. It is great how Assassins Creed Valhalla paid homage to Origins throughout the game. Eivor looks awesome in the Egyptian Armour, giving off real Assassin vibes. Great positioning to have Eivor’s eyes covered by the hood, as it adds to the intrigue. And that sums it up for this week’s Assassin’s Creed virtual photography recap list! Thank you for checking out this week’s photo collection. This would not be possible without the virtual photographers out there so a huge thanks to them. Until next week keep those shots coming in. comments debug Comments Write a comment Write a comment Share Your Thoughts Be the first to write a comment. About the Author Aaron is a passionate Assassin's Creed fan who joined our AC Partnership Program as an Online Article Writer back in 2021 after the release of Assassin's Creed Valhalla. After building momentum and interest on TOWCB website for Virtual Photography, Aaron established TOWCB Virtual Photography Team, of which he is now Team Leader. Throughout 2024, TOWCB VP Team will be sharing community captures in dedicated articles, and providing a positive environment on Twitter for gamers to share their shots. Aaron Young

Assassin’s Creed Virtual Photography: 18th to 29th March 2024 Community Share 16 Apr 2024 Written By: Edited By: Aaron Young Colum Blackett Back To Database Welcome to the biweekly virtual photography roundup hosted by Aaron Young from the AC Partnership Program. Every two weeks we will be picking our top 5 favourite Assassin’s Creed shots and showcasing them on The Ones Who Came Before website, in order to promote virtual photography and talented content creators within the community. Keep an eye on the site as more shots are added, we are looking for captures across all Assassin’s Creed games. Tag your photos to #ACFirstCivVP for a chance to be featured. This theme week: Parkour Looking to Sync Game: Assassin’s Creed Mirage VP Artist: Eric Allen (@ Milz_VP ) The Ones Who Came Before Photo of the Week Aaron ( FalconSwift87 ) The return to the roots with Assassin’s Creed Mirage brings back the experience of an Assassin traversing a city in search of his target. It’s a feeling of nostalgia that many fans have enjoyed. Climbing structures with Eivor or Kassandra always felt slightly out of place. Here we have an intriguing shot of Basim scaling one of the tall structures found throughout Baghdad. I really like how the composition creates a sense of height and danger. The sandy tones mixed with the sky-blue work to reinforce the location of this excellent capture. Watch for the Shadows Game: Assassin’s Creed Mirage VP Artist: @ m_nt_13 Aaron ( FalconSwift87 ) I was happy when the team suggested running a parkour theme as Assassin’s Creed is so famous for this form of traversing. As the games have progressed the standard has constantly been raised and we have been able to climb almost any structure in the game. This capture really resonates with me as I am a fan of this type of photo. The lighting is immense and serves to highlight the beautiful details on the Baghdad building. Not only that but it casts a shadow of Basim and the line he is crossing. Once again, the composition is great, and I like that Basim is slightly off centre. Taking in the Sights Game: Assassin’s Creed Origins VP Artist: @ visionevp Aaron ( FalconSwift87 ) We could not have this theme without a return to the beginning with Bayek and the pyramids. Although a large proportion of Assassin’s Creed Origins is desert the cities are a great place to get your free run on. I will never forget my first time scaling the elegant pyramids, and that awesome sensation as you slide down one. This shot is impressive as it combines both parkour and some stunning scenery. I love the orange tones mixed with the pure white, and Bayek contrasts excellently with these. His pose is perfect and reminds me of Senu his eagle companion. Escaping Game: Assassin’s Creed Origins VP Artist: @ UnfazedVP Aaron ( FalconSwift87 ) I think my favourite Assassin’s Creed for parkour is Unity. The speed in which you could traverse the rooftops was very satisfying. I also enjoyed the almost cinematic moments when escaping through buildings or windows. Here Julio has recreated something similar that takes me back to 2014. This is a clean shot that has three colours working beautifully together. The red sash is eye catching, and Bayek’s black robes give him a tremendous Assassin feel. Once again, the light hitting the sandy building works to contrast against Bayek. He works in the dark to serve the light. Searching for Trouble Game: Assassin’s Creed Valhalla VP Artist: @ BasimIbnIshaq_ Aaron ( FalconSwift87 ) With the talk of Assassin’s Creed Red having two playable characters, I started to think what Valhalla would have been like if we switched between Eivor and Basim. I think it would have worked excellently with the tension between the two and the obvious assassin and warrior mentalities. Here we can see Basim approaching a straw roof building on what looks like London. I guess this shot is from the discovery tour. I love the choice of outfit and the positioning is on point. I also like how the white of his robes stand out clearly against the darker background. Assassin's Creed Virtual Photography Showcase - March 2024 Video edited by Turið Torkilsdóttir. And that sums it up for this Assassin’s Creed virtual photography recap list! Thank you for checking out the photo collection. This would not be possible without the virtual photographers out there so a huge thanks to them. Until next time keep those shots coming in! comments debug Comments Write a comment Write a comment Share Your Thoughts Be the first to write a comment. About the Author Aaron is a passionate Assassin's Creed fan who joined our AC Partnership Program as an Online Article Writer back in 2021 after the release of Assassin's Creed Valhalla. After building momentum and interest on TOWCB website for Virtual Photography, Aaron established TOWCB Virtual Photography Team, of which he is now Team Leader. Throughout 2024, TOWCB VP Team will be sharing community captures in dedicated articles, and providing a positive environment on Twitter for gamers to share their shots. Aaron Young

Pressed in Gold: A Review of the Assassin’s Creed - Leap Into History Limited Edition X5LP Box Set Reviews Share 26 Mar 2023 Written By: Edited By: Michael Smith Colum Blackett Back To Database Banner by Thea Marie Rivedal ( Moonchildgecko ) from TOWCB Art Team . The 15th Anniversary for the Assassin’s Creed series is still being celebrated after 2022. There are continuous releases of merch and transmedia that are tied to the event, the latest of which is the release of the Leap Into History Vinyl Box Set from Laced Records. This release was presented in two options, a Deluxe 5LP box set for $110US, and a Limited Edition 5LP in Gold for $120US (which is now sold out). The differences between the two versions come down to the Limited Edition including a slip mat, art print, and the ‘gold nugget’ color of the vinyl records. After a few production delays, the vinyl collections shipped out across the globe this last month (original shipping date was set for January, 2023). The vinyl was shipped in a very form fitting shipping box with some packing peanuts over the cover which I liked as it is always fun to “uncover” the gorgeous black and gold packaging. The opaque images of the protagonists of the series and the Isu inspired trim of the image border gives a sleek and quality expectation of what is within the box sleeve. While it may be difficult to see in this image, the side where the vinyls are removed from the case read “Assassin’s Creed Leap Into History” on the left/top and then the disc number on the right/bottom. The order of having Disc one on the bottom which is really the front of the packaging makes sense, but it is one of those nit-picking things that I argue with myself when organizing things on shelves, in order of position. However, as vinyls should not be stored flat on a shelf, this labeling makes sense. The following section does bring up a similar issue with the decision of labeling sides A and B of a record. Side As Side Bs Each of the five vinyl sleeves holds music for two of the games, ordered by their Genetic Memory time periods (which I very much enjoyed seeing). Where my issue with this comes from, is the first side I saw when removing Disc 1, was Bayek from Assassin’s Creed Origins, or the “Side B” for this record. I understand that this comes from the Western reading order of Left to right, where with media printed for said audience, opens from the right side and is hinged/spined on the left. However, seeing each of the #AC15 artworks for the games (which was composed of the original game art with the grayscale filter and the golden logo from each game. The first set of “Side A” covers AC Odyssey, Valhalla, AC II, Black Flag, and the combo Unity/Rogue. The “Side B” shows Origins, Assassin’s Creed, Brotherhood/Revelations, AC III, and Syndicate. All of the current games with this exception of Liberation are present and broken down into different eras. When you pull out the vinyl, you have the slip sleeve that opens from the top so that the vinyl itself isn’t damaged or won’t fall out from the side. The front side of each removed sleeve has a simple design for the AC 15 release, but nothing district to speak to. The reverse sides are where the bulk of the collection’s information on the music itself. Disc 1: Classical Era, Disc 2: Middle Ages, Disc 3: Renaissance, Disc 4: Enlightenment, Disc 5: Enlightenment/Modern Era. The title of the game(s) and time period(s) are listed below the Era label, followed by the Composer(s) and the titles of the selected 5 - 9 songs for each game. The shortest list is for Brotherhood/Revelations at 5 songs and the longest is Unity/Rogue with 9. Some of my favorites are included such as the “Legend of the Eagle Bearer” for Odyssey and of course “Ezio’s Family” for AC II. I really wish there were some different sea shanties on the Black Flag vinyl such as “Running Down to Cuba” as that is a favorite of mine, but it's completely understandable that the track listings have to be limited or there would be double the number of records in the box set. The ‘Golden Nugget’ LPs are where this release shines the most. The color is so gorgeous and the stamped vinyls are unique to each individual bundle so my vinyls will not look the same as anyone else’s. They remind me of the golden sands of Origins in a way. Each vinyl has the logo for Side A or B in the center, though the placement of which way is “up” varies and isn’t lined perfectly, but again that is a nitpick. As listed on Laced’s site, the differences as I mentioned earlier are the golden color, art print, and slipmat. The art print is the AC15 logo artwork on a thin though nice quality paper. This however didn’t feel like a print but more of a protective artwork that would be on the front of a game that is removed with the plastic wrap to show the actual cover of the game. I would have liked to see a thicker print on gallery quality paper like what we have seen with the art books for the series. If I hadn’t remembered that this was an art print, it could have been tossed away by accident. Now on the other hand, the slipmat is really cool and something that fits perfect with the vinyl box set. The large golden AC15 logo to place below your vinyl to prevent damage from the record player itself. While I am new to vinyl collection, my wife who has a decent collection of albums was excited to see that it was included with the Limited Edition. As of this posting, the Limited Edition is sold out, but the Deluxe Edition is still available from Laced Records ’ US/Canada store for $110US. However as of March 10 when they announced via Twitter that the vinyl was in stock, they stated “Last few left” in that post, so it is unclear how close they are to selling out completely. Amazon US is showing a preorder for what I assume is the Standard Edition of the 5 LP bundle, at a higher price of $130US+ and a release date of April 7, 2023. So it does appear that fans can purchase the music in the future, but may not get the special packaging that the deluxe version includes. I would recommend looking into this set if you are a fan of the great music that comes from the Assassin’s Creed series so that we can see further support for physical releases in the future. comments debug Comments Write a comment Write a comment Share Your Thoughts Be the first to write a comment. About the Author Mike Smith is a collector of all things Assassin's Creed and a major supporter of transmedia who joined TOWCB as a writer from 2021 - 2024 With nearly a full library of Assassin's Creed media, his work explored the universe in order of Genetic Memory. Notably, his Assassin's Creed Timeline became an essential tool for fans of the franchise looking to complete their collection and consume AC media in a particular order. Michael Smith

Importance of Assassin's Creed Mirage's Upcoming DLC News Share 10 Sept 2025 Written By: Edited By: Hayden Bird Colum Blackett Back To Database Announced recently back in late August of this year, one of the more recent Assassin’s Creed games, Assassin’s Creed Mirage , got a surprise announcement that the game, which was released back in October of 2023, would be getting a free DLC, which stands for downloadable content, that is in development and will be available to gamers across the globe in the near future. Promo image for the upcoming expansion, showing Basim's new outfit This news is an unexpected treat for fans of the series as originally Assassin’s Creed Mirage was set to be a game without any major post-launch expansions. Mirage was a smaller-scale game that was created to honor the 15th anniversary of the franchise and in many ways return to its roots by bringing back classic gameplay mechanics and a formula the series used years ago before it received a major reboot back in 2017. There are still a large number of fans who prefer the old formula the franchise used to follow, so giving the community a game that honors its past but also includes elements of the present and future games made it a fan-favorite addition to the series. Assassin’s Creed Mirage was set to tell its story and be complete already, but with this surprising news of the upcoming DLC, gamers will most certainly dive back into Mirage as the game offered plenty of content to explore even after the main story’s completion. Mirage was seen as a small-scale game in the series but now is turning into much more. The news that this DLC is free is welcoming news as a lot of DLC story expansions are paid, and not free. The paid ones usually range from $10 or upwards to $20 and even sometimes a lot more. So having a game with free expansions is a great gesture from Ubisoft to its fans. Since the DLC will be free, it offers a lot of possibilities for Ubisoft to watch the player count and popularity vastly increase now that they know fans won't need to be skeptical on whether or not to spend the extra money to buy and experience the DLC. Whereas now, instead they can offer it to all gamers worldwide and anyone can experience it without the decision of having to spend to play and own it. Basim in Assassin's Creed Mirage Assassin’s Creed Mirage became a beloved game in the series because it catered to fans from both viewpoints of the franchise. Those who prefer the classic formula and those who love the updated style. Mirage includes both elements of classic and newer formulas as a combination that was sure to satisfy fans from both different opinions. The game was a focal point of the extensive marketing campaign Ubisoft started in 2023 to promote and celebrate the 15 years that the series has been around for. While the celebrations were dedicated to all the games, Mirage served as the best part of the marketing campaign that honored the franchise's rich history all while satisfying fans of all kinds and bringing the series and community together as a whole. The fact that Assassin’s Creed Mirage will have a DLC is also a surprise to the fact that the game seemed to be a done deal and a part of the past now that the brand new game in the series, Assassin’s Creed Shadows is out and accompanied by a DLC of its own along with future announced games to continue the series on the way. So it felt like Mirage was complete and set to be moved on from, but recent news has proven this idea incorrect, as Ubisoft is showing great attention to a game that's turning two years old next month in October. Video games that are released years prior often do not get the attention Assassin’s Creed Mirage is set to receive in the near future. This reversal in opinion from Ubisoft shows they have listened closely to their fanbase and have come to believe that the story and existence of Assassin’s Creed Mirage is far from over. As fans, we can all be thankful to the developers at Ubisoft for changing course from their previous decisions and that they are showing attention to this beloved game even years after its release, and giving fans a true surprise that this highly anticipated DLC will be completely free to all gamers. The idea and reality of a free unpaid major expansion is less common in today's age of gaming, and really shows that Ubisoft is listening to their fans and giving the players a seriously exciting project to look forward to without the need of spending their own money toward it. This DLC is welcome news and another exciting project in the Assassin’s Creed franchise that fans can continue to anticipate the bright future of this franchise for years to come. Promo image for Assassin's Creed Mirage, via GameInformer comments debug Comments Write a comment Write a comment Share Your Thoughts Be the first to write a comment. About the Author Hayden is a passionate Freelance Writer based in South Carolina who joined TOWCB's Writing Team in 2020 during the Covid-19 Pandemic, writing articles on all things Assassin's Creed Valhalla. He left the group to focus on studies, joining our Alumni program, but triumphantly returned with fresh ideas in 2024 to pick up where he left off, only this time covering Assassin's Creed Shadows. In 2025, Hayden took on the position of Team Leader for TOWCB's Writing Team, overseeing article releases, assisting with recruitment and providing assistance with internal operations. Hayden Bird

Assassin's Creed Shadows New Reddit AMA Full Breakdown Breakdown Share 15 Aug 2025 Written By: Edited By: Zephryss Colum Blackett Back To Database The Assassin's Creed Shadows development team answered many fans' questions in the new Assassin's Creed Shadows Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything), held on August 12, about the future of the franchise, the modern-day storyline, and more. Here’s a full breakdown of the most important answers. Assassins vs. Templars in Shadows During the Reddit AMA, the developers added that the Assassins vs. Templars conflict has always been a core pillar of the Assassin’s Creed series. With Shadows, they planned to establish their protagonist in the setting before expanding on the conflict. Now that it is done in the main game and similar to the Critical Role story drop, players should expect more deep dive in this conflict in the near future. Legacy Outfits in AC Shadows The developers officially confirmed that Legacy Outfits are coming soon to Assassin's Creed Shadows, but they don’t want to spoil the surprise by telling fans exactly which ones will be added. New Information on Claws of Awajii DLC Developers have shared more new information on the upcoming Claws of Awaji DLC for Assassin's Creed Shadows. In the expansion there will be no new weapons for Yasuke but there will be some new abilities for him. The main focus will be on the new Bō weapon for Naoe. That weapon will have its own mastery abilities, unique posture attacks and finishers. More Fantasy Elements in Shadows The Assassin's Creed Shadows developers confirmed that more fantasy elements, like the Dead by Daylight quest, are coming to the game. There will also be new fantasy elements. Dynamic Seasons in Future AC Games Another fan asked whether dynamic seasons will be featured in future AC games. The developers said that the development team is sharing the tech and knowledge for future titles. It’s up to them if they want to add this feature. Social Stealth Could Return in The Franchise Someone asked why social stealth was missing from Shadows, after playing such a big role in 2023’s Assassin’s Creed Mirage. The developers confirmed that social stealth is not gone from the franchise and could return in future Assassin's Creed games. AC Odyssey Weapons in Shadows When a fan asked whether there will be Assassin's Creed Odyssey weapons in Assassin's Creed Shadows, the developers hinted that Kassandra, who, as everyone knows, had a legendary journey across continents, might have some new Odyssey-themed weapons coming to Shadows in the future. The Modern-Day Storyline & Basim Another user asked where Basim was, why his modern-day storyline didn’t continue in Shadows, and whether he will ever return in future AC games. The developers answered this question and explained why it was missing. New Parkour Update Coming in Shadows The developers confirmed that more parkour updates will come to Assassin's Creed Shadows. They still have many plans, but they can’t share any more information right now. New Gameplay Features for Naoe & Yasuke Developers hinted that, in the future, Naoe and Yasuke might share some gameplay features in Shadows. Long Awaited Japan Setting in Assassin's Creed Shadows Developers shared their experiences and research on recreating the beautiful Japanese settings in AC Shadows. New Concept Outfit for Naoe Another fan asked if there was any chance for this particular concept outfit for Naoe to be made available in-game in the future. Developers said: Isu Elements and Assassin's Creed Lore Developers also talked about Assassin’s Creed lore and Isu elements in Assassin's Creed Shadows. Parkour Inspired from AC Mirage Developers said they love AC Mirage, and many parkour elements in Shadows are inspired by the game. Open Ending in AC Shadows Developers discussed why AC Shadows has a more open ending structure. Here are some topics that the developers have confirmed are either not coming to the game or are not planned for now: They aren't currently looking at adding a major expansion to the hideout at the moment. But they are also planning to deliver at least another customization pack for the hideout for the players that desire to acquire it. There will be no Discovery Tour mode for Assassin's Creed Shadows. No new open-world side activities for now but they are planning to expand one activity in future. Naoe and Yasuke will not be used as companions due to technical difficulties. There are no current plans for a new Hardcore mode like Mirage. No romance system in canon mode. No plans to bring back a 100% pick up rate for kunai. There will be no Torches in Shadows because a lot of walls are made out of paper, developers didn't want them to catch on fire and have all the cities quickly ablaze. An extra weapon slot for Yasuke is not in the plans for now. No plans for Naoe's default hood without the mask. But, they're planning to add a few finishers to the most popular weapons. No plans for a Mercenary system like Odyssey. There will be no hair customization in Shadows. There will be no Shogi activity/minigame in a future update. There will be no ally that uses the hidden blade in combat. Weapons in cutscenes not planned right now. These are all the important answers from the AC Shadows development team during the recent Reddit AMA. What are your thoughts on this? Share them with us below. comments debug Comments Write a comment Write a comment Share Your Thoughts Be the first to write a comment. About the Author Zephryss is a passionate social media manager based in India who joined TOWCB's Social Media Team in Summer 2024 to help the team prepare for coverage of Assassin's Creed Shadows news and updates. Recently, he completed his Masters degree in Electrical Engineering and is now preparing to take on a PhD. He loves video games very much, and since childhood has enjoyed playing various types of games in different genres He also has 3 gaming channels (Zephryss, Assassin Zephryss & Spider Zephryss) where he uploads gameplay videos regularly. Zephryss

Assassin's Creed Shadows Eve of Launch Statement Community Share 19 Mar 2025 Written By: Edited By: TOWCB Team Gargudon Back To Database comments debug Comments Write a comment Write a comment Share Your Thoughts Be the first to write a comment. About the Author A collection of articles from The Ones Who Came Before team. TOWCB Team

Cards, Blades and Detection Rolls: A Review of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood of Venice Review Share 6 May 2022 Written By: Edited By: Michael Smith Ashlea Blackett Back To Database As an Assassin Apprentice, you have been picked by the great Assassin, Ezio Auditore to help prepare a defense against the Templar Order led by Cesare Borgia. Ezio has tasked you with rescuing the four key members of his new Bureau in Venice while he hunts down his adversary in Navarra, Spain. Equipped with nothing but a parachute and the help of fellow apprentices, you must break the Assassins out of the Templar prison and escape without being detected. Can you answer your mentor’s call, or will you fall to the sword of the Templar? This is a description of the first level titled “Prisoners” in the new tabletop RPG, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood of Venice (BoV) by Triton Noir, in association with Ubisoft. From this board game comes a new way to experience Assassin’s Creed with the use of a tile constructed map and dice based combat system. With a combination of skill cards, abilities, weapons, and allies players must work together to help build the Brotherhood of Venice from nothing. A task that will be littered with a rogues gallery of enemies, familiar faces, and secrets of the past and future. 1 - 4 players can play the game, and levels are quoted to last 30 - 45 minutes each. Due to the content of the game, it is advised that players are at least 14 years old to play. Released initially as a Kickstarter, BoV was successful at reaching its initial goal by raising nearly CA $1.4M via nearly 6,800 backers. After its initial campaign, Triton Noir opened its offerings via their website where I was able to order the base game, expansions, and some additional gameplay items for a hefty price tag (nearly $500 USD). After a few months of production, I received my copy of BoV and began my adventure into a continuation of the Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood story, starting alongside the final mission of the PC and Console release title. The base game for Brotherhood of Venice is offered as a Collector’s Edition on www.triton-noir.com for $239 USD. Recently, the company announced that a retail edition would be released next year at a lower price. This would remove the included figurines for cardboard game pieces and a smaller packaging to allow more players access to their game. What's Included? Within the collector’s edition, players will find highly detailed plastic minifigures, map tiles and boards, playing cards, custom dice, tokens and counters, sticker sheets, and game booklets. When you first open the box, you will find perforated sheets that contain the tiles, player boards, compass, and game pieces alongside the Rulebook and Campaign Booklet. Once you have released the pieces from their frame, you will be greeted with a detailed sheet that shows the contents of the first tray of 140+ minifigures so that you know exactly where to store each piece when you finish your session. A second tray of figures and visual guide follow and then the final tray rests at the bottom with the mission envelopes, game piece storage, and a plethora of hidden figure boxes that are not to be opened until the campaign tells you too. The sheer amount of content found within these trays is exciting and a bit intimidating for someone that has never played a figure based a tabletop game before. Getting Started Both the Rulebook and Campaign Booklet are filled with wonderful original artworks to mentally put you in the mindset of an Assassin in Venice. From the Contents page in the Rulebook, players will find images and counts of each component of the game so that they can verify what they should have and know the names of each piece that will be used multiple times during their campaign (additional rulebook revisions have been released and are available on Triton Noir’s website). The Introduction pages, starting with Rule 0 give an overview of the game as well as steps on how to learn to play this intricate game. The players have two options, “Learning Through Play” and “Reading All the Rules Before Playing”. The first option will have you read the rule points on the page, a glossary, and how to set up your player board with a generic male or female Assassin Apprentice (Note: Players that are playing a solo game must play two assassins for the game to work properly). From here, players are directed to the Campaign Booklet to start playing. Those that choose to read the full rulebook can do so at this point and start gameplay afterwards. Each level is divided within the Campaign Book by Sequence and Memory number, much like the Genetic Memory strands in the videogame. Starting with Sequence 0, Memory 0.1 “Prisoners” players are provided a synapsis of the level for the story element and any additional gameplay notes that need to be provided before the 4 - 5 step setup. By providing an organized breakdown, players can follow at their own pace and learn the rhythm of the game before and after play. With the first step, players are provided a list of tiles to gather from the gamebox to build the grid based map that the level will take place. These tiles will layout roofs, streets, indoor rooms, and large set piece maps that can house towers, canals, and other environments. The images on the tiles vary but are easy to determine what they are considered for the map so each level can have a different feel in its corner of Venice, from grassy streets to fountains, dungeons to lavish offices and the various tiled roofs of the city. Once the map is laid out per the provided picture, players will add additional items such as objective tokens and bases, starting enemies, and reminder pieces that will be used alongside rules or conditions of the mission; for example, for this first mission, three reminder tokens are used to help remember to roll a Detection Test when entering a tile that contains a Templar Crossbowman. Lastly players set to the side of the map an Alert State token (the guard alarm in the videogame), and red dice that are used for the detection tests noted earlier. Before continuing to the second step, players are directed to return to the Rulebook and read rule points 2 - 5 to learn about Game Turns, divided into Event, Assassin, Enemy, and End of Turn Phases. These phases will help understand how event cards work, how an assassin can use their three action cubes (each), how the enemies enter the map via reinforcements and move or enter combat, and how to wrap up the turn so that the next one can begin. Next, the Assassins will open the labeled envelope for the current memory and follow the steps within. When an envelope is opened, players are greeted with a large red card to provide warning of the contents. Each mission requires reading the red card in detail to set up the Event and Equipment decks for the game without spoiling things like rewards and discoveries. For this first mission, players are asked to reveal the 4 small Equipment cards and split them between the Assassins Apprentices that are playing. These starting cards are the consumable item “Parachute” which include a new rule point (#24) to learn about Equipment cards and the differences between single use items and gear (such as weapons and armor). After the equipment deck is ready, players shuffle the included 5 Event cards and set them face down next to the map. These cards provide special circumstances for a game turn. Lastly, players are informed to leave the 5 small Reward cards in the envelope without revealing them. Last but not Least, players are given final rules and notes, sometimes Codex entries about key characters or locations of the game. For Memory 0.1, players are directed back to the Rulebook to learn about Stealth. Incognito, Exposed, Detection Tests, and Alert State are all explained in fine detail. Additionally rule point 15 teaches how to use a Fast Travel Station to enter and exit the map and end the mission. At the end of the Memory page within the Campaign Booklet, an “Important!” label is posted informing players not to turn the page until the memory is completed. If you read further, spoilers for the story and following level information will be seen which can ruin the surprise for everyone. Now that the map and decks are ready, players can turn the red card from the envelope for a cheat sheet to remind them how gameplay turns are ordered and what they can do with their action cubes.Once you have completed the memory, you can turn the Campaign Booklet page to learn how the story progresses, receive your reward cards (weapons or blueprints), and learn how to fill out your “Diary of Memories”; a checklist at the back of the Campaign Book to track XP gained and objectives met. Sheets of stickers are provided in the game box as physical trophies of your accomplishments. Seeing your XP raise as you move towards higher levels and fill out your objectives is very satisfying and a great way to motivate you to play another memory. With the first mission completed, players are able to choose one of the four Assassins from the game and start training their character to be a Master Assassin. The cast of characters are diverse and each has their own specialties. Alessandra, the tank of the group, has the ability to boost her attack strength and heal during missions without additional medicine. Bastiano is a master of stealth and has the ability to avoid Detection Tests and remain incognito during missions that would start the player in an exposed state. Claudio is a cunning and swift Assassin with abilities that allow him free use of his Hidden Blade and to draw enemies away from objectives. Lastly, Daria with her abilities to gain extra action cubes can help boost the duration of the Assassin Phase and accomplish mission objectives faster. The freed Assassins return to their Villa to recuperate and prepare for the next memory. The Campaign Book will direct again to the Rulebook so that you can choose to save your game and learn how to store your game for the next session. Gameplay Returning back to the Game Turn, I will explain more about how a level is played. Players start by turning over an Event card and reading the details printed upon it. For Event “Dark Night” one time only during this turn, players can ignore the results of 1 Detection Test and reroll any of the red dice that landed on an Exposed Eye (sets off alarm) or Exposed Alarm Eye (only exposed if alarm is active) side. This could save the Assassin from combat and allow them an extra chance to dispatch a guard or continue towards their objective. No two are the same with these cards and each replay of the memory will be different from the time before. In the Assassin Phase, actions are able to be made freely between the Assassins on the board and a player does not have to use all three of their actions before the next player can go. Players should plan out and talk with each other about what they want to do, how they want to divide objectives and how to reach their end goal. Player movement, combat, and use of skills and equipment are performed during this phase. In my first playthrough of “Prisoners, I divided my two Apprentices to the West and East of the map, each one moving to release two Assassins, using rooftops and their parachutes to take out guards without being seen and escape the map within a few turns.” The Enemy Phase continues the turn by having the player flip the Reinforcement Deck’s top card to reveal how many ranged and melee enemies enter the map, and from which entrances they enter from. The number of enemies is determined based on the number of Assassins on the map and if the alarm is in an active or inactive state. If a mission has too many enemies on the map to the point that additional guards cannot be added, the mission is considered a failure and the Assassins must start over. Once enemies have entered the map, the Event Card instructs which direction the guards will move. Each guard can move one space in the direction of the compass (unless hindered by walls or roofs with no ladder access). When you finish moving the guards, enemy combat will take place using the black dice of the game which have two icons on their sides, Attack and Defend. These determine a collective amount of damage dealt to or blocked by the Assassin. The rule points will help understand how to divide damage amongst multiple Assassins or Guards based on who is attacking. If an Assassin is brought to critical health, they have one more turn to recover via skills or healing items or be placed in the hospital for the next memory, replaced by an Assassin Apprentice (who have lesser abilities). My Thoughts on BoV I played Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood of Venice over the course of four months, starting in November of 2021. My overall playtime was somewhere between 50 - 100 hours total as I had to restart a few times due to not reading the rules correctly which resulted in hard stops because I broke the game. During my first playthrough I didn’t notice I had to play as two Assassins for a solo game and after my first sequence I realized I could not complete the 100% objective as I had no reinforcement deck and no enemies to fight. My second time I learned I was not using a mechanic correctly and had completely destroyed my progress thus far due to that error. I don’t remember what the issue was at the time but I was learning as I went and was able to finish after that second restart. In addition, my playtime was lengthened as I took photos and notated them with “Madden” style lines to share on my Twitter playthrough thread (available to all via my LinkTree pinned on my profile). Each session took me about 1 - 3 hours depending on my attention level and how I was feeling that night. Having played a few levels in a separate game with a friend, I learned that solo play can be boring at times or just a lot to manage when you have a flood of enemies surrounding you, low health, and an objective on the brink of failure. I learned how to plan my turns more and more to the point that I would nearly script my turns before rolling any dice or making any movement. Towards the middle of the story where the focus is directed towards building your Brotherhood and recruiting members, I found my desire to play to dwindle. The game was enjoyable, but the work I had to put into setting up, breaking down, and actually playing the game was time consuming. It wasn’t like the video games where I could burn through missions or entire sequences within a few hours, I had to actually build my maps and station enemies and objective points. However, once I pushed past my own hindrances and made it to the second half of the sequences, where the secret boxes were opened and new characters and environments were introduced, I fell in love with the game again. Fighting huge bosses and using weapons from other entries in the Assassin’s Creed universe, uncovering secrets and seeing fan favorites make their debut was exhilarating. I played with Alessandra and Claudio as my two characters. They had awesome artwork on both their player cards and miniatures. Alessandra’s ability to rush into a group of guards and take them all out without damage was awesome and the fact that they made her the tank compared to the hulking male that you would normally see was a breath of fresh air. Claudio was a suave swordsman similar to Edward Kenway, and has an awesome companion that he can unlock at his highest level that I won’t spoil. Seeing these two rise in level and learn new skills, finding new outfits, and being the embodiment of Ezio’s vision was the missing half of AC: Brotherhood that I wish I could have played; the half where you are the Assassin in training under Ezio and not the Master Assassin. Gameplay and story go hand in hand as I enjoyed both aspects of the game. I loved the freedom to do what I wanted on the map but from a different perspective. The rewarding snippets of story at the end of each mission fueled my desire to play and learn more about the characters and canonical story in the Assassin’s Creed lore. I did find the luck of the dice roll to be very difficult at times to the point where I was reminded of my time playing “Neverwinter” and not hitting an enemy that I was standing next to. Yet, this wasn’t bad enough to where I wanted to give up. The quality of the miniatures are fantastic in their detail, seeing the beard on Ezio’s face or the folds in the fabric of the courtesans were beautiful, but manufacturing and most likely heat during shipping warped a few pieces to the point that my Crossbowman look like they are in a Michael Jackson video, leaning forward on a crooked base, ladders that are almost twisted in a helix, and swords that are bent towards the tips of their blade. Removing the colored bases for my main characters which provide color identifiers to their unpainted figures (as I haven’t painted my figures), would begin to wear to the point that I worry they may split in half. I take very good care of my pieces but I can see where replacements would need to be ordered in the future, something that I am unaware of their being an option for outside of eBay or secondhand marketplaces. Similar to the miniatures, the envelopes have a light layer of glue holding them together and upon opening a few of them for the first time, I would rip them or watch them unfold due to the glue failing. There are protective sleeves that are sold separately for the cards and I purchased a pack for the large cards and the smaller cards, but learned once I opened my game that I didn’t have enough for all of them and would only be able to sleeve them once the envelope had been opened in the game or spoil the contents for myself. I decided not to use these sleeves but may order additional quantities to protect my cards later on. I purchased the color coded dice that are sold separately so that each Assassin has their own set of four dice that match the color of their miniature base and give more personality than the base white and gold dice that come with the game. All the dice are great to the touch and roll smoothly with no issues of figuring out what you rolled. The game pieces such as objective tokens and entrance labels are made with a good quality cardboard and I haven’t had any issue with peeling or scratches on them. The health and action cubes are a nice plastic and look very clean, but can be hard to find if you drop them on the floor. I would turn the flashlight on my phone to reflect them under my table easier. That brings me to another point, the space required to play the game can be very large. I have a circular table from IKEA that is 103 cm and at times when playing with a dual map set up, miniatures, and two player boards would be completely covered by the game. I made it work but that in itself required its own planning. Overall I think this is a great entry to the Assassin’s Creed Universe and builds on the story of the legendary Ezio Auditore in a way that doesn’t glamorize the character. I love the world building of the game and the references to the older games and mechanics of the video games. While the entry cost for this game was high, luckily there is going to be a cheaper option for those that couldn’t throw down the money required for this detailed and wonderful game. Where and What to Buy I stated earlier that the Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood of Venice game could be purchased from Triton Noir’s website for $230 USD in English or French. Additional language packs for Spanish, Italian, and German can be purchased for $59 USD each and include the Rulebook, Campaign Book, Booklets for the 3 expansion packs, and all the playing cards both large and small for the core game and expansions (849 cards total). Card sleeves to protect these cards are sold based on size in packs of 100 each for $6 - $10 USD. The character color coded dice I mentioned earlier are available for $19.00 USD and if you want to beef up your maps you can buy the Crows’ Nest tower for $56 USD which comes with a detailed tower and hay cart to perform your Leaps of Faith into. Lastly are the expansion packs. There are three in total that take place after the core game story, and require the core game box to play as they mix old game pieces and cards with new tiles and miniatures. The “Roma” expansion takes the players to Rome where Claudia Auditore is building another bureau for the Brotherhood and needs your help to stop the Followers of Romulus while searching for another artifact. In “Creed vs Crows” players can enter a PVP multiplayer format where the Assassins fight the elusive Crows of Cesare Borgia. “Tokyo XXI” has players take control of Modern Day Assassins like Layla Hassan and Rebecca Crane against the powerful Abstergo. Each expansion pack is available for $71 USD and adds a lot of new content and gameplay. I would advise those that want to get started with the game to purchase the Collector’s Edition first, or if you are into painting miniatures as there are over 140 of them in the box. The Crows’ Nest is a great element to have on the board and looks awesome when you have your Assassin perched on its sync point. The dice and protectors are nice to have but not needed and due to the price of the expansions, I would advise to play the main game first before purchasing, just in case you find you don’t like it and due to the time it takes to finish the main game (estimated 50 hours). Plus, with the retail edition of the core game releasing, there could be announcements for the expansions at a cheaper price. The retail edition is stated to have all the same gameplay and mechanics as the CE but with only the main Assassins and Ezio having figurines. All other character pieces will be standees and the secret boxes will be converted to envelopes. Make sure to keep an eye out on this as I will for an easier way to get into this game. Final Thoughts While I struggled to finish my solo playthrough of this game, I still very much enjoy Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood of Venice and would suggest that any fan of the series should purchase this game. I would highly recommend finding at least one other person to play with to make the game move quicker and have someone to uncover secrets and accomplish goals with. I plan on finishing my co-op campaign with my friend in the future while I play the expansions on the side. If you are a fan of the series, RPGs, miniatures, or board games in general, I would recommend this game. The passion and care that was put into the game by the Triton Noir team is very visible (such as the hidden message in Arabic under the lid) in this product and I look forward to seeing more from them in the future and may check out some of their non-AC titles at some point. comments debug Comments Write a comment Write a comment Share Your Thoughts Be the first to write a comment. About the Author Mike Smith is a collector of all things Assassin's Creed and a major supporter of transmedia who joined TOWCB as a writer from 2021 - 2024 With nearly a full library of Assassin's Creed media, his work explored the universe in order of Genetic Memory. Notably, his Assassin's Creed Timeline became an essential tool for fans of the franchise looking to complete their collection and consume AC media in a particular order. Michael Smith

Assassin’s Creed Virtual Photography: 5th to 15th February 2024 Community Share 21 Feb 2024 Written By: Edited By: Aaron Young Colum Blackett Back To Database Welcome to the biweekly virtual photography roundup hosted by Aaron Young from the AC Partnership Program. Every two weeks we will be picking our top 5 favourite Assassin’s Creed shots and showcasing them on The Ones Who Came Before website, in order to promote virtual photography and talented content creators within the community. This theme is all about celebrating our 100th article. It has been an absolute honour to feature all your shots over the last 2 years. The collection below is a small selection of our favourites from the last few weeks, with write ups from the artists. We look forward to many more articles in the future. Keep an eye on the site as more shots are added, we are looking for captures across all Assassin’s Creed games. Tag your photos to #ACFirstCivVP for a chance to be featured. This week’s theme: Assassin’s Creed 100th Article All Father Game: Assassin’s Creed Valhalla VP Artist: @ Cll3ar The Ones Who Came Before Photo of the Theme ''When it comes to virtual photography, I aim to bring creativity and artistry to every shot. I enjoy capturing everything from dark, moody scenes to vibrant magical moments. Take for example this shot of Eivor (Havi) emerging from the red leaves left behind by a fallen enemy. I’ve been a fan of Assassin’s Creed for ages, and the photo mode features in the latest games have been a real game-changer for me. Allowing me to freeze moments and tell stories through my lens. The Assassin’s Creed community has been awesome, giving me the opportunity to showcase my work in articles and virtual photography magazines early on. This support has meant the world to me. Big thanks to everyone for letting me share my world with you.'' Judge: Admin Team Aaron ( FalconSwift87 ) “The realm is changed. But this is not Surtr’s doing. It is something more.” Assassin’s Creed Valhalla boasts a considerable section dedicated to Havi. When entering these mythical worlds, photography options become a lot more varied. On reflection I cannot wait to revisit them soon. This stunning landscape shot of Havi gives me real box art vibes, in fact it isn’t too dissimilar to what Ubisoft produced. I adore Havi stance as it shows him in pain, something he must endure a lot of during the Ragnarok DLC. The cold tones in the background fit beautifully with the Norse theme, reminding me of the Norway arc. I love the red leaves; they look so graceful fluttering up behind him. The remains of an enemy put to the sword by the High One. Turið Torkilsdóttir Raven has a distinctive way of utilizing the environment of a game. She combines pleasant colours and interesting scenery to create something unique every time. This photo is the best proof of it and well deserved first place. Kai ( KaiVirtualPhoto ) I’m a fan of Raven and her work with colours, and this shot makes no exception. I love the contrast between the red leaves in the foreground and the white/blue tones in the background. Eivor passing by with his eyes covered by shadows, as well as the cinematic aspect ratio, make for a magnificent picture and composition. Congratulations Raven. Jack ( _Virtualtourism ) Raven’s distinct style and perspective consistently yields stunning virtual photography across various games. In this image her talent shines through in her ability to convey motion within the image. The sense of Eivor traversing the scene is heightened not only by a great composition but also the vibrant red leaves, which are drifting through the scene, and helped by being excellently contrasted against the cold blue backdrop. Truly a breath-taking capture. Church Game: Assassin’s Creed Valhalla VP Artist: @ PodToGo ''Hi, I’m Payableondeath from Germany and I’ve been doing VP since 2015. I started just taking screenshots for me and my friends, but from 2017 with Horizon Zero Dawn, I discovered photo mode. I was impressed by everything I could do that couldn’t be done in real life photography, such as pausing the action and moving the camera or changing the time of day. I’ve loved challenging my creativity again and again. I got to know Assassin’s Creed back then with AC2. It picked me up during a difficult time and that’s not the only reason why it has a place in my heart. Assassin’s Creed also showed me to be open to foreign cultures and people. It is great to share my passion for both, with this wonderful community.'' Viewpoint Game: Assassin’s Creed Syndicate VP Artist: @ juanmawl ''I remember the exact moment I took this shot (along with others in that location). I was particularly fond of the WW1 sequence in Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. I was experimenting with a free roam injector for the PC version of the game. I loved the colours on the horizon, and I decided to place Lydia at the top of London Bridge. I tried some unusual angles, but I think the shot turned out beautifully overall. I love virtual photography in general and Assassin’s Creed in particular because it allows me to capture the details beneath the visuals, such as short angle shots, expressions, or the tranquillity of a landscape. There is so much difference between the gameplay shot and the final outcome. That is one of the things I love the most, comparing the two. I’ve been honing my photography skills since AC3, and shots like this one make me fee proud.'' Restricted Game: Assassin’s Creed Mirage VP Artist: Siobhan from AC UK (@ mysticheero ) ''I’m a big Assassin’s Creed fan. I am part of the Assassin’s Creed United Kingdom group and former Mentor and Star Player for Ubisoft. I enjoy virtual photography and exploring the world of gaming through it, capturing scenes I find amazing and inspiring. I love discovering how changing colours, focal points and angles alters our perception of an image. Strong colours stand out and impact the emotion of a scene but, equally the lack of colour can have just as powerful effect. Assassin’s Creed has something for everyone, across all its transmedia sources. The community is a great place to express our love from different viewpoints. It’s always great seeing the community come together to share their passions, supporting and inspiring each other to be part of such an inclusive community.'' Under the Sea Game: Assassin’s Creed Valhalla VP Artist: @ RaffGN7 ''This shot was a little difficult to take. I had to centre Eivor with the ship, and Eivor needed to be closer to the camera because of the photo mode restrictions. I took some shots, and this was the one that turned out best. Obviously, it’s a little retouched in photoshop, so you can use it as a wallpaper or poster. My passion for this saga inspired me to take this shot. I call it Between two Worlds.'' Dracarys Game: Assassin’s Creed Valhalla VP Artist: @ Amaya_Nocturna ''This is truly an honour. This particular shot was all experimental. It was during my first time playing the Dawn of Ragnarok DLC. I was using Sýnin (with the dragon skin) to look for something, until I noticed the smoke from the chimneys. A lightbulb essentially went off in my head. It took a few tries to time it just right, but the result is something I am so extremely proud of. I would like to say that my virtual photography is still very much a work in progress. I am trying new things as often as possible, and I am trying to grow with it. Its like a traditional artist trying to have diverse styles. However, portraits like this are my forte. Virtual photography is fun and is another digital art form that we can explore. When it comes to Assassin’s Creed, I have to say that it is a great series. Personally, it has taught me that history is far more interesting than school makes it out to be. It taught me and continues to teach me history in a fun and engaging way. As far as the community is concerned, it is a place where I have met some amazing people and have formed lots of friendships. I continue to meet new people because of this fantastic series. I even met classmates who are also fans of Assassin’s Creed. I know the community isn’t always perfect, but I think we all need to remember that we are here for a mutual love of this game series. It’s a great community and we need to stick together.'' Tactician Game: Assassin’s Creed Valhalla VP Artist: @ 9b75 The good thing about Assassin’s Creed is that as an Assassin we can set the world straight. At the same time, we can get in touch with nature and the lives of the people who lived in that time-period. I don’t know of any other game where we can climb Big Ben, run freely around the Palace of Versailles, or stand at the top of the pyramids. It’s the best. I will continue to take photos of these great moments. I want to thank the community for featuring our work in this way. It is nothing short of a source of energy for us. Thank you so much. Surveying the Land Game: Assassin’s Creed Odyssey VP Artist: @ cop_filip ''Assassin’s Creed is the first gaming franchise I ever got into back with Assassin's Creed 2 and it's also where my virtual photography journey started all the way back in 2017. These are the games I've captured and posted most, and even after all this time and all the different games I've captured over the years I still love coming back to them and capturing their beautiful worlds. I really love this series and I'm happy I can be a part of and contribute to the community. '' Anubis Game: Assassin’s Creed Origins VP Artist: @ zurullotarra ''I love doing virtual photography because I can explore my favourite games looking for beautiful places to capture. That way I can get lost in their fantasy worlds and forget about real life.'' And that sums it up for this Assassin’s Creed virtual photography recap list! Thank you for checking out the photo collection. This would not be possible without the virtual photographers out there so a huge thanks to them. Until next time keep those shots coming in! comments debug Comments Write a comment Write a comment Share Your Thoughts Be the first to write a comment. About the Author Aaron is a passionate Assassin's Creed fan who joined our AC Partnership Program as an Online Article Writer back in 2021 after the release of Assassin's Creed Valhalla. After building momentum and interest on TOWCB website for Virtual Photography, Aaron established TOWCB Virtual Photography Team, of which he is now Team Leader. Throughout 2024, TOWCB VP Team will be sharing community captures in dedicated articles, and providing a positive environment on Twitter for gamers to share their shots. Aaron Young

Children of Danu: A History Breakdown Share 14 Apr 2021 Written By: Edited By: Lauren Harris Ashlea Buckley Back To Database We are moving ever closer to the release of Assassin Creed Valhalla’s first story expansion DLC, Wrath of the Druids, which is due to release on the 13th May. The new content will see Eivor travel to Ireland where she will forge alliances with Gaelic Kings and battle a druidic cult known as the Children of Danu. But who were the Children of Danu and how might they factor into this new piece of the Valhalla story? Wrath of the Druids is the first downloadable content expansion for Assassin's Creed Valhalla, and is set to launch May 13th 2021. Danu is a goddess in Irish mythology – though she is a bit different to what we may assume when we think of mythological gods. Danu is a hypothetical god and functions as a mother goddess of the Tuatha Dé Danann, which translates roughly as “the people of the goddess Danu”. We can assume that the Tuatha Dé Danann are the cult Eivor will be fighting, or at the very least it will be worshippers of the Tuatha. Interestingly, there are no surviving myths or legends associated with Danu in the medieval Irish texts, though Danu is sometimes assumed to be an alternative name for Anu who is another Irish goddess. It is possible that Danu was inspired by Dôn from Welsh mythology, who was a mother goddess in the Mabinogion. It is also possible that Danu is actually Danand, daughter of Delbáeth and mother of Brian, Iuchar, and Iucharba, though this is disputed. According to some interpretations of the myth, Danu had a relationship with a sacred oak tree which grew two giant acorns. The acorns fell to the ground and out came The Dagda and Brigid, who would later become important figures within the Tuatha Dé Danann. Another interpretation is that Danu is actually the Greek goddess of the sea, Eurynome. Eurynome was once known as Danae or Dana, which could suggest a connection between her and Danu. Eurynome is usually represented as a mermaid with bright red lips, piercing blue eyes, pale skin, and long blonde hair. It is also theorised that Danu may represent the Danube River, further connecting her to water. The Tuatha Dé Danann were a pantheon who have appeared throughout Celtic mythology in various forms. They were a supernatural race rather than a cult in Irish mythology, which could suggest that Eivor will meet human followers of the race rather than the race themselves due to Assassin’s Creed generally not including supernatural phenomena. According to legend, the Tuatha Dé Danann live in the realm of the deities known in Celtic mythology as the Otherworld. In other legends, it has been known as Annwn, Avalon, and Tír na nÓg. Despite living in the Otherworld, the Tuath Dé often visit the human world and interact with humans. Their rivals were the Fomorians, who the Tuath Dé defeated in the legendary Battle of Mag Tuired. Over the years, the legend surrounding the Tuath Dé has evolved and been altered by those who have interpreted it. The pantheon have been regarded as ancient kings and queens with supernatural abilities, as fallen angels, or even as gods themselves. Eventually, the Tuatha Dé Danann came to be known as the aes sídhe in Irish and Scottish mythology. The Tuath Dé are generally associated with nature and each member is connected to one aspect of life or nature. Some of the more well known members of the Tuatha Dé Danann pantheon include The Dagda, god of fertility, agriculture, strength, magic, Druidry and wisdom; The Morrigan, a crow who was associated with war, fa te, death and doom; Manannán, god of the sea; and Brigid, goddess of wisdom, healing, protection and animals. Concept art for Ireland coming from the Assassin's Creed Valhalla Season Pass Trailer. Legend tells that the Tuatha Dé Danann hailed from four cities in Ireland’s north: Falias, Gorias, Murias. and Finias. The Tuath Dé taught their skills in sciences, the arts, architecture, magic and necromancy to the humans in Ireland. According to Lebor Gabála Érenn, the Tuath Dé arrives in Ireland “in dark clouds” and “brought a darkness over the sun for three days and three nights” before burning the ships they sailed in on. According to the Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland, the Tuatha Dé Danann arrived in the country in 1897 BC. They almost immediately became caught up in a battle with the previous settlers, the Fir Bolg. The Tuath Dé overthrew the Fir Bolg but their king, Nuada, lost his arm in the battle and could not continue to rule. He was replaced by Bres who was a tyrant. Dian Cecht managed to replace Nuada’s arm with a prosthetic. Dian Cecht’s son Miach used a spell to force flesh to cover the prosthetic and essentially give Nuada his arm back, but Dian Cecht was furious at being upstaged and murdered his son. Nuada became king again, but this enraged Bres who ended up bring the Fomorians to battle the Tuath Dé. In the Second Battle of Magh Tuireadh, Nuada was killed and Lugh took over as king. It is said that a third battle occurred, this time between the Tuath Dé and the Milesians. The Milesians met three Tuatha Dé Danann goddesses Ériu, Banba and Fodla, and their husbands Mac Cuill, Mac Cecht and Mac Gréine. The three husbands were kings at the time and called a truce between the two groups – however the Tuath Dé broke the peace by creating a magical storm. In the end, the Milesian Amergin was called on to split the land between the two peoples. He gave the land above ground to the Milesians and sent the Tuatha Dé Danann to live underground in the Sidhe mounds, thus ending their reign in Ireland. One of the most interesting pieces of the Tuatha Dé Danann legend is the Four Treasures. According to the myth, the Tuatha Dé Danann brought four magical treasures to Ireland, one from each of their home cities. These treasures were a cauldron, a spear, a stone, and a sword. Is it possible that we will see these treasures in Wrath of the Druids? After all, each treasure sounds like the perfect basis for a Piece of Eden. The treasure from the city of Falias was the Stone of Fal. The stone itself is real and still stands in Ireland today. It is now known as the Lia Fáil, meaning Stone of Destiny, or as the Speaking Stone. It can be found on the Hill of Tara in County Meath. The Lia Fáil was said to have supernatural powers. Legend states that the stone would “roar” when the rightful High King of Ireland put his feet on it. It was also said to have the power to rejuvenate the king and bless him with a long reign. According to Lebor Gabála Érenn, the stone can no longer do this due to being split by Cú Chulainn, the Irish demigod and Lugh’s son. The stone also provides the origin of the name Inis Fáil, an ancient name for Ireland. Journey to Ireland and unravel the mysteries of an ancient druidic cult. Fight your way through haunted forests and dazzling landscapes while gaining influence among Gaelic kings. The second treasure was the Spear of Lugh from the city of Gorias. The story of the spear has been told several ways, but generally it involves Lugh demanding the spear which belonged to the King of Persia. The spear was said to be impossible to overcome and would answer to spells. One of these spells was “Ibar” which caused the spear to always hit its mark, and another was “Athibar” which caused the spear to return to its owner. Some writers have also suggested that the spear was alive and thirsted for blood and only a pile of fresh poppy leaves could prevent it from killing everyone around. It also may have been able to shoot flames or even lightning. It is starting to sound like a Piece of Eden we have seen before. The treasure from Findias was the Sword of Light and it belonged to Nuada, the king. Much like the Holy Grail in Arthurian legend, the Sword of Light frequently appears as a quest object in Irish and Scottish mythology. It is thought that the Sword of Light and Cú Chulainn’s sword Cruaidín Catutchenn may be one and the same. The sword is also described as a “fiery and bright lightning weapon” which could emit sparks. The final treasure is the Cauldron of the Dagda which came from the city of Muirias. The Dagda could control life and death, the weather and crops, as well as time and the seasons. He was skilled in magic and Druidry which may explain his connection to the cauldron. The cauldron was known as the coire ansic and was said to be bottomless and left no man unsatisfied. It was also said to have a ladle so big that two people could fit in it. According to the Annals, at least ten members of the Tuatha Dé Danann were High Kings of Ireland at one point. These were Nuada, Bres, Lugh, Eochaid Ollathair, Delbáeth, Fiacha, Mac Cuill, Mac Cecht and Mac Gréine. However, as all of these kings reigned before the Common Era, it is unlikely we will see them in Wrath of the Druids. All that said, what can we expect to see in Wrath of the Druids? As many scholars of Irish mythology have pointed out, Danu is essentially a blank slate. With no concrete myth or legend surrounding her, any writer is free to do what they wish with the goddess. As such, the writers of the DLC really do have the freedom to interpret Danu and her influence on Ireland however they like. As for the cult itself, that is harder to anticipate. It is unlikely that the cult will be the Tuatha Dé Danann themselves. Instead, it will probably be a cult who either believe themselves to be the Tuath Dé or who worship them. What kind of fight will they put up? They are druids who follow a supernatural race, so it is likely they will be using potions and mysticism in their battles. What is perhaps most interesting is whether the Four Treasures will appear? Considering how important Pieces of Eden are to the Assassin’s Creed mythos, and how many fantastic weapons appeared in the main story of Valhalla, it would be very disappointing to not see at least some of the treasures in the DLC. Who wouldn’t love to fight using the Sword of Light or the Spear of Lugh? Or to visit the Stone of Destiny or drink from Dadga’s bottomless cauldron? In any case, focussing the DLC on the Children of Danu seems like the perfect move after a game full of cursed objects, hallucinogenic mushrooms, and potions which take you to Asgard. If you enjoyed the more mystical elements of Valhalla, it seems like Wrath of the Druids will be right up your street. Could the DLC introduce Pieces to Eden to Assassin's Creed Valhalla? comments debug Comments Write a comment Write a comment Share Your Thoughts Be the first to write a comment. About the Author Lauren is a online article writer who joined the program in 2019, which allowed for her work to be viewed by a larger audience. She is especially interested in Assassin's Creed lore, and wrote a number of thought provoking articles which you can find here in the Community HUB. Lauren left the program in 2021 shortly after the 'Assassin's Creed Infinity' announcement, which understandably left many fans feeling uneasy. We wish her the best of luck with her future projects. Lauren Harris

Summon the Brotherhood: A Review of the Summoners War X Assassin’s Creed Crossover Event Review Share 10 Apr 2023 Written By: Edited By: Michael Smith Colum Blackett Back To Database Banner by Thea Marie Rivedal ( Moonchildgecko ) from TOWCB Art Team . Starting in the month of March through May 1, 2023, Summoners War is collaborating with the Assassin’s Creed franchise for a variety of events including a themed dungeon, exclusive Arena opponent, and five characters from the games. Ubisoft is well known for their openness to cameos or crossovers with properties within their own IP umbrella and other companies. It is a simple way to promote both games and introduce fans to each other and the respective works. This is most commonly seen with mobile games as the games as a service model results in various events that are great for promotion and drawing in new players that hopefully will continue to play once said event has ended. What is Summoners War Summoners War is a gacha-based team building RPG game where players “summon” characters using scrolls of various types to collect characters of various designs and strength levels (or ranks). These characters are upgraded by playing through turn-based levels where your team of 2-5 characters (based on level difficulty) will fight waves of enemies, progressing through a story based around the releasing of a “dark magic” in a fantasy world (something that I did not pay much attention to). The game walks you through all aspects of the game through tutorials and quest lines, showing you how to level characters via EXP and absorbing weaker characters, merging creatures to get new ones, and building a personal island with multiple buildings that provide things like shops, storage, and speciality focus for things like summoning and mining resources. Event Story The story for this event has fan favorite and original Assassin, Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad appearing on the player’s island with the Assassin’s Headquarters. He informs the host character, Ellia, that he is searching for the Templars and asks for both her and the player’s help. This Headquarters building acts as a daily Assassin Quest hub that will reward the player “Codex Pages” and game materials such as currency and summoning scrolls in return for completing quests such as fighting the mysterious Master X in the PVP Arena or completing a set number of campaign or dungeon missions. The Codex pages are used to claim rewards from the various event campaigns that will be discussed below. Characters The characters included in the crossover between Summoners War and Assassin’s Creed are Kassandra from AC Odyssey, Bayek of Siwa from AC Origins, Eivor Varinsdottr from AC Valhalla, Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad from the original Assassin’s Creed, and Ezio Auditore da Firenze from AC Revelations. Each character (with the exception of Altaïr) can be summoned in any of the five character types, Water, Fire Wind, Light, and Dark. Altaïr is a Light exclusive character that is rewarded in an event that is detailed further in this article. During the time I played the game and events, nearly 60 hours, I was able to get each of the featured Assassins with a mixed coverage of types (all but Darkness). My first character was Kassandra, followed by Bayek and Eivor, then Altaïr from one of the event campaigns, and lastly Ezio after multiple batch summons from the RNG based gacha system. I played with each character, focusing on leveling and evolving them quickly to reach the higher start ranks which improves their stats and chances at success in the various game modes. I reached the highest ranking of 6-Stars with Bayek and Kassandra before ending my initial playthrough of the game. I was able to play the full campaign (non-event themed) on nearly all difficulty levels, using these characters to progress through the story quickly. Event Dungeon An exclusive event dungeon is included with the update that started the collaboration with Assassin’s Creed and has players work through a pathway dungeon that varies in difficulty depending on direction selected. The enemies are at post game levels (from my experience) and unfortunately for me were too difficult to fight even with the high levels of my characters (from both Assassin and Summoners War). Due to this, I was unable to explore the dungeon in full but was able to at least see what the boss was for the event. The Legion Commander of Conviction is the event boss and is a really cool design. This Templar commander looks like a formidable foe to defeat with your team of Assassins or other characters. Per the notes in the image, he uses magic power from the Piece of Eden that is influencing the dungeon. I had hoped to defeat him at least once during my play, but the dungeon feels more designed for those that are already playing the game. Altaïr Giveaway Event The first Event is designed around collecting Altaïr, and is broken down across 7 rounds where players must defeat a set number of Monsters & fight a set number of matches in the Arena to be rewarded energy and currency for the game. Once they have completed the two tiers for each round, they are provided a Hidden Mission that will reward more currency & summoning scrolls. At ranks 3 & 5 players are rewarded Ezio themed Emojis for the game chat and the Assassin Altaïr at the end of round 4. The final round 7 rewards an Assassin’s Creed Summoning Scroll which gives a guaranteed Assassin summon, whereas the normal scrolls can reward an Assassin, but it is random among the other characters. What is nice about this event is that you do not have to complete the Hidden Missions to progress, you only have to defeat Monsters and fight in the Arena, but you do have to complete them for the themed rewards. Altaïr is rewarded after finishing a set amount of Assassin Missions from the Headquarters. Collab Gift Bag & Monster Skill Level-Up Event The second event is based around collecting the Codex Pages from playing during the event. Players can claim energy and currency each day after gathering Codexes in increments of 10 (up until 40) and then Summoning Scrolls every 20 pages from 20 - 180. At 100 scrolls collected and 200 scrolls collected the player is rewarded with exclusive themed items. First is a Collab Outfit for Ellia that dresses her as an Abstergo Scientist, Ellia opens her book to release an orb of light and adjusts her glasses before closing it again. Second is a Collab Building, the Assassin Post, which has five spaces for players to display your Assassins (or whatever character you choose). Players can place this anywhere on their Island and activate it to see a cool hologram display of the Animus field and the Assassin’s Emblem. Pages are not consumed for these items but, the Codex pages can be used to pay for caches of items from upgrade monsters, scrolls, runes (used to boost characters), currency, and energy. This is a great way to progress quickly as a new player as players only have to play the game and save the Codex Pages for the caches. It is also the event that players can claim Codex Pages to rank up the skills of the Assassins which is normally obtained by using duplicate characters of the same name to level up that Assassin (ie. using Kassandra to level up Kassandra). Collaboration Treasure Chest Event This event is broken into two mission sets assigned by Ezio and Summoners War character, Archangel. Ezio requires you to clear Brotherhood missions from the Headquarters and enter the Arena, World Arena, or Guild content gamemodes. Archangel asks for players to Enter dungeons of various types and play Scenario missions (story missions). Once players complete 2 Ezio missions and 3 Archangel missions, they are given a Key to open one of 28 chests that reward similar rewards to the caches from the previous event. Once all chests are claimed, the keys can be exchanged for energy and currency. Trial of Ascension Event One of the various game modes is the ladder based Trial of Ascension where players climb a battle tower and are rewarded every 10 levels. In this event, each level cleared gives the player 1 point that can be used to claim Summoning Scrolls every 20 points up to 150 (the last two rewards at 120 and 150). There is also a reward for clearing the first 10 floors on Normal and Hard difficulty. If the player clears Floor 50, they can claim an Assassin’s Creed Scroll for an Assassin summon. Assassin’s Creed Scroll Giveaway Event Bayek hosts this event and rewards points for completing an array of missions that each reward different amounts of points and allow the player to claim rewards every 1,000 points. The best reward is an Assassin’s Creed Scroll at 6,000 points. There isn’t much to this event, just a lot of play required. When the event had started, I claimed around 2750 points as I researched the game for this event. Collaboration Special Reward Giveaway Event What appears to be the final event has players defeat the Boss in the Event Dungeon and clear Assassin Brotherhood Missions. Players will be rewarded an Assassin’s Creed Statue, Kassandra Emojis, an Assassin Brotherhood Rainbowmon Transmog (which is used for upgrading a character), and lastly the Assassin’s Fortress building for their island. There is still time to claim these for the event, but if players have the same difficulty curve that I experienced, that may not be possible to get the all. When I first started the event, I rushed through most of the game just attempting to get the Assassin characters. Over the 60 hours I played for this article, I started to follow along with the Summoner’s Way questlines to figure out what to do and enjoyed playing the game more once I did that. I made a few mistakes and used characters for leveling my Assassins that hindered me from completing quests until I summoned that character again, but with all of the prizes I received from the events, they were easy to replace. The game is worth looking at just for the crossover, and can be played afterwards if you end up liking the game, but jump in sooner than later as the individual events end within the next few weeks and if you want these characters, they won't stick around forever, so jump in and help the Brotherhood! comments debug Comments Write a comment Write a comment Share Your Thoughts Be the first to write a comment. About the Author Mike Smith is a collector of all things Assassin's Creed and a major supporter of transmedia who joined TOWCB as a writer from 2021 - 2024 With nearly a full library of Assassin's Creed media, his work explored the universe in order of Genetic Memory. Notably, his Assassin's Creed Timeline became an essential tool for fans of the franchise looking to complete their collection and consume AC media in a particular order. Michael Smith

The Evolution of Assassin's Creed Analysis Share 27 Aug 2024 Written By: Edited By: Hayden Bird Colum Blackett Back To Database The ‘Assassin’s Creed’ series has come a long way since its creation way back in 2007. The games have been forced to adapt to coexist with the rapid evolution of technology. The technology that game developers had in 2007 is extremely different from what gaming companies have access to now. Having a game series that started in the late 2000’s to the present day means a lot of change over time, both with the games and with the world as it is today. Ubisoft had a challenge given to them in trying to make the ‘Assassin’s Creed’ series acceptable in today's standards, but also not to abandon the premise and idea of the games that fans have known and loved for so many years. ‘Assassin’s Creed’ has undergone some changes to the series, in nearly all aspects. Fans of the games have sometimes been divided in their love for this franchise. ‘Assassin’s Creed’ is really a lot more than just a game, it's a family as well. To have a community that can share their love for the games together is harmonious for the creators and the fans, and Ubisoft hit the jackpot by bringing together people from all over the world into one family. There is no denying the games have been through many changes, and doing this has helped keep the ‘Assassin’s Creed’ series alive and well as it is today. The main evolution that the ‘Assassin’s Creed’ games have been through is the major shift in gameplay. The original games were much different from the ‘Assassin’s Creed’ we know today. For starters, the original games followed a more predictable formula, meaning that mostly every game released in their once annual cycle were quite similar to one another. They followed stealth, action, and some tactical ideas, while the more modern games in the series have transitioned to more RPG, which stands for Role Playing Game, and adopted this approach for the current formula of almost all the modern games. There are significant differences in the old and the new formulas, such as combat and stealth have been heavily reworked. In past games, combat was mostly a matter of timing and countering enemy attacks. It was too easy to kill basically any enemy in the game, it was so easy to the point where the games would offer more expensive in-game weapons that supposedly could help you deeper into the game, but it was quite common for players to not even need to upgrade any of their equipment one time, as it was simple playing the entire game with the base weapons and still being able to get past all enemies with ease. The new games changed this flaw from past games in the series, as now it is vital to upgrade your weapons and equipment to match that of your personal level in the game, as using under-leveled equipment vs stronger enemies would prove much more challenging. This ensured that the games were not only up to modern standards, but also that they were believable and played well like most big and successful games do today. The major overhaul of the ‘Assassin’s Creed’ series began after the sales disappointment of 2015’s ‘Assassin’s Creed Syndicate’ . It caused Ubisoft to change course from their usual annual installment schedule and instead decided to take a year off in the franchise for the first time since after the very first game released back in 2007 with the two year gap between the first and second game. Since then the series grew accustomed to releasing a new game every year. So, in 2016 there was no new ‘Assassin’s Creed’ game, as they put all their efforts into focusing on 2017’s ‘Assassin’s Creed Origins’ . This game marked a new era for the franchise, as it was the overhaul of almost all the features the previous games had created. The change in formula was hit with positive responses from both critics and fans. It was a rebirth of the ‘Assassin’s Creed’ series in a way. Ever since 2017, nearly all games in the series have followed a similar path that ‘Origins’ started. Of course, there are fans who miss and prefer the old formula, as it was the identity of the franchise since its creation. Some fans even these many years later would still rather play an ‘Assassin’s Creed’ game like it used to be played. Ubisoft listened to these fans, and released last year's ‘Assassin’s Creed Mirage’ as a tribute to the beginning of the franchise 15 years later to that date. It was a game directed at fans of the previous formula, as it abandoned most of the heavy RPG aspects that recent games have adopted, and instead brought back a lot of what the old formula began. It was a great gesture by Ubisoft to also create a new game in the formula of the past, as they knew fans who missed the past formula would feel catered to once again. Many fans even today think Ubisoft should continue a trend like this, by catering to fans of both the older and newer games, and finding a balance that all fans could enjoy together. The newer ‘Assassin’s Creed’ games have proved very successful both critically and financially. The games have helped keep the core foundation of the series together to match that of modern expectations. The tech industry moves very quickly, and those who fail to adapt often get left behind, and the same goes for the video game industry. You have to stay current with your games, otherwise fans will lose interest and the series itself would begin to lose its massive impact on the entire gaming world that ‘Assassin’s Creed’ has created its positive reputation all these years later. Not having their unique and popular identity would be bad for the franchise, and the games we know today may cease to exist without the major change the games have had to take. It’s just the way the tech business is, you need to stay up to date otherwise fans will go somewhere else, and lose interest. Ubisoft had quite a bold task on their hands when they rebooted the ‘Assassin’s Creed’ series years ago, and according to gamers and the majority of the fanbase alike, Ubisoft nailed it and has managed to breathe new life into the franchise. The evidence for this is the fact that the games are as popular as ever today, and continue to make a long-lasting impact on the gaming world. The series we know and love has undergone some significant changes in the past, but was for the best, and vital to its current success to this day. comments debug Comments (1) Write a comment Write a comment Sort by: Newest Guest Aug 28, 2024 Awesome article! Well written! Like Reply About the Author Hayden is a passionate Freelance Writer based in South Carolina who joined TOWCB's Writing Team in 2020 during the Covid-19 Pandemic, writing articles on all things Assassin's Creed Valhalla. He left the group to focus on studies, joining our Alumni program, but triumphantly returned with fresh ideas in 2024 to pick up where he left off, only this time covering Assassin's Creed Shadows. In 2025, Hayden took on the position of Team Leader for TOWCB's Writing Team, overseeing article releases, assisting with recruitment and providing assistance with internal operations. Hayden Bird

The Great Mystery Of Assassin's Creed Codename Hexe Analysis Share 1 Mar 2026 Written By: Edited By: Hayden Bird Gargudon Back To Database When Ubisoft announced the existence of upcoming Assassin’s Creed games back in 2022, one announcement felt like a real mystery with a short but unique trailer that showed a potential darker tone that the franchise could be attempting soon. This game in question is Assassin’s Creed Codename Hexe . It is still without a real title, hence the codename, but many are speculating that the game is set during 16th-century Central Europe with some thinking the game could touch on the infamous Witch Trials of that era. The entire majority of Codename Hexe is unknown, but it has many fans excited to see where Ubisoft will take the Assassin’s Creed series next. This game has a lot of potential and is likely the most anticipated project in the franchise at the current time. Ubisoft announced this game along with Codename Red that eventually became Assassin's Creed Shadows at their 2022 showcase. The real name and premise of Codename Hexe remains unknown. The reveal of both was seen as a huge commitment to the franchise and a tribute to the faithful fans who have followed these games for well over 15 years. Both games were announced together and it was known Shadows was going to be the first to be released, but this other one remained a mystery. Many fans point to the brief teaser trailer Ubisoft released alongside the announcement, as a sign of what to expect when the game does arrive. The Assassin’s Creed series has never been afraid to take risks, and the development of Codename Hexe proves Ubisoft is willing to push the boundaries of what the franchise is at its foundation. This game could be a serious chance of pace for the series potentially to a level gamers have yet to see from the developers. Assassin's Creed Codename Hexe Insignia Many expect Codename Hexe to be on the horizon, as Shadows is nearing its first anniversary and the franchise is teasing new entries into the series. Whether it be a full on new game or one of the remakes Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot announced a couple years ago, the franchise is not slowing down despite nearing its 20th anniversary. Codename Hexe is a real opportunity for Ubisoft to take the franchise to all new heights, and continue to show why it continues to be as strong as it is. Codename Hexe has the potential to be something we aren’t familiar with, and really change the game for the developers at Ubisoft. Codename Hexe is easily the most anticipated release in the series right now, and the fact that the near entirety of it is a mystery shows to fans that the game could be a real wild card compared to what we are used to from the franchise. This is a golden opportunity for the developers at Ubisoft to create a game that defies an entire genre, and shows that this franchise can go in directions some would have considered impossible years ago. The rumored historical time period of the game is a great era in history to explore, and the ways in which Ubisoft could take this route could be a huge difference maker. The 16th-century Central European Witch Trials are one of the more interesting and unique time periods in all of history. If Ubisoft chooses to go this direction, there are endless possibilities to their creativity. One can only imagine how many things there would be to do both main missions and side content that have so many opportunities to take the franchise to a whole different level. Promotional art featuring all main protagonists The word on the development cycle is all silent from the developers at Ubisoft, which is the way they clearly want things to be. Codename Hexe’s brief teaser trailer has already given fans their chances to speculate and predict before a full on reveal happens. From those who watched the trailer already, it is a mysterious shot of the famous Assassin insignia that is built from twigs tied together, hanging from a tree in the dark with a campfire lit nearby. The trailer ends within half a minute, and fans were left speechless as the fact that a short little teaser trailer could excite so many and create so many fan theories is impressive. Codename Hexe appeals to more than just fans of the Assassin’s Creed franchise, it offers a unique experience potentially to those unfamiliar with the games before. It is evident this mysterious title carries purely unlimited potential, and if it ends up being such a different game than what most are used to in the series, it can draw interest from all the other gamers who were not previously fans. If any game in the franchise has potential to lure interested fans in, this would be the one. Both Assassin's Insignia's revealed at Ubisoft Forward 2022 The anticipation for this mysterious upcoming instalment remains high, despite it still being a pure mystery and the developers can certainly build on the early hype and use it to their advantage. There are so many angles Ubisoft can take here, and whichever direction they take, there is no doubt we are in for an incredible gaming experience that may overtake any prior game in the franchise as the potential is limitless. It is a daunting task for the developers to both be able to hit all the goals for the game and satisfy the high expectations from fans, but if there is one thing we have gotten used to from Ubisoft, is that we are rarely disappointed. Codename Hexe offers potential to the series that perhaps even prior games may not have been able to achieve. While we may be still a while away from its release, there is no doubt that when the game is indeed ready, it will exceed expectations and become a true difference-maker in the franchise that transforms it in ways never thought possible. The time building up to the full reveal of the game will be an impatient task, but there is no doubt that in time, the fans will be blown away with what this game turns out to become. One thing is certain, we are in for a massive adventure and incredible experience when it does finally arrive. comments debug Comments Write a comment Write a comment Share Your Thoughts Be the first to write a comment. About the Author Hayden is a passionate Freelance Writer based in South Carolina who joined TOWCB's Writing Team in 2020 during the Covid-19 Pandemic, writing articles on all things Assassin's Creed Valhalla. He left the group to focus on studies, joining our Alumni program, but triumphantly returned with fresh ideas in 2024 to pick up where he left off, only this time covering Assassin's Creed Shadows. In 2025, Hayden took on the position of Team Leader for TOWCB's Writing Team, overseeing article releases, assisting with recruitment and providing assistance with internal operations. Hayden Bird

This Week in Assassin's Creed Virtual Photography: 10th - 16th September 2022 Community Share 17 Sept 2022 Written By: Edited By: Aaron Young Ashlea Blackett Back To Database Welcome to the weekly virtual photography roundup hosted by Aaron Young from The AC Partnership Program. Every week I will be picking our top 5 favourite Assassin’s Creed shots and showcasing them on The Ones Who Came Before website, in order to promote virtual photography and talented content creators within the community. Aaron is a keen virtual photographer and loves to post his journeys through Assassin’s Creed on Twitter. Keep an eye on the site as more weekly shots are added, we are looking for capture across all Assassin’s Creed games. Tag your photos to the #TOWCBWeeklyCapture for a chance to be featured. 1) Gunnar Game: Assassin’s Creed Valhalla This week’s first capture comes from @ TheWInterCzar a member of our Assassin’s Creed VP Twitter Community. First up this week we have Gunnar the Smith of the Raven clan. This may be the first time I have seen a shot of this pivotal character. Voiced by the brilliant Thomas W.Gabrielsson and also known for his role as Guthrum in The Last Kingdom. He is one of my favourite characters to talk to when visiting the settlement. This magnificent shot showcases him brilliantly, the black and white style really amplifying his beard and tattoos. Excellent use of the black background resulting in a perfect portrait. 2) Mythical Game: Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Photo number two comes from @ GeeketteAna a member of our Assassin’s Creed VP Twitter Community. Next up we have Kassandra exploring Atlantis from the Assassin’s Creed Odyssey DLC. I must admit I have never played this section of the game, but after seeing @GeeketteAna’s virtual photography I might just give it a go. I really like the colours of this capture, so vibrant and powerful. I love how you can see the waterfall coming through the eyes in the distance. The armour set also links well with the rest of the shot thanks to the white and gold elements. A very fitting photo for the mythical setting. 3) Odin’s Raven Game: Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Edits: Frans Bouma & Lightroom Classic This week’s third shot comes from @ NovA1990 a member of our Assassin’s Creed VP Twitter Community. Photo number three brings the chill with a nice shot of a raven in the snow. I always like to feature animal photography if I can, and this is the first for a raven. Even though it isn’t the focal point, I do adore the mountains in the background. There is a real haunting feel to this with the dark skies, cold snow and wind swept trees. I believe the shot is in Northumbria as that is the only place with snow in the English part of the game. Either way this Raven looks very happy sat in the snow. As the saying goes Odin’s eyes are everywhere. 4) The Saga Begins Game: Assassin’s Creed Valhalla VP number four comes from @ reubenblades1 a member of our Assassin’s Creed VP Twitter Community . For our penultimate shot this week I thought I would feature this exceptional capture of Eivor and the long ships. The sepia style of this photo makes it so unique, as it is a colour tone not often seen. The attention to detail is amazing, with the use of vignette and depth of field really bringing the shot to life. I love the old vibes of the capture as it feels fitting of the time period. I wonder where Eivor is heading next? 5) Sunset Game: Assassin’s Creed Origins The final capture of the week comes from @ YouSpoonyBardd over on Twitter. The final shot of the week is part of an awesome set entered into the Ubisoft Photo-Mode contest. Be sure to check out the whole selection below. However this photo stood out the most to me due to the jaw dropping positioning. Even with the sun going down you can see so much in this capture. I love the sun setting between the two pyramids, it is just breath-taking. I also like that you can see a third pyramid to the left and the rocky landscape surrounding it. What a beautiful use of colour and shadows to create this perfect sunset. Link to set And that sums it up for this week’s Assassin’s Creed virtual photography recap list! Thank you for checking out this week’s photo collection. This would not be possible without the virtual photographers out there so a huge thanks to them. Until next week keep those shots coming in! comments debug Comments Write a comment Write a comment Share Your Thoughts Be the first to write a comment. About the Author Aaron is a passionate Assassin's Creed fan who joined our AC Partnership Program as an Online Article Writer back in 2021 after the release of Assassin's Creed Valhalla. After building momentum and interest on TOWCB website for Virtual Photography, Aaron established TOWCB Virtual Photography Team, of which he is now Team Leader. Throughout 2024, TOWCB VP Team will be sharing community captures in dedicated articles, and providing a positive environment on Twitter for gamers to share their shots. Aaron Young

The Memory Corridor Episode #21 Retrospective Look at AC Syndicate w/ ActualSpiderMan Podcast Share 16 Jul 2022 Written By: Edited By: Gustav Poulsen (Gargudon) Back To Database https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrFWssZgQuk comments debug Comments Write a comment Write a comment Share Your Thoughts Be the first to write a comment. About the Author Gustav / Gargudon is an active and versatile content creator, who started out in podcast hosting in 2016 - hosting the discussion based show “The Memory Corridor” - but today mostly specialises in video creation, interviews, writing and composing. He joined The Ones Who Came Before in 2019 for a merger, publishing new episodes - and reviving the show following nearly a year of inactivity - on our platforms, until phased out in 2023. Today, his landmark projects include the Sounds Of History project - an original Assassin’s Creed inspired instrumental music project, featuring five tracks inspired by as many different games - other original fan themes plus covers of iconic AC tracks, as well as video interviews with a number of high profile names in the world of AC, from Roger Craig Smith, Jesper Kyd and more. Fun fact, among his growing colourful tattoo collection, Gustav is the only member of our team to have the TOWCB logo inked. Gustav Poulsen (Gargudon)

This Week in Assassin's Creed Virtual Photography: 25th June - 1st July 2022: Origins Edition Community Share 2 Jul 2022 Written By: Edited By: Aaron Young Ashlea Blackett Back To Database Welcome to the new weekly virtual photography roundup hosted by Aaron Young from The AC Partnership Program. Every week, we will be picking our top 5 favourite Assassin’s Creed shots and showcasing them on The Ones Who Came Before website, in order to promote virtual photography and talented content creators within the community. Aaron is a keen virtual photographer and loves to post his journeys through Assassin’s Creed on Twitter. Keep an eye on the site as more weekly shots are added, we are looking for capture across all Assassin’s Creed games. Tag your photos to the #TOWCBWeeklyCapture for a chance to be featured. 1) Adventure Begins Game: Assassin’s Creed Origins This week’s first capture comes from @ DawnX90 over on Twitter. Let’s start at the beginning, just like the first shot this week. I love the colours of this photo and the way it has been captured. It looks just like concept art to me, with its broad showcase of Siwa. I remember this scene very well and how I felt the first time I experienced it, truly breath-taking stuff. Siwa has to be one of the best looking locations in the game. 2) Vibrant Game: Assassin’s Creed Origins Photo number two comes from @ Salad_VP over on Twitter. This capture stood out to me the moment I saw it. In fact, both shots in this set were stunning and it was hard to pick between them. The positioning of Bayek, on what looks like a statue, is perfect against the backdrop of this incredible sky. It feels like Bayek has been teleported here through the spray of purple behind him. Full credit for playing with the colours to create this amazing shot. 3) Minimal Game: Assassin’s Creed Origins This week’s third shot comes from @ _Virtualtourism a member of our Assassin’s Creed VP Twitter Community. Photo number three comes from a must see set of shots. The minimalist nature of this capture is what makes it so exceptional. What baffles me is how Virtual Tourism even managed to see this moment in the first place. Wonderful timing with Senu flying just above the rocks below. I really like how the colours are toned down to give such a peaceful feel. Definitely checkout the other two shots as they showcase the simplistic brilliance of the Pyramids. 4) Bayek the Warrior Game: Assassin’s Creed Origins VP number four comes from @ missroseplays a member of our Assassin’s Creed VP Twitter Community. Photo number four comes from the Curse of the Pharaohs DLC. An overwhelming shot here of Bayek against a deadly foe. I like this shot as it captures Bayek in combat which is something I don’t see as often. The main man looks awesome in his armour with a stance that shows he is ready for anything, even something not of this world. This shot is all about timing and it has been perfectly achieved. 5) Goodbye Game: Assassin’s Creed Origins The final capture of the week comes from @ CosmosThief over on Twitter. I felt like this shot deserved to be the final selection of our 4 week Assassins Creed Origins celebration showcase. A fine capture of Bayek watching the sun set. I like to think that this is Bayek at the end of his adventure, finding solace after everything that’s happened. A beautiful final shot, thank you to everyone who has taken part. And that sums it up for this week’s Assassin’s Creed virtual photography recap list! Thank you for checking out this week’s photo collection. This would not be possible without the virtual photographers out there so a huge thanks to them. Until next week keep those shots coming in! comments debug Comments Write a comment Write a comment Share Your Thoughts Be the first to write a comment. About the Author Aaron is a passionate Assassin's Creed fan who joined our AC Partnership Program as an Online Article Writer back in 2021 after the release of Assassin's Creed Valhalla. After building momentum and interest on TOWCB website for Virtual Photography, Aaron established TOWCB Virtual Photography Team, of which he is now Team Leader. Throughout 2024, TOWCB VP Team will be sharing community captures in dedicated articles, and providing a positive environment on Twitter for gamers to share their shots. Aaron Young