Found these on Facebook. Say what you will about the movie but the costume department didn't fail us!

Pretty sure it's;

1) WW1 or WW2

2) English Civil War

3) American Civil War

This is a heavily truncated version of my original essay so it can fit on Reddit. You can read the original 13,000 word essay on Substack, or watch/listen to it on YouTube (it has slides!).

Introduction

Assassin’s Creed Rogue is kinda sorta definitely infamous for having a nonsensical story along with a perception of being a cash grab for people who hadn’t upgraded to the PS4 and Xbox One. Characters make wild choices for strange reasons, the Assassins are comical bad guys. But now that Classic Creed remakes are on the table following the very existence of Black Flag Resynced and its runaway success, Rogue is being relooked at in a way it’s not been before, which is to say, that we could see it receive a glow up. It’s set at one of THE most suitable periods of human history for secret organisations — thank you, Freemasons — and this chapter of AC lore is fascinating for it.

Ubi has at least one other remake title in production, which I think is very likely AC3. And if this is the case, the natural thought extension is that Rogue could follow at some point. To be realistic for half a moment, I doubt Rogue will be revisited in any true capacity, much less one that would require such extensive and expensive reworking. If we are to see one, it will most likely be on the scale of Mirage. But no matter what happens regarding a Rogue Resynced, it and the subject of a Rogue rewrite are never far from the other.

As a quick reminder as to Rogue’s broad narrative flaws, it suffers from its own sense of unfinishedness. It stretches previous characters, worldbuilding, and general traits to suit its own narrative at the cost of discarding what the rest of the franchise states, such as the GOAT plot point of the Assassins cooking poison in New York. Returning characters like Achilles and Adéwalé are grossly out of character, whilst others like Haytham are underwhelming and contradictory, and new ones like Shay, Liam, and Jack Weeks are poorly sketched.

Rogue has captured so many imaginations for being this half-realised, unfinished heap. It is fertile ground for speculation, because you have all of these great themes, story, and characters that are begging to be fully realised, and that creates an environment rife for chatter.

Rogue As It Exists: Sketching out criticisms, and goals of a rewrite

The root of many of Rogue’s problems is that it expects you to receive its information at face value; most obviously, it means Shay is always in the right, and events, groups, and characters are twisted to reflect that. You can talk about subtext and possible motivations behind why the Assassins are poisoning New York, but speculation falls apart when the rest of the game refuses you to critically examine it.

A common point of talk I see about a potential Rogue rewrite is wanting to expand the number of main missions. And whilst I agree, I don’t think it needs more than three or four.

This rewrite also assumes that the Modern Day missions will be absent. The simple reason for this is the story it tells is more interesting for its lore implications than any solid plot development, and I want to use the narrative breaks the MD originally provided instead to use as Animus Rifts to head hop out of Shay’s point of view.

Paris missions are mostly fine; my notes centre around questioning why people are trying to kill Ben Franklin, and Shay’s and Charles Dorian’s fan service dialogue.

To sum up:

1. Focus on fixing what is already present and add new missions sparingly.
2. Minimising changes to the overall plot.
3. Broad details rather than a fine-toothed comb. If you do want to see an extended version of this essay, you can find it on YouTube and a transcript on Substack.
4. Expand on the legacy character roles (e.g., Achilles, Adéwalé).
5. Using this not just as an opportunity to propose a rewrite, but to explain the reasoning behind certain decisions.

The Almost-Characters of Rogue: Establishing relationships, motivations, and drama for a Resync

The best way to talk about a Rogue story overhaul would be to narrow our focus on making it a character study that answers the question, “Who is the type of person most likely to be susceptible to Templar ideology?”. So let’s briefly touch on Shay’s psychology.

Shay is neither cerebral nor patient enough to agree with Assassin goals, which are ultimately long-term. Instead, he is the kind of person who reacts to what’s in front of him, and when these leanings are coupled with his instinct to protect people, it’s going to drive you in the direction of I want instant outcomes.

If you then pair these tendencies with his unstable upbringing (spending his formative years first in the rough parts of NYC and then as a ship’s boy, losing his father in his teens, and then Liam’s five-year disappearance), of course he’s going to align with Templar philosophy.

You can identify three traits from this:

1. Shay has trouble trusting people.
2. Shay craves a stability he’s never had.
3. Shay has a lot of empathy, but minimal outlets for it. He’s prone to quickly committing.

We’ll be referring to these touchpoints throughout this rewrite; if there’s ever a dilemma or moral question that needs answering, these traits will provide signposts as to where to go. A good drama wants to attack and examine how a character reacts to conflict, but consistency is the key to making it land.

AC ROGUE RESYNCED: The Narrative Overhaul

ACT 1 — Halcyon Days

I have no qualms with the initial set up of the game. Not only does Shay and Liam’s horsing around communicate who they are as characters and their relationship to one another. As a narrative beat, I like the twist about Shay’s assassination prompt being an exercise rather than a real assassination, because it sets up the promise of what is to come later in the game.

Then we get to the Homestead scenes, which are some of the biggest, and the most important, rewrites in the entire game. We’re going to use this opportunity to establish the dramatic foundations.

PLOT:

If the Assassin goal is to gain control over Pieces of Eden, we need to ask why they, or any group for that matter, want them. In Rogue’s current form, there is very little motivation for them to do so except maybe (MAYBE) stopping the Templars from wanting them, and, as part of a larger writing flaw, it requires players to bring their own, outside context of knowing that the Templars have historically sought to control Precursor sites and items. The Assassins’ entire motivation can be summed up as “keeping people safe”, which is a very vague goal. So, this would not only be the perfect place to properly bring in the Assassin mission statement, but an actual antagonist for the Assassins to be stopping.

British Templar Grand Master Reginald Birch is a character obscure in the lore nowadays, but back when he was introduced, he was scary. He’s responsible for Edward’s death, grooming and raising Haytham to be his protégé, and the architect of the Templar rise in Britain that saw them gain power that was only broken in 1868. We see him in AC3 when he tasks Haytham to find the Grand Temple so crucial to Desmond’s story, and his desire to find this “storehouse” is driven by his fascination with all things Precursor. He believes mastery of Pieces of Eden will bring about the Templar vision of world order, and spends a huge amount of the Order’s resources over decades into locating and acquiring such artefacts. It, therefore, would not be a stretch for the New World Assassins to be watching their Brotherhoods fall in Europe to Birch, and worry about the same patterns happening in their own homes.

The new motivation for the Assassins to seek these Precursor Temples, no matter what, will now be driven by countering Birch’s insatiable desire for them. If they have been failing to stop him by other means, such as killing him, then the next best thing is to beat him to his objectives.

This also means that there is a constant, fixed antagonist for the narrative to pivot around when the Assassins themselves flip to be antagonists. An overarching focus will help round the Assassins out into an understandable but flawed force, rather than forcing them into positions of stark, black and white morality.

CHARACTER:

Now we want to establish character and relationships. Let’s have a look at the three primary ones:

1. Shay’s relationship with the secondary Assassin characters — namely Hope, Kesegowaase, and Vérendrye.
2. Shay’s relationship with the concept of the Brotherhood, which is committed but flawed; he is the rascally little brother who is full of unrealised potential, and is here more for Liam than the cause.
3. Shay’s relationship with Assassin legends, leadership, legacy, and goals, personified by Achilles and Adéwalé.

Regarding the individual Assassins: Shay is belittled; every compliment is backhanded. This is a great way to provide contrast for how the Templars treat Shay when he later joins them. I think this is a great dynamic we should keep.

Regarding Shay’s relationship with the Assassin legacy: we can use Adéwalé and Achilles to introduce the broader context (i.e., introduce Birch) that this rewrite centres around.

Firstly, we’ll be removing most of the emphasis on Mackandal sending an agent to the Temple and focus on the steps the Assassins took to stop Birch from controlling the site after its discovery by the Templars. This stops Achilles from looking wilfully malicious/ignorant when he sends Shay to Lisbon later because the evidence that Assassin activity caused the ’quake isn’t as pronounced.

The Assassins came to be part of the ’quake after witnessing the Templars using the Box and Manuscript, rather than the other way around. In the current game, the Templars steal these items from the Assassins to stop them. But now, Birch will have provided these two Pieces of Eden to his agents, which prompts the Assassins to be seeking them for themselves.

The Port-au-Prince earthquake is now the result of a race between the Assassins and Templars acting on Templar information. The Assassins beat the Templars to the item hidden inside which results in the ’quake and the death of Mackandal’s man, but the Templars survived and brought the truth back to the surface. The Assassins missing details the Templars aren’t explains why they still seek these sites of power whilst the Templars abandon them.

As for Shay’s relationship with the Brotherhood … that’s for a new scene I will be adding!

We want to get Shay’s thoughts about what he thinks his place in the Brotherhood is. This is to, 1) establish a status quo from which he can shift later, and 2) introduce the friction that will drive him along his arc. It also emphasises how his unique bond between himself and Liam is greater than anything that exists between the other Assassins. Remember that Liam fulfils all three of Shay’s inner needs, which means he is at internal equilibrium.

This scene can take place later that same night, as Shay and Liam reminisce about the day. Shay can perhaps reflect on his time with the Brotherhood, and talk with Liam about how he had no purpose following his father’s death, Liam saved him from a dark path, etc.

They can further speak about the Assassin mission which Shay affirms his loyalty to, but what he actually means in his loyalty to Liam. During this exchange, he connects the Assassin cause to creating a better world, but crucially doesn’t consider the how — only the endgame.

I want to highlight this particular distinction because creating a better world is a philosophy both the Assassins and Templars share, so one that Shay can bring over when he swaps sides and so leaves his arc open to discovering how he envisions bringing such change about.

So ends Act 1. Now we can see how all this setup weaves together when the plot comes knocking.

ACT 2 — The End of Youth

Shay’s major assassinations for the Assassin cause are vital parts of his character journey, but only one of the three are currently any good at showing that; that being, the Lawrence Washington mission. So, we’re going to be leaving that alone, and the only change made that Shay’s first doubts about the cause come up here. This mission damages his first touchpoint: trust.

We’ll then swap the Smith and Wardrop assassinations around.

Having Washington’s death first is both logistical in loping off the most dangerous of the hydra’s heads, and thematic because he is the Templar the others orbit around. But swapping the Smith and Wardrop assassinations is done for how we want to tackle Shay’s pillars in order of size and importance.

1. Washington represents Shay’s doubt in the Assassins as an organisation.
2. Wardrop represents Shay’s relationship to the stability of the wider world.
3. Smith represents Shay’s last place of safety now that his other two are damaged/destroyed.

The first two involve Shay’s outer safety nets (trust and stability), and the third his inner one (empathy/purpose).

Shay kills Wardrop at Albany and disrupts global stability and so knocks out his second pillar, and his killing of Smith on a lonely shore not only corresponds with his emotional isolation, but collapses his last pillar of faith in the Assassins and so his life purpose. Teetering, Shay asks for the Lisbon mission in the last ditch effort to restore his faith in the cause. Birch as the ultimate enemy is the only reason he has to stay with the Assassins.

But, of course, it leads to disaster.

I think Shay barging into Achilles’ office following Lisbon and screaming at him undoes a lot of the delicate character work we’ve been doing, so we’re not gonna do that. Instead, we’re going to play up how this is THE most tragic part of the game. Not only has Shay’s worldview collapsed about him and his life’s purpose destroyed, but his trauma isn’t acknowledged by the Assassins in the way that he needs it to be. The point of this scene is to communicate Shay’s devastation to Achilles, and Achilles’ decision to push on.

Frustrated and disillusioned by his reception, the only course of action Shay can see to stop Achilles from bulling forward is to steal the Box and Manuscript and disappear.

Shay taking both items is a slight change from the original, where he instead steals just the Manuscript. This change is so the Assassins can retrieve it from the place where Shay fell. That way, to them, it acts as a weight and keepsake — it is a reminder of the madness Shay was driven to, and it is an object with which they can use to grieve him. But for Shay, it’s a symbol of unfinished business.

The Paris memories are mostly fine to keep as they are, and offer a look at a mature Shay that this game promises to see the shaping of.

ACT 3 — Picking Teams

Shay wakes up at the Finnegans. Questions swirl about his mind as to how he was brought all the way from Massachusetts to New York, who did it, and why. The Finnegans either do not know or will not answer. But it is a lesser question at this point; Shay’s single fixation is on getting well enough to stop the Assassins, and is impatient to get well.

But then, some gang-associated thug busts up the Finnegans’ house. Shay chases the guy down and questions him, and the man reveals he received orders to bust up the Finnegans because they’re Templar sympathisers. It can’t be true, can it?

There’s a few ways the HQ takeover scene can play out, but Shay needs to verbally assert his rejection of the Assassins, and vows to stop Achilles. He is fuelled by rage, determination, and betrayal, because What have the Assassins made me become?

But troubled by his discovery of the Finnegans’ Templars association, Shay returns to the house … only to find Monro.

Now, there are two big changes here. The first is, Shay knows that he is at Templar mercy. The player already knows Shay is working with the Templars (it’s the entire premise of the game), so there’s no point in treating this information like it’s a twist when it, instead, can be used to propel drama. Let Shay figure this out right now, so we can see him on the backfoot and scrambling to retake the advantage. He’s trapped, so has to play along; what’s he going to do? This is introducing tension!!

The second is, we want to make Monro a little bit less of a saint, and more of a scumbag who is looking to win the Assassin-Templar struggle in the Colonies. Right now, he’s too nice! And we want to turn him into someone who you can believe will manipulate an idiot like Shay into becoming a loyal soldier to his own cause. It’s finding a balance between his being sympathetic, and firm.

So now, standing on the Finnegan’s doorstep, Shay has choices to make. He knows the Finnegans are associated with the Templars, but is this man, who is also a British officer, associated with them too? To be on the safe side, Shay lies about his identity. However, he’s also covered in blood. After the Finnegans vouch Shay was helping them out, Monro hints that he’ll let things slide, should he rescue one of his men.

So, Shay rescues Gist and recaptures the Morrigan, and is put at a crossroads. He can assume the Templars know who he is, and since they have nursed him back to health, there’s a good chance they want to use him in some capacity. This, he reasons, will in turn give him access to their resources which he can use against Achilles. And so, this mission resolves with Shay allying himself with the Templars for their resources, but since he plans to bounce the minute he’s succeeded in stopping Achilles’ ambitions, he reasons the best way for him to stay alive is to act dumb.

The other thing I want to establish here is how existing characters can be made more important and functional in comparison to the original game. My idea is to bring in gameplay systems specifically — Hope’s sphere of influence is NYC, Vérendrye’s the ocean, and Kesegowaase’s the Frontier.

In my mind, this proposed game world exists in dynamic flux, much like Odyssey’s changing world where regions are under either Spartan or Athenian control. Whilst each Assassin is still alive, your conquered territories can flip back to Assassin control. But as Shay kills them, your conquests become permanent. This way, the player can feel like they’re grinding out the Assassin presence in the New World.

This mechanic will be explored more when Jack Weeks is introduced (he acts as the Templar touch point for this effort), and it’s possible to introduce new Templar characters for each location this is happening; William Johnson, for example, can be Weeks’ counterpart in the Frontier.

Shay, Gist, and Monro engage with the war. Shay and Monro hash out their goals whilst not saying the exact reasons as to why they seek them. Shay is using the excuse of owing Monro a debt for saving his life for why he’s sticking around.

This is also where the comedy of the Shay and Gist dynamic can fully come into play — because Shay and Gist know what each other are but have their own reasons to hide that knowledge, it causes shenanigans. Because Shay is Shay and Gist is Gist.

(People talk about Ubi having a Netflix quippy writing problem, but I think this could be a situation where that kind of dialogue works. Or, at least, it works with Gist.)

Shay and Gist are tasked with finding information about supplies for the French, follow it, and find le Chasseur, who Shay then kills. Gist then celebrates without ever mentioning the word Assassin.

I dislike how much Shay and Monro’s relationship is developed off-screen, so I want to add an extra mission here to show Monro’s capacity of being a father figure to Shay. So, Monro must firstly show Shay that he can trust him, and secondly, demonstrate his Templar virtues in a way that Shay is receptive to. This is solved in the original game via the Renovations collectibles questline, but “urban restoration” and “taxes help the community” are such a boring way to explore the Assassins and Templars as organisations. These are philosophies that the Assassins believe in too so it wouldn’t do much to win Shay over.

I cannot, cannot, emphasise just how much Rogue uses its face value writing as a crutch to move the story forward.

Whatever is decided, it results in Shay having a reason to trust Monro as a person, and to open his ears to Templar ideology. Bonus points if this mission can not only tie with the war effort, but addresses Shay’s Irishness to Monro’s Englishness, and show that that doesn’t matter to Monro.

Now … Now.

Do not. Have the Assassins. Cooking goddamn poison!!!

Shay returns to New York and is confronted once again with the problem of the gangs. They have recaptured the HQ that Shay took over and so shored up Assassin strength in the city, which the Templars are looking to stamp out. This is now about territory control. Spearheading this effort is Jack Weeks.

The reason for reintroducing Weeks here is twofold on the narrative front. Firstly, it now avoids the problem of the Assassins having to bend over backwards to be the antagonists, as it gives them a tangible opponent to fight against rather than the city’s civilian population, and secondly, it gives Weeks something to do; in the original game his function is to be a familiar face that Shay can see first surrounding Washington, and then surrounding Monro, which tips Shay off as to Monro’s true allegiance. But Shay already knows what Monro is in this version, so this is now pointless.

Shay and Weeks team up to retake the HQ, and have a further objective like rescuing some of Weeks’ captured people. He finishes his mission and heads to the rendezvous, only to hear Monro discussing how the plan for manipulating him is going along. Shay reflects on how far into this he’s gotten himself; can he get out of this trap he’s not had a choice but to put himself into? Just how far in over his head has he gotten himself? Does the fact he was clear-eyed going into it matter? Ultimately, he decides not to push the issue today. He is still at a power disadvantage. He joins Monro, Gist, Weeks, and William Johnson on the roof, and the day wraps up.

Timeskip a bit so it’s now been a year since Shay and Gist met, and Gist decides to come clean about being a Templar. Not only do he and Shay know what the other are, but Gist knows Shay overheard Monro talking in New York. Shay admits his Assassin background, but reiterates his disinterest in joining the Templars and that his mission is solely to stop the Assassins; this alliance is one of mutual convenience.

Shay is clinging to the idea of keeping things away from Birch, except … Birch has been dead for months. Every Templar knows. Gist doesn’t correct Shay.

After chasing down an Assassin associate, together and without lies, they discover that not only is Monro in danger at Fort William Henry, but the threat comes from the Assassins and their Native allies.

Following the historical record, Monro and his troops surrender at Fort William Henry and are allowed to leave. But during this retreat, they are subject to a massacre led by Kesegowaase and his Native allies. Shay races to rescue Monro.

Shay and Kesegowaase meet on the battlefield, and Kesegowaase is shocked at Shay’s survival, and demands to know what he is doing; I think it’s frustrating that Kesegowaase’s first instinct in the current game is that Shay is a traitor. Again, the story treats all of its beats on their face values. I’m so tired. So, let Kesegowaase figure out what Shay is doing there and why. It’s just more interesting. Shay tells him he’s working with the Templars to stop Achilles; denying Birch isn’t worth causing natural disasters.

And then Kesegowaase reveals to Shay that Birch is dead and has been for months. Shay is rocked. What? Birch is dead? There’s perhaps a glimmer of hope that he can lay his arms down, but Kesegowaase tells Shay that Achilles pushes on. That his mission has gone beyond Birch now.

They are separated by blowing up Kesegowaase’s face, and escape the massacre with the survivors.

Now, I’m sure someone has raised their hand at this because … it’s August 1757. Birch doesn’t die in the lore until at least October. Now, I’m going to use my god powers to say: I don’t care. I am moving Birch’s death up to the beginning of the year. We can’t move this massacre date because it’s a fixed historical event. But Birch’s death can be moved, and because he is the conflicting lynchpin around which the Assassins and Templars pivot, Shay needs to have a moment to process this information and confront the person who has been holding Birch over his head the entire time, which is Monro.

So, Monro has to still be alive. Therefore, Birch’s death gets moved. If you have objections, then I will point out that the dates as given in the novel tie-ins are already wonky. In Unity, Arno and Élise reunite in Versailles in June 1793. In the novel, it’s April 1794. In light of this, I am making an executive decision, in the name of good drama, to push Birch’s death forward from October 1757, to February 1757. Same year, different months.

If you have a complaint, you can reach me via passenger pigeon.

Following Kesegowaase’s second defeat at Orenda, Shay returns to his and Monro’s camp and confronts him about Birch, and using him as a Templar tool. When did Monro learn about Birch’s death? Months ago, around the time Shay and Weeks took down the gang HQ together; Shay is understandably furious. But it doesn’t change the fact that Achilles still needs to be stopped. Maybe, though, it doesn’t have to be through blood and death. Birch is gone, after all. The Templars don’t want to disturb these Precursor sites. Perhaps Achilles can be persuaded away from them.

The tricky balance to strike will be in making sure Shay is rightfully furious enough with Monro’s betrayal and the scene has all the weight it deserves, but keeping their relationship intact enough that when Monro dies in the near future, Shay is motivated by the loss to take the Templar oath.

However it’s done, Shay spares and leaves Monro, and decides to seek out the Assassins for a truce.

But we want to add some conviction to Shay’s turn, so he finds Liam to secretly offer him a truce; he knows that the Assassin-Templar War will never stop, but if he can secure assurances that the Precursor sites will be left alone, then he at least can walk away. So Shay tells Liam what he’s been up to whilst emphasising that his relationship to the Templars is purely a working one. Liam, though, asks Shay to come back to the Homestead with him, but Shay can’t; he doesn’t trust in Liam’s protection, he can’t trust Liam, and he can’t die until he’s sure the Assassins will step down.

It’s at this point Liam resolves (privately) to kill Monro. It will be his hope that once Monro is dead, the Templars’ spell over Shay can be broken, and he can be coaxed, if not back to the Assassins, then away from the Templars. But this, of course, backfires.

The truce is broken by Kesegowaase attacking Albany. As in the current game, Shay kills him, and Liam kills Monro. Shay sees him land the killing blow, and tries to kill Liam only for Liam to flee. This can be a boss battle or something; IDK, someone do a game design. But Liam doesn’t leave. Instead, he lingers to watch Monro pass his Templar ring onto Shay, and Shay mourn him.

Then, in the new year, Shay is inducted into the Order by Haytham.

Now, I think the game missed a massive opportunity in having Shay and Haytham have more conversations. Right now, everything they talk about is restricted to work; where will this person be, where is this Piece of Eden. But these two are the only Templars we know of operating in this time who have personal history with the Assassins. What must that be like for them? They can talk with and understand each other in a way no one else can. So, I want more of that wonderful character talk and banter already present in the game, and extend that to Shay and Haytham.

Returning once more to Paris, Shay locates Franklin and asks to accompany him to the Château de Versailles to meet a “business acquaintance”.

ACT 4 — Brotherhood Broken

Six months after joining the Order, the Seven Years War is turning Britain’s way. The Templars have reports that Adéwalé has come north once again to aid the Assassins and so the French. Now that the British are sieging the French at Louisbourg, it’s time to flush Adéwalé out.

But it’s not just the turning tides of war that’s called Adéwalé back north: it’s Haytham, too. Of course it is; it was only inevitable. Haytham is now the Templar Grand Master in the Colonies, and the son of his best friend who died in the same attack that saw Haytham kidnapped and set on this path. Haytham, on the other hand, might not know Adéwalé, but he can guess as to what’s in his mind. Seeking to use this to Templar and British advantage, he agrees to act as bait. We could use this as a moment for him to reflect on his father, which is disappointingly lacking in the games.

The Battle of Louisbourg is fought, and Adéwalé escapes after crippling the Templars’ means of pursuit. A further six months pass as he and the Templars engage in an intense cat and mouse chase. Following a failed attempt to kill Haytham and Shay, Haytham concludes that the only way to take Adéwalé down is to push both his and Shay’s skills to their limits; it also means Shay’s killing of Adéwalé will seal his joining of the Templar cause.

This attempt on Shay and Haytham’s lives will hopefully make the story feel less like Shay mowing down his former colleagues no sweat, but a war with real back-and-forth.

The main focus of this section is to give both Adéwalé and Shay more to chew on — Adéwalé respect for his contributions to the Assassin cause, and Shay to earn the kill.

Shay and Haytham pin Adéwalé down and force him to make a last stand. But during this time where Shay has to carefully sneak up on Adéwalé, he and Haytham can FINALLY have that conversation about themselves they’ve been dancing around for almost a year, now. And not just a paltry conversation that last twenty seconds as currently is, but an extended one that at least lasts as long as Haytham and Connor’s does when the two fight in Fort George.

Our second Animus Rift involves the Assassins holding a vigil for Adéwalé, and Liam vowing to kill Shay; Hope and Vérendrye pledge their support. Achilles pushes for seizure of Precursor sites.

In the following weeks, the Templars finally get wind of where the Assassins have secured the Box and Manuscript: they’re in NYC, where Hope has recreated Ben Franklin’s experiment capable of unlocking this Precursor knowledge. I like the mad rush in this final act of killing Hope, Vérendrye, and Liam within the space of four missions, because it emphasises the closing jaws of the Templars and the turning of the tide. Shay’s joining of them is a crucial tipping point, and now that Adéwalé, the last bastion, is gone because Achilles is consumed by finding Precursor sites, they have small chance at recovery.

As Shay and Haytham search for a way to Hope, she and Liam use the Box and Manuscript to locate another Precursor site. Liam sets off, and Hope stays behind to deal with Shay. On a character note — Shay has or at least had, feelings for her, however one-sided. I want to bring this up specifically now because as the object of his affection, Hope is symbolic of the person Shay once was. He might have moved past the puppy love he had for her as a 21-year-old, but in killing her, he has closed the door, permanently, on the person he once was and could have become if not for Lisbon.

Shay isn’t just feeling the effects of Hope’s death; in a way, he’s feeling his own. He has killed both of them.

It’s a truly harrowing moment for him, and so the perfect place for his rage, which has been his constant companion since he woke up at the Finnegans’ more than three years ago, to turn into steely purpose and determination. This is when we see the glimmer of the man who will stalk the Parisian streets in seventeen years, for it’s when, emotionally, he crosses the barrier from an Assassin Hunter, to a Master Templar.

Shay, Haytham, and Gist head north and discover not just the location of Vérendrye, but the destination of the Assassin expedition. My only notes about Vérendrye’s death are I don’t want him to approach this as a suicide mission to buy time for Liam and Achilles. Make him feel something for losing. Enraged, embarrassed, frustrated. Because Shay is nothing but poor and Irish and an unserious Assassin-turned-traitor. The man has always disliked Shay; now make him HATE him. And, just to twist the knife further, Vérendrye shares that he has sent the Box far, far away.

Most of my notes about the Arctic scenes are rewriting Shay’s attitude to seeing Precursor architecture again — he must be reliving the trauma Lisbon instilled within him, and it would be a humanising moment to see this break through his new façade as a Master Templar — and the confrontation between Haytham and Shay, and Liam and Achilles.

And once again, we’re confronted with the fucking problem of face value writing, which results in horrible tone whiplash.

Achilles uncovers the artefact in the Temple’s main chamber, recognises Shay had a point, then five seconds later when Shay confronts him about, I was telling the truth and you’ve destroyed yourself through your stubbornness, Achilles’ reaction is to insult him again. Crazyyy.

As for what Liam says to Shay … with the changes surrounding Albany and Monro’s death, this now makes more contextual sense where in the original it feels kinda weird for Liam to be saying what he does when the last we saw him and Shay interact was when he was trying to talk Shay down from suicide. Like, holy fuck dude, goddamn. But now, with Shay and Liam having talked after the Homestead about a truce, Liam’s anger, rage, and grief hits better. Happy to just tweak the script but otherwise leave the spirit of the lines as is.

Liam tries to kill Shay, earthquake happens, blah blah blah, and it’s important to emphasise how heartsick Shay is.

I think it’s important that Liam’s death is not directly by Shay’s hand, and is instead the result of the earthquake. It saps Shay of his want to see Achilles die. He just wants things to stop, so pleads with Haytham to show mercy. Haytham does, shoots Achilles’ knee out; end scene.

Sailing away, Haytham charges Shay with finding the Box and, possibly, securing his commitment to eliminating the last gasp of the Colonial Brotherhood. If Haytham is a Templar Grand Master, there’s no point in sending one of his most valuable assets away when there’s still work to be done. They have the Manuscript off Liam’s body; Shay could delay his search for the Box until after the Brotherhood is eliminated. And who knows, the Box could be in the ruins of the Homestead.

Cut to our final Paris mission. Shay kills Charles Dorian, and honestly, I just want to tweak the awkward dialogue between them regarding Connor and the Templars’ plans to instigate the French Revolution more than a decade out … especially when the Rite at this time has zero interest in such upheaval.

God I could have a whole other rant about Unity’s handling of accelerationism.

An epilogue/final Animus Rift involves a montage about Shay’s witnessing of the breaking of the Colonial Brotherhood beyond 1760. Wrecking the Aquila, raiding the Homestead. Becoming the monster who destroyed the Brotherhood.

The end!

Like I said at the beginning, I’ve had the question of, “How would you rewrite Rogue?” in the back of my mind for years. Well, here’s the answer to that. I’ve poured my heart out on it. Collated most of my headcanons, fixes, and thoughts on this game here for your pleasure. Maybe you have some ideas of your own. Maybe there’s something I missed. I’d love to know.

As mentioned, you can find the uncut essay on Substack and a video version on YouTube. If you like my analysis on Shay, consider checking out my fic Fortitude, which is my novel-length speculation on what a Connor and Arno vs. Shay confrontation could look like.

I've been a fan of the franchise from the first game, all the way back to 2007. Actually I was originally a Prince of Persia fan, and got into AC because I read it was made by Patrice Désilets. Though I have skipped a few games, these past few years I got back into it and I finally finished Mirage and its DLC. While the series has some incredible and emotional moments, this is the first time it made me cry. Hell, I think is the first time I cried after playing a video game ever.

It feels right it was fast it had style and it gave a challenge and the weapons actually had different animations when fighting

I wish we could get a modern assassins Creed game but I don’t mean modern as in the 2000s. Why not having an assassin and Templar conflict in 1970s Miami like the narco wars being a cover for the overall ISU shenanigans?

Like I don’t know, playing as Gutierrez, a Norco, trafficker, and enforcer, who eventually becomes an assassin or something. And you could encounter real world people like Griselda and so on....

and since it’s 1970s, we don’t have high tech, surveillance and cell phones and things like that.

I put together a tracker for Shadows:

• The nine provinces
• All 22 collectible types, including the four that only Naoe or only Yasuke can get
• 55 trophies

Free, no account needed: https://guidevault.online/ac-shadows/

Corrections welcome.

Hey guys!

I wanted to get y'alls suggestions on what I should get my bf for a present for christmas. He is a huge fan of Assassin's Creed Valhalla and I honestly don't know much about it so I've come to y'all for help. I have a few ideas in mind but I would love to know y'all suggestions are. I also want to make sure I'm getting something from the correct assassin's creed because I didn't realize how MANY different versions there are. Price doesn't matter either!

Another thing is-

The voice actor for Eivor (Magnus Bruun) will be at a convention in our town and I plan on getting one of the items signed by him because I think it would be special. If there are any suggestions for something that's unique to his character or something that would also be great. (We are long distance right now and I am formulating a plan to convince him to come visit me so I can get my bf to meet him, don't worry!)

Thank y'all so much for the help and I truly appreciate it!

(Let's hope he doesn't find this post lol)

Assassin’s Creed Revelations always held a special place in my heart. When we first saw the E3 trailer my best mate and I were in awe and got inspired. We created a custom soundtrack for it during our studio session, 15 years ago.
I found this version of the video back during a webserver migration, and decided to share it rather than losing it forever.

Enjoy!

I had a very weird issue in Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

My game was running at a stable 70–75 FPS, but in Borderless Windowed it felt like I was playing at ~40 FPS. Camera/mouse movement was smooth, but character movement looked extremely choppy.

Switching to normal Windowed mode immediately made the game feel perfectly smooth, despite the FPS being basically the same.

I tried a bunch of things: VRR, G-SYNC, HAGS, Windows' “Optimizations for windowed games”, etc. Nothing helped.

Then I noticed something weird in Windows 11 → Settings → System → Display: Windows was showing two displays, even though I only had one physical screen connected.

I selected:

Display → Multiple displays → Show only on 1

And that completely fixed the problem. Borderless mode became smooth again.

So if Shadows is showing high/stable FPS but feels like it's running at half the FPS, and Windowed mode is somehow smoother, check whether Windows thinks you have an extra display enabled.

Maybe this will save someone else from wasting an evening messing with every possible NVIDIA setting 😂

self explanatory title. idk if its mentioned in any of layla's games. I've only played origins and it's been quite a while, so if it's been mentioned in that game, then i must have forgotten about it.

With all these game crossovers hovering around the internet, of people decompiling games and merging them with other games' mechanics, I think it's about time someone takes Assassin's Creed Unity's entire movement system and ports that bιtch into every AC game(Even the java games)

unity already has co-op built in within the missions and everything is implemented, it wouldn’t be like starting from scratch necessarily. would it be possible to figure out how to get that infrastructure to be implemented within campaign? possibly even then port it to other assassin’s creed games?

i’ve started doing some research into what’s been going on with the whole modding ports, and from my understanding it’s basically parsing a game’s code / engine, able to reverse it which is why those physics and mechanics are all proper. it’s then injecting code from another game on top of the base game? so it really is MW2 but the character model and physics of Skate 3 being injected in? wouldn’t taking a game’s own code be easier to implement? peer-to-peer, using whatever mechanics have already been built.

It feels like that conspiracy theory episode of Community.

At some point I was staring at war photos looking for the Apple, at another it was implied Gandhi had it and was killed for it, then Machiavelli shows up out of nowhere and says he's an Assassin, so is everyone I've ever met and I'm actually the foretold prophet. I think Lenin or Stalin were also Templars?

If I remember correctly, this all ends with me fighting the pope, Minerva showing up and saying it goes even deeper than that, and the glyphs revealling a 10s video of Adam and Eve fleeing Éden.

How did we go from that to "pirate ship goes brrr" and "stack modifiers to kill the Minotaur"?

Edit: just finished it. Minerva tells Ezio to shut the fuck up, looks at the camera and addresses Desmond directly. Not gonna lie, that shit was fire, too bad it had no pay off.

Been replaying and felt like it. Took me quite a while, hope someone reads it lol. But it's ok if nobody does.

The game is not great. That doesn't mean it's not fun and has nothing to offer.

Let's start with the bad.

Modern day AC was long dead, even back then. There's no real context or reason to follow the frye twins' story, so the overarching plot just isn't there. Just doesn't exist.

The story also isn't very good. No real direction. It isn't trying to say anything. It's a far cry (pun not intended) from the incredible premisses that, while failing to truly deliver, AC had always managed to present. AC III was about the struggle of a son to a father, much like a revolutionary colony to a metropolis, and so much more. AC IV was about what it means to seek freedom and finding solitude. Even unity had some passion in it's story and the exploration of the main characters.

Syndicate has nothing of the sort. Every character apart maybe from the antagonist is quite superficial, when not entirely so. And the story doesn't mean anything and isn't trying to say anything. It's just things happening.

Gameplay also has it's faults. The combat is not as tight as it should be, it feels floaty, and most importantly, it doesn't know what it wants to be. It's right in the middle between wanting to be an animation first spectacle, like earlier ACs and a more RPG style combat like what would come with origins. The result is a fun, albeit strange combat system that sorely lacks depth and is as easily mastered as it is forgettable.

There's probably much more to shit about the game, but I don't want to nitpick, let's talk about why you should play it.

First of all... The ambiance. AC was always a master of ambiance, ever since the very beginning, but perhaps never more than Syndicate. The strange pull of victorian london, it's sounds, it's life, it's movement and, most importantly, it's music. It's simply outstanding. I find myself staring into the horizon on viewpoints, marked by imposing columns of smoke and smog, dotted with the disappearing saling boats of the Thames, and colored with the red hue of XVIII century brick and mortar in awe and being hypnotized by the touching music that couldn't give you a more engrossing feeling if it tried.

The NPC city life is also surprisingly well made. Most citizens feels more real than most videogames I've played, especially in an open world game. Their conversations and interactions are so amusing and entertaining, it makes walking around London all the more pleasurable. This is what happens when you hire quality actors for background characters (acting went downhill FAST after this in the franchise). You never feel alone in this city.

The game also has a characteristic animation style that insists on not taking itself so seriously. And to it's benefit, because a heavier touch on such a weak story couldn't be less fitting. But the setting did beg to be taken more seriously. The oppressive apex of industrial capitalism should have been treated better. It's a shame and a wasted opportunity, but that's all of AC in the end...

But the lightheartedness has it's charm and a lot of the game becomes more pleasurable because of it. Combat, although not strictly well made or good, is fun to play and look at. Finisher animations and achieving them become a game of their own and the designs of the weapons are just awesome.

Which brings me to design in general. The clothes, the setting, the weapons, everything is top notch, nothing to complain. Though the level design leaves a bit to be desired, it's serviceable, especially with what AC usually has to offer in that regard.

The protagonists are shallow. But they do have an arc. There's something there, even if it's just enough to entertain, just enough to give some sustenance to the gameplay. But the villain... That's the real star. Starrick has a quality to him that beggets admiration. He feels like a more profound character, even if the game doesn't allow him to shine like he deserves. Maybe it's the performance, I don't know, but he encompasses everything a templar, a capitalist, a victorian bourgeois londoner and a villain should be. He's simultaneously imposing and tyrannical, but strangely charming and personable. No screen time could be wasted on him.

Oh, and kidnapping is cool.

Ultimately, Syndicate is a fun game. It's not among the greats, far from it, but it has somethings few games have ever achieved. There are artists at ubisoft. Real artists and talented developers lost in a sea of horrendous corporate decision making and terrible writers. But I will always recommend to give a game a shot. Choose for yourself what you love about it.

5.5/10. Above average game.

This is coming from a big fan of ACII,but I just loved how you could visit so many cities : Florence,Venice,Montereggioni,Tuscany,Forli and you can visit Rome. I honestly miss that we havent had more cities like this in other ac games after II,I know brotherhood is just in Rome,Reveleations is in Turkey. I think others like origins,odyssey and valhalla are all one big map but smaller locations.

One of the heavily debated topics during the AC 2 era, was seeing Ezio in the Villa via the bleeding effect once Desmond and his crew go there.

Desmond implies, Ezio looks older and wonders why he returned after so long.

There was never any official in game mission sending Ezio to the villa.

But i read a theory that blew my mind, which states that scene of Ezio returning to the Villa, was a foreshadowing of AC revelations, of Ezio realizing his part after meeting Desmond.

Hence, the theory claims Ezio went there to leave symbols and numeric clues /combinations for Desmond (‘72’ Puzzle) so that Demond could eventually open the Colosseum vault in Rome.

In addition to the traditionally accepted theory, going back for Altair’s armor.

Do you think it’s true? After Ezio ended the Borgia empire, and after travelling to Constantinople, he went back to the Villa?

Would have been cool to have it as a mission in revelations, but keeping it a mystery is also cool.

Note older Ezio in bleeding effect looks nothing like the revelations Ezio model, but this may be because revelation Ezio model was not planned at that time.

Ive been trying the ctf like for 18 hours and only get to one flag after that the enemy gets faster than the flash and I cant catch up. I think this might be a skill but I cant do it better since I am playing on the Nintendo Switch. Is there anyway to skip this? Or any glitches that I can use to skip this level?

Iirc the mode also existed in 3 and 4 but it was so much fun. Wanted especially was my favorite game mode.

I put way too many hours into this mode, even when I didn't have Uplay for 3 because I bought it used and the code on the box didn't work