I have, usually through watching Let’s Plays on YouTube, experienced several of the games in the Assassin's Creed series. All in all, they have made very little impact on me. Though there are points of each of the games that I believe warrant commendation and consideration for use in the classroom.
I have a few problems with the ways that the Assassin's Creed games play. These are my opinions, and it is reasonable for anyone to disagree with me. Also, these opinions are based on a small percentage of the games in the series. I have played Brotherhood and watched Assassin's Creed III and Black Flag on YouTube. To begin with, a major element of each of these games is tailing missions. Tailing missions involve covertly following a targeted person, either to see where they go or to attack them when they get to where they are going. To me, each of these missions is the same, and I was bored of them by the first one. In general, this type of mission is not something that I find fun and seems like filler material.
My problem with the trailing missions leads to my broader problem with the games, there is not a lot of variety within the game missions. Just like every tailing mission feels incredibly similar to the last, each mission and side mission is very similar to each other. This is what happens when a game with really shallow game mechanics is stretched over many hours. An increase in variety would do a lot to make the game more fun, in my opinion.
There are some things that I do like about the games. The first is the combat. I remember playing Brotherhood for the first time. I was probably a freshman in high school, and my computer was my brother’s hand-me-down that he had gotten years prior. The computer was not at all equipped to play games. It was so laggy that the only way I could play the game effectively was to purchase all of the heaviest weapons, and then just try and break the enemies' guard before they could counterattack because I wasn’t able to time my blocks appropriately.
Another thing I like about the games is the parkour. With my old, stupid computer, I also found that the faster I was moving, the smoother the game would run. This meant that one of the few elements of the games that I could enjoy as it was meant to be was the running and climbing sections.
The use of Assassin's Creed in a High School classroom is a really interesting prospect. I am not a person who believes that the violence shown in the games negates the possibility of incorporating it into a lesson or assignment. The world-building and scenery is something that deserves acclaim, and it provides students with perspectives into worlds that would otherwise go unseen. There are ways to incorporate the rest of the game into a classroom. I am a big fan of assignments that allow students to interact with a period in a way that they choose. If we're studying the Renaissance and a student wanted to interact with the period through Assassin's Creed, I think that would be cool, and possibly very fulfilling to the student, as they would be able to apply the ideas that we talk about in class to what they were seeing in the game.
I believe that there are much better games to illustrate these concepts, however. Though they cannot match the architectural competency on display in Assassins Creed (partially because they aren’t set in the past) I believe that in all cases Uncharted is a look at the past, and a more fun game in general. Uncharted is a lot more limited because there are only four main games, and they are from the perspective of archaeologists. There are also a lot of fantastical elements to the Uncharted games, though, I would argue, less fantastical than Assassin's Creed. I think that Uncharted 4 is a far better look into the Golden Age of Piracy than Black Flag.
While I have been critical of Assassin's Creed in this blog, I do believe that it has its virtues and that my opinion does not invalidate the opinions of those who enjoy Assassins Creed. I know that there are lots of those types of people out there. I am excited for this experience to inform future curriculum and lessons that I develop.