All before the game’s even announced
There’s a normal cycle of news for finding out about upcoming videogames. After a tightly-controlled reveal, details will trickle out slowly — just enough at a time to barely placate prospective players, their longing for the game growing ever so strong until it climaxes at release.
Or, at least, that’s how it’d always go if publishers had their way.
Assassin’s Creed fans are taking things into their own hands. After a leak of the code-named (or actually named) Assassin’s Creed Victory, the franchise’s forums are ablaze with investigative speculation as to any and all possible theories about the game. These are some of the best talking points.
England’s Victorian era was designated by the entirety of Queen Victoria’s lifespan. That’s 1837-1901 A.D. Not exactly a short period of time. However, some fine attention to detail has possibly narrowed down the time-frame that Victory will take place during.
We have deduced that the majority, if not all, of the game will take place from 1878 onwards. This is due to the the fact that:
1. The construction on Big Ben was completed in 1858.
2. Electric street lighting in London began in 1878, as seen in the train station and on the street.But there are other things that Alpha (a forum member) has noticed that would lead one to believe the game is set further in time. An ad can be seen for “Havelock Tobacco” in the last screen from Kotaku, among many others. We have traced this product to being sold in 1891, but these are minor details. Although, 1891 easily fits into the time frame.
Now that we have a smaller time period nailed down, let’s take a look at some of the monuments that’ll surely be included. Ubisoft does love to build faithful recreations of landmarks, after all.
This is Saint Margaret’s. The building Sam (half the users have settled on “Samuel Fey” as the protagonist’s name; the other half is outraged by this unfounded designation) is seen sitting on in the first screen. The placement is very accurate and through my research on Google Earth, and heavy analyzation of the screen, I am sure that they are the same place. You can also see a Google Earth pic of Westminster Abbey in the last pic. If you are unfamiliar with London, you may be surprised to find that it and the Notre Dame are very similar.
Next up is Saint Paul’s Cathedral. It is seen rising highly above the other buildings, so much so that I don’t see how the scale is 100% accurate.
Buckingham Palace: this London residence and principal workplace of the monarchy of the United Kingdom was built in 1703 but expanded in the 19th century. This magnificent palace is right across the street from Sam’s viewpoint in the first pic (you can probably see it from there) so it is very likely that this will be in the game. Fun fact: Wolve’s ancestors helped build the palace.
Lastly is the train station seen. This has been confirmed to be the Charing Cross Railway Station, because of it’s location on the horizon in screenshot #1 and the distance between the two.
About here, some users went into incredible detail about the various ads that appear in the game (like Foster’s Beer). Seriously, it’s amazing how deep down the rabbit hole they go. None of it does much apart from further cementing the circa 1891 setting and again affirm that Ubisoft does a pretty great job with authenticity as far as things like that go. I guess a series about history should get the “history” part down.
Anyway, one person gave the boldest of predictions. It was my absolute favorite. It takes a very critical eye to even venture this sort of crazy thought.
there are going to be hats
Sadly, this present-day Nostradamus was largely ignored. The Assassin’s Creed forums don’t know a good thing when they see it. Instead, they turned their attention to some of the more notable figures we might meet in Victory. A decent-sized list included:
Isambard Kingdom Brunel: A civil engineer of the Victorian Era. He also built the Great Western Railway from Bristol to London. Known to have developed powerful steam ships.
Sir Titus Salt: A successful businessman that unlike other buisnessman, felt a general concern for the workforce.
John Stuart Mill: An utilitarian philosopher and supporter of radical / liberal politics and the emancipation of women.
Benjamin Disraeli: British prime minister and personal friend of Queen Victoria herself.
Charles Darwin: English naturalist; His published theory of Evolution was one of the greatest changes of the Victorian period.
George Stephenson: Father of the railways; He was known for making the first railways that changed the Victorian society and their means of travel.
Michael Faraday: A scientist who helped electricity become more practical in the Victorian Era.
But, later, someone else chimed in with this golden nugget.
The new flamboyant De Sade-like character will be Oscar Wilde, no doubt about that. Right time and place.
Brilliant, and sure to please subscribers of r/gonewilde.
Yet another talking point were the social aspects. As some users pointed out, the era was rife with class division and terrible working and living conditions. One person mentioned that the streets were flooded with sewage (cue comments saying “Perfect. Assassin’s Creed is just wading through shit!” Beat you to it, jokesters.) There’s also the theme of child labor and the general poor treatment of kids. Another user weighed in hoping there’d be the option to kill kids. It got pretty grim.
Luckily, the tension was broken up by this earnest request:
I wanna ride a bicycle across London.
So do I, Namikaze_17. So do I.
Circling back around to the Assassin’s Creed-centric bits of speculation, someone wanted to know how the First Civilization elements could be incorporated into Victory. One response had a few likely answers.
It is difficult to predict which areas will be related to the first civ. For example, in AC3 it was a nameless cave, and in Dead Kings it was the catacombs of Saint Denis. But I can make a few guesses.
If we are going off of underground places, then it could be the London Bridge catacombs, or maybe an offshoot from a deep underground railway tunnel. Both of these are mysterious and secluded places.
I was trying to think of places of power and although it’s not in London, Stonehenge is very mysterious and has big potential for AC to put its historical “spin” on it. Who knows what kind of crazy ideas the writers may come up with.
Of course, there was the requisite person trying to bring everyone down:
My speculation:
The game will be buggy.
The game will be rushed.
The modern story will be almost non-existent.
People will still buy it.
That was not met with kind replies.
And then there was the guy that put the cart way ahead of the horse.
So what do you think the DLC will be?
Slow your roll, pal. We can’t even agree on this guy’s name yet. We’ll tackle the DLC next week.
AC Victory Speculation Thread [Assassin’s Creed forums]
