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Why 'Assassin's Creed' and 'Watch_Dogs' Should Collaborate and Create a Crossover Game

Why Assassin's Creed and Watch_Dogs are in the Same Universe

By Jesse JamesPublished 6 years ago 5 min read
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Unless you have just started playing video games within the last six months, chances are you have heard of Ubisoft's signature title, Assassin's Creed. It is a game about two secret organizations, known as the antagonistic Templars, those who believe that control, manipulation and fear is true freedom among the people, and the Assassins, whose sole belief is the free will of man and fight for absolute freedom. These two sides have been fighting since the days of Ancient Egypt in 49 BC, and according to the game's canon, are still fighting to this very day. Nowadays, though, it's more of one huge spy mission. Each side is trying to gain more intelligence with each day's passing about each other, and the fabled "Pieces of Eden," which are a series of artifacts leftover from the First Civilization. They gain this information by means of infiltration, exploration, and even using a device called the "Animus," to search through their ancestors genetic memories so they can learn from first-hand experiences what really happened in history. This proved helpful especially in Assassin's Creed III when modern day protagonists, Desmond Miles, William Miles, Rebecca Crane and Shaun Hastings were searching for the key to a First Civilization vault.

The first Watch_Dogs game is about hacker Aiden Pearce of DedSec, a hacker organization going up against ctOS, a computer programming company that essentially provides internet and a lot of technological services for the city of Chicago. He uses his hacking skills to take down the mega-corporation alongside Raymond Kenney, a.k.a. TBone, and Clara Lille, a.k.a. BadBoy17. He also uses these skills for other tasks, such as taking down criminal convoys, fixer xontracts, where you go up against other hackers who steal people's data and sells it to companies such as Nudle (Google) amongst many other corporations, and the more physical work, gang missions which have a more Grand Theft Auto or Saints Row feel to it.

Watch_Dogs2 is pretty much the same thing, however, ctOS has been buffed, Nudle is a new and powerful force, Blume has twice the presence they had in the first game, you can create your own weapons via 3-D printers in the hideouts, you can use two different kinds of drones (one being a quad-copter and the other being, basically, a two-wheeled, R.C. car), you have the ability to do some parkour, and by the end of the game, you have the power to hack various ctOS hubs from around the world.

Now, all of the context and backstory aside, how are these two games a part of the same universe? Well, it all starts with a single easter egg in the first game. There are seventeen total criminal convoy missions to do, and they're all pretty simple: run the convoy off the road and kill the drivers. The last one raises some eyebrows if you have ever played the Assassin's Creed games, because of the name: Requiescat en Pace. "Requiescat en Pace" is the game's most noticeable catchphrase thanks to Assassin's Creed II through Revelations main protagonist, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, saying it after every time you kill a main target.

What made this mission especially interesting wasn't the name, but rather the monologue with Aiden at the beginning of the mission. He says "This guy's involved in some heavy shit—patented genomes, genetic memory manipulation, sketchy pharmaceuticals. All that fueled by an unhealthy dose of corporate corruption. Sometimes they just fall right onto my plate." That description sounds a lot like Abstergo Industries' Animus project, especially when he mentions the piece about "genetic memory manipulation." That's how the Templars and Assassins are able to scan through the past the way they do for all ten games.

When you actually complete the final criminal convoy mission, a man comes out of one of the SUVs. You have to kill him, and when you walk up to his dead body and use your phone to scan him, it says...

Olivier Garneau Taken down by Aiden Pearce ('Watch_Dogs' 2014)

Not only is this Olivier Garneau, C.C.O. of Abstergo Entertainment, but it even says that he is being targeted by "The Brotherhood." The Brotherhood meaning the Brotherhood of Assassins. In Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, it is mentioned that Garneau was going to a shareholder's meeting in Chicago, but he went missing. Just a year later Ubisoft told us what actually happened in a completely different game.

Another subtle connection is that Aiden Pearce is known as "The Fox." I know that sounds about as miniscule as you can get, but there is a character in the Assassin's Creed universe that shares that same name: La Volpe. La Volpe is the leader of the Thieves Guild in Assassin's Creed II and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, and the name itself is a literal translation in Italian to "the Fox." Could it be that La Volpe and Aiden are distant relatives?

Aiden Pearce (Left) and La Volpe (Right)

There aren't many nods towards this in Watch_Dogs2, however, in Ubisoft's newest release, Assassin's Creed Origins, there is a huge connector between these two worlds. If you get out of the Animus and wander around the caves as Layla, in her laptop there is a file titled "Olivier Garneau," and when you open said file, two things pop up. The most important being a still image of the CCTV footage of Olivier getting shot by an assailant that looks a lot like Aiden. The other thing is a receipt from a restaurant a year later to throw off Abstergo's investigation into his disappearance. Piece that together with the criminal convoy mission mentioned earlier, and you have undeniable proof that these universes are one in the same.

Still Image of the File in Layla's Computer in Game

So with Ubisoft trying to connect these two worlds, why don't they make a game about it? Why not have a game where the Assassins and DedSec come together and have a modern day Assassin's Creed? A lot of fans want the Assassin's Creed team at Ubisoft to keep exploring new time periods, but a pretty big chunk of those fans want to see how the Assassin Brotherhood operates in the modern day. The only way this wouldn't happen is if Ubisoft announces that DedSec is the Brotherhood's hacker division or something of that nature.

Both franchises are great and both deserve merit for what they have each achieved. Assassin's Creed is one of the most influential franchises in the gaming world and Watch_Dogs tells a fascinating story about staying hidden in a massive city and taking down big corporations from the inside and protecting the people from said corporations from spying on and stealing from them. They are truly a big deal to not only their fanbases, but to the industry as a whole.

Will Ubisoft make a game combining these two worlds in the best way possible? Or will they continue to keep them apart and continue making great games? I guess we as fans will just have to see.

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