We weren't surprised when the first of three episodes in the Assassin's Creed: Lineage miniseries, created by Hybride Studios, exceeded our expectations. These folks did the effects for 300 and Sin City -- so of course we knew it would look great. Our surprise simply came from the fact that Lineage is a promotional, game-based short film; and nearly all of the words in that phrase seem contrary to high quality. Share in our surprise by watching the first Lineage installment after the jump.
If you'd like a bit of behind-the-scenes info into how the film was created, check out this GamesIndustry.biz interview with Ubisoft UK marketing director Murray Pannel. He does a good job of clearly explaining the game and movie industry synergy -- you know, what James Cameron alluded to during his fateful, four-week-long E3 2009 speech.
I know I was. I kind of figured it out in the end. The funny thing was though, that I thought the game was about the main guy in this movie (Geovani) but then when he said his sons name I had a OHHHHHhhhh moment.
I was going to try to explain, but it's probably best if you just see it again. Here's a small attempt.
Assassin is Giovanni, he has a wife and two kids (at least), they are the ones in the second to last scene, playing chess.
He works for Medici. And the rich guy who dies (some Duke, apparently) was one of Medici's allies. The fat guy with Medici also works for him, obviously.
The Moor looked like the Duke's bodyguard.
Everybody else is a bad guy of some sort or an innocent by-stander.
The Moor was probably what confused me the most, it looked to me like he was working with the guy who killed the duke, not for the Duke, and then he kills that guy.
Who was working for whom. Also, it all seemed pretty straight forward. The duke came for his day and a group of people came to assassinate him. Ezio's father is on the side of the Medici family and the duke was one of their allies. So you have the Medici team and those opposed.
Don't you know? Animus is translating it in real-time. Of course, when it comes to widely-known words (like "avanti", or some Arabic in the first game), Animus doesn't bother - it's that smart.
Given that the series itself takes place in the brain of an english speaking guy, it's possible that the memories are just processed in a way where he can interpret them.
I haven't played the original though, so someone correct me please if they do actually explain the speaking thing in-game.
"Given that the series itself takes place in the brain of an english speaking guy, it's possible that the memories are just processed in a way where he can interpret them."
This is actually how memories work, and I was shocked after hearing the game's half-assed explanation.
Has anyone seen the game running yet? My mate seen it some where, (HMV, Gametrailers).. and it had really bad screen tear.. hopefully it's just old code
I saw the game at MCM Expo in London last weekend (feel like i've been talking about that loads recently), and it looked pretty sweet. Annoyingly it was hands-off (which is a bit surprising seeing it releases in a month) so had to watch the ubisoft guys play it (one of whom was pretty crap) so didn't get a great feel for the gameplay, but was told that things like the mission system was improved over the last and some of the fight counters looked really nice, seems like the use of hands could actually be a viable combat method with some enemies, allowing you to dodge sword strikes and grab their arm so you can disarm them and use their own weapon against them. Didn't notice anything major with regard to graphic glitches or anything so I'm definitely looking forward to getting hands on with it when it releases.
When are we going to be getting any good games turned into actually hollywood blockbusters. After seeing this imagine how good of a movie could be made on a full budget.
no, that's pretty much exactly what it'll look like in the game, at least before you go all willy nilly with upgrades and dyes. Also, what the hell are you talking about? It's not da vinci's suit, it's his dad's.
I know it looks like the outfit from the game, but like the comment above mine, fabric never translates well from game to live action. It just looks so sexy in the game, the way the fabric moves. Like it has weight to it and has more texture. The live action feels more like a cosplay or Halloween costume more than anything.
Dang, the production design is on par with some multimillion dollar movies these days. How can they do this? Where will this be shown? (i.e. probably not on television as a commercial, so who's gonna watch a short film, besides gamers) Well done none the less.
"We weren't surprised when the first of three episodes in the Assassin's Creed: Lineage miniseries, created by Hybride Studios, exceeded our expectations."
WTH joystiq? Weren't surprised, exceeded expectations. If it exceeded your expectations, you are surprised because you didn't expect it...
I think this article oversells it. It was good as far as it actually looked well produced for a game promo, but other than that it was boring. Not enough dialog by the assassin, just a swordfight with no assassination with the hidden blade. By the way, isn't the blade too big?
How can I get into the character of the assassin when all he does are intense stares? I'm intrigued to see the next one, and this is a well produced game promo, but it's nothing to be too exited over.
But really good cosplay. It's not exactly the right costuming for the time, but they make his 'costume' look like it would fit in with the common citizen's.
I watched the video and I liked it. Eagerly awaiting the other parts.
On a side not tho am I the only one creeped out by the screengrab that joystiq got for his article? It makes him look... I dunno.... alien or something.
Hah, I thought the same thing when I scrolled down to the article, sort of "...what the hell is that melty-face creature?" Just an odd combination of angle, clothing, and hair I suppose, but it makes him look like Gollum's cousin at first glance.
so I guess I'm the only person who thought the episode sucked.
Awesome production, but if we peel away the AC2 title, I thought it was a bland start to a series at best. Super cliche, talked a lot, said nothing. If this was just a regular show on TV, I wouldn't bother watching it, but since this is AC, I'll give it another try.
