The new game does much to shed some light on the Knights Templar

Nov 7, 2012 08:10 GMT  ·  By

Assassin’s Creed 3 came out last week and already quite a lot of people have begun completing its quite lengthy single-player campaign. We already praised the Connor storyline while criticizing the Desmond one for lacking any sort of real closure.

Now, it’s time to emphasize just how much work the game does to show that the Templars, the adversaries of the Assassins, aren’t that evil as they once seemed and that, although their methods and reasoning might differ, they have the same overarching goal as their hood-cloaked enemies.

Previous Assassin’s Creed games have portrayed the Knights Templar as ruthless individuals who wanted to single-handedly control the world for their evil purposes. The main bad guys were so evil that they bordered on ridicule and only needed long mustaches to resemble cartoon characters.

Sure, there were some exceptions and, once you killed them, most characters would explain their twisted reasoning for their acts, but this only served to reinforce their evil nature.

In Assassin’s Creed 3, however, you get to learn much more about the Templar order and how they also seek freedom for humanity, just like the Assassins.

They do believe that this freedom can only be achieved by controlling the masses, but their methods and actions don’t seem so different than what Connor, the main Assassin in the story, must do in order to protect his own people.

I won’t spoil one of the crucial twists that happens in the first third of the game, but I will mention that you will look at the conflict between the Assassins and Templars with new eyes after it happens.

The world and story of Assassin’s Creed 3 aren’t black and white anymore. The Assassins aren’t white knights in shining armor (and cloaks) while the Templars aren’t wearing red crosses and black robes.

This, in my opinion, is one of the game’s most impressive achievements.

What did you think about the Assassins vs. Templars battle in Assassin’s Creed 3? Try not to spoil the aforementioned twist for anyone who has yet to experience the title.