Assassin's Creed was the first game I played from beginning to end on a high-definition gaming console. It was kinda pretty, it was kinda fun, it was a whole lot of boring, but it did show a lot of really cool ideas, which is why I'm actually sort of excited about the upcoming sequel. The long-teased and only recently-confirmed Assassin's Creed II doesn't have a whole lot of info out just yet, only that it is set in 15th century Italy (at least, some of it is), based heavily on the work of Renaissance master Leonardo DaVinci, and that the protagonist this time is named Ezio.
People are justifying this name by stating that Ezio (that guy on the right) roughly translates to "like an eagle" in latin, much like protagonist Altair in the original game's name in Arabic, likely tying into the "eagle vision" skill used by the assassins in the game. Now, maybe it's just decades of sci-fi and comic books affecting my brain, but the name "Ezio" suggests a whole other meaning to me, one that I'm frankly surprised to see mentioned nowhere else that I've checked. I'm probably reading way too much into this. Then again, maybe I'm right on point.
Be aware that beyond this point I am going to be going into spoilers from the first game and a bit of rampant speculation on the second game.
We all cool with that?
Cool.
There, now, am I the only one who realizes that "EZIO" is "0123" flipped 180 degrees? Check out the graphic at right to illustrate just that point. Why might this be important?
Because in the first game you were actually playing as Desmond Miles in the year 2012, hooked up to a machine called the Animus in order to relive the memories of his ancestors. Clearly for the game series to continue, this shady research project must continue as well, and considering the narrative style of the first game it is all too easy to see a chapter of the game ending with its true protagonist waking up in a lab upside down and see the tag "0123" somewhere in the lab flipped around to resemble "EZIO". It's easy to believe that we may be playing as patient number 0123 or in experiment number 0123 or even that all the data collected by the kidnapped patients is being downloaded into android model 0123.
Considering how much the fans were worked up about the final screen of the first game, which showed statements regarding the end of the world in a variety of diffferent languages, you would think a potential clue like this would drive the internet wild, wouldn't you?
Am I crazy, or am I just thinking about this game a little too much? Probably both, right?
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