Game Review: Terrible science; Terribly fun.
THough I doubt I have enough readers to warrant the warning, Spoilers ahead.
Plot: Dystopian future: Desmond, an assassin, is captured by a mysterious corporation, and forced to use a device that allows a person to recount "genetic memory". the main part of the game takes place in his memories, where his assassin's ancestor kills a group of men who are attempting to take over the Holy Land while King Richard and Saladin battle it out.
Now that thats done, I ask, what the hell? The main villains in the game are atheistic Knights Templar. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm, glad to see atheism spread into media like video games. It could only enlighten like-minded thinkers(Except for the eight people who enjoyed the Left Behind game). But the fact that these Templars Atheism is coupled with an overriding desire to conquer and control the world is rather disturbing. The way the game is written seems to imply that the two are one and the same, ans the connection tries to establish the idea that atheists are in and of themselves evil.
The whole game is based around the idea that some artifact, "The Piece of Eden", ostensibly an alien artifact, (according to the Templars, and a... well, from the title you can guess what the christian and islamic characters think is is) can let you control the masses. The Templars ant to use the device to scour religion from the minds of all in the Holy Land(and then control and rule them, but that's a minor detail. Name a political group that doesn't).
I must admit, this is a case where I identify more with the villains than the hero, as much as I enjoyed the game. The Templars were rounding up books of Faith and destroying them for the lies they are, actively converting the learned folk to their way of thinking, blockading the sea to prevent reinforcement from the crusader countries, finding ways to cure things like mental illness and leprosy, and attempting to unite Richard and Saladin to common cause.
And then the Assassin kills them all on faith.
Oh well. The game was fun, anyway.
Edit: Also, did anyone else who played the game noticed that Vidic was a cross between Half-Life 2's Dr. Breen and an evil PZ Myers(of Pharyngula fame)?
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11 comments:
I'm sorry, but you could not be more incorrect. This game is pro atheist and anti religion. The main character, Altair, is sent by his master to eradicate 9 figures who bring war to the holy land. His mission is to dispose of these characters in effort to restore peace to the once tranquil region. (Not for any religious reasons, but simply to restore peace.) He is not eradicating atheistic crusaders and atheistic muslim leaders. I'm not sure where you derived that idea from. The crusades were a religious movement. The men in which Altair was sent to kill were men who had both christian and muslim backgrounds, but their ways became clouded by their own desire. If you could cite some examples, I would appreciate it, since I may have overlooked what you are referring to. Altair made numerous comments linking religion to war. He also compared God to a phantom and the writings of the bible he stated to be mythology. The overall theme to this game is that religion is selfish, and to alleviate the land of religion is to alleviate the land of war since men would not have the desire to conquer land in the name of God.
I agree that the came was more pro than anti-atheist. In fact the religious believers, where more or less pawns no enlightened atheist. Though I wouldn't see Altairs position as atheist, as it was freethinking, and anti-religion. Altair is stopping magic relics from getting in the hands of Atheist. The Assassins hold an explicitly atheistic belief. Their duty is to fight against the Templar who are atheist, who want to control the people through religions. The assassins say morality comes from reason, not a personal deity. It would seem that the logic of the universe, or simply of humanity is what they hold highest. This can be seen as a form of atheism, though they can still hold some sort of pantheistic, or panentheistic, Taoist, Buddhist belief in God as transcendent reason. Non the less, they are definitely not anti-atheist.
I think you all have it wrong. The game raises a lot of atheistic and religious issues, but it's not really pro or anti anything. Just depends on how you look at it. The game even says that it was developed but a team of people with varying religious beliefs.
"He is not eradicating atheistic crusaders and atheistic muslim leaders."
Actually in the game they were all templars who believed in no god/afterlife. Their religious affiliation was simply used as a tool. Play it again.
"The Assassins hold an explicitly atheistic belief."
The assassins were muslim, and so would Altair be.
"The overall theme to this game is that religion is selfish, and to alleviate the land of religion is to alleviate the land of war since men would not have the desire to conquer land in the name of God."
Now this is the root of the problem I have with atheism, agnostics I understand, since you can't prove god(but it's equally foolish to say you can disprove god). Atheists generally seem to have some bone to grind with religion. It's not that they just don't believe in a god, it's like something happened in their life that they attribute religion to being responsible for, and hence it must be the root of all evil. It takes a pretty retarded person to think that without religion there would be no war. There's still racism, cultural supremacism, resources, and a million reasons other than religion. Religion isn't evil or selfish, it's just manipulated by humans for reasons that have nothing to do with religion. Humans are the problem, we're quite capable of being evil and selfish with or without god or religion. I believe in God, but I wouldn't call myself religious because I see the lies and the less than spiritual motives that are the root of many aspects of modern christianity. I believe what's in the bible, but not some of the ways it's interpreted. So yes, religion has flaws, but that doesn't make it an outright lie. Regardless, freedom of belief(whatever that may be) is one of our most valued freedoms. Anyone who would dare to deprive anyone of that freedom for any reason, quite frankly, deserves to be executed. Respect is enlightened, forcing a belief(religious/atheistic/or otherwise) is not.
Lastly, the final bit can be seen in a couple ways. 1 religion is a lie(simple answer). 2 - Just because this thing is capable of mass hypnosis, it doesn't prove is WAS responsible for all the miracles(just cause the moon landing COULD have been faked, doesn't mean it was). Call it a test of faith, this thing throws all your beliefs into doubt, so do you give in or keep believing(possible religious answer). 3 - (probable intended answer) That regardless of whether or not religion as a whole is a lie(or simply misguided) or not, it IS a significant part of human culture, and personal identity for many. It doesn't matter that it may lead to war, it doesn't matter that we may be following a fantasy, what matters is that making that choice to believe is our birthright and that no one has a right to take it from us. That's pretty much what Altair told Al Maulim. So I'm gonna the game is pro-free will if anything.
In my opinion, this game is really anti-religion. Although you are assassinating atheist Templars, Altair directly denounces religion, and he is the main character. Im atheist myself, and although most members of the Assassins are definitely Muslim, Altair is not. You are not assassinating anyone for religious reasons, just to bring peace to Isreal. Therefore, there is no religion in the actual assassinations, but just in the backround to the plot. The whole thing basically denounces religion as superstitious crap, and therefore I have to conclude that it is anti-religion!
Replay the game and listen to all the details to see that the Game says that there is a God. Altair also says that Religion gives people hope and happiness.
So yes the game is Anti-Atheist as is Kingdom Under Fire!
Farewell!
In Assassin's Creed 2 find all the markings and see the video "the truth" and you'll see why the Templars are atheists (I won't spoil, but I will say it shows the templars are correct about it), also Altair stated he doesn't believe in God when Richard the Lionhearted mentioned how God was on his side. Read more of the Codex pages and it shows even more evidence.
No. The Truth does not say or imply anything about the Templar's motives, it's completely unrelated. The Templars want power, they are probably not concerned, or at least *definitely* do not know about the big "Event" that will happen (as see at the end of the game).
And yes, Altair is depicted as Atheistic through the Codex Pages, he mentions how he would like everyone to put down their beliefs, and see the world for what it is. He also mentions, as he grows old, that there is no life after death, no light after death - only darkness - nothingness.
The Truth images only explain how the Apple of Eden came about, the origins of humanity, and more. Ezio is the first one to see that memory, and by extension, Desmond. As far as we know, the Templars have no idea about what happened.
The Templars are likely not necessarily Atheistic...but also not necessarily Catholic either. Religion does not play a large role in that, it was used as an excuse and a motive by either insane people, or people just looking for a nice slipstream to cruise behind, to make things easier. It does not mean because someone is bad, they *must* be Catholic, Atheistic, etc. etc.
The Templars, in Acre, were using Catholocism as an excuse, there was even 1 Templar who did not believe in an afterlife, and that was why he had so much fear about dying. That was the Templar who started killing innocent monks because they looked like Altair's robes.
It's definitely more pro, I would say, the Truth especially confirms that it is pro-atheistic, no God...but...
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it does confirm (within the story of course), that there is a creator. Not necessarily divine, just gifted with knowledge/intelligence. These were The Ones That Came Before. These were the ones that are portrayed as creating man in the image of themselves (adam & eve), but also had them enslaved, and waged war between the human-deemed, gods, and the humans themselves.
Also, the idea about burning books was bad, as he didn't only burn religious books, but just about anything that he feared, along with people. This isn't good by any means, I don't care what you or other people believe, it shouldn't matter. It's when these beliefs conflict with others.. i.e. forcing religion down throats (see also: USA. Perhaps the rest of the world too?).
All of you are all wrong.... I played the game, and I found out that the last target was a templar (Not robert de Sable, but was Al Mulin) try'n to enslave the holy land and Altair try'n to stop him and end the war between the crusaders and the muslims, some of his targets that he killed are atheists. He's not atheists, he's a travaler muslim assassin.
You missed an important point: Altair kills Al Mualim not because he is an atheist, who wants to control people and Altair himself is a muslim. He kills him because Al Mualim is just another madman templar who used all the Assassins as a tool to reach his personal goal - eliminating the free will of people, which is unacceptable to Altair as posted before (i'd say Altair is very humanistic for the time he lives in).
An atheist killing another atheist ... this is nothing special because they would not kill each other for their non-believe. Another Point is, if Altair really would be a religious person (doesn't matter wich religion) he wouldn't seriously practice it, as it would certainly clash with the assassin's creed. The creed is his one and only way of life. Fortunately he discovered it's only another bunch of dogmata, used by a man hungry for power. At least I hope he did...
well in assassin creed 2 in the last battle the temperal leader says that ezio is atheist and ezio agrees. all so only feew tempelars are atheist. altari too was atheist. assassins creed is pretty atheist pro game it shows that religion makes us blind but so can ideas that arent cuestiont. it says that be critical. i think it is pro atheist
I know that this post is extremely late, but I just needed to post on this. Now that Revelations is out, it is easy to see what the game series' story is trying to tell us. The Assassins believe in free will, that peace isn't worth it if you need to take free will away. The Templars believe that the only way to bring peace is to control the minds of men, and to abolish free will. They use religion to achieve this goal often. Since the Assassins believe in free will, they are fine with people having a religion (in fact, some of the assassins actually have a religion themselves). But when it is used to control others, then they have a problem. As for Altair, he was an Atheist. Collect all of the Codex pages on AC2 and read them. I believe it was page 22 that showed Altair's beliefs on religion. While there is no proof towards it, I think that Ezio was also an atheist, simply because of the way he does his work. Now, is AC Anti-Atheist? No way. If it had to take sides, I would say more pro-atheist than anti-atheist. Remember though, before the game starts, it says that the game was made by people of various faiths and beliefs. So it is likely neutral. I do think that the game shows very well what religion does to the human mind, how it can manipulate people into doing things that they wouldn't do otherwise. This doesn't go for everyone, but even today, it can start wars. But, I'm ranting about something that should probably be ranted about on some political website (please don't send me back). So I'll be leaving now. By the way, in case you haven't figured it out by now, I am and atheist. Like the assassins, I believe in free will. Enjoy your religion, don't use it as a tool to control the public. So, for an AC exit, I will say this: Laa shay'a waq'in moutlaq bale kouloun moumkine. The wisdom of our creed is revealed through these words. We work in the dark to serve the light. We are Assassins. When other men blindly follow the truth, remember: Nothing is true. When other men are limited by morality and law, remember: Everything is permitted. Safety and peace my friends.
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