Tracing the Lineage of the Maybe Kinda Good Assassin, Ezio

When I attended the Assassin’s Creed II panel at San Diego Comic-Con this past summer, I nearly fell out of my seat. What I watched and heard impressed me and filled me with excitement when ACI had left me so disappointed and bitter. Everyone knows—when you start making pie charts for your reviews, the shit is about to hit the fan.

I’ve been like a hyperactive kid super-powered on pixie sticks ever since July renewed my faith in the young game series, and December simply cannot come soon enough. Ubisoft’s Hybride Technologies is attempting to keep fans’ (or prospective fans, like me) drooling to a minimum to ensure that we don’t drown in a pool of our own devoted slobber. Lineage is coming our way, which means I’m either about to weep graciously or get really angry again and threaten the creation of further pie charts and maybe a slideshow or animated GIF. Only time will tell, and the time is the Italian Renaissance:

Assassin’s Creed II will be slitting wrapping paper in houses everywhere this holiday season, but before its star, Ezio, splatters blood all over your living room carpet, he’s at least showing the courtesy of introducing you to his family. Well, his father, to be more precise: Giovanni Auditore da Firenze. We’ll have to wait to find out how far the deadly apple falls from the assassin tree, and even longer before we learn whether the second AC installment will offer an eye-popping, juicy treat as opposed to the rotten fruit of stale repetition the first game handed us despite its innovation. But on Tuesday, October 27th, Ubisoft’s Hybride Technologies will launch the first of three (get this) live-action and CGI-mixed episodes about Daddy Assassin in a short film series called Assassin’s Creed: Lineage.

The films—the first of which will only appear on Youtube for a limited period of 24 hours—will introduce key players from the upcoming game, including Lorenzo de Medici, who reigned in Florence during the Renaissance and commissioned da Vinci’s and Michelangelo’s works. Actually, Lorenzo and his brother Giuliano were nearly assassinated while attending mass in the Cathedral of Florence on Easter in 1478, a plot encouraged by Sixtus IV, the then-current Pope. Talk about some nasty history.

Head over to RadNerd to check out the Lineage trailer and the rest of the article, and leave your opinions and musings at the RN door (aka the comments section, for the metaphorically challenged).