Ubisoft releases Assassin's Creed III 'Previously On' trailer

The Assassin’s Creed series has always been one giant mindscrew when it comes to the storyline. With the latest game in the series – Assassin’s Creed III – right around the corner, Ubisoft has released a new trailer for the game that explains some of the events of the previous games. The video is mostly meant to be for newcomers to the series in preparation for Assassin’s Creed III – a game said to be the last game starring Desmond.

The trailer describes the secret war that has been going on for milliennia between two groups – the Assassins and the Templar. But, as the stories of the games have progressed, a greater threat has been discovered that is all set to end all life on earth. Of significance in the game’s storyline is the date December 21, 2012. The trailer also reveals information about artifacts known as pieces of Eden. These artifacts are believed to be pieces of technology left over from an ancient race of immense power that was wiped out the last time an apocalypse happened.

Earlier this month, Ubisoft had released a trailer that showed Connor’s fighting capabilities. The trailer shows Connor’s weapons and how he wields them. His main weapons of choice are a tomahawk and a hidden blade that can come out and be used as a regular combat knife. It also shows Connor using his dart rope to attack enemies from vantage points, as well as various ranged weapons such as bows and muskets. New to the Assassin’s Creed series is the concept of dual wielding weapons, which Connor does in Assassin’s Creed III with his signature blade and tomahawk.

The Assassin’s Creed series deals with a secret war that has lasted millennia between the Assassins and the Templars. The Assassins seek to fight for the free will of people, while the Templars seek to control them. The first game was set during the Holy Crusades in Jerusalem. Protagonist Altaïr ibn-La'Ahad would have to jump from rooftops and sneak into groups of people in order to find and assassinate his targets.

Enter Connor

The second game was set during the Renaissance era in Florence. The main protagonist of the II series of games – Assassin’s Creed II, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and Assassin’s Creed: Revelations – is Ezio Auditore. The II series of games dealt with the evolution of Ezio as a character, who starts out as a revenge-driven teenager only to become a highly-skilled master of Assassin. Altaïr also makes an appearance in Revelation, showing the aged assassin’s last few days. The secondary protagonist of the series is Desmond Miles, who is accessing his 'genetic memory' to live the lives of his Ancestors Altaïr and Ezio so he can get some of their skills through something referred to as the 'bleeding effect'. This will help Desmond stand up to the Templars in the present time and stop their plans for world domination.

Recently, the developers of the game had talked about one of the DLCs (downloadable content) that the game will be getting that deals with an alternate history 'what if' story. The DLC will follow Connor’s quest to take down George Washington after he has succumbed to the temptations of infinite power.

The DLC is set to be a single player campaign that will be split into three episodes. The season pass for the Evil George Washington DLC (not the official name) is set to cost 2400 Microsoft points on Xbox Live and $30 (around Rs 1,560) on the other platforms. The season pass will include all three episodes as well as multiplayer DLC that will feature new maps and characters.

Earlier, Ubisoft had talked about the DLC during the Eurogamer Expo. "We know that not everyone will buy it," Assassin's Creed 3 director Alex Hutchinson said. "So it's a 'what the f***' chunk of story that, if you missed it, the next game will still make sense."

Assassin's Creed III will be released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on October 30, and the PC version will be released on November 20.