Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00Welcome to Mojo Plays, and today, we're looking at landmarks and monuments that appear
00:08in Assassin's Creed games that you can go and see in person.
00:25The Roman Colosseum, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood.
00:31Today it stands in the heart of Rome, but during the 16th century when Ezio arrives
00:36in Italy's great capital, the city hadn't expanded enough to absorb it completely.
00:41When you reach it in Brotherhood, it's surrounded by grassland.
00:45It had also fallen into disrepair at the time, with many people taking stone from it to use
00:50in buildings elsewhere, something that happened to many ancient ruins over the centuries.
00:55But you don't only visit the Colosseum during the Renaissance, Desmond also travels there
01:00for the game's modern day ending, and has to perform a long platforming sequence in
01:05the underground Hypogeum, which wasn't accessible when Ezio lived.
01:12Knossos Palace, Assassin's Creed Odyssey.
01:20The Minoans lived on Crete and built this palace around 4000 years ago, and it was recreated
01:27on a huge scale for Odyssey.
01:29While many of Odyssey's landmarks are completely fictional, all of those enormous statues for
01:34instance, Knossos Palace is very real indeed.
01:37The Minoans were completely wiped out by a volcanic eruption on the nearby island of
01:42Thera, also known as Santorini in around 1600 BC.
01:47Not only did the eruption blast Thera itself into pieces, but the Minoans couldn't survive.
01:52The palace today has been controversially reconstructed by 19th century archaeologists,
01:58but it remains one of the earliest human settlements on this scale we've ever found.
02:07Piazza San Marco, Assassin's Creed II.
02:16It's definitely difficult to choose one landmark from Assassin's Creed II.
02:20There's Il Duomo in Florence, still one of the most impressive cathedrals ever built,
02:24there's San Gimignano with its medieval towers, and the climactic boss battle in the
02:29Sistine Chapel in the Vatican.
02:31But one location stands out to us, the Piazza San Marco in Venice, home to St. Mark's
02:37Basilica and its Campanile, or bell tower.
02:40A desire to see Venice recreated is one of the few reasons people want to see a remake
02:45of Assassin's Creed II, which is otherwise a perfect game in need of a few changes.
02:50It doesn't look quite the same today as it did during the Renaissance thanks to it
02:54being struck by lightning dozens of times, but Venice is still one of Italy's most
02:59stunning cities.
03:08Notre Dame de Paris, Assassin's Creed Unity.
03:17From one church to another, it took a century to build Notre Dame Cathedral, and it stood
03:22in Paris for 800 years.
03:25But like the Colosseum, Notre Dame is in a state of disrepair when Arnaud was working
03:30in the city in the 1790s.
03:32It had been largely sacked by the French Revolution and wasn't restored until the following
03:37century.
03:38Rumor has it that it was recreated so meticulously by Ubisoft, with one designer working on it
03:43for years, that Ubisoft's research was used to help rebuild it following the 2019 fire
03:48that destroyed its spire.
03:50This isn't actually true, but Ubisoft did donate half a million euros to the restoration
03:55and released Unity for free temporarily.
04:02The Tower of London, Assassin's Creed Syndicate.
04:05Tower Hamlet is a little outside of Syndicate's main map, so an additional map was needed
04:10to portray both the Tower of London and Tower Bridge.
04:13Evie goes there briefly when she finally assassinates Lucy Thorne, and you're challenged with
04:18exploring the huge buildings, originally a castle, and recruiting the yeoman to help
04:23you.
04:29Though it's now a key London tourist attraction, known for its beefeaters and prophetic raven
04:35population, it was still used as a prison until the 1950s.
04:39But it appears along with the bridge in the Lydia Fire World War 1 missions, Syndicate's
04:44best kept secret.
04:45To truly explore this London burrow, make sure you do those optional missions by jumping
04:50through the rift in the northeast of the Thames.
04:57Havana Cathedral, Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag.
05:05Construction on Havana Cathedral didn't begin until 1748, so why was it here in Black
05:10Flag over 30 years too early, since Edward visited the city in 1715?
05:16Well, the game actually acknowledges this, with a database telling you that while they
05:21knew it was anachronistic, they couldn't resist recreating this notable Cuban landmark.
05:25What's so fascinating about Havana Cathedral is that it's made of coral stone, which
05:31is what gives it its unique look.
05:33Luckily, in real life, you don't have to worry about buildings appearing too early.
05:37The cathedral was consecrated roughly 250 years ago, and if you go in person, you can
05:43see the interior, which you can't do in game.
05:50Chichen Itza, Assassin's Creed III Liberation.
05:58We got a glimpse of some Mesoamerican ruins in the naval missions of Assassin's Creed
06:02III, but the most famous ruins of all appeared in Liberation the same year.
06:08After exploring much of New Orleans and the surrounding bayou, Aveline poses as a slave
06:12so that she can be sent to Chichen Itza in Mexico, though the country was still called
06:16New Spain at the time.
06:18Here the Templars are leading an excavation to look for precursor relics.
06:22She explores the whole site and its many famous pyramids, even descending into unexplored
06:28regions for the game's infamous canoeing mission.
06:30Though Liberation's graphics are much simpler, even in the remaster, Chichen Itza still stands
06:36out as one of the franchise's best recreated landmarks.
06:45The Hagia Sophia, Assassin's Creed Revelations.
06:52As soon as we found out that Revelations was going to be sending Ezio to Istanbul, also
06:57known as Constantinople, we couldn't wait to explore the Hagia Sophia.
07:02It stood in the city for over 1500 years, being used first as a church for Christian
07:07denominations, then as a mosque, then a museum, and today a mosque again.
07:12It's no easy feat to capture all of that history in one building, especially not in
07:17a video game, but Ubisoft managed it.
07:20Ezio explores the interior, meticulously recreated, to find a legendary Assassin tomb held in
07:26the roof.
07:27This is one of the many Assassin's Creed missions that will leave you sweating if you're
07:31scared of heights.
07:36Stonehenge, Assassin's Creed Valhalla.
07:42The UK's most mysterious landmark did, of course, appear in Assassin's Creed Valhalla.
07:47There were many ancient monuments and stone circles throughout the game, as well as vast,
07:52but inaccurate, recreations of London's Roman ruins.
07:56Stonehenge stands out though, as a huge collection of monoliths that appear in-game exactly as
08:01it does in real life.
08:02It's barely changed since Eivor crossed the North Sea and landed in England.
08:07Though, if you go in person, we don't think you'll have to climb over the stones to
08:11solve a puzzle left by an ancient monk.
08:13In fact, if you even try to climb on them, they'll ask you to leave.
08:23Atlantis, Assassin's Creed Odyssey.
08:28We've all visited the ancient, lost city of Atlantis so many times that it's almost
08:35pointless to put it on the list.
08:37But just because we're all familiar with the city and its pantheon of superhuman gods
08:41doesn't make it any less interesting.
08:43No, we're joking.
08:45The real last entry on our list is the Pyramids of Giza, Assassin's Creed Origins.
08:56Much like Stonehenge, the authorities also don't like people climbing on the pyramids.
09:02Influencers have even allegedly gone to jail for climbing up them in recent years.
09:06Not the case in the first century.
09:08Bayek can go all the way to the top of all of Giza's pyramids, including the Great
09:13Pyramid, which was the tallest structure in the world for nearly 4,000 years.
09:19You can also visit the Great Sphinx nearby, which houses some Isu relics, and Bayek will
09:24comment on how it's surprisingly small.
09:27But what's interesting about the pyramids in Origins is that Ubisoft tried to make them
09:31look like they did thousands of years ago, when they hadn't lost their white limestone
09:36casing or the gold-plated capstones.
09:39It's Egypt as you've never seen it before.
09:47Let us know in the comments which of these landmarks you've visited!