The Tyranny of King Washington DLC off to an intriguing start (Photos)

One of the nice twists of the Assassin’s Creed series is the differences between what the history books tell us happened versus what the Animus says really happened. With the release of “The Infamy” the first part of a DLC trilogy titled “The Tyranny of King Washington” that original twist gets taken to a whole new level.

In “Infamy”, Connor (only referred to as Ratonhnhaké:ton) wakes up from what appears to have been a terrible nightmare. In his adult form when we last saw him in Assassin’s Creed III, he finds out his mother (Kaniehtí:io)is still alive and his tribe is still together. But here’s the trade off: rather than Commander George Washington becoming this nation’s first President, he has let power turn him into a madman consumed only with the desire to rule everything.

Connor hunting with his wolf friends

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Ubisoft

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It appears as though Connor is the only person with memories of what “actually” happened without any knowledge of Washington’s descent into madness. Although he has never met his father, Haytham Kenway, in this version of reality, he knows all about his father, much to the surprise of his mother.

According to Kaniehtí:io, Washington now carries a sceptre, which appears to be fastened with a Piece of Eden, which is the source both of his power and madness. She attempted to take the sceptre from Washington but failed and now it appears as though Washington will not rest until everyone in the colonies is either subservient to him or dead.

Since Connor never ventured out of the Frontier or the Mohawk Valley to train with Achilles Davenport, he has to rely on different weaponry rather than his traditional Assassins weapons (although Haytham did leave Connor his hidden blades).

With help from the Mohawk Clan Mother, Connor drinks a special kind of tea that allows him to draw strength from the animal kingdom. In Infamy, Connor is able to call upon the spirits of wolves to attack enemies as well as hide in plain sight under the cloak of another wolf spirit.

The DLC takes about 2-3 hours to complete if just attempting the main story. Unfortunately the additional objectives feel a little like the original Assassin’s Creed game since it was a lot of wash, rinse, repeat. But since this is just the first part of the story, it doesn’t negatively affect the experience.

While it’s certainly an interesting twist to the idea of "what if" could have happened to America, this is only the first part of the DLC. According to Ubisoft, this perverted version of US history will actually sync up with the other part of Assassin’s Creed III. "By the end of the last episode you will see how this relates to Connor and the real George Washington," game director Marc-Alexis Côté assured Eurogamer. "This experience is canon."

With that knowledge, it’ll be very interesting to see how the second and third parts will complete the story. For that, waiting for part two “The Betrayal” and the conclusion “The Redemption”, scheduled for release March 19 and April 23 of this year, respectively, Ubisoft definitely has started off this alternate story on the right foot.

As always, games and DLC were provided by the Edgewood Retail District GameStop.