22 / wfmag.ccA Symphony of ShadowsInterface
Auto III, which had Must been releasedȐ They had
Must figured out how to take Grand Theft Auto
and put it in a 3D environment, which to me
felt like a bit of a revolution. And so the second
revolution, to me, was Assassin’s Creed.”
The rest, of course, is history. The Assassin’s
Creed universe would go on to become Kyd’s
playground for several years, with
him working on four titles from 2007
to 2011, later passing the mantle to a
line of successive composers.
As well as building on his stealth-
genre roots, the series also granted
him an opportunity to experiment
with a wealth of environmental
challenges and unique play states
that had indeed never been seen in
a game before, let alone considered
from an audio perspective.
ȊThere was so much new stuff
happening in this that nobody
had ever attempted to do before,”
he recalls excitedly. “Gameplay
elements, such as sitting on a bench,
eavesdropping that needed music.
Then the character you eavesdrop on
gets up and starts walking off – you
have a choice. Do you want to follow
him? I had never heard of anyonewriting or doing this kind of stuff for a video
game. It just felt so new.”
Assassin’s Creed’s blend of historical settings
and contemporary science fiction greatly
influenced .yd’s creative process. The Animus,
a machine that transplants the player from the
present day to the Holy Land during the Third
&rusade, played a significant role in shaping
the game’s sound. ȊWith the Animus, we take
everything and make it sound like it’s coming
through a filter to remind you that you’re in
some kind of simulator,” says Kyd. “That put a
spin on everything I wrote.”
Scoring the sequences in which the player has
to make a hasty exit from the Animus following
an assassination also proved to be a huge
undertaking, largely because of the way the
audio coalesced with the unique visual aspects
of the Animus. Ȋ3robably the most diɝcult thing
for Assassin’s Creed was the chase sequences,”
Kyd recalls. “When you’re playing those escape
sequences, we really wanted it to feel like the
Animus was being pushed to the limit.ȋIMPROVISING UNDER PRESSURE
When it came to working on Assassin’s Creed II,
Kyd was already well-versed in the art of upping
the ante, and the advantages and disadvantages
of working on a sequel. “The games industry
is one of those rare places where you have a
sequel and it’s often usually better than the
original,” he muses. “The sequel is usually
where you get to do what you wanted to do,
but perhaps didn’t get to do previouslyȐ There
might be some themes that you bring back, but
you still have to rewrite those themes to fit with
the new storyline or new location, and I often
put a lot of pressure on myself when working on
a franchise and coming back to a franchise – I
always like to explore new areas, and it’s not so
much outdo myself, but I like to keep trying to
explore new things.”
One thing that continues to surprise Kyd is
the enduring legacy of the game’s main theme,
Ezio’s Family, which has gone on to attain a
life of its own, both as a recurring motif within
the franchise and as a piece of music in its
own right. “It’s great to see that it’s outlived its
original purpose,” he laughs. “I don’t think I could
have named that track better, too. It’s very much
tied to Ezio, but it is also able to transcend its
original purpose. When I hear Ezio’s Family in all
these Assassin’s Creed games, I think more aboutSTANDING OUT
“As long as I can keep going to new places, I feel like I have something to offer when it comes to
creating something that stands out, or perhaps is a bit more unique... If you ask me to do something
I’ve never done before, I can’t tell you what it’s going to sound like, but I know I’m going to keep
working on this until something interesting happens, and that’s what I’m still doing to this day.”
2222 // wfmagwfmag.cc Kyd’s work shaped and
ǁefineǁ the sounǁ oǹ the
Hitman franchise for more
than half a decade.