Desmond S1

Desmond Sequence 01

The general reaction of the AC Fanbase to these Desmond Missions was something less than enthusiastic and pleased...  In fact on one end of the spectrum they were outright hostile -- as they have been viewed as overly intrusive into the idea of his predicament and, as a general interpretation of the more frequent comments, an obvious representation of programers working too hard at painting a picture that nobody wants to view.  That is pretty harsh commentary for what was obviously intended to be a light-hearted gesture towards providing additional background story for gamers who may not have played the previous games...

The important thing to remember is you do not have to do these missions to complete the story line of the game -- you can ignore them completely!  Of course if you do, you will not be unlocking the 100% Completion Achievement for game level synchronization (Fond Memories), or for that matter the Achievements for each of these Desmond Sequences, which add up to a whopping 100 GS...  If that is enough inducement to get you to do them, perhaps we can make the process a bit less painful with these sections, which tell you what you need to do to not only complete each of the memories, but to grab the optional Multi-Player Emblem items in them that you will surely desire if you are going to do the MP side of the game for serious...

So without further discussion, why don't we get started on these? 

To do that you need to hit START > RETURN TO ANIMUS ISLAND and then confirm that choice.  When you are back on the beach run forward and to the left into the first glowing gate that you will now see -- actually you will see a series of them on the beach now, because that is how you get to these  memories!

-- The Mission Proper --

When you walk into the narrow gate the game will prompt you to confirm that this is what you actually mean to do - and it will tell you which memory you are entering.  You will then be shown the computer screen as it loads the memory -- and finally you will be standing in the core, and Desmond will be talking to himself, with his observations conveniently providing us with all sorts of information that we will find interesting and somewhat useful.

From where you stand as the memory opens you should move straight ahead and, as you do, the far wall will open up in a slick computer-world way...  Follow the obvious path down several terraced points until you reach the far side, where there is an object ahead that you cannot quite reach and, if you look left, another route you can take in that direction.  Head into the room to the left and you will find an odd hand-like glowing object that you are meant to interact with.

Doing so will cause the nearby door to open, and you can then pass through it and trigger a lengthy series of recollections that are taking place because Desmond is recovering memories that were stored by the Animus when is memory cortex grew unstable...  This is sort of the whole point to this in addition to reliving the memories of Ezio and Altair -- Desmond needs to recover all of these memories and put them in their proper place in order to rebuild his own identity and emerge from the coma his is in outside, in the real world.  Sort of a you-do-it brain rebuilding kit if you will.

As you listen, Desmond recounts early memories about his childhood, and as he is doing this you can either stand still and listen, or you can continue onwards -- I vote continue onwards -- which means that you will head to the right and go up the ramp here to the level above, where you will then interact with another glowing hand to open the next door -- if you get stuck at any point remember that the reason I made the video of this -- in fact the reason we make most of the videos we do for these guides -- is to help you out when that happens, so go ahead and watch the video!

Desmond's First Memory: The Early Years

At the top of the ramp the path continues to the other side of the room and then around its outer walls until you pass another closed door and, around the corner towards the far end, another glowing hand.  Use that to open the door and move back to and through it, where you will head up another ramp and through an arch into the next room.

At the far side is a structure in the center of the room, and on the side you cannot see is steps down that will take you to a room with moving platforms and an observation about being an Assassin.  Using the platforms you will first go up three of them and into a narrow hall, passing through it into another larger chamber in which Clay chimes in, observing that "Nothing is True."

There is an obvious path here that you start by going right and dropping down, and then heading for the pillar with another glowing hand on it.  Dropping down you walk over the shining blocks that are the floor and use the platform/block that is going up and down to reach the hand. 

Activating it causes a set of blocks to create a bridge for you below, so head to there and cross it, and you will find that at the end is another lift-block that goes past another hand to a higher level.  You want to use it to get to the hand and then sit and listen to the short conversation that Desmond and Clay have, then activate the hand to deploy a pair of connecting ramps above.

Now use the lift-block to go to the top of this structure and cross the new bridge created by the pair of ramps, and you will find yourself at a portal that is on the far platform that you saw when you first entered this room.  Go through the portal and you are now above an area that has a glowing blue data pit at the bottom of it.  If you fall to the bottom you are reset at the top -- and if you notice you are being prompted to use the Right Trigger to spawn blocks you can walk on to cross the gap here.

You can actually fall and spawn a block below you if you like to stop your fall into the data pit, and the blocks can be positions to create a rising or lowering route.  You may be tempted to explore this area -- and why not?  It is not like there is a timer here and you have to complete the mission in X minutes or anything, so hey, indulge yourself!  But if you are more interested in completing the mission than you are indulging yourself, well then you want to create a block bridge to cross the gap and then, when you get to the far side (where there is another glowing data pit below) you want to drop down on the concrete shelves below as far down as they go and then look across and a little to the left of the large floating data blocks.

You want to make your way across and to the left of these, creating your own route through the area until you reach the other side where you will see another flat concrete area that has a glowing white cube in a corner -- that is the first Multi-Player Emblem you need to collect, so drop down and grab that, and then using the new ramp object that will automatically be created when you spawn a block, head up towards the left side of the area (left with reference to when you were first approaching it) to the next level up.

-- Back in the Main Hall --

By following this route you are now back in the Main Hall where you had to take the left path because you could not reach the portal against the far wall -- but now you can since you have the power to summon blocks.  BEFORE you do that however, we need to backtrack to the room that was just past the one where we saw The Farm for a moment, because the second Multi-Player Emblem is located there.

So take the left path again and move through The Farm room to the next chamber and you will see that large column beside the door that leads to the next large chamber?  The Emblem is at the top of it, so what you need to do is build a path up to that and grab the Emblem, and then make your way back down, retrace your steps to the Main Hall through the Farm Room, and finally cross the gap to the Portal that is waiting for you there!

When you enter the portal you have completed this Memory -- you unlock the Achievement "The Early Years" (20 GS) for the doing of it, and you have not only scored yourself an additional 20 GS but also a pair of Multi-Player Emblems for the MP side of the game and how about that?  Well done mates!  Well done!