The way we perceive the past informs our perception of the present. Of course there are elements of fantasy in fiction, but the conceit is that outside of what

The way we perceive the past informs our perception of the present. Of course there are elements of fantasy in fiction, but the conceit is that outside of what is clearly fictional everything is real. In the case of Assassin's Creed, there is a special draw regarding historical accuracy since the game purports to tell the "real" story, so everything that's immediately outside the fiction should be accurate -- and in fact the games have been noted as arousing interest in history among players. This is why this kind of approximation can be problematic: if you play the original game from 2007, sure you'll disregard the conspiracy theory story, but will you notice that there are buildings in Jerusalem that didn't appear until centuries later, making the city look much more "arabic" looking than it historically was at the time? And if you think the modern pig is in its natural state, won't you have a subtly different outlook on modern animal husbandry?