The Assassin's Creed Symphonic Adventure concert recently played at London's Southbank Center for two nights of its latest tour. As a fan of the series, I had my eye on this concert for a while – it seemed different from the ones that came before it.
It promised about three hours of immersion in the franchise with a live orchestra and choir accompanied by HD images and gameplay footage. It absolutely delivered on that promise.
In short, this is the best video game music concert I have ever attended. This is exactly what video game music concerts should be like — and, frankly, what they aspire to be.
Eagle vision
There are a few factors that helped set this particular concert and experience apart; everyone working brilliantly with each other to create something truly special.
First, every game – every mainline entry in the series, played in chronological order of its historical context – has been represented faithfully and accurately. Most importantly, each was presented in a way that condensed full stories into short, impactful experiences that even those unfamiliar could follow. Considering that the Assassin's Creed games can vary in length from fifteen-hour linear adventures to sprawling 100+ hour open-world experiences, it's not easy to condense each of these into a similar short presentation of about a dozen of minutes.
The curation and selection of images and, of course, music for each game's condensed story has been deliberately and expertly done. It had the right mix of game trailer action, as well as cutscenes and gameplay action, coupled with a few visible seams or bumps that tied the game's story together, but also gave the audience some of the best scenes and events from these games. . There were even additions of dialogue and audio in the game that further helped the images “pop” and become more than just a background.
Each game was interspersed with various modern scenes also showing the Animus device – again, this wasn't just a collection of compressed games, to be rushed through, the whole experience was cohesive, deliberately and well structured, and had a thread running through it.
Synchronizing audio and visuals like this, with beats, combat moves, and events mapped to the tempo of the music, greatly enhanced the experience.
Importantly, this being a music concert after all, the selection of pieces from each score to accompany these scenes was also near perfect. The London Contemporary Orchestra and the Kingdom Choir brought to life tunes and pieces deeply rooted in the games' soundtracks, rather than a simple repetition of each entry's main theme. Tracks clearly written by composers for key parts of the games have been selected, reinforcing the clarity of the narrative offered and showing that careful selection of tracks is the best way to bring the games to life in an immersive live experience.
For example, the song “Ravensthorpe” was broadcast alongside images of Assassin's Creed Valhalla where Eivor and their Viking band build their village, also called Ravensthorpe; “The High Seas” starred Edward Kenway and his pirate crew; and “HomeStead” was chosen to accompany parts of Assassin's Creed 3 when the protagonist Connor is seen visiting Davenport.
The quality curation of these two elements really created in-game moments like sailing the high seas in Black flagthe Lisbon earthquake Thugand the Battle of Thermopylae – introduction to Odyssey (and much more) to life in a concrete and experiential way.
Full synchronization
The icing on the immersive cake, however, was the seamless meshing of visual and audio, as the on-screen action, whether gameplay or cinematic trailers, unfolded to the rhythm of the music.
This added excellent depth and a higher level of quality to the experience. This helped you “feel” every sword fight, parkour sequence, leap of faith, multi-enemy combat encounter, and horseback ride, with the music perfectly punctuating, accentuating, and enhancing the moments in the sequence.
Synchronizing audio and visuals like this, with beats, combat moves, and events mapped to the tempo of the music, greatly enhanced the experience. The efforts of Ubisoft and production company Overlook Events helped transform what could have been a simple but robust and enjoyable experience into a truly thrilling and exciting one. I could even see the whole choir, when they weren't performing, glued to the screen and the experience too – it was a spectacle of scale, story and intrigue, and it drew people in.
And it wasn't just an occasional flourish; it was a consistent theme and feature, which ensured the show achieved the “immersive concert” it aimed to be.
The real deal
I've been to quite a few video game music concerts, and Assassin's Creed Symphonic Adventure is by far the best. It should now set the standard and model for those moving forward.
Compared to the previous high-end Assassin's Creed concert I remember from 2019 and was excited to take my non-gaming parents and fiancée to, the difference is night and day. The Symphonic Adventure is the kind of format that's great for fans and new listeners – it's one I wish I had taken my parents to in 2019 instead of the rather simplistic and bland event that took place that year .
It feels like we're in a golden age of video game music concerts, and the blending of audio and visual technology as achieved by the Symphonic Adventure can ensure that concerts can now become experiences immersive and storytelling opportunities, as well as celebrations of game music. .
