Most video games like to tell unique stories in completely unreal universes. There are titles, such as the multiple installments of the Grand Theft Auto saga, that blur the line between reality and fiction by situating their experience in satirized versions of US cities; GTA: San Andreas has devised its city of Los Santos based on the well-known Los Angeles, GTA: Vice City directly draws from Miami and the future GTA 6 will do the same with Florida. However, developers have also enriched their experiences with missions and objectives that recreate some of the most macabre events in history. And this is what Ubisoft did with the Zodiac Killer.
Murders in Coded Languages
It is said that the Zodiac Killer is “possibly the most famous unsolved murder case in the history of the US”, as we are talking about a serial killer who operated in San Francisco in the late 1960s and, to this day, has not been identified. The characteristics shared by victims who survived his attacks pointed to a very intelligent man in his forties or fifties, with brown hair and a scar on his forehead; over the years, some were suspected of being the Zodiac Killer, but authorities could never find definitive evidence.
Zodiac killed five people between December 1968 and October 1969.
What is known is that the criminal ended the lives of five people between December 1968 and October 1969; mainly young couples and a taxi driver. Boasting about his murders, Zodiac had the tendency to send letters to magazines and newspapers ordering their publication on the cover under threat of killing a dozen random victims. In fact, in one of these messages, he claimed to have killed a total of 37 people, but investigations did not validate this information and it is now seen as an unofficial number.
Why would Ubisoft be interested in the Zodiac Killer? Beyond creating a video game mission centered on a rather macabre case, this killer gave headaches to investigators of the time by sending encrypted messages. In fact, two of the four cryptograms that he sent at the time still remain unsolved. Therefore, the French developer had an excuse to include this criminal in their Watch Dogs 2.
The Zodiac Killer in Watch Dogs 2. Source: Sharkhanatic via YouTube.
The exclusive mission of a DLC
Just like in the past with an extra that we will tell you about later in this article, the Zodiac Killer mission was included as a DLC for Watch Dogs that could be obtained with both the game reservation and the Season Pass. The objective, as you can imagine, was to stop an NPC claiming to be the mysterious killer who terrorized the US in the late 1960s. “An unwanted ghost from San Francisco’s past has resurfaced after fifty years,” read the task summary.
Basically, the mission involved tracking down the Zodiac Killer by carrying out various tasks involving hacking, controllable devices, and infiltrations; it also included solving a cryptogram sent by the killer himself. If you are interested in knowing the end of this side story in Watch Dogs 2, you should know that the player finally witnesses a brief broadcast of the Zodiac… But he ends up committing suicide by activating a bomb. In short, the protagonist does not come face to face with the criminal and everything ends in an explosion.
Due to the mystery surrounding this figure, the Zodiac Killer has also appeared in other cultural products; including series, movies, and other video games outside of Ubisoft’s realm. In this sense, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth introduced an item called Zodiac that was represented with the symbol the killer used to identify himself. This would not be the only time that the French developer would draw from real cases to enrich their digital experiences, as they did the same with Jack the Ripper in Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. Specifically, this figure appears in a similar DLC to what was seen in Watch Dogs 2 and is portrayed as a former member of the Assassin Brotherhood seeking revenge. Therefore, there is a possibility that Ubisoft will play this card of real events again in the future.
In 3DJuegos | Ubisoft surprises fans by announcing that they are already working on several Assassin’s Creed remakes, in addition to promising surprises for the saga’s fans
In 3DJuegos | The long-awaited game by fans, Assassin’s Creed Shadows will need more than just new stealth mechanics to convince everyone
