Plays and feels the same as the last one, but considering it's only been a year since the release of the last one they did fine... It certainly feels somewhat smoother but I can't place how. Other than Desmond's "Last time on Assassin's Creed" monologue in the beginning the dialog is well done so far (tad over an hour in). I'm confused as to what point Desmond had time to get his shitty wrist tribal-ish tattoo.
I really like the way they have you 'start over' with Ezio's abilities again.. Finally a game where that explanation isn't amnesia.
I got it for the 360. Is 20-25 hours based on doing all the optional stuff or just barreling through the story? Either way that's not bad for a popular $60 console game these days.
Eric wrote:Is this game exclusively MP focused or?
No, they added the MP to make it not feel like an ODST-like expansion pack and a rip-off at $60. Plus they're testing the waters to see if they can hit a new type of online experience that they can turn into a new revenue source.
Personally, I didn't really care about this one even though I very much enjoyed #2 (WAAAAAAAY better than the first). This will be a price-drop pickup or later used for me
I played a few rounds of MP tonight. Really fun. It's challenging to hunt your opponent, pick them out of a crowd, and then assassinate them without them seeing you while being hunted yourself.
A co-worker of mine brought this one up. The multiplayer sounds really interesting; essentially player 1 is after a specific target, and the Other players are after player 1.
I also have to pick up #2, I just found out that it takes place in renaisance Italy, and that several of my favourite historical figures are present in the game including Medicis and Borgias.
Yeah this is definitely the best out of the three.. They basically took everything and made it better. You can't really ask for more in a game in a series. I just unlocked the best armor and the last mission was really amazing.
Jesus the game isn't even listed in Steam any more. So much for another announced parallel release. I'm glad I broke down and bought my friends 360, even if there's only half a dozen games that I've dropped serious hours into.
I see that Cesare (correct pronunciation would be Chey-zer-ey, not Caesar, as a lot of people call him) Borgia is the major villain of this one.... Actually, of the time period, I would say that the Medici's had become the greater villains of the era; descendents became increasingly greedy; and one of them, a few years after Cesare's death - due to events set in motion by Lorenzo d'Medici - even acquired the the seat of the Pope. As Pope Leo X he began mass-sales of passage into heaven, or a lower length of time in pergatory... It was the largest and most corrupt money scam in known history. This man supposedly convinced people, from slaves to Kings, that he had the authority to give them passage to heaven.... For the right amount of money!
Leo X gave rise to the Protestant movement; Martin Luther labeling Leo X as the anti-Christ, and indefiance of the Church, launched his campaign which split the western world in two.
What does the Church do afterwards? They put another Medici (Clement) as Pope, and he would continue the battle, and burn to death those who defied him. These later Medicis were highly corrupt, they were on or beyond the level of the later Julio-Claudians of the Roman Empire.
Don't know if I'm going to get into the multiplayer. I work the next couple nights but I'll go through the tutorial some time soon and let you know. I'm on the last memory sector but they kind of rob you of the sandbox factor in the last two sectors :(
Okay I had enough time to beat the last sector... This ending isn't as good as the last one (AC2)... more questions fewer answers. Overall very fun - still have a lot of things I want to do now that I can sandbox it up again. I wish it had a warning before the 'point of no return' where it forces you through the storyline for the last couple hours, though.
Ugh, seven minutes of credits for the beat the game accomplishment and maybe five sentences of story during the credits.
I bought Assassin's Creed 2 and played through it for a few hours, making sure I climbed to the top of the Florence Cathedral; very cool. I was disappointed that I didn't meet Lorenzo d'Medici in the first quest involving a letter to be delivered to him; although Leonardo was met.
Such a fascinating place and period.
I'll get Brotherhood when I complete this one.
1476 meeting the Pazzi family and fighting them. I already know what happens to Lorenzo and his brother at the hands of the Pazzi in 1478 on Easter day. One of the most famous assassinations + attempts in history; and this is just something the game can't pass up =)
I hope Savonarola is in it. On Lorenzo's deathbed he damned him (or so says legend; other, less propaganda-ish writings say he forgave him). Savonarola would lead mass book burning in Florence and even much of the work of Boticelli was burned by his own hands; even young Michelangelo was caught up in the whole fanatical movement.... Both of whom I hope appear.
Finished "The Truth" in Brotherhood and it was like the ending and didn't really provide much in the way of answers - it's really just more foreshadowing for future iterations.
Well, the next moment of history is on a far larger scale; the renaisance expands, even Eviler Popes (The Medici Popes) come into power; Martin Luther breaks from the Church to form Protestantism; Francis and Henry VIII become two very key Monarchs (France and England) in this conflict; and the Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire - he would invade the Medici run Italy, conquering it and sacking the city of Rome, he would wage war against the Protestants (but legalized it in the future), he warred with Suleimon the Great of the Ottoman Empire, and he conquered the Aztecs and the Incas. Charles V is a candidate for the next big villain, if the game doesn't jump ahead. He came to the throne about 10 years after the death of Cesare Borgia.
I finally worked up the courage to jump into the multiplayer and it is a blast. I prefer the team based modes to the all-for-one style. The variant I enjoy playing has one team as the murderers, and they hunt the other them. The team desiring to not be murdered have to blend in with the NPCs that looks just like the 6-8 skin variations of characters. This means you you have to hide and hope for the best, but you still have tools at your disposal when your enemy starts to get too close, or when they actually identify you. I recommend definitely giving the multi a spin to see the different direction it goes in than other games.
If they stay in Italy/Europe for the third iteration I would be very, very disappointed. There were rumors of Japan when Assassin's Creed 2 was coming out so hopefully that'll get used, but who knows. Linking Desmond's family line to isolationist Japan would be goddamned impressive haha.
Shrinweck wrote:If they stay in Italy/Europe for the third iteration I would be very, very disappointed. There were rumors of Japan when Assassin's Creed 2 was coming out so hopefully that'll get used, but who knows. Linking Desmond's family line to isolationist Japan would be goddamned impressive haha.
Don't they have to kinda stay in Europe considering the lineage?
Personally, I would think that the third game would deal a helluva lot more with modern times considering how the second ended. But I could be wrong if the single-player game in Brotherhood delved further into that.
If they decided to focus on another descendant of Desmond in AC3, they could use the US or Canada or something as the setting. I think they're going to focus mostly on Desmond in #3 myself.
Japan would also be a very interesting setting; although it is a period that many other games have already done extensively. Tenchu, for example, is an game about an assassin living during the 16th century; which is very much in line with the time period for Assassin's Creed. It is feasible for the storyline considering that the story of Brotherhood (assuming it ends at the death of Cesare) also lands directly in the middle of Sengoku Japan; although the most recognizable figures and culture are from 50-100 years later on (Nobunaga, Ieyasu Tokugawa, Hideyoshi Toyotomi, Miyamoto Musashi); whereas the major European revolutions transforming it from Medieval Europe to Modern Europe literally occur immediately following the death of Cesare (Francis in France, Henry the 8th in England, Luther and the German Princes in Germany, and Emperor Charles V in just about all other parts of Europe, and including the exploration and conquest of the civilizations of the New World. At the end of this era, 1540's, is when Europe discovers Japan.
Very very few historical games have really explored the birth of the modern world as an area of history; most focus on 20th century, Japan's Samurai era, medieval era, and the Roman Empire. There are few periods of history as rich as the early 1500's. There are so many possibilities there, that I feel it would be a very disappointing mistake to skip this period, especially when this game and Brotherhood were centered on Italy, where the whole thing started. It would be the same as having a story about Julius Caesar up to the point of his conquest of his invasion of Britain, and then just forget about the conquest of Gaul, the civil war against Pompey and the Senate, the fall of the Roman Republic, the centralizing of the Roman Bureaucracy and creation of the Roman Empire, and the most famous assassination in history - on the Ides of March 44 BC.
What I am saying, is the following period of history in Europe is where all the very major stuff happens, set-up by what occurred in Florence. It would be a logical point to continue the story; particularly since MANY assassinations occurred in the period. Not to mention, for a game that may include the findings of treasure (like the pieces of Eden), the new world discoveries could potentially set up very good locations (although I am not sure yet where that story has ended up).
By the way, one of the funniest scenes I have ever seen in a game ever =)
Lox wrote:If they decided to focus on another descendant of Desmond in AC3, they could use the US or Canada or something as the setting. I think they're going to focus mostly on Desmond in #3 myself.
Yeah, that's what I was thinkin' too. They've done so much to build up the current day struggle with Lucy and her crew (and especially how the second one ended), I can't actually imagine them not focusing on the present, at least for a good chunk of the story. They have to wrap up the Desmond trilogy before they start branching out.
You can only do so much with Desmond in modern time - all it takes is one dude with a rifle from 300 ft away and game over. They wanted him alive so any combat with Desmond so far they've had retractable batons but at a certain point they're just going to have to start trying to end his life. This is why all the gameplay with Desmond in Brotherhood is just the platforming puzzles.
Shrinweck wrote:You can only do so much with Desmond in modern time - all it takes is one dude with a rifle from 300 ft away and game over. They wanted him alive so any combat with Desmond so far they've had retractable batons but at a certain point they're just going to have to start trying to end his life. This is why all the gameplay with Desmond in Brotherhood is just the platforming puzzles.
That's where the scope changes so that the Assassin's become a much larger force to be reckoned with and not dwarfed by the Templars
I'm pretty sure they're not going to go there. The Assassins have next to no purpose without the Templars. While their overall goal of free will probably results in them still needing to exist, I don't think the game is going to be about or result in recruitment and burgeoning ranks. My guess is that Desmond will be instrumental in finding a Piece of Eden that simultaneously saves the world from the unknown disaster and at the very least pushes the Templars out of their roles of authority.
Yeah, that kinda makes sense. I hope they at least close off the Desmond trilogy without possibility of revisiting after #3. It would be neat to see what they do to expand beyond his story
