The Shrine

While I was all gungho for the Native American iteration, in retrospect it was horrible. The protagonist was horrible. The gameplay was mostly horrible. The setting was disappointing. They even managed to make Native Americans uninteresting. Basically everything but the (melee) combat was just not up to usual standards. Well in this iteration they've reversed that - basically everything but the combat is amazing.

You remember how if you killed like thirty people you'd have to spend 5-10 minutes tearing down posters or shell out your hard earned money to regain anonymity? That's gone (at least so far as I've gotten, but there's no indication it's coming). There's still a wanted system of sorts but it only really affects the Grand Theft Auto style it takes to pirating on the open seas and you can just shell out a negligible amount of money at most docks to become anonimous again.

The setting works really well with the gameplay. The music and ambient noises are probably the best the series has ever seen. They've definitely succeeded in making pirating fun, but I'd rather not spoil the awesome shit you'll find yourself getting into. Boat battles is kind of a mixed bag, bouncing from fun to horrible. Some of the ships are just hard as hell and you'll be fighting fleets of them at a time. Alone, since any allies that you get tend to be useless.

So the combat... it's still fun, but it's the most unpolished its ever been in any of the games. The animations rubberband and a lot of them just aren't very fun to watch, especially compared to the awesome shit you could do in AC3. In the end it still works fairly well and I find it more challenging than I have in the past.

The protagonist can fight just about as well as Ezio ever could right from the get-go, which is odd to me. There's no explanation, time lapse or training, the second he gets those assassins blades, you might as well be playing as Ezio.

One of the more interesting things is that Desmond's story is over. The new modern day protagonist is done in voiceless first person. It'll be interesting to see what they end up doing with that. Looking forward to seeing how they end the game.

Oh and your crew sings awesome shanties while you sail around looking for plunder

Desmond's story never had any clear goal, it seems they kept going further and further down the rabbit hole and it made absolutely no sense.

I can only assume that they had no idea they'd be doing sequels so they just kept making stuff up on a game to game basis.

At least now they can just focus on whatever history they were going to and not worry about the present day stuff at all....unless they eventually intend to make a present day Assassin's Creed game. US Assassin in Soviet Russia in the 1960s or something lol.

Desmond's story was always meant to continue, but clearly they had no idea where it was really going. The best part of Desmond's story was definitely in the original Assassin's Creed because uncovering all of this nonsense was quite neat from a stand point of knowing nothing. Logging onto other people's e-mail and reading tidbits was a thousand times more interesting then the bullshit expository dialog in the further iterations.

I feel like they could have continued stringing us along but they decided to make everything ultra specific and turn it into the standard world saving schtick. I agree that getting rid of Desmond and continuing with a Gordon Freeman type allows them to continue making a good, fun game without having to keep doing silly bullshit.

I just wish they wouldn't keep going forward down the line of history. I liked the game more when it was crossbows and throwing knives. Boats, flying machines, and guns just aren't as fun as the swordplay. They just keep piling on more and more shit to do and it takes away from the parts of the game I actually enjoy.

Also Desmond had douche bag tattoos. I always had trouble taking him seriously.

Ezio Trilogy was great. No Ezio, no quality

Glad Ezio's story is over. 2 and Brotherhood were fine but they really dragged that out. I wish they'd further branch out from Eurocentric history, but I'll settle for pirates. Altair is still my favorite protagonist. While it was certainly because the gameplay wasn't hashed out enough like it was in sequels, I loved the public execution style to assassinations and the getaway as city alarm bells went off through the city.

Since they're approaching the 19th century they should REALLY do Japan since when this is when the really awesome shit is going down in their history. Hell you could do something awesome with China, India, and possibly Russia. Oooo the French Revolution if you want to keep it in Europe and the 18th century.

Revelations wasn't as good as Brotherhood. But it had a phenomenal ending to the story and completely closed off Altair and Ezio well. 3 was just bad and I can't motivate myself to play 4

I wasn't going to play four until someone told me it fixed most of what three fucked up. A big thing that made me hate three was all the guards apparently had cell phones or some shit because when guards turned agro they would all be on the look out for you. Made no sense. Guards don't do this any more. The only reason a guard from far away would come attack you (besides you murdering people in broad daylight or going into restricted areas) would be if you or an enemy fired a gun. So basically you get away from the eight guys following you, the twenty guys you run into while getting into a hiding place will have no reason to also want to kill you.

Also I'm happy to report that I got through the first branch of animus missions and the fun of discovering stuff in the modern world has definitely been brought back. There's a certain amount of expository dialog, but a lot of it is reading/audio tapes that you get to discover on your own.

Any way Zeus, clearly I'm not going to talk you into it at this point - but if you see it for like $20 a year from now you should give it a go. I was done with this series until I got into this iteration.

My biggest issue right now is Assassin's Creed fatigue. I've played them 5 Xmas' in a row. The first was horrible and I needed help to finish it (my cousin had to do it for me) because I loved the story but despised the gameplay. The next 3 were all excellent and I enjoyed them very much. They fixed a ton of issues with #1 (gameplay, hawk-eyed guards, the sneaking system, better climbing, etc.). #3 was shit because it inexplicably brought back the same major issues of #1, which is the guards are all on the extreme lookout for you and you basically can't move without triggering an alert, just like you mentioned.

So the 6th Xmas I don't want to get the game. I am able to weasel a copy for $2.50 and I said "fuck it, I'll just play it and sell it". I had a bud at work who was stupid enough to get a PS4 at launch. Therefore, he has no games to play aside from the ports. I sold him and his other equally stupid bud each a copy of CoD Ghosts for $35 each (we got those for $2.50 too; quickly beat it before I sold it) and they did the whole $10 trade up to the PS4 version at EB (I took my copy of Battlefield 4, beat it, did the uptrade, and sold it sealed on Kijiji for $50). Worked out for both of us: he gets 20%+ off brand new PS4 games, I make $30+ on each game I've already played and beaten (I won't even mention the coin I've gotten for selling all those damned codes that come with each game, including the PS4 digital upgrade codes; they truly are the gift that keeps on giving :-). Paid for my sealed CoD Ghosts Prestige...almost.

He then texts me back a couple days later and says he wants my AC4 as well, same deal. I had a week to play it so on Sunday, I tossed it in. Spent an hour with the updates and installing (I hate that shit)...and I have a slim. So I started playing and what's the first thing you do? The horrible ship battles from #3. I may be in the minority, but I just flat-out didn't like the ship battles. They just weren't fun to me. So I get to the beach after the first battle and had it put it down as it was around 2am. Thing is, I just didn't care to pick it back up the whole week. That's the AC fatigue part. I just didn't want to pick it up anymore. I didn't even play it long enough to build a hate-on or anything (the ship battles I knew were coming, I can deal with those). I just flat-out didn't want to.

So my bud texts me yesterday and asks if we can do the trade today (Friday); our original plan was on Monday. I told him no prob and am taking it with me to work. It's not that I won't play it, I probably will. I just need a break from the series. There's about a million Collector's Editions out there (each store around here has like 20). I'll do what I did with #3: sell it quickly and wait a year for the Collector's to go down to $50 or less. Maybe by then I'll have the desire to play it again (assuming MGS5 and Smash Bros aren't ruining my life then :-).

TBH I never finished the last two Assassin's Creed games so my fatigue on the game is wearing a little thin. Ended up Youtubing the story I missed. Oh wait, I don't think that's true. I think it just took me a full year to play the last four hours of Revelations.

Shrinweck wrote:TBH I never finished the last two Assassin's Creed games so my fatigue on the game is wearing a little thin. Ended up Youtubing the story I missed. Oh wait, I don't think that's true. I think it just took me a full year to play the last four hours of Revelations.

The game Revelations wasn't quite as good (tower defense mini-game was particularly silly and you didn't have the neat side-quests like the other two) as Brotherhood and I had some fatigue at that point. But the last few hours of that story is probably the best in the series. I absolutely love how they tied everything together and completely closed off Altair and Ezio and set everything up for a great finish with Desmond that they just fucked up in #3.

I'll play #4 but it's gonna wait. I just need to take a break for a bit.

Hit upon an e-mail while hacking in the middle of the game that sheds light on where they're taking the game

The Templars have a link to memories from Italy (Ezio), Ottoman Empire, American Independence (Connor), and the American New England/Mid-West in the 19th century. Kind of cool.. but the stuff on the mother's side is really cool, namely 12th century crusades (Altair), 13th century Egypt/N. Africa, 14th century Ashikaga Shogunate in Japan (not the historical period I would have chosen but at least this way there aren't any guns and they can concentrate on cool fucking melee weapons), 18th century French Revolution (WOOHOO, let's do this next!), 19th century Napoleonic business, 20th century... Summer of Love? Okay I'm not sure what they'll do if they ever get to this one. There's some cool concept art attached of an Assassin geared up in Mid-West America garb so I'm going to take a wild guess and say that's a big clue to what AC5 is going to be.

It does sound neat. But I just wish they'd do the series every other year instead of annual instalments. I'd get a lot more excited over each game if they did.