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[conman]

Really? The only one that bothers me is the stealth is utter bullshit and makes me rage. But sweet god the stealth was bad in all of them.

Stealth is maddeningly frustrating in AC3. But that's mostly because it tries to shoehorn more standard stealth mechanics into the AC world (sneaking, hiding, etc). And I strongly disagree that stealth has been bad in all of them.

Traditional stealth has never been a big part of the series. The prior games took a much more unconventional approach to stealth, and IMO nearly perfected it by Revelations (bomb crafting was an incredibly smart, versatile, and deep addition to the stealth systems).

But, man, AC3 is full of horrible applications of painfully conventional stealth tropes. The finicky AI detection triggers, the awful hiding mechanics, the lack of stealth "toys," etc. A good stealth game needs to be consistent and intuitive, and it needs to offer a variety of possible solutions to a situation. But in AC3, it's just plain bad.

 

[Raxus]

Hats [or should I say 'hoods'] off to you, good sir. I can't even imagine how frustrating this must have been, it requires inhuman amounts of patience.

I 100%'d everything. You have no idea.

 

[Gartooth]

Stealth is maddeningly frustrating in AC3. But that's mostly because it tries to shoehorn more standard stealth mechanics into the AC world (sneaking, hiding, etc). And I strongly disagree that stealth has been bad in all of them.

Traditional stealth has never been a big part of the series. The prior games took a much more unconventional approach to stealth, and IMO nearly perfected it by Revelations (bomb crafting was an incredibly smart, versatile, and deep addition to the stealth systems).

But, man, AC3 is full of horrible applications of painfully conventional stealth tropes. The finicky AI detection triggers, the awful hiding mechanics, the lack of stealth "toys," etc. A good stealth game needs to be consistent and intuitive, and it needs to offer a variety of possible solutions to a situation. But in AC3, it's just plain bad.

I highlighted a ton of reasons why I think the game is bad in my post on the last page, but yeah stealth is just flat out impossible to do in this game because I don't think any sane player would put up with the amount of bullshit design long enough before deciding to just fuck it and run around killing people. I honestly couldn't stomach any patience and I just finished playing Dishonored for the first time doing a 0 kill run before starting up AC3 so it really opened my eyes up to the lack of options the player has, and just the terrible execution of even the most basic elements of stealth games.

 

[Irish]

-Music that is ultimately forgettable compared to series past.

I don't know. I honestly think the main ACIII theme is the best piece of work to come out of the entire series. Of course, overall, it is probably a little lacking.

 

[conman]

I highlighted a ton of reasons why I think the game is bad in my post on the last page, but yeah stealth is just flat out impossible to do in this game because I don't think any sane player would put up with the amount of bullshit design long enough before deciding to just fuck it and run around killing people. I honestly couldn't stomach any patience and I just finished playing Dishonored for the first time doing a 0 kill run before starting up AC3 so it really opened my eyes up to the lack of options the player has, and just the terrible execution of even the most basic elements of stealth games.

Yeah, just read your prior post. Agree on some of your points, but many are forgivable.

I'm not ready to pass final judgment on the game, since I'm still under 10 hours in. But after four great console games in the series--and considering the enormous development undertaking behind AC3--it's incredible to me how many problems it has. Bugs, bad design, bad combat, finicky movement, clunky storytelling, absence of any of the Grand Themes of the prior games, etc.

It may eventually come together for me (and I sincerely hope it does), but as of right now, it just seems like a typical, moderately fun action-adventure game. So far, I'm seeing nothing like the exceptional quality of the prior games in terms of story, combat/movement mechanics, game systems, or environmental design.

 

[NinjaFridge]

I don't know. I honestly think the main ACIII theme is the best piece of work to come out of the entire series. Of course, overall, it is probably a little lacking.

Fight Club is one of the best on the soundtrack.

 

[LightofRohan]

Stealth is maddeningly frustrating in AC3. But that's mostly because it tries to shoehorn more standard stealth mechanics into the AC world (sneaking, hiding, etc). And I strongly disagree that stealth has been bad in all of them.

Traditional stealth has never been a big part of the series. The prior games took a much more unconventional approach to stealth, and IMO nearly perfected it by Revelations (bomb crafting was an incredibly smart, versatile, and deep addition to the stealth systems).

But, man, AC3 is full of horrible applications of painfully conventional stealth tropes. The finicky AI detection triggers, the awful hiding mechanics, the lack of stealth "toys," etc. A good stealth game needs to be consistent and intuitive, and it needs to offer a variety of possible solutions to a situation. But in AC3, it's just plain bad.

*vomits in mouth*

This is what I was talking about. Revelations had 'don't be detected' objectives as well and were so goddam bad...

The social stealth in the other games were fine though

- Loading Times
- Having to go into a menu to do things like change weapons
- Map System
- Storyline/Characters
- Mission Design (Incredibly boring go here/there, kill X)
- Navigation Controls (Why do I keep auto jumping places I don't want to go, at least when A and Right Trigger gave different functions in previous games this didn't happen)
-Combat controls (why can't I kill a downed enemy, why is it such a pain in the ass to fire a gun, why is the enemy AI so terrible in general!?)
- Terrible context sensitive actions such as hiding (stealth overall blows in this game, enemy AI rears it's ugly head again with inconsistent fields of vision, and overall just too many enemies crowded everywhere making a stealth approach near impossible)
- Health regeneration and overall lack of progression for leveling up your character compared to past games. (miss this...)
-Terrible glitches abound that make the game a giant headache
-The pacing of the campaign leaving you in what feels like a tutorial for several hours before the game feels like it begins.
-The lack of secret tombs. (An even worse crime than the lose of the character progression ;_; )
-Music that is ultimately forgettable compared to series past.

And fineee I'll bite! We're all allowed our own opinions and I respect those that do not like the game, saying it's the worst though is a bit loony but I'll go through the list for fun.

- Loading Times
Yea those are way too frequent

- Having to go into a menu to do things like change weapons
Agreed it's a bit slow. But you get used to it

- Map System
Hm? Never had a problem with it

- Storyline/Characters
Best in the series I think. But it depends on preference I guess. But I much prefer Connor and Achilles relationship over say Ezio and Davinci.

- Mission Design (Incredibly boring go here/there, kill X)
Yea a lot of the missions are dull, but every AC game was like that to me. It was all Go here, kill.

- Navigation Controls (Why do I keep auto jumping places I don't want to go, at least when A and Right Trigger gave different functions in previous games this didn't happen)
Never had a problem with it and it was much easier than previous AC games due to Connor not jumping off at random times ect.

-Combat controls (why can't I kill a downed enemy, why is it such a pain in the ass to fire a gun, why is the enemy AI so terrible in general!?)
You can kill downed enemies, firing a gun is simple... the AI is smarter than previous games (thus why stealth is also impossible). My favorite combat in the series; running stealth kills, multiple kills, being able to use "gadgets" in fights (rabbit snare hell yea), the shear amount of animations.

- Terrible context sensitive actions such as hiding (stealth overall blows in this game, enemy AI rears it's ugly head again with inconsistent fields of vision, and overall just too many enemies crowded everywhere making a stealth approach near impossible)
Stealth sucks agreed! But AC has always been that way when you are "Not suppose to be detected".

- Health regeneration and overall lack of progression for leveling up your character compared to past games. (miss this...)
Eh I can see that. But armor never really did anything for me in previous games, just resulted in buying the best armor available the end.

-Terrible glitches abound that make the game a giant headache
Yes the glitches are goddam awful.

-The pacing of the campaign leaving you in what feels like a tutorial for several hours before the game feels like it begins.
Well you aren't connor for several hours so yea it doesn't feel like it begins right away.

-The lack of secret tombs. (An even worse crime than the lose of the character progression ;_; )
There are 'secret tombs' they are in the naval section, you unlock them w/ the Pegleg stuff

-Music that is ultimately forgettable compared to series past.
What. No. The music is great in this. This is just a wrong assertion people keep making.

 

[SJRB]

"Your convoy is under attack. Time left to defend - 4:00"


Uh... okay? Now what? I checked the map for every region, couldn't find anything about the whereabouts of my convoy. And I was in a mission too, so unless I aborted the mission there was no way for me to go and track down this convoy. I can't believe the game doesn't freeze the timer or aborts the event when I'm in a mission, that's like an auto-failure to defend that convoy and a net loss of over 4000 dollar in materials and goods.

First [and probably last] time I try the convoy to make some serious money outside of shipping barrels around. It's not like I need it anyway, what am I supposed to spend it on?

Anyway, how the hell does this work, what am I supposed to do?

 

[Noi]

I don't know. I honestly think the main ACIII theme is the best piece of work to come out of the entire series. Of course, overall, it is probably a little lacking.

Yeah, that's always gonna be subjective. I finished the game yesterday and got 100% today, but hell if I can remember a single track in the game already. It might as well have a 4 track OST as far as I'm concerned.

"Your convoy is under attack. Time left to defend - 4:00"


Uh... okay? Now what? I checked the map for every region, couldn't find anything about the whereabouts of my convoy. And I was in a mission too, so unless I aborted the mission there was no way for me to go and track down this convoy. I can't believe the game doesn't freeze the timer or aborts the event when I'm in a mission, that's like an auto-failure to defend that convoy and a net loss of over 4000 dollar in materials and goods.

First [and probably last] time I try the convoy to make some serious money outside of shipping barrels around. It's not like I need it anyway, what am I supposed to spend it on?

Anyway, how the hell does this work, what am I supposed to do?

You have to warp to the frontier before the icon showing your convoy will show up. If it doesn't show up even then... That's a glitch that permanently keeps your Convoy under Attacked status and you can't recover from it.

 

[xCobalt]

I wonder who's idea was it to have tall grass as a hiding spot. It's rather silly when guards are right beside you in the tall grass and can't detect you.

 

[Irish]

Fight Club is one of the best on the soundtrack.

Yeah, I like the way it sounds, but it just doesn't pump me up in the same way as the theme. Still, there are some very good tracks there, but quite a few not so great ones.

*vomits in mouth*

This is what I was talking about. Revelations had 'don't be detected' objectives as well and were so goddam bad...

Bombs were fucking amazing. Got a problem? Explode it in some form or another. ( <3 Rev so much)

 

[LightofRohan]

"Your convoy is under attack. Time left to defend - 4:00"


Uh... okay? Now what? I checked the map for every region, couldn't find anything about the whereabouts of my convoy. And I was in a mission too, so unless I aborted the mission there was no way for me to go and track down this convoy. I can't believe the game doesn't freeze the timer or aborts the event when I'm in a mission, that's like an auto-failure to defend that convoy and a net loss of over 4000 dollar in materials and goods.

First [and probably last] time I try the convoy to make some serious money outside of shipping barrels around. It's not like I need it anyway, what am I supposed to spend it on?

Anyway, how the hell does this work, what am I supposed to do?

I love the idea (I forgot who brought it up) about tagging one of your assassins to your convoy will reduce risk. Such a good idea and would make leveling them up actually matter!

Bombs were fucking amazing. Got a problem? Explode it in some form or another. ( <3 Rev so much)

Oh god, we so don't agree! I'm glad people like the bomb system though. It just was not for me.

 

[Midou]

Bombs were fucking amazing. Got a problem? Explode it in some form or another. ( <3 Rev so much)

Yep. I've heard of people saying that there was too much bomb stuff in Revelations, but if you took the time to play with them, you could do some pretty awesome stuff.

 

[SJRB]

You have to warp to the frontier before the icon showing your convoy will show up. If it doesn't show up even then... That's a glitch that permanently keeps your Convoy under Attacked status and you can't recover from it.

That's just perfect, another thing on the "mechanics the game doesn't explain" list. Or novel, I might say by now.

Another bizarre series of events just now - North NY liberation missions, I talk to my contact and she tells me "hang these around where you can", and then the conversation just ends. No prompt about what I'm supposed to do, no item in my inventory. Whatever. I do the random stuff and go on the final mission with her.

The Assassins Guild unlock is "lure", which I am supposed to use on two guards guarding the entryway to a house on the water where the bad guy is walking around. So I target the sentry, press L2, the girl spawns out of nowhere and runs up to the sentry, pickpockets him, the loot ends up in my inventory for some reason and instead of running away she jumps over some beams in the water towards the target while the two sentries are standing there glitched out in an endless loop of bumping into each other, she jumps off and bumps into the target, He glitches out and falls in the water, mission complete.

Such a parade of glitched out nonsense in those 20 seconds, I wish I had recorded that somehow. Stupid game.

 

[Noi]

That's just perfect, another thing on the "mechanics the game doesn't explain" list. Or novel, I might say by now.

Another bizarre series of events just now - North NY liberation missions, I talk to my contact and she tells me "hang these around where you can", and then the conversation just ends. No prompt about what I'm supposed to do, no item in my inventory. Whatever. I do the random stuff and go on the final mission with her.

The Assassins Guild unlock is "lure", which I am supposed to use on two guards guarding the entryway to a house on the water where the bad guy is walking around. So I target the sentry, press L2, the girl spawns out of nowhere and runs up to the sentry, pickpockets him, the loot ends up in my inventory for some reason and instead of running away she jumps over some beams in the water towards the target while the two sentries are standing there glitched out in an endless loop of bumping into each other, she jumps off and bumps into the target, He glitches out and falls in the water, mission complete.

Such a parade of glitched out nonsense in those 20 seconds, I wish I had recorded that somehow. Stupid game.

What happened to me is that I used Lure and whoever came by shoved the guard, then leaped straight into the water and got injured. I sighed and just ran past everyone and killed the target. :|

 

[LightofRohan]

The best kill I got was when you first learn Lure and have to kill some target. Right when it started I used it on the guards guarding the docks and the girl then runs off, jumps across some boats/posts, runs right past my target pushing him into the water, "Mission Complete". The entire time I didn't move an inch. Hahaha

 

[Nemesis_]

So, guys, has my game glitched?

I did several liberation missions for North Boston, however I'm sitting at 71% Control (Disputed).

However no more missions appear on my map. Additionally, the symbol is on the map but it just takes me to a tavern where nothing can be done anyway.

What am I "missing"?

 

[Lima]

No, the last locations are just not on your map. Walk through the streets and you will see the guys soon enough.

 

[SJRB]

So, guys, has my game glitched?

I did several liberation missions for North Boston, however I'm sitting at 71% Control (Disputed).

However no more missions appear on my map. Additionally, the symbol is on the map but it just takes me to a tavern where nothing can be done anyway.

What am I "missing"?

Some "missions" may appear randomly and are not represented on the map. Your best bet is to just run around the district until you encounter one. Not sure which mission you have left though?

 

[Irish]

You kind of have to walk around to get the last few missions (which was annoying as fuck), but you can check on the map screen to see which mission types you have left in the area somewhere in the influence section, I believe.

 

[Hasphat'sAnts]

This infinite guard spawn once you hit 3 notoriety is annoying as fuck. I must've spend the last 20 minutes killing guards non-stop, but they keep coming.

 

[LogicStep]

Hey guys, I have a question regarding the performance of the game. Does the game run at a constant 30 fps? It doesn't seem to me like it does, it's constatly under 30 and sometimes dips to the high teens.

I ask just to be sure everyone's game is like that and not just mine. Let me explain why. I got the Halo XBox and when I first put in Halo and the opening cinematic started I saw a lot of artifacts, very colorful ones. Since then I have not had that happen anymore but it just seems like somethings aren't as smooth as I think they should be. For example in Halo once a match is done and the points and exp are added to your character, it doesn't seem very smooth, or at least as smooth as it looks on my friend's tv. With AC3, I seem to get the game, like I said, slow down quite a bit and I don't know if that's just how the game is or if my console is faulty. I mean, could my console even be faulty? Or if it was, this wouldn't be what would be happening and instead it would just crash or red ring?

Sorry a bit off topic but I figured I would ask here for the AC3 performance thing.

 

[ChocolateCupcakes]

They're bugged like the rest of the game. Talk to the guy as if to accept the mission, then walk away from him a fair distance without fast traveling. That should accept it.

Late reply but thanks. This was bugging me for some time.

 

[conman]

*vomits in mouth*

This is what I was talking about. Revelations had 'don't be detected' objectives as well and were so goddam bad...

Bombs were fucking amazing. Got a problem? Explode it in some form or another. ( <3 Rev so much)

Exactly. Bombs in Revelations were the perfect work-around for the flawed stealth elements in the prior AC games. They were the perfect addition to the AC formula that finally let you play as strategically as you wanted to in prior games. So good.

AC3, on the other hand, tries to incorporate conventional stealth elements (like bushes and corners) that simply do not work. Even if AI detection was a bit finicky in the prior games, it's even more finicky in AC3. But the worst part is that there are no longer awesome workarounds like bomb crafting. The stealth genre is among my favorite, and I've never understood why people felt that stealth games are so finicky and annoying. Then I played AC3.

Hey guys, I have a question regarding the performance of the game. Does the game run at a constant 30 fps? It doesn't seem to me like it does, it's constatly under 30 and sometimes dips to the high teens.

Framerate is unlocked and all over the place (I'm playing on 360). It often goes much higher than 30. And it just as often goes well below. Some of the highest peaks and lowest troughs I can remember in a game, framerate-wise.

One of the remarkable things about Revelations was that they finally stabilized the engine enough to have an almost consistent 30fps through the whole game, while still having decent NPC AI, lots of action on-screen, and lots of environmental details. But AC3 has the most inconsistent frame-rate of the entire series, as well as the worst AI, and it takes major hits with lots of action on-screen (must be close to 15fps in some places).

On a technical level, AC3 is a real mess. Once more I'm reminded why many reviewers suck at their jobs. At the very least, they should give us all a heads up about the level of bugginess and jank in a game. This is far and away the buggiest and jankiest game I've played all year. I read a good handful of AC3 reviews. None suggested just how bad the bugs and technology are in AC3.

 

[iddqd]

Finally done.
FINALLY DONE!

Have not been this frustrated with a game in a long time.

And I had read that Seq 12 is super shit but HOHO.. It is MEGA SHIT!

Whew.. Good riddance!

 

[conman]

Holy crap. I'm sure this has already been mentioned a bunch, but the goddamn codex spoils major plot points. Jerks. Whose brilliant idea was that?!

 

[Bladenic]

Finally done.
FINALLY DONE!

Have not been this frustrated with a game in a long time.

And I had read that Seq 12 is super shit but HOHO.. It is MEGA SHIT!

Whew.. Good riddance!

Yep. Sequence 12 is truly atrocious beyond belief. Biggest letdown of the series.

 

[Danny-Boy]

Well, don't want to start sequence six because I'm having so much fun with the side quests. I've just spent the last 6 hours building up my homestead, sending and defending convoys, hunting animals, discovering all the exits in the underground, delivering mail, taking over forts, collecting the almanac pages, and much more.

I fucking love exploring the frontier and homestead, finding trinkets and treasure, climbing trees. Using my surroundings to find the path forward takes me back to tomb raider in the glory days.

Ubisoft knocked the weather system out of the park. I was at an eagle point somewhere high in the frontier and it started pouring down rain. I must of stayed on the branch for about 10 minutes admiring the open world.

Oh and the combat, absolutely love it. It's taken from arkham with the counter but it works just as good. It's easy though, I'm stringing the combos with ease.

This has taken over Borderlands 2 as my GOTY.

 

[Ether_Snake]

Just met Achilles.

Sorry but unless someone felt an absolute need to play this game for many hours, like maybe because he needs to write a review or something, I don't understand how anyone could, at that point in the game, feel like he should keep on playing.

There is NOT ONE single moment so far where I thought "Yeah this game is fun". I'm a few hours in already.

Nothing works properly. The story is crap, I haven't been able to keep track of ANYTHING that was said because of how uninteresting the characters were. I want Desmond and co. to die, along with all that first civ crap. Graphically the game is very unpolished. Some things look great here and there but at the same time the environments are rather boring after you've seen a bit of Boston. The cinematics are a mess (ACR was often more polished in that regard, how could it regress systematically this time?). The missions are not fun, but that's been the case since ACB.

I'm gonna force myself to play some more, but good thing I'm not the kind of player who will want to do anything else than the main missions.

And to think I kind of wasn't looking forward to GTAV that much. Now I am reminded of what GTA has always done so well: make me actually care about seeing that next cinematic because the characters are funny, make me look forward to get some new weapons or a new vehicle or reach a new location, etc.

AC3 is clunky and tedious, unpolished. It's a far cry from AC2. By now, the AC series should have been "AC2 Improved", an actual sequel, not "AC2, throw in a bag with some other random stuff and shaken until it becomes a random mess of who knows what anymore".

The series is clearly suffering from not evolving linearly. Look at how AC2 outright improved what was wrong with AC1. Nothing like that since. It's like no one is able to realize what was wrong with the previous games and improve things. In fact, most of what was great about AC2 has been lost, or not been improved on, or outright made worst. Feels like the game is being designed by a bunch of different teams at the same time, where no one is actively thinking about the natural evolution of the series and where no one knows what the other is doing. It doesn't feel like an actual sequel to AC2 like AC2 was to AC1. It feels more like an imitation.

 

[conman]

...and that's mission-breaking bug #4 (~6 hours in). Between these and those two huge spoilers in the codex, I'm about ready to throw this game through an effing window.

This time the camera decided to lock after using the bow. Unless there's some arcane strafing system I've somehow tapped into, this game's bugs have yet again jacked my game up.

The series is clearly suffering from not evolving linearly. Look at how AC2 outright improved what was wrong with AC1. Nothing like that since. It's like no one is able to realize what was wrong with the previous games and improve things. In fact, most of what was great about AC2 has been lost, or not been improved on, or outright made worst. Feels like the game is being made by a bunch of different teams at the same time, where no one is actively thinking about the natural evolution of the series.

Gonna have to disagree with you there. ACB was a great refinement of AC2. And ACR was a mechanical and technical improvement over ACB, even if it had no real story to speak of.

But you're right about AC3. It's been a frustrating mess for me. Every time that it seems to finally hit its stride, I step in a big steaming pile of crap. They screwed themselves over by building a real-life deadline into the game. This needed at least 3-6 months more of polish. Totally unacceptable. I'm close to selling this and just waiting to buy a cheap used copy in six months or a year after it's had a few title updates.

 

[iNvid02]

Just met Achilles.

Sorry but unless someone felt an absolute need to play this game for many hours, like maybe because he needs to write a review or something, I don't understand how anyone could, at that point in the game, feel like he should keep on playing.

There is NOT ONE single moment so far where I thought "Yeah this game is fun". I'm a few hours in already.

Nothing works properly. The story is crap, I haven't been able to keep track of ANYTHING that was said because of how uninteresting the characters were. I want Desmond and co. to die, along with all that first civ crap. Graphically the game is very unpolished. Some things look great here and there but at the same time the environments are rather boring after you've seen a bit of Boston. The cinematics are a mess (ACR was MUCH more polished in that regard). The missions are not fun.

I'm gonna force myself to play some more, but good thing I'm not the kind of player who will want to do anything else than the main missions.

And to think I kind of wasn't looking forward to GTAV that much. Now I am reminded of what GTA has always done so well: make me actually care about seeing that next cinematic because the characters are funny, make me look forward to get some new weapons or a new vehicle or reach a new location, etc.

AC3 is clunky and tedious, unpolished. It's a far cry from AC2. By now, the AC series should have been "AC2 Improved", an actual sequel, not "AC2, throw in a bag with some other random stuff and shaken until it becomes a random mess of who knows what anymore".

The series is clearly suffering from not evolving linearly. Look at how AC2 outright improved what was wrong with AC1. Nothing like that since. It's like no one is able to realize what was wrong with the previous games and improve things. In fact, most of what was great about AC2 has been lost, or not been improved on, or outright made worst. Feels like the game is being designed by a bunch of different teams at the same time, where no one is actively thinking about the natural evolution of the series and where no one knows what the other is doing. It doesn't feel like an actual sequel to AC2 like AC2 was to AC1. It feels more like an imitation.

it has many flaws and has regressed in several key areas, not to mention it needs patching asap, but you've just gone ahead and filled gaf's hyperbole quota for the week

 

[Bladenic]

Well, don't want to start sequence six because I'm having so much fun with the side quests. I've just spent the last 6 hours building up my homestead, sending and defending convoys, hunting animals, discovering all the exits in the underground, delivering mail, taking over forts, collecting the almanac pages, and much more.

I fucking love exploring the frontier and homestead, finding trinkets and treasure, climbing trees. Using my surroundings to find the path forward takes me back to tomb raider in the glory days.

Ubisoft knocked the weather system out of the park. I was at an eagle point somewhere high in the frontier and it started pouring down rain. I must of stayed on the branch for about 10 minutes admiring the open world.

Oh and the combat, absolutely love it. It's taken from arkham with the counter but it works just as good. It's easy though, I'm stringing the combos with ease.

This has taken over Borderlands 2 as my GOTY.

Not trying to rain on your parade, but you should wait until you beat the game. As of now, you're really just setting yourself up for disappointment.

Unless of course you absolutely don't care about the story or the main missions. Or the technical issues. Or other crap. Just maybe temper off your internal praise so that it doesn't end up disappointing you and maybe you can still call it the best game of the year for yourself. Maybe.

 

[Danny-Boy]

Just met Achilles.

Sorry but unless someone felt an absolute need to play this game for many hours, like maybe because he needs to write a review or something, I don't understand how anyone could, at that point in the game, feel like he should keep on playing.

There is NOT ONE single moment so far where I thought "Yeah this game is fun". I'm a few hours in already.

Nothing works properly. The story is crap, I haven't been able to keep track of ANYTHING that was said because of how uninteresting the characters were. I want Desmond and co. to die, along with all that first civ crap. Graphically the game is very unpolished. Some things look great here and there but at the same time the environments are rather boring after you've seen a bit of Boston. The cinematics are a mess (ACR was often more polished in that regard, how could it regress systematically this time?). The missions are not fun, but that's been the case since ACB.

I'm gonna force myself to play some more, but good thing I'm not the kind of player who will want to do anything else than the main missions.

And to think I kind of wasn't looking forward to GTAV that much. Now I am reminded of what GTA has always done so well: make me actually care about seeing that next cinematic because the characters are funny, make me look forward to get some new weapons or a new vehicle or reach a new location, etc.

AC3 is clunky and tedious, unpolished. It's a far cry from AC2. By now, the AC series should have been "AC2 Improved", an actual sequel, not "AC2, throw in a bag with some other random stuff and shaken until it becomes a random mess of who knows what anymore".

The series is clearly suffering from not evolving linearly. Look at how AC2 outright improved what was wrong with AC1. Nothing like that since. It's like no one is able to realize what was wrong with the previous games and improve things. In fact, most of what was great about AC2 has been lost, or not been improved on, or outright made worst. Feels like the game is being designed by a bunch of different teams at the same time, where no one is actively thinking about the natural evolution of the series and where no one knows what the other is doing. It doesn't feel like an actual sequel to AC2 like AC2 was to AC1. It feels more like an imitation.

LOL you mention clunky, tedious, unpolished, crap story, and the you go and praise GTA and what it did right.

Have you played GTA IV? That game is the very definition of what you described as being wrong in this game.

 

[Papercuts]

The most recent Desmond part I did was sooo damn stupid. Third and probably final area for him,

Spoiler

Abstergo. Dafuq. How fucking idiotic is Vidic? He knows about the apple and seriously was surprised when Desmond took it out and used it to make a guard shoot him? Also, the scene in the room where you were for the entirety of AC1...I was surprised they didn't let you do anything with the computer or access the other room for nostalgia sake. Seems like a missed opportunity.

I am really glad I never cared for his segments of the game, doesn't seem like it'll have a good payoff. I am still loving the Connor stuff up until now, though people seem to really dislike whatever is gonna happen in sequence 12.

 

[Danny-Boy]

Not trying to rain on your parade, but you should wait until you beat the game. As of now, you're really just setting yourself up for disappointment.

Unless of course you absolutely don't care about the story or the main missions. Or the technical issues. Or other crap. Just maybe temper off your internal praise so that it doesn't end up disappointing you and maybe you can still call it the best game of the year for yourself. Maybe.

I've set myself up for the worst. Might take me a long time to get to the end though, taking my time with this game to soak it all up and get my $60 worth.

 

[Bladenic]

I've set myself up for the worst. Might take me a long time to get to the end though, taking my time with this game to soak it all up and get my $60 worth.

I did the same, and I did everything I possibly could before finishing the game. I was totally loving it. Then I finished the game. I almost wish I left some of the better side stuff for post game so I could finish on a better note.

But I do hope you continue to love it.

 

[Ether_Snake]

...and that's mission-breaking bug #4 (~6 hours in). Between these and those two huge spoilers in the codex, I'm about ready to throw this game through an effing window.

This time the camera decided to lock after using the bow. Unless there's some arcane strafing system I've somehow tapped into, this game's bugs have yet again jacked my game up.

Gonna have to disagree with you there. ACB was a great refinement of AC2. And ACR was a mechanical and technical improvement over ACB, even if it had no real story to speak of.

But you're right about AC3. It's been a frustrating mess for me. Every time that it seems to finally hit its stride, I step in a big steaming pile of crap. They screwed themselves over by building a real-life deadline into the game. This needed at least 3-6 months more of polish. Totally unacceptable. I'm close to selling this and just waiting to buy a cheap used copy in six months or a year after it's had a few title updates.

Yes I'm not saying ACB and ACR didn't improve on AC2 (they did in different ways, minus the stupid Tower Defense crap), but they were not "AC3", they were half-sequels. For AC3, I would have expected a proper leap on various aspects yet unresolved, and a polished game.

Things that SHOULD have been fixed by now:

1- Bring back the awesome setup assassination missions of AC1: the one with the doctor or the one where you followed a guy into a building, were trapped inside it, there were jailed slaves, you went in the back dimly-lit room and were encircled by armed men who you had to fight, then chased the guy through the city. That was GREAT, and it disappeared. On Ac2 the only mission of that quality that I remember of was the E3 mission with the flying machine ending with the assassination at the San Macro Basilica. All other assassinations since felt like the targets were just dropped in an already-finish environment, a few guards around him, and that's it, go kill him.

2- Improve all aspects of stealth. Fucking Tenchu on PS1 had better stealth gameplay. Oh wow they added a peak-from corner. Rope dart is cool, but it often leads to open conflict right after from what I saw. I don't mind using the gun against someone to open up a conflict (a bit like with the bow and arrow in Skyrim in some situations), it's actually cool to come in with the first bold shot, but at least please let me do some stealthy take downs first to bring the enemy count down like any self-respecting assassin game should. Splinter Cell Chaos Theory was perfect for that.

3- Improve the fight system for real: make counters one-shot instant rapid kills, not long ass animations (it's not impressive to keep my waiting) and just do the long animation kill for the LAST kill. You spend half the fight watching your character doing cinematic-kills floating in the air and passing through characters.

4- Smaller locations but more variety (like AC1 and AC2).

5- Let me upgrade my character in a way that matters. Armors was good, and Assassins are supposed to have access to old technology (that's how Davinci made all his fancy stuff). Heck even in AC1 you were given pieces of equipment as rewards. Now you are a billionaire but the money is wasted on crap I don't care about. No I don't want to buy baits.

LOL you mention clunky, tedious, unpolished, crap story, and the you go and praise GTA and what it did right.

Have you played GTA IV? That game is the very definition of what you described as being wrong in this game.

No what I said is how GTA does some things so obviously right, only by playing AC3 now did I remember what. In GTA I was always looking forward to go see the mission characters, not because of the missions, but because it was always nice to see what was going to happen next with them. The cinematics were always fun, the characters memorable. In AC3 they are not, I swear I had no idea wtf I was doing because I couldn't be bothered to pay attention to what they were saying.

 

[conman]

Yes I'm not saying ACB and ACR didn't improve on AC2 (they did in different ways, minus the stupid Tower Defense crap), but they were not "AC3", they were half-sequels. For AC3, I would have expected a proper leap on various aspects yet unresolved, and a polished game.

I actually agree with you. I loved all four of those games. All I can say is that it's got to be tough. They took a big creative and financial risk by changing so many of the fundamental concepts and underlying technology. Unfortunately, as many others have said, for every big pay-off there are half a dozen new problems that didn't exist before. Starting from scratch isn't always a good idea.

AC3 is the sort of "sequel" I would expect from a series that's been defunct for a decade. Sometimes those work, and sometimes those don't.

 

[iddqd]

Sorry, I have to vent more:

Seq 12 Spoiler:

Spoiler

How is it possible that you are set out to kill the last big guy and then there is a instant-fail mission on the ship? With respawing guards (I had killed them all before listening to the second conversation, they all respawned) and ledge kills only working SOMETIMES.
Who thought it would be fun to have that chase shit there and then NOT let you kill the guy.
Instead, you have to move around AGAIN and then a CUT SCENE shows everything.
The game ends how it starts. With stop and go.
Walk. Quick Travel. Marker, Cutscene. Walk, Quick Travel, Cutscene. HIT X!

Incredible. I'm in total disbelief when it comes to those story missions.
"Hey guys. A scene in a jail would be cool! Qui! But how about we take everything away you normaly do and you can only walk? OK!
"Hey guys, a scene in a battlefield would be cool! But how about you are super dumb and run straight at them. Badass! Not like a lame assasin that would just go AROUND it."

And Desmond. Who cares about that crap. If you would put the level design on a map, it would be nothing but a straight path that needs you to push the stick.
Its the same as everything in this game. It gives you the nice backdrop, the idea of choice but in reallity, its as linear in those missions as any moder Shooter.
Totally meaningless that he suddenly turns into a super killer. No reaction from him.
Meaningless that he makes a choice that comes out of nowhere. "Oh hi.. I was hiding until there was another twist needed".

vent vent

 

[NinjaFridge]

The most recent Desmond part I did was sooo damn stupid. Third and probably final area for him,

Spoiler

Abstergo. Dafuq. How fucking idiotic is Vidic? He knows about the apple and seriously was surprised when Desmond took it out and used it to make a guard shoot him? Also, the scene in the room where you were for the entirety of AC1...I was surprised they didn't let you do anything with the computer or access the other room for nostalgia sake. Seems like a missed opportunity.

I am really glad I never cared for his segments of the game, doesn't seem like it'll have a good payoff. I am still loving the Connor stuff up until now, though people seem to really dislike whatever is gonna happen in sequence 12.

You can activate eagle vision and see the markings 16 left.

 

[Ambitious]

I just did a front flip with my ship.

 

[LightofRohan]

Yes I'm not saying ACB and ACR didn't improve on AC2 (they did in different ways, minus the stupid Tower Defense crap), but they were not "AC3", they were half-sequels. For AC3, I would have expected a proper leap on various aspects yet unresolved, and a polished game.

Things that SHOULD have been fixed by now:

1- Bring back the awesome setup assassination missions of AC1: the one with the doctor or the one where you followed a guy into a building, were trapped inside it, there were jailed slaves, you went in the back dimly-lit room and were encircled by armed men who you had to fight, then chased the guy through the city. That was GREAT, and it disappeared. On Ac2 the only mission of that quality that I remember of was the E3 mission with the flying machine ending with the assassination at the San Macro Basilica. All other assassinations since felt like the targets were just dropped in an already-finish environment, a few guards around him, and that's it, go kill him.

2- Improve all aspects of stealth. Fucking Tenchu on PS1 had better stealth gameplay. Oh wow they added a peak-from corner. Rope dart is cool, but it often leads to open conflict right after from what I saw. I don't mind using the gun against someone to open up a conflict (a bit like with the bow and arrow in Skyrim in some situations), it's actually cool to come in with the first bold shot, but at least please let me do some stealthy take downs first to bring the enemy count down like any self-respecting assassin game should. Splinter Cell Chaos Theory was perfect for that.

3- Improve the fight system for real: make counters one-shot instant rapid kills, not long ass animations (it's not impressive to keep my waiting) and just do the long animation kill for the LAST kill. You spend half the fight watching your character doing cinematic-kills floating in the air and passing through characters.

4- Smaller locations but more variety (like AC1 and AC2).

5- Let me upgrade my character in a way that matters. Armors was good, and Assassins are supposed to have access to old technology (that's how Davinci made all his fancy stuff). Heck even in AC1 you were given pieces of equipment as rewards. Now you are a billionaire but the money is wasted on crap I don't care about. No I don't want to buy baits.



No what I said is how GTA does some things so obviously right, only by playing AC3 now did I remember what. In GTA I was always looking forward to go see the mission characters, not because of the missions, but because it was always nice to see what was going to happen next with them. The cinematics were always fun, the characters memorable. In AC3 they are not, I swear I had no idea wtf I was doing because I couldn't be bothered to pay attention to what they were saying.

Wat. You played for a couple hours? Stop writing these big essays and go play, or just stop playing. You obviously seem like you are just excited to jump on the hate bandwagon.

I think gaf just loves getting all riled up about games...

Sorry, I have to vent more:

Seq 12 Spoiler:

Spoiler

How is it possible that you are set out to kill the last big guy and then there is a instant-fail mission on the ship? With respawing guards (I had killed them all before listening to the second conversation, they all respawned) and ledge kills only working SOMETIMES.
Who thought it would be fun to have that chase shit there and then NOT let you kill the guy.
Instead, you have to move around AGAIN and then a CUT SCENE shows everything.
The game ends how it starts. With stop and go.
Walk. Quick Travel. Marker, Cutscene. Walk, Quick Travel, Cutscene. HIT X!

Incredible. I'm in total disbelief when it comes to those story missions.
"Hey guys. A scene in a jail would be cool! Qui! But how about we take everything away you normaly do and you can only walk? OK!
"Hey guys, a scene in a battlefield would be cool! But how about you are super dumb and run straight at them. Badass! Not like a lame assasin that would just go AROUND it."

And Desmond. Who cares about that crap. If you would put the level design on a map, it would be nothing but a straight path that needs you to push the stick.
Its the same as everything in this game. It gives you the nice backdrop, the idea of choice but in reallity, its as linear in those missions as any moder Shooter.
Totally meaningless that he suddenly turns into a super killer. No reaction from him.
Meaningless that he makes a choice that comes out of nowhere. "Oh hi.. I was hiding until there was another twist needed".

vent vent

Is this your first AC game? You people confuse me. Seq12 wasn't so hot, but a lot of your complaints are AC series regulars.

Also I'm replaying AC2 right now. It definitely feels like its missing so much and feels so bare bones after playing 3. They really do a good job at making the world feel alive, forgot how robotic the crowds were. And I'm amazed how far character models have come in just one generation. It's pretty incredible. Ac2 feels so clean and nice though (playing on PC) can't wait for AC3 on PC, going to look amazing.

 

[SJRB]

Man, these Frontiersmen missions are stupid. They don't give the slightest hint of direction as to where I'm supposed to be looking. The Sasquatch one just says "find the Sasquatch hideout" or something, nothing else. Another one I did about a maneating bear, the npc said something like "somewhere up that hill", motherfucker we're in the middle of the Frontier, be more specific!

 

[Lima]

Man, these Frontiersmen missions are stupid. They don't give the slightest hint of direction as to where I'm supposed to be looking. The Sasquatch one just says "find the Sasquatch hideout" or something, nothing else. Another one I did about a maneating bear, the npc said something like "somewhere up that hill", motherfucker we're in the middle of the Frontier, be more specific!

The locations appear on the map.

 

[Derrick01]

it has many flaws and has regressed in several key areas, not to mention it needs patching asap, but you've just gone ahead and filled gaf's hyperbole quota for the week

Hyperbole is saying it's the worst game ever. What ether said was nothing but truth.

And I'm warning you ether it doesn't get a whole lot better. The game opens up not long from where you are but then you get exposed to other problems. Like 80% of the side content being useless busy work, or the story completely falling apart once the revolutionary war starts.

 

[rvy]

Just met Achilles.

Sorry but unless someone felt an absolute need to play this game for many hours, like maybe because he needs to write a review or something, I don't understand how anyone could, at that point in the game, feel like he should keep on playing.

There is NOT ONE single moment so far where I thought "Yeah this game is fun". I'm a few hours in already.

Nothing works properly. The story is crap, I haven't been able to keep track of ANYTHING that was said because of how uninteresting the characters were. I want Desmond and co. to die, along with all that first civ crap. Graphically the game is very unpolished. Some things look great here and there but at the same time the environments are rather boring after you've seen a bit of Boston. The cinematics are a mess (ACR was often more polished in that regard, how could it regress systematically this time?). The missions are not fun, but that's been the case since ACB.

I'm gonna force myself to play some more, but good thing I'm not the kind of player who will want to do anything else than the main missions.

And to think I kind of wasn't looking forward to GTAV that much. Now I am reminded of what GTA has always done so well: make me actually care about seeing that next cinematic because the characters are funny, make me look forward to get some new weapons or a new vehicle or reach a new location, etc.

AC3 is clunky and tedious, unpolished. It's a far cry from AC2. By now, the AC series should have been "AC2 Improved", an actual sequel, not "AC2, throw in a bag with some other random stuff and shaken until it becomes a random mess of who knows what anymore".

The series is clearly suffering from not evolving linearly. Look at how AC2 outright improved what was wrong with AC1. Nothing like that since. It's like no one is able to realize what was wrong with the previous games and improve things. In fact, most of what was great about AC2 has been lost, or not been improved on, or outright made worst. Feels like the game is being designed by a bunch of different teams at the same time, where no one is actively thinking about the natural evolution of the series and where no one knows what the other is doing. It doesn't feel like an actual sequel to AC2 like AC2 was to AC1. It feels more like an imitation.

Pretty much agree on all points. Total blunder until you finish the story.

 

[Crazymoogle]

Well, I've finally beat it, so I'll say a few gameplay things here, and story things in the spoiler thread.

1. Is the last chase badly designed? Yes. Is it worse than the S8 chase? No. And the last mission of GTA4 is worse than both of them combined. The greatest flaw of the last chase is that the camera is working against you; there is an actual "fast path" and it requires basically always moving away from what you're seeing. (tl;dr:If you see an enemy in front of you you're in the wrong place.)

The reason why I say the other chase is worse is that this one is just rote memorization. Just do it over and over until you have the correct path down. The previous one is much more subject to random systems screwing you over.

2. I don't have a problem with the way things wrap up, but I will say the game writing has a serious problem with introducing "choices" and then making them for you. There are basically a half dozen MGS3 Snake Eater moments where you get to make the forced "Push button" choice (which is cool, as typically your interests align) but there are easily another half dozen where you expect to have that same opportunity but a cutscene takes care of it instead. Endgame:

Spoiler

Killing Lee in the Bar definitely smacked of letting you press the button. Or maybe choose between the gun and the bottle - history didn't really care either way.

Which is a shame.

3. I guess I have to personally disagree with the control changes. The previous system worked, maybe it was more prone to error, but it was also more open to choice. And I think it's a bit hypocritical to change the Animus controls but not add any sort of HUD to the outside-Animus experience - can imagine a lot of players getting lost at various points (I certainly did) I didn't get fully in control of the combat system even by the time I completed the game.

4. The credits need a progress meter.

Man, these Frontiersmen missions are stupid. They don't give the slightest hint of direction as to where I'm supposed to be looking. The Sasquatch one just says "find the Sasquatch hideout" or something, nothing else. Another one I did about a maneating bear, the npc said something like "somewhere up that hill", motherfucker we're in the middle of the Frontier, be more specific!

This is actually another failing of the map system. As said, the spot you have to go look is put right on the map, but unlike the story missions (where you get the green dot for "in progress" objectives) here you just get another Frontier Mission icon. In terms of game logic this makes perfect sense - allowing you to interrupt your mission and do anything else in the meantime, as some of the Frontier missions mean quite the hike - but it's totally confusing and the game already supports having conflicting missions simultaneously anyway (one story sequence inadvertently triggers a Cougar hunting mission, for instance)

 

[iNvid02]

Hyperbole is saying it's the worst game ever. What ether said was nothing but truth.

lol no, he is 2 hours in and calling the story crap and saying nothing works properly.

if thats still an opinion after you actually get to

Spoiler

see and play as the damn protagonist

or have access to some more of the mechanics then fine, but its just silly atm

 

[SJRB]

Praise Jesus!

This is not me, nor my screenshot. I found it on the AC forums, where a lot of people are frustrated with this issue.

 

[Champomade]

Hey guys,

Just began the game and i am completely blocked:
I am at the 1st mission with guns. I have a tutorial which says that i must press L1 and then shoot some barrels and when i do it i can zoom but i absolutely can't shoot!!! I have tried it for 15 min. And I can't move at all

And btw in the first hour of gameplay, the amount of bugs i have encountered is crazy: characters who are speaking in cutscenes but the lips don't move, buttons which dont pop up when i am supposed to interact, etc. And i spent 15min trying to break the lock in the theater!!!

Not sure i like the atmosphere also, this mission with the guns reminds me more of RDR than AC2...