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[Snowden's Secret]

how so?

Maybe it's cuz I'm not well versed in games press mindset, but if the main missions of a game are all terrible, game shouldn't be higher than 4 or 5/10, no?

And that's just the beginning of the problems I have.

People complain about the 7-10 scale, but go to Wal-Mart and check just how much shovelware is actually released. None of it ever gets reviewed but it's reasonable to suspect that even the best shovelware isn't nearly as good as a bland Assassin's Creed. These are your 4/10s of the world.

 

[Midou]

It's even a VGA GOTY nominee for fuck sakes!

If this could mean any less..

 

[conman]

man, maybe i should go back and reread the reviews. The game is like averaging mid 80's which means there's gotta be something positive about this. It's even a VGA GOTY nominee for fuck sakes!

On the design and writing side, it's a disappointment, but it's not a disaster. The real knocks against it are mostly technical, and that rarely prevents game sites from giving good scores (just look at Fallout New Vegas). It was also a very well funded game with an extensive marketing campaign. All of that together ensures an 80+ Metacritic.

These days, AAA games are either knockouts or flops. There's not much room in-between--either in sales or in critical scores.

And, of course, the VGAs are a joke and an embarrassment to the industry. Completely meaningless to anyone over 15 years old.

 

[rockx4]

I just finished the game, and in many ways I felt it was even worst than the first game. Environments/cities and lead characters were worst than the first. I think I was bored and disappointed for maybe 75% of the game, I forced myself to finish it just to continue the story.

 

[captainnapalm]

So far I'm enjoying this one a lot. People nitpick a lot with this game, but what strikes me more is the overall achievement, which I think is hugely impressive despite it's faults.

And I disagree with people who say the setting is boring. I find it just as interesting, both in terms of story and history, as previous games, and what's more I think it's a really stunningly beautiful open world that brings that all alive.

AC's yearly schedule is a bit ruthless and it has probably hurt both this game and Revelations, but there's just so much here that's incredibly impressive.

I think it's kind of amazing that a game like this exists, frankly. There really isn't anything else like it.

 

[rockx4]

So far I'm enjoying this one a lot. People nitpick a lot with this game, but what strikes me more is the overall achievement, which I think is hugely impressive despite it's faults.

And I disagree with people who say the setting is boring. I find it just as interesting, both in terms of story and history, as previous games, and what's more I think it's a really stunningly beautiful open world that brings that all alive.

AC's yearly schedule is a bit ruthless and it has probably hurt both this game and Revelations, but there's just so much here that's incredibly impressive.

I think it's kind of amazing that a game like this exists, frankly. There really isn't anything else like it.

I think the setting is fine, but a majority of the characters suck. And damn traveling through the frontier sucks ass.

 

[rvy]

So far I'm enjoying this one a lot. People nitpick a lot with this game, but what strikes me more is the overall achievement, which I think is hugely impressive despite it's faults.

Half of the game's mechanics are either complete trash or botched by comparison to how they previously worked. No, people aren't nipicking. It's a mess of a game with some shining moments. There's one thing that they did right and that's tree-running.
Not to mention the insane lack of polish, the streaming issues and the ungodly amount of glitches and bugs.

 

[captainnapalm]

Half of the game's mechanics are either complete trash or botched by comparison to how they previously worked. No, people aren't nipicking. It's a mess of a game with some shining moments. There's one thing that they did right and that's tree-running.
Not to mention the insane lack of polish, the streaming issues and the ungodly amount of glitches and bugs.

For me the stealth and combat are improved.

The lack of polish at times is an issue, but actually the bugs have really died down for me since the start. So I've been able to enjoy it a lot more. It's a shame the technical side is ruining the experience for some.

 

[Dartastic]

What's this VGA king Washington reveal?

 

[SJRB]

What's this VGA king Washington reveal?

DLC pack, some alternate reality where Washington takes the Apple and turns into a tyrant.

 

[rvy]

For me the stealth (...) improved.

How in the fuck? How does that work? Guide me through this. Last time I checked the stealth mechanics aren't even good enough to be considered terrible. How are they an improvement? You crouch in the bushes, clearly standing out as much as a black guy stands out in the snow, guards come by and not only do they not see you, they run into you and don't feel a thing.
I also absolutely love the new cover mechanics. The Kane & Lynch team would be proud. You'll also be very lucky if Connor's feet don't happen to clip into something.

Ubisoft doesn't understand how button inputs work. They must think the common gamer is so dumb that he/she'd rather have babysitting as opposed to actually pressing buttons to do stuff. Too bad this is a videogame and you need to press buttons to do stuff.

 

[UncleSporky]

I may be effed on a particular pivot. Seriously, anyone who has beaten the game and might be able to help, please:

Spoiler

One of my pivots is definitely inside the southwest fort in New York. There is no way to get into it after beating the game; that is, the small enclosed square fort area itself. There is a closed door at its entrance and nothing high enough around it to get inside. Anyone have any ideas? Can someone try going there and see if you can find a way in?

Oddly there are no people around in that section of town either.

 

[Alfredo]

how so?

Maybe it's cuz I'm not well versed in games press mindset, but if the main missions of a game are all terrible, game shouldn't be higher than 4 or 5/10, no?

And that's just the beginning of the problems I have.

If you're judging a game just on the main missions, then, I guess, yeah. But that's kind of a disservice to the rest of the game, considering the side content, which I found to be pretty fun. Yeah, it sucks that it's side content, but it's there.

 

[Ahasverus]

DLC pack, some alternate reality where Washington takes the Apple and turns into a tyrant.

Has the potential of being better than the main story already

 

[Blue Ninja]

Did a quadruple front flip with the Aquila tonight. Shit was surreal.

A mate of mine who happened to witness it nearly died from laughter.

 

[ASTROID2]

I finished sequence 11 and I'm still loving the game. I'm actually interested in the modern day stuff, it never grabbed me before. I feel sorry for the people not enjoying the game.

 

[Enduin]

I want ACIII and Age of Pirates to get freaky naughty and create a badass Pirate game of the future. An AoP with the fidelity and fluidity of AC would be fantastic.

 

[KevinCow]

How in the fuck? How does that work? Guide me through this. Last time I checked the stealth mechanics aren't even good enough to be considered terrible. How are they an improvement? You crouch in the bushes, clearly standing out as much as a black guy stands out in the snow, guards come by and not only do they not see you, they run into you and don't feel a thing.
I also absolutely love the new cover mechanics. The Kane & Lynch team would be proud. You'll also be very lucky if Connor's feet don't happen to clip into something.

Ubisoft doesn't understand how button inputs work. They must think the common gamer is so dumb that he/she'd rather have babysitting as opposed to actually pressing buttons to do stuff. Too bad this is a videogame and you need to press buttons to do stuff.

Because the stealth in the previous games was even worse.

They still have a ways to go before the stealth is good in any way, but if they make the same kinds of improvements that they made to combat this time, maybe we'll have decent stealth by AC4.

 

[rvy]

Because the stealth in the previous games was even worse.

They still have a ways to go before the stealth is good in any way, but if they make the same kinds of improvements that they made to combat this time, maybe we'll have decent stealth by AC4.

It wasn't worse The only stealth the game used was getting to the assassination target unnoticed and using nuns to get into cities. That's it. It all worked fine.

 

[Dysun]

What a terrible conclusion, that must rival Mass Effect's abomination.
The storytelling pace was terribly off, neither Connor nor Desmond's story felt complete in the end.

Combat was actually interesting, I dug their take on the Batman system, and kills were pretty damn gruesome and well-done. No quick selecting your weapons made me just use the 4 basic ones that you map to your Dpad at all times. Don't see why they removed that or couldn't get it in. Traversal was not as good as it had been in other games due to boring cities and the frontier. Why do the horses control so bad? Also got stuck on corners or climbed things I didn't want to climb because they altered the free-running.
Naval combat was awesome, a nice surprise.

Overall it had alot of highs and lows but I'm left disappointed.

 

[chickdigger802]

If you're judging a game just on the main missions, then, I guess, yeah. But that's kind of a disservice to the rest of the game, considering the side content, which I found to be pretty fun. Yeah, it sucks that it's side content, but it's there.

Well... thats what the 4-5 points are for!

 

[Lesath]

I enjoyed the game. The later sequences felt terribly rushed, but I overall appreciated the parallels between

Spoiler

Desmond/William and Connor/Achilles/Haytham, as well as Desmond's choice and Connor's choice. I would actually be keenly interested in seeing Connor again, and how he would further develop. A lot of people complain of his naivete, but I'd cut him some slack for being a teenager for the first half of the game.

 

[Midou]

I finished sequence 11 and I'm still loving the game. I'm actually interested in the modern day stuff, it never grabbed me before. I feel sorry for the people not enjoying the game.

Yep. Sure it has its highs and lows, but I was never frustrated or hated anything much. After I got used to notoriety, combat, etc, it was all pretty fun.

 

[hateradio]

I just realized that the guy who speaks with Haytham at the theater is also Balthier's (FFXII) voice actor.

 

[_Isaac]

Does anybody else get the glitch where Connor's hair goes missing and all you see is his bald head with tattooed hair? Kinda like that one gay porn star.

 

[UrbanRats]

How in the fuck? How does that work? Guide me through this. Last time I checked the stealth mechanics aren't even good enough to be considered terrible. How are they an improvement? You crouch in the bushes, clearly standing out as much as a black guy stands out in the snow, guards come by and not only do they not see you, they run into you and don't feel a thing.
I also absolutely love the new cover mechanics. The Kane & Lynch team would be proud. You'll also be very lucky if Connor's feet don't happen to clip into something.

Ubisoft doesn't understand how button inputs work. They must think the common gamer is so dumb that he/she'd rather have babysitting as opposed to actually pressing buttons to do stuff. Too bad this is a videogame and you need to press buttons to do stuff.

The AI works in really weird ways.
Sometimes they're dumb as bricks, sometimes they're omniscent.

I was tryin' to infiltrate a fort unseen and i've run in these dumb problems:

1) The guards pattern was almost random, you couldn't possibly take out one without alerting the whole camp, seeing how every guard is at least in a set of two and usually closer to another two - air assassinations with the double blades also produced noise, so if i quickly killed two guards while the other, near, two were facing the other way, they were alerted anyway.
And ofcourse there is no way to distract them (throw a rock or something) to make them change their pattern.

2) A lot of guards were not appearing on the minimap, while others were, completely fucking with my strategies "oh there aren't guards around that corner! Oh wait, there are".. nevermind the fact that i've been stuck in an haystack for 10 minutes with guards partoling back and forth with literally no downtime to come out of it and too far away from it for me to stealth kill them from there oh, and the whistle thing? Whistled for 5 minutes like a retard, no one noticed me or gave a shit.

3) At some point i was exposed so i used a tree to run out of the fort's walls. I was now behind the goddamn walls, 5 meters tall, i ran around the corner to another entrance and, magically they all kept shooting (yes, through the walls) to my exact position even before i had the chance to expose myself again.


All this made it fucking useless to even try and stealth into one of these forts, nevermind the fact that they've filled them with guards up to the nose and that there is not a crouch button, so if there's a chest-high wall, Connor will just stand there like dumbass with his head popping out.
I may not be a good player, i'm not exceptional at stealth, but this is the first time were i felt that infiltrating in was near fucking impossible and far too luck based.

Does anybody else get the glitch where Connor's hair goes missing and all you see is his bald head with tattooed hair? Kinda like that one gay porn star.

Yeah, got that in a couple of cutscenes, but instead of his bald head, i see his shaved hair.

 

[xenist]

The AI works in really weird ways.
Sometimes they're dumb as bricks, sometimes they're omniscent.

The stealth elements are implemented really really poorly. When the NPCs see you is inconsistent. When they hear you is inconsistent. It makes planning a stealth approach irritating. Forget about winging it, too.

 

[Wix]

So I finished the main storyline, Captain Kidd missions and Homestead missions, with no sign of Aveline.... did they remove the mission where you were supposed to meet her?

 

[KevinCow]

Bahaha, I was just attacked by a wolf in the middle of a conversation with someone. She just kept talking and completely ignored the fact that I was pinned to the ground with a wolf biting my face off.

 

[Sanctuary]

I'm not about to read through 160 pages to find the info I'm looking for, so...

Could someone who has played at least AC, AC2 as well as AC3 (Brotherhood and Revelations isn't important here) tell me how AC3 compares to AC? I know how good AC2 is, but goddamn is the first game boring, and I'm trying to finish it just for storyline purposes.

 

[SJRB]

I'm not about to read through 160 pages to find the info I'm looking for, so...

Could someone who has played at least AC, AC2 as well as AC3 (Brotherhood and Revelations isn't important here) tell me how AC3 compares to AC? I know how good AC2 is, but goddamn is the first game boring, and I'm trying to finish it just for storyline purposes.

They are nothing alike, aside from the main protagonist wearing a hood.

 

[Sanctuary]

They are nothing alike, aside from the main protagonist wearing a hood.

That's not really what I am asking for. For all of the negativity about this game, it sounds like it's just as painful to playthrough as the first. I already own it if that even matters, but it's just been sitting unwrapped. I'm trying to decide if I should bother investing time towards the series now, or wait until the rest of my backlog is smaller.

 

[Blue Ninja]

That's not really what I am asking for. For all of the negativity about this game, it sounds like it's just as painful to playthrough as the first.

It's painful in a different way. AC1 was just repetitive. AC3 subverts this mostly, but the sheer amount of bugs and annoying gameplay elements still make it a chore to play through sometimes. Stuff like the weapon menu being an actual menu instead of a quick-to-open overlay, or the crafting menu being an incomprehensible mess, can quickly add to the frustration factor.

 

[UrbanRats]

That's not really what I am asking for. For all of the negativity about this game, it sounds like it's just as painful to playthrough as the first. I already own it if that even matters, but it's just been sitting unwrapped. I'm trying to decide if I should bother investing time towards the series now, or wait until the rest of my backlog is smaller.

Like Blue Ninja said, it's painful in a different way.
It's full of bugs and poor, idiotic and rushed design choices, you can just see it was rushed out of the door and lacked a clear direction, something AC1, 2 and Brohood had.

It's stupid stuff like the weapon wheel being a separate menu, instead of an ingame overlay like before; or stupid shit like the weapon models in the store menu display, being different from the ones ingame, it's stupid shit that piles up into a big mess, and make you think that they stitched this game together from a thousand different studios, without someone playing through it and smoothing things out into one cohesive experience.

 

[SJRB]

It's painful in a different way. AC1 was just repetitive. AC3 subverts this mostly, but the sheer amount of bugs and annoying gameplay elements still make it a chore to play through sometimes. Stuff like the weapon menu being an actual menu instead of a quick-to-open overlay, or the crafting menu being an incomprehensible mess, can quickly add to the frustration factor.

I think this is a solid assessment.

Aside from the above factors the missions themselves are not repetitive like AC per se, but are extremely tedious nontheless thanks to instant-failstates and broken mechanics like stealth, chase sequences and enemy glitching [both AI and geometrically].

A lot of missions also feel poorly thought out in their execution, a lot of them probably sounded a lot better on paper than how they eventually ended up in the game.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

There's no excuse for the horses to control like utter shit for what...5 games now?

It's getting gradually worse with each game as the areas become more graphically rich and loaded with crap to get stuck on. Either fix the horses or leave them out of the next game please...better yet just let me boat around in the aquila more.

But yes, this game has been death by a thousand cuts so far.

 

[KevinCow]

I'm not about to read through 160 pages to find the info I'm looking for, so...

Could someone who has played at least AC, AC2 as well as AC3 (Brotherhood and Revelations isn't important here) tell me how AC3 compares to AC? I know how good AC2 is, but goddamn is the first game boring, and I'm trying to finish it just for storyline purposes.

I'm apparently in the minority, but I think it's the best game yet. They've made significant improvements to all the gameplay mechanics, and the new things like the frontier, tree and rock climbing, crafting, and the homestead are all interesting and fun and add significantly to the game - unlike, say, Rev's awful tower defense mini-game.

As for repetition, I don't find the main story missions any more repetitive than those in the AC2 trilogy.

 

[UrbanRats]

I think they were good in Brohood, although they needed to be a bit more flexible in front of obstacles.
The nature of the Frontier renders them quite useless here, however.

 

[AHA-Lambda]

Well, I'm on sequence 7 now and I feel quite ambivalent on it. Many of the guff parts though I can't tell if it's AC3's fault or the fatigue of having a new game each year.

-It's definitely got some great missions, particularly in the Kidd and naval sections, which stand out from the pack.

-Alot of the VA is really good imo, with the notable exception of Connor though.

-I wouldn't say Connor is a bad character per se but he is definitely the least interesting protagonist we've had in the series except Desmond.

-Why does Desmond look worse with each game? I swear he looks like a chimpanzee. Yeah the game looks really rough in places (PS3 version).

-Lord knows I wasn't a fan of running across the map like a headless chicken looking for viewpoints and collectibles all the time but now I'm just fed up with it! Although this could just be fatigue rather than AC3's fault.

-Story is still really slow and doesn't seem to be making much progress.

-Homestead started off really interesting and has quickly devolved in to fetch quests.

-Hunting seem to have no real point to it, but I thought the same in RDR anyway.

-Haven't even bothered with the crafting, bugger it, besides there is nothing worthwhile spending my money on.

-The "tutorial phase" of the game is pretty long, but wasn't it always quite long in AC games usually anyway? I think I just don't like having to wait til sequence 6 for the game to open up and offer any sort of meaningful missions and side content.

- Some changes I don't know why were made and take some time to get used to, but once you do I don't think they're a bother again, like the free-running, combat, weapon wheel menu.

So far I think it's better than 1 and it's tip toeing around revelations for which is better, but it's definitely not up to par with 2 and brotherhood. But again, I can't tell how much of this is AC3's own bad design and how much is the fatigue of having a new game each year tbh.

 

[Zeppelin]

Just did the knock on door-go to sleep-knock on door-go to sleep again mission. Jesus Christ this game is dumb.

 

[UrbanRats]

-Alot of the VA is really good imo, with the notable exception of Connor though.

Connor's VA is astonishingly bad, like, i couldn't believe my ears at some of the lines.

 

[Noi]

-Lord knows I wasn't a fan of running across the map like a headless chicken looking for viewpoints and collectibles all the time but now I'm just fed up with it! Although this could just be fatigue rather than AC3's fault.

- Some changes I don't know why were made and take some time to get used to, but once you do I don't think they're a bother again, like the free-running, combat, weapon wheel menu.

Viewpoints are very much AC3's fault. The payoff for taking the time to do all the viewpoints in previous games was a fully revealed map. The payoff in this one is that half the maps are still blank and you need to aimlessly wander around to find objectives that could be anywhere.

The whole weapon menu will always be a negative to me because it takes you out of combat entirely. The radial one worked because it didn't take away your view of the combat, was quick and snappy, and had every tool/weapon on it rather than separating them into two different lists. It's the equivalent of the Mega Man series having the quick toggle to swap through powers from the beginning, but then limiting you to only menu selection in later games.

 

[KevinCow]

Viewpoints are very much AC3's fault. The payoff for taking the time to do all the viewpoints in previous games was a fully revealed map. The payoff in this one is that half the maps are still blank and you need to aimlessly wander around to find objectives that could be anywhere.

The whole weapon menu will always be a negative to me because it takes you out of combat entirely. The radial one worked because it didn't take away your view of the combat, was quick and snappy, and had every tool/weapon on it rather than separating them into two different lists. It's the equivalent of the Mega Man series having the quick toggle to swap through powers from the beginning, but then limiting you to only menu selection in later games.

I definitely agree with the viewpoints. There aren't enough, and they don't reveal enough of the area around them. I don't know why they thought that would be a good idea.

I still love climbing viewpoints, though. I was very sad when I realized I'd already found all of them a fraction of the way through the game.


As for the item selection, I have my issues with it, but they're not really the same as yours. I never really messed with the weapon wheel during combat in previous games. I stuck to d-pad quick select.

I pretty much agree with the guy you quoted: Instead of instantly bringing up a quick overlay, it stops the game and loads a weapon menu. That's a bit silly. (Though I will say, it's one small thing that I appreciate in the Wii U version; all the weapons are displayed on the touch screen, and you can just tap one instead of fiddling with sticks).

What I'd really like is if they let me map more than four weapons to the d-pad. Worked fine in the Batman games, even if you ignore the diagonals. Let me map single, double, and triple taps to different weapons. So I can single tap for the bow, double tap for the gun, and triple tap for rope darts. Then on another direction, I can single tap for tomahawk, double tap for hidden blades, and triple tap for sword. There are so many weapons and items that I rarely use just because swapping into the weapon menu is more of a hassle than I care for.


And while I'm on suggestions for improvements: aim mode should be moved to clicking the right stick a la Darksiders, and holding LT should drop you into a stealthy crouch walk. Because the lack of a stealthy crouch walk has felt awkward since AC1, and it hasn't gotten any better since Batman came out. A stealth game without a stealthy crouch walk is like a platformer without a jump button.

 

[Noi]

As for the item selection, I have my issues with it, but they're not really the same as yours. I never really messed with the weapon wheel during combat in previous games. I stuck to d-pad quick select.

That's also been broken for no reason though. In previous games, if you swapped what your main weapon was, it'd also carry over to your d-pad selection. So if you went from Light to Normal to Heavy, just tapping in a corresponding direction on the pad would bring up my weapon of choice. And if it wasn't on the pad, the radial menu was un-intrusive and easy to bring up/use. In AC3, the left, down and right d-pad directions are always mapped to Assassin Blades, Unarmed and Light Weapon, while Up is whatever Tool you last selected, which means that if I want to use a Normal/Heavy weapon, I need to bring up the separate weapon menu every time. The game pretty much penalizes me for wanting to use anything more than the fucking Tomahawk.

 

[Ricker]

What's the trick for pickpocketting Finn...tried 5 times now and I get the annoying desynch screen...do I have to be hidden from the guard as well...if I am in a bunch of 4 guys talking and Finn is highlighted,is it him I am pickpocketting?...

 

[conman]

Combat was actually interesting, I dug their take on the Batman system

Considering that Batman Arkham Asylum was a "take" on AC's combat, I guess it's only fitting that AC return the favor.

 

[Of All Trades]

That's also been broken for no reason though. In previous games, if you swapped what your main weapon was, it'd also carry over to your d-pad selection. So if you went from Light to Normal to Heavy, just tapping in a corresponding direction on the pad would bring up my weapon of choice. And if it wasn't on the pad, the radial menu was un-intrusive and easy to bring up/use. In AC3, the left, down and right d-pad directions are always mapped to Assassin Blades, Unarmed and Light Weapon, while Up is whatever Tool you last selected, which means that if I want to use a Normal/Heavy weapon, I need to bring up the separate weapon menu every time. The game pretty much penalizes me for wanting to use anything more than the fucking Tomahawk.

You can remap the dpad hotkeys. Just push on the dpad in any direction when an item/weapon is highlighted in the item select screen. When I was doing hunting I had hidden, snare, bow, and bait hotkeyed, and when I run around NYC I have smoke, gun, hidden, and sword hotkeyed.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

I played arkham city and revelations back to back, and it was eye opening how much better the batman game was.

 

[chickdigger802]

I played arkham city and revelations back to back, and it was eye opening how much better the batman game was.

I still feel AC does traversal better than batman.

I never really got why they do a super zoomed in RE4 like view for batman when he's strolling.

 

[Noi]

You can remap the dpad hotkeys. Just push on the dpad in any direction when an item/weapon is highlighted in the item select screen. When I was doing hunting I had hidden, snare, bow, and bait hotkeyed, and when I run around NYC I have smoke, gun, hidden, and sword hotkeyed.

I'd ask why this is never mentioned even once, but It's AC3. =_= I'd still rather have the radial menu back for whenever I want to change anything.