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[Haunted]

Why is everyone on this page saying to skip Revelations but pick Brotherhood instead? I haven't played either but all my friends said Rev's the best and most varied of the bunch...

Don't believe your lying friends. You should trust GAF.


Also, "most varied" sounds great until you spend half an hour playing tower defence, a menu based strategy game, a city management sim and watch every target die instantly with a single button press until you forget what it's like to actually be a fucking assassin assassinating people in Assassin's Creed. I think they were so busy adding new side stuff to this game that they forgot the original vision for the series.

Maybe ACIII will have them get back to what's important, who knows.

 

[Ether_Snake]

it sounds annoying on paper, but it would be extremely easy to implement in a fluid way. It wouldn't obviously be 100% realistic, but it would be preferable to what we have and would actually have some depth. And it could have a dual purpose... for example, if you change clothes in a haystack or garden or whatever, you will instantly diminish your notoriety somewhat. This could take partial place of the ol' grabbing wanted posters thing. And you could supplement it with heralds like you have now. And to be particularly effective, you'd have to decide which outfit to come out with based on the environment you're in to be believable.

It wouldn't be like GO INTO MENU, SELECT OUTFIT. It'd be more like you jump into a bush, a special d-pad prompt comes up telling you to quickly select the outfit you want and then voila you're instantly changed and out of the bush. Of course maybe it would be intrusive, and naturally I'd design the game to disallow the prompts if you just wanted to pay off heralds or stay hidden to get away. But outfits would also be an amazing new dynamic to sneak into places.

No it's boring gameplay to sneak around in disguise. You just walk. This isn't Hitman.

This isn't so much about fooling than it is about assassinating. There is a difference.

AC should not be about disguising yourself, it should be about sneaking, finding your target, etc., but not in the usual "spy" kind of way. The original trailer for AC1 and AC2 illustrated it pretty well.

 

[Y2Kev]

AC should not be about disguising yourself, it should be about sneaking, finding your target, etc.,

I mean, I just don't get how disguising yourself isn't part and parcel of sneaking about unnoticed. How do you think you should sneak around without real blending? Certainly they've exhausted the "jump from rooftop to the rafters conspicuously underguarded and behind the bad guy".

You're right. It isn't Hitman because Hitman is actually about being stealthy and there are tangible rewards and scenarios designed to encourage stealth! But Hitman is more about "machinations" of a sort. You build an elaborate plan and then you watch it play out. It does give you way, way more options to be stealthy though...and it's because you're not as proficient at just beating the shit out of everything.

Ubisoft has actually made it now so that you can wail on the square button and enemies just die regardless of whether or not they are blocking (post kick, of course).

The whole foundation has to be ripped out. The traversal is awesome (of course, it's underutilized in ACR compared to AC2 and ACB), but the stealth just needs to be reworked.

 

[Card Boy]

Don't believe your lying friends. You should trust GAF.

I don't trust Gaf for the following reasons

The Wii
The DS
Uncharted 2
Uncharted 3
Bayonetta
Vanquish
For Saying COD is shit

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

I trust GAF more than most sites, but it's still a public forum.

 

[Ether_Snake]

I mean, I just don't get how disguising yourself isn't part and parcel of sneaking about unnoticed. How do you think you should sneak around without real blending? Certainly they've exhausted the "jump from rooftop to the rafters conspicuously underguarded and behind the bad guy".

You're right. It isn't Hitman because Hitman is actually about being stealthy and there are tangible rewards and scenarios designed to encourage stealth! But Hitman is more about "machinations" of a sort. You build an elaborate plan and then you watch it play out. It does give you way, way more options to be stealthy though...and it's because you're not as proficient at just beating the shit out of everything.

Ubisoft has actually made it now so that you can wail on the square button and enemies just die regardless of whether or not they are blocking (post kick, of course).

The whole foundation has to be ripped out. The traversal is awesome (of course, it's underutilized in ACR compared to AC2 and ACB), but the stealth just needs to be reworked.

Look at the trailer from AC1 and AC2. You don't need more than that.

The problem is the game is not immersive anymore, it's full of popup message and icons and gamey stuff, while the basic premise which was already delivered fine in AC1 (and for the airborne infiltration of the palace in Venice in AC2) has been forgotten since ACB.

The series needs to stop with the fluff which has accumulated since AC2, and go back to being an immersive game that gives you exactly what those two trailers promised.

 

[Y2Kev]

I don't trust Gaf for the following reasons

The Wii
The DS
Uncharted 2
Uncharted 3
Bayonetta
Vanquish
For Saying COD is shit

dude, please. air your dirty laundry somewhere else.

Look at the trailer from AC1 and AC2. You don't need more than that.

The problem is the game is not immersive anymore, it's full of popup message and icons and gamey stuff, while the basic premise which was already delivered fine in AC1 (and for the airborne infiltration of the palace in Venice in AC2) has been forgotten since ACB.

The series needs to stop with the fluff which has accumulated since AC2, and go back to being an immersive game that gives you exactly what those two trailers promised.

Yes, I agree.

 

[Haunted]

Look at the trailer from AC1 and AC2. You don't need more than that.

The problem is the game is not immersive anymore, it's full of popup message and icons and gamey stuff, while the basic premise which was already delivered fine in AC1 (and for the airborne infiltration of the palace in Venice in AC2) has been forgotten since ACB.

The series needs to stop with the fluff which has accumulated since AC2, and go back to being an immersive game that gives you exactly what those two trailers promised.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UM_fufj8f0

Still a great trailer.

 

[Ether_Snake]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UM_fufj8f0

Still a great trailer.

And the game actually did deliver exactly that, it was just lacking elsewhere.

 

[K' Dash]

I take the people who really loked the the game (like me) is playing it and loving it, while the haters play to find stupid shit to complain about on internet forums.

The game is awesome, period.

Tell you friends to pick it up.

 

[VanillaCakeIsBurning]

I hope they address the lack of challenge in the next game. As it is now, guards are not even a threat, you have so much health. And every guard around you dies as soon as you counter the first one.

I was hoping they would add difficulty levels this time around but that didn't turn out to be the case.

 

[CrazyDude]

So is there any hint in this game where the next game will be set?

 

[rataven]

The problem is the game is not immersive anymore, it's full of popup message and icons and gamey stuff, while the basic premise which was already delivered fine in AC1 (and for the airborne infiltration of the palace in Venice in AC2) has been forgotten since ACB.

You can turn the entire HUD off. There's your immersion. Only way to play!

 

[Y2Kev]

You can turn the entire HUD off. There's your immersion. Only way to play!

I think he probably means there's just too much gamey stuff going on at all times. Like tracking your awareness as one example. This is somewhat of an artificial representation of your notoriety, which by itself is not too bad. In the past you had to rip down posters, which is stupid, and now you bribe heralds and kill witnesses over and over. It's just sort of a routine you do. It doesn't really fit with the feeling you get from the first trailer.

Again, this doesn't make the game BAD. I finished it, so I didn't hate it. But a lot of that could be stripped, and I wouldn't really mind it.

 

[rataven]

I think he probably means there's just too much gamey stuff going on at all times. Like tracking your awareness as one example. This is somewhat of an artificial representation of your notoriety, which by itself is not too bad. In the past you had to rip down posters, which is stupid, and now you bribe heralds and kill witnesses over and over. It's just sort of a routine you do. It doesn't really fit with the feeling you get from the first trailer.

Again, this doesn't make the game BAD. I finished it, so I didn't hate it. But a lot of that could be stripped, and I wouldn't really mind it.

Well, you can turn all the extra quest markers off too if it distracts you or you aren't interested in it. The map and HUD are very customizable. We are stuck with the awareness mechanic though, and it's much more rigorous here than in previous games, but it honestly hasn't bothered me much. I know that after I renovate a few shops, I'm going to have to pay off some herald. It's dumb and nonsensical, but was obviously muddled with to accommodate den defense, which is the real problem here.

I do like the idea of using disguises to keep your notoriety low and to blend into society in different regions, and I think they are on to something with that based on the minstrel mission. That whole quest worked quite nicely, and I'd be on board for more of that.

 

[surly]

Like tracking your awareness as one example. This is somewhat of an artificial representation of your notoriety, which by itself is not too bad. In the past you had to rip down posters, which is stupid, and now you bribe heralds and kill witnesses over and over. It's just sort of a routine you do.

I agree. You buy a shop, your notoriety increases by 25%. You find a herald and bribe him, it goes down by 25%, except then you can run a certain distance away from the herald - which triggers his icon on the mini-map again - and you can run right back to him and bribe him again for another 25% reduction. Rinse and repeat until you're below 25% and it stops happening. In this game it felt like notoriety was only there to trigger that den defence mini-game and as I didn't enjoy the den defence one bit, it felt like a mundane chore to keep the notoriety below the trigger point.

I also agree about the disguises. You walk between 4 women and somehow nobody can see you, even when they're standing 2 feet from you. Then there's another bit in the game where you actually are wearing a full disguise and it's not very effective at all.

I still loved this game overall. I hope the next game is harder though. Some of the set pieces in this game were the best of the series, but the "tombs" sections are just going through the motions. The only bit that adds challenge is trying to complete it in time to get 100% sync. I'd like to think "how the hell do I get up there?" at times, cos I felt like I was being lead by the hand in this one. Add some challenging puzzles - even if they're optional. The puzzles in this game amounted to turning on eagle vision and looking at 3 different markers or doors in turn until it told you you'd looked at the correct one. Make the combat more difficult too - which this game does compared to previous ones, but it needs to go even further. The only times I died in this game were when I fell from a high roof or accidentally jumped in the wrong direction and didn't have any parachutes left.

 

[MrTroubleMaker]

I'm only a few hours in and don't like the tower defense stuff but I've noticed something when recruiting assassins. I've only been able to recruit men, in brotherhood you could recruit both men and women. Did they change this?

 

[The Antitype]

In the first game, Altair actually resembled some of the monks he could blend with.

Ezio sticks out like a sore thumb, and it's bugged the hell out of me since the second game

What makes him stick out so much to you?

His clothing is appropriate for the time period, his color choice is as irrelevant as your choice of tshirt in the morning.

 

[Visceir]

You are playing an old master assassin, in that way the game being easy does make sense...

I've put 2 hours into the game and this far it does seem like they just wanted you to feel like an absolute badass. And oddly enough it seems easier to just stay on the ground instead of running across rooftops.

Game looks amazing.

 

[surly]

I'm only a few hours in and don't like the tower defense stuff but I've noticed something when recruiting assassins. I've only been able to recruit men, in brotherhood you could recruit both men and women. Did they change this?

Nope, you can recruit women too.

The tower defence is triggered when your notoriety hits 100%. It goes up by 25% when you buy a shop or landmark. It goes down 25% when you bribe a herald. It goes down by 50% when you kill one of those guys that's walking about with 2 guards (you'll see an icon appear on screen when one of them is about). You can avoid the tower defence altogether quite easily, but it is a bit of a chore.

 

[Animator]

I don't trust Gaf for the following reasons


Uncharted 2
Uncharted 3
Bayonetta
Vanquish

Wait...what? Are you saying those games are bad?

 

[MrTroubleMaker]

Nope, you can recruit women too.

The tower defence is triggered when your notoriety hits 100%. It goes up by 25% when you buy a shop or landmark. It goes down 25% when you bribe a herald. It goes down by 50% when you kill one of those guys that's walking about with 2 guards (you'll see an icon appear on screen when one of them is about). You can avoid the tower defence altogether quite easily, but it is a bit of a chore.

Thanks, Yeah I've been bribing the heralds, and it really is becoming bothersome

 

[Danny-Boy]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UM_fufj8f0

Still a great trailer.

Mind Blown! Playing that trailer with Zack Hemsey - Mind Heist.

The best thing about Assassins Creed was the major assassinations. Man the lead up to the attack and the planning.......good times.

The best feature the game offered and Ubisoft took it out. Assassins Creed 2 had them except they weren't as epic. They were gone completely with Brotherhood, and now Revelations.

Hope they make a comeback in part 3.

 

[kayos90]

Mind Blown! Playing that trailer with Zack Hemsey - Mind Heist.

The best thing about Assassins Creed was the major assassinations. Man the lead up to the attack and the planning.......good times.

The best feature the game offered and Ubisoft took it out. Assassins Creed 2 had them except they weren't as epic. They were gone completely with Brotherhood, and now Revelations.

Hope they make a comeback in part 3.

I agree with this completely. The major assassinations felt like they were really something special because they were built up in that mission and how it was executed. In ACII and on it really doesn't feel like they're all that important.

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

Wait...what? Are you saying those games are bad?

You just exemplified his point.

 

[i_am_ben]

i fucking hate my lock-ons getting stuck on minor soldiers when i'm trying to run after a Templar captain.

 

[MurkyZebra2417]

I really like the game overall, Sequence 6 now. The main Ezio story is a bit unfocused sometimes, but the missions themselfes are pretty good and varied.
The Desmond parts are very "meh" gameplay wise, but tell an interesting story.

So far its AC2 > AC:R = AC:B for me. I don't get "tired" of the formula, Assassins Creed is the only game that does it and it does a very good job.

And I like Ezio as a Character very much, that is actually my biggest fear for AC3, that the Character will suck.

 

[The Antitype]

i fucking hate my lock-ons getting stuck on minor soldiers when i'm trying to run after a Templar captain.

Use your assassins. Even if you highlight the wrong guy by accident, they'll usually take him out. And if not, they'll free up your lock-on so you can handle him, or call in another assassin on him.


Finished the game 100% sync.

+Constantinople is beautiful and full of Mediterranean flavor
+Ezio and Altair's story wrap-ups are rewarding
+Free-running and counter-heavy combat are still INSANELY satisfying, best-in-genre stuff.
+Personally, I loved bomb crafting, used the hell out of them

-Many elements feel under-developed (only one mission per guild? REALLY?!)
-Good ideas conceptually were poorly executed (I'm looking at you Den Defense)
-Assassination missions are even more rigid than AC2
-Glitchy at times

I like the game as much as Brotherhood. It's the same conundrum for me as Brotherhood, because like that game, the mechanics in this game are evolved over the previous games, but it doesn't have the soul of AC1 or the polish of AC2.

 

[Irish]

I want better targets in the next game. Every single target in AC1 was made to be memorable. Each of them only had like one single major scene right before you get to kill them and then you got to have those long ass dialogues with them afterward (which was fantastic). I can't really remember who the fuck I killed in ACII, Bro, or Rev except Cesare.

 

[jett]

Speaking of bombs, I thought it was a shitty mechanic and I hope it doesn't reappear in a future game. It's a pain in the ass to aim and throw those things. And useless.

 

[Irish]

Speaking of bombs, I thought it was a shitty mechanic and I hope it doesn't reappear in a future game. It's a pain in the ass to aim and throw those things. And useless.

Nonsense. My second favorite new thing outside of the hookblade. I used them constantly and had no trouble aiming them whatsoever. You could just lock on to dudes to get an easy toss like in Brotherhood. Seriously, bombs were super useful for just about anything you needed to do like: luring guards out of your path without being detected, gathering all the guards in an area together to take them all out at once, quickly stopping any pursuers in their tracks, separating a single target from his guardians, and all kinds of other junk.

 

[Radec]

I don't trust Gaf for the following reasons

The Wii
The DS
Uncharted 2
Uncharted 3
Bayonetta
Vanquish
For Saying COD is shit

Is this guy for real?

Or just fishing for a tag ?

 

[Prophet Steve]

I don't trust Gaf for the following reasons

The Wii
The DS
Uncharted 2
Uncharted 3
Bayonetta
Vanquish
For Saying COD is shit

You have an amazingly bad taste.

 

[dragonelite]

Galata tower got dam.

 

[hank_tree]

I got 1000/1000 in this last night so I decided to go back to Assassin's Creed 2 and try and finish up the last few achievements I have in that. It looks surprisingly different. Everyone looks dead in the eyes. And I miss the hookblade for climbing.

 

[jett]

I got 1000/1000 in this last night so I decided to go back to Assassin's Creed 2 and try and finish up the last few achievements I have in that. It looks surprisingly different. Everyone looks dead in the eyes. And I miss the hookblade for climbing.

Character models are a serious improvement over what he had before

 

[Haunted]

Speaking of bombs, I thought it was a shitty mechanic and I hope it doesn't reappear in a future game. It's a pain in the ass to aim and throw those things. And useless.

Goddamn you jett, stop being right.

I also dislike how there are much less treasure chests around than I remember in previous games because half of those in the world contain useless bomb ingredients. Was annoying at the start, but it's not a big problem once you buy all the treasure maps.


Also, with all my disappointment and criticism, it's not all bad! The key dungeons are all good, Galata caverns being particularly noteworthy. What they do have here in terms of the core game is still good. But I feel they've added so many side systems and mechanics to it that it kinda obscures what made the series so appealing in the first place.

 

[Stat Flow]

I never used bombs after they first got introduced. Never made any, or used any.

I think I need to play AC1 again, though. I really do remember those assassination missions being pretty epic. I hope they go back to those kinds of assassinations soon, because as Desmond (or whoever else) we should have some pretty important people to assassinate. (Not Story Spoilers)

Spoiler

I forgave it in this game because the primary goal was to find the keys, not to kill.

Even as an (Story Spoilers)

Spoiler

old man, Altair got a better assassination than Ezio did in this game and last games: killing Abbas with a gun from the future was so fucking epic. I think that epicness of assassinations carried over from AC1 there.

What I want to know is how they're going to translate this gameplay into the present time with all of the current technology (in other words, any group chasing someone else will use guns) without making it a shooter. Bullet time? I hope not.

 

[NIN90]

About 3 hours in and the primary feeling is "can't be bothered". For example, why go through the unnecessarily long animation of looting chests or bodies when all I get out of it is bomb materials (which I don't give a rat's ass about) and money (which I don't really need.) The previous games were like this too but it seems so much worse in this one. Franchise fatigue I guess.

 

[jett]

About 3 hours in and the primary feeling is "can't be bothered". For example, why go through the unnecessarily long animation of looting chests or bodies when all I get out of it is bomb materials (which I don't give a rat's ass about) and money (which I don't really need.) The previous games were like this too it seems so much worse in this one. Franchise fatigue I guess.

Yep, it's what I'm feeling too. You can't make a game like asscrud a yearly thing.

 

[Pooya]

About 3 hours in and the primary feeling is "can't be bothered". For example, why go through the unnecessarily long animation of looting chests or bodies when all I get out of it is bomb materials (which I don't give a rat's ass about) and money (which I don't really need.) The previous games were like this too but it seems so much worse in this one. Franchise fatigue I guess.

exactly how I feel, game feels old. I just don't care about all the stuff they added, it adds nothing interesting. I'm afraid just a new character and time setting are not going to cut it for AC3 to keep me interested D: core gameplay just feels old and tired now to me as someone who has played every other game in the series. I felt like this when Prince of Persia TTT was released, the game was just booring to me.
I enjoyed II and ACB a lot, I couldn't put them down, they were far more exciting to me. ACR so far is just snoozefest for me D:

also Desmond stuff in this are just awful >.<

Spoiler

Bring Lucy back

 

[Dr Zhivago]

Finished it now, I quite liked how the last mission was

Spoiler

just quiet exploration, no combat or climbing. However, I would have liked to have explored Masayaf properly. No real revelations though, I don't think we learned anything we didn't know from AC2. Ezio addressing Desmond was cool.

Overall, I found it the weakest of Ezio's outings. New additions were hit-and-miss, but the glitchiness really hurt it for me. One mission I had the guards just standing around, completely oblivious and unresponsive. Music keeps dropping out, guards materialising right in front of you, a general feel of flimsiness.

The Desmond levels were horrible. Interesting idea, but terribly implemented.

I still enjoyed it, but I hope the main team were working on AC3 whilst this was in development.

As for what's next, I don't really want them to turn it into History Channel Splinter Cell.

 

[B_Rik_Schitthaus]

The Desmond levels were horrible. Interesting idea, but terribly implemented.

I would have preferred to just walk through a Forrest with narration on top, the last memory wouyld end with seeing where the assassin kids lived.

I still enjoyed it, but I hope the main team were working on AC3 whilst this was in development.

Agreed, going the Splinter Cell route of having two teams with 2 years of development time, then staggering the releases.
Rather then now where they have 5 studios turning out little pieces of the game it less then a yar.

 

[Sai]

Spoiler

Altair got a better assassination than Ezio did in this game and last games: killing Al Mualim with a gun from the future was so fucking epic.

Abbas. Dude's name was Abbas&#8212;same guy that tried giving Altair lip in front of the fortress when he came back from Solomon's Temple in the first AC.

Al Mualim was dead for like 50 years at that point.

What I want to know is how they're going to translate this gameplay into the present time with all of the current technology (in other words, any group chasing someone else will use guns) without making it a shooter. Bullet time? I hope not.

Would you hate me if I said I wouldn't mind some form of bullet time in limited doses? :x

 

[Deleted member 80556]

Don't believe your lying friends. You should trust GAF.


Also, "most varied" sounds great until you spend half an hour playing tower defence, a menu based strategy game, a city management sim and watch every target die instantly with a single button press until you forget what it's like to actually be a fucking assassin assassinating people in Assassin's Creed. I think they were so busy adding new side stuff to this game that they forgot the original vision for the series.

Maybe ACIII will have them get back to what's important, who knows.

Now that you mention it, I think it's possible that AC3 will get rid of this. We have these games because Ezio is a master assassin, right? The next assassin will probably not be a master assassin so making these games disappear.

I hope.

 

[kayos90]

I distinctly remember that while AC3 will include Desmond's story, part of the AC series is going into the Animus to relive the lives of your ancestors. I don't think it'll be all modern if anything.

 

[Dunan]

Personally, I always felt like paying to change the color of your outfit should have an affect on your infamy level, in the same way that spray-painting your car in GTA helps your wanted level. Add a gameplay reason for a cool customization feature.

Playing AC2, I just assumed that this would be the case. Go down the laundromat and wear different stuff; nobody recognizes you anymore.

It was kind of disappointing to see that the different colors was 99% cosmetic

Spoiler

and 1% related to getting one trophy

.

 

[Stat Flow]

Oh yeah. I meant Abbas.

Would you hate me if I said I wouldn't mind some form of bullet time in limited doses? :x

Not at all. I think it would be a good addition as long as it was not overpowered and as you said, was limited. It would make sense considering what Eagle Sense can do. But that doesn't solve the problem completely.

 

[Amagon]

Just finish beating this game. (Phew!) It took long, but not as bad as ACII & Brotherhood. Apparently I put about 19 hours in than while my play through Saints Row: The Third took about 24 hours. So anyhoot..........I'm getting tired of the same old formula that has been rinse & repeat for the series about that time now. I actually find climbing to be more in the way in this game now more than ever. The side mission and activities are a little bit too much which could use some trimming. The story is forgettable but I really did like Altair's story which I kind of find touching and sad so I'm happy, more or less that their was a closure for him. I'm hoping to god that they finish the whole Assassin's Creed story with their next and hopefully final game. Seeing cliffhangers for every ending so far makes me want to play the next game but really want a damn resolve by now. If Ubisofts plan were to coordinate the last AC3 story/timeline with 2012, so be it. But after that, I'm not supporting the series anymore unless drastic gameplay changes for the better were to happen.

And thank you Ubi for fixing the multi. Though one complaint that I have is, I believe you have to reach lvl 50 in order to see the whole Abstergo's side story and such. I can't see myself hitting that level number and wish they finish the side story at lvl 20, at least. Still fun and all, which I can see myself playing from time to time but alas, I have other games that need my attention and I've been putting Battlefield 3 in the corner long enough just so I can beat all the singleplayer games before I dive into it.

ACII>AC>AC:B>AC:R

 

[Ether_Snake]

Speaking of bombs, I thought it was a shitty mechanic and I hope it doesn't reappear in a future game. It's a pain in the ass to aim and throw those things. And useless.

Bombs have been there since AC2, so I don't expect that to go away.

I got 1000/1000 in this last night so I decided to go back to Assassin's Creed 2 and try and finish up the last few achievements I have in that. It looks surprisingly different. Everyone looks dead in the eyes. And I miss the hookblade for climbing.

Buildings were also blurry as fuck after a short distance.