On the fence... at least they brought the three best maps from Brohood back. All the new standard maps are great, so I'm hopeful the three new ones will be as well.
I absolutely love AC MP, but my fear is that such an expensive pack is going to fragment an already small MP community. Full 8 player games are rarer and rarer these days
Not to mention being released on the same day as the first MW3 DLC...
On the fence... at least they brought the three best maps from Brohood back. All the new standard maps are great, so I'm hopeful the three new ones will be as well.
I absolutely love AC MP, but my fear is that such an expensive pack is going to fragment an already small MP community. Full 8 player games are rarer and rarer these days
Not to mention being released on the same day as the first MW3 DLC...
Got this from Gamefly and have been playing it for the past couple of nights, but am not really feeling it all that much. It is strange, I love the series and even loved Brotherhood, but this just feels so much more... uninspired. I am going to press onward in hopes that I can shake this 'been there and done that' feeling of boredom and am going to try and avoid Den Defense as much as possible. In short, the yearly release staleness has finally hit this series for me, which I find sad considering how much I have loved it.
I keep expecting something to explain what caused the Assassins to fall to their current status (assuming it wasn't explained and I didn't miss anything), and my personal fan speculation is that if AC3 is the French Revolution then that's where it would happen, with the Assassins leading the revolution and falling apart when the Terror goes into full swing. Bonus points if Ubisoft goes all-out and makes the main character a power-corrupts monster who takes orders from Robespierre and only escapes to North America when Robespierre gets arrested.
I keep expecting something to explain what caused the Assassins to fall to their current status (assuming it wasn't explained and I didn't miss anything), and my personal fan speculation is that if AC3 is the French Revolution then that's where it would happen, with the Assassins leading the revolution and falling apart when the Terror goes into full swing. Bonus points if Ubisoft goes all-out and makes the main character a power-corrupts monster who takes orders from Robespierre and only escapes to North America when Robespierre gets arrested.
In Revelations, they already showed how the most senior leadership of the Assassins could be corrupt. That power and greed can make people unable to interpret the ideals that the organization stands for. That was done really well and I just don't see the reason in them trying it again.
Twisting it to have the actual dogma/beliefs of the Assassins be evil is just stupid though. I can understand showing the leaders become corrupted by power, but when you've already made three games across three different timelines that explore the history and the morality of what the Assassins are and why they fight and why they are right, it would feel REALLY stupid if they did some shyamalan twist about the Assassins in the fourth installment just for the sake of it.
In Revelations, they already showed how the most senior leadership of the Assassins could be corrupt. That power and greed can make people unable to interpret the ideals that the organization stands for. That was done really well and I just don't see the reason in them trying it again.
Twisting it to have the actual dogma/beliefs of the Assassins be evil is just stupid though. I can understand showing the leaders become corrupted by power, but when you've already made three games across three different timelines that explore the history and the morality of what the Assassins are and why they fight and why they are right, it would feel REALLY stupid if they did some shyamalan twist about the Assassins in the fourth installment just for the sake of it.
I don't recall the modern timeline really explaining much of anything other than that Desmond grew up in a compound, and while power-corrupts may be a bit overplayed, I don't think zealotry has been delved into and given the behavior of the Assassins regarding anyone attached to the Templar power structure I don't see why instigating a revolution that happens to be excessively brutal would be a twist. Particularly given the association with the presumed origin of the motto "Liberté, égalité, fraternité".
A Shamalayan twist would be that the Assassins were actually the French nobility and the Templars rose up against them.
I don't recall the modern timeline really explaining much of anything other than that Desmond grew up in a compound, and while power-corrupts may be a bit overplayed, I don't think zealotry has been delved into and given the behavior of the Assassins regarding anyone attached to the Templar power structure I don't see why instigating a revolution that happens to be excessively brutal would be a twist. Particularly given the association with the presumed origin of the motto "Liberté, égalité, fraternité".
What I meant was that in the 900 year period between Altair and Desmond, the game creators have shown the doctrine of the Assassins to pretty consistent. There are no hints that they would go and become the "bad" guy. However, I can understand them provoking the French Revolution but then the whole thing ends up blowing up out of control, that would make sense. But it would be weird if they became outright evil during period and for it to have never been mentioned again in Desmond's timeline.
They help to generate income for Ezio. Purchase everything else first (stores, renovations, etc.) before the monuments though. The cost per income ratio for the landmarks is really bad.
Got this from Gamefly and have been playing it for the past couple of nights, but am not really feeling it all that much. It is strange, I love the series and even loved Brotherhood, but this just feels so much more... uninspired. I am going to press onward in hopes that I can shake this 'been there and done that' feeling of boredom and am going to try and avoid Den Defense as much as possible. In short, the yearly release staleness has finally hit this series for me, which I find sad considering how much I have loved it.
If the templar awareness goes all the way up, they take over one of your assassin buildings, closing all the shops in the area, and forcing you to do the terrible TD game to get it back.
If the templar awareness goes all the way up, they take over one of your assassin buildings, closing all the shops in the area, and forcing you to do the terrible TD game to get it back.
I love the revamped multiplayer. Going two weeks back-to-back between Brotherhood and Revelations just shows the improvements. Attempting to stun a person that is coming to kill you will lower their score, ZOMG AN ACTUAL USE FOR STUN NOW!? *faint*
I also enjoy the injection mode in addition to Manhunt. Of course, I've always enjoyed "infection/zombies" since Halo 2, so...
Only downgrade is the stupid Templar Shop and having to rank-up AND grind credits to get the powers I want. At least I already got Morph. But Morph before the Hidden Gun (the skill to have for hunting people if they start to climb) before level 15 is crazy.
I love the revamped multiplayer. Going two weeks back-to-back between Brotherhood and Revelations just shows the improvements. Attempting to stun a person that is coming to kill you will lower their score, ZOMG AN ACTUAL USE FOR STUN NOW!? *faint*
I also enjoy the injection mode in addition to Manhunt. Of course, I've always enjoyed "infection/zombies" since Halo 2, so...
Only downgrade is the stupid Templar Shop and having to rank-up AND grind credits to get the powers I want. At least I already got Morph. But Morph before the Hidden Gun (the skill to have for hunting people if they start to climb) before level 15 is crazy.
Butt report:
- Animus Island / Subject 16: wasted potential
- Constantinople is a poop city, small and uninteresting with few landmarks
- Tower defence is diarrhea
- Mediterranean defence / So I heard you wanted a Facebook game even more than in AC:B is ass
- The "bad guy" is not very good
- Having Templar Awareness raise when you buy a shop is stupid
- Ezio's dumb grey beard
- Most of the Altair stuff is stupid
- Retconning Desmond's character makes no sense
In AC1, Desmond is unaware of the fact that he's an assassin. So AC:R basically makes it so that Desmond was lying to the player character the entire game of AC1. Hell, Desmond's entire character in all three of the prior games is basically used as an excuse to have a clueless nobody that needs to be explained things on the player's behalf. If Desmond was raised as an Assassin, much of his behaviour since the beginning of the first game makes no sense.
- No "The Truth" puzzles sucks
- Books are a poor substitute for artwork as a collectible
- The city in a cave comes out of nowhere
- The whole game's main plot pacing is out of whack
- The subordinate Assassin's character is underused
- The new control scheme with Bomb mapped to what Eagle Sense / Synchronize used to be used for is stupid. The point of the controls, starting with AC1, was that the top button in the diamond would represent your head and eyes, the left and right buttons your hands, and your bottom button your feet. They have been steadily wrecking this metaphor ever since, and now it's totally absurd.
- Romani as a substitution for Courtesans are terrible, and all three factions remain unenjoyable to the extreme
- The time skip with Altair made no sense. He goes from being 25 or whatever just after the end of AC1 to being in his 60s and having a wife, dead kid, living kid, and wanting revenge. I assume the missing events in between are chronicled in some shitty handheld spinoff or some embarrassing 270 page trade paperback with an idiot title like Assassin's Creed: Rerememberancing of Destinies written by a "high quality" "famous" fantasy writer.
- Equipment is still garbage and poorly implemented.
- Arrow Storm is overpowered, again
- I can't think of a single memorable mission besides
burning down the harbour
and
infiltrating the Janissary Camp
--this game has by far the worst main missions of the series.
- There isn't a single good building to climb.
- The credits still go on for a million years because Ubisoft thinks it makes more sense have 18,476 teams work on the game at once to get it made so they can release a new game every 6 days. Since I started writing this review, 14 video games about Ezio have come out.
- The ending FMV was poorly encoded and stuttery and uninteresting.
- Load times are still completely out of control
- It feels like the city salary does not pay out every 20 minutes, which is weird. I would go and do multiple missions and come back and wouldn't get my rent.
Good report:
- I actually liked first person platforming tetris whatever
- Buying shops is still fun (but still hollow)
- The hook climbing thing is pretty neat I guess
- Old Altair was comical
- The final Altair sequence was fun. I actually kind of like sequences in games where you sort of know what's going to happen, but you get to make it happen anyway.
- The few book buildings (this game's equivalent of Assassin's Tombs) are super fun
- The core gameplay is still fun.
Meh report:
- Bomb crafting. I don't feel like this added anything to the game. I used bombs periodically. I think the biggest impact on the game was wrecking the controls.
I can't think of a single game I've ever played that was less necessary than this one. I haven't played a significant amount of the multiplayer and don't play much multiplayer in general so I don't intend to. AC2 would have made my top 10 of that year and AC:B made my top 10 of last year.
In AC1, Desmond is unaware of the fact that he's an assassin. So AC:R basically makes it so that Desmond was lying to the player character the entire game of AC1. Hell, Desmond's entire character in all three of the prior games is basically used as an excuse to have a clueless nobody that needs to be explained things on the player's behalf. If Desmond was raised as an Assassin, much of his behaviour since the beginning of the first game makes no sense.
Uh... not exactly. Desmond clearly states that he is not an 'Assassin,' "at least not anymore" in the beginning of AC1 and also talks about the convent where he was raised. He wasn't trained like the assassins of old though.
Yep - at this point they really have to stop throwing new things into the series and take the time to balance, tune and refine whats already there. It feels like a jumble, which was more forgivable in Brotherhood, but less forgivable since.
If it keeps going the way its going the next game will feel completely like a random assortment of iPhone/Facebook mini-games superimposed atop what would otherwise be a beautiful historical landscape.
cant argue with most of that, but i suspect most people playing it have already finished previous games - revelations is necessary because it closes the lid on altair and ezio.
Uh... not exactly. Desmond clearly states that he is not an 'Assassin,' "at least not anymore" in the beginning of AC1 and also talks about the convent where he was raised. He wasn't trained like the assassins of old though.
The tone of the first game implies that Desmond doesn't know what's going on or why he's there. Jenga Flashback really pushed against that.
Yep - at this point they really have to stop throwing new things into the series and take the time to balance, tune and refine whats already there. It feels like a jumble, which was more forgivable in Brotherhood, but less forgivable since.
I'm guessing that since AC3 is a new time period that a lot of the "additional stuff creep" that infested Revelations will get culled or better integrated since the promise of a new time period/setting should be more than enough draw.
If it is Revolutionary America, though, I'd expect the TD to come back. There's an interview in GI (can't remember if it's the Xcom or South Park issue) with a producer and he said that the TD tested really well during development because the testers were just playing the TD part, and that he thinks the backlash is due to how it was integrated within the game (IIRC he also thought that it had a lot of depth that most people never saw because it took a lot of playing to unlock things). The "waves of orderly redcoats" vs guerrilla colonials would thematically be perfect for TD.
I will say I probably would have enjoyed the TD a bit more if it had a reward structure attached to it instead of it being outright punishment.
I wish they had made Ezio fire bombs and knives out of his mouth so people could get over the whole triangle = head thing. Yes, it was cute that each button was body part. Having to open a menu to switch between short and long range combat was bullshit, though, and it's much better this way.
I wish they had made Ezio fire bombs and knives out of his mouth so people could get over the whole triangle = head thing. Yes, it was cute that each button was body part. Having to open a menu to switch between short and long range combat was bullshit, though, and it's much better this way.
Eh, I would say that mapping ranged weapons to a close quarters weapon worked out quite nicely. You didn't have to open up a menu every time to switch. You just held down the weapon button. Of course, I don't really feel it is necessary to waste a whole face button on something that gets used very rarely. So, I was never really a fan of triangle head.
I just finished it the other day and have pretty much the same exact feelings as Stump. Also, I asked this question in the 'The next AC set in the American Revolution" thread. Why were people saying "makes sense", or "saw this coming"?
I interpreted the ending of ACR to mean that
we have caught up in time. Basically the 'torch' has been passed along from Altair to Ezio, and now it is Desmond's turn to essentially pick it up and have his own game in present time.
I just finished it the other day and have pretty much the same exact feelings as Stump. Also, I asked this question in the 'The next AC set in the American Revolution" thread. Why were people saying "makes sense", or "saw this coming"?
I interpreted the ending of ACR to mean that
we have caught up in time. Basically the 'torch' has been passed along from Altair to Ezio, and now it is Desmond's turn to essentially pick it up and have his own game in present time.
Zeus showing Desmond that the machine or whatever may stop the solar flare/protect Earth is in North America... around Maine? I think the issue is that no one expects the game to take place significantly in modern times due to the evolution of firearms being a big stopping point when applied to AC gameplay. That means it's back in the Animus to the last notable point in North American history where guns wouldn't be hugely problematic to the gameplay aka American Revolution.
Personally I still think it'll be French Rev, with maybe the character leaving for America at the end or some other framing device, but who knows.
I've been going for a platinum in this for the last couple weeks. Instead of activating my online pass I decided to use the 3-day trial so I could sell it for a few more bucks when I was done... without knowing there was a double XP weekend in two days. Rage.
I have until midday Friday, so I guess I can save the final few levels for Friday morning (need 20, at 14 right now).
[
- Bomb crafting. I don't feel like this added anything to the game. I used bombs periodically. I think the biggest impact on the game was wrecking the controls.
I can't think of a single game I've ever played that was less necessary than this one.
Well bombs were very useful if you wanted to get 100% synchronization. Especially anytime you needed to sneak past guards by distracting them/using a smoke screen, or if you had use caltrops to stop them. I think the only useless bomb was the lamb's blood one but I only used it a couple times to finish the bomb challenges.
I understand the logic they had with Y->A/B->X matching the symmetry of the game character's body but it's not actually that intuitive of a system. Having bombs/alternate weapons set right next to the X button is just really useful especially for missions where you're alternating between using the hidden blade and poison darts or whatever. It was pretty annoying having to constantly pause the game to switch between different stealth weapons in the last AC games.
Desmond had no idea he held various converging bloodlines in his body before he was abducted. Desmond really didn't believe that Abstergo was really an evil company before he was kidnapped. Desmond had no clue why he was being raised the way he was before the connections were finally made. The flashbacks simply fill out what was said in AC1.
He knew he was from a group that called themselves Assassins, but really wasn't sure what their purpose was really.
Well bombs were very useful if you wanted to get 100% synchronization. Especially anytime you needed to sneak past guards by distracting them/using a smoke screen, or if you had use caltrops to stop them. I think the only useless bomb was the lamb's blood one but I only used it a couple times to finish the bomb challenges.
This is probably true, like how Courtesans were useful in AC:B, but again it just felt very half-baked to me and it feels like they're just layering thing on top of thing on top of thing just to have lots of things.
This is probably true, like how Courtesans were useful in AC:B, but again it just felt very half-baked to me and it feels like they're just layering thing on top of thing on top of thing just to have lots of things.
There were a lot of missions that required you not to be seen or not to kill any guards. I wouldn't say that bombs are necessary in all missions but there were a lot of times when killing, incapacitating, or just distracting a group of enemies is useful.
I finished the game yesterday, here are some thoughts:
I liked the Altair parts but I did think there were some pretty big leaps in time sometimes. The story presented in the flashbacks gave me some good insight in Altair since I never played the first game.
Didn't really like Constantinople, there weren't any memorable parts of the city for me. It felt a but empty and I thought there weren't enough things to do.
I did like the master assassin missions. I already liked the assassin mini game in Brotherhood so the things that Revelations did to it were a nice addition to me.
Hookblades are a nice addition to the game.
Overall, I though the story was the weakest one with Ezio in it and so was the gameplay. It felt a little bit like too much of the same stuff over again. And the bombs didn't add anything special in my opinion.
I finished the game yesterday, here are some thoughts:
I liked the Altair parts but I did think there were some pretty big leaps in time sometimes. The story presented in the flashbacks gave me some good insight in Altair since I never played the first game.
Didn't really like Constantinople, there weren't any memorable parts of the city for me. It felt a but empty and I thought there weren't enough things to do.
I did like the master assassin missions. I already liked the assassin mini game in Brotherhood so the things that Revelations did to it were a nice addition to me.
Hookblades are a nice addition to the game.
Overall, I though the story was the weakest one with Ezio in it and so was the gameplay. It felt a little bit like too much of the same stuff over again. And the bombs didn't add anything special in my opinion.
I used the bombs ONCE in the entire game, and that was only because I knew I was nearing the end and I was like "might as well use these stupid things once"
Just saw some MP-bits from TotalBiscuit and I'm getting genuinely interested buying this game for pc. How's the MP-scene on pc? Still lots of folk playing this one?
Just saw some MP-bits from TotalBiscuit and I'm getting genuinely interested buying this game for pc. How's the MP-scene on pc? Still lots of folk playing this one?
I used the bombs ONCE in the entire game, and that was only because I knew I was nearing the end and I was like "might as well use these stupid things once"
If you're going for full sync, which many times means avoiding detection and unnecessary confrontations, bombs are essential.
I find the missions to be very well designed this time around, perhaps not as memorable or epic as the final third Assassins Creed 2, but they've learned a lot about rewarding creativity and skillful play.
Initially, it didn't caught on to me. Don't know, maybe I enjoyed Brotherhood too much and Revelations came too fast but I could not get myself to play it (I got it day one, like all AC games so far...).
After that inital repulsion, I finally started playing it and it was a very enjoyable experience.
I even got to like (and use) those bombs.
Tower defense remained a hated part of the game. Lucikly, I only had two of those situations as I managed to avoid them.
Story wise...
I really enjoyed Demond's and Altair's parts. Desmon's backstory was cool. The actual ending of the game was kinda "meh" for me, but I guess it set the stage for AC III so we'll see where's that going...
Overall, an enjoyable experience, but less so than Brotherhood and ACII. :/
Also, I hated the fact that they
changed Desmond's and Altair's face (and Altair's Voice). Ezio I get (he's much older than in AC:B). That really bugged me. Especially Altair's voice. I know, AC1 Altair had no accent at all, but this voice is...uncanny valley territory I guess. xD
