True, if they want 100% completion, they'll need to play through the companion app missions (not including the stupid chests). "Play through" is a real stretch though, as they're nowhere near as detailed as the normal missions/Paris stories. Seriously, this app is the poster child for shitty design. I want RPS or Gamasutra to do one of those "don't program shit like this" articles for just this app, that's how terrible it is.
I realize that few if any have actually tried to do this, but I have both the One version and the PS4 version. I have completed the companion app on the PS4 version, but for the X1 version I have not even started. I am curious if there is a way to transfer my progress I got from the Companion App to X1 version.
Its probably system specific though.
Nevertheless, I started my X1 playthrough after I had 100% the PS4 version and when I started the X1 version, I did get a message stating that chests had been unlocked so I dunno.
However, when I actually got to Paris and attempted to connect to the companion App while playing the X1 version it reset my App progress. However, when I started the PS4 version my app progress was restored. Right now when I start the App the game defaults to the PS4 100% completion.
What I am going to try is not starting the App on the X1 until after I unlock all social clubs. That could be what is affecting progress.
I will report back.
If anyone asks why I have both versions its simple I bought the PS4 disc and ended up getting an X1 for christmas which had the bundle.
Technically, all blunt weapons are non-lethal. They only put enemies into a crippled state, and you have to stab them with your hidden blades if you want them all the way dead.
"Looks like you're going to have to climb Lady Liberty. She must have bled through somehow. She should have been shipped to the U.S. by now."
Like what the fuck does that even mean? Basically, what you mean to say is:
"We did a Google search on tall shit in France and look! Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower. Booyah right?" Never mind the fact that the fucking story takes place during the French Revolution. Bad. Just bad, bad, bad writing.
Actually, while I'm venting, why can't the story just be about Assassin's and Templars with chapters in different eras? I know this thread is probably full of people asking this, but seriously!? Why does it have to have some bullshit, incoherent nonsense about DNA sequencing (OK!) and AI? All it does is ensure that you never feel immersed as a player, which is ironic considering the whole plot revolves around immersion.
The writing in this game is fucking terrible. I've never quit a game for shitty writing before, but this might be the first. Does someone know if it gets better as I progress?
"Looks like you're going to have to climb Lady Liberty. She must have bled through somehow. She should have been shipped to the U.S. by now."
Like what the fuck does that even mean? Basically, what you mean to say is:
"We did a Google search on tall shit in France and look! Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower. Booyah right?" Never mind the fact that the fucking story takes place during the French Revolution. Bad. Just bad, bad, bad writing.
Actually, while I'm venting, why can't the story just be about Assassin's and Templars with chapters in different eras? I know this thread is probably full of people asking this, but seriously!? Why does it have to have some bullshit, incoherent nonsense about DNA sequencing (OK!) and AI? All it does is ensure that you never feel immersed as a player, which is ironic considering the whole plot revolves around immersion.
The writing in this game is fucking terrible. I've never quit a game for shitty writing before, but this might be the first. Does someone know if it gets better as I progress?
You aren't playing as Arno during the time warp segments, which are full of "glitches" like Lady Liberty being in the wrong time period. It actually does make sense. The writing award nomination was very well deserved imo.
I'll say this about Unity: the framework is good enough that, if they manage to get performance up to a steady 30 fps and get rid of all the extra currencies and companion app bullshit, I will buy Victory.
I won't buy it full-priced, but I will buy it.
Not since AC3 have I paid over €40 for an AC game. After Unity, that approach has been justified once more.
I'll say this about Unity: the framework is good enough that, if they manage to get performance up to a steady 30 fps and get rid of all the extra currencies and companion app bullshit, I will buy Victory.
I won't buy it full-priced, but I will buy it.
Not since AC3 have I paid over 40 for an AC game. After Unity, that approach has been justified once more.
You aren't playing as Arno during the time warp segments, which are full of "glitches" like Lady Liberty being in the wrong time period. It actually does make sense. The writing award nomination was very well deserved imo.
According to someone on the reddit for this game there's a lot of characterization for Arno that for whatever reason never made it into the game - apparently it's in the novel. Sucks, really, as I think Arno has a lot of potential. Hopefully we see him in London (although I'm not sure what the time frame is for the next game, maybe he'll be too old).
I'll say this about Unity: the framework is good enough that, if they manage to get performance up to a steady 30 fps and get rid of all the extra currencies and companion app bullshit, I will buy Victory.
I won't buy it full-priced, but I will buy it.
Not since AC3 have I paid over 40 for an AC game. After Unity, that approach has been justified once more.
I mostly agree with the framework and would agree that if they can stabilize the engine Unity does a TON of things right, but they still need to fix the combat and annoying stuff. Yes, it was good that it made it more difficult, but they made it difficult in all the wrong ways.
Whenever there's a time warp, you're playing as yourself using Arno as an avatar, like how the MP worked in the previous games. Since you seemingly only did the first one I suggest going through the game first. I find his no nonsense mixed with passive agressive sarcasm nature quite likeable but I can see how that would turn some people off.
Whenever there's a time warp, you're playing as yourself using Arno as an avatar, like how the MP worked in the previous games. Since you seemingly only did the first one I suggest going through the game first. I find his no nonsense mixed with passive agressive sarcasm nature quite likeable but I can see how that would turn some people off.
I thought Arno was awesome too because of these things. He's easily my favorite protagonist in the series, maybe even moreso than Ezio. I also quite liked Elise
which made me so pissed that they killed her off for no good reason
I'm looking to play this game but all I can find is for $59 looking for digital only I see its going for 29 physical are there any deals for the game looking for ps4 version
"Looks like you're going to have to climb Lady Liberty. She must have bled through somehow. She should have been shipped to the U.S. by now."
Like what the fuck does that even mean? Basically, what you mean to say is:
"We did a Google search on tall shit in France and look! Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower. Booyah right?" Never mind the fact that the fucking story takes place during the French Revolution. Bad. Just bad, bad, bad writing.
Actually, while I'm venting, why can't the story just be about Assassin's and Templars with chapters in different eras? I know this thread is probably full of people asking this, but seriously!? Why does it have to have some bullshit, incoherent nonsense about DNA sequencing (OK!) and AI? All it does is ensure that you never feel immersed as a player, which is ironic considering the whole plot revolves around immersion.
The writing in this game is fucking terrible. I've never quit a game for shitty writing before, but this might be the first. Does someone know if it gets better as I progress?
I don't understand what's the problem with the first part, the Statue of Liberty. The Statue is a gift from France to the US. The Statue was built in France and was in France before shipment to the US. So what the girl is saying is that the Statue shouldn't be there given the time period he was flung in. I don't get your irritation.
As for the writing, it's bad. Very bad. And and it gets worse afterwards, the worst being in the DLC. Also, I'm playing in French (I know the langage) so maybe the localization is really bad but since Black Flag was ALSO very very badly written, I'm assuming it's just an AC thing.
I don't understand what's the problem with the first part, the Statue of Liberty. The Statue is a gift from France to the US. The Statue was built in France and was in France before shipment to the US. So what the girl is saying is that the Statue shouldn't be there given the time period he was flung in. I don't get your irritation.
As for the writing, it's bad. Very bad. And and it gets worse afterwards, the worst being in the DLC. Also, I'm playing in French (I know the langage) so maybe the localization is really bad but since Black Flag was ALSO very very badly written, I'm assuming it's just an AC thing.
You can buy them as soon as you are officially an Assassin which I reckon happens as soon as you get to Paris.
When people say that a story that's considered by many to be good enough to even get a nomination for it's writing i'm curious about where they're coming from or how much they know about writing. THIS is bad writing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2eODlg-MZY
I've yet to start on Sequence 8. Been doing side missions, getting collectibles, and going through a few co-op missions to unlock the Hood and Chest portions of Arno's Master Assassin equipment; got the entire set and it looks slick.
When people say that a story that's considered by many to be good enough to even get a nomination for it's writing i'm curious about where they're coming from or how much they know about writing. THIS is bad writing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2eODlg-MZY
You can't just extract portions of it. I'm not talking about the langage and the agency of words. It's not that "writing" we're talking about here.
I'm talking about the writing of the story. How we get from point A to point B and how action C makes any sense in regards to the events happening.
I'm talking about the development of the characters, through dialogue or gameplay and none of them gets a good a treatment in this game. It was a little bit better in BF (but really just a little) but this here is horrible.
Have you played Dead King ? The encounter with Leon and how Arno rejects him then goes back to him... it's just stupid. It happens too fast, none of it is ever justified and when you look at their dialogue it often feels like they are not even talking to each other, just throwing sentences out there.
People who call this "good writing" have no clue what writing is about.
You can't just extract portions of it. I'm not talking about the langage and the agency of words. It's not that "writing" we're talking about here.
I'm talking about the writing of the story. How we get from point A to point B and how action C makes any sense in regards to the events happening.
I'm talking about the development of the characters, through dialogue or gameplay and none of them gets a good a treatment in this game. It was a little bit better in BF (but really just a little) but this here is horrible.
Have you played Dead King ? The encounter with Leon and how Arno rejects him then goes back to him... it's just stupid. It happens too fast, none of it is ever justified and when you look at their dialogue it often feels like they are not even talking to each other, just throwing sentences out there.
People who call this "good writing" have no clue what writing is about.
You can't just extract portions of it. I'm not talking about the langage and the agency of words. It's not that "writing" we're talking about here.
I'm talking about the writing of the story. How we get from point A to point B and how action C makes any sense in regards to the events happening.
I'm talking about the development of the characters, through dialogue or gameplay and none of them gets a good a treatment in this game. It was a little bit better in BF (but really just a little) but this here is horrible.
Have you played Dead King ? The encounter with Leon and how Arno rejects him then goes back to him... it's just stupid. It happens too fast, none of it is ever justified and when you look at their dialogue it often feels like they are not even talking to each other, just throwing sentences out there.
People who call this "good writing" have no clue what writing is about.
I suppose we should just replace the entire staff of the BAFTA staff with you. What are you talking about that it doesn't feel like they're talking to each other? I didn't get that sense at all. In fact, watching all the dialogue from Dead Kings I still can't see what your'e talking about, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPwjpgbMPb8 Also, the motivations are very clearly laid out throughout the dialogue of the game.
-Arno:Wants to redeem himself because he directly caused the death of Elise's father by being an immature young adult and also the death of his own father in the past. will even question the creed that he follows to achieve it. Also has an protection complex when it comes to Elise, seen even when he's a child when he admits to stealing the apple.
-Elise:Wants revenge and will stop at nothing to get it,
even would sacrifice Arno to get it.
-Mirabeau:Wants peace between Templars and Assassins, partly so that he'll be remembered forever among his peers.
-Pierre Bellec:Wants Templars gone, for good, with no chance of peace.
AC:Unity has a lot of nuance that I think goes over viewer's heads. Like
the death of Elise not being about making Arno grow as a character.
And Black Flag gave it's cast a ton of screen time during the campaign, the majority of the tailing missions involved Edward talking with his peers. It's astounding you are confused about any of their motivations when given that much dialogue.
Whenever there's a time warp, you're playing as yourself using Arno as an avatar, like how the MP worked in the previous games. Since you seemingly only did the first one I suggest going through the game first. I find his no nonsense mixed with passive agressive sarcasm nature quite likeable but I can see how that would turn some people off.
I have seen a lot of criticism about Arno but I have just completed the first mission of sequence 2 and find him to be pretty decent so far. Does he get worse or something?
I suppose we should just replace the entire staff of the BAFTA staff with you. What are you talking about that it doesn't feel like they're talking to each other? I didn't get that sense at all. In fact, watching all the dialogue from Dead Kings I still can't see what your'e talking about, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPwjpgbMPb8 Also, the motivations are very clearly laid out throughout the dialogue of the game.
-Arno:Wants to redeem himself because he directly caused the death of Elise's father by being an immature young adult and also the death of his own father in the past. will even question the creed that he follows to achieve it. Also has an protection complex when it comes to Elise, seen even when he's a child when he admits to stealing the apple.
-Elise:Wants revenge and will stop at nothing to get it,
even would sacrifice Arno to get it.
-Mirabeau:Wants peace between Templars and Assassins, partly so that he'll be remembered forever among his peers.
-Pierre Bellec:Wants Templars gone, for good, with no chance of peace.
AC:Unity has a lot of nuance that I think goes over viewer's heads. Like
the death of Elise not being about making Arno grow as a character.
Alright, I don't think I'll be able to convince you of how bad the writing is. But I'm just going to give you some clues and let you ponder on it (and I don't see the link with the British Academy for Film and Television Arts ).
My argument is not that the game lacks a story, nor that the characters lack motivation. My argument is that the story is poorly knit together and that the characters lack development. I'm pondering the words I use, please don't try to ignore them or pick them out of sentences.
Let's talk about the Story part of the argument.
Not a single time in the entire game is it established what the fuck is going in France, who are the factions at plat, where do the Assassins (as a group and then as individuals) stand, where do the Templars stand. Not a single time. One mission will make you go against the monarchy and the next one will make you save it. There's probably a good reason for it but it's not transparent.
I don't think I'm particularly stupid when it comes to following a plotline, but there was way too many times in the games where I had absolutely no idea about WTF was going on and why I was doing what I was doing. I still have no clue for example on WTF happened when Arno found out about the trap was walking in.
Now about the characters.
First, I find it very revealing that your one-liners descriptions of the characters do not include any word on the Revolution itself. You're drawing the broad strokes (which I mostly agree with) but that's it.
Second, I felt that they were throwing historical characters just for show off like Lepeletier, Robespierre, Marquis de Sade.
Last, I just want to took at the actual dialogue between the characters.
That cutscene where Napoleons gives a lecture on Rose being a rat : "what does a rat want" ; "food of course" throws an apple ; "ah, you seem to appeal to their self interest. but you have miscalculated" shoots the apple with a gun "your people are dead" "I know the human animal, what you fear, what you love" etc.
Seriously, what does that even mean ? It's random stuff that sounds cool but doesn't convey any sense. It's the definition of bad writing.
The Leon part is hilarious (spoiler for the first sequence in Dead Kings) :
Arno and Leon learn that Napoleon is trying to find an artifact that will allow him to manipulate the hopes of the population in order to surrender their freedom.
L : We have to stop him ! And save the people of France !
A: Rescuing them will only delay the inevitable.
L: What's wrong with you ? (shit, that escalated fast)[
A: You're going to get yourself killed for nothing little man ! (what ? why ? how ? why would he be killed if you do it Arno ?)
L: If you can't do it, then I can ! - runs off
A: Stop ! Leon ! Come back here !
Next scene :
A: Give me the manuscript !
L: Why ? It had nothing to do with anything, does it ?
A: I'm leaving the country, that's my way out.
L : What of the future ? A free France where we all take care of each other ? (this is as vague as things can get)
A: Why don't you grow up ? Forget France. You're on your own. (again, WTF are you even talking about) Leon gives him the manuscript
L: What happened that turned you into such a connard ! (okay, first the use of random French words is bad, very bad, it doesn't make any sense. and second, how the fuck do you know that something happened, you've know the guy for like 5 minutes).
A: You can't save them, they are never coming back ? (wait, who's "they" and "them" ??)
L: You are just like them. (different "them" here I guess. good writing guys).
Arno runs into Mme Margot
M : I've been looking for you Monsieur. Thank you for returning Leon.
A: Good luck with him.
M : I once had a son.
A : I'm sorry.
M : No, he's alive. I left him. I began the orphanage afterward.
A : Now that's love. (what. the. fuck. How do you go from "I had a son that I abandoned" to "that's love" in 4 lines.
M : Sometimes love is a prison. His father taught me that. This, the orphanage is my true calling. (Naopleon's rat all over again, just cool random stuff "sometimes love is a prison", really ?) Leon tells me you could have been the savior of France. Children. (what ? "Children" ? What about them ?)
A : Mme Margot !
M : He's behind the orphanage !
Arno finds Leon again.
A : Little man. We have three days until my ships sails.
L : So what ? (that should be the subtitle of the game)
A : I'll get the artifact. Then I'm gone. (okay, wait. what exactly did Mme Margot say that made you change your mind ? And what happened to "you're gonna get yourself killed for nothing" ?
L : Fine. (FINE ??? you have no question to ask on why did he change his mind ?)
Let me just stop there. I think I've said enough and I don't feel like typing the whole script of the game. The characters jump from plot points to another without even a hint of continuity and logic. It's like the writers knew the articulations of the plot but never bothered to sew it properly and delivered an ugly patchwork.
I have seen a lot of criticism about Arno but I have just completed the first mission of sequence 2 and find him to be pretty decent so far. Does he get worse or something?
He's less "fun" than he is at the beginning. He takes his job seriously even though he occassionally makes jokes about the ridiculous of the situations he gets in. Which to people who expected him to be exactly like he is at the beginning throughout the whol game may seem disappointing.
Sorry man, not trying to be pretentious or anything. I guess years of Internet debating tend to make you look that way ^^
Alright, I don't think I'll be able to convince you of how bad the writing is. But I'm just going to give you some clues and let you ponder on it (and I don't see the link with the British Academy for Film and Television Arts ).
My argument is not that the game lacks a story, nor that the characters lack motivation. My argument is that the story is poorly knit together and that the characters lack development. I'm pondering the words I use, please don't try to ignore them or pick them out of sentences.
Let's talk about the Story part of the argument.
I don't think I'm particularly stupid when it comes to following a plotline, but there was way too many times in the games where I had absolutely no idea about WTF was going on and why I was doing what I was doing. I still have no clue for example on WTF happened when Arno found out about the trap was walking in..
You basically just proved my point when I said that a lot of things go over a lot of viewers heads, because you clearly didn't understand the nuance and/or wasn't paying close attention to all the dialogue. So I'll explain it to you.
It's stated multiple times that the people re fighting for equality and liberty. The assassins are trying to figure out who exactly is pulling the strings, there's even a line where they make a joke about this,
"Templars do nothing simply do they?"
they aren't allied with anyone but are letting history take it's course while sending their agents to intervene during the pivotal moments, this is shown through the co-op missions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5D2MkZtbAQ, Something that
Pierre Bellec opposes which is why he assassinates Mirabeau and planned to purge the brotherhood.
The story however is not about the French Revolution, the French Revolution is a backdrop to the story of Arno and Elise. Meanwhile on the Templar side of things.
The templars are going through their own purge and are manipulating the people into making the revolution violent and bloody through various means such as starving the people by rerouting grain shipments.
Which is also shown through the co-op missions, and in the story mode since there's an entire speech from the main antagonist where he specifically states why he's doing what he's doing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xwoDraZhfUSo yes, the motivations of the two orders are stated. In fact, I can't even recall a mission where the brotherhood wants to actively go against the monarchy.
The only time the council mentions the monarchy and sends Arno to deal with something related to it is when they send him to burn the correspondence papers in the King's palace so that it doesn't get discovered by the wrong people.
But again, the game is not mainly about the French Revolution anymore than AC2 was about the renaissance, like AC2 it's the setting is the backdrop, not the main point, like AC3.
Arno and Leon learn that Napoleon is trying to find an artifact that will allow him to manipulate the hopes of the population in order to surrender their freedom.
L : We have to stop him ! And save the people of France !
A: Rescuing them will only delay the inevitable.
L: What's wrong with you ? (shit, that escalated fast)[
Hopeful Little kid is more prone to emotion than a full adult. A natural reaction, especially after Arno says "We need to...to protect it from the enemies of France." He manipulated Leon at first and was getting fed up because the kid is not only a liability but reminds him of himself. Leon is seeing an idealistic hero who he thinks is invincible start to crack.
A: You're going to get yourself killed for nothing little man ! (what ? why ? how ? why would he be killed if you do it Arno ?)
Because as we already saw Leon was about to be killed by interfering with people who are very obviously fucked up morally. out of his control. It's also a reference to Elise because France was not magically fixed after the death of the leader of the new templar rite and Arno had nothing left, so in his eyes, Elise died for nothing. He had already saved Leon from death.
L: If you can't do it, then I can ! - runs off
A: Stop ! Leon ! Come back here !
A: Give me the manuscript !
L: Why ? It had nothing to do with anything, does it ?
A: I'm leaving the country, that's my way out.
L : What of the future ? A free France where we all take care of each other ? (this is as vague as things can get)
Leon had mentioned multiple times that he wants to save France, his an idealistic child, in the previous mission he mentioned that if he saves France than his parents will come back to take care of him.
A: Why don't you grow up ? Forget France. You're on your own. (again, WTF are you even talking about)
Leon is an orphan, a sole orphan, he is on his own, which almost led to him getting killed by Raiders in a crypt.
Leon gives him the manuscript
L: What happened that turned you into such a connard ! (okay, first the use of random French words is bad, very bad, it doesn't make any sense. and second, how the fuck do you know that something happened, you've know the guy for like 5 minutes).
Arno is obviously a very cynical adult that doesn't care for France and is in it for himself, so cynical that he tries manipulating a child and gets fed up with the idealistic ramblings of an orphan. He's called a bastard because he lied to Leon moments earlier about "protecting the manuscript from the enemies of France."
A: You can't save them, they are never coming back ? (wait, who's "they" and "them" ??)
Leon's parents, who he earlier in the missions, try paying attention the in-game dialogue and not just the cutscenes.
L: You are just like them. (different "them" here I guess. good writing guys).
Just like the other men who are only in it for themselves, mainly the
Arno runs into Mme Margot
M : I've been looking for you Monsieur. Thank you for returning Leon.
A: Good luck with him.
M : I once had a son.
A : I'm sorry.
M : No, he's alive. I left him. I began the orphanage afterward.
A : Now that's love. (what. the. fuck. How do you go from "I had a son that I abandoned" to "that's love" in 4 lines.
It was one line, and Arno was very obviously being a sarcastic dick.
M : Sometimes love is a prison. His father taught me that. This, the orphanage is my true calling. (Naopleon's rat all over again, just cool random stuff "sometimes love is a prison", really ?) Leon tells me you could have been the savior of France. Children. (what ? "Children" ? What about them ?)
Would you prefer it to be like anime where we get a flashback showing every single detail of her marriage with her husband? Who by the sounds of it, was abusive but she had no way to get out, considering the time period it was highly likely for her to be married off and in an marriage where she was loved but she didn't share the same feeling, and since she probably didn't have a way out at that point in time, it's a prison. It's called nuance, it doesn't need to be explained in explicit detail.
Also "children" basically=kids say the darndest things. She's like Arno earlier is criticizing Leon's idealistic nature, an idealistic nature that Arno used to share, since he believed that killing one man would redeem him, it's a callback to one of the final lines that Germain says, "One death cannot change the tide."
A : Mme Margot !
M : He's behind the orphanage !
Arno finds Leon again.
A : Little man. We have three days until my ships sails.
L : So what ? (that should be the subtitle of the game)
A : I'll get the artifact. Then I'm gone. (okay, wait. what exactly did Mme Margot say that made you change your mind ? And what happened to "you're gonna get yourself killed for nothing" ?
Criticizing Leon's idealistic nature=criticizing the Arno in the past who was idealistic about his one goal in life, redemption. Seeing this he realized his mistakes when talking to Leon. He wants to better himself, and helping Leon and in turn Saint Dennis is one way to do so.
L : Fine. (FINE ??? you have no question to ask on why did he change his mind ?)
Children are fickle, It's not just fine, why not include the part where they discuss the artifacts.
Think you should brush up on your story analyzation skills. All of what I stated is shown in the game and implied through subtle storytelling, what you refer to as "vague sentences that sound cool" is what a lot of writers would call nuance.
You basically just proved my point when I said that a lot of things go over a lot of viewers heads, because you clearly didn't understand the nuance and/or wasn't paying close attention to all the dialogue. So I'll explain it to you.
Alright, I've read all of your explanations and I haven't changed my mind. Because all you're doing is analyzing, which can be done no matter the lentgh and/or quality of the story. Good work on the analyzation though, it's quite good (although I'd disagree on some things).
I plan to replay the early part of the game (the first missions, before the Assassins/Templars crap, were better crafted story-wise) to try and pinpoint when it all went overboard.
Alright, I've read all of your explanations and I haven't changed my mind. Because all you're doing is analyzing, which can be done no matter the lentgh and/or quality of the story. Good work on the analyzation though, it's quite good (although I'd disagree on some things).
I plan to replay the early part of the game (the first missions, before the Assassins/Templars crap, were better crafted story-wise) to try and pinpoint when it all went overboard.
Through analyzation I was refuting your points.
1.Oh the motives are never explained
-Yes they are, which is why I spelled them out for you, I was merely giving you the explanations that the game pretty much gives you
2.Your critique of the conversations between
Leon and Arno
as an example of bad writing, where I analyzed the scene and explained the points that were evidently confusing you, like the
questioning of who is "them,"
.
At this point it seems that you're blaming the plot because you didn't get alot of the subtext.
On another note, are there any clues in the game for the player to find out who killed Charles Dorian ?
I've seen someone on the Internet spoil it for the people who haven't played Rogue and then defend himself by saying that it as true very easily "guessable" by playing Unity. Me on the other hand, don't even the remember the name of the murder being ever pronounced in the game.
It is odd how Arno is more pissed and wants revenge for murder of his adopted father then his real one. I know it because due to Rogue so they can use characters in future. But I mean you get the visions during the assassin induction but then he never mentions or thinks about his real father it all about De La Serre. It does bring up interesting fact Arno has no real motivation be a assassin in a way.
It is odd how Arno is more pissed and wants revenge for murder of his adopted father then his real one. I know it because due to Rogue so they can use characters in future. But I mean you get the visions during the assassin induction but then he never mentions or thinks about his real father it all about De La Serre. It does bring up interesting fact Arno has no real motivation be a assassin in a way.
Arno isn't out for revenge, and an adoptive father can be mean just as much to you as your real father, he spent more time living with his De La Serre than his actual father. His motivation is redemption. "If I find and bring those who killed De La Serre i'll be redeemed, because it was my fault." Think that adds to his calm nature as a protege assassin compared to Ezio, an assassin out for revenge, furiously killing his targets before he learns to become more humble. Also there's a line where he states why.
while talking to Elise:"What I wanted was you, I couldn't bear the fact that my carelessness got your father killed. Everything i've done since then has been to fix that mistake, and to correct it from happening again."
Through analyzation I was refuting your points.
1.Oh the motives are never explained
-Yes they are, which is why I spelled them out for you, I was merely giving you the explanations that the game pretty much gives you
2.Your critique of the conversations between
Leon and Arno
as an example of bad writing, where I analyzed the scene and explained the points that were evidently confusing you, like the
questioning of who is "them,"
.
At this point it seems that you're blaming the plot because you didn't get alot of the subtext.
I agree with most of your points, but there seems to be something lacking in ACU's story that I cant get a pin on, which might be what the person you are arguing against might be thinking/feeling. Maybe pacing and/or cut content?
I have a real love/hate relationship with Assassin's Creed. Every year I buy the new game, hate the sluggish controls and the repetitive design, swear to myself that I'm done with the series, then Ubisoft gears up the marketing engine and gets me excited again by promising amazing new features. I figured I was done after Revelations, but then they promised a complete overhaul with 3. 3 sucked, and I swore I was done, but then 4 was advertised as the boat game, and I did love those boats. I liked AC4 a lot, and I figured it was going to be a good swansong for my relationship with the series, but then Unity rolled around and all of a sudden they're promising to fix the parkour, fix the stealth, fix the combat, get rid of the tailing and eavesdropping bullshit. Just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in, like clockwork.
I think Unity is a decent Assassin's Creed game. If you only compare it to other AC games it does a lot of things right. The eavesdropping missions are gone, and there are only a couple of bullshit instant-fail tailing missions. You're very rarely given a game over for being spotted, which is a very welcome change. But I realised after a while that Ubisoft didn't really do anything except remove the penalties. The game's stealth mechanics aren't really any better than they used to be (all they did was let you crouch and use an awful cover system), you just aren't penalised for being spotted any more. It's just a bandaid solution to an issue that's been present throughout the entire life of the AC series.
It's a similar deal with the combat. They wanted to make it harder this time around, so you can't fight off forty guys all by yourself. Cool idea, to be sure, but they didn't actually go back to the drawing board on the mechanics and rebalance the game around a more fragile assassin. They just cut your health by about 90%, removed your counter kill, kill chain and human shield abilities and then called it a day. They still populate every mission with forty guys for you to kill, it's just much harder to kill them all now. Until you start unlocking high-level gear, that is, at which point you break the whole system and become a walking army again.
The regular 20-30 second load times after deaths gave me ample time to ponder about just how much it sucks to get spotted because I couldn't steer my tank-like assassin through a narrow space without getting hung up on geometry, or exactly how much bullshit it is that enemies will one-hit kill me from off-screen and I won't know until it's too late because the attack icons that are supposed to warn me didn't show up. This kind of shit doesn't happen in good, high-quality, well-polished video games. Rocksteady's Batman games, for example, do pretty much all the things that AC does, and I'm hard-pressed to find anything that AC does better. Stealth, combat, traversal, responsiveness of controls; obviously AC has the edge if you're looking for a beautifully-rendered historical setting, but the actual gameplay in that city is heavy, sluggish and unresponsive, and it's been that way since the very first game.
And... why? Is a character that feels like shit to control really such an important part of Assassin's Creed's identity? Would it really ruin the experience if you pushed the analogue stick forward and your dude darted off the line and you were able to nimbly guide him through a city without him ever getting hung up on tables and chairs or randomly climbing halfway up a building before you have to stop dead, take a deep breath and pull him back down again? You don't need to sacrifice the realistic animations to have a character that controls well; Naughty Dog has proved that with Uncharted and TLOU. Why does Assassin's Creed have to be synonymous with shitty controls?
*sigh* Anyway, I really like Unity's more open approach to mission design. The big Assassination missions are definitely the highpoint, and they're a welcome change from the typical 'run to this waypoint and do exactly what we tell you to do'. The game still has more than its fair share of that, of course (if you ever wanted to follow NPCs who all walk at a different speed than you do, you're in the right place), but there's definitely more freedom than a long-suffering AC fan might expect. The Paris Tales are great little side missions that often just set you a task and leave it up to you to work out how to complete it; it's definitely a step in the right direction for the series. I think the Murder Mysteries are really cool, too; it's a little thing, but I was actually taken aback when I realised the game actually trusted me to accuse the murderer all by myself. I'm so accustomed to Modern AAA Game Design, tooltips and hints and glowing markers that I really expected those missions to just be automated collect-a-thons with cutscenes of Arno saving the day at the end; getting to do it myself is awesome.
I think the story is utter rubbish.
The whole thing is about Arno taking revenge for his father and father figure, but I didn't give two shits about those dudes. It's all well and good to tell me that Arno was fond of them, but what did they ever do for me? Arno's Dad has like one line before he eats it, and Elise's Dad only a few more, so why should I care that they died? I'm not invested in this revenge fantasy at all. Elise practically had "I'm going to die at the end" tattooed on her forehead from the moment she showed up, too. It felt like they conceived her as a tearjerking death scene first, then went back and slotted her into the story to keep up appearances. Arno was never anything more than a bad accent to me, too. Connor at least had some awful character traits to latch onto and hate, but I can't even think of anything to say about Arno. I can barely even picture his face in my mind any more. Guy made no impression whatsoever.
Modern day stuff was a complete anticlimax, too. "Oh, looks like Arno already did the thing, guess we can all clock off early. Was Bishop supposed to be Rebecca with a different voice actress? Deacon was obviously Shaun, but I couldn't work out whether Bishop was supposed to be someone new or a recast Rebecca.
But, in the end, none of that matters because this shit runs at 20FPS and you should absolutely not buy it until Ubisoft fixes it. If they ever do get it running at an acceptable level then... well, it's an Assassin's Creed game. You know by now if you like those or not. I think there's a lot to like in Unity, but it's still a very small, iterative, babystep forward for the series that really does very little to fix the glaring flaws that have always been there.
I agree with most of your points, but there seems to be something lacking in ACU's story that I cant get a pin on, which might be what the person you are arguing against might be thinking/feeling. Maybe pacing and/or cut content?
I think when it comes to the average viewer AC:Unity's plot suffers from the fact that we have to follow everything from Arno's perspective all the time because animus. While at it's heart it's the story of Arno and Elise it's also filled with a lot of characters that have some form of depth to them. This is enhanced because of the new assassination mechanic where instead of a white room
you see glimpses of that characters past. you see conversations that had nothing to do with Arno and Elise, what, this game has a big cast of characters who have their own motivations, show me more, moreMORE.
Being a viewer you naturally wanna see more of this instead of this because the characters are interesting enough
instead of glimpses.
It's almost like a tv show trapped in the form of a game. There's also the fact that it's the most grounded story yet in the series due to two reasons
-because the big modern day plot twist got relegated to a text file due to production issues. With the dialogue still being left in the game files. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixl7OBumZeM
-Because the game doesn't urge the player to play the co-op missions while after certain story missions they miss out on the context of the french revolution, the game is about the story of Arno and Elise while the side content is about the revolution, some might prefer the side content instead of a love story.
I disagree with several points, the parkour feeling sluggish being one of the biggest ones or the stealth not being any better just with a cover system and crouch mechanic, and the story being about revenge, Arno's main motivation is not about revenge, if Elise was the main character I'd be inclined to agree with the story being about revenge since that's her main motivation, but I don't think many would be complaining if Elise was the lead since she is undoubtedly the more interesting and likeable of the two.
I disagree with several points, the parkour feeling sluggish being one of the biggest ones or the stealth not being any better just with a cover system and crouch mechanic, and the story being about revenge, Arno's main motivation is not about revenge, if Elise was the main character I'd be inclined to agree with the story being about revenge since that's her main motivation, but I don't think many would be complaining if Elise was the lead since she is undoubtedly the more interesting and likeable of the two.
Same impression here. The stealth and parkour are leagues ahead of BF. The combat felt pretty much the same (though you die to much less hits) and I liked it too. The overall gameplay is excellent.
There is definitely room for improvement though. I want more assassination methods (in the trailer, you see an Assassin jumping straight from a window and curtains, straight on top of an enemy, I want that shit !) and a more player driven parkour. I think they got something with the X/O and they can add more options (the L2 thing to enter a window needs some fine tuning for example) so that the assassin does exactly what the player has in mind.
The stealth is much better than previous games, and the parkour itself is faster and way more responsive but I think the new bigger scale of the buildings is why some feel that it's more sluggish because it takes time to get to where you need to go.
The stealth is much better than previous games, and the parkour itself is faster and way more responsive but I think the new bigger scale of the buildings is why some feel that it's more sluggish because it takes time to get to where you need to go.
I've fount that if you tap R2+X while using the left stick Arno will use the leap move from previous games, gets me up most buildings pretty fast aside from the monuments which are ridiculously tall.
I just finished Dead Kings. I wanted to get through this entire game before pointing how disappointed I was with it. This game sucks but it shouldn't.
Even after all the patches this game has some kind of grainy look to it that ruins it. I dont know if this is intentional or not but it sucks along with the frame rate.
Arno sticks to EVERYTHING. This is like ACIII bad. You can barely run anywhere without him taking extra steps or sticking in the corners.
The story is terrible, its getting redundant. Revenge blah blah and the series it starting to suffer without the modern day framework. The Ezio games worked because of it, there was a sense of what you were doing affected the outcome, or at least you would see the results of it in the 2012 timeline. Without it, the series has no directions. It made sense playing a particular bloodline although the way they told those parts of the story were bullshit. Add to it, they still make it like the future is still there. What is going on? The random initiate thing doesn't work.
The Assassins talk about the rebuilding of the Creed (no doubt by Conner) but there is little connection. Are there just Assassins doing their own thing now? Wouldn't they be connected in some kind of way since Conner would still be alive in Unity?
They need to give the Assassins a real purpose instead of this guy killed someone close to me and ALSO happens to be a Templar.
The controls take a step back again if that's even possible. Why can't I equip my assassins blade anymore? I have a heavy weapon but if I want to switch back to my sweet sword I need to be ground level and go though 5 screens. Can I just get a Weapons wheel?
Seriously, this app is the poster child for shitty design. I want RPS or Gamasutra to do one of those "don't program shit like this" articles for just this app, that's how terrible it is.
