Assassin's Creed
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I know I enjoyed Assassin's Creed, but what do you think Ubisoft Montreal could've done to make it better?
They offered a huge amount of new features that just felt fresh for this game. The problem was that it was the same new features offered through the whole game and it never evolved into anything more. The storyline was alright, but it wasn't enough to keep me entertained as much as I should of been.
I have to admit though, once I learned how to counter and actually beat some ass on the game is was entertaining enough to play it all the way through.
I have to admit though, once I learned how to counter and actually beat some ass on the game is was entertaining enough to play it all the way through.
I thought it was a great game, but it would have been nice when you went to a new town or village that there were new task thrown at you instead of the same ones you did at the previous towns.
Not requiring that the X button (PS3) be held down for sprinting or auto-jumping. I kept wanting to manipulate the camera (right analog stick) to look somewhere before I turned that way, especially when running away from guards.
I also enjoyed the game immensely. The fighting was very good, especially being able to keep up a sword fight with 10 people a once without getting hit. And the climbing looked absolutely real (anyone who cries nonsense, watch some Parkour movies or Dan Osman, there are people capable of actually doing that!)
There's only one thing that really jumps in your face:
The missions are insanely blunt. It's if they had taken 95% of their time to build the game's non story-related parts (game world, mechanics, interaction) and then tried to quickly add some story and missions for the game. All of them just use the game world for mundane tasks (Move from A to B quickly. Kill Person X unseen. Move from A to B and collect flags. Clobber Person X).
Personally, I DO hope that the developers indeed made a conscious strategic decision about investing a disproportionate amount of time into building a game system for their future games. That would mean we can expect absolute greatness from what is to follow. Being a fan of the Prince of Persia series, I can't wait to see what the engine will deliver for PoP 4 (or will it be called RDoP - "Random Dude of Persia" - now that the prince is gone?)
There's only one thing that really jumps in your face:
The missions are insanely blunt. It's if they had taken 95% of their time to build the game's non story-related parts (game world, mechanics, interaction) and then tried to quickly add some story and missions for the game. All of them just use the game world for mundane tasks (Move from A to B quickly. Kill Person X unseen. Move from A to B and collect flags. Clobber Person X).
Personally, I DO hope that the developers indeed made a conscious strategic decision about investing a disproportionate amount of time into building a game system for their future games. That would mean we can expect absolute greatness from what is to follow. Being a fan of the Prince of Persia series, I can't wait to see what the engine will deliver for PoP 4 (or will it be called RDoP - "Random Dude of Persia" - now that the prince is gone?)
Speaking of PoP, there's a teaser video out there someplace for the new one, I saw it on Xbox live. I have some misgivings.
Regarding Assassin's Creed, it stands in my mind alongside the original Halo as one of the most heavily hyped games that ever almost lived up to the ridiculous hype. I'm saying the game is awesome. I've never been a huge fan of mindless eye candy, but AC uses its pretty graphics to good effect to give a great sensation of scale, speed and freedom. The much-reviled fighting engine really perks up as you get farther into the game and unlock the moves and tools that allow you to really enjoy the combat. The story's not great, but the concepts are adult enough that it doesn't feel like an after-school special, and the voice acting is good enough that it doesn't hurt to listen to. The stealth elements are good, the "hiding in plain sight" concept was entirely novel in my experience, and done very well. Screwing up and getting into a fight doesn't completely bone you, like it would in MGS3 or the original Splinter Cell, and you can kill your pursuers or hide in a cart for a few seconds, then get right back to what you were doing.
My gripes are not unique. I hate having to watch the pre-mission interview and then run down the mountain and then get a horse and then ride to the next goddamn county every time I want to play the game. The free-roaming sandbox play is the best part, in my mind, and putting five to ten minutes of bullshit in front of it is a good way to keep me from turning the game on just to go gather some flags or get a combat achievement, both of which are enjoyable activities unto themselves.
I never really had a hate for the missions. There are so few of them, and you only ever have to do half of them anyway. Sure, they're all the same, but they're basically cutscenes that you unlock with a simple sequence of movements (except the assist missions, which are sometimes a huge pain in my ass, so I skip 'em.) so I don't see what everyone's crying about. The guys at Penny Arcade made the observation that the missions would only become tedious if you're racing to finish the game in one day so that you can write an early review for a website, which makes that criticism more of a niche gripe that poisoned the well for later players.
I liked the future/past thing, too. Justifies weird gameplay elements like death and teleportation and time dilation, and it gives the sequels a lot of freedom.
Improvements I'd suggest:
1. No more insta-drown. At least just have him climb out of the water, like in Spiderman 2, and say, "Yikes, got my skirt wet." At best, let us cut a reed and hide in the water from guards. Being able to swim around to find paths around obstacles falls somewhere in the middle, but a drenched assassin would be a bit conspicuous, so I'm not sure that would work well.
2. Plug and play. No more waiting for the whole damn plot exposition for the chapter, no more climbing down the fortress mountain every time, no more horse marathon to the zone boundary. Just let me start in a city and get shankin'.
3. Variety of tasks. Make missions more interesting, and make them more the core of the game. As it stands, they're minigames, which gives the game a directionless feel. Let me have a few missions active, like in WoW or Diablo, so I can go for targets of opportunity while I wander, and not just hop from arena to arena, completing challenges.
Regarding Assassin's Creed, it stands in my mind alongside the original Halo as one of the most heavily hyped games that ever almost lived up to the ridiculous hype. I'm saying the game is awesome. I've never been a huge fan of mindless eye candy, but AC uses its pretty graphics to good effect to give a great sensation of scale, speed and freedom. The much-reviled fighting engine really perks up as you get farther into the game and unlock the moves and tools that allow you to really enjoy the combat. The story's not great, but the concepts are adult enough that it doesn't feel like an after-school special, and the voice acting is good enough that it doesn't hurt to listen to. The stealth elements are good, the "hiding in plain sight" concept was entirely novel in my experience, and done very well. Screwing up and getting into a fight doesn't completely bone you, like it would in MGS3 or the original Splinter Cell, and you can kill your pursuers or hide in a cart for a few seconds, then get right back to what you were doing.
My gripes are not unique. I hate having to watch the pre-mission interview and then run down the mountain and then get a horse and then ride to the next goddamn county every time I want to play the game. The free-roaming sandbox play is the best part, in my mind, and putting five to ten minutes of bullshit in front of it is a good way to keep me from turning the game on just to go gather some flags or get a combat achievement, both of which are enjoyable activities unto themselves.
I never really had a hate for the missions. There are so few of them, and you only ever have to do half of them anyway. Sure, they're all the same, but they're basically cutscenes that you unlock with a simple sequence of movements (except the assist missions, which are sometimes a huge pain in my ass, so I skip 'em.) so I don't see what everyone's crying about. The guys at Penny Arcade made the observation that the missions would only become tedious if you're racing to finish the game in one day so that you can write an early review for a website, which makes that criticism more of a niche gripe that poisoned the well for later players.
I liked the future/past thing, too. Justifies weird gameplay elements like death and teleportation and time dilation, and it gives the sequels a lot of freedom.
Improvements I'd suggest:
1. No more insta-drown. At least just have him climb out of the water, like in Spiderman 2, and say, "Yikes, got my skirt wet." At best, let us cut a reed and hide in the water from guards. Being able to swim around to find paths around obstacles falls somewhere in the middle, but a drenched assassin would be a bit conspicuous, so I'm not sure that would work well.
2. Plug and play. No more waiting for the whole damn plot exposition for the chapter, no more climbing down the fortress mountain every time, no more horse marathon to the zone boundary. Just let me start in a city and get shankin'.
3. Variety of tasks. Make missions more interesting, and make them more the core of the game. As it stands, they're minigames, which gives the game a directionless feel. Let me have a few missions active, like in WoW or Diablo, so I can go for targets of opportunity while I wander, and not just hop from arena to arena, completing challenges.
Quote:Original post by Iron Chef Carnage
<snip> <snip>
You got it right on the dot. The repetitive missions aren't such a big deal if you pace yourself when you play the game. It took me a couple of weeks to finish AC and I'd usually do a mission a day (including all the side quests).
The instant-drown drove me nuts because most of the time when you drown its because the path finding didn't register where you wanted to go so you'd jump in a completely seemingly random direction... I hated it so much.
I just wanted to add that there wasn't anything to do if you weren't doing missions. Collecting flags is boring (IMO) so it doesn't count [lol]. In GTA4 if you don't feel like doing missions you can just hijack a car and see how long you can last with a 6 star wanted level. In fact there are a tons of homemade games inside of GTA4 to keep you busy... This is exactly what was lacking in AC. It's do the missions or get bored.
Quote:Original post by Iron Chef Carnage
I liked the future/past thing, too. Justifies weird gameplay elements like death and teleportation and time dilation, and it gives the sequels a lot of freedom.
I've yet to play the game properly myself, so I can't really comment much on the gameplay. But the sci-fi storyline concept is a big turn-off for me.
It just strikes me incredibly contrived, packed with enough pseudo-scientific waffle to fill a shampoo advert, and totally and utterly unnecessary. It screams 'frustrated sci-fi author/scriptwriter/da vinci code fanfic syndrome'. The story might have just about worked for a book or a film, but the idea of actually controlling someone in the past through some newfangled and completely improbable 'genetic memory' technology goes too far, and destroys suspension of disbelief.
I really don't see any reason why they couldn't have set the whole story in 1191.
Quote:Original post by Iron Chef Carnage
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3. Variety of tasks. Make missions more interesting, and make them more the core of the game. As it stands, they're minigames, which gives the game a directionless feel. Let me have a few missions active, like in WoW or Diablo, so I can go for targets of opportunity while I wander, and not just hop from arena to arena, completing challenges.
I really agree with number three they went through all the trouble of scripting up these different events(note none of them completely recycle mission text) and yet they couldn't throw in a little bit of change up in the actual game play. What a waste of effort.
In the game you aren't "controlling someone" you are reliving their memory.
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