Assassin's Creed IV Gets Closer to the Heart

[Cari Scholtens]

Assassin's Creed IV Gets Closer to the Heart

Assassin's Creed IV doesn't have a modern day protagonist. Actually, well, it has you.

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[Mark D. Stroyer]

"Can't we find the minds to take us closer to the heart..."

Assassin's Creed has always been strongly in the "This is a game" camp, so it ultimately won't change too much. Liberation also did "You're working for Abstergo Entertainment" to...results.

I give it a 'meh'. I favour characters, but they seem to be unable to make the present-day remotely interesting.

 

[Drummodino]

This actually sounds interesting. There is a lot of potential for it to go wrong, but if they pull it off it could be great.

Then again I thought AC3 looked great and boy was I wrong. So I won't be getting 4 any time soon.

 

[Kayar13]

Am I the only person in the world who actually liked Desmond? It seems to me that he receives far too much flak. I've barely begun the article and already I'm feeling ostracized from the "majority" of gamers who did not like Desmond. As for how he was in the first game, though it has been some time since I played it, I remember him being concerned enough about his kidnapping to steal keys from Vidic and actively seek out information about his captors. If you wanted him to mope more and be less "aloof," as you say, then you should have played a game as a stereotypical damsel in distress and sat in a dungeon for five hour gaming sessions at a time. Desmond can't really do much to escape, so he does what little he can. He never seemed to me that emotionally unattached from his situation, perhaps only to some degree fatalistic and accepting of the situation, while still looking for ways out and things to do anyway.

If anything, at least Desmond was a decent conversationalist.

 

[Sanunes]

With the removal of Desmond I was hoping that they might have tried switching it up and not having the "current day character" for its one of those elements I didn't really like.

 

[Hawkeye21]

Am I the only person in the world who actually liked Desmond?

Yes. Yes you very probably are.

Edit: you can view the present day Abstergo entertainment part of the game here, if you are curious how it plays like (starts at 19:07, obviously beginning of the game spoilers ahoy):

 

[Thomas Larsen]

Am I the only person in the world who actually liked Desmond?

I know of at least one more liking him, me.

The way he is used to break up the pacing in the game and become some one weaker and slower than "Stab-you-in-the-face-jesus" Altair or Ezio, worked well for me. It gave me a short sence of vulnerability, before diving right back into the powerfantasy of the past Assasins.

 

[LittleBlackDragon]

Am I the only person in the world who actually liked Desmond?

Yes. Yes you very probably are.

Edit: you can view the present day Abstergo entertainment part of the game here, if you are curious how it plays like (starts at 19:07, obviously beginning of the game spoilers ahoy):

It could be very interesting or very aweful. But, the start looks promising. I wonder if you can input things later like your gender or things like that so when the others are talking about you, they will refer to you as he or she depending on what you selected. It's just hopeful thinking though, I've played too many RPGs where I have lots of freedom with building my character so I am a bit spoiled wanting these features to be available in non-RPG titles.

I personally didn't like Desmond very well. I didn't hate him, I just thought of him as kind of bland in the personality department. I did look up his backstory and saw how his relationships with Lucy and his dad, and the others. Honestly, the only modern character I actually felt attached to though was Rebecca. But maybe that was because I saw myself mostly in a character like hers. I thought Shaun was kind of a jerk. Lucy was okay, but not really great either, Desmond's dad kind of fell into that category for me as well.

But Desmond himself? No matter the richness of the things built around him, I could never get into Desmond as a character, so needless to say it didn't bother me one way or the other to see him go.

I do know people who like Desmond though, don't get me wrong. One of my best friend's roommates is a diehard Desmond fan and was incensed when I dared to say I thought he was the most boring character in the series. And of course, he does have his own little pocket of fangirls/fanboys on the internet as well.

I am interested in seeing what direction this will take. But, that's really all I have to say about that.

 

[MarsProbe]

Am I the only person in the world who actually liked Desmond? It seems to me that he receives far too much flak. I've barely begun the article and already I'm feeling ostracized from the "majority" of gamers who did not like Desmond. As for how he was in the first game, though it has been some time since I played it, I remember him being concerned enough about his kidnapping to steal keys from Vidic and actively seek out information about his captors. If you wanted him to mope more and be less "aloof," as you say, then you should have played a game as a stereotypical damsel in distress and sat in a dungeon for five hour gaming sessions at a time. Desmond can't really do much to escape, so he does what little he can. He never seemed to me that emotionally unattached from his situation, perhaps only to some degree fatalistic and accepting of the situation, while still looking for ways out and things to do anyway.

If anything, at least Desmond was a decent conversationalist.

No, you are never the only one. Yes, I liked Desmond (I also liked Xen, and Deus Ex: Invisible War, so I'm kind of used to living in the minority camp in these cases) and some of the aspects of the present day sections. When Desmond copped it, I was a little concerned for the series - moreso, after being hit with 3 iterations of the series in as many years (AC2 doesn't count, as we had actually had to wait for that game) - and where the overarching story was to go from here. Desmond was, after all, our connection to the real, present day conflict between Assassins and Templars (after all, when you think about it, none of the historical stuff is actually happening, though they may be the main element of each game) and I wonder how they are going to incorporate the end of the events of AC3 into the storyline.

I find it pleasingly ironic then, that our (assumed) dislike of Desmond (who the majority seem to view as a rather bland, uncharismatic everyman type character) means we are now going to have probably the most ordinary person you could imagine as your modern day AC character - yourself. Desmond at least had the bonus of being an Assassin, after all.

I find it curious that this is the first time the series has gone back in time as opposed to forward - I wonder what reason the folks of Abstergo have for going further back into history. Surely, if there was something so important within the life of Edward Kenway, we'd have checked his life out before Connor's?

 

[putowtin]

Am I the only person in the world who actually liked Desmond? It seems to me that he receives far too much flak. I've barely begun the article and already I'm feeling ostracized from the "majority" of gamers who did not like Desmond. As for how he was in the first game, though it has been some time since I played it, I remember him being concerned enough about his kidnapping to steal keys from Vidic and actively seek out information about his captors. If you wanted him to mope more and be less "aloof," as you say, then you should have played a game as a stereotypical damsel in distress and sat in a dungeon for five hour gaming sessions at a time. Desmond can't really do much to escape, so he does what little he can. He never seemed to me that emotionally unattached from his situation, perhaps only to some degree fatalistic and accepting of the situation, while still looking for ways out and things to do anyway.

If anything, at least Desmond was a decent conversationalist.

I was a fan too, though by the time we actually got to do something with him (see Brotherhood and ACIII) it did feel like "too little, too late"

As for the whole "you are the protagonist" I've only played a couple of them so far, but I like it. It's a break from the pirate and could build up to something interesting

 

[Darth_Payn]

Am I the only person in the world who actually liked Desmond? It seems to me that he receives far too much flak. I've barely begun the article and already I'm feeling ostracized from the "majority" of gamers who did not like Desmond. As for how he was in the first game, though it has been some time since I played it, I remember him being concerned enough about his kidnapping to steal keys from Vidic and actively seek out information about his captors. If you wanted him to mope more and be less "aloof," as you say, then you should have played a game as a stereotypical damsel in distress and sat in a dungeon for five hour gaming sessions at a time. Desmond can't really do much to escape, so he does what little he can. He never seemed to me that emotionally unattached from his situation, perhaps only to some degree fatalistic and accepting of the situation, while still looking for ways out and things to do anyway.

If anything, at least Desmond was a decent conversationalist.

I was a fan too, though by the time we actually got to do something with him (see Brotherhood and ACIII) it did feel like "too little, too late"

As for the whole "you are the protagonist" I've only played a couple of them so far, but I like it. It's a break from the pirate and could build up to something interesting

When you think about it, Desmond was supposed to be OUR everyman protagonist with a hidden secret background, the guy we the audience would project ourselves onto. So he didn't do much in the first two home console games; he couldn't! He was stuck, wanting answers about the old Assassins, Templars, and Pieces of Eden like us. He finally got interesting in Brotherhood, and more sympathetic in Revelations.

 

[putowtin]

Am I the only person in the world who actually liked Desmond? It seems to me that he receives far too much flak. I've barely begun the article and already I'm feeling ostracized from the "majority" of gamers who did not like Desmond. As for how he was in the first game, though it has been some time since I played it, I remember him being concerned enough about his kidnapping to steal keys from Vidic and actively seek out information about his captors. If you wanted him to mope more and be less "aloof," as you say, then you should have played a game as a stereotypical damsel in distress and sat in a dungeon for five hour gaming sessions at a time. Desmond can't really do much to escape, so he does what little he can. He never seemed to me that emotionally unattached from his situation, perhaps only to some degree fatalistic and accepting of the situation, while still looking for ways out and things to do anyway.

If anything, at least Desmond was a decent conversationalist.

I was a fan too, though by the time we actually got to do something with him (see Brotherhood and ACIII) it did feel like "too little, too late"

As for the whole "you are the protagonist" I've only played a couple of them so far, but I like it. It's a break from the pirate and could build up to something interesting

When you think about it, Desmond was supposed to be OUR everyman protagonist with a hidden secret background, the guy we the audience would project ourselves onto. So he didn't do much in the first two home console games; he couldn't! He was stuck, wanting answers about the old Assassins, Templars, and Pieces of Eden like us. He finally got interesting in Brotherhood, and more sympathetic in Revelations.

And after awaking from a coma he went all Badass on us.... (ok maybe a bit too far but you know what I mean)

Having experience more of the modern day setting during my (limited) play time last night, I love how they've changed and yet managed to add more to the exsisting "modern day" assassins.