I personally have always thought that AC had no need for a sandbox. The sandbox elements in the first game were a complete waste of time and effort as the game was completely mission-based. Every activities were appearing in a new district opened by a mission, and they disappeared after the mission has been completed. You could easily remove the sandbox from the game, and it would just become better. If anything, I think that AC should've been Hitman: Blood Money in Middle Ages. I mean: series of missions done in big open levels with many ways to assassinate your target. Preferably by using stealth and/or parkour, not zerg rash.
Assassin's Creed is Officially Running on Fumes
- Thread starter Yahtzee Croshaw
- Start date
I would literally sell my soul for AC in Egypt, but I sincerely doubt they will ever go there. People want ancient Egypt, but that's too far back. They'd have to remove 90% of your combat arsenal. Which personally I don't give a shit about, I finished the entire AC3 with only a tomahawk and a bow, but I'm pretty sure most people wouldn't like limited weapon choices. Other than that, I'm just waiting. They even hinted at Egypt in Black Flag (This [http://i.imgur.com/EibapAD.png] shows up in one of the non-Animus sections when you're hacking your way through Abstergo. Why are you doing this to me, Ubisoft? Just stop teasing and give me Egypt).ShenCS said:
Basically, yeah. Yearly releases are not only saturating the market, but they can't really make so many high quality products. They have gems here and there with a lot of disappointing releases in between and they are making people sick of so many AC games. I'm a pretty big fan of the franchise, but even I can't catch up with the yearly releases anymore. Just slow down. Take some time. Dedicate enough time and resources and more than one studio to one game.
Really?Gone Rampant said:
Genuinely shocked here, because the chances are it's not going to end. If it was, it would've been with what they did in Assassin's Creed III. Or they would've at least provided some sort of actual follow-up to that, rather than saying, "Uh... well... I mean... EVERYTHING'S OKAY JUST SHUT UP AND LOOK AT THIS PASTICHE OF OURSELVES NOW FOR THE NEXT TEN GAMES!" I'm not sure how you could even say the modern day stuff has a narrative arc anymore.
I doubt that will get anything remotely approaching a satisfying conclusion even if Ubisoft surprises everyone and actually gives Assassin's Creed the axe.
I couldn't agree more. Assassin's Creed games are being developed based on a recipe. Not a single thought about game design that makes sense goes into making this pile of shit. They just throw in a bunch of stuff that other popular games have and call it a day. It doesn't matter if it's broken or if it makes no sense from either gameplay or narrative perspective. It's popular or "innovative" so they put it in.
Assassin's Creed in ancient Egypt features prominently in the Assassin's Creed comic series. I know it's not the same, but it exists. And there is some precedent for bringing stuff from the comics to games - the forthcoming AC Chronicles games set in India and Russia are based on stories that were originally in the comics. Furthermore, whatever happened to those two games? I thought they were supposed to be out by now...Dalisclock said:
Spoiler: It will end with the cancellation of AC Next Year when they fall below a certain rate of return. Followed immediately by shutting down all support for all the "Assassin's Club" fluff Ubisoft have been goading players to brand themselves into to unlock "exclusive" outfits and what have you. If they're feeling generous, they will replace the website with "Hacked by Abstergo operatives".Gone Rampant said:
Now, as for the series, I loved the first one weirdly BECAUSE it was a sandbox with not a lot to do. Interstitial space is sorely underrated by current game design doctrine. I mean, Shadow of the Colossus, anyone? 2 was great too, since it was so unique in its setting. And, most importantly, it gave me feels. Brotherhood was like a decent expansion, but it was where things started to slip, with the introduction of crap like the "100% synch" goals. (Do they still have that? It's startlingly contradictory to the supposed "freedom" principles of open world games.) And that's where the modern day stuff started to go off the rails as well, with the abrupt removal of poor Veronica Mars, probably because it was time to renegotiate her contract after three games. Revelations, as we know, was a repurposed handheld game.
You know ... I don't know why Assassin's Creed as a franchise even needs to stick to one genre of gameplay.
The way the franchise is put together you could probably set just about any kind of game in the Assassin's Creed universe. I mean Black Flag pretty much proved that - the "Assassin's Creed" parts of the game were the worst thing about that game - but it was a blast to sail around on your pirate ship and and stuff.
Maybe have a big "main" Sandboxy game every couple years or so with a bunch of smaller spinoffs in other genres- there are so many cool things you could do with this series. Its kind of a pity that it gets wasted on making the same tired stuff over and over and over.
The way the franchise is put together you could probably set just about any kind of game in the Assassin's Creed universe. I mean Black Flag pretty much proved that - the "Assassin's Creed" parts of the game were the worst thing about that game - but it was a blast to sail around on your pirate ship and and stuff.
Maybe have a big "main" Sandboxy game every couple years or so with a bunch of smaller spinoffs in other genres- there are so many cool things you could do with this series. Its kind of a pity that it gets wasted on making the same tired stuff over and over and over.
That's what I want. Dishonored was amazing.rgrekejin said:
But really, they could do with that type of model. Not the magic powers or Dunwall or Dishonored plot obviously. They don't even need the Chaos system. Just throw away the sandbox for a tighter story and a different map for each mission.
The problem with Assassin's Creed, as has been somewhat pointed to in this article and as I've been saying for years, is that it and seemingly a lot tof other games lately have a relentless drive to include 'stuff' to make it seem like there's a lot of content.
Not proper side quests, just stuff to do. Complete ten obstacle courses. Climb up thirty radio towers. Kill fifty bears. Find a hundred chests. Collect five hundred alligator teeth. Whatever. Its something that goes back to the old days of the GTA hidden packages and its getting totally out of hand by this point.
Its not content, not really. Its stuff to do but its no really providing any real depth to the game so much as laying a load of extra busywork on you to give you things to do and make the map look full. Its incredibly frustrating that open-world style games today have such a drive towards this kind of thing. There's none of the Elder Scrolls or Fallout attempt to actually fill the world with interesting things to discover its just filling the world with stuff to collect or little repetitive side-activities to do; and that's a huge difference.
Not proper side quests, just stuff to do. Complete ten obstacle courses. Climb up thirty radio towers. Kill fifty bears. Find a hundred chests. Collect five hundred alligator teeth. Whatever. Its something that goes back to the old days of the GTA hidden packages and its getting totally out of hand by this point.
Its not content, not really. Its stuff to do but its no really providing any real depth to the game so much as laying a load of extra busywork on you to give you things to do and make the map look full. Its incredibly frustrating that open-world style games today have such a drive towards this kind of thing. There's none of the Elder Scrolls or Fallout attempt to actually fill the world with interesting things to discover its just filling the world with stuff to collect or little repetitive side-activities to do; and that's a huge difference.
After Revelations I gave up on this series. Every year fans suggest different locales besides America and Europe and every year they tell us to fuck off and accept that America, Victorian England and 18th cent. France are better choices. Until they give us a proper Asian setting I'm not buying another AC. They take their time with far cry and the result is a far superior product...
When you do Fallout 4, or write a column on it, can you call them out on their decision to make people who bought the physical copy of the PC game still have to download 19gb before they can play it?Yahtzee Croshaw said:
It's a good suggestion, Yahtzee, but it would require Ubisoft to not be a gibbering pack of magnificent retards, so it'll never happen.
You appear to have absolutely no idea that actually being critical of gaming is essential to being a video game reviewer. He likes some games, not others, and is capable of being critical of either.Kanatatsu said:
If every game reviewer only said positive things about every game that crossed their desk, there would be no value to the consumer. They'd just be advertisers for the publishers.
I'm a fan of the series but I must admit some faults. Back in AC2: Revelations you're taught this sort of 'vault over the enemy' movie with your new hookblade. You do it two or three times and then I never bothered with it again because it required a couple extra button pushes when I could do something as easy as... moving around a corner. Or countering. Or actually doing a stealth kill.
I think it was designed to 'stun' the enemy but there was no real point since AC2:R was a counter-fest.
I think it was designed to 'stun' the enemy but there was no real point since AC2:R was a counter-fest.
Maybe his problem is that he likes video games too much?Defective_Detective said:
I'll see myself out.
Oh Yahtzee, i would have thought using the word "officially" like you have here for an opinion piece was beneath you. Was it edited? Did you phone this one in due to a busy schedule? Are those painkillers affecting your high standards? Has a lady-creature been poisoning your mind with Americanisms? Must i poke you with British standards now and then to keep you on your toes? Or has there been an official announcememt that i missed the memo on?