MAJOR SPOILERS! I can't discuss this without spoiling it!
Unsilenced said:
Am I the only one who sees the Assassin's Creed games as becoming creepier and creepier? In the earlier games there was some nod to the idea that you weren't necessarily a perfect "good guy," and the generic enemies running around were clearly alligned with the villians. In all of the AC games with Ezio, you were mainly killing mercenaries of sorts. Then AC III came and you started frolicking about murdering English conscripts. Men who, rather than killing because they were paid to, were only there because they were forced to be, and had no idea they were working for the bad guys. Still, you're the hero! Fuck them for not knowing things they had no possible way of knowing.
Well, I do want to remind you that the game does have several mechanics for you to avoid murdering everyone you come across. If you feel that it might have been difficult and the best thing to do was to murder everyone, then that is how your version of Connor worked. Believe it or not, but getting inside a hostile fortress and murdering the leader WITHOUT hurting anyone should be difficult, and murdering everyone in between you and said target should be morally worrisome, but justifiable as "Ends justify the means".
And then there's Black Flag. Now, if it were clearly supposed to be "Assassin's Theft Auto: Carribean," I'd get that. Asshole protagonists aren't a new thing. I'm fine playing a character who's morally bankrupt, as long as the game in some way acknowledges that that is the case. Instead, we get to listen to Edward and his comrades monologue about freedom and justice and the American way. Edward himself at least has the decency to be greedy about things, but that doesn't stop the game from trying to make him as charming and likeable as possible at every other turn.
American Way? I don't remember much about that. It was mostly "Those big Navy's come in here, a land that they shouldn't own, and try to tell us what to do? Well, we shouldn't live under a king who does nothing for us!" Which is kinda the same mindset as most of the world came to have regarding empires.
Also, you can be greedy and extremely charismatic; confidence is an attractive thing and once you've got a ship which easily destroys things, and he is a big shot pirate captain like he's been dreaming for a few years, I imagine you'll have a swagger in your step as well. If you're greedy, you don't have to adopt evil twirling mustache; some people are more complex than that. I'm sure we've all met a likeable person who isn't actually that nice.
And the game starts with him hunting down a man and killing him, taking his clothes, lying and performing illegal acts, unknowingly betraying the Assassin's orders, getting beaten and imprisoned with the intention of slavery, his best mate constantly chides him for jealousy, one of his friends points out his selfishness, the Assassin's all but mistrust him, he is beaten, betrayed several times, looses everything that has ever mattered to him, and only once he accepts it is his fault and must make amends does he get a slight happy ending. Note that nearly everyone he has ever loved has died, his life is gone, and he had about ten years of the worst time you can imagine.
I think he gets a bit of punishment.
"Oh, you saw a shot of his wife! That means he's the good guy! What? The people he pointlessly slaughters? Oh, no. People who wear uniforms don't have families, silly!"
Those people are probably shooting him. The best way to stop shooting is to actually MAKE them stop. With a wrist knife. In the ribs. Or between them.
What I'm saying is this is the Carribean. Where everyone is either a killer, or an innocent. If you've put on an army outfit, and you see a pirate trying to steal or sneak in, or you've been ordered to kill him, doesn't matter if he wears fancy robes, he's gotta die. See my earlier point on how much you kill is up to you and why it might be necessary.
Let's look at some of the things he does in the game, just as gameplay mechanics. I haven't progressed far in the plot yet, but these are every day in the life of Edward Kenway.
I'd suggest going further. A three Act story needs to have all three Acts seen. "I can't believe Frodo died from the Nazgul", "Oh my god, Ben Kenobi died, it's all over", "Harry and Ron can't get to Hogwarts, so they will be expelled!"
To recruit new pirates, Conner must free men who have been taken prisoner or are being attacked by the authorities. Now, he doesn't ask /why/ this is happening to any of them. In one case there's even an explicit mention that a pirate has killed innocent people, but since it's said by a person in a uniform (clearly satanspawn), we get to ignore it. Now, you generally find these people either about to be hanged, at gunpoint, or fighting with soldiers. To get that kind of attention they probably committed a pretty serious offense. Granted, you are a pirate, so you have to recruit people who are pirates, but you're not exactly screening them. Maybe that one was there because he raped a 10 year old. Maybe he shot his mother. Who knows? Who cares? He's a roguish, lovable freedom fighter now!
Wait, Connor? I assume you mean Edward.
A pirate has killed innocent people? Yes. They do that. So did the British army. And the Spanish. And the Dutch. And whoever else had an army and Imperialistic tendencies. It was a rougher time, and we are in a rough place.
You know what is a criminal offence in those times? Piracy. Edward did it to make enough money for his wife as working inside the law is never going to work. His best mate did it because his crime was he was black and going to be a slave. Those pirates fighting in the street? They probably looked at the British army men funny. Have you walked down a British street at night? It's not unbelievable. Now give those thugs legitimacy and weapons.
And then, of course, there's the piracy. It's cute, really, how they think that putting a uniform on all of the character models will make it O.K, but you're still attacking merchant vessels, and not just by going "hey surrender and we won't hurt you!" like actual pirates did, but by dropping a fucking mortar shell on them before they even know you're hostile. Ships that carry rum and spice aren't manned by a crew consisting entirely of hardened soldiers in fancy, soul-nullifying uniforms. They're civilian. Maybe there's guards if it's an important ship, but often the people manning the cannons would just be ordinary shmos who wanted to live to see their families again.
Correction; you're playing the game. Do you want Edward to not attack merchant ships? Then pick up the random loot all over the sea. Eventually, you made the choice that it wasn't worth it, and decided to go for convenience rather than morality. Not the game; you did. It provided an option, but you choose otherwise. You can walk up and ask if those crews employed by the army will willingly surrender their supplies, and since surrendering would have likely been cowardice and execution, they'll fight to live. So either you leave, after asking nicely, or you take what you want. If you want them to back down, bad language won't do it; you gotta incapacitate a few. If you're so against killing, there are blow darts and fists. If you're murdering, it's your choice to pick the guns and swords for convenience.
But fuck em for that. Clearly evil, shell those fuckers to the bottom of the seas. Oh, and also some of them might be slaves/conscripts/shanghied/etc, so you're killing people who were literally forced to be there. But it's ok, it's for FREEDOM! If we brutally kill enough poor people and slaves, we'll really show those kings who's boss!
*single bald eagle tear*
What is it with you and your obsession with the America thing? I think I heard one mention of it. And it wasn't a revolutionary thing either. The people that made this game are in Canada. And mostly French. They're hardly pumping the Stars and Stripes. Regarding you killing them, see above point.
Of course, never mind that Edward's main objective at this point is to sell the world into slavery to the highest bitter. That's just kind of a "quirk" of his, and we love him for it.
Yes. A man who has always said "I want to make enough money so me and my men can retire, and I can look after the wife I've loved forever since I met her" will intend to sell something that would allow him to do such a thing. Note that you can love him or not, but it's an understandable stance to have.
Also note that EVERYONE tells him how selfish he is. He is marooned for this. He is betrayed for this. Multiple times. He looses everything for this. The game actively punishes him for this. I don't know what else you want. The "cut off a finger" from Heavy Rain?
Once again, if Edward was clearly supposed to be an asshole, I wouldn't have a problem with it. If the game was meant to be amoral, that'd be fine. I don't have problems with running down hookers as Niko Bellic, because Niko is an asshole in a world where pretty much everyone else is also an asshole. He has a shitty life, befitting his status as an asshole. Black Flag though doesn't seem to be capable of shutting up about how noble and liberated the pirates are. And of course, there's still the thing if you attack domestic animals or "civilians," it's bad. Apparently Edward didn't kill civilians, except for the thousands of times he did.
How noble and liberated? Nearly all of them either become insane (Blackbeard) or turn to the Templars (that guy) because how wrong the pirates are, or complain the entire time that it isn't working, and everything is turning to hell. You think Kenway didn't have a "shitty life"? He has a noble wife he can never truly support in England, he is betrayed... I've written this several times, go back and read that again. And the world of pirates is full of horrible people. I mean, take Blackbeard.
Kenway didn't attack people who didn't attack him, or stand between him and his goals. Like a reasonable human being who is a pirate. A pirate lives on trade; if he is killing random people in a settlement, then no one would trade with him. So, you dislike he is an "arsehole", but not enough of an "arsehole"?
Remember:
Firebombing 100 civilians and leaving them for dead in the ocean: Good, honest work for FREEDOM!
Shooting a cat: OH MY GOD HOW COULD YOU YOU HORRIBLE FUCKING PERSON!?!??!?!?!?!?
Well, you can choose to rescue them. And if there is a reason for attacking them, then it's somewhat justifiable. Shooting a cat in Assassin's Creed is never justifiable; even in the mission where you must hunt one, you can shoot it with a sleep dart and leave it be. Like the people. Don't blame the game for what YOU did. This isn't Spec Ops. You can choose to ignore it.
TL;DR: It's annoying when games have you play as the villain, but have absolutely no understanding that that's what they're doing.
The game has demonstrated that Kenway does not good things and gets suitably punished.