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Honestly the newer games have been moving heavily away from the assassin aspect of the game. Granted, they've been based pre-Brotherhood, and were exploring the origins of the Brotherhood as we know it from Altair's time, but yeah, the mechanics of the game have been skewing heavily towards just open combat, and less on stealth. Literally 1/3 of the options on how you can play the game, actually focus on assassination/stealth, at least oddysey and origins, haven't played Valhalla.
Well, I don't think the character you play as in Val, at least in the beginning of the game, is officially part of the Brotherhood, and thus isn't beholden to the Creed's edicts. The closest example I can recall was the protagonist from Black Flag, who joined, and decided for the majority of the game "Nah, I'mma just gonna go be a pirate" and the members of the Brotherhood weren't terribly thrilled about that.
While I haven't touched Valhalla, I will say that while I have enjoyed AC:Or and Od, I didn't really feel like I was playing an Assassin's Creed game much anymore. It had sort of the vague trappings of one, but the actual meat of it felt like something else.
I think it's more just a personal preference for various historical periods more than anything. I've always had a love for ancient egyptian, so I enjoyed the flavor of Origins more than Odyssey. I'm not terribly big of a fan of norse stuff, so I have little real drive to play Val based on setting. I suspect, given the popularity of Ghost of Tsushima, that the next title for the AC franchise will be somewhere in Asia, and I'd be pretty down for that personally, as I find that culture/setting more engaging than "sweaty white dudes that raped and pillaged, and inspired the look of most of the toxic dudebros that I find incredibly annoying currently"
Right, I've seen a let's play of the game up to basically that point, where Eivor goes off with the 2 assassins. Hence while it's clear this is how the MC is introduced to the brotherhood, they're clearly not part yet. So the whole "yeah but the brotherhood/creed frowns on things like raping, pillaging,etc" you aren't technically beholden to that yet, so to me, they get a pass. Though I recall in that first cinematic trailer for the game, they made a BIG effort to portray the vikings as NOT what the vikings were like. That scene with...whatever english king was signing off some papers and saying "they are godless, heartless savages! etc etc" and for each comment he made, about the character of vikings, they would specifically show our protagonist doing something directly contrary to that. Basically saying "see? these aren't evil, raping, murdering, pillaging vikings! so don't feel bad about playing them!"
And I mean, ok I guess? It's AC, they go so fucking nuts with actual historical elements that if they want to say "yeah but the AC universe vikings weren't horrible people" then I guess ok. Their universe has ancient alien architects, 2012 apocalypse mythology being real, genetic memory being a thing, and a metric ton of other batshit crazy things. Adding on "and the vikings weren't as terrible as they actually were" onto that pile, I hardly really care at this point.
Yeah I'm aware. I was scandalized when I saw a YouTuber try and assassinate someone in Odyssey, literally cutting their throat, AND THEY DUDE JUST SAT UP AND SCREAMED. That's... pathetic. Crazy that stealth games are becoming rarer these days. Maybe its because so many games already have half-baked stealth mechanics crammed into them.
I thought they did Edward pretty well though. He was in it for the money sure, but by the end he was Creeding about just as well as other other assassins. Even gave up pirating after a while. Eivor though, being a viking is kind of his culture. I do find it hilarious that every time you raid a monastery or village there just happens to be enemies to fight, because just running through a church killing defenseless priests has only a very niche appeal.
It is pretty bizarre that they haven't had a mainline AC game set in Asia yet (I mean, I guess Origins sort of counts but not really). I'd prefer if they didn't do China, even if I think that would be a great setting. I'm pretty sure Ubisoft would bend over backwards to suck the Chinese govt's dick for a Chinese AC game. Perhaps they could do Korea, since Korean culture is super popular right now. India could also be an option, we'd finally get back to murdering colonizers.
Yeah at first, it's hard to be an assassin in Origin/Odyssey, as you are using crap gear with crap stats, and everyone is basically higher level than you, seeing as you are like level 2-3 when you first really start going out there to do some stabbing. But you can eventually get to the point where you are literally a teleporting god of kidney stabbing death, shanking dudes left and right all over the map. But it takes a lot of investment and gear specialized for assassination. Basically it's an RPG setup for assassination, not just "get behind the dude, insert blade to kidney, profit"
I agree they did Edward well, I was just using him as an example of an AC protag that didn't really adhere to the code, at least at first. As to the raiding stuff, eh, I'm honestly not that enthused by that at all. I mean AC has a long standing history of organized religion being firmly in the Templar pocket, so it's not surprising that the monasteries would be outposts of the Enemy. But making me have to go out and pillage just....doesn't really fluff my jimmies you know? It's not a vicarious thing I really wish to partake in.
Yeah Korea would be pretty cool, as my wife would probably be extra interested in watching me play it, as she's half Korean. I wouldn't mind China either, even with everyone's knee jerk hatred of China currently. I mean people have been clamoring for AC: China/Japan for well over a decade, so it's hardly just the "sucking China's dick" motivation. The fanbase has been frothing for it.
India would be pretty cool too. Given how they are going all in on the mystical stuff with the story, having the various members of the Hindu pantheon show up in the vision bits would be pretty slick.
I don't mean Ubisoft trying to appeal to the Chinese government and market, more of that the Chinese government will most definitely force them to change things in the game to revise history. Which I guess is a weird complaint when the AC games are all about revised history, but then an evil organization using video games to support their ideology was literally the plot of Black Flag. I've always thought that China has a very rich and interesting culture, there's a reason I studied it in school. But after shit like live action Mulan and Abominable, the less Chinese propaganda in my media the better.
I don't know how I feel yet about the mythological elements in the new games. I mean, they're a cool idea, but to have them means saying fuck off to stealth and requiring the weird combat they've been relying on. Man, its just so weird to me that Assassins' Creed is no longer about stealth. It was never really in depth, but there's a hundred games out there that do their kind of combat better. How many parkour stealth games are left?
AC is really all over the place with this shit. AC4 had you playing Pirates(the ones you played as) but they never raped or pillaged and only attacked military ships and they hated slavery so it was okay.
As for the Brotherhood itself, Ezio killed a lot of innocent people in Revelations when it suited him(Started a Riot, set a fire in an underground city, set half the harbor on fire, etc), all so he could gather some plot coupons and get involved in someone elses power struggle which he didn't seem to care much about.. Connor was more then happy to shell New York to kill one guy. The Frye twins messed up half of London on their Templer hunt(they put a bandaid on it so it all is forgiven).
And then there's the whole "Hide in plain sight" thing apparently doesn't apply to putting that shit on their clothes to make them stand out or flying flags/banners proudly.
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Brotherhood wasn't made by ubisoft? Did you say the last one you played wasn't made by ubisoft or am I misunderstanding?
Alright.
"Dear Adéwalé,
Don't know who you are, but apparently, nothing is true, and everything is permitted.
Sincerely,
A smartarse."
There's a big misunderstanding. All I said was that AC Brotherhood was not the 2.5d platforming game like you thought it was. These are 2.5D AC games:
Assassin's Creed Chronicles - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Brotherhood is a full 3D game. All of them are done by Ubisoft.
See, I thought @BrawlMan was referring to Ghost of Tsushima -_-
OT: I'm... in two minds about Valhalla. I've seen gameplay and it looks pretty good. Pretty set-design, combat looks solid, if uninspiring. Levelling is a nice change. A lot of the appeal of AC games post Ezio was the setting. It's why out of every subsequent game (2.5D ones notwithstanding, but even then, I only finished Shao Jun's one, funny story, only just occurred to me that's my mother-in-law's name(!)), I only 100%'d Black Flag and Odyssey. I want to get into Unity, but I never got over it's horrendous release. I'm not that interested in Viking history even though I get it's suitability (Viking scout raiders were remarkably assassin-y). I'll likely buy it for PS5 when I get around to getting a PS5, which I won't do until most of the teething issues are dealt with, price comes down and my financial situation sorts itself out.
If you like the stealth and parkour elements, Unity is probably the best in series. I will never not enjoy running across rooftops, leaping over to the other side of the street onto the balcony and slipping over and under furniture to dive out the window and onto your assassination target.
Beyond that though, yeah there's plenty rough with the game. Even now performance isn't stellar. But in terms of gameplay and freedom, I think Unity is somewhat of a peak in the series if you only look at the traditional AC experience.
yep... Because when you said this...
... I wondered what AC game not made by ubisoft you meant.
Sorry for the irrelevant nit-picking.
Let's not forget that the entire premise of the Assassin Order is based on a group of Levantine religious fanatics who literally assassinated prominent public figures in broad daylight. To this day there's an actual list of assassins and their assassinations. It's pretty wild stuff, when you think about it.
So the idea that not all Vikings were terrible people doesn't really matter, as long as it is fun. Although, I'd much rather have a REAL Assassin's Creed game. I prefer playing as an actual Assassin. I like that aspect of a secret brotherhood and all that stuff. It's why the Ezio Trilogy is my favorite.
I mean, that too. I remember when the first game came out it bothered me a bit just how Atheistic Altair came across. Like I get not everyone in history was a Religious Zealot but the sheer dismissal of Religion in that place and time came across as a bit much, Templars controlling the history books or not. While I'm not an expert on world religions and such, I was under the distinct impression that being irreligious/athiestic that openly was a fairly recent thing, dating back to the Enlightenment and even then it wasn't a particularly large amount of people.
It's not unlike that one scene in Kingdom in Heaven when Balin and Saladin had a brief exchange about how it might be better for everyone to Burn Jerusalem to the ground to stop people from fighting over it. Like, I could possibly buy the idea of them both being weary of the constant fighting over the city but to burn a city that's considered holy to both their cultures doesn't pass the smell test.
Back OT: I like the Secret Society stuff and it used to be one of the main draws to the series for me, but it's fallen off a lot in recent years. I just kinda wish they'd done more with it. Even the whole "Templars" control the world shit feels very half assed.
The first game has Desmond call Vidic out on this(something like "The world's in great shape") and Vidic just has some unconvincing dismissal (I believe it's "It's hard to get people to change").
I guess it gets back to part of why the Templar vs Assassin thing feels so wasted in this series. It initially felt like something was to come of all of this but a decade and god knows how many games later it feels like all the Templars and Assassins ever managed to accomplish in the 2500+ years of their existence was to run history's longest, most deadly griefing war. It's why I didn't care much in the last few games that the Templars/Assasins weren't really a thing yet(even if we had groups that effectively served the same purpose) because it doesn't seem to matter much. We already know they're gonna be doing the same back and forth for the next few thousand years and nothing you do is going to affect much of anything aside from maybe finding another goddamn magical mcguffin.
"Oh, look we found a magic thing from the last 40 hours of dicking around collecting feathers in the animus. Put it in the pile with the other magic thing. In 3 or 4 games we'll make an offhand reference to the thing we found in the unlockable codex entries buried under a mini-game"
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I can't help but feel there's a hstorical problem with a game set during Vikings raids on Ango-Saxon England whilst some assassins try to kill Knights Templar. Like, about 100-300 years worth of problem.