I can't help but feel that Assassin's Creed is slowly dying on the inside.

[WolfThomas]

When I started Revealations I agreed with the OP, but after finishing it, knowing that anymore games with Altair or Ezio are unlikely. I'm very optimistic about AC3, the sheer fact that it's going to be in the present is going to require an overhaul of proportions far greater than the jump from 1 to 2.

Also who thinks that the memory storing technology introduced in revelations is perhaps one of the ways they're going to work around keeping you in memories to keep the video game aspects but not have to have Desmond strapped down to an animus?

 

[Centrophy]

I agree with most of the people in this thread except for a few things. I feel like I'm in the vocal minority (or silent majority, just like the male sheps) when I say, that I like Desmond. In fact if he isn't the focus of AC3 then I'm not even going to consider renting it. Too bad I heard that Ubisoft already said that ol' Desmond is going back in the Animus again. Argh!

I will also say that Revelations was weak. I've taken the time to 1000pt AC1 and AC2 and get all the singleplayer cheevos for AC:B. I'm not even going to bother with AC:R... everything they added just felt pointless, the bombs, the silly tower defense game that didn't really work. The stuff that they added in AC:B worked fine though the city felt lifeless to me somehow. Can't really comment on multiplayer since I don't enjoy competing against flesh and blood humans nor paying for XBL Gold.

Now I know what you're going to say, but Centrophy... what are they going to do about guns and munitions if it takes place in an alternate history? Well, since they have this future tech like the Animus then they could have the shield-like things from Dune... or they could do a similar thing to Splinter Cell but with a full city and parkour, which IMO sounds super fun.

 

[SpaceCop]

I've always loved the series for its settings; historical authenticity meets aesthetic appeal--and its gameplay; a uniquely fluid way of exploring said settings. AC, though padded with travel sections, weirdly paced, and weakly cast, was a fresh new experience. ACII gave us a colourful new time period, a more engaging cast, and a whole bunch of shiny new gameplay options; it was a notable improvement over its predecessor.

Brotherhood was a $60 expansion pack. Ezio got a beard, a crossbow, and some spiffy Roman digs. And that was about it.

Brotherhood did get some things right, though. It actually had a clear antagonist! Cesare was introduced early and dramatically enough to give us a visible goal to work towards. And Ubisoft really got the most out of the time period with this one; political intrigue and assassination with Machiavelli and the Borgias? It ain't AC3, but I'll take it.

The setting of Revelations is new and unique, but so much of the new gameplay feels superfluous and, frankly, ridiculous. Hookblades? Really? We've turned the series' most iconic weapon into a coat hanger so I can reach 6" higher and steal Templar wallets? Terrific. And I know when I think 16th century Ottoman Empire I think "ziplines"! Also, thank goodness every body I loot, every chest I open, and every city my order captures gives me more bombmaking materials--for a second I was worried I would run out of awkward-to-use non-lethal equipment.

Revelations's story is filler. ACII had Ezio avenge his family and find his place in the assassin order. Brotherhood had him take down a nefarious and powerful threat to his entire nation and rise to a position of leadership. Revelations has Ezio dicking around--in an albeit beautifully imagined Constantinople/Istanbul--with no real emotional investment in most of what's going on around him.

Desmond has never been anything more than a tepid framing device. Oh, I see--it's okay if I fuck up on a mission because I'm not actually master assassin Altair Ibn La'Ahad--I'm a vacant-eyed noob from the future pretending I'm master assassin Altair Ibn La'Ahad. So my fuckups are really Desmond's fuckups, not Altair's. Thank goodness that potential 4th wall breach was handwaved away via 2 hours of the least interesting gameplay segments in every title.

Oh, and thanks, Ubisoft, for always stopping just short of making the modern-day story the least bit compelling. Holy shit, what's going on?! What am I seeing?! Who is that glowing chick?! Is Desmond actually going to contribute something to the plot this ti--oh, the credits are rolling now. Huh. Well, guess I'll have to buy the next game.

At this rate Desmond should be ready to star in a title of his own by the time the next doomsday scare rolls around.

 

[Sammaul]

I stopped after AC2, dreading the things you described in your wall'o'text, only thing I miss is the story, which, from what I've gathered, still won't deliver.
Sooo, yeah, I guess I agree with you.

 

[LordFisheh]

I don't really get all the hate for Desmond. Maybe I just like my conspiracies a bit too much.

But I'll agree the game is getting overburdened and easy as hell. Bombs seem excessive, and the number of gadgets means you just forget half of them anyway. I know I never use the parachutes or poison darts. Not only that but, in Revelations at least, it seems they feel they have to take every feature from the old games whether relevant or not and throw it in. Renovation and Templar districts, for example, made sense in Rome because the story was of an Assassin rebellion overthrowing the Templars' power base. In Revelations, it's just there. Likewise the prostitute-thief-mercenary triad just seems to be thrown in because all the previous games had them too. In Brotherhood they were an (admittedly contrived) part of the plot, but now each faction has a headquarters and a lone mission... because. And a hookblade... because.

And it isn't as though these shinies are just pretty ways of doing the same thing; they're powerful mechanics in their own right. Alone or limited as part of a small toolkit they could be excellent. As it is, piled into the game in their dozens, they're overpowered as hell. Ezio was supposed to be an elite assassin; now he plays like Inspector Gadget.

 

[Combustion Kevin]

I don't like it that you are FORCED to sneak around and avoid detection.

seriously, if they didn't "game over" your arse on detection (you know, THOSE missions) you'd plow through every battle with your arms tied behind your back.

for me, AC doesn't feel like an assassin game anymore, you basicly play a warrior-character, conquering and defending holds, confronting your enemies all final confrontation-like, this is not how an assassin should work, they are not meant to be tough.
every single professional, trained, battle-hardened soldier is dispatched with ease, while they should be an assassin's worst nightmare, the perfect people to guard you against cutthroats and the like.

an assassin sneaks not because he can, but because he has to in order to achieve victory.

 

[srm79]

It's simple really. AC was a genuinely original game. AC2 was an attempt to address the criticisms of the game not having enough variety and being bloody hard at times - a problem I can't say it suffered from too much personally. Challenging at points, but that's what we surely want? Apparently not...

Then someone at Ubisoft saw Bobby Kotick's Scrooge McDuck-esque swimming pool full of money earned on the back of knocking out the same old shite over and over with only the slimmest pretence at adding anything new each time and though "Fuck, I got to get me one of those!".

And so began the slide of the AC series to mediocrity.

 

[debra_ beretta]

I'm playing through AC:R at the moment (I hired it) and I've gotta say, where the fuck did they go wrong with this series?

It's got way too much gimmicky bullshit and frankly, they should have stopped Ezio's story at AC2. I'm so fucking sick of that time period it's not funny.

Y'know what I want? I want a new character, a new setting (fuedel Japan please) and a fucking crouch button.
Seriously, does nobody in this universe know how to crouch? What. The. Dickens.

Play Tenchu?

 

[Random Fella]

I predicted the series was going to be like the Call of Duty franchise where they started to rush games out the door when I heard how fast they were going to release after 2 and the third one. So I didn't buy any after the 2nd which was a great game. Maybe I should try the others but i've still got that notion that they aren't even trying to add much more content, just more gameplay :/

 

[ImperialSunlight]

I think what with how they ended Brotherhood, they put themselves in a bad situation for Revelations, at least for the story. Now that Desmond is finally done with Altair and Ezio as well as no longer being in a coma and

actually having an idea of what he is supposed to be doing (though they won't tell the audience).

So I think that while Revelations was somewhat disappointing in many ways, there is a lot of potential for ACIII. I am a bit worried about the gameplay, especially that it is becoming too easy, but I don't think fans of the AC series really worry about that as much as they do the story.

 

[mrgerry123]

"In fact my patients have run out with the series". Well run after them and get it back!!

 

[Funkysandwich]

They just need a longer development cycle for the next game. Yearly games are never a good idea. Take 3 years to do AC:3 and make it a launch title for the new consoles.

 

[Something Amyss]

I guess I am one of the few that are glad they stuck with Ezio.

It's more "one of the few that are glad they stuck with Ezio NOW."

Back when Assassin's Creed 2 came out, everyone and their mother seemed to love Ezio and wish we'd get more games with him. Even Yahtzee bemoaned the fact that Assassin's Creed 3 would feature someone else.

The MINUTE people got what they wanted, a huge chunk of those people turned to "this is stale, why are we playing Ezio a second time?"

Several sequels in, I can understand how it's overkill, but I love the way the tide turned so fast.

 

[viking97]

i've only played the first two games, but i considered the first to be the better one. i only felt this way after i'd beat both mind, and the second one i played first.

my reasons for this are pretty simple, the first was more difficult and therefore felt more visceral when you managed to escape 20 guards by sitting on a bench around a corner (even if it was still pathetically easy to counter every strike they took at you and insta-kill them, but what do you want i had things to do), and secondly it kept itself more focused on the gameplay that made assassin's creed unique. running, jumping, stabbing and slickly walking away like nothing happened.

i like that they're were only 4 weapons (5 if you count your fists, but they were useless since there wasn't any combos with them and you couldn't counter either) and i liked even more that there was a reason to use all of them, (except the fists obviously) the hidden blade to slickly stab people (AND NOTHING ELSE, IT IS A TOOL FOR KILLING NOT A WEAPON), the sword to whack people with, the short blade to pull out very quickly when you need to force a few people back after getting discovered so you can pull out the sword or as a fallback when you've tossed a few knives at some straggling guards.

i was planning on getting brotherhood, but when reviews came saying it's pretty much just AC2 my enthusiasm wilted. when in reviews the words "tower defense" were uttered i immediately exited the browser and resolved to never give a shit about the series ever again.

blimey, this was supposed to be a short post. damn.

 

[predatorpulse7]

It's simple really. AC was a genuinely original game. AC2 was an attempt to address the criticisms of the game not having enough variety and being bloody hard at times - a problem I can't say it suffered from too much personally. Challenging at points, but that's what we surely want? Apparently not...

Then someone at Ubisoft saw Bobby Kotick's Scrooge McDuck-esque swimming pool full of money earned on the back of knocking out the same old shite over and over with only the slimmest pretence at adding anything new each time and though "Fuck, I got to get me one of those!".

And so began the slide of the AC series to mediocrity.

Yes, AC was original, it was also boring as f**k at times, with the same three sidemissions until you can do the main assassination. AC2 did almost everything better except the difficulty. That's one of my major gripes with the series(a series which is in my top 5), ever decreasing difficulty, for whatever reason.

I wish we can combine the mood and settings of AC2 with the difficulty of AC1. Now that would be a damn nearn perfect AssCreed game.

 

[Scrustle]

I haven't played Revelations yet and I really like the series, but I have to agree. I like the combat system. Even if it's easy I find it very enjoyable. But you're right about all the unnecessary fat they add on to the games when what they should really be doing it more character development. I really hope AC3 is a big step up. I get the feeling that they have been coasting since AC2.

 

[predatorpulse7]

i've only played the first two games, but i considered the first to be the better one. i only felt this way after i'd beat both mind, and the second one i played first.

my reasons for this are pretty simple, the first was more difficult and therefore felt more visceral when you managed to escape 20 guards by sitting on a bench around a corner (even if it was still pathetically easy to counter every strike they took at you and insta-kill them, but what do you want i had things to do), and secondly it kept itself more focused on the gameplay that made assassin's creed unique. running, jumping, stabbing and slickly walking away like nothing happened.

i like that they're were only 4 weapons (5 if you count your fists, but they were useless since there wasn't any combos with them and you couldn't counter either) and i liked even more that there was a reason to use all of them, (except the fists obviously) the hidden blade to slickly stab people (AND NOTHING ELSE, IT IS A TOOL FOR KILLING NOT A WEAPON), the sword to whack people with, the short blade to pull out very quickly when you need to force a few people back after getting discovered so you can pull out the sword or as a fallback when you've tossed a few knives at some straggling guards.

i was planning on getting brotherhood, but when reviews came saying it's pretty much just AC2 my enthusiasm wilted. when in reviews the words "tower defense" were uttered i immediately exited the browser and resolved to never give a shit about the series ever again.

blimey, this was supposed to be a short post. damn.

AC2 is the best this series has to offer: runny jumpy climby with a character that's actually developed(unlike altair in AC1), with a pretty big character arc, in a magnificent historical setting.

Brotherhood is like a add-on, it's a bit worse than AC2 imo, though not a bad game at all.

The tower defense was in Revelations, not Brotherhood, and it was basically one training mission that you could skip from that point on, there was so much negative hype about this aspect and all for nothing. Kinda funny when you think about it.

 

[predatorpulse7]

I don't like it that you are FORCED to sneak around and avoid detection.

seriously, if they didn't "game over" your arse on detection (you know, THOSE missions) you'd plow through every battle with your arms tied behind your back.

for me, AC doesn't feel like an assassin game anymore, you basicly play a warrior-character, conquering and defending holds, confronting your enemies all final confrontation-like, this is not how an assassin should work, they are not meant to be tough.
every single professional, trained, battle-hardened soldier is dispatched with ease, while they should be an assassin's worst nightmare, the perfect people to guard you against cutthroats and the like.

an assassin sneaks not because he can, but because he has to in order to achieve victory.

It doesn't say anywhere that an assassin has to be silent, we are not playing agent 47 here.

The problems is that they went to the extreme with the difficulty. AC1 itself wasn't that difficult but the feeling of peril was enhanced by the fact that you had few weapons and when faced with a multitude of assailants it was better to run than to spend all day countering. If I face the same situation in Revelations now I can do kill streaks, shoot them with the gun, throw a smoke bomb at their and so on. I can't just sneak around guards on rooftops now since I can shoot them with the crossbow or throwing knives.

Middle ground is where it's at. Don't make me a weakling that dies when taking 1-2 hits but please don't make me a one man army as well.

 

[Aurora Firestorm]

I haven't played the AC series yet, but one thing about fan communities is that you can never make them happy. If you give them more of what they seem to like, they yell at you for being stagnant and boring. If you don't, they whine about wanting more.