Ghost of Tsushima is the best Assassin's Creed game ever made. That is all.
The Thread where I air my grievances with the Assassins' Creed series SPOILERS EVERYWHERE
- Thread starter Dalisclock
- Start date
I haven't played it but I can see exactly what you mean from what I've seen. Hell, just watching some of the footage, one of the first things that came to mind watching it was "This is the Japanese AC that Ubisoft refused to make. There's no point in them even attempting to now".
Every so often I see someone suggest they do a WIld West Assassin's Creed game and all I can think is "Why? Red Dead Redemption is already a thing and arguably much better to boot".
Ironically I never liked the AC series until they moves away from their original premise and started playing with the fantastical.
The first AC game I could get through was Origins, followed by Odyssey. Yet Vahalla was too much because Ubisoft only really knows how to make 1 game and copies and pastes that game verbatum across both Far Cry and AC games. It's too much, and the biggest problem is the games have gotten too big and too broad.
I think that Ubisoft really needs to knuckle down and reign their games back a bit. Dial them down into less wide open icon fests and give them some focus. A straight forward narrative that can gradually unlock more map with side content is fine, but that main story needs to have a very clear and linear focus.
Which is weird, because they've done an AC game in China, but apparently Japan is impossible. According to Ubisoft. Yes, it was a 2.5 D spin-off, but if they could have done it there, they could have done japan. I'm glad they didn't, because it would have been even more convolutely with the stupid conspiracy stuff.
I didn't even know people were asking for it. It sounds really stupid and pointless. I don't care for the Red Dead series, but they already accomplished more than whatever an AC game can do with that concept.
It's funny because they introduced the Chinese Assassin back around the time 3 came out(in a short movie, Embers, but she's mentioned 3 as well) but couldn't be bothered to put in her a mainline game, and Japan is apparently right out or something.
And I occasionally see the Western thing come up in lists of "possible AC settings" but I don't know why anyone thinks it would work.
Western is not exactly known for having tall building to climb over...
I think its more a case that people take any historical setting and throw it at AC. I think they'd be better served by trying somewhat more obscure setting, maybe Babylon, or a south east asia version of black flag. Ancient china would definitely work, but then the game might be banned in china so I doubt they'd do it. Don't know enough about Mayan/Inca to be able to say but that could be cool, with lots of mountain region.
Definitely agree that ghost of tsushima killed any chance of AC:ninja, which was such an obvious setting that ubisoft apparently couldn't figure it out?
Granted 3 also didnt have much in the way of tall buildings and....yeah,I'll get to 3 soon enough, actually.
Mayans had big stone pyramids and cities but some of those have already shown up in AC3, AC4 and Liberation and I'm unsure if they could build an entire game off them.Incas I'm honestly not sure but I think they're more known for their roads and cities high in the mountains then big buildings.
I think Skull and Bones was supposed to be "Black Flag but South Asia(Indian Ocean, which I know is not quite the same thing)" but who knows WTF is going on with that.
Regarding Metal Gear, part of the reason I’m willing to cut Kojima’s storytelling a bit more slack than usual, is that while his stylized eccentricities often bleed too much into the weighty political themes at times, his intent is commendable in itself. The MGS4 Database serves as a prime example of how well his creative side can be woven into the historical context of it all. Unfortunately as I’ve often said, there’s a feeling that too much of his messaging gets lost in translation, and the gamey side of the presentation winds up taking precedence and makes it all too easy to dismiss.
Plus, and editor wouldn’t hurt.
I've always been somewhat opposed to an AC game in Japan. With the older games I didn't really think it was a suitable setting. The Desmond games were mostly urban games set in gigantic cities and Japan kinda suffers in that regard. You only really have Edo and Kyoto, and the strong feudal nature of Japan means that most important or iconic figures are not in those cities.
Japan would work better with the more rural settings of the new games but now that Ghost of Tsushima already did that it serves no point anymore. A Japanese AC would just be a watered down version of a better game. AC games are consistently adequate but little more, so it would do itself no favors by inviting comparisons between itself and better polishes, more high quality games. It gets away with a lot of Odyssey crap because its mostly the only game out there set in ancient Greece, but Japan(and for that matter Vikings and England too) have better games making use of that setting.
That said I think an Assassin's Creed in the Meji Restoration could be very interesting.
Japan would work better with the more rural settings of the new games but now that Ghost of Tsushima already did that it serves no point anymore. A Japanese AC would just be a watered down version of a better game. AC games are consistently adequate but little more, so it would do itself no favors by inviting comparisons between itself and better polishes, more high quality games. It gets away with a lot of Odyssey crap because its mostly the only game out there set in ancient Greece, but Japan(and for that matter Vikings and England too) have better games making use of that setting.
That said I think an Assassin's Creed in the Meji Restoration could be very interesting.
Thanks to Steam Demo days and other stuff I had to take a break but I'm back now. This one ended up being super long and it turns out the forums puke if I try to post something that's too long, so it's broken up into smaller chunks. Sorry if it's annoying.
Assassins' Creed 3 might one of the most interesting and uneven games for me in the series. It has some really high peaks and some really low valleys and it makes it hard for me to love or hate it even though I genuinely enjoy it. With Desmonds coma adventure(Revelations) completed, its' now 2012 in the AC Universe(and not coincidentally, this was released in 2012 IRL, which certainly resulted in the game being rushed despite the protracted development time) and the world is coming to an end soon if the intrepid band of Desmond and Co(now including Desmonds Estranged dad, William) can't stop it. In AC2, Desmond learned of an impending BAD THING that killed the ISU is returning and will kill Humanity soon as well. In AC:B, he found out it was an incoming Solar Flare. In one of the games they found out they need to find "The Grand Temple"(which I believe the location of which was revealed in the Brotherhood DLC about finding clues in Da Vinci paintings and a cult of Pythagoreans ) and the apple they found under the colosseum is the key to opening the door. Got all that? Good.
Anyway, a majority of the modern day stuff is in a huge underground minimalist alien-looking structure which has an inner door they can't open, so once again, Desmond needs to stuff his ass into the portable animus to go look for the key. And it deposits him the body of Haythem Kenway, a Posh British person in the 1760's who goes to the American colonies during the 7 years/French and Indian War to kill people and find a special vault in upstate New york which it turns out he can't open(but the one desmond is currently hanging out in 200+ years later) with the help one of of the local Mohawk people(who Haytham knocks up before he goes back to England, never to speak to her again because keeping it classy). In one of the best reveals in the series, you find out that Haythem, who you've been playing for 3 acts at this point, was a Templar the whole time and aside from a few little hints here and there, it's a bit of a reveal and surely meant to draw parallels between the Templars and the Assassins', something the game will explore quite a bit in it's runtime.
You do get to spend a lot more time as Desmond this time around if you want to. There's a number of bits where you have to jump out of the animus to either go find a plot coupon to open a new part of the temple(normally in a special modern day location you have to sneaky sneaky or platform through), finally allows Desmond to do SOMETHING with his training. There are also parts where Desmond has discussions with his dad trying to hash out their rather fraught relationship and....man, this kind of character development would have been great in 2007 when the series started and not right before Desmond was gonna sacrifice himself for the greater good. This is also the bit where you get to have Juno give little presentations about how the ISU tried to save themselves and fail despite having what's basically magic...sorry, ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY WHICH JUST LOOKS LIKE MAGIC. Oh, and Juno is stuck in the Temples internet server and wants to get out. Which will be a bit part of the ending because she rigged it so in order to touch the magical glow ball to save the world, Desmond has to die and Juno gets released into the actual internet because something something plot reasons.
Assassins' Creed 3 might one of the most interesting and uneven games for me in the series. It has some really high peaks and some really low valleys and it makes it hard for me to love or hate it even though I genuinely enjoy it. With Desmonds coma adventure(Revelations) completed, its' now 2012 in the AC Universe(and not coincidentally, this was released in 2012 IRL, which certainly resulted in the game being rushed despite the protracted development time) and the world is coming to an end soon if the intrepid band of Desmond and Co(now including Desmonds Estranged dad, William) can't stop it. In AC2, Desmond learned of an impending BAD THING that killed the ISU is returning and will kill Humanity soon as well. In AC:B, he found out it was an incoming Solar Flare. In one of the games they found out they need to find "The Grand Temple"(which I believe the location of which was revealed in the Brotherhood DLC about finding clues in Da Vinci paintings and a cult of Pythagoreans ) and the apple they found under the colosseum is the key to opening the door. Got all that? Good.
Anyway, a majority of the modern day stuff is in a huge underground minimalist alien-looking structure which has an inner door they can't open, so once again, Desmond needs to stuff his ass into the portable animus to go look for the key. And it deposits him the body of Haythem Kenway, a Posh British person in the 1760's who goes to the American colonies during the 7 years/French and Indian War to kill people and find a special vault in upstate New york which it turns out he can't open(but the one desmond is currently hanging out in 200+ years later) with the help one of of the local Mohawk people(who Haytham knocks up before he goes back to England, never to speak to her again because keeping it classy). In one of the best reveals in the series, you find out that Haythem, who you've been playing for 3 acts at this point, was a Templar the whole time and aside from a few little hints here and there, it's a bit of a reveal and surely meant to draw parallels between the Templars and the Assassins', something the game will explore quite a bit in it's runtime.
You do get to spend a lot more time as Desmond this time around if you want to. There's a number of bits where you have to jump out of the animus to either go find a plot coupon to open a new part of the temple(normally in a special modern day location you have to sneaky sneaky or platform through), finally allows Desmond to do SOMETHING with his training. There are also parts where Desmond has discussions with his dad trying to hash out their rather fraught relationship and....man, this kind of character development would have been great in 2007 when the series started and not right before Desmond was gonna sacrifice himself for the greater good. This is also the bit where you get to have Juno give little presentations about how the ISU tried to save themselves and fail despite having what's basically magic...sorry, ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY WHICH JUST LOOKS LIKE MAGIC. Oh, and Juno is stuck in the Temples internet server and wants to get out. Which will be a bit part of the ending because she rigged it so in order to touch the magical glow ball to save the world, Desmond has to die and Juno gets released into the actual internet because something something plot reasons.
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It's a strong start but it does contribute the games biggest flaw: Pacing. So of the games 9 or 10 acts, the first 3 revolve around Haythem. He starts in London, killing a dude a the Opera in a rather cool opening sequence to the historical plotline, then realizes he needs to go to the New World and there's a bit during the sea voyage where they're chased by another ship and a rogue agent is onboard that he kills, leading up to Haythem and the player seeing the New World for the first time from the crows nest as the Dawn breaks over the horizon in a wonderfully shot moment that also promises a new era for the series. Then there's two more acts where Haythem recruits a group before going to kill some dudes in the War before reaching the vault. Its all part of an extended tutorial and getting us comfortable with Haythem, before switching to his half native/half white son Connor/ Ratonhnhaké:ton .
So now we start as kid Conner, then teenager Conner and then adult Connor, slowly building up the rising tensions between the colonists and the British government/soldiers and acting as yet more tutorial before finally introducing Connor to the Assasins in the form of an old crippled black man Ulysses living in a big house out in the wilderness before FINALLY letting you explore freely around act 5. Yes, you have to to go a full 5 acts of tutorial missions before you get to do stuff freely, the main "Kill all the Templars" plot kicks into gear and coincidently, the Revolutionary war begins to kick off as well. While the Haythem bits(or at least the first act) are considered really good, Connor growing up and reaching manhood and becoming an Assasin are slow and while a slow burn isn't bad at all, it comes on the heels of an arguably more interesting and built up character of Haythem.
The revolutionary war bits are mostly good, with a few cringey bits and are the high point of the game before you reach a certain point, and it becomes very obvious when you reach this, where the whole thing felt like they ran out of time and money and suddenly the rest of the game rushes to a finish. For me that was RIGHT after the Battle of the Chesapeake, the huge ass Naval Battle where you get to fight half the Royal Navy(or so it feels) in a big epic battle on a burning sea. It's glorious and sensational and the rest of the game doesn't nearly live up to that in the gameplay department. Partially because Haythem dies shortly afterwards in a very quick and gimmicky sequence and the last arcs are that feel like they're just tying up loose ends because Connor needs to know "WHERE IS CHARLES LEE?". If you don't get that, count yourself Lucky, because Connor becomes quite obsessed with chasing down Charles Lee for much of the story and for a while it feels like he just randomly goes up to characters and yells "WHERE IS CHARLES LEE?" at them, even if it's actually only 2-3 times. So yeah, the game goes from: Good pacing in Haythems Arc, SLOW ASS pacing with Child and Teen Conner Arcs, Good Pacing in the Revolutionary War Arc and as soon as the Battle of the Chesapeake concludes RUSH RUSH GOTTA GET THE GAME OUT ON TIME Pacing till the end.
So now we start as kid Conner, then teenager Conner and then adult Connor, slowly building up the rising tensions between the colonists and the British government/soldiers and acting as yet more tutorial before finally introducing Connor to the Assasins in the form of an old crippled black man Ulysses living in a big house out in the wilderness before FINALLY letting you explore freely around act 5. Yes, you have to to go a full 5 acts of tutorial missions before you get to do stuff freely, the main "Kill all the Templars" plot kicks into gear and coincidently, the Revolutionary war begins to kick off as well. While the Haythem bits(or at least the first act) are considered really good, Connor growing up and reaching manhood and becoming an Assasin are slow and while a slow burn isn't bad at all, it comes on the heels of an arguably more interesting and built up character of Haythem.
The revolutionary war bits are mostly good, with a few cringey bits and are the high point of the game before you reach a certain point, and it becomes very obvious when you reach this, where the whole thing felt like they ran out of time and money and suddenly the rest of the game rushes to a finish. For me that was RIGHT after the Battle of the Chesapeake, the huge ass Naval Battle where you get to fight half the Royal Navy(or so it feels) in a big epic battle on a burning sea. It's glorious and sensational and the rest of the game doesn't nearly live up to that in the gameplay department. Partially because Haythem dies shortly afterwards in a very quick and gimmicky sequence and the last arcs are that feel like they're just tying up loose ends because Connor needs to know "WHERE IS CHARLES LEE?". If you don't get that, count yourself Lucky, because Connor becomes quite obsessed with chasing down Charles Lee for much of the story and for a while it feels like he just randomly goes up to characters and yells "WHERE IS CHARLES LEE?" at them, even if it's actually only 2-3 times. So yeah, the game goes from: Good pacing in Haythems Arc, SLOW ASS pacing with Child and Teen Conner Arcs, Good Pacing in the Revolutionary War Arc and as soon as the Battle of the Chesapeake concludes RUSH RUSH GOTTA GET THE GAME OUT ON TIME Pacing till the end.
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And this feeds into the idea that a fair amount of the game feels unfinished. The fact the endgame feels incredibly rushed is part of this but also some of the side stuff as well. So the world of AC3 is mostly New York, Boston, The Frontier and The Homestead. Boston and New York aren't bad, but they are really fucking samey, small and they blend into each other. It's part of the problem of the time and place the game is set but the colonial architecture of the late 18th century isn't really that compelling for the most part and both cities are a fraction of their later size and influence at this point(New York covers the tip of lower Manhattan, the rest of the map is farmland). The Frontier, OTOH, is basically a big bunch of forest and some towns and such that you can ride across but it's really not terribly compelling. You run/ride around it in certain gameplay missions but when free roaming it's damn dull and feels way too big. Yeah, it's supposed to cover a big chunk of New England from Massachusetts all the way over to Pennsylvania(Valley Forge is on the west end of the map) but that doesn't fix the problem at all.
Added to this is some side quests that don't feel terrible compelling and then there are some quests where you can find various mysteries around the frontiers and cities, such as the Headless Horseman(which makes no sense considering the setting), a ghost, a UFO, etc, all of which Connor can investigate but all will be revealed as something mundane. This isn't really a bad idea except the resolution to these quests are basically a text block saying "Oh, it was some some bedsheets" or some such, like they started programming these, hit the Endgame need to get the game out the door already phase of development and just slapped a paragraph on each one.
There's also a tunnel network under Boston and New York where you solve puzzles to open new doors in order to create fast travel points and it's implied to be created by the freemasons(Apparently Boston has one IRL made of connected basements and service tunnels and such, dating from the old days of the city, not sure about NYC). It's kinda there but not really touched upon much.
Added to this is some side quests that don't feel terrible compelling and then there are some quests where you can find various mysteries around the frontiers and cities, such as the Headless Horseman(which makes no sense considering the setting), a ghost, a UFO, etc, all of which Connor can investigate but all will be revealed as something mundane. This isn't really a bad idea except the resolution to these quests are basically a text block saying "Oh, it was some some bedsheets" or some such, like they started programming these, hit the Endgame need to get the game out the door already phase of development and just slapped a paragraph on each one.
There's also a tunnel network under Boston and New York where you solve puzzles to open new doors in order to create fast travel points and it's implied to be created by the freemasons(Apparently Boston has one IRL made of connected basements and service tunnels and such, dating from the old days of the city, not sure about NYC). It's kinda there but not really touched upon much.
In contrast, there is some really good side content in the game. The Davenport Homestead is initially a big old Manor house in a forest near a bay with a sunken ship. You move into it when you join the Assassins' with Ulysses and eventually fix the ship for some obligatory sailing missions to get you introduced to the ship battle system. You can also find people in the cities that are having some issue, help them out and their come to your Homestead and set up a home/business that suits their location. And as you get more people, it unlocks more missions that makes the town grow and upgrades the functionality of the businesses. This feeds into the ingame economy of buying and selling stuff as a form of income but also creates this cool little town where the characters meet and mingle and get married and such and it's quite nice. It's like a mini-version of stardew valley before stardew valley was a thing. It also does a lot to making Connor seem more likeable by a long shot because Connor actually grows to know and care about these people and build a community around him, unlike the Dour nature he shows in much of the main game. And it's all optional so much most people won't ever engage with it.
It also connects into the ship battle thing because all of this stuff allows you to fight sea battles to open trade routes to sell your stuff for better prices(and avoid taxes the land caravans have) and upgrading your ship gives you something to spend your money on. The ship battles are quite fun, if limited for a number of set battles, but the trading mini-game is kinda annoying and part of that AC Bloat I complained about before.
There's also the Peg Leg missions, where a sea captain will send you out on missions to collect map pieces to a buried treasure(and they're all platforming or other interesting one off missions) but first you have to find special trinkets scattered around the map to unlock the missions, which is the big downside of this.
Before I get back to the complaining bits, I'm just gonna mention the fact that this game has Assasins you can recruit to form your own little brotherhood like in previous games, but unlike the previous games, they're not randos who appear on the map who need help, but 6 people in Boston and New York who each have their set personality and unique skill who you can recruit and will come and help you will you call. It's kinda cool to gather them and have them pop out to use their special skill, but you can't use them on story missions so it's only useful when futzing about on the map. It's also incredibly easy to miss this.
Okay, now that I've gushed, I'm gonna start talking about where shit falls down again and oh where to fucking begin.
It also connects into the ship battle thing because all of this stuff allows you to fight sea battles to open trade routes to sell your stuff for better prices(and avoid taxes the land caravans have) and upgrading your ship gives you something to spend your money on. The ship battles are quite fun, if limited for a number of set battles, but the trading mini-game is kinda annoying and part of that AC Bloat I complained about before.
There's also the Peg Leg missions, where a sea captain will send you out on missions to collect map pieces to a buried treasure(and they're all platforming or other interesting one off missions) but first you have to find special trinkets scattered around the map to unlock the missions, which is the big downside of this.
Before I get back to the complaining bits, I'm just gonna mention the fact that this game has Assasins you can recruit to form your own little brotherhood like in previous games, but unlike the previous games, they're not randos who appear on the map who need help, but 6 people in Boston and New York who each have their set personality and unique skill who you can recruit and will come and help you will you call. It's kinda cool to gather them and have them pop out to use their special skill, but you can't use them on story missions so it's only useful when futzing about on the map. It's also incredibly easy to miss this.
Okay, now that I've gushed, I'm gonna start talking about where shit falls down again and oh where to fucking begin.
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So, the other big issue with the game for me was the Forrest Gumping of Conner. For those not aware of this, Forrest Gump was a Tom Hanks movie from the 1990's where the title character somehow ended up participating in a bunch of really important events of the 1960's-1980's more or less through complete accident. And boy, Connor fucking falls straight into it. It's not enough to have the Revolution happening around him, he has to be a part of EVERY FUCKING IMPORTANT THING THAT HAPPENED BETWEEN 1775 and 1783. Boston Massacre, The signing of the Declaration of Independence, Paul Reveres Ride, the Battles of Lexington and Concord, Battle of Bunker Hill, Battle of Monmouth, Battle of the Chesapeake, Evacuation Day, I'm sure I'm missing one or two. Connor shows up at all of them. Some of them are kind of justified but most of them are just they wanted to find some way to shoehorn him in no matter how flimsy the pretext. Connor also meets and pals around with a lot of the Founding Fathers, particularly Washington because of course he fucking does. It's too bad this one notable Native American dude got more or less written out of all of these important historical events, every LAST REFERENCE. Damn Templers.
Notably bad for me are Paul Reveres Ride and The Battle of Concord, which happen almost on top of each other. So for whatever fucking reason, Paul Revere needs Connor to take him around the Frontier, avoiding patrols yelling "The British are coming" like that old poem people mistake for actual history despite Longfellow not being a historian or even alive during the events in question. And Revere acts like 1775's version of the most annoying GPS on the back of the horse(because they only have one horse). Then they get to Concord and for some reason that's never really explained, the commanding officer sees Connor and puts him in charge of defending the bridge against incoming British Regulars by giving orders to the soldiers dug in there. CONNOR IS NOT EVEN IN THEIR ARMY AND HE'S PROMOTED TO AN OFFICER ROLE JUST BECAUSE! This is fucking shameless.
Notably bad for me are Paul Reveres Ride and The Battle of Concord, which happen almost on top of each other. So for whatever fucking reason, Paul Revere needs Connor to take him around the Frontier, avoiding patrols yelling "The British are coming" like that old poem people mistake for actual history despite Longfellow not being a historian or even alive during the events in question. And Revere acts like 1775's version of the most annoying GPS on the back of the horse(because they only have one horse). Then they get to Concord and for some reason that's never really explained, the commanding officer sees Connor and puts him in charge of defending the bridge against incoming British Regulars by giving orders to the soldiers dug in there. CONNOR IS NOT EVEN IN THEIR ARMY AND HE'S PROMOTED TO AN OFFICER ROLE JUST BECAUSE! This is fucking shameless.
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There's also a notable sequence in mid game where you have to go chase down a Templar in New York, which is the first time you'll be directed to go there per the storyline. As soon you arrive per that mission, you are roped into a chase, arrested and thrown in jail for an entire arc, deprived of all your weapons and tools and forced to sneak around a prison until your taken to be executed, at which point you're freed at the last second and able to kill your target and all is forgiven. It's annoying because it fucking railroads you into a prison arc for a good hour or so where you lose any sense of freedom or any of the cool shit you've gotten so far and unlike any other part of the game(for good fucking reason). It's not unlike the infamous Island arc of RDR2, except in RDR2 you at least get a gun for most of it.
I think I'm almost done here, so I'll end on a high note. AC3 does wrap up Desmonds Arc in a decent enough way even if it doesn't really take proper advantage of or fulfill the premise set up 5 games prior in the first game. Partially because of the delays, the AC3(no longer the third game despite the title), the main creator of the early games leaving Ubisoft and later making Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey). It also starts the beginning of the MD story not really mattering at all and just making AC games because they're popular and sell well, an approach which would give us Black Flag but also....a lot of the less good games.
I'll finish off with giving AC3 some credit for stuff it did very right. Unlike Ubisoft's current trend of making Political games but then acting like they're not political, AC3 waded deep into the discussion about the American Revolution, Slavery, the Founding Fathers, the Treatment of Native Americans and the Found of the US where "All Men are Created Equal" except when they weren't(So slaves, natives, women, etc). Connor very pointedly has a lot to say about his hypocrisy among the rebels and really the only reason he backs the Patriots is his belief the Templars back the British or some such, despite Patriots treating the Natives like dog turds pretty unashamedly and the reveal George Washington was actually the one, not CHARLES LEE who burned his village and killed his mom as a child(and Washington has a reputation for this IRL which is mostly ignored because it's it doesn't look terribly heroic or saintly as Washington is meant to look to some people). There's a clear sense of the United States being born out of hypocrisy and compromise on these issues in a way that leaves Connor feeling very much in the middle of it, losing even when he's won, which feels tragic in so many ways.
There's also the fact the Templars are given Sympathetic motivations to their actions unlike in almost every other game when they're basically just power hungry dicks who do what they do to enrich and empower themselves. At one point Connor and his father, for a brief story arc, work together to take down another Templar and debate the rightness of their side, hoping to sway the other. Haytham is quite happy to point out that the Founding Fathers being Elite Land and Business owners who don't particularly represent the common people as they claim and are far less egalitarian then they are purported to be, and there's some discussion of Washington being a Poor commander(though by people who wish to Replace him with their own commander, so take that as you will). It's a game that has a lot to say even if it doesn't always connect, by god, the writers are fucking trying, which is far more then Ubisoft is capable of anything in the last decade after this game was made.
I think I'm almost done here, so I'll end on a high note. AC3 does wrap up Desmonds Arc in a decent enough way even if it doesn't really take proper advantage of or fulfill the premise set up 5 games prior in the first game. Partially because of the delays, the AC3(no longer the third game despite the title), the main creator of the early games leaving Ubisoft and later making Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey). It also starts the beginning of the MD story not really mattering at all and just making AC games because they're popular and sell well, an approach which would give us Black Flag but also....a lot of the less good games.
I'll finish off with giving AC3 some credit for stuff it did very right. Unlike Ubisoft's current trend of making Political games but then acting like they're not political, AC3 waded deep into the discussion about the American Revolution, Slavery, the Founding Fathers, the Treatment of Native Americans and the Found of the US where "All Men are Created Equal" except when they weren't(So slaves, natives, women, etc). Connor very pointedly has a lot to say about his hypocrisy among the rebels and really the only reason he backs the Patriots is his belief the Templars back the British or some such, despite Patriots treating the Natives like dog turds pretty unashamedly and the reveal George Washington was actually the one, not CHARLES LEE who burned his village and killed his mom as a child(and Washington has a reputation for this IRL which is mostly ignored because it's it doesn't look terribly heroic or saintly as Washington is meant to look to some people). There's a clear sense of the United States being born out of hypocrisy and compromise on these issues in a way that leaves Connor feeling very much in the middle of it, losing even when he's won, which feels tragic in so many ways.
There's also the fact the Templars are given Sympathetic motivations to their actions unlike in almost every other game when they're basically just power hungry dicks who do what they do to enrich and empower themselves. At one point Connor and his father, for a brief story arc, work together to take down another Templar and debate the rightness of their side, hoping to sway the other. Haytham is quite happy to point out that the Founding Fathers being Elite Land and Business owners who don't particularly represent the common people as they claim and are far less egalitarian then they are purported to be, and there's some discussion of Washington being a Poor commander(though by people who wish to Replace him with their own commander, so take that as you will). It's a game that has a lot to say even if it doesn't always connect, by god, the writers are fucking trying, which is far more then Ubisoft is capable of anything in the last decade after this game was made.
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And because the marketing department was probably very firm on the stance that Connor had to join the Patriots.
AC3 is the first one I skipped, I thing the main reason is that I didn't really care for the setting. It was obvious they were going to airbrush over most of the controversial stuff. I don't know how US people see the US independence stuff but from the outside it doesn't look glorious, declaring independence because you don't want your tea taxed after England funded the colonization for years is quite petty. But part of it was also revelation being less than stellar and all the report of AC3 being rushed and buggy.
I don't really know how ubisoft was structured back then, but was it really necessery to have a new AC almost every year? The quality suffered and you just hit player fatigue.
I don't really know how ubisoft was structured back then, but was it really necessery to have a new AC almost every year? The quality suffered and you just hit player fatigue.
Depends. Right Wingers see US Independence as something akin to a Holy fucking event, on par with the coming of Christ, but from a Patriotic angle, which is one of the reasons you have massive anger about stuff like the 1691 project which highlights the role of Slavery in our Early History(and not in a good way). The rest of us....yeah, we're a bit more mixed on the whole thing.
But AC3 does delve into the controversy quite a bit, with Connor very clearly calling out the Patriots and their acceptance of Slavery while also crying about Freedom(their freedom, not their slaves or the natives, naturally), and the treatment of his people. And Absent the Templars appearing to be supporting the British, Connor probably would have ended up on the other side, but then he couldn't take part in all those cool set pieces and been part of the winning side.
Even at the end, Connor doesn't feel like he's won anything. He comes back from the War with very little to show for it other then having wiped out the North American Templars and killed his dad. There's an optional bit where he can go back to his village that he grew up in and finds it empty. He meets a guy nearby who tells him the New government basically kicked his tribe off their land(Shocker!) and they went west. It's implied he never sees them again.
Connor knowing the Patriots don't care about him or his people much is part of the reason he's kinda abrasive for much of the game(and to some people, unlikable). That and the American Colonial cities are, well, a very different culture then the life he grew up with and he has a hard time adjusting at first.
And yes, the decision to make a new AC each year is arguably one of the big reasons the series has had quality and narrative issues. It's now on a two year cycle but the games are now a lot bigger(like 100+ hour playtimes including DLC releases rather then 30 hours) so it's not really an improvement
I give AC 3 props for taking a slightly more cynical take on the Revolution, but its unfortunate that this cynical take is greatly watered down by compromises. You're still on their side despite them being out to get Connor's people and the British never having done much to earn Connor's ire. And while things like Washington's Indian killing days, poor generalship and kinda fake image do get addressed, the game ultimately does imply that on some level George does try to live up to his fake image, and despite their very murky side the patriots that interact with Connor on a personal level don't seem to be out to manipulate him.
The next game, while not really a mainline AC game(for good reason) is Liberation. Unlike AC3, this was basically a Vita exclusive before getting ports to mainline consoles but it's also called "Assassins' Creed 3: Liberation". Mostly because it also takes place in North America around the same time period and Connor shows up for like 2 missions.
Liberation has some good stuff going for it. It takes place in New Orleans in the 1760's and 1770's, which is a little more interesting then Boston and New York of the same period just because it's a different culture and looks cooler(Sorry, brick and brick isn't very appealing aesthically, no matter how functional it is). It stars Aveline de Grandpré, a mixed race(French and African) Assasin who does Templar killing stuff in and around the area. There's also plenty od discussions of colonialism(France has just ceded control of the territory to Spain after the 7 years War), slavery and the like, considering this is the South and Prime slave holding/working territory. Part of the plot involves tracking a slave smuggling operation to the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza in Mexico, which is kind of cool because it allows you to explore some Meso-American pyramids for a bit(AC3 had this as part of a side mission but it was basically a platforming section). If you're wondering what that's all about, I'm gonna spoil it for you. It involves Templars looking for ISU shit in the ruins, because that's what it's always about. In this case they promise the slaves a life of freedom in exchange for working to Excavate the ruins, but they're not allowed to leave. If that sounds like Slavery but under a nicer name, congrats, you noticed the very obvious thing the writers wanted to you to notice. Aveline also catches on to this pretty fucking fast.
Aveline is an interesting character. Because of her mixed race and the Culture of French New Orleans(she's also the daughter of a rich businessman and well positioned member of the city elite), she's able to more or less get away with being treated as white in the setting(arguably if she were poor that privilege wouldn't exist) and her skin is just light enough to make this kind of plausible(apparently, I don't know how much the Code Noir was enforced and I know this shit was complicated as hell even back then). This game, and only this game, allows Aveline to wear one of 3 different costumes. One is a Rich Lady Dress which allows her to wander around without being harrassed (for the most part) but she can't run or really do much in the way of sneaky/stabby because big fancy dress, one is basically Slave/Servant clothes which allows her to pass as one of the slaves, which means she can run, jump and such but gets in trouble for being the wrong areas(the white, rich areas) and then there's her Assasin clothes which allow her to do all the normal things an Assasin does but she's extremely suspicious because it's very noticeable. So picking the right outfit for a situation is important because changes your tactics(but some areas more or less force you to use one).
Aveline also gets credit for being the first female lead in an Assassins' Creed game and NOT having to share the spotlight with a male lead. Ubisoft will forget all about this in couple years when they Release Syndicate....and Origins....and Odyssey....and Valhalla and start boasting about having a playable female protagonist and don't they deserve a cookie or something. It's amusing because Back Flag draws your attention to Liberation in the first MD segment so your going to notice it and how, again, the later AC games would all force the female MC to either share prominence with her Male counterpart(Syndicate), play 2nd fiddle to him(Origins and also Syndicate) or just being character who the player picks with no regard to gender and using gender neutral plots and pronouns(Odyssey and Valhalla). And of course the whole Unity thing where having playable female assasins would be too much work or something because there were no female assasins, playable or otherwise in any of the previous games....except AC:B, AC: R, AC3, AC3: Liberation(didn't see you there Aveline), AC4...........but none other then those.
This is also the point in the series where the Abstergo Animus game console thingy becomes a plot point, because you're playing a person playing the game console playing liberation in the MD segment and there's a subplot of some hacker group hacking your feed to show you the true events and not just the bits the Templars want you to see(by showing you deleted scenes that shows Aveline playing the Templars for Chumps and the Templars being evil). The next few games in the series will basically follow this format, sans the hacker group who just kinda drop out of sight and nobody fucking cares.
Okay, that's about all the good bits of the game. The bad parts are the rest of it. Yet again, there's another minigame with a map where you manage your trading Empire from New Orleans to make money because that's what you do now in these games. Nobody cares but it's here because it's been here since Brotherhood and we're sure as fuck not gonna stop now, are we?
There's some immersion breaking puzzles in the otherwise cool Mayan ruins you traverse. To get the ISU thingy of the week, at one point you enter a ruin and find one a huge version of one of those games where a ball in in a maze and you need to change the incline to make the ball move around and such. Why did the ISU lock their secrets with what's basically a kids game? Who fucking knows but damn if that's not immersion breaking because of how stupid it is.
New Orleans is fine but there's also a Bayou outside of town which you also have to run around in and it's just, well, it's a giant fucking swamp with gators and shit and it's not really fun or anything, but you gotta go there because Louisiana.
The plot is rather meh all around and I barely remembered it so I had to consult wikipedia to even remember what the plot was. I only played this because I got it with the AC3 remasters collection so why not. Connor shows up for like 2 missions and there's no real reason for it. The end has you get the iSU shiney and it has a message about finding Eve on it. Yes, that Eve from the Bible. Because AC at the time occasionally liked to tease that Eve was somehow going to be important to the overall plot of all the ancient aliens stuff and this is yet another plot thread that never really went anywhere because the writers got bored with it or something.
It's a decent 10 hours but honestly if you didn't play it, even as a fan of the series, you wouldn't miss much. The only thing it really brought to the table was Aveline being able to change costumes to fit the situation and sadly none of the other games did anything with that so that's the sole redeeming reason to even try this one out.
Liberation has some good stuff going for it. It takes place in New Orleans in the 1760's and 1770's, which is a little more interesting then Boston and New York of the same period just because it's a different culture and looks cooler(Sorry, brick and brick isn't very appealing aesthically, no matter how functional it is). It stars Aveline de Grandpré, a mixed race(French and African) Assasin who does Templar killing stuff in and around the area. There's also plenty od discussions of colonialism(France has just ceded control of the territory to Spain after the 7 years War), slavery and the like, considering this is the South and Prime slave holding/working territory. Part of the plot involves tracking a slave smuggling operation to the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza in Mexico, which is kind of cool because it allows you to explore some Meso-American pyramids for a bit(AC3 had this as part of a side mission but it was basically a platforming section). If you're wondering what that's all about, I'm gonna spoil it for you. It involves Templars looking for ISU shit in the ruins, because that's what it's always about. In this case they promise the slaves a life of freedom in exchange for working to Excavate the ruins, but they're not allowed to leave. If that sounds like Slavery but under a nicer name, congrats, you noticed the very obvious thing the writers wanted to you to notice. Aveline also catches on to this pretty fucking fast.
Aveline is an interesting character. Because of her mixed race and the Culture of French New Orleans(she's also the daughter of a rich businessman and well positioned member of the city elite), she's able to more or less get away with being treated as white in the setting(arguably if she were poor that privilege wouldn't exist) and her skin is just light enough to make this kind of plausible(apparently, I don't know how much the Code Noir was enforced and I know this shit was complicated as hell even back then). This game, and only this game, allows Aveline to wear one of 3 different costumes. One is a Rich Lady Dress which allows her to wander around without being harrassed (for the most part) but she can't run or really do much in the way of sneaky/stabby because big fancy dress, one is basically Slave/Servant clothes which allows her to pass as one of the slaves, which means she can run, jump and such but gets in trouble for being the wrong areas(the white, rich areas) and then there's her Assasin clothes which allow her to do all the normal things an Assasin does but she's extremely suspicious because it's very noticeable. So picking the right outfit for a situation is important because changes your tactics(but some areas more or less force you to use one).
Aveline also gets credit for being the first female lead in an Assassins' Creed game and NOT having to share the spotlight with a male lead. Ubisoft will forget all about this in couple years when they Release Syndicate....and Origins....and Odyssey....and Valhalla and start boasting about having a playable female protagonist and don't they deserve a cookie or something. It's amusing because Back Flag draws your attention to Liberation in the first MD segment so your going to notice it and how, again, the later AC games would all force the female MC to either share prominence with her Male counterpart(Syndicate), play 2nd fiddle to him(Origins and also Syndicate) or just being character who the player picks with no regard to gender and using gender neutral plots and pronouns(Odyssey and Valhalla). And of course the whole Unity thing where having playable female assasins would be too much work or something because there were no female assasins, playable or otherwise in any of the previous games....except AC:B, AC: R, AC3, AC3: Liberation(didn't see you there Aveline), AC4...........but none other then those.
This is also the point in the series where the Abstergo Animus game console thingy becomes a plot point, because you're playing a person playing the game console playing liberation in the MD segment and there's a subplot of some hacker group hacking your feed to show you the true events and not just the bits the Templars want you to see(by showing you deleted scenes that shows Aveline playing the Templars for Chumps and the Templars being evil). The next few games in the series will basically follow this format, sans the hacker group who just kinda drop out of sight and nobody fucking cares.
Okay, that's about all the good bits of the game. The bad parts are the rest of it. Yet again, there's another minigame with a map where you manage your trading Empire from New Orleans to make money because that's what you do now in these games. Nobody cares but it's here because it's been here since Brotherhood and we're sure as fuck not gonna stop now, are we?
There's some immersion breaking puzzles in the otherwise cool Mayan ruins you traverse. To get the ISU thingy of the week, at one point you enter a ruin and find one a huge version of one of those games where a ball in in a maze and you need to change the incline to make the ball move around and such. Why did the ISU lock their secrets with what's basically a kids game? Who fucking knows but damn if that's not immersion breaking because of how stupid it is.
New Orleans is fine but there's also a Bayou outside of town which you also have to run around in and it's just, well, it's a giant fucking swamp with gators and shit and it's not really fun or anything, but you gotta go there because Louisiana.
The plot is rather meh all around and I barely remembered it so I had to consult wikipedia to even remember what the plot was. I only played this because I got it with the AC3 remasters collection so why not. Connor shows up for like 2 missions and there's no real reason for it. The end has you get the iSU shiney and it has a message about finding Eve on it. Yes, that Eve from the Bible. Because AC at the time occasionally liked to tease that Eve was somehow going to be important to the overall plot of all the ancient aliens stuff and this is yet another plot thread that never really went anywhere because the writers got bored with it or something.
It's a decent 10 hours but honestly if you didn't play it, even as a fan of the series, you wouldn't miss much. The only thing it really brought to the table was Aveline being able to change costumes to fit the situation and sadly none of the other games did anything with that so that's the sole redeeming reason to even try this one out.
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