Assassins Creed: What am I Missing Here?

terry.330

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So I picked up Black Flag, I love good pirate stuff and adventure games so I figured this was a no brainer and this seems to be a highly rated entry in the series. I played the one set in the renaissance for a few hours back when that came out and have no real recollection of it. So this is really the first one I've really sat down and played and I am not having any fun.

-The normal walking speed is painfully slow but as soon as I start free running I stick to literally everything. It's proving to be more of a hinderance than a smooth and stylish method of travel. Not cool when every other mission is a chase or tailing someone.
-The camera is often blocked or stuck in tight spaces which just adds further aggravation to trying to get around the environment.
-There is a ton of shit popping up on screen constantly; objectives, hints, button prompts, all sort of notifications. It's extremely distracting and at times overwhelming especially when you're right in the middle of something.
-The sci-fi bullshit is extremely intrusive. I just want to do pirate stuff. I don't give a shit about this brain matrix memory nonsense. This reeks of early 2000s convoluted video game thinking. Like the devs were all "Check it out we got a badass historical action game but it's also sic-fi!!!" How about just concentrate on the action part instead of wedging in the poor mans Matrix.
-The fake graphical glitches in the game world are not cool, they're immersion breaking.

I don't know maybe it's because I'm not familiar with the series or maybe they're just throwing a whole bunch of stuff at you right at the beginning. I know the games is almost 10 years old so I was expecting it to be a little dated so that's not really a problem. The game still looks pretty good and the voice acting is solid. It just seems overly ambitious and sloppy.

Am I missing something? Does it get better? Or should I say will I get more accustomed to it's play style? I'm only like 4 hours in but damn near every minute has felt like a chore. It was only 8 bucks so if it's not my thing no big deal but there's a lot here to like and I want to like it. The pirate stuff is well done, they did a lot of research and it shows. But I value my play time and if it's not enjoyable there's a million other things on my list.
 
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famicommander

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Couldn't tell you what the last Assassin's Creed game I played was, but I can tell you that every game in the series I did play sucked ass.
 

terry.330

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Yeah this straight up sucks.

I've died like 30 times and not once have I felt like it was my fault. The camera and controls are shit. I either get stuck on everything or end up climbing/jumping on random stuff. For fucks sake you can't even jump unless you're running, there's no crouch but you're supposed to be an assassin. If you so much as get near a pile of hay or thick grass you jump into it automatically. The hit detection and context sensitive interactions are some of the worst I've ever encountered in a modern game. The camera feels like it's trying to control itself half the time, on top of all that half the screen is blocked by popups, objectives and HUD.

If this is one of the best in the series I am completely at a loss as to why the series is so popular.

I guess I'll just have to re-watch Black Sails to get my pirate fix.
 

k'_127

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I would only recommend AC Origins and (especially) Odyssey. Avoid the rest (including Valhalla, the latest one).

I would say AC3 was also good at its time, but likely outdated now (even with the remaster).

Edit: going more in-depth with my thoughts on Origins / Odyssey:

- The story and dialogs suck. Some parts of the sub-stories might be ok.
- Combat is shallow, and can be easily broken later on
- The maps, especially in Odyssey, are my favourites out of the open-world games I played
- The graphics are also nice for an open-world game
- Variety of completion stuff to keep you busy. Extremely repetitive though
- In general, both are only recommended if you have a shit ton of free time and want something to keep you busy
 
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Hans

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The memory animus stuff in black flag broke the immersion so heavily for me. Its incredibly unnecessary and intrusive to the flow of the game
 

terry.330

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sjmaiimvool81.jpg
I remember seeing this a while ago, now I get it.

Did some light research on the series this afternoon and holy shit are there a lot of AC games. If I had know that AC was a yearly game that would have told me everything I needed to know about the series. To think it started off as a spin off to the Prince of Persia series and turned into this kind of shit. It's literally everything wrong with modern gaming.
 

RAZO

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Yea, I could care less about the AC series as well. Tried playing the first and 2nd one and just thought they were kind of boring. I also feel this way about Bloodborne and the Soul's games.
 

Lagduf

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So here’s the thing:

The meta-story is trite, boring, and always filled with characters we really have no connection to. Having to play as a character in the present meta story sucks and it’s always terribly immersion breaking.

Assassin’s Creed 2 and it’s sequels were absolutely excellent games and the first one “the renaissance” one had an excellent story. I loved those games.

I tried to play AC3 but it sucked.

I have play like over 100 hours of AC: Valhallla but I have no beat it and probably won’t go back to it. While it is a fun game it’s ultimately hampered by a huge world that is essentially devoid of meaningful interaction and more importantly there is really no reason to explore anything.

There is absolutely zero reward in AC: Valhalla for exploring. Don’t get me wrong, there are items you can get but they’re all just cookie cutter reskins of the same model with modestly better stats.

Compare that to a game such as Elden Ring where you’ll explore every inch of the game because you never know what you’ll find.

Compare that too AC: Valhalla where you always know what you’re going to find and it’s never going to be interesting.

There is simply too much to do in the game and none of it matters because you’re rewarded with nothing.

If I had to play it again I’d simply skip all side quests and only do the main storyline.

I did like the River Raid mini game a lot, but it’s too time consuming for ultimately no payout.
 

Lagduf

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For some reason Ubisoft wants you to spend hundreds of hours and play daily. The game is structured like an MMO to keep you coming back but you absolutely can spend money on their stupid in games currency to buy items and cosmetics that look really cool and are powerful. Our your can grind daily in game until your eyes bleed to earn that same currency, but the in game vendor only has a small selection of the cool items for sale each week. If you spend real money you can buy what you want immediately.
 

Lagduf

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AC Valhalla really left me feeling cold after I played Elden Ring in a similar way that I really didn’t care for Fallout 4 especially after I played The Witcher 3.

AC and Fallout are huge beautiful games but their soul is completely barren.
 

famicommander

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The gameplay in AC2 and games of that era fucking blows, duf.

It doesn't work as an action game because the combat is braindead simple and easy.

It doesn't work as a stealth game because there's no risk/reward mechanic. If you fuck up while being stealthy, all you have to do is mash buttons until everyone is dead.

It doesn't work as a platform game because the movement is more or less automated. You just hold the stick in a vague direction and your character automatically traverses the environment.

They're barely even games at all. They're more like movies where you have to walk between the scenes and occasionally press a button to see the next one.
 

Neo Alec

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It has become habit for my brother and I to both play the latest AC game each year. Starting with Origins however, they're just too damn long. I do somewhat like the continuing story, and check in just to see what they do with it, although it's gotten too convoluted, especially since the soft reboot with Origins.

Yeah, the gameplay is slow, and there are way too many errand missions. At least they're skippable. Originally I quit mid AC2 back when I had a life, and then caught back up by playing all of the games I missed when AC4 came out, and have kept up ever since.

I agree the AC games are not great. I just play them so I continue to have a handful of AAA titles I keep up with on the latest consoles.
 

Lagduf

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The gameplay in AC2 and games of that era fucking blows, duf.

It doesn't work as an action game because the combat is braindead simple and easy.

It doesn't work as a stealth game because there's no risk/reward mechanic. If you fuck up while being stealthy, all you have to do is mash buttons until everyone is dead.

It doesn't work as a platform game because the movement is more or less automated. You just hold the stick in a vague direction and your character automatically traverses the environment.

They're barely even games at all. They're more like movies where you have to walk between the scenes and occasionally press a button to see the next one.

At the time I really enjoyed AC2.

Would I today? Probably not. A lot of your criticism is valid.

I wonder how I’d feel about a title like Batman: Arkham City today?

Arkham Asylum I loved.

It’s really hard to do an open world game right.
 

neo_mao

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So here’s the thing:

The meta-story is trite, boring, and always filled with characters we really have no connection to. Having to play as a character in the present meta story sucks and it’s always terribly immersion breaking.

Assassin’s Creed 2 and it’s sequels were absolutely excellent games and the first one “the renaissance” one had an excellent story. I loved those games.

I tried to play AC3 but it sucked.

I have play like over 100 hours of AC: Valhallla but I have no beat it and probably won’t go back to it. While it is a fun game it’s ultimately hampered by a huge world that is essentially devoid of meaningful interaction and more importantly there is really no reason to explore anything.

There is absolutely zero reward in AC: Valhalla for exploring. Don’t get me wrong, there are items you can get but they’re all just cookie cutter reskins of the same model with modestly better stats.

Compare that to a game such as Elden Ring where you’ll explore every inch of the game because you never know what you’ll find.

Compare that too AC: Valhalla where you always know what you’re going to find and it’s never going to be interesting.

There is simply too much to do in the game and none of it matters because you’re rewarded with nothing.

If I had to play it again I’d simply skip all side quests and only do the main storyline.

I did like the River Raid mini game a lot, but it’s too time consuming for ultimately no payout.

I think Taiso also liked Ass Creed which always confused me because I thought you guys were smart....?
 

terry.330

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I think Taiso also liked Ass Creed which always confused me because I thought you guys were smart....?
He did which is actually one of the reasons I was willing to give the series a shot. Now I question everything he ever said.
 

famicommander

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There is a 1:1 correlation between people who like Assassin's Creed and people who think Donnie Darko is a good movie.

They probably also love Dave Matthews Band.
 
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