Exactly this.
Wow, Brandon over at No High Scores really hated Assassin’s Creed III (he just finished it last week). His tastes usually align with mine, so I’m a little shocked. This thread had convinced me that even though I didn’t like Assassin’s Creed II, I might really enjoy 3. I’ll still play it when I get time, of course, but I just have to decide when I get in the mood if I want to give part II another chance first and actually finish it.
Brandon seemed more interested in writing about his new ukulele than writing about Assassin’s Creed 3 (“an absolute bucket of horse piss of a game” was the extent of his commentary), but I can understand someone hating it if he just plowed through the storyline stuff. A lot of that is awful.
For me, Assassin’s Creed 3 played like Skyrim where I just focused on the side activities and made my own narrative. Homestead missions, liberating neighborhoods, unlocking new sidekick assassin abilities, hunting collectibles, sabotaging forts, and of course, those naval missions. When scharmers says Assassin’s Creed 3 is all “frosting”, I’m not sure I necessarily disagree, but it’s pretty good frosting and it’s an approach that worked wonders for many people in Skyrim.
-TomGreat points Tom. It does sound like delicious frosting.
The one thing that kept the original Assassin’s Creed from getting into my top tier “favorite games of all time” mental list is that whole mcguffin ending. I really felt like they were closing in on the perfect game until then. But I was so sad to see them go all in on that ridiculous fiction in Assassin’s Creed II. (Though what kept me from enjoying the second game was the changes to the gameplay: the more liberal timing window on counterattacks, the day-night cycle which made the environments not look as good, and a whole host of other little details).
If the gameplay and side activities and the … American-ness of Assassin’s Creed III is what made you love it, then I think I’m going to love to sink my teeth into it.
I just wish Assassin’s Creed Liberation was available for a platform I owned. A virtual New Orleans sounds more appealing than a virtual Boston.
If you don’t like ridiculous fiction then yeah, Assassin’s Creed may not be for you.
I’m in what seems to be a signifcant minority of AC3 players in that I too really like the game because of all its delicious, Colonial America “frosting”. Most of the rest of the AC3-playing internet has loudly protested the fact that AC3 is less focused on being a “press ‘X’ to kill animation” simulator than any other entry in the series, which I can kind of understand, even though I think that’s really stale now on its own (this extended console cycle has given us insight into how much series fans hate change in trilogy-ending games).
I’m sure Ubi has heard you guys loud and clear, and I’m really really curious to see how they incorporate that feedback into future ACs.
The difference between AC3 and Skyrim is that Skyrim expertly seduces you. “Oooh, look! What’s that over there, just few feet away? Shiny! And that place just down the road … I’d say that’s worth a visit. And far off, just on the horizon – do you see it? You’ll have to travel there one day. But of course it’s all up to you to decide where to go, you clever, clever person, you.”
AC3, on the other hand, is more like a ramshackle yard sale. A bunch of high-quality goods are scattered across the lawn, seemingly at random. The guy running the sale isn’t all that helpful. “Well, there’s hunting over there, and some sea voyages off in the corner. I guess you can kill stuff, too. Tunnels are over here. There’s a bunch of assassin team thingamajigs under some button someplace. I forget what they’re for, they’re from before. And you can craft items so that you can, you can … well, I guess some people like it.”
What the guy mainly wants to talk about instead is his deep insight into life. “Did you know that George Washington was not, in fact, perfect? It’s true, he had like slaves and shit. You can look it up. And you know what? Sometimes both sides really and truly believe they’re both doing the right thing. I know, freaky right? Did I just totally blow your mind?”
You can find some real gems at the sale, but you pretty much have to ignore the guy running the sale.
(The guy running the sale believes himself to be a master salesmen. He makes a mental note to chat more with the customers in the future, because they love it so much.)
Hopefully the rumor that the next AC will involve pirates is true – anything to leverage the naval aspect is a good thing in my book.
Rock8man, I share your disappointment at not having a platform that can play AC:Liberation. I love the idea of a female assassin and having grown up in Louisiana I want that game so bad I can taste it – so sad I missed the Black Friday sale.
How has this thread convinced you you might like 3? I think most people agree its worse than 2?
edit: nevermind - I somehow missed an entire page of discussion??
This. This is why I surf to this site every day.
Yeah, that’s a fantastic post, HumanTon.
I find this amusing:
In the upcoming DLC for AC3 (releases tomorrow), Conner will get some special powers from native american gods. From an article on Eurogamer:
Wow, so what solution did they come up with that did get the approval of their native consultant?
I don’t know why I find it funny, but I do.
Assassin’s Creed: Prey.
AC3, on the other hand, is more like a ramshackle yard sale. A bunch of high-quality goods are scattered across the lawn, seemingly at random. The guy running the sale isn’t all that helpful. “Well, there’s hunting over there, and some sea voyages off in the corner. I guess you can kill stuff, too. Tunnels are over here. There’s a bunch of assassin team thingamajigs under some button someplace. I forget what they’re for, they’re from before. And you can craft items so that you can, you can … well, I guess some people like it.”
I’m quite enjoying AC3 - nowhere near as much as 2 or Brotherhood, but enough to keep at it for many hours without regret. Even so, this quote is very accurate. It’s all just thrown together with no thought as to how the parts fit together or could even gasp complement each other. And it makes some bizarre decisions to arbitrarily limit fun - also an issue with Far Cry 3. Assassin’s Creed is a series built on free running, so what do they do? Put guards on all the rooftops. Why? Liberating the cities involves tracking down multiple unmarked quest givers by traipsing all over the map on foot with no particular way of telling that you have “cleared” an area. Why?
Instead, powers are now gained after drinking hallucinogenic tea made from red willow bark, and a huge tree was added to the game’s Frontier map.
Does he get a magic tattoo as well?
I came to the end of the game and wondered what happened to the cool calling in of assassins that was so good in Brotherhood. I think it was in there, somewhere - I recall an angry French man with a machete - but somehow I managed to miss the whole thing.
That’s too bad, Alistair–AC3 has a very cool system, with special assassin abilities. It’s pretty neat to mess around with.
I think there was a lot of content that I just didn’t intersect with somehow.
Well, I never knew it was there either - The tutorial mode , or rather the storytelling that is supposed to tell you about it is frankly horrible.
To me it felt like a spartan Facebook game. Didn’t feel as integrated as brotherhood. Also I really hated how finding all the towers didn’t reveal the whole map forcing you to trot around on foot to make all the icons appear. I didn’t liberate Boston for a long ass time because I couldn’t find the final activity to do so till I stumbled upon it near the end of the game.
I totally support an ac3:wrath of the crimson tide - age of sail pirate spin off!
I didn’t liberate anywhere, because it didn’t seem like a necessary or interesting part of the game, even when I went and looked for it after reading about it here. Burn 3 blankets?