Brotherhood was excellent - a direct sequel to Assassin’s Creed 2, essentially picking up where it left off. I skipped Revelations in favour of AC3, as I heard it wasn’t nearly as good or interesting, so I just watched Youtube vids of cutscenes and the ending. It’s Sexio’s last hurrah, so there may be value to you in that if you’re invested in the character.
I liked Revelations more than Brotherhood, Istanbul was more interesting to me than Rome. They’re both more AC2, basically. I find it hard to go back after the control refinements of 3. They’re both good games if you like the AC formula, though. Plot is totally stupid in both.
Washington DLC is not great. Worth checking out if you already have it, but I wouldn’t buy it.
I still have to play Revelations (need to space out playing open world games a bit and only recently completed Brotherhood).
As others said Brotherhood was more of AC II and I liked it. The “Assassins vs. Templars” story line is too complicated / confusing to follow in detail though.
Rome was pretty impressive with monuments recognizable and pretty close to their real-life counterparts.
Using hidden blades to stab 2 guards at the same time never gets old and the flowing cape animation is simply top-notch.
My only gripe with it and the whole series is that it’s too easy and hardly any challenge apart from some timed runs / climbs which are optional and partly DLC.
Will tackle Revelations next.
I’m thinking of picking this up on the Origin sale for $13, but I don’t know if I should just wait for a Steam sale. My main worry is that if I decide to get the DLC it will never be on sale through Origin (or UPlay if it could be bought directly). Not sure if I should worry about this since from what I can tell people don’t seem to really like the DLC. Maybe the DLC isn’t worth it at any price?
I would like to try out the DLC but it’s 30 dollars isn’t it? For some weird sidestory of how George Washington becomes King or some such nonsense. I kind of wanted to pick it up since by the end of the game when Connor becomes Mr. Badass is when I finally bought into him so I wanted to continue more of that.
OK, I was going to fire up the Batman games (AA, AC) for a second play through, but I decided I’d try AC3 first since I haven’t touched it at all. Even though I tend to be a mouse + keyboard person I decided to try starting with the XBox controller. WHat HUD elements do you recommend turning off? I was thinking I should turn off the mission indicators but I don’t even see the setting to do that. Would the game become too tedious without some help finding the next objective? I’m always torn about this stuff. Usually the default settings make it too easy and everything is spoon fed, but sometimes that is better than swinging too far the other way. Any suggestions for what HUD elements to turn off for this one?
I play with everything off except SSI (social stealth indicators) and updates. Since you’re new to the game (I’ve played it a gajillion hours) you may want to keep the minimap and controls; I find I end up staring at the little map instead of the beautiful world when I need to get somewhere, so I shut it off. The game is good about putting destinations onscreen, so it’s not nessecary. But really, just toy around with the settings until you find a good fit. You want to see the mission indicators clearly. The game isn’t designed around not knowing where you need to go. It’s not a matter of being “spoon fed,” it’s just that not knowing where you need to go wasn’t one of the challenges the designers had in mind when they made the game.
Interesting. I assumed leaving the updates on (which seems to show the quest markers) would make the game too easy. I see what you mean about the mini map. When I left the theater I started watching the map to see where I was supposed to turn (I had the quest markers turned off at that time). I think it is a good idea for me to leave the controls HUD on. So maybe I’ll start with SSI and controls on. I’ll keep the minimap off. I’ll try the updates off, but I will turn them on if it ever feels frustrating. Updates is the one that controls mission indicators, right? Does it control anything else? Thanks.
Updates is the little window in the top right that lets you know what you picked up, when you have new emails, etc. I highly recommend leaving it on.
I thought when I turned updates off that the quest markers disappeared. Does the updates HUD option control both? I’ll turn it back on to get the messages though.
How are you supposed to approach AC3? So I completed an early mission in Boston (retrieve the research). Now I return back to the Green Dragon tavern and it looks like another main mission is available. But earlier I met Benjamin Franklin and he wants help finding his pages to his book. Is this a game where you just set aside time to explore as much or as little as you wish to pursue side quests? So at any time I just stop doing main quests and walk around looking for stuff in Boston to do? Thanks.
Without saying too much, you’re still in the prologue/tutorial. I would focus on the main missions until you’re finished with that. You’ll know when that is.
But as for the overall structure of the game, it’s pretty similar to most open world games. There’s a main plot that you advance by completing main missions (represented by the exclamation mark icon on your map), and there are a ton of side activities that you can pursue at your leisure. There’s no time pressure on anything, so you can complete everything in whatever order you want. You’ll discover a ton of stuff to do, probably more than you’d ever want to, so feel free to be choosy about what interests you.
OK, thanks. Good to know.
I haven’t played AC3 but that is pretty much how AC and AC2 work. For the most part you are free to do other stuff anytime.
So, is climbing the towers just busywork? Since the map just points out exactly where they are, there doesn’t seem to be either challenge to it or some sense of exploration. Is the point of it that it may reveal the source or some quest to complete? Going up 1 or 2 per map may be nice just for the view, but beyond that seems pointless unless there is some benefit. I’m still in Boston.
It reveals the map and shows where certain side missions/objectives are located.
Giaddon, so you use the map and icons to find things like the tower locations and quests, right?
Is there anyone here that plays without using the quest / tower / other markers on the map to find stuff? So to find the towers, you would just look for tall buildings in areas of the map that haven’t been revealed?
I definitely think there are times if makes sense to use the markers. Your character would know the location of certain locations. I wish there was a setting, show markers for things your character should know.
The eagle icons on the mini map , should be viewpoints.
Sorry I wasn’t clear with my question lordkosc. I was wondering if anyone looked for the viewpoints not using the map (not using the eagle icons), but just by walking around looking for tall buildings to climb? Maybe this just isn’t my thing, but it seems rather dull to just look at the map to navigate to all the eagle icons and climb the towers. Then again, it may be tedious to try and find them without using the icons on the map. I did one this way, but I already had a general idea where it was. I’m just having a hard time finding the balance to make these viewpoints any fun.
I like the environments, but so far I find some of the gameplay a little boring. Maybe it gets better once I’m out of the beginning Boston stuff? I’m just heading to Lexington now.
You can put one map icon on screen at a time by clicking on it in the map screen. So you can click a tower and then follow the icon in the environment. Also, all viewpoints have eagles circling above them.
As for gameplay, it gets a little deeper as you progress, but the AC series has simple gameplay in general.