I skipped Liberation, but now I’m wondering if I shouldn’t have. If it’s ever BC (and cheap), I’ll probably pick it up. That said, I like this news too. I still enjoy the AC games but they’re really starting to feel rote. I still remember getting a questionnaire from Ubisoft asking about possible scenarios, with one being an AC game based on submarines during the Cold War. That sounds awesome.
The two really big outliers in the main AC series is AC: Black Flag and AC: Unity. Black Flag gets the nod obviously for it’s pirate ship gameplay. It’s so good that Rebel Galaxy lifted the broadsides right into space freighters. Unity, for all the flack it got, really did try to do something different with the melee combat. In Unity, you can’t just spam the counter button to rack up kills because the enemies don’t just stand around waiting for their turn. Unfortunately, a lot of people didn’t like this and Unity had a bunch of launch tech issues that overtook the narrative of the reception.
If you can snag Unity for cheap on a decent PC, (and you like a bit more dynamic combat) it’s a good game now.
I concur completely. Unity is a lot of fun now, and it’s a great way to also learn about a fascinating bit of European history that’s extraordinarily complex, so much so that it usually gets the short shrift in American elementary and high school classrooms.
I will say that right now almost all of the the AC games are on sale in the current Steam sale that’s due to end soon. Picked up Rogue and some DLC for other titles I was missing.
A question: is there any workaround for Steam not allowing you to buy DLC for games you don’t own on Steam? I got Black Flag as part of a GPU promotion a couple of years ago, and it was a UPlay code. I’ve noticed that when you buy from Steam, the codes they give you transfer over to UPlay for AC games from Brotherhood onwards, so I think it’d work, and it’s just a $5.00 purchase anyway to see…but Steam is blocking me.
However if you looking for the best way to learn about the French Revolution I’d point people to the fantastic Revolutions podcast by Mike Duncan. Though I’d venture to guess you don’t need that recommendation Trig.
Not that SC is bad, per se, just that the shoehorned Templar/ Assassin stuff distorts the very complex machinations almost beyond recognition. To be fair I don’t know that a video game could ever do the complex political interplay of the Revolution justice.
Here’s something I don’t understand - everyone forgets that this was done first in AC3. I’m going to guess that’s because it comes a good way into the game, after the initial section that bored a lot of players. But I like the implementation better in AC3 because it’s more focused - they drop you into a scenario, there’s no open world sailing. I think most people might differ with me on that, but I feel like the open world sailing is kind of pointless without some kind of more “real” variables like making wind and wind direction more important (like at all) or provisioning like food and water (and rum). As it is, it’s basically driving a really big car that never runs out of gas.
Did it have shanties? No?
I rest my case.
I don’t know, I’m usually bellowing “Yellow Submarine” at the top of my lungs while I’m at sea.
Having made my way through Shama’s Citizens about ten years ago, I was on a pretty solid footing with the Revolution…but I’m STILL going to listen to the hell out of that podcast anyway! Thanks for the recommendation, Craig!
Yeah, that’s the big difference really. In AC3, the ship-to-ship stuff was a bunch of side missions. In Black Fag, it’s the main game.
As for all that other stuff, the AC series is all about being a super-powerful awesome ninja killer, so the ship stuff reflected that idealized image of piracy. All anyone cared about was cannons, singing sea shanties, and meeting Blackbeard.
Oh wow. That Revolutions podcast starts in 1625. Awesome!
Well… kind of. He does the English Revolution until the restoration of the monarchy. Then the American Revolution. The last series completed was the French Revolution, which ran from 1784 to the Coup of 18 Brumaire. Now he is doing the Hatian Revolution.
So don’t expect the series to be continuous! However the series are labeled in a ‘seasons’ kind of mode, so if you wanted to listen to the French you could start at Revolutions 3.1.
Oh yeah, I got that. And I was all set to go into the French Revolution…but dadgum Charles Stuart sidetracked me.
Noooo!
Noooooooooo!
Every time you skip Liberation, you guys make Aveline cry. :(
-Tom
Well all right, help me out here. Wasn’t that game designed for the Vita? I don’t have one of those, but I understand it was ported to XBLA and I guess maybe PS3, but I heard bad things about that port. Did you try it out on either of those? Hell, I’ve played every other damn AC game, it’s not like I couldn’t be talked into it …
I thought about Liberation, but the Game Informer survey of AC titles made Liberation sound like a pretty easy title to give a miss to, especially if you separate it from the Vita environment and play the HD version on PC.
Is it really good?
Oh, and the uPlay store is having a Preznit’s Day sale. Good prices on Syndicate for PC, but the one that was really sweet is the Deluxe edition of Rogue for $12. That’s the base game and all DLC.
Oddly enough, it was the first AC game I played through and 100%'ed. Bought AC, stalled out in the first city, didn’t get much past the intro in AC2.
But the atmospheric charm of the game’s New Orleans hooked me (good thing, because the swamp setting was way too big and delivered sub-par parkour). Avelline is a more interesting main character than, say, Arno or Edward. You still have to gut out the character’s limited capabilities until you hit some unlocks and start generating income, but the story was enjoyable. Probably because it was not explicitly wrapped around known historical events.
Finished this about a week ago. What a beautiful game setting. I spent several hours walking around playing virtual tourist.
Which has, admittedly, been one of the biggest draws for me for the series.
I was home sick a couple weeks ago so I booted up AC:S. I got a bit dizzy running around and zipping up buildings, so I just stopped and walked instead. I ended up doing this for an real-life hour, just walking around London. This was possibly my favorite gaming experience of the year so far.