Christ I just played the first Desmond mission and does it suck balls. It’s a downgraded version of minecraft(!) with Desmond narrating his time at “the Farm”. What a shitty mission I hope I can complete the storyline without those.
Confirmed – I got that achievement today. I still want to conquer Rhodes but I can’t figure out how to choose a specific map in multiplayer outside of pre-match voting; and even there I’ve never seen Rhodes come up. (Of course, the map probably isn’t called “Rhodes.”)
It’s ironic that the Tower Defense game is essentially a punishment for playing recklessly, because it certainly feels like a punishment to play. It’s just awful; fortunately you can pretty much avoid it altogether by taking over the Templar bases and then bribing, bribing, bribing.
Also, Pro Tip: Short on cash? Make sure you’re selling your crafting ingredients. The game gives you way, WAY more than you’ll ever need.
Wow I didn’t even know you could sell bomb matts.
I’m closing in on the end, and…gosh, it feels unambitious, doesn’t it? Where are the setpieces? There’s nothing on the level of soaring on Da Vinci’s wings in AC2, or driving the siege tank in ACB. Hell, at this point I’d settle for a good turret sequence.
I’m still at the beginning? 23% in or so and I agree about this feeling unambitious. There is so far nothing that wows me about the game. In fact I’m not even sure what the story is suppose to be. I know Enizo is looking to open that vault but why did he even come here in the first place? I’ll guess I’ll actual start on continuing the game since I was leveling up my assassins and doing the stupid tower defense game. But I’m going to stop now since I lost five of my guys sending them off to a mission. I’m had a 95% chance of succeeding too but they failed and died.
OK…
So I finished the game (95%, and probably leaving it there). And, granted, taking the time to grind and level up six assassins so you don’t have to play the tower defense game means you may not be able to get 100% (since 3 successful defense missions are required for assassin tasks), but it’s so worth it not to have to deal with it. And really, doing all the side missions, taking out the Templar dens, buying the city - that’s the part that’s a lot of fun (for me) anyway. Also, I noticed that although I didn’t do one den defense mission aside from the tutorial, the board in the assassins den said I had already done 3 of the missions - so that may not even be true - you may just get it when you master up all the dens. I don’t know. Have to check that next playthrough someday.
As for the story itself - it took a long time to hook me, and I don’t think it was as good as the previous two, but overall it’s OK. I think the problem really was there was no ‘big bad’ for the story - it’s basically just Assassns vs. Templars, instead of the Borgias of the previous games. But in terms of sending Ezio out on a decent note - it did the job.
Overall, I think Brotherhood was the best of the three. AC2 had a better story, but AC:R has the hook blade (which I really grew to love) and the rebuilding the city stuff that AC:B had for earning money. Forced to make a choice, I’d say I liked AC2 better than AC:R, but I don’t think AC:R is a terrible game by any means. I liked it quite a bit once I got into it, and would certainly play it long before I’d go through AC1 again.
Eagerly awaiting next year’s installment, which I’m guessing will be AC3.
Just did the last missions. I’m sticking to my earlier conclusion. This game is only worth it if you’re a hardcore AC fan. It has a lot of new features but most of them are unnecessary and nothing you can’t live without. The story is pretty bad compared to the other games. You spend half the missions in flashbacks and the other half in a story that never seems to go anywhere. Combine that with a less appealing city, fewer dungeons to explore and more grind and you have a pretty good image of the game. It’s not bad, but compared to Brotherhood this feels like something that should have been an expansion-pack.
Funny how the first AC is the only one in the series to amaze me. Everytime I buy another AC game I hope it will be better or at least as good as the first, but nope.
Judging from AC:Embers I’m guessing AC3 will take place is somewhere in Japan or China.
Judging from AC:The Fall people were assuming it would take place somewhere in Russia.
Wasn’t there some pretty strong evidence for it taking place in the French Revolution too, based on some dialog in ACB?
Regardless of where the game takes place, I’ll just be happy to be done with Ezio. He is a fantastic character, but he’s way overplayed now.
I would also really like some flashback sequences to the First People (or aliens or whatever they really are). Like in the little movie you unlock with the glyphs in AC2.
Some of the e-mails in Brotherhood suggested it would take place in São Paulo.
I could see them sticking the modern one in São Paulo, with the favela and the surrounding mountains. Then have them go from Brazil to Peru where they end up exploring the ruins of Machu Pichu on 12-21-12 OMG END OF THE WORLD D:
Just finished the extended tutorial bits, I suppose – I’m about to learn everything about bombs. As for Den Defense, I liked the tutorial mission! Silly but fun. The new notoriety meter worries me, though. Does it really go up when I’m simply visiting stores?
No, when you BUY stores.
Ah, that explains it. I guess the Templars must have spies to monitor business registrations…
First you get the money … Then you get the stores … Then you get the notoriety! Or something like that.
Brazil would be awesome. The giant Jesus statue was made to be jumped off of.
I like your style.
I spoke too soon regarding Den Defense. Now that I get real missions the Templars always finish with some flame thrower ram that’s impossible to stop. How do you get its health down before it breaks through all barricades and reaches the den?
Also, I don’t much care for bombs and bomb making but apparently chests only ever contain bomb materials. In AC2 chests were packed with gold and nicely hidden, now they just stand around everywhere and are useless.
Also, are there any good dungeons in the game? The one at the bookstore was amazingly lame, I hope that’s not typical?
Also, are there any Animus glyphs and puzzles? There seems a lack of anything interesting to do so far, almost a throwback to AC1. The whole thing feels rather phoned in.
I always try to save at least 20 morale till the end. Once the siege weapon comes up I use it to build barriers. As long as there’s a barrier in the way the siege weapon won’t be able to move forward.
Yes most chests contain useless bomb material. Someone here said you can sell it but I haven’t figured out how. There are treasure chests but they’re less common. If you really want to loot them all I’d suggest buying a map from the bookstore.
No there are no good dungeons in the game. Yes they’re all pretty boring.
No Animus glyphs or puzzels. Instead you have to collect Animus “data fragments” every 10 or so unlocks a Desmond mission but trust me: You do not want to play those.
AC1 was way waaay better than this one.
I’ve done five Den Defense missions and won them all. I usually built a barricade or two, generally whatever is the highest level barricade I can at the time which right now is a cannon barricade. I upgrade the barricade too just so it would be more difficult to get through. I put assassin on the first two buildings and load it up with riflemen since those will be what take out their ram. As long as you use your cannon and loot so you can put more guys up on buildings you should be fine. The first official den defense mission did take me restarting it a few times though so it wasn’t just a cakewalk for me. Although I don’t recall the templars using a flame thrower ram. I don’t hate the den defense as much as I did earlier but it’s still a chore to have to go do them.
I just did the first 3 Desmond mission and what a bore those were. If they’ll all continue like that I may skip them but my inner OCD to complete things might not let me. I’ll probably just youtube them to see what they’re all about.
I’m about 36% in and only have had to do the one dungeon. It seems like the only other dungeons will be when I get each memory key so that’s four total? Unless you count those stupid Desmond mission. I do agree it does feel like they got lazy and just phoned this one in knowing that fans will buy it regardless.
This is crazy talk. Go back play a few hours of AC1 again and then tell me that.
That said, I take back what I said about the den defense being the worst new thing in the game. Desmond’s missions easily take that prize.