I love his hilariously resigned tone that crops up again and again in the English Civil War/Revolution season. One of the reasons I was so lost on this chapter of history is how absurdly complex it all seems when trying to understand it from my own frame of references. I appreciated him pointing out that “This guy is named this right now, but in 6 months he inherits the title of the Earl of (whatever), and so that’s what we’ll be calling him from then on, because British history.” Or when he at times just throws his hands in the air when one faction splinters into more factions etc. “It’s like they’re deliberately doing this to make things difficult on future narrative histories.”
Finally picked this up - great fun so far. Lovely too.
Shhhhh! I’m not allowing myself to play it until I get there! That jerk malkav and his “I’m playing them chronologically” put that damn bee in my bonnet. Grr…
(Ok, keep sharing your impressions, so when I get this far, I can read them.)
I do think this may be the best one actually. I’ve quite enjoyed them all, but this one seems to knit the elements together well, and have a lot of variety that isn’t just busywork. And not too much tedious assassining.
OK. 8 down, 2 to go.
And I find it interesting that Alistair posted what he did about the game a couple months back, because I was going to come here and post the same thing. I don’t know that it’s the best AC game, because this and AC4 are so different than the others, but I do think it’s a better game than AC4 was. All the elements that made AC4 fun, but some additions that just worked. The gang strongholds in NY and the River valley, or the French Settlements to take over - along with the recurring naval forts - were all fun ways to take over territory. Granted, the first two weren’t that different from one another aside from having to take out the gang leader w/o them noticing you (usually - they tend to take off if you do that, but the one time I was detected they hung around). Also had a nice update to the storehouse raids w/ multiple keys/warehouses. The ability to upgrade the puckle guns - not to mention putting some in front as well as the back. All good things. And to top it all off - a lot less in the way of main story missions to get in the way of all those new things. That said, there were still a few things from a gameplay perspective that were missteps IMO…
- Having things unlocked - in this case, the last set of fleet missions - only after the main game was finished. I’ve done everything I could do, so I could be as buffed up (so to speak) as I could be before the endgame. But no - I have to come back every 3-4 hours to start the game, do a fleet mission, and quit the game just because…I can’t even come up with a fathomable reason for doing it this way. Just a dumb decision.
- The theory of ‘MOAR’. There are just some things in the game they take WAY too far. For example - and I griped about this in my previous ‘review’ - the assassins trying to kill you from bushes, bales of hay, roofs, etc. I like this concept - it makes sense given what your character is. But you run into them EVERYWHERE. I mean, they have enough 1st level (I’m guessing) assassins to fill up the Rose Bowl. And the Assassins have NEVER had people in that quantities. Yet, there were multiple times in this last run I was attacked by two at once, plus that third guy that’s sometimes standing around. This concept worked much better in Revelations when you’d be attacked by that guy two or three times a game, not two or three times a NY block. The collectibles also fell into this trap. Not so much what or how much your collecting, but they decided to get ‘clever’ with how to get to the items, or spread them out over a massive area. Running around a 144 sq KM area (I’m looking at you, Old Growth Forest) looking for collectibles isn’t fun. It’s tedious. Unless that’s what they were going for, then mission accomplished!
- The AI pathfinding. I don’t know if it was worse in this game than AC4, but it was bad. Once again, trying to climb the flagpole on a ship to cut down said flag amounted to a 50% chance of accidentally backwards-launching yourself down the length of the mast to your death. Not to mention the number of times I had someone highlighted for an aerial kill only to see Shay jump 70% to the right to kill someone I didn’t even know was there. Lost both a warehouse and a gang boss that way (although as mentioned above, that gang boss at least hung around). And if you try to use the ‘B’ (360 controller) button to jump down from somewhere, you may just end up using someone as a cushion for your landing. And if that happens to be a guard, well, tough break. I don’t remember this being a problem in either Unity or Syndicate, so I’m hoping I’m remembering that correctly.
But all that said, I still stick by this being a better game for gameplay than AC4. As for the story (spoilers)…
I’m mostly OK with Shay’s story. I mean, OK, he did come barging in and basically accused Achillies of sending him to kill those people in Lisbon on purpose. But the Assassins didn’t even try to talk him down or figure out what happened. Just assumed he did something wrong. Which makes me wonder why send him on a solo mission in the first place? Still, you can see why he ‘betrayed’ the Brotherhood. The Assassins just seemed rather stupid this game. I mean, later - hope shoots a window to get Shay down from the roof of the building she was in, and then tries to kill him by just releasing some poison, which conveniently hangs around the floor so you can climb your way out. Didn’t you just use a gun? Was it a ‘fire once and throw away’ firearm? Again, they were just dumb all the way through, and too ready to believe the worst about Shay, which again, makes me wonder why they sent him on a solo mission in the first place.
But the ‘present day’ story? Ugh. Don’t get me wrong - the minigame for fixing computers was probably my favorite one by far. And the revelations from fixing the computers were nice back story for sure. But Berg and is ‘when pressed, Assassins choose Order over Freedom’ - was he watching the same footage I was? Shay chose his path to save the world - it had NOTHING to do with order and lack of freedom. That was never even discussed. Shay was a great tool for the Templars, sure. But he was never shown buying into that whole ‘order through control’ BS. So, yeah. Otto and Violet just need to be put down. Melanie - she’ll say whatever she needs to keep her little world going.
Finally, we keep hearing about assassins that betrayed the brotherhood - Lucy, Daniel, and of course Shay. The closest we have to the other direction are some Templars that work with Assassins like Elise, or Haytham working with Connor briefly. Surely, there’s got to be a story of a Templar going to the Assassins. Right?
Seems like the bits you don’t like - fleet missions, collectables and the modern day stuff - are all optional :) I think it’s a great game because I didn’t do them.
But that wouldn’t apply to Mr I’m-Going-to-Play-Them-All-In-Order-Man, would it…
I think it applies to ‘Mr OCD Must do EVERYTHING man’ more so than ‘I’m going to play them all in order man’… :)
That’s why, in spite of those annoyances, I still think it’s the best game, because I realize they’re optional. Also, the modern day stuff came from the required bits. I actually liked the minigame associated with unlocking all the computers, and the back story that was revealed through it.
Who got a free PS3 copy of this from his friend who is getting rid of all of his old PS3 games? THIS GUY!
So I dusted off my PS3 last night and lost a good 4-5 hours to this, I am just past the part in Sequence 2 where the earthquake happens.
Overall this is pretty enjoyable. Yeah its last gen and looks a bit dated, and I still hate the missions where you have to follow targets. I can tell that shit is about to hit the fan soon and I’ll be going Rouge. My guess is the story will really pick up after that happens.
If anything, the progression of events up to now, seemed to take way longer than it should have.
Sailing is still a lot of fun.
Remastered edition for PS4 and Xbox One.
My mind is blown. Who asked for this? Rogue is maybe three years old.
I did? Quite a few years ago.
This is the kind of thing the new guys practice on before they’re allowed the real levers of power.
Wait what? You asked for a remaster when the game was released? “Screw this noise, I’ll wait a few years for higher resolution!”
Indeed - I wanted it on my PS4, and not on the silly PS3 or Xbox 360.
When do you cut off for this gen? We’re probably only a couple years from the PS5 and Xbox {whatever}.
This isn’t crazy, a lot of us wondered if it would get a current gen release.
It is kind of crazy though. It’s a game that’s not really all that old getting an up-rezzed paint job that will very likely get a full MSRP release.
Its pretty easy. When Rogue came out, PS4 and Xbox One already existed. Thus - I wanted it for the current gen. PS5 does not exist, hence, I do not want it for that.
I’ll probably pick it up on a sale. Rogue was fantastic. A former slave boarding slave ships to free slaves! Walk the plank, dirty slavers!
OK, just out of curiosity - did you skip out on Rogue on original release? If so, did you base this decision solely on it not being on the most optimal platform available? If you did not skip and did play Rogue, will you be rebuying on Xbox One or PS4?