Thanks, folks. I’m grateful for all the tips. ;)
I’ve finished Horizon and its expansion and Mad Max, the latter on the Mac. (The big race toward the end made me nuts – I’m a terrible driver in games – but I persevered.) I’ve tried some of the others (or their precursors), but annoyances of one kind or another put me off.
This seems to leave the new Spidey or an Assassin’s Creed game. (If the latter, where do I start?)
You should start at the beginning and play them all in order. There have only been 11…
You can just jump right in.
Awesome. I was wondering this myself!
Which era is more interesting to you? There’s an overarching storyline in the early games that ended in AC3. The current gen’s games are pretty much stand-alone experiences with a bit of flavor for long-time fans. I’d say go with wherever you want to play virtual tourist.
Renaissance Italy - Ezio Trilogy
Late 1700s Carribean - Black Flag
Victorian England - Syndicate
While it took some grief early on, now that Unity (early 1800s France, going from memory here) has been patched, it’s a fine game with lots of atmosphere.
Note that AC Origins (Roman-era Egypt) and AC Odyssey (Bronze Age Greece) have a very different play style and progression system. And that the older games go on sale all the time.
Thanks for laying it all out! :) (And sorry for not replying earlier.)
I don’t have any feelings about the settings to speak of. I’d just like to start on a high note. What do you think is the best game of the series?
Peter
I’d say the first 2 games of the Ezio Trilogy, followed by Black Flag and Unity. BF is unique in that list for the ship combat being present as well as the usual parkour.
I’m sure opinions will vary. : )
The Ezio Trilogy – which is what you’d buy for the PS4 – covers Assassin’s Creed 2, AC: Brotherhood and AC Revelations. They’re three outstanding games set in Renaissance Italy, as Rick nicely summarized. The games, however, feel a bit dated. The controls in the game would be refined in later iterations.
Both AC Black Flag and AC Rogue refine the controls a little better. The main issue with either game is that you never quite get the amazing climbing/parkour of the Ezio trilogy; there just aren’t that many super-tall structures to climb. But…the naval ship combat is robust and a blast to play.
Unity came next and really tried to move into new territory with the control scheme by changing a lot of elements. It feels pretty good now…but there are some issues where this NEW control scheme. Unity, as Rick mentions, has been patched into being a solid game…but it’s a lousy place to start I think.
Syndicate (set in Victorian London) is probably the best synthesis of setting/controls etc. in the OLD Assassin’s Creed style. It plays really well.
Origins was the result of Ubi finally skipping a year and starting to COMPLETELY overhaul the franchise. It is the most open world of any of the games so far, with the vast expanse of the Ptolemaic (as in, Roman-era, Cleopatra, etc.) Egypt. It does represent the game becoming a full-fledged RPG, and is a really solid entry point based on that alone. Unfortunately, while I enjoyed all the various new RPG trappings, the story just never comes together in Origins for me. It ends up with one of the weaker narrative arcs of any game in the series.
Odyssey iterates off of what Origins was doing, but adds a slightly more interesting setting, and I think much better writing/narrative overall. Unfortunately as the newest game in the series, it’s also the priciest entry point. I’d call this the best in the series, and give it the nod as a starting spot over Origins even…but others are likely to disagree. :)
Maybe a few years from now, we’ll have people arguing over whether the Assassin’s Creed games should be played Chronologically or in the order of release, if you want to play them all.
I thought hard about recommending Syndicate but the open world is more gated than in the earlier games, with areas that have recommended levels. Unity had a bit of that but I found it more off putting in Syndicate.
Oh, definitely, and that’s a great point. That being said, there’s definitely gating in all the games to a certain extent (it’s more gear-gating obviously in Ezio-era games), but it really becomes explicit in Unity and onwards.
It sounds as though, whatever direction I take, I can’t go wholly wrong. So I’ll begin at the beginning with Ezio and, assuming it works for me, perhaps jump to Black Flag and Origins/Odyssey.
The other big plus with the Ezio collection for PS4–you’re getting three full-length, full-featured games.
Just realize as you play that the first Ezio game is about 9 years old now, even with the upgraded graphics. There are some spots where it shows its age…
…but also there are far more spots where even today I kind of marvel at the job the original team did on those games. Mostly, they do look great and play really well.
Thanks, triggercut. I appreciate your having taken the time to detail the pros & cons.
Speaking of “gated” open-world games, what’s the word on the recent Shadow of the Tomb Raider?
Pretty cool tombs and spelunking, weaker story, pretty.