The Assassin's Creed Series

[EVA]

I looked through the forum and was surprised to see we didn't have a thread for this. I guess, like myself, everyone found their enthusiasm for this series waining after the bloated, tedious AC3.

Well, I finally bought a PS4 this past week and grabbed a copy of AC4 to tide me over until the real deal next-gen titles start dropping in the next few months. And I'm really, really enjoying it. This is probably the most I've enjoyed a game in this series since the unassailable AC2.

I love how it throws you right into the action. The thing I was dreading most about the introduction of a new lead character was the inevitable slog through the first few sequences of tutorials and mythology info dumps. But it's not like that. From the moment you touch down on the first island, Edward Kenway is basically a fully-formed assassin in everything but the title and costume, and pretty much everything is open to you without restriction. You don't hit anything resembling an obvious tutorial mission until the second sequence, and it's over quickly.

And since Edward, at least through sequence 5 where I'm at now, isn't really an assassin, there isn't really a big info dump you have to sit through. After he steals an assassin's outfit on that first island, all of the relevant information is parsed out to him in bits and pieces as he bounces back and forth between the assassins and the Templars in The Search for More Money.

To my great surprise, I'm loving the naval stuff, too. All the stuff on the boat was one of my least favorite parts of AC3, but they've made some subtle tweaks to the system that make it much more playable. For me, anyway.

All of the side missions are much more coherent, as well. AC3 had a million and one things to do, but it was all rather haphazard and scattershot. Half the stuff had no bearing on anything and was just there to be something else to do. Here, everything is pretty tightly focused on meeting pirate-y ends: making money and finding treasure.

There are still a few too many missions that require you to tail a target or eavesdrop on a conversation, but I think they've loosened it up a bit, especially the eavesdropping, so it's not so annoying.

I guess it could still go to hell over the last 8 sequences, but so far, I may be back on the AC wagon.

[Tabe]

Still waiting for my PS4 to arrive but it's no secret on here that the AC games are my favorite series.  Assassin's Creed 2 is, IMHO, the best game of all-time.  Loved the other two Ezio titles.  Liked AC3 even with all its (many) flaws.  Am very, very eager to get started on AC4.

[Red is Dead]

I had high hopes for the assassins creed series. It looked absolutely boss.

 

So I was really disappointed by the boring drivel of AC1. I couldn't put myself through playing it all; it felt like a slog. Really boring to play.

 

So I was wary of trying the second. The second one, in my eyes, was a revelation. Really enjoyed the cities, the villa, really enjoyed Ezio as a character; he seemed more flawed than Altair. More human somehow. Plus, the missions were a bit more varied.

 

The only other one I've played is revelations - while its shorter than the other game I've played to completion, it still packs an emotional punch. The

constantinople harbour on fire

mission remains one of my favourites from any game from recent memory. Manic, varied, yet you never felt completely out of control. 

 

I've got brotherhood, 3 and 4 on back order (thankyou boomerang games) so I'll see what fate awaits me. Heard good things about 4, not so much for the ohers.

[Joe Lucia]

Brotherhood is fine, though the massive field can be a little boring.

[EVA]

I like that the viewpoints are fast travel spots in AC4. It's such a no-brainer, I don't know how it took them this long to do it. Yes, it makes less sense than unlocking the the tunnel systems, but it really streamlines the gameplay.

[Tabe]

I liked AC3 just fine.  It had some major flaws - taking way too long to get into the gameplay, a not-great lead character, too little interaction with the character and his dad, stupid side missions (herding pigs?  really?!?) - and so on.  But, in the end, it's still an AC game and had some great stuff.  Free running through the forest was great.  I liked the naval stuff a lot.  In the end, it's the worst of the AC games I've played (haven't played AC1 or AC4) but is still a good game.

[Tabe]

I like that the viewpoints are fast travel spots in AC4. It's such a no-brainer, I don't know how it took them this long to do it. Yes, it makes less sense than unlocking the the tunnel systems, but it really streamlines the gameplay.

The funny thing about the fast travel spots is that I hardly ever use them.  I find that between all the load times and delays, a lot of times I'm better off just running to the other place.

[Joe Lucia]

 

I like that the viewpoints are fast travel spots in AC4. It's such a no-brainer, I don't know how it took them this long to do it. Yes, it makes less sense than unlocking the the tunnel systems, but it really streamlines the gameplay.

The funny thing about the fast travel spots is that I hardly ever use them.  I find that between all the load times and delays, a lot of times I'm better off just running to the other place.

 

 

This will not be true in 4 btw - the world is massive.

[Tabe]

Found this while reading an article on something else.  The link called it "the greatest video game glitch of all-time" - I would be very hard-pressed to argue.  Watch the whole thing!

 

[EVA]

Bagged my first white whale tonight. It took a while but was probably less challenging than the great whites. Still, I feel accomplished.

Speaking of sharks: Fuck sharks.

[EVA]

Okay, I think its safe to say I officially love this game. Probably my second favorite game in the series behind AC2. It's a pretty amazing comeback after AC3, which I liked but at a certain point felt like I was playing out of obligation than a real desire to do every little thing.

As of today, I have cleared the world map of every collectible and side mission, except the four legendary ships, of which I've beaten only one so far. Besides that, all I have left to do is clear the last two sequences and I will be damn near 100% completion. Not sure if I'll go back and clean up the optional objectives I missed to get all the way there, since the stupid multiplayer trophies will prevent me from getting the Platinum trophy anyway.

My only real complaint aside from the damn sharks is the volume of tailing/eavesdropping missions. I didn't mind them at first, because they really have improved on the design of those missions, but there were just too many over the course of the whole game. I get why they do so many (as a means of delivering exposition without stopping the action for a cut scene), but half the time I'm so busy trying to negotiate between hiding spots or stay in the eavesdropping sphere that I'm not even paying attention to the conversation.

[Raziel]

Ok, just rented 4 to start until it goes on price drop and finished up the ship tutorials in Sequence 3.  So far its lightyears better than 3 all around.  The removal of the weapon wheel for the selectors takes a bit of getting used to, but its way less buggy so far.  And Edward so far is a way more developed character in 3 sequences than Connor was through an entire game.  

 

Trading and crafting system is also way better than 3.  like that armor upgrades were brought back, and the upgrades in general make better use of the crafting system (doesn't hurt that in Sequence 3, I can concievibly grind side missions and the ocean and upgrade my armor/holsters/guns/swords to max.)

 

Enjoying it so far.

[EVA]

Somehow I played through the whole game without noticing the weapon wheel was gone until you just mentioned it. I thought the d-pad menu was a substantial improvement. Didn't miss the wheel at all.

[Tabe]

Put in a few more hours over the weekend on AC4.  Basically, all I've done so far is get to Havana and I completed all the side missions and collectibles in that area.  Haven't advanced the story at all.  My thoughts so far:

 

- not crazy about how they've continued to dumb down and simply freerunning.  Now it's just "hold R2 and push forward" and your guy just does whatever.  I'd like a BIT more control over it.

- the combat is a bit tougher.  I find myself taking damage on occasion now, which is a nice change of pace.

- as always, I continue to be blown away by how ridiculously detailed the environments are in the AC series.  There's just so much depth, so many fine points, so many nice touches, it's just unreal.  As you can tell by the fact that I've played for hours and not even advanced the story, I love just running around, doing all the side stuff and getting in combat.  That's due in no small measure to how freaking awesome the world that Ubisoft creates is. 

[Raziel]

Finally getting around to working out the new weapon select.  Not bad now that I figured out how to do it.

 

Harpooned a Killer Whale.  Fuck that's way harder than it should be.

 

I'm halfway through Sequence V, and even doing the first round of Jackdaw upgrades, now that I'm fecking about the southern part of the world map, fuck am I underpowered.  I had to book and run from  the 3 Frigates and 9 defense point fort on my way to Kingston to get the first couple story missions there, so I'm going to have to go back north and start grinding stuff for money/spoils to add another round of upgrades (namely, armor and shot strength.)  

 

I also need to find some humpback whales so I don't have to blow 6000 to get another holster.

[Tabe]

A couple more thoughts:

 

- I sure do miss being able to beat up regular citizens.  I spent way too much time in AC2 wandering around my home area where I couldn't become notorious just beating up people who looked at me cross-eyed - or didn't. 

 

- I get way too much pleasure out of drawing my pistol and having people throw up their hands and then drop to their knees begging me to leave them alone. 

 

- Bodies of water are no longer death for NPCs.  I used to love running along docks bumping fishermen into the water.  Fun way to kill citizens without the game yelling at you.  Now they swim and climb back onto the dock.

 

- Along that same line, bodies float in water now instead of disappearing.  Nice touch!

 

- I'm pretty sure I won't be going to 100% sync on this one.  I'll try on every mission to get 100% but I doubt I'll go back and redo missions afterward to get 100%.  Maybe.  But I doubt it.

[Raziel]

So, taking a break from the story to start running sidequests and stuff.  Cleaning out areas isn't as hard as I thought it would be, since unline AC3, everything shows up on the map once you sync, and the sync's are easy enough to get to.

 

Hunting isn't too bad, and at least you only need 2 of something to upgrade.  It is a little off that roughly a third into the story, and I'm one alligator skin away from all armor upgrades, not far away from all the upgrades except the rope darts (since I haven't unlocked them yet), and one Templar Hunt away from the best armor in the game (I keep reading that the Templar armor is better than the Aztec Armor.)  

 

Grinding weak ships up north to get enough stuff to upgrade the Jackdaw so I can survive against the shit running around south is slightly annoying.

 

I also haven't found a use for upgrading the Hideout (it gives no money or supply influx, at least not yet), and the fleet stuff is a little cumbersome since the routes never stay clean.

[EVA]

FYI you can manage your fleet from the AC4 app, so you can mine that minigame for cash even when you're away from your console.

Also, if you have a friend playing, get on their ass about sending their ships out, because you get +1 fire barrel for every friend's ship you assist, which are incredibly helpful for clearing the "dangerous" routes.

[Joe Lucia]

FYI you can manage your fleet from the AC4 app, so you can mine that minigame for cash even when you're away from your console.

Also, if you have a friend playing, get on their ass about sending their ships out, because you get +1 fire barrel for every friend's ship you assist, which are incredibly helpful for clearing the "dangerous" routes.

 

I would just like to say "you are an ass" for mentioning this. For the last 24 hours, I've been opening the app every hour or two and spending 15 minutes sending my ships out, even though I haven't played the console game in like three weeks. I need higher capacity ships, dammit.

[Raziel]

So, a run of hunting and and doing the Templar Chases and upgrading, I've got all the Medium Forts cleared out, All the pistol hoslters, most of at least the Level 1 upgrades, most of the first couple upgrades for the Jackdaw, all the armor upgrades for Edward, and got the Templar Armor.  Not a fan of the Templar Armor, but its only because of the lack of hood.  It looks nice, but the lack of hood kills it.  Its only a 25% damage reduction, and I've gotten good enough that it doesn't matter anymore, so back to Edwards default robes because they actually look the coolest.

 

I'm about half-way to unlocking the Mayan Armor so I'll see how that looks.  I wiki'd the Brown Cloak, and its just a bad ass brown longcoat over the regular robes, so I'll probably be grabbing that next time I pass a vendor.  

 

I figure I can get back to the story with little trouble right now.

[Zimbra]

I'm at a point where I've knocked off all the forts, upgraded my ship as much as I can without the elite plans, and cleared out most of the locations.  But I don't want to continue the main story because the next mission is one of those endlessly tedious eavesdropping jobs.  It'd be nice if after 6 games they could learn to get out of their own way and focus on the things that make the game entertaining.

[Tabe]

Have put a lot more time into this game and am absolutely loving it.  Yes, there are bad parts - more "follow this guy" stuff and did we REALLY need to do naval versions of the "follow this guy" missions? - but the good is just awesome.  I find myself CONSTANTLY amazed at the size, scope, and detail of the world I'm goofing around in.  I mean, seriously.  It's just massive and soooooo detailed.  And not massive in a boring "we'll insert a giant forest here" way like AC3 did it.  Massive as in tons of unique, actual places to visit and see.  I've taken over a bunch of forts, killed my first white whale (took literally like 30 tries with a bunch of upgrading halfway through), and am just generally having a blast.  This is the game AC3 should have been.

[Raziel]

AC4 is probably the best AC game since 2.  Size of the world is huge, the sailing is not bad, with easy stuff moving down into harder.  The world makes sense, the controls are fine, although the combat isn't as tight as 3's was (which was the one thing 3 really got right).  They fixed a lot of the problems 3 had with having to seek down side stuff (you can turn it off if you really want).  The only problems I'm having is with the follow this guy/ship missions, but everything else is good.

 

Also, even with Edward's almost singlemindedness in the quest for more money, he's still a better developed character than Connor.  Edward is going the side stuff because he does really believe in the idea of Nassau and free men and stuff, and is taking time from his fortune hunting to do stuff that really is for the betterment of his allies.  Whereas Connor was pretty much focused on "I NEED TO KILL CHARLES LEE!!!!!" and everything he did re:The Revolutionary War was more means to an end then him upholding an ideal while he waits to get his shot.  There's more weight to a couple events with other characters late game with Edward than there ever felt like there was with Connor and Achilles.

[The Natural]

Assassin's Creed V info link:

 

http://metro.co.uk/2014/03/20/assassins-creed-5-unity-images-leaked-set-during-french-revolution-4665338/

[Tabe]

Would like to thank whoever it was that mentioned the AC4 companion app for smartphones.  It's such an awesome companion for the full game.  It's useful as a second screen if you want while playing the full game.  Or to use it to manage your fleet - whether you're playing the full game or not.  In fact, I find it a LOT better to manage my fleet and send them on missions, etc, using the app over using the full game.  And being able to manage the fleet while away from my PS4 makes it so I earn money a lot faster.

 

Only drawback?  Having to actually go into your fleet while in the full game for your money and so on to show up.  That wouldn't be an issue except that the game requires you to close the mobile app before accessing your fleet.  That's annoying. 

 

Loving the game.  And that AC5 info is awesome!