The Assassin's Creed Series

[Cristobal]

I got it when it came out. It's AC4 with a more northerly setting, and they replaced the diving bell mini-missions (aka Sharks can't find you when you hide in kelp) with "ship salvage" missions where you have to loot a ship before time runs out and it blows up. It was a perfectly fine game, but they really didn't do nearly as much as I would have liked with the role-switch aspect, and in the end, I was left feeling like this really wasn't worth the 60 bucks I paid to get it at release.

[Tabe]

I've got Rogue but won't play it till after Unity.  Have heard, like EVA said, that it's basically another AC4.  Uh...that sounds awesome.

[RIPPA]

Unity is one of Amazon's Deal of the Day's

 

So you can get it for $29.99

[EVA]

Probably a more accruate approximation of it's worth.

[Brian Fowler]

So, the standalone version of Freedom's Cry for PS4 is six bucks on the playstation store this week, and I got a 15 dollar credit today. Will be my first ever AC experience.

[Brian Fowler]

Alright, jumping to the virtual reality job thing scene after the first little bit of AC IV is one jarring experience.

[Cristobal]

[Brian Fowler]

Exactly

[Tabe]

I would love to personally slap every single person at Ubisoft who came up with the idea for the "modern day" crap in the games or kept them in the games. Those areas are universally terrible.

[EVA]

I'm game-to-game on the present day stuff. I liked the 1st person puzzle game in REVELATIONS. And even though I didn't like being ripped out of pirate times in 4, I did enjoy the hacking minigames a good bit.

I don't really care for the ones where the present day stuff is just more of the same type of platforming but with way fewer abilities at your disposal.

[Brian Fowler]

I still have a LOT of Black Flag to play, but I'm curious:  Now that the various patches and such have come out, how is Unity?

[Tabe]

I like it a lot. Framerate when running in huge crowds drops but doesn't really hurt anything. I've had a couple glitches where I or an NPC got stuck in a wall, killing a mission, but just go back a checkpoint, no problem. Other than that, the game runs fine and is completely stable. PS4 version.

[Brian Fowler]

Okay, yeah, this is, 5% in, an absolutely amazing game, even if the free running system sometimes fucks me over.

[Tabe]

As I've asked for since I first started playing the games, I want a "run" button that is NOT "free run". Today is, one that will just run without trying to climb on stuff all the time.

Brian - do yourself a favor and get all the social clubs and do some social club missions. Those give you a nice stream of income for upgrading other stuff. I get almost 17,000 every 20 minutes.

[Brian Fowler]

When I was chasing that Sage, it cost me catching him twice because I suddenly was climbing walls. But that and the modern world thing are so far my only complaints.

[Basara]

This seems like the best place to ask this.

I'm tempted to pick up Assassins Creed: Unity while it's still cheap (currently £22 here) except I haven't played the last 5 years worth of AC games. Played and loved the first, got 10hrs+ into the second before my PS3 died on me. Didn't want to sink all that time back into it straight away and never ended up going back. Will I be completely lost just jumping straight into the PS4 generation of these games or do they stand up well enough on their own?

[Brian Fowler]

IV is the first one I've played, I've had no trouble jumping straight in.

[Tabe]

You'll be fine. Might take you a couple minutes to get used to the controls. You won't be lost story-wise. Unity is its own story and requires no knowledge of other games in the series.

But it wouldn't hurt to start with Black Flag, which is freaking awesome.

[Brian Fowler]

Black Flag has finally ended my month long bouncing from game to game since I got my ps4. It's a pirate's life for me in video games.

[Jiji]

I loved ACII and thought Brotherhood was incredible (I found Revelations to be tedious and a big step back) but Black Flag is the best of the bunch, in my opinion. It was just about the perfect game if only the deep sea diving mechanics weren't ridiculous. Had they less mechanical, more fearsome sharks, it would be in contention for my favourite game of all times. What an incredible setting and controlling the ship was a great deal of fun. I must've tried to beat that 2 v 1 ship boss battle ~30 times before finally getting it but it never felt like the game was cheating me. I just needed to get more precise in my tactics and execution. Once I did, I beat it. For all the sequels II got, I wish we'd have gotten another Black Flag game.

 

I'll wait on Unity until ( A ) it's dirt cheap and ( B ) its main issues are attended to. 

[Basara]

Fair enough, might start with Black Flag first then. I see that's gone down to £25 too and £20 on the PSN store (though i prefer physical copies). Will hold off for a bit, hopefully the new prices stick, got a big backlog to work through now I've finally taken the PS4 plunge!

[Tabe]

Black Flag is widely available dirt cheap.

And Unity's main issues HAVE been attended to. The game is very solid.

[Tabe]

So I'm most of the way through Unity, the main story anyway.  I'm to the point where I'm at least able to obtain any/all skills with enough Sync points.  I've also now got a tablet that can play the companion app.  So some thoughts:

 

- the story is not great.  It's a confusing mess of stuff you simply won't care about.  

 

- there's a ton of stuff to do if you want to do chase down collectibles and side missions.  I (generally) do.  So I'm keeping busy with all of that stuff.  I find some of this stuff annoying but generally like it.

 

- I love that they give you the option of doing co-op missions by yourself.  As someone who hates playing online, I love this option.

 

- the companion app is not great.  It's nowhere near as useful or interesting as the one for Black Flag.  You've gotta do these glyph puzzles to unlock missions which can then be completed to unlock the blue chests in the main game.  That's all well and good except...the glyph puzzles are annoying as hell.  Basically, you're given a historical landmark (say, the Sorbonne) and you have to use your eagle vision to spot symbols on the landmark.  Which would be fine if the symbols actually showed up every time.  I've had multiple instances where I knew where a symbol should appear - and it doesn't.  Makes completing the puzzles tough.  The interface also makes it tough to tell which missions you've completed, etc.  If you use the app while you're playing the full game, you can have it act as a real-time map for you instead of having to use the one on your TV.  Not sure why you'd do that though.

 

- one of the things I didn't like about AC2 were the races.  I found them incredibly frustrating as it felt like you were fighting against the controls more than just running the race.  I remember losing one because Ezio simply refused to move.  No apparent reason, just wouldn't move.  Well, one of the co-op missions is essentially a race.  You have to chase down a bunch of flags in a short time, which running an obstacle course.  Now, admittedly, it's SUPPOSED to be really hard.  It's designed to be a 4-player, 5-star difficulty, mission.  But it's supposed to be do-able solo.  There are two problems: 1) The flags only appear when you capture other flags, making route-planning really tough; 2) The controls fight you the whole time.  Have a hurdle you need to slide under or jump over?  Too bad.  Arno will just run into instead even though you hit the button to slide under it.  Need to jump straight across to another platform?  Tough.  Arno's going to jump diagonally and miss the platform you want.  Need Arno to climb higher?  Tough.  He's going to wall eject instead.  Need Arno to let go of a rope?  Tough.  He's going to just spin from one side to the other on the rope and never actually let go.  And, of course, my old gripe of a "Run but don't free run" button not being present.  I finally gave up on this mission after dozens of tries and will (maybe) go back to it as a real co-op.

 

Overall, I'm liking this game a lot.  It's behind AC2 and Black Flag, but it's very, very good.

 

Oh and...

 

There's a mission where you climb the Eiffel Tower.  Yes, the Eiffel Freaking Tower.  While being shot at by fighter pilots.  And it's awesome.

[Brian Fowler]

So, it turns out that the gameplay of Rogue is, essentially, Black Flag 2.

[Cristobal]

Pretty much. Swap out the diving bell missions with a "loot a ship before it explodes" minigame and add in a nifty thing where assassins hunt you and that's it.