What are you playing now

[Calax]

So, anybody already played some Assassin's Creed 3?

 

I read they managed to dumb down the gameplay even more...

Yes... and no. They added more to the open world, so you're roaming the wilderness.... but all it has really amounted to is a Red Dead Redemtion (with FLINTLOCKS!) feel. The only real interesting mechanic has been the running up and through trees. They took a big giant crap on combat, with it basically being instead of "One button for block, and if you time a second button, you counter" it's "Hold one button to block and you may automatically be offered a (very large) window to trigger a counter".

 

I haven't gotten the hang of it yet, so it is just getting more and more frustrating. But there's something even MORE frustrating that I've been running into.

 

During the hype up to the game, they were adamant that you weren't playing a colonist fighting against the magical tyranny of the British. You'd be a neutral party who fought for and against both sides. Well the way the story has been framed as far as I'm in, that's just BS.

 

The story's structure has MANY flaws. First it starts with a not-Conner assassin, who's backstory and motives and such are entirely out of nowhere, and just putzes around for about 2:30 hrs. Mainly he's the combat tutorial, with a bit of stealthing. You chase his tale for that long, then leap into the REAL Protagonist (of the Animus anyway), and are treated to *gasp* MORE TUTORIALS! mainly along the lines of "This is how you hunt, and new eagle vision powers!" However, one of the things they don't explain very well is "Fast travel" and how to properly use the map (they changed the control scheme), so often you'll see the "next mission" objective pop up... and run 12 miles to get there.

 

Basically the story is spending nearly 6ish hours JUST on tutorials... And once you're finally done with the tutorials, it doesn't feel like you're actually, you know, being an assassin. It's at this point you meet the "Patriots" and start getting "dragged" into their issues/conflicts. Yes, Ezio and Altair had both been in famous conflicts, and had seen to the assassination of pretty powerful people, but this is just... hack writing. You're given a list of targets over the course of the tutorials, but you never really get to see them working together, to figure out who they are. They're cardboard cutouts of characters that could easily be replaced with "The Drunkard" "The Vandal" "The Classy One" and such. For all the lack of characterization that the guys got in both AC1 and the Ezio Saga. At least you knew who the hell you were killing, and had a firm motivation to do it.

 

Conner just doesn't feel like he's got the reason for it. Ezio had his family hung IN FRONT OF HIM by his opponents, Altair didn't care as it was just a job, and was more concerned about regaining his rank in the Assassins. But here... it feels like they want us to sympathize with Conner like we did Ezio, but the connection that we have is tenuous at best due to their style. I'll spoilertag when I dig into what I mean there for those who care about the story. That said, it's really bad when you want a character to show up at a major event in the US Revolutionary War... and have to do it by

:"Oh, [Patriot] sent a letter! He wants you to help him with [Event]"

"I am not a part of their movement! I see no reason to help!"

"It mentions [Target]"

"OH I AM TOTALLY THERE DUDE! WHERE'S MY SCALPIN AXE!?"

 

He keeps protesting these events (So far, Boston Tea Party, and the Battle at Lexington and Concorde have shown up) and then going through them without getting ANY return. At the Tea Party he even GLARES AT A TARGET in range of any flintlock... but does nothing. Lex and Concorde feels about the same.

 

 

Ok, Spoilers Be Here people, You have been warned.

 

The initial framing is that you're playing a British Guy who appears to be an assassin. He starts out with hidden blades, and does assassiny things with them. Then he gets kicked to America to hunt for the Vault that the Present characters are now hiding in. His prologue/act is basically him assembling a group of guys, only one of which has anything really close to a personality beyond a stereotype, and then manipulating things so that he can be led to the Vault by a native girl. He finds the Vault, but can't get in because he doesn't have what future people have, and ends up sleeping with Indian woman. The "Big Twist" is that he's actually a Templar who then sets up a Templar branch in Boston, and all of the crew he's got are also Templars.

 

Fast Foreward 6 years, Indian lady has a baby and it's the ACTUAL protagonist. We yutz around in his childhood as a LONG tutorial that has only one major purpose... for the Templar Henchmen to pop up and tell him "YARR WE ARE EEEEVIIILLL" before knocking him out and setting his village on fire Killing mommy. Then he ages into a Brooding teen who goes on a Vision quest where he's told to go find the Assassins (with a 20 minute long tutorial of boredom), so he does... and timeskips again as he gets trained. You don't see the combat training, but you see him learn to micromanage the "homestead", drive a boat, track animals, and then you also get to meet the Patriots and learn about how to get around the city.

 

Back to comparing Conner and Ezio... the Reason Ezio's connection worked with his family, is that your tutorials were all set up with your family. Your brother helps you in a street fight, the other one has you go free running, your sister's story teaches you side missions, and your Mothers teaches you item interaction and introduces you to Leonardo. And you finish it all in about an hour or two. After the trauma you're taught other things, but it's always built around the persuit of your families murderers. That's the driving force of the story. By comparison, Conners Mom gets killed, and the Templars did it, sure, but all his skills are gained before or after Mom and Son stuff. Dad gives you all the major gameplay components, and you learn about the more "Open world" stuff by tripping over it in the Main Quest.

 

It's not "Let us teach you how to hunt and get around the woods in the trees so that you can better stalk and kill your mothers killers". It's "Oh, and this is how to hunt so we can pay off Elder Lady for our vision quest!" *emo emo*. The first Target to go down doesn't go down because he's part of the group that killed your family (hell you don't even get a "Directly related to family death" assassination for 6 hours after mom is killed), it's because he's trying to buy out the land that your tribe is on. Mom, your parentage, everything that is supposed to make us root for Conner is unmentioned... in favor of something like what we saw in AC1's death speeches where they tried to make it more morally ambiguous.

 

 

 

 

Anywhoo...... The game honestly feels more like it was designed from a "OK, lets set it in the American Revolution and watch all those events unfold! IT'LL BE AWESOME!" standpoint, with the Protagonist and the plot chaining everything together though up at a later date and packed in along side the "Fight for freedom".

Edited November 1, 2012 by Calax

[GhostofAnakin]

Project Eternity's given me a massive IE itch I need to scratch. I'm re-installing IWD, to go along with my current play throughs of PS:T and BG2. It's going to be tough finding enough spare time for the three games at one time.

[LadyCrimson]

It's time for that magical mystery tour known as the post limit.