I've gotten a little further in Revelations and I can see how it basically seems like filler.
The Assassins have basically done jack-all to help Ezio with his quest, and the only key I've gotten so far is because Ezio found a secret passageway while flirting with the bookshop woman.
Also there has been a somewhat bizarre lack of assassinations.
I thought they were setting up this former Assassin dude to be a recurring villain and I would get to fight him eventually, but then my recruit went and stole the kill a few missions later when the guy next showed up.
The treading water isn't too big of a problem for me this time though, since I enjoy running around in the AC world and I still think the mechanics and city for this one are very good.
There are a few more cracks showing in the game though.
The first is that my suspicions about the lack of difficulty were pretty much true. Bombs and Assassin Recruits basically let me avoid every fight in the game. Bombs wouldn't be so bad if you could only craft them at Bomb Tables (like I originally thought) so that they would be somewhat limited, but then I found out that you can craft bombs from the menu as long as you have materials, meaning that under ideal conditions you could throw out ninety bombs in a row (30 from each category, assuming each was using a different casing and gun powder).
The second is there is a bit of a lack of side stuff in this one. Assassination missions are apparently gone, Factions missions (Mercenaries, Thieves, etc.) apparently only have a single mission each, there is nothing like the Cristina or Leonardo missions, and the only Templar Lair I've encountered has been a main story mission as there don't appear to be any optional ones to find on the map except the DLC one. In the place of some of these missions is the Piri Reis quests which were just tutorial missions for bombs, and the book quests which I don't even understand why they are there. Though to be fair I haven't done the Master Assassin quests yet (but I'm only halfway through the game and those are my only optional things left to do other than collectables).
The last is Mediterranean Defense. Sending your recruits on missions wasn't so bad in Brotherhood. Whenever I saw a pigeon coop I'd usually send 6 of my recruits on missions (keeping the other 6 for Arrow Storm) so they could get stronger and maybe bring me an item for a shop quest. It was a side thing I could do when I felt like it. Now however it feels like something you have to constantly micro-manage because you're controlling cities and every 20 minutes the Templars gain back some control no matter what you do. Along with the added complication of recruits now having preset gear and you can only send them on a mission if they have the correct gear.
Not to mention the new features were rather poorly explained (or not explained at all), like stationing your recruits in the cities. Fortunately you can just ignore that the entire feature exists since all it really does is give you an excuse to level more recruits and contribute to your unstoppable tidal wave of money. Still, it's not good when I'd rather just pretend a feature isn't in the game. It needed less time investment or bigger rewards, or both.
I know a lot of people apparently hate Den Defense, but I didn't mind it during the tutorial mission that it gave me. I haven't had the opportunity to do it again yet, even after running around a few times at max notoriety, so I can't really comment on it too much (other than that they probably should have implemented a different way of playing it, as one of the reasons I held off on the Master Assassin missions was so I could try and play this again to see how it was beyond the tutorial).
I liked AC:Rev. The overall story is not as compelling as AC2 and AC:Bro, but it is still good. I enjoy the character of Ezio and I wanted to see how his story concluded. The game delivers nicely on that, I thought.
Also, Istanbul is awesome, and there are some pretty decent supporting characters in the game. The Key dungeons are fantastically done, and the Altair segments are really nice, if short.
Really the main criticism I have of it is that it is a huge pain to lower notoriety (in order to avoid the den defense mini-game), and also I agree that the Mediterranean defense was unnecessarily annoying.
People keep saying there's a million Ninja games but... is there? Name a couple. I'll spot you Tenchu, but disallow Ninja Gaiden, Shinobi, and Reveangence as we're talking about games that actually use the stealth element.
People keep saying there's a million Ninja games but... is there? Name a couple. I'll spot you Tenchu, but disallow Ninja Gaiden, Shinobi, and Reveangence as we're talking about games that actually use the stealth element.
Mark of the Ninja. Maybe ubisoft realizes nothing's going to top that anytime soon so don't bother trying.
if they ever set an AC game in japan, i hope the main character is a samurai rather than ninja. samurai are more badass and it would be kickass to play as a ronin-assassin fending off waves of templar-ninja goons. they could really play with the history of that era well. i don't think it would be as fun if they just slapped an assassin hood on a ninja and called it a day. plus since stealth in AC is largely optional and about blending into crowds, it doesn't fit for him to stroll around in plain sight dressed in full ninja gear.
I can't find the quote, but at one point someone from ubi said they were trying to avoid cliche settings like ninja (and the entirety of the WW II era) but... Pirate Assassin.
All bets are off.
“I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
if they ever set an AC game in japan, i hope the main character is a samurai rather than ninja. samurai are more badass and it would be kickass to play as a ronin-assassin fending off waves of templar-ninja goons. they could really play with the history of that era well. i don't think it would be as fun if they just slapped an assassin hood on a ninja and called it a day. plus since stealth in AC is largely optional and about blending into crowds, it doesn't fit for him to stroll around in plain sight dressed in full ninja gear.
Ninjas were about blending into crowds. The all black costume is a convention of traditional theatre - what people think of as a ninja costume is actually a stage hand.
[Muffled sounds of gorilla violence]
0
Options
MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
Those sneaky bastards. Also were they kabuki stage hands?
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
I think so? The way I understand it, the audience accept that anybody in black isn't part of the action and should be ignored, and then thwack! Assassination of a character by the equivalent of a piece of scenery.
[Muffled sounds of gorilla violence]
+1
Options
MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
Oooh I like that.
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
Dark Raven XLaugh hard, run fast,be kindRegistered Userregular
That's the voiceover for a new weekly offer at Tescos, or perhaps informing you that you're entitled to compensation after an accident that wasn't your fault.
Aren't you supposed to be IN the diving bell when you...uh...dive?
Diving for sunken treasure was not a direction I expected them to take this game.
I might not think that the treasure hunting is a pointless distraction this time around!
0
Options
FreiA French Prometheus UnboundDeadwoodRegistered Userregular
I can't wait for them to tell us the PC version will come out the same day as the console versions and then tell us a couple months before release that it'll come out a month later.
Anyway, I think I'm gonna finally sit down and play through AC3 sometime soon; but I want to check something DLC-wise. Namely, I have the season pass; is there any DLC out for the game, currently, that is not included in the Season Pass?
EDIT: Other than the multiplayer 'unlock' packs. I hate how XBox Live can't manage to list seperate dlc's you already own as purchased when they're broken up. It shouldn't be too hard to figure that out from there side. :rotate:
BrocksMulletInto the sunrise, on a jet-ski. Natch.Registered Userregular
So, I sort of asked about this before, but I think I'm going to post my AC2 first time playthrough here. That okay with people? The AC3 thread seems kinda dead.
Surprisingly, people are still playing Brotherhood multiplayer, at least on the Xbox. Not many people, but I was able to play a few hours of it. Still fun.
MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
edited June 2013
Beat AC3. I don't know what all the fuss is about. The story made sense to me, but then again I did do most of the conversations and side missions, as well as read all the database entries to make sense of the period and to put it into context.
Connors only fault is that he was not Ezio. That is not, to me, a complaint worth listening to. I do not want every protagonist to be an Ezio clone. I liked Connor a lot.
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
Connor was cool, he has a different personality to Ezio and Altair. I honestly loved the modern day stuff too.
0
Options
MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
edited June 2013
Connor is reserved and thoughtful until roused, whereupon he obliterates everything in his way. I think the juxtaposition of these two confuses some people, because he did on occasion master his own personal impulses for the greater good, when people probably expected more smash-kill, even if it would have been a stupid thing for him to do. He never really forgot what was important in the long run. I respected him greatly for that.
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
My only issue with 3 is that there are far too many people in it. You're constantly meeting some new individual who knows the location of someone else who knows the location of a whatsit. It boggles my mind that they needed all these folks and tangents.
AC Revelations was awesome because it didn't have you keep chasing people around. Or Rather, didn't give them huge amounts of context. A quick "guy x has the key, kill him".
0
Options
MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
It's true that they threw a lot of characters at ya, but I liked learning about them all, maybe not all at the time, but later on when I looked through the entries I had some context for the name. I'm interested in history so I thought it was neat.
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
I didn't want Connor to be an Ezio clone. I wanted him to have some kind of personality. I basically consider Connor a giant MacGuffin.
I mean, sure, he has some rudimentary personality which is mostly explained away by him being an "introvert" but, again, "introvert" doesn't mean "no personality." It's fine to have an introverted character if the game at least communicates his thought process in some way. As it is, Connor is nothing more than a dagger.
What I liked about the Ezio trilogy was not necessarily Ezio but rather that we get involved with his life. This game features a lot of "things" that on paper should evoke something in the player but even those situations felt bland to me.
I mean the game features:
(Major spoilers - don't read unless you've completed the game)
patricide and fratricide (of a sorts)
And I felt almost nothing and in fact Connor seems to feel almost nothing. I don't buy the "introvert" excuse. Or at least I think a more dynamic character would have given those scenes more impact.
Frankly, both Connor and the game itself felt very bland to me.
Connor's personality is best described as a sheltered kid who just cannot fathom why the world is so messed up. It's hard for him to see in shades of grey. His hatred with the status quo is what drives him, and that's why he's so frustrated constantly. Notice how when he's just hanging out with his buddies on the homestead he's pretty mild mannered, and whenever Templar/Revolutionary stuff comes up he's annoyed beyond reason.
I didn't want Connor to be an Ezio clone. I wanted him to have some kind of personality. I basically consider Connor a giant MacGuffin.
I mean, sure, he has some rudimentary personality which is mostly explained away by him being an "introvert" but, again, "introvert" doesn't mean "no personality." It's fine to have an introverted character if the game at least communicates his thought process in some way. As it is, Connor is nothing more than a dagger.
What I liked about the Ezio trilogy was not necessarily Ezio but rather that we get involved with his life. This game features a lot of "things" that on paper should evoke something in the player but even those situations felt bland to me.
I mean the game features:
(Major spoilers - don't read unless you've completed the game)
patricide and fratricide (of a sorts)
And I felt almost nothing and in fact Connor seems to feel almost nothing. I don't buy the "introvert" excuse. Or at least I think a more dynamic character would have given those scenes more impact.
Frankly, both Connor and the game itself felt very bland to me.
If you watch his body language Connor expresses himself perfectly, very strongly, and very passionately. He felt very deeply about all of the moments you claimed he did not, and I understood that by watching his body language. Everything is on his face and in particular his eyes. It's also clearly expressed in his non facial body language.
Nothing was spelt out for you though. I do not consider this to be a fault.
Connor was a deeply passionate man. He simply did not lip smack about it.
All of those scenes had the appropriate impact when I watched them.
If you took a cutscene that you found bland and I found powerful, showed it to me, I could break down the body language expressed by Connor that demonstrates the emotional resonance I felt from that scene. All the scenes I felt were powerful were directly tied to his expressions and body language, coupled with subtle stresses in his otherwise "non-native English" flat tones.
Connor was a stranger in a strange land, from a foreign culture. Of course he's not going to react in a way you can easily understand. Case in point: Everytime a European dynamically expressive character tried to touch Connor he clearly felt that was an inappropriate and strange thing for them to do and always looked at the offending hand. He never touched strangers, he rarely touched acquaintances, he occasionally, very briefly, would pat a friend once on the shoulder, when other people were dancing around with joy. This was a consistent display of Connors approach to touchy expressions of emotion. Any touching from him means a fuck ton more than it does from a dynamic character. Now lets look at one of your spoilers that you found bland, knowing this.
Major spoilers. I am not fucking about here.
Fratricide. Forced to kill his childhood friend. What does he do? Talks to him a bit, pats him a few times in a gentle way. Bland right?
Hold on a second. Connor? Touching someone? That's a big deal. That pat had more emotion tied into it than a million Ezio full body rages to me, because I knew what touching meant to this man. The patting expressed his grief and sorrow, how foolish he felt his friend had been, how deeply he still cared for him.
When he stands up afterwards his face perfectly matched the intensity of sadness that gentle pat led me to believe he was feeling at the time. He was full on face. His whole body was slumped and he appeared stunned with grief, staring down without any of the normally relaxed posture he holds. Connor was feeling pain, deep pain, at that moment, in complete silence, without any hamlet style monologues, all bottled up inside. And I got that. Bam, powerful moment.
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
Posts
Also there has been a somewhat bizarre lack of assassinations.
I thought they were setting up this former Assassin dude to be a recurring villain and I would get to fight him eventually, but then my recruit went and stole the kill a few missions later when the guy next showed up.
The treading water isn't too big of a problem for me this time though, since I enjoy running around in the AC world and I still think the mechanics and city for this one are very good.
There are a few more cracks showing in the game though.
The first is that my suspicions about the lack of difficulty were pretty much true. Bombs and Assassin Recruits basically let me avoid every fight in the game. Bombs wouldn't be so bad if you could only craft them at Bomb Tables (like I originally thought) so that they would be somewhat limited, but then I found out that you can craft bombs from the menu as long as you have materials, meaning that under ideal conditions you could throw out ninety bombs in a row (30 from each category, assuming each was using a different casing and gun powder).
The second is there is a bit of a lack of side stuff in this one. Assassination missions are apparently gone, Factions missions (Mercenaries, Thieves, etc.) apparently only have a single mission each, there is nothing like the Cristina or Leonardo missions, and the only Templar Lair I've encountered has been a main story mission as there don't appear to be any optional ones to find on the map except the DLC one. In the place of some of these missions is the Piri Reis quests which were just tutorial missions for bombs, and the book quests which I don't even understand why they are there. Though to be fair I haven't done the Master Assassin quests yet (but I'm only halfway through the game and those are my only optional things left to do other than collectables).
The last is Mediterranean Defense. Sending your recruits on missions wasn't so bad in Brotherhood. Whenever I saw a pigeon coop I'd usually send 6 of my recruits on missions (keeping the other 6 for Arrow Storm) so they could get stronger and maybe bring me an item for a shop quest. It was a side thing I could do when I felt like it. Now however it feels like something you have to constantly micro-manage because you're controlling cities and every 20 minutes the Templars gain back some control no matter what you do. Along with the added complication of recruits now having preset gear and you can only send them on a mission if they have the correct gear.
Not to mention the new features were rather poorly explained (or not explained at all), like stationing your recruits in the cities. Fortunately you can just ignore that the entire feature exists since all it really does is give you an excuse to level more recruits and contribute to your unstoppable tidal wave of money. Still, it's not good when I'd rather just pretend a feature isn't in the game. It needed less time investment or bigger rewards, or both.
I know a lot of people apparently hate Den Defense, but I didn't mind it during the tutorial mission that it gave me. I haven't had the opportunity to do it again yet, even after running around a few times at max notoriety, so I can't really comment on it too much (other than that they probably should have implemented a different way of playing it, as one of the reasons I held off on the Master Assassin missions was so I could try and play this again to see how it was beyond the tutorial).
Also, Istanbul is awesome, and there are some pretty decent supporting characters in the game. The Key dungeons are fantastically done, and the Altair segments are really nice, if short.
Really the main criticism I have of it is that it is a huge pain to lower notoriety (in order to avoid the den defense mini-game), and also I agree that the Mediterranean defense was unnecessarily annoying.
Steam (Ansatz) || GW2 officer (Ansatz.6498)
They're more GameStop commercials than they are - AssFlag? BlackAss? AssPirate? I like AssPirate - commercials.
3DS: 1650-8480-6786
Switch: SW-0653-8208-4705
PSN: Vorpallion Twitch: Vorpallion
Mark of the Ninja. Maybe ubisoft realizes nothing's going to top that anytime soon so don't bother trying.
3DS: 1650-8480-6786
Switch: SW-0653-8208-4705
4$$4$$1NCr33ds4f14gz:T3mpl4r3d170N
All bets are off.
Ninjas were about blending into crowds. The all black costume is a convention of traditional theatre - what people think of as a ninja costume is actually a stage hand.
New trailARRRRRR
xbl - HowYouGetAnts
steam - WeAreAllGeth
xbl - HowYouGetAnts
steam - WeAreAllGeth
Aren't you supposed to be IN the diving bell when you...uh...dive?
It is not trailer talk.
Diving for sunken treasure was not a direction I expected them to take this game.
I might not think that the treasure hunting is a pointless distraction this time around!
Anyway, I think I'm gonna finally sit down and play through AC3 sometime soon; but I want to check something DLC-wise. Namely, I have the season pass; is there any DLC out for the game, currently, that is not included in the Season Pass?
EDIT: Other than the multiplayer 'unlock' packs. I hate how XBox Live can't manage to list seperate dlc's you already own as purchased when they're broken up. It shouldn't be too hard to figure that out from there side. :rotate:
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
Steam: BrocksMullet http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197972421669/
This is my surprised face.
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.
Connors only fault is that he was not Ezio. That is not, to me, a complaint worth listening to. I do not want every protagonist to be an Ezio clone. I liked Connor a lot.
AC Revelations was awesome because it didn't have you keep chasing people around. Or Rather, didn't give them huge amounts of context. A quick "guy x has the key, kill him".
I mean, sure, he has some rudimentary personality which is mostly explained away by him being an "introvert" but, again, "introvert" doesn't mean "no personality." It's fine to have an introverted character if the game at least communicates his thought process in some way. As it is, Connor is nothing more than a dagger.
What I liked about the Ezio trilogy was not necessarily Ezio but rather that we get involved with his life. This game features a lot of "things" that on paper should evoke something in the player but even those situations felt bland to me.
I mean the game features:
(Major spoilers - don't read unless you've completed the game)
And I felt almost nothing and in fact Connor seems to feel almost nothing. I don't buy the "introvert" excuse. Or at least I think a more dynamic character would have given those scenes more impact.
Frankly, both Connor and the game itself felt very bland to me.
Also hoping that AC3 goes on sale for the Summer Dale substantially so I can get around to playing and beating it.
And on AssRev. I enjoyed it quite a bit for what it was. And that was a continuation of Ezio's story. And Istanbul was amazing.
If you watch his body language Connor expresses himself perfectly, very strongly, and very passionately. He felt very deeply about all of the moments you claimed he did not, and I understood that by watching his body language. Everything is on his face and in particular his eyes. It's also clearly expressed in his non facial body language.
Nothing was spelt out for you though. I do not consider this to be a fault.
Connor was a deeply passionate man. He simply did not lip smack about it.
All of those scenes had the appropriate impact when I watched them.
If you took a cutscene that you found bland and I found powerful, showed it to me, I could break down the body language expressed by Connor that demonstrates the emotional resonance I felt from that scene. All the scenes I felt were powerful were directly tied to his expressions and body language, coupled with subtle stresses in his otherwise "non-native English" flat tones.
Connor was a stranger in a strange land, from a foreign culture. Of course he's not going to react in a way you can easily understand. Case in point: Everytime a European dynamically expressive character tried to touch Connor he clearly felt that was an inappropriate and strange thing for them to do and always looked at the offending hand. He never touched strangers, he rarely touched acquaintances, he occasionally, very briefly, would pat a friend once on the shoulder, when other people were dancing around with joy. This was a consistent display of Connors approach to touchy expressions of emotion. Any touching from him means a fuck ton more than it does from a dynamic character. Now lets look at one of your spoilers that you found bland, knowing this.
Major spoilers. I am not fucking about here.
Hold on a second. Connor? Touching someone? That's a big deal. That pat had more emotion tied into it than a million Ezio full body rages to me, because I knew what touching meant to this man. The patting expressed his grief and sorrow, how foolish he felt his friend had been, how deeply he still cared for him.
When he stands up afterwards his face perfectly matched the intensity of sadness that gentle pat led me to believe he was feeling at the time. He was full on