Templar cowards are what assasstants are meant for. Get him in view at all and tap L2. Captain is history.
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SteevLWhat can I do for you?Registered Userregular
Yeah, that's how I finally got him...it's just that at the time, I didn't have any assassistants yet. Except for the one that was sent off on a mission for an unspecified amount of time. Now none of this is an issue since I have all the dens.
The tower defense stuff is way more fun to me than I thought it would be. The camera implementation is a little weird, but I'm kind of surprised at all the backlash to it personally. I'm a couple hours in and really love this so far.
Xbox Live: Xander51
PSN ID : Xander51 Steam ID : Xander51
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MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
I listening to the latest giantbomb and ryan said that instead of doing the tower defense shit he just let the templars take the tower back. Afterward he just went back with his merry band of Assassins and shanked dudes to take the tower back. He says it's way less time and effort that way.
Hmm. Sounds good. Teach em a lesson. + Infinite combat.
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
Dipped my toe in the multiplayer.
Seems fun enough. Bit tricky to figure out when a stun will and won't work though.
It's basically determined by whether or not they have seen you yet. It technically always works in the sense of contesting kills, but an actual stun works when you start the animation of it before they pressed the button that corresponds to their assassination.
If you rush them, trying to get a stun in, I can almost guarantee that it won't work.
Just beat the game, and I am really excited for AC III now.
The challenge "craft one bomb of each effect type" isn't unlocking. Is there some secret to the crafting I'm missing? I've made two of every effect type, considering I have the challenge to Use every bomb effect at least twice.
I don't know what is up. It's just effects right, not shells? Not that it should matter as I already have that challenge unlocked too. I can't figure out why this won't trigger.
EDIT: Nevermind. I got it. Apparently it's one of each bomb shell type of each effect type...or something. I got it by making all the variations (except changing powder).
You know what makes the den defences even worse than their already shitty state? When the fucking fire machine runs straight through a fucking barrier (as in, didn't even acknowledge it was there) and somehow made the entire thing invisible to my units. Fuck this minigame.
I must be having one of the worst possible experiences with this game. Just a couple of hours ago I was shot through a wall (I ran and hid behind a wall while he just stood there) and shortly afterwards, I was right in the middle of a fight when my enemies just dropped their stance and started walking back to their normal positions.
DeadfallI don't think you realize just how rich he is.In fact, I should put on a monocle.Registered Userregular
Finally got into Rev's multiplayer tonight. It's even better than Brotherhood oh man. The kill animations. I love that if you get a discreet kill you just sort of shank them and walk away, potentially keeping you concealed from would-be attackers. The contested kills thing is brilliant also.
Yeah, I'm really not enjoying this. Notoriety has gone from kinda annoying to incredibly annoying. I'd really like to hear the justification behind making it rise when all I've done is buy a new shop. If it's the obvious answer (they wanted to push players into playing their shitty tower defence minigame) then they're idiots. Ubisoft seemed to get the completely wrong message when people said the first game was boring, so they continue to add irrelevant shit to the game when all we wanted was more mission variety.
I expect my experience will get better as I learn how to work around the crap I don't like but right now, AssRev is an even bigger disappointment than Arkham City and I can see why Edge only gave it a 7/10.
I like playing den defense, and I am trying to figure out how I can play more of it; I only played 4 or 5 times before all the dens were locked, and don't seem to have the opportunity to play anymore.
In case you were unaware, I have a part-time job with Ubisoft (which I got via this forum! ) as a college rep. Since my school is now done for winter break, I'll be spending more time on this thread interacting with you guys. Every week I report numbers and other information up the ladder. Part of this is asking for feedback from the players or getting questions that you'd like answered. I've had success in the past getting questions/complaints resolved. So....
My first questions are: What do you like or dislike about AC:R so far? What would you like to see changed in future versions of the game? This applies to both single player and multiplayer.
I'll keep talking questions and send them out two Fridays from now. As you're playing, try and write down things that you thought were great or just plain sucked. Try and keep things civil of course, this is PA and we are held to a much higher standard then the average forum.
(PS: Do me a favor and "like" my FB page. Link in sig. I occasionally givie away free swag and copies of games. In fact, I've got an unclaimed deck of AC:R cards waiting to find a new home. Thanks!)
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The tower defense stuff is way more fun to me than I thought it would be. The camera implementation is a little weird, but I'm kind of surprised at all the backlash to it personally. I'm a couple hours in and really love this so far.
I like the tower defense stuff also, but the camera is just crap. It's really my only problem with the game, I wish they gave me a slightly more birds eye view or let me position where Etzio views from.
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SteevLWhat can I do for you?Registered Userregular
The tower defense stuff is way more fun to me than I thought it would be. The camera implementation is a little weird, but I'm kind of surprised at all the backlash to it personally. I'm a couple hours in and really love this so far.
I like the tower defense stuff also, but the camera is just crap. It's really my only problem with the game, I wish they gave me a slightly more birds eye view or let me position where Etzio views from.
I liked it at first, but I think there's a lack of explanation in how it all works. I just didn't want to deal with it after a few losses and barely-wins. And I was pretty open to it despite my initial reservations at the trailer for it.
I was liking it, but the third defence I've tried (with the Cannon siege engine at the end) just keeps on kicking my ass.
Is there any particular tactic for that thing? It tears through barriers, none of the units I've tried seems to do more than scratch damage, and even a full load of cannon fire doesn't faze it by much.
My first questions are: What do you like or dislike about AC:R so far? What would you like to see changed in future versions of the game? This applies to both single player and multiplayer.
I've enjoyed it so far, however there were a few things that I liked/disliked.
Trip wires? Really nice idea, but, between luring guards over to them, and having the first one trip it before everyone else gets there, makes it really hard for them to be effective as a Lethal item. There have been a numerous amount of times where I have 8 or 10 guards grouped together, lured them with a Cherry bomb only to have one guy trip it and the other 7 or 8 unharmed because they were slow to get there. Even with British Gunpowder it was difficult to get any more than two or three. If you could make them detonate a few seconds after they trip, it would make them work a lot better. Either that, or give them a larger radius.
Ziplines were great, fun to use, and overall a really nice addition along with the hookblade. To me, though, they seemed too few. I'm not saying entire networks of ziplines are necessary, just a few more to make them a little bit more common would be nice.
Desmond's memories felt like they were tacked on; it wasn't until the last two that I had any remote difficulty with them. They felt pretty boring as well, lacking any sort of progression or complexity besides "more lasers". Narrative-wise, it was great. It gave background on Desmond, up until the beginning of the first game, which I liked a lot.
This iteration of the series felt pretty short, even with all the collectibles and challenges. Brotherhood lasted me for about 40-50 hours trying to get everything out of it. Right now I have a good 3/4ths of the collectibles and challenges done, and I've only been playing for 19 hours. I can't say anything definite on why this is.
If you're going to add Mediterranean Defense again, or something similar to it, it would help if you could make a priority list for your based Assassins so they could go out and do missions on their own without you having to command them all the time. For example; let's say you have Assassins based in recently captured Madrid. Instead of constantly checking on them from time to time, you could just tell them to work on renovating the city first (Rebuilding the docks, installing assassin's dens, etc.) and then later work on whatever else is left. This might take the fun out of it initially, but it became less fun managing cities on my own when it turned to a chore of constantly keeping control up.
This is all I have for right now as far as SP goes. I was planning on playing MP today, so I'll see how that is. I enjoyed Brotherhood's, so this one should be just as good, if not better.
Yeah, I'm really not enjoying this. Notoriety has gone from kinda annoying to incredibly annoying. I'd really like to hear the justification behind making it rise when all I've done is buy a new shop. If it's the obvious answer (they wanted to push players into playing their shitty tower defence minigame) then they're idiots. Ubisoft seemed to get the completely wrong message when people said the first game was boring, so they continue to add irrelevant shit to the game when all we wanted was more mission variety.
I expect my experience will get better as I learn how to work around the crap I don't like but right now, AssRev is an even bigger disappointment than Arkham City and I can see why Edge only gave it a 7/10.
Can I jump into multi, having never played the previous game multi? Or will I just be too outclassed by now?
Well having played Brotherhood will help, but there are tweaks to it and you have to unlock stuff all over again (although I already saw a level 50 prestige the other night).
In case you were unaware, I have a part-time job with Ubisoft (which I got via this forum! ) as a college rep. Since my school is now done for winter break, I'll be spending more time on this thread interacting with you guys. Every week I report numbers and other information up the ladder. Part of this is asking for feedback from the players or getting questions that you'd like answered. I've had success in the past getting questions/complaints resolved. So....
My first questions are: What do you like or dislike about AC:R so far? What would you like to see changed in future versions of the game? This applies to both single player and multiplayer.
I'll keep talking questions and send them out two Fridays from now. As you're playing, try and write down things that you thought were great or just plain sucked. Try and keep things civil of course, this is PA and we are held to a much higher standard then the average forum.
(PS: Do me a favor and "like" my FB page. Link in sig. I occasionally givie away free swag and copies of games. In fact, I've got an unclaimed deck of AC:R cards waiting to find a new home. Thanks!)
I'm still in sequence 3 because I've been busy doing many other things in the game, so I haven't continued the story so maybe some things will become more apparent/improved but I'm guessing they'll stay the same. I do want to say that while the post might come across as overly negative, it is more nitpicking about things than anything and despite them I'm still really enjoying the game. And that is even having played through AC/AC2/AssBro to 100% (except multi in Bro) in the last 3 months. So if anyone should be wearying of the "same old" with this, it is me.
Anyway (gonna spoiler it, kinda long; there aren't any story spoilers though at all):
Mixed Bag: I like that the city is wide open pretty much right off the bat. It was really annoying in Brotherhood having different areas arbitrarily blocked off for later sequences, when it wouldn't harm anything to have them open earlier. Which makes the decision to lock off the Arsenal pretty inexplicable. It's just another arbitrary block to make it so you can't get the final chests/page/fragments/viewpoint till the specific story point. Why do this after making everything else open? I realize there's an unconnected part of the city you visit later in the game, and that's fine. But it just seems really silly to maintain that arbitrary gating for the city when the entirety of the rest of it is open off the bat. There's not even a tower/shops there that the story could have you unlock in time...and even in brotherhood, those locked off areas didn't have you taking out the borgia towers in the story...you simply went there so it kept you out. Silly.
Mixed Bag 2: Mediterranean Defense. I like that there is more purpose attached to the assassin mission meta game added in Brotherhood. However there's not enough explanation as to the hows and whys. On the surface it's simple, just missions like before; however once you take the city then it starts getting questionable. For instance, why am I bothering unlocking assassin slots? What does it even do when you assign an assassin to the city? This isn't explained in the game at all (unless it is explained further later in the game but why open up the feature with no explanation?), and while I have deduced a couple things, I still feel like it is really poorly laid out. For instance, I can tell that higher level assassins assigned to the city allow you a higher percentage of possible Assassin control. But so what? Who cares if it is 50% max or 100% max as long as you keep it up some? Does it stay permanently yours at 100%? I have no idea, it doesn't tell you this. And the xp/money thing. Why, after having everything else in the game be "every 20 minutes", would everything in this game be listed as "every day"? What does this mean? What is a day? Is it the same 20 minutes? Why change that arbitrarily with no explanation? Is the XP reward assigned only to the assassins in the city or to all assassins each "day"? Again, not explained. Also, why don't the assassin's assigned to the city seem to have any bearing on the control %? Are they just screwing around? They should be contributing to the control % as they're assigned but as far as I can tell they have no effect on that and you are still required to assign assassins to missions periodically to maintain your control. The whole system is completely counter-intuitive. It just seems like a way to let you "park" assassins at 10 so you can get more only to level them to 10 and repeat. I have 4 cities so far loaded with 5 10's and all my current assassin's are 10, and I've just been taking each city methodically, filling it up, recruiting more assassins, leveling them; repeat. But again, what is the point?
Which leads me to an oddity about assassin leveling. Apparently you can only ever get 7 master assassins? And they're all assigned to dens? And you can't get anymore after that? I guess? But your level 10 assassins keep getting xp above and beyond level 10, looking like they should be going into level 11+? Why not cap their xp if they can't progress? Why not allow more masters? The 6 star missions pretty much require higher than 10, so why have that arbitrary limit? At the very least allow one to be assigned to a city be able to become a master there too. Or something.
I mean, I like the notion of having more of a purpose to the assassin missions, but I agree with TolerantZero; at some point they should start doing something on their own. Have the assassin's in the cities run missions. At the very least giving you control % if not rewards too. I don't mind micromanaging the meta game, in fact its something I enjoy. But the weirdness with assigning assassins just seems silly and confusing. Why am I about to have like 50 assassins sitting in the cities doing jack squat?
Mixed Bag 3: Constantinople is a neat idea for a city but in the end it feels very much the same aesthetically as any other city from 2/bro. In fact I miss the variety that Italy had in 2/Bro with the countryside areas and such. And aside from being more brown than Italy, and having mosques instead of cathedrals I wouldn't fault anyone for feeling like they've already covered the city top to bottom the second the load the game up. I realize there is only so much artistic license you can take given the historical period, but it seems like there should have been some freedom to make it a bit more interesting. When you're on the ground, it feels better, different garb, accents, different aesthetics in the shops etc...so that was good. But considering the amount of time you spend on the rooftops, those just feel like you've been the same city for three games now.
Mixed Bag 4: Den defense. I like the idea in principle; though I realize many don't. I love tower defense so I was actually really looking forward to it. But it just dropped the ball in a lot of areas; many that others have already mentioned. First, there needs to be a tactical view. The view that is there is fine for some things, and you should be able to still use it, but there really needs to be a fully overhead tactical view for allowing you to set up/manage your assassins and such. You spend as much time battling the camera as you do the oncoming hordes. Second, the disparity between what ezio can do in the game proper and den defense is odd. Fine, he can't jump down into the fray; although that would be wonderful; but at least let him use all his tools instead of just shooting. Why can't he use his bombs or poisons? Why, instead of allowing command of your assassins for strikes/air strikes, does he get a random cannon attack? Third, one of the key features of TD games, the upgrading of units instead of just building more would help a lot. Why have the whole leveling of assassins meta game but then have the bare basic assassins for the TD game? The assassins that die in one hit, never shoot faster, nothing. And why bunch them in three's on the roof areas? They gain no benefit from being in the little groups, so what is the point other than to make it more difficult to manage them if you need to? Fourth, disparity in units is absurd. There is virtually no reason to make crossbowmen over riflemen. Yes, they shoot faster, but they don't do a damn thing to the units that actually cause a problem. The barriers are also a mixed bag. The gun one is good, the flamethrower one is useless because barriers, even upgraded to level 3 are made of paper; so if anything gets near enough to be hit by the flamethrower, the barrier is already going down shortly wasting all that morale. Yes, the bombers tear them down in a second flat, but the normal units take them out damn near just as fast it seems. Plus no means to repair them is just silly. The various assassins from the brawler, to the air attack one are completely useless and a waste of morale. In fact, thus far, there's pretty much no reason to use anything except: Riflemen/Caltrops/multi-gun barrier. Maybe Brawlers to handle scouts at the barriers, but even that is questionable since your cannon attack will handle them pretty readily if you can't just manually pick off any that manage to get through.
Here's my biggest beef with the den defense. You're competing in principal with games, even recent ones, that do it exponentially better, between Orcs Must Die and Dungeon Defenders, the genre is at its peak right now; so to throw in a half baked system that does nothing really well is pretty frustrating as a player. I wanted it to be good but it really just doesn't do anything very well at all, though it hurts me to say it. To the point that I'm hurrying to get all my dens filled with master assassins so I don't have to deal with it anymore.
Mixed Bag 5: Bombs. I love them. However, there is clear disparity between how good some are, meaning you're gonna end up using pretty much the same bombs the whole game (shrapnel/smoke/cherry, with the occasional poison) with the only variation being in the shell type; and outside of challenges you'll probably never use the trip bomb since 99% of the time either a citizen sets it off or you'll be foiled by how the enemy units "break up" to check out a noise, meaning you will only get 1, maybe 2, with a trip bomb. The only way around it really is to drop a trip bomb into a group of disabled (via smoke bomb or whatever) enemies, negating the principle entirely. In fact that's how I got the challenge complete for the trip bombs and I won't use them again unless I'm forced to in the story. Even the max radius doesn't solve the problem, you still get 1 or two and more often than not just kill a group of civilians instead. The idea of variety and crafting is neat, but again, usefulness wise, there just isn't any comparison.
Mixed Bag 6: Hookblade. What is the point? I mean, ok, ziplines. But aside from that, it only enables a lot of what you could already do in earlier games with various upgrade. Things like grabbing ledges as you jumped were already in the first three games. It is odd that you lose that function just to get it right back with the hookblade. And aside from giving you an arbitrary move or two like tripping, it really doesn't add much at all to the actual gameplay. I mean, ziplines are nice, lets you move some areas easier; but more often than not they're usually going the opposite direction of where you need to go making them useless. And it is nice to get a little speed boost given the proper conditions on a wall by using the jump/hook thing. Aside from that I'm really not seeing how the idea is anything more than a gimmick, something that allowed the animators more freedom in takedown animations/etc. As far as gameplay goes it doesn't change much at all.
I haven't played multi yet, as that will be saved till after I 100% the SP game, and like I said I'm still in sequence 3 so I can't really speak for the story but I don't have any complaints there so far. I know that sounded pretty negative but it's easier to pick out the things that bugged me than go on about what I did like. And for each thing, I actually did like a lot of things about each section; I just listed issues. I guess, and it's not really intended to be a complaint, what the game does best is that it has taken everything excellent about the previous games and improved upon them still. However the things added in this iteration are kind of a mixed bag. It's good that the game is evolving, and it needs to. I don't mean to say the game shouldn't have added these things and stayed the same. But if these things are going to be carried over into ACIII (and beyond) then they really need to be more fully fleshed out and, particularly with Den Defense and Mediterranean dDefense, made more "whole" for them to be worth spending any time on.
NocrenLt Futz, Back in ActionNorth CarolinaRegistered Userregular
Had an awesome game of wanted last night. With only 8 kills, managed to get 1st place surpassing guys with 10 or even 12 kills in points. And every time I was killed, I think I only managed to give them 100points.
I still suck at stunning though. I think I did it once. Another time I did it too early and gave them an "Honorable Death" Kill instead.
Well the hookblade seemed to me as a convenient excuse for Ezio being able to pull off acrobatics he might otherwise have trouble with at his age.
Speaking of which, was I misinterpreting it in Brotherhood or was that climb grip gauntlet thing basically a bionic glove to offset the weakness in Ezio's arm
In AC3 I expect a rhythm game component and that the newest assassin has a day job as a soccer player so you will also have to compete in a sporting league with actual soccer gameplay.
SteevLWhat can I do for you?Registered Userregular
The one time I tried to play AC:Brotherhood in multi with a group on here, it kept splitting me from everyone else and moving me to a different game when a server was found. Quite annoying!
Still had fun with the multi, at least, but that kind of sucked. I have yet to try Revelations in multiplayer.
They kept talking about how no one person is that important and everybody just plays their one role in a much larger story, even Altair and Ezio. This was in the opening cutscene where Ezio said his story was one of many thousands, Altair's later memories when he wished he had been more humble in his youth and realized he can't do everything, Ezio's final sequence when he came upon a strange truth that he is merely a conduit for a message he does not understand, Bill had a line about how Desmond isn't really a "chosen one" but a rare case of extra NotGod DNA, 16 mocked Desmond's life up to this point and himself admitted that he wasted his own chance at living in the real world.
Ubi says AC3 will be the end of Desmond's story, but after they downplayed the importance of the three protagonists and especially Desmond, I'm not so sure that means it will be the end of the 2012 story. Jupiter called Desmond the "cipher", which doesn't really sound like the guy who saves the world.
Yeah, I'm really not enjoying this. Notoriety has gone from kinda annoying to incredibly annoying. I'd really like to hear the justification behind making it rise when all I've done is buy a new shop. If it's the obvious answer (they wanted to push players into playing their shitty tower defence minigame) then they're idiots. Ubisoft seemed to get the completely wrong message when people said the first game was boring, so they continue to add irrelevant shit to the game when all we wanted was more mission variety.
I expect my experience will get better as I learn how to work around the crap I don't like but right now, AssRev is an even bigger disappointment than Arkham City and I can see why Edge only gave it a 7/10.
Man Unco you are hating everything lately
Maybe it's just AC and ACR
But that's basically everything
I had high expectations going into both and the result has been disappointment. AC because the story is awful and the most fun I got out of it were 3 side quests. AssRev because I've just happened to run into a myriad of problems, though there's still plenty of time for my opinion to turn around as I'll still finish it.
I wish we could vote for re-releases in the annual GOTY thread. Shadow of the Colossus was better than any of the new games I've played this year.
What happened at the end there, exactly? Are we supposed to know who that guy is? Did he do something to Ezio or did he just happen to have a heart attack at that particular time?
What happened at the end there, exactly? Are we supposed to know who that guy is? Did he do something to Ezio or did he just happen to have a heart attack at that particular time?
intentionally ambiguous, that guy doesn't look like anybody else, though his attitude is kind of like Duccio's except reversing Rome and Florence. also mysterious are the two horsemen that come to Ezio's house.
Ezio's health wasn't so great before so he probably died of a heart attack or something, I think those guys were just representations of death
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PSN ID : Xander51 Steam ID : Xander51
Hmm. Sounds good. Teach em a lesson. + Infinite combat.
This whole sequence was worth the price of admission, 100%
Seems fun enough. Bit tricky to figure out when a stun will and won't work though.
It's basically determined by whether or not they have seen you yet. It technically always works in the sense of contesting kills, but an actual stun works when you start the animation of it before they pressed the button that corresponds to their assassination.
If you rush them, trying to get a stun in, I can almost guarantee that it won't work.
Just beat the game, and I am really excited for AC III now.
Or bombs. Bombs work well.
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if you already finished the game and don't plan on watching it
You really should though. I enjoyed it.
The challenge "craft one bomb of each effect type" isn't unlocking. Is there some secret to the crafting I'm missing? I've made two of every effect type, considering I have the challenge to Use every bomb effect at least twice.
I don't know what is up. It's just effects right, not shells? Not that it should matter as I already have that challenge unlocked too. I can't figure out why this won't trigger.
EDIT: Nevermind. I got it. Apparently it's one of each bomb shell type of each effect type...or something. I got it by making all the variations (except changing powder).
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I must be having one of the worst possible experiences with this game. Just a couple of hours ago I was shot through a wall (I ran and hid behind a wall while he just stood there) and shortly afterwards, I was right in the middle of a fight when my enemies just dropped their stance and started walking back to their normal positions.
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I expect my experience will get better as I learn how to work around the crap I don't like but right now, AssRev is an even bigger disappointment than Arkham City and I can see why Edge only gave it a 7/10.
In case you were unaware, I have a part-time job with Ubisoft (which I got via this forum!
My first questions are: What do you like or dislike about AC:R so far? What would you like to see changed in future versions of the game? This applies to both single player and multiplayer.
I'll keep talking questions and send them out two Fridays from now. As you're playing, try and write down things that you thought were great or just plain sucked. Try and keep things civil of course, this is PA and we are held to a much higher standard then the average forum.
(PS: Do me a favor and "like" my FB page. Link in sig. I occasionally givie away free swag and copies of games. In fact, I've got an unclaimed deck of AC:R cards waiting to find a new home. Thanks!)
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I like the tower defense stuff also, but the camera is just crap. It's really my only problem with the game, I wish they gave me a slightly more birds eye view or let me position where Etzio views from.
I liked it at first, but I think there's a lack of explanation in how it all works. I just didn't want to deal with it after a few losses and barely-wins. And I was pretty open to it despite my initial reservations at the trailer for it.
Is there any particular tactic for that thing? It tears through barriers, none of the units I've tried seems to do more than scratch damage, and even a full load of cannon fire doesn't faze it by much.
I've enjoyed it so far, however there were a few things that I liked/disliked.
Trip wires? Really nice idea, but, between luring guards over to them, and having the first one trip it before everyone else gets there, makes it really hard for them to be effective as a Lethal item. There have been a numerous amount of times where I have 8 or 10 guards grouped together, lured them with a Cherry bomb only to have one guy trip it and the other 7 or 8 unharmed because they were slow to get there. Even with British Gunpowder it was difficult to get any more than two or three. If you could make them detonate a few seconds after they trip, it would make them work a lot better. Either that, or give them a larger radius.
Ziplines were great, fun to use, and overall a really nice addition along with the hookblade. To me, though, they seemed too few. I'm not saying entire networks of ziplines are necessary, just a few more to make them a little bit more common would be nice.
Desmond's memories felt like they were tacked on; it wasn't until the last two that I had any remote difficulty with them. They felt pretty boring as well, lacking any sort of progression or complexity besides "more lasers". Narrative-wise, it was great. It gave background on Desmond, up until the beginning of the first game, which I liked a lot.
This iteration of the series felt pretty short, even with all the collectibles and challenges. Brotherhood lasted me for about 40-50 hours trying to get everything out of it. Right now I have a good 3/4ths of the collectibles and challenges done, and I've only been playing for 19 hours. I can't say anything definite on why this is.
If you're going to add Mediterranean Defense again, or something similar to it, it would help if you could make a priority list for your based Assassins so they could go out and do missions on their own without you having to command them all the time. For example; let's say you have Assassins based in recently captured Madrid. Instead of constantly checking on them from time to time, you could just tell them to work on renovating the city first (Rebuilding the docks, installing assassin's dens, etc.) and then later work on whatever else is left. This might take the fun out of it initially, but it became less fun managing cities on my own when it turned to a chore of constantly keeping control up.
This is all I have for right now as far as SP goes. I was planning on playing MP today, so I'll see how that is. I enjoyed Brotherhood's, so this one should be just as good, if not better.
Man Unco you are hating everything lately
Maybe it's just AC and ACR
But that's basically everything
Well having played Brotherhood will help, but there are tweaks to it and you have to unlock stuff all over again (although I already saw a level 50 prestige the other night).
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
I'm still in sequence 3 because I've been busy doing many other things in the game, so I haven't continued the story so maybe some things will become more apparent/improved but I'm guessing they'll stay the same. I do want to say that while the post might come across as overly negative, it is more nitpicking about things than anything and despite them I'm still really enjoying the game. And that is even having played through AC/AC2/AssBro to 100% (except multi in Bro) in the last 3 months. So if anyone should be wearying of the "same old" with this, it is me.
Anyway (gonna spoiler it, kinda long; there aren't any story spoilers though at all):
Mixed Bag 2: Mediterranean Defense. I like that there is more purpose attached to the assassin mission meta game added in Brotherhood. However there's not enough explanation as to the hows and whys. On the surface it's simple, just missions like before; however once you take the city then it starts getting questionable. For instance, why am I bothering unlocking assassin slots? What does it even do when you assign an assassin to the city? This isn't explained in the game at all (unless it is explained further later in the game but why open up the feature with no explanation?), and while I have deduced a couple things, I still feel like it is really poorly laid out. For instance, I can tell that higher level assassins assigned to the city allow you a higher percentage of possible Assassin control. But so what? Who cares if it is 50% max or 100% max as long as you keep it up some? Does it stay permanently yours at 100%? I have no idea, it doesn't tell you this. And the xp/money thing. Why, after having everything else in the game be "every 20 minutes", would everything in this game be listed as "every day"? What does this mean? What is a day? Is it the same 20 minutes? Why change that arbitrarily with no explanation? Is the XP reward assigned only to the assassins in the city or to all assassins each "day"? Again, not explained. Also, why don't the assassin's assigned to the city seem to have any bearing on the control %? Are they just screwing around? They should be contributing to the control % as they're assigned but as far as I can tell they have no effect on that and you are still required to assign assassins to missions periodically to maintain your control. The whole system is completely counter-intuitive. It just seems like a way to let you "park" assassins at 10 so you can get more only to level them to 10 and repeat. I have 4 cities so far loaded with 5 10's and all my current assassin's are 10, and I've just been taking each city methodically, filling it up, recruiting more assassins, leveling them; repeat. But again, what is the point?
Which leads me to an oddity about assassin leveling. Apparently you can only ever get 7 master assassins? And they're all assigned to dens? And you can't get anymore after that? I guess? But your level 10 assassins keep getting xp above and beyond level 10, looking like they should be going into level 11+? Why not cap their xp if they can't progress? Why not allow more masters? The 6 star missions pretty much require higher than 10, so why have that arbitrary limit? At the very least allow one to be assigned to a city be able to become a master there too. Or something.
I mean, I like the notion of having more of a purpose to the assassin missions, but I agree with TolerantZero; at some point they should start doing something on their own. Have the assassin's in the cities run missions. At the very least giving you control % if not rewards too. I don't mind micromanaging the meta game, in fact its something I enjoy. But the weirdness with assigning assassins just seems silly and confusing. Why am I about to have like 50 assassins sitting in the cities doing jack squat?
Mixed Bag 3: Constantinople is a neat idea for a city but in the end it feels very much the same aesthetically as any other city from 2/bro. In fact I miss the variety that Italy had in 2/Bro with the countryside areas and such. And aside from being more brown than Italy, and having mosques instead of cathedrals I wouldn't fault anyone for feeling like they've already covered the city top to bottom the second the load the game up. I realize there is only so much artistic license you can take given the historical period, but it seems like there should have been some freedom to make it a bit more interesting. When you're on the ground, it feels better, different garb, accents, different aesthetics in the shops etc...so that was good. But considering the amount of time you spend on the rooftops, those just feel like you've been the same city for three games now.
Mixed Bag 4: Den defense. I like the idea in principle; though I realize many don't. I love tower defense so I was actually really looking forward to it. But it just dropped the ball in a lot of areas; many that others have already mentioned. First, there needs to be a tactical view. The view that is there is fine for some things, and you should be able to still use it, but there really needs to be a fully overhead tactical view for allowing you to set up/manage your assassins and such. You spend as much time battling the camera as you do the oncoming hordes. Second, the disparity between what ezio can do in the game proper and den defense is odd. Fine, he can't jump down into the fray; although that would be wonderful; but at least let him use all his tools instead of just shooting. Why can't he use his bombs or poisons? Why, instead of allowing command of your assassins for strikes/air strikes, does he get a random cannon attack? Third, one of the key features of TD games, the upgrading of units instead of just building more would help a lot. Why have the whole leveling of assassins meta game but then have the bare basic assassins for the TD game? The assassins that die in one hit, never shoot faster, nothing. And why bunch them in three's on the roof areas? They gain no benefit from being in the little groups, so what is the point other than to make it more difficult to manage them if you need to? Fourth, disparity in units is absurd. There is virtually no reason to make crossbowmen over riflemen. Yes, they shoot faster, but they don't do a damn thing to the units that actually cause a problem. The barriers are also a mixed bag. The gun one is good, the flamethrower one is useless because barriers, even upgraded to level 3 are made of paper; so if anything gets near enough to be hit by the flamethrower, the barrier is already going down shortly wasting all that morale. Yes, the bombers tear them down in a second flat, but the normal units take them out damn near just as fast it seems. Plus no means to repair them is just silly. The various assassins from the brawler, to the air attack one are completely useless and a waste of morale. In fact, thus far, there's pretty much no reason to use anything except: Riflemen/Caltrops/multi-gun barrier. Maybe Brawlers to handle scouts at the barriers, but even that is questionable since your cannon attack will handle them pretty readily if you can't just manually pick off any that manage to get through.
Here's my biggest beef with the den defense. You're competing in principal with games, even recent ones, that do it exponentially better, between Orcs Must Die and Dungeon Defenders, the genre is at its peak right now; so to throw in a half baked system that does nothing really well is pretty frustrating as a player. I wanted it to be good but it really just doesn't do anything very well at all, though it hurts me to say it. To the point that I'm hurrying to get all my dens filled with master assassins so I don't have to deal with it anymore.
Mixed Bag 5: Bombs. I love them. However, there is clear disparity between how good some are, meaning you're gonna end up using pretty much the same bombs the whole game (shrapnel/smoke/cherry, with the occasional poison) with the only variation being in the shell type; and outside of challenges you'll probably never use the trip bomb since 99% of the time either a citizen sets it off or you'll be foiled by how the enemy units "break up" to check out a noise, meaning you will only get 1, maybe 2, with a trip bomb. The only way around it really is to drop a trip bomb into a group of disabled (via smoke bomb or whatever) enemies, negating the principle entirely. In fact that's how I got the challenge complete for the trip bombs and I won't use them again unless I'm forced to in the story. Even the max radius doesn't solve the problem, you still get 1 or two and more often than not just kill a group of civilians instead. The idea of variety and crafting is neat, but again, usefulness wise, there just isn't any comparison.
Mixed Bag 6: Hookblade. What is the point? I mean, ok, ziplines. But aside from that, it only enables a lot of what you could already do in earlier games with various upgrade. Things like grabbing ledges as you jumped were already in the first three games. It is odd that you lose that function just to get it right back with the hookblade. And aside from giving you an arbitrary move or two like tripping, it really doesn't add much at all to the actual gameplay. I mean, ziplines are nice, lets you move some areas easier; but more often than not they're usually going the opposite direction of where you need to go making them useless. And it is nice to get a little speed boost given the proper conditions on a wall by using the jump/hook thing. Aside from that I'm really not seeing how the idea is anything more than a gimmick, something that allowed the animators more freedom in takedown animations/etc. As far as gameplay goes it doesn't change much at all.
I haven't played multi yet, as that will be saved till after I 100% the SP game, and like I said I'm still in sequence 3 so I can't really speak for the story but I don't have any complaints there so far. I know that sounded pretty negative but it's easier to pick out the things that bugged me than go on about what I did like. And for each thing, I actually did like a lot of things about each section; I just listed issues. I guess, and it's not really intended to be a complaint, what the game does best is that it has taken everything excellent about the previous games and improved upon them still. However the things added in this iteration are kind of a mixed bag. It's good that the game is evolving, and it needs to. I don't mean to say the game shouldn't have added these things and stayed the same. But if these things are going to be carried over into ACIII (and beyond) then they really need to be more fully fleshed out and, particularly with Den Defense and Mediterranean dDefense, made more "whole" for them to be worth spending any time on.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
Steam games list shows it won't be Steamworks so yes that means Uplay.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
I still suck at stunning though. I think I did it once. Another time I did it too early and gave them an "Honorable Death" Kill instead.
Speaking of which, was I misinterpreting it in Brotherhood or was that climb grip gauntlet thing basically a bionic glove to offset the weakness in Ezio's arm
Base invaded (auto anonymous)
Invasion Fail (auto aware)
Base invaded (auto anonymous)
etc repeat ad infinitum versus unstoppable battering rams.
I want to know more PA people on Twitter.
I want to know more PA people on Twitter.
This would be amazing.
Also, I've been having trouble getting groups to work on MP. Just me and a friend, too, not a huge group.
Still had fun with the multi, at least, but that kind of sucked. I have yet to try Revelations in multiplayer.
All Dens cleared, Memory Sequence 3.
Ubi says AC3 will be the end of Desmond's story, but after they downplayed the importance of the three protagonists and especially Desmond, I'm not so sure that means it will be the end of the 2012 story. Jupiter called Desmond the "cipher", which doesn't really sound like the guy who saves the world.
I had high expectations going into both and the result has been disappointment. AC because the story is awful and the most fun I got out of it were 3 side quests. AssRev because I've just happened to run into a myriad of problems, though there's still plenty of time for my opinion to turn around as I'll still finish it.
I wish we could vote for re-releases in the annual GOTY thread. Shadow of the Colossus was better than any of the new games I've played this year.
Ezio's health wasn't so great before so he probably died of a heart attack or something, I think those guys were just representations of death