Support NeoGAF

[Snacks the sober sea lion]

Assassin's Creed's strengths and weaknesses have been all over the place. The series never really has a consistent vision, basically just been a series of action adventure games in various settings. So Origins is positing itself as a rework or something (pretty sure we've heard that several times in reference to this series), but what does that even mean? What the hell even is this series? I think the free running peaked with II, which has by far the best cities for simply running around in. It feels natural without being completely effortless and risk-free. But, I don't see that coming back. Free running in AC is now just a method of going from one place to another, not a major pillar of the game. Syndicate has the best stealth, and with any luck, they'll keep that and won't just trash the assassination setpieces. I guess the big new thing is the combat. Now you have actual manual control over your movement and attacks. That I think addresses the longest-running issue with the series, that the combat has always been okay at best. Maybe there will be some actual nuance. One would hope. Not sure there will be, but it ought to at least be better than previous games.

Also, don't be Assassin's Creed III. The series seems to have mercifully moved very, very far away from III's direction with Black Flag and Syndicate, but I still need to put in a rant. I gave it a chance because I got it for free on uPlay and it did look promising at parts, but it was constantly bogged down by dumb shit. The boring Frontier, upgrading the Homestead which I had no reason to care about, the Paul Revere GPS, the abysmal and pointless Battle of Concord minigame, "run here talk to a guy, run here 10 second cutscene, 20 seconds of gameplay, more cutscenes, another mission where there is only one viable path." This game is a culmination of everything earlier Assassin's Creed games did wrong. Horrible pacing, missions that have barely anything to do with free running or assassination. The plot is also completely lacking in intrigue, and the characters are terrible. Achilles is constantly wavering between "genocide the Templars" and "everything is meaningless anyway," Connor is bland and constantly questions whether he's actually accomplishing anything yet never stops to give that any further thought, everyone else is just boring. Game has barely any personality and loves to waste your time. Screw Assassin's Creed III.

Have just started Black Flag. Never played Unity, I barely know anything about it as an actual game because all that's ever talked about are the bugs. Sorry, I kind of just wanted to talk about how mediocre AC3 is without making yet another thread about that game.

So, are we going to hope Origins actually combines decent stealth, exploration, combat, and non-terrible pacing? Rather than just being good at 1-2 of those things like nearly every previous game. I know it's easy to be cynical because sure, Ubisoft, and I'm not expecting the next Witcher 3/ Breath of the Wild here, but I kind of have some hope at this balancing the pillars of gameplay. Sort of.

 

[Impeccable]

I just finished Platinuming Syndicate, I LOVED the opportunities they added it felt so good.

Hated they didn't let you pick whichever full time, hated that I was forced Jacob for most of it.

 

[ASilentProtagonist]

AC3 sucked big time. I thought Black Flag was excellent. It balanced all of those things you mentioned pretty well, even if the game had too many tailing missions. The same team, and same director of BF (Ashraf Ismail) is working on this, so i'm pretty confident in Origins being something special.

 

[Toni]

I just finished Platinuming Syndicate, I LOVED the opportunities they added it felt so good.

Hated they didn't let you pick whichever full time, hated that I was forced Jacob for most of it.

Evie was amazing in Syndicate. I loved everything about her in it.

 

[TheCed]

They lost me when they fired Patrice Desilet.

From that point the plot started to go nowhere.

 

[Snacks the sober sea lion]

Jacob had some moments, but Evie should have been used more. At least give her more than one assassination mission.

Also one of the best missions in that game wasn't even a story mission. It's where you have to destroy the evidence to get Nigel out of jail. Good stealth design and get to hear the police reactions to all of the evidence disappearing.

They lost me when they fired Patrice Desilet.

From that point the plot started to go nowhere.

That's definitely true. Syndicate reduces the modern day story to all of about 3 cutscenes and the occasional audio message, although the modern day story being completely borked is also one of III's many crimes. The historical story itself barely goes anywhere and is a little lost morality-wise. Starrick thought he was doing great, then suddenly a literal gang murders his cousin and starts spreading actual chaos through London. Jacob nearly crashing London's economy especially.

 

[Falchion]

Yeah the series went on hiatus on a high note because Syndicate was great. I'm really looking forward to Origins because it seems to have a ton of promise.

 

[wtd2009]

Having a tough time staying entertained in the first one, so i kind of took a break from it. Just seems like a bunch of boring tasks lined up to do. Should I move on to 2 or is this what I can expect from all of them?

 

[Nydius]

I'm more concerned about the way they're changing up the design to make weapons and gear into a color-based rarity loot system. This photo in particular gives me pause. I'm afraid they're going to end up turning the game into some kind of hybrid of Assassin's Creed x The Division or attempt to turn it into Diablo Creed.

Color-based loot rarity systems are, IMO, played out. Feels like every RPG has to prove their RPG-ness by copying the "yay, a green piece of shit to vendor, back to grinding for mah epix" loot model.

 

[MAX PAYMENT]

The last good one was black flag and it had a lot wrong with it.

 

[Indrid Cold1]

I really want to play the Jack the Ripper one but just haven't got round to it.

 

[hydruxo]

I have high hopes for Origins. It reminds me a lot of Black Flag which was my favorite AC game. Syndicate is the only one I haven't played yet because Unity burned me out so bad.

 

[Linkark07]

Well, hopefully they reduce the stupid tailing missions or eavesdropping. Playing Black Flag and damn, there are many missions with those awful objectives. My enjoyment really drops when those instructions appear on the screen.

It was bad on the older ones, III and Black Flag made me realize more than ever how terrible those missions are.

 

[LastNac]

First AC is still my favorite. Sorry not sorry.

 

[Pilgrimzero]

I really wanted to like Black Flag but I couldn't figure out the ship combat.

 

[jtb]

So has the series completely given up on vertical platforming as the core feature of the series? That's always been what defined the series, for me anyways, though I get that it's moved away from that in recent installments.

Ah well, we'll always have AC2.

If Ubi was smart, they'd remake AC1, because that setting deserves a way better game than the one we actually got.

 

[Linkark07]

First AC is still my favorite. Sorry not sorry.

Yeah, the first AC had that feeling you were actually being an assassin. Investigating about your targets and then, when you had all the pieces, you moved for the kill. And unlike the other ones, try to stay after the bells start sounding; you will most likely die.

I wish they brought that back in Origins.

 

[Gravy Boat]

So has the series completely given up on vertical platforming as the core feature of the series? That's always been what defined the series, for me anyways, though I get that it's moved away from that in recent installments.

Ah well, we'll always have AC2.

If Ubi was smart, they'd remake AC1, because that setting deserves a way better game than the one we actually got.

AC1 has so much potential for a remake. Riding into the first city and actually seeing the scale of it for the first time was incredible. The animations and everything else just looked so good and you could really go anywhere.

Then the actual gameplay turned out to be completely terrible and unenjoyable. Id love them to revisit that setting and do it properly.

 

[hydruxo]

So has the series completely given up on vertical platforming as the core feature of the series? That's always been what defined the series, for me anyways, though I get that it's moved away from that in recent installments.

Ah well, we'll always have AC2.

If Ubi was smart, they'd remake AC1, because that setting deserves a way better game than the one we actually got.

Not sure about the vertical platforming just bc I don't think they've shown too much of the bigger cities in Origins yet other than a brief glimpse of Alexandria. Though one change they've done is making your character in Origins be able to climb anything from any angle rather than having to look for ledges/footholds. So that's a pretty great change IMO and it'll make things more fluid I'd imagine.

 

[Ahasverus]

Syndicate was fun and certainly the best of the "dumb" series, but man I miss the days when the games left an impact... 2009.

Desilets must cry every night seeing what his brainchild has become.

 

[jtb]

Syndicate was fun and certainly the best of the "dumb" series, but man I miss the days when the games left an impact... 2009.

Desilets must cry every night seeing what his brainchild has become.

Like this tho

 

[SummitAve]

I was hoping they would take a page out of the BOTW book or hitman and go minimalist with their mission/story design allowing for more flexible sandbox gameplay, but it seems Origins is going to be more or less the same, but with a hawk.

I want to boot the game, get an objective to assisinate King Tut, and let me fill in everything in between.

 

[Darklor01]

I think there is so much going on with what the developer says is going on systems wise in Origins it has the potential to be an epic Assassin's Creed game or an epic disaster. Either way, I've pre-ordered and am in for the ride. Ubisoft produced titles tend to have their share of bugs at release at the very least, so it should be interesting to see what happens with so many systems interacting and the fact "you can climb anything".

 

[EmiPrime]

I know it's popular to shit on it but make sure you play Unity, it's actually really good after all the patches it has had and Syndicate is a noticeable visual downgrade from it.

I liked the modern day stuff up until AC3 (tacked on, low quality) and it's a shame that we were denied the obvious conclusion to the series: Desmond becoming the ultimate assassin in a big open world city but able to fully control the bleeding effect to his benefit.

 

[dex3108]

To me every game had something that did good. AC3 had best combat (both best looking and best feeling), AC2-Revalations had best story, AC Unity had best parkour, Syndicate had best stealth (for a company that made Splinter Cell non of AC games had good stealth), ACIV had best dialogues and best world...

Origins looks like it will have amazing world with interesting characters, AC Syndicate stealth. That is what i saw from things they showed.

 

[gogosox82]

Yeah AC3 really put me off the series. Thought I was done with it but heard some good things about Syndicate and bought it and really liked it. Loved Evie and all of her missions and focus on stealth. Really wish they would've just made the game about her instead of having her share the game with her dumb brother who just seemed to mess up stuff half the time. I'm not sure about Origins. The bird drone looked dumb, and animations looked really bad, and it looks like there's loot system in this game which I am really am unsure how much i would like that in an AC game. I liked the way Syndicate handled loot. It tied a lot of loot to doing objectives so if you wanted a new cane, then you would need to do these missions. I do like loot games but its going to depend on how its given out. If its a farm this enemy to get the sword you want type of loot system, I know I am going to hate it but if its compete quests or objectives and get loot, then maybe it won't be too bad.

 

[GeeTeeCee]

I'm hopeful; as someone who's been playing the series since the beginning, Syndicate was a major improvement over Unity in terms of stealth and mission design.

 

[Exploratory]

The series I wish would reboot the most is...AC. Killed the modern storyline man.

 

[Babyshams]

After Black Flag I didn't really have interest in a non pirate AC game.

Tried Syndicate cause I got it for free, liked it but not enough to finish. Liked the setting of Unity but the AC games come out to often for me to want to jump into them every year. Origins seems to be changing it up a little with rpg elements, who knows if that will be enough to draw me in.

 

[Ahasverus]

Like this tho

Do you really think Ubisoft, of all people, rewarded him well enough?

I'm hopeful; as someone who's been playing the series since the beginning, Syndicate was a major improvement over Unity in terms of stealth and mission design.

Except the next game is not from the Syndicate studio, in fact, that one might not even be returning. Welp.

 

[Snacks the sober sea lion]

The series I wish would reboot the most is...AC. Killed the modern storyline man.

All that stuff that made it seem like there would be a full modern day game, and then it was just a few unexceptional, linear missions. And then Desmond dies because killing your main character is the only way some people know how to end their story. Again, screw Assassin's Creed III. Syndicate barely has any tailing missions or "walk while someone rambles" sections, so it seems like they finally learned to cut down on that garbage. Hopefully it will stay that way.

So has the series completely given up on vertical platforming as the core feature of the series? That's always been what defined the series, for me anyways, though I get that it's moved away from that in recent installments.

Ah well, we'll always have AC2.

If Ubi was smart, they'd remake AC1, because that setting deserves a way better game than the one we actually got.

Not moved away from verticality so much as the climbing itself is basically automatic.