Snacks the sober sea lion
Member
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.
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.