Assassin’s Creed Thread

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There’s a couple threads on here about some individual games in the Assassin’s Creed series, but I figured we could use a more general one to talk about any part of the series, including recent or future games. Maybe those other threads can be merged into this one.

Anyway, as my other big game series at the moment, right alongside Hitman, and lacking any decent forums out there more specifically dedicated to the series, and a major release just the other day that already appears to be heading for success, let’s talk about the Batman-But-With-Murder series.

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I feel like it’s relevant to share previous discussion threads’ links here, so that people who’s interested can join. Let’s get some more engagements here.

For me personally though, I’ve never had many interests in the series, since most of them don’t involve drivable vehicles. I said most of them because there’s this one time my cousin, a big fan of AC, let me try out Syndicate on his PC. He asked me whether or not I can get the achievement of drifting a carriage, since I am more accustomed to racing games. But even I couldn’t do it at the time. :joy:

Anyway, that’s all I have for a story. I knew there used to be plenty of connections between Assassin’s Creed and Watch Dogs. But now since WD was put on hold for a while, I figure it would be nice if people get to learn these connections. Here it is.

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I’m playing the new entry, Shadows. It’s been a while since I played an Assassin’s Creed game, but probably like many I have fond memories of the Ezio trilogy.

I’ve only just started and it feels like the stealth, the combat and how items and abilities work together will take some getting used to.

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I posted in the other thread but I’m currently replaying through the Ezio collection for the first time in over 10 years. About halfway through AC2 and thoroughly enjoying it.

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As of 25 minutes ago, I’ve finally completed Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. And man, that game was, indeed, an odyssey. After spending the last six years working my way through the series to play it, and spending the last six months finally playing it, having reached the end, despite how fatigued I felt and how tedious it really started to seem - which I blame more on my not balancing exploration out earlier in the game instead of focusing on story missions all at once - I can say that it was totally worth the whole journey.

Now I’m gonna take a little break before continuing, because I have to say, as I finally reached the RPG trilogy and played through Origins and Odyssey, after seeing how bright and beautiful they are, and how huge and full they were, and how it just started to seem like too much as it began to reach the end with both of them, with all of that in mind, I’m actually not really looking forward to Valhalla. The last few years, I was almost as excited to play it as I was Odyssey, but knowing what I know now - some of the gameplay features that made Odyssey so fun won’t be present; every screenshot or clip I’ve seen of it shows it as grey and dour, and with a lot of empty space; being bigger and longer than Odyssey in overall playtime and content - all of that just makes it seem, before I’ve even tried it, like I’m probably going to enjoy it the least out of the entire series. I hope I’m wrong, but I haven’t been wrong very much in my predictions of how much I would enjoy the next entry any time I get there. We’ll see.

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I… think that title would go to the Shadow of Mordor games. Stealth-action, combat gameplay very inspired by the Batman Arkham series, also Talion has a long flowing cape.

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Valhalla sucked imo, wouldn’t rush to play it. Waited years for a Viking AC and it was a huge let down.

I tried 3 times to get into it and gave up at roughly the same point every time, maybe about 40%-60% into it I’d guess. The story (of what I played) was boring. Not one memorable character (although again I didn’t finish it) and with the characters it kind of has elements of this recent trend in games that I find annoying, I can’t quite verbalize or explain properly but I describe it as “everyone’s your friend”.

It can take quite a long time to get out of the prologue bit too. The open world grind/collectathon elements are stepped up from Odyssey, with the addition of improving your settlement on top. Although the exploration was actually a part I liked best, maybe just because of the landscape and British locations.

I hated all the stuff in Asgard and Jotunheim, I get they did a similar thing in Odyssey with Atlantis but I didn’t like that either… Oh and I got soft-locked in Jotunheim by inadvertently getting into a boss fight, with no indication, that was way too high level for me with no way to go back.

The most fun parts were doing river raids, the combat is decent.

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I’m prepared for the long opener, AC3 and Odyssey did that too. And I love the Animus and First Civilization aspects of the game; it was learning about those things when researching the franchise, combined with the Ancient Greek aesthetic of Odyssey, that convinced me to get into the series. In fact, the lore aspects are what I look forward to most about Valhalla. The whole storyline of Those Who Came Before is a fascinating framing device - other than the decision to call them Isu, and absolutely lame-sounding name for humanoid magitek users. That sounds like the name of a reptilian alien race you’d meet on Star Trek. Ubisoft and Star Trek could swap the names of the Isu and the Cardassians and it would make sense. Anyway, those won’t be problems for me, it’s what will actually make it better.

It’s just that none of what I’ve seen appears to be as colorful as Origins or Odyssey, which I assume is because it takes place in England, which is known for being cloudy, and Norway, known for being snowy.

Also, for as long as I know it’s going to be, and that some of the more fun aspects of Odyssey that allowed me to cope with its extreme length, like the things you can do with the Spear, those won’t be in Valhalla. So I don’t know if I’ll be able to enjoy it as much or as long while still having more to go. And I am not a person who can simply quit a game, even if it stops being fun.

I mean, I’m going to play the game, no question, and I am going to enjoy it, for sure. It’s just that I don’t think I’ll enjoy it as much or as long. I’m probably gonna need to reverse my strategy for Odyssey and get the exploration and side mission stuff out of the way as early as possible, so that the tedious stuff isn’t as extensive once I really get the story moving.

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Alright, I’ve gone ahead and started playing Valhalla sooner than expected, because although I was tired after finishing Odyssey, my hunger to continue the series returned within days of finishing, so I decided to just go ahead with it and at least play through the prologue until landing in England. Having played the game for a few days now, my initial impression is… less than it would have been a year ago, but more than I would have expected just coming off the high of Odyssey.

First, let me get the negatives out of the way, and right off the bat, as per usual, combat and parkour are shit. How the hell has Ubisoft gone this long with a series this popular and still not having parkour that actually works smoothly and takes away the frustration, and how have they not returned to far superior combat that was present in the first four games? For this particular game, the best way I can describe it is inaccurate. Both attacking an enemy and jumping to a landing place in parkour are wildly inaccurate and a massive step down from previous games. I’ve also been spoiled on Odyssey, because I miss being able to jump from any height at all and know I won’t get hurt, and use the special abilities of the spear to attack enemies. That said, I’ve just started unlocking some special attacks that are similar, but again, highly inaccurate.

The surveillance system is also down from previous entries. The raven seems to be only useful for spotting animals in the woods and the general area where an objective is, rather than directly focusing on a target and being able to highlight all enemies and points of interest. You now have to use the “scan” ability from the last couple of games for that, and its range is limited.

Now, for some positives. The game’s dark and plain color tones aren’t as bad as I expected. It actually works in context, at least more than I thought. I may get tired of it eventually. Summoning a horse is more reliable than in Odyssey, as it comes straight to you now.

One thing I didn’t expect to enjoy, because it’s an aspect of gaming that I hardly ever notice and don’t really pay attention to: the sound. The sound in this game is amazing so far. The little details from the crunch of snow underfoot to the clang of an axe striking a metal or stone object, things like that are more prominent than ever before.

The voice acting is much better than Odyssey. That was one of the areas of the game that was quite poor; the acting and the dialogue the actors were given were pretty lousy. Valhalla, on the other hand, while still not the best dialogue writing, is a noticeable step up, and the actors are significantly better. I actually believe the voices I hear coming from this game’s cast.

The part I’m really loving is the music. The music in this game is awesome. I haven’t cared about a game’s sound track since the days of Grand Theft Auto Vice City, but this one is fantastic, even compared to Odyssey, the music of which I also enjoyed and am still expecting to hear after playing it for six months. My favorite track from this game being Out of the North, especially around the 2:05 mark, which is what plays whenever you synchronize a viewpoint. A truly excellent sound to have going during such a game.

Overall, after a short amount of play, not impressed to the degree I was with Odyssey and Origins, but finding myself enjoying parts of it I didn’t expect to. Maybe there are more surprises ahead.

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