Sunday, November 18, 2012

Assassin's Creed 3 - Review


In my previous post, I mentioned several things about Assassin's Creed that was driving me nuts.  The monetary system is an unnecessary grind, the combat is rich with ever respawning guards that hinder your escape, and Connor is a novice of an assassin.  Now that I've finished the game, do I feel the same way?

All of that and more.

Say what?

Assassin's Creed 3 picks up where Revelations left off, with the main character, Desmond, knowing where the next part of the puzzle is because of time he spent at the end of Ezio's lifespan in the Animus, a machine that allows you to relieve ancestors memories. 

The twist to the beginning is very well done, and I don't want to spoil anything here for anybody that hasn't picked it up yet, but it's very evident as soon as you start playing in the animus.  Once you become a full fledged assassin, the game takes a turn into the sub-ordinary for the series. Gone are improving the town, and building a stronger armor and weapon set.  Now you can hunt wild animals for seemingly no reason at all other than to show that you can.  Sure, you can sell their parts, but for a pittance unless you have tons of bear skin.

I shall carefully hunt my prey for less money that I would get for pickpocketing a guard
Combat is still dodgy.  And by dodgy I mean that you will still counter-attack the entire game.  This is expected at this point in the series, but what's not expected is the seemingly endless supply of guards.  As you're forced into combat, the guards take more notice of you and if you so happen to hit level 3, well, good luck getting anywhere in town without having an army chasing after you.  It's not that it's so much different from previous versions, it's that there's SO MANY guards roaming around now, and they instantly spawn nearby and rush into combat.

There are some beautifully done moments in the game, particularly the sequences that replaces the old tomb raiding with new interactive exciting scenes that aren't impossible to do on your first try.  Additionally, I really liked the sequences with Desmond this time around.  More like this, UbiSoft.  To counter this, there are some particularly horrible sequences involving chasing characters that run exactly as fast as you do, so you have to either know the route they're taking, or hope the eventually trip up on somebody.  Good luck with those.

There are some amazing bugs in the system, and some of which I think were done on purpose.  The first such instance I ran into was immediately after speaking with Sam Adams, he tells me to follow him to an underground route.  Except he doesn't move.  No, you're expected to lead him to the route that is heavily guarded and you're either forced to leave him on the streets while you take the rooftops, or you'll be in combat the entire time.  Other bugs include becoming stuck on terrain, falling through terrain, missing eagle vision points and an over abundance of not explaining how anything in the game works.  This game needed another two months of polish before it was sent out.

I did try my hand at multiplayer, and it was fairly decent, much like previous iterations of the series.  I can't speak TOO much about it, but VG30 contributor Brian has asked that I mention that it's very well done.

Assassin's Creed 3 is a series of really cool events strung together by a story that doesn't hold at all true to the Brotherhood, side missions that fall flat, and an ending that feels like the studio was told to get it done quick because they have to ship.  Ubisoft, I expect much much more from your teams than what's been offered here, and I certainly expect more from the Assassin's Creed license. 


Sunday, November 11, 2012

Assassin's Creed 3 - Status Update


After my 7 month old crawling daughter has gone to bed, I've been able to put in an hour or two of Assassin's Creed 3 in every night for the past couple of weeks.  As VG30 readers will know, Assassin's Creed is one of my favorite series, and I need to add that as a disclaimer because so far I'm really unhappy with this one.

I have no complaints about the beginning of the game (Chapters 1 - 6), I think it's clever and well done, and to avoid spoilers I'll simply say that it really goes down hill when you become a full fledged assassin.  Since I'm only about a third of the way through the game, I'm going to keep this limited to the top few things that are driving me nuts.

I Miss Banks


In previous Assassin's Creed games, you go around town improving it buy purchasing banks which then build interest for you over time so you're able to keep up with the latest weapons and armor.  There's nothing like that in this game.  Instead, you have to have people build you things, and then go to stores and sell them, or setup convoy systems that earn you about as much as you'd get from killing one guard.  It's a terrible system from what I've worked with so far, and is just cumbersome to the whole game.

Combat Sucks


Alright, that's not ENTIRELY true, as the block, parry, and counter system works pretty well in the new system.  There's two very big problems I have with it, though.  The hidden blade is worthless in combat.  In previous games, using the hidden blade was difficult, but could clear a group of guards in seconds with well placed hits.  In this version, you have to stab somebody 6 - 7 times in a combat cycle before they die.  I don't know if it's too elegant a system for a savage to use, but I've had to switch to sword play for every combat.

Second, and this is a real deal breaker, it is next to impossible to end open combat without running away.  Just this afternoon I was sneaking up on a guarded chest, when I was spotted.  In old games, no problem, take out the 3 - 4 guards, maybe a passing wandering guard group if things are going really poorly, and when they're dead, you're done.  There's an elevated alert status, you might have to rip down a few posters, but you're essentially safe.  In this game, guards will come from BLOCKS away to assist.  And they respawn.  And they keep respawning.  After fighting off 15 guards, there were more looking for me, so I had to retreat into a haystack where I was eventually on the risk of being found because there's ALWAYS one who breaks away and check the hay stacks.  I understand that I'm fighting an army and probably need to change tactics a bit, but this makes me feel like a complete novice of an assassin.

Connor is a complete novice of an Assassin


I really hope this game moves towards a "I understand the creed now" story in the very near future.  Right now Connor is naive and I've literally yelled at the screen "Nothing is true!  Everything is permitted!" when he's gone on a "holler than thou" speech to various people in the storyline.  He feels like an Episode 4 Luke Skywalker still stuck on Tattooine whining about power converters.  Damnit Luke, there's so much more that's happening that you don't understand yet!  It's so discouraging after playing the bad ass that is Ezio. 

Three things that are making me not want to finish this game right now.  I'll be back with a full review when I finally slog through this.