Let us begin this by saying: Assassin’s Creed is hands down one of the best video game franchises we have ever had the pleasure of experiencing. We absolutely love the series and all of it’s games and it is only because of our love for the series are we able to express our disappointments with the decisions that have been made by the Assassin’s Creed team over at Ubisoft.
You see, I never actually intended on playing the first Assassin’s Creed game. My wife happened to see G4’s hands on look at the game back in 2007 and it intrigued her. Personally, the game aroused no interest in me and so my wife dropped the subject. A few months later, we were in a Gamestop and my wife saw that Assassin’s Creed was on sale for only $30 and again, recommended I buy it. To which I replied, “I’m not spending thirty bucks on that game.” Several months passed and my wife happened to come across a copy of Assassin’s Creed, this time for only seventeen dollars, and did what any normal gamer would do.
Now keep in mind, my wife presented me with this game only a few days after we had just set up our first big screen (42 inch) HDtv, and asked me to play it for just a few minutes so she could see what it was like. So I hesitantly popped the game into my 360 and started playing, and instantly fell in love. Sure the gameplay was repetitive after the first hour or so, but I could just sit there and gasp at the beautiful viewpoint animations for minutes at a time. I couldn’t wait for the next game in the series to come along but as the franchise continued, the more I learned about the direction the games were going, the more my heart sank when bad decisions kept rearing their ugly heads one after another. Below, we will outline these decisions and go into detail as to the top 4 reasons that we love to hate the Assassin’s Creed series.
1. Lack of additional ancestors
The biggest and most exciting point that was presented in AC1 was that gamers play as Desmond Miles, who uses a device called the Animus to recall/relive memories of his ancestors in order to locate ancient artifacts to help with an ongoing war between the Assassins and the Templars. Each game would take place in a different time period, allowing Desmond to access a different ancestor’s memories to find a different ancient artifact. This held true throughout the first two games, but now here we are about to receive the fourth game in the series and we’ve only experienced two ancestors. Let me repeat that…..FOURTH GAME, TWO ANCESTORS. Where are all the other ancestors?!?! Desmond is supposed to be descended from the greatest assassins throughout history but we’re only going to experience two of them? Seriously Ubisoft? Not to mention the fact that it has been confirmed that Desmond’s story will conclude with the 2012 Assassin’s Creed game; which leads to my next point:
2. Desmond game coming too soon
In an interview with Eurogamer.net Assassin’s Creed: Revelation creative lead Alexandre Amacio stated, “Assassin’s Creed is all about cycles – we have the Ezio cycle and the Altair cycle, and both of those are set to conclude in Revelations and we have the Desmond cycle, which is set to end on December 2012.” This statement makes no sense whatsoever because if they truly had an Altair cycle, they would have made additional games to expand upon Altair’s story much like the way they did with Ezio. Wrapping up the story of Desmond as soon as next year is a complete and total injustice to his character as we have not seen any kind of growth in Desmond over the past three titles. He is still just as confused as he was when he first woke up in Abstergo back in 2007.
3. Filler Games
Are we truly the only ones out there that are completely and totally appalled by the fact that in Revelations, we’re going to be playing as a 52 year old Ezio? Come on Ubisoft, the guy looks like a grandfather; We are sick and tired of Ezio. Why are we being forced to play these games that are only delaying the main story arc. After what happens at the end of AC:Brotherhood, you would think that we would get some answers right away in AC:Revelations right? Wrong, because it would seem that Desmond is now in a coma. Creative Director Alexandre Amancio has stated that, “At the end of Brotherhood, Desmond falls into a coma as a result of a traumatic shock to his system. When Desmond ‘wakes’, he finds himself in a mysterious and surreal dreamscape. Everything he experiences here is a projection of his own mind filtered through the Animus’s circuitry: fragmented memories, symbolic representations of his past and present, mixed with Animus signal streams.” So if you thought AC:Brotherhood would be the last filler game, guess again.
4. Assassins are supposed to be stealthy.
Agent 47 taught us the true meaning of being an assassin well over a decade ago and while I appreciate the milestone that Ubisoft has reached by implementing their Social Stealth System (as seen above), this doesn’t excuse them from completely disregarding the one key thing that all assassins should have: options. As an Assassin I should have the choice of how I want to take my target down but instead, in the Assassin’s Creed series, all assassinations are done the same way: find target, get close to target, battle target and kill. At least in AC1 there were slight variations to the assassinations but AC2 and Brotherhood both completely departed from this game mechanic and it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if Revelations did the same.
What do you guys think? Do you want more ancestors? Are you ready for a Desmond game as soon as next year?Are you tired of Ezio or do you want more, perhaps Ezio that has an extendable walking cane? Should Ubisoft tweak the stealth to allow more options? Let us know in the comments below.
Ash
October 13, 2011 at 5:11 PMThe franchise is great as it is, yet not perfect. Ubisoft has proven that they take into account any lacking in the games. This is seen through the steady increase of options in every game. As for the stealth option, we are reliving memories of Desmond’s ancestors. To achieve 100% synch, we have to play the way their ancestors did. I have no complains with that coz they already made it clear why. As for the story line, I’m really satisfied with it. Ubisoft achieved in attracting the fans to Ezio, we witness his birth right to old age. Most fans want to accompany him to the end. Plus, Altair and Ezio plays a major role for Desmond. Without these two ancestors, Desmond wouldn’t have gotten this far. Out of all Bloodlines, the story shows that Altair and Ezio was chosen to be prophets so that they can relay the message towards Desmond. All of what has happen and is about to happen has been justified and I am satisfied and pleased. They are somethings we find lacking but overall they made an amazing job, you gotta give them love for that. They raised the bar for next gen games.
masterlinkace
October 13, 2011 at 10:31 PMI’m sorry what???
Yeah, assassin’s creed is good, but you’re making it out to be the god of all games. They in no way have ‘raised the bar’ they are on the fourth game and only now is it starting to not be repetitive with every single mission, and only now are they starting to actually make combat fun. With much more variety the game would be awesome, hwoever I’ve now, as many people have too, reached a level of fatigue with this now annual franchise. Too much, too soon Ubisoft. They have done to AC what activision have done to COD, hence why they are now ‘wraaping up’ the storylines. No doubt in a few years they’ll annnounce a rebirth of the franchise to milk money and repeat the cycle.
Don’t get me wrong, AC is a good trilogy so far (don’t get me started on the spin-offs though). I just feel like it never really added much new to gaming in general, apart from some glossy graphics, a cool character, and some nice free running mechanics.
sazh
October 14, 2011 at 2:41 AMto the writer of this article, F*ck you, and for anyone who reads this, this writer does not know assassins creed to even write article about it, now:
1. there will be new ancestor, its already confirmed by ubisoft
2. there is an additional altair games, not in console though, desmond story will be revealed in revelations, and if you want to play desmond in modern time, that would ruin the story, it would feel like paying gta mixed with splinter cell : it just doesnt work.
3. Assassins creed revelations isnt called revelations for nothing, a lot of stuff will actually be revealed in animus dark room, just because desmond isnt awake does not mean the story is just a filler.
4. this i kinda agree, but they should already fixed in revelations so:
your argument is invalid
gowtham
October 14, 2011 at 12:02 PMlol..ur right man @sazh
Tapash
October 14, 2011 at 1:14 PMAC is a great game. i am a little disappointed with brotherhood, but with the expectations and hints in Revelation, I think it is going to be a great game..and seriously I don’t need a AC game , where it will be like playing “Double Agent”..the game’s beauty is in the classic sword fights…
And masterlinkace, seriously!!! you are complaining about COD!!!….that game has always given us something new and exciting, even after being annual..one can’t complain on that..and since the time I have completed MW2, I am eagerly waiting for MW3….
Calvarok
October 16, 2011 at 5:21 AMSo you see, AC1 is about Altair, and it’s continued by Bloodlines, and Revelations.
AC2 is about Ezio, and it’s continued by ACB, and Revelations.
Revelations is the wrapping up point for these two ancestors.
Desmond’s story is and has always been meant to be about three ancestors.
And the last chapter/ancestor is very special, and needs to be given his own space. So, Brotherhood, bloodlines, and Revelations wrap up everything about Ezio and Altair, and put Desmond on the clear path towards what he has to do in AC3 with some of the series’ biggest answers. No-one should look at Desmond’s state at the end of AC2 or Brotherhood as an indicator of how he’ll enter AC3. Look at how his is at the end of Revelations.
Brotherhood was ok on the story side, not as good as AC2 except for the stellar modern day parts, and the gameplay, even though it was a little easy was for the most part great, varied, and cinematic.
Problem is, it was a bit too linear.
Revelations seems to be extremely aware of this, and each Demo they’ve shown has had several paths through to the objective, and all the new mechanics are there to help you screw with the system and do things how you want. Want a clean sneaky stab? Distract guards with a noisemaker bomb. Want to go in all guns blazing? Throw some direct damage bombs. Want to make a clean escape, or obstruct guard’s vision? Pop a smoke bomb. Attract crowds with fake gold bombs.
Use Eagle sense to see guard’s patrol paths and trap them with tripwire bombs.
In trouble with Templars? Lead them into an Ottoman patrol, who are like policemen and will attack Templars on sight.
You can play as stealthily or not stealthily as you want, and with the added mobility, speed, and new moves afforded by the hookblade, the free-running looks fresh again.
Assassin’s Creed 1 was far too slow and oppressive. Revelations is the exact opposite of that. You have the tools to do a frontal assault, but there are lots more enemies than before, and tougher ones at that. Enemies have bombs too.
You have the tools to be a ghost, but more enemies means more eyes to spot you, you’ll have to be precise and creative in both your approach and your bail.
And you can be a mechanical genius and create a chain of events that leads to your target dying alone in a roomful of poison, with you having tossed it in over the shoulders of the guards you lured out of the way, and slipping back into the crowd to dissapear.
Or you can attract the two rival factions and start a mini-war, and use the chaos to do your deed and make a clean break.
Everything I’ve seen and heard about this game seems so fun to mess around with, and the in-depth customization of bombs is something that will keep me occupied long after launch.
The random missions that you can ignore or dynamically participate in will make the city feel so much more alive, the incorporation of formerly side-content into the main story will add longevity , a sense of purpose, and variety to Ezio’s quest, and the addition of even more side content formats to replace those that are integrated is greatly appreciated.
A city denser with buildings and almost as big as Rome, and a second free-roam area slightly smaller than that but of incredibly beauty and scope, as well as Masyaf and the surrounding village, all make for a bigger and more involving game than any previous AC.
Vik
October 17, 2011 at 6:05 AMMaybe Agent 47 is Desmond’s Father…