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xyzzysqrlOh... boy. Ubisoft. Ubisoft, Ubisoft, Ubisoft.
Okay, I can see what they were trying to do. They were TRYING to change up the series, to make fans happy, etc. Let me just run down the list, and figure out how I feel about this. Because... I feel strongly about it, and that's GENUINELY GOOD. Even the parts I don't like! I'd rather feel strongly one way or another instead of just going "wow yep that was another one of those things I like". Y'know, like I have been doing.
Paris is BEAUTIFUL. AC: Unity is BEAUTIFUL. The game looks absolutely amazing, the sense of scale is huge, flesh looks like flesh and stone looks like stone and light beams cascade gorgeously down ancient cathedrals and aaa it's all super super pretty. It is only super super pretty because I have a PC that can handle it. If I were back on the old machine, I'm pretty sure it would catch fire and burn into slag.
They made a sort of leveling system, with upgradable skills and purchasable equipment! That's cool. Except it cascades, you see. Once you introduce skill points, you introduce the desire to grind skill points. Once you introduce the ability to upgrade each part of your outfit, you introduce the need to have more money in the economy. So they went, "Well we have this money system... let's put a LOT of chests with money on the map. Okay, and lots and lots of little side-missions to do. It doesn't matter if they're plotless, they're just for money. And... let's hide some of the equipment upgrades in those chests, or have them as co-op incentives!"
And by this point the map starts to look like an icon factory exploded violently. Once I'd done the traditional Assassin's Creed "climb all the towers to reveal the map" ritual, I took a look at it and SCREAMED. Filtering by missions helped a little but still AAAAA WHAT NO FUCK THIS.
Co-op! Co-op was a thing I did not give a crap about until I went "OKAY I GUESS I'LL TRY ONE SOLO" and left it set to public join, and while I was swordfighting a guard like three dudes chain-dropped on him from the rooftops and stabbed his ass into oblivion. I actually really enjoyed co-op.
The most memorable was when it somehow sorted some dude with a username in part Cyrilic who was 1-star (out of 5), super-low "Trainee"-rank into like a level 3 or 4 mission with just me. So I look at this dude and I'm like... "He can not die. This will be the best mission he could ever have." and I proceeded to just be Assassin Mom protecting my small delicate trainee all the way through a flawless takedown of a Templar HQ. Way to go, tiny Russian assassin! Enjoy your huge money reward and new coat!
I guess I really dug co-op? That surprised me! Also what surprised me was the details. They bothered to do things like record a rotating cycle of acts for the little theater club you end up owning. So you can have a cup of coffee and have a guy on stage reading the newspaper and announcements, and he leaves and then a dude comes out with a violin and does a song, and a few actors put on a philosophy play, and then the violin dude comes back but he's got a lady with a trumpet with him now, and... so on.
All that said, I feel like this game was made to people who want the series to be less "Precursor Aliens gave humanity mystic powers, let's explore DNA memories" and more "assholes in hoodies stab each other". Arno's story is COOL and all, it's very Dumas, but there's like close to zero involvement with the modern-day plot and that bothers me. I hate that they're giving in to the fandom that way, I really do. I guess though in the end they want to make money, and ... well, Syndicate comes after this one, so woo. But I'm not playing that right now.
Dragon's Dogma unlocks on Steam tomorrow and THE WIND IS PUSHING MEEEEE so I'll be playing that for a while.
Man I still feel like there was a bunch of crap I wanted to say and forgot... but a lot of it is spoilers, so whatever. I liked Unity, it wasn't Assassin's Creed 3 tedious. It could be better, but man alive it could be worse. Let's go with that.
Okay, I can see what they were trying to do. They were TRYING to change up the series, to make fans happy, etc. Let me just run down the list, and figure out how I feel about this. Because... I feel strongly about it, and that's GENUINELY GOOD. Even the parts I don't like! I'd rather feel strongly one way or another instead of just going "wow yep that was another one of those things I like". Y'know, like I have been doing.
Paris is BEAUTIFUL. AC: Unity is BEAUTIFUL. The game looks absolutely amazing, the sense of scale is huge, flesh looks like flesh and stone looks like stone and light beams cascade gorgeously down ancient cathedrals and aaa it's all super super pretty. It is only super super pretty because I have a PC that can handle it. If I were back on the old machine, I'm pretty sure it would catch fire and burn into slag.
They made a sort of leveling system, with upgradable skills and purchasable equipment! That's cool. Except it cascades, you see. Once you introduce skill points, you introduce the desire to grind skill points. Once you introduce the ability to upgrade each part of your outfit, you introduce the need to have more money in the economy. So they went, "Well we have this money system... let's put a LOT of chests with money on the map. Okay, and lots and lots of little side-missions to do. It doesn't matter if they're plotless, they're just for money. And... let's hide some of the equipment upgrades in those chests, or have them as co-op incentives!"
And by this point the map starts to look like an icon factory exploded violently. Once I'd done the traditional Assassin's Creed "climb all the towers to reveal the map" ritual, I took a look at it and SCREAMED. Filtering by missions helped a little but still AAAAA WHAT NO FUCK THIS.
Co-op! Co-op was a thing I did not give a crap about until I went "OKAY I GUESS I'LL TRY ONE SOLO" and left it set to public join, and while I was swordfighting a guard like three dudes chain-dropped on him from the rooftops and stabbed his ass into oblivion. I actually really enjoyed co-op.
The most memorable was when it somehow sorted some dude with a username in part Cyrilic who was 1-star (out of 5), super-low "Trainee"-rank into like a level 3 or 4 mission with just me. So I look at this dude and I'm like... "He can not die. This will be the best mission he could ever have." and I proceeded to just be Assassin Mom protecting my small delicate trainee all the way through a flawless takedown of a Templar HQ. Way to go, tiny Russian assassin! Enjoy your huge money reward and new coat!
I guess I really dug co-op? That surprised me! Also what surprised me was the details. They bothered to do things like record a rotating cycle of acts for the little theater club you end up owning. So you can have a cup of coffee and have a guy on stage reading the newspaper and announcements, and he leaves and then a dude comes out with a violin and does a song, and a few actors put on a philosophy play, and then the violin dude comes back but he's got a lady with a trumpet with him now, and... so on.
All that said, I feel like this game was made to people who want the series to be less "Precursor Aliens gave humanity mystic powers, let's explore DNA memories" and more "assholes in hoodies stab each other". Arno's story is COOL and all, it's very Dumas, but there's like close to zero involvement with the modern-day plot and that bothers me. I hate that they're giving in to the fandom that way, I really do. I guess though in the end they want to make money, and ... well, Syndicate comes after this one, so woo. But I'm not playing that right now.
Dragon's Dogma unlocks on Steam tomorrow and THE WIND IS PUSHING MEEEEE so I'll be playing that for a while.
Man I still feel like there was a bunch of crap I wanted to say and forgot... but a lot of it is spoilers, so whatever. I liked Unity, it wasn't Assassin's Creed 3 tedious. It could be better, but man alive it could be worse. Let's go with that.
