Assassin's Creed "fix"
Mar. 30th, 2013 12:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rainwatersparkWith the release of AC4: Black Flag, there's been a thread on NeoGAF discussing how the franchise can be "fixed." Even though I've technically only played AC1 and watched playthroughs of AC2 and AC3, I thought I'd throw in my 2 cents.
- Cutting the tutorial section down drastically. I think I've talked about this before, but AC1 handled the tutorial best: short and to the point. We don't need hours and hours of NPCs telling the player character how to do things.
- Fewer Euro/Western-centric settings. The series' unique feature has always been its historical setting, and while I love what they've done so far, I'd also love to see more diverse settings. Ottoman Istanbul seemed criminally underused, and there's all of Asia to play with. Even if Ubisoft doesn't want to touch Japan (I think I read that somewhere?), there's still China, India, Southeast Asia, South America, Africa...hell, I'd even like to see a Russian setting.
- The scripted missions in AC3 looked annoying and punitive. The minigames looked tacky and unnecessary.
- My opinion on story in video games has always been this: if you have excellent writers, go for a deep/complex story. If you don't, please, for the love of God, stick to something simple, effective, and not in-your-face. AC1's story was fine, and Altair's character arc was done pretty well. AC2's story was also pretty good, but AC3 started to get into horrible plotting and questionable choices territory. The whole assassins-vs-templars conflict has kind of been pushed into the background, and the First Civilization stuff has only become increasingly confusing and outlandish.
- Linearity: I'm conflicted about this. AC1 was the most open-world; AC2 and AC3 have become more and more linear over time. However, I don't think this is necessarily a problem as long as the beginning section/tutorial isn't as long-winded and dull.
- Stealth: Also conflicted. While, yes, AC3's combat system looks cooler and more fluid than before...it's also supposed to be ASSASSIN'S Creed, not Mass Murderer's Creed. It's gotten to the point where, I think, a lot of people brute-force missions (if they're not going for full sync) because it's as easy as, if not easier than, the stealth-based approach. I'd like to see more of an incentive to be stealthy, like in the first game. (I believe other games have done that...maybe Deus Ex or Dishonored? Can't quite remember.)
- Cutting the tutorial section down drastically. I think I've talked about this before, but AC1 handled the tutorial best: short and to the point. We don't need hours and hours of NPCs telling the player character how to do things.
- Fewer Euro/Western-centric settings. The series' unique feature has always been its historical setting, and while I love what they've done so far, I'd also love to see more diverse settings. Ottoman Istanbul seemed criminally underused, and there's all of Asia to play with. Even if Ubisoft doesn't want to touch Japan (I think I read that somewhere?), there's still China, India, Southeast Asia, South America, Africa...hell, I'd even like to see a Russian setting.
- The scripted missions in AC3 looked annoying and punitive. The minigames looked tacky and unnecessary.
- My opinion on story in video games has always been this: if you have excellent writers, go for a deep/complex story. If you don't, please, for the love of God, stick to something simple, effective, and not in-your-face. AC1's story was fine, and Altair's character arc was done pretty well. AC2's story was also pretty good, but AC3 started to get into horrible plotting and questionable choices territory. The whole assassins-vs-templars conflict has kind of been pushed into the background, and the First Civilization stuff has only become increasingly confusing and outlandish.
- Linearity: I'm conflicted about this. AC1 was the most open-world; AC2 and AC3 have become more and more linear over time. However, I don't think this is necessarily a problem as long as the beginning section/tutorial isn't as long-winded and dull.
- Stealth: Also conflicted. While, yes, AC3's combat system looks cooler and more fluid than before...it's also supposed to be ASSASSIN'S Creed, not Mass Murderer's Creed. It's gotten to the point where, I think, a lot of people brute-force missions (if they're not going for full sync) because it's as easy as, if not easier than, the stealth-based approach. I'd like to see more of an incentive to be stealthy, like in the first game. (I believe other games have done that...maybe Deus Ex or Dishonored? Can't quite remember.)
