Personally, I think II and Brotherhood are about equal as far as fun for me. Just climbing around and exploring the Colosseum and Pantheon is worth the money alone for Brotherhood. I started the franchise with II and was very impressed with these games. I’m less impressed with Revelations (that tower defense game just doesn’t do it for me) but I played through the minimum amount to finish the story. Once I was done, I just didn’t find much left that I wanted to do in Constantinople.
Agreed.
And Revelations does finish that chapter off nicely, even if most of the game is irrelevant to it. Personally, I found Altair’s story much more interesting at that point. I really didn’t care about Contantinople and the goings on there. I was more interested in how the three Assassin’s are connected, and the game resolved that very well. With the added bonus of explaining what happened to Altair’s Apple of Eden, which was not the same one Ezio had, something many people miss. And you get to find out that Desmond’s father has been involved since Desmond escaped with Lucy in the first game.
But there are enough summaries of the story online that Revelations isn’t really necessary to buy if you just want the story.
I just hope that they actually make Desmond interesting one of these days. For a guy who comes from such stock as Altair and Ezio, you’d think he’d have an actual personality.
Let me ask this: I did not play AC1 but investigated it extensively and watched some gameplay vids (that being why I didn’t play it), enjoyed AC2 until about halfway through Venice when it got so tiresome I just wanted to vomit, and skipped everything after that. I like what I’ve seen, except that this game series seems to have its head so far up its own-
[Looks at forum. Decides to relax.]
Anyway, does this game lighten up a bit? I like the concept and the gameplay, but does the overblown story get out of the way at all? I’ve heard reviewers say the protagonist is remarkably unlikable and bland when he isn’t actively unpleasant, while not saying much at all about the actual plot. The plot and characterization is where things honestly fell down for me before, so I’m not intersted if they’re stuffing the game full of that.
Oh, I looooved Venice! And the plot and the characterization is what draw me in. I can’t say if it gets lighter or not since I love it the way it is.
I guess I’ll try Brotherhood then. They pitched the multiplayer aspect so hard I just rolled my eyes and ignored it. I’m sure I can pick it up cheap, used.
I’m not sure what occurred in Venice that made you so abhorrent to the game, but the Assassin’s Creed series isn’t going to please everyone. I hope what I’m saying doesn’t come off as snarky – it’s just like saying Halo isn’t for everyone (I would be bored to tears in Halo.)
By the protagonist, I’m going to assume you mean Altaïr, since I can’t imagine anyone describing Ezio as “remarkably unlikable and bland when he isn’t actively unpleasant.” Assassins Creed I was a game where the designers knew they had a great idea on their hands, but weren’t exactly sure how to implement it. After listening to feedback from those who did like it, they did a complete overhaul for Assassin’s Creed II, focusing more on plot and story and creating more dimensional and interesting characters. AC2 is a nearly universally loved game, and if anyone still feels bored playing it, then I think it’s safe to say that the series just isn’t for them.
Edit: to answer your question, “Does the game lighten up a bit?”, the answer is no. All of the games in the series have been building up to one enormous thing: the destruction of the world, and how an extremely advanced lost civilization is involved. The series asks some extremely heavy questions and doesn’t let up the entire time.
Yeah…when I bought AC III the guy wanted to know if I wanted to put Halo on pre-order. Um, no way. Can’t stand the graphics or the interface. There’s lots more shooting games out there! But the look on his face was so crestfallen. 
Missed the edit window - I have to admit that Hatham Henyon is pretty fucking badass, though, even if he’s not Ezio. They did right to make a very different personality. I am totally in love with Kenyon’s deep baritone.
And I can see what’s coming down the pipe. 
I definitely agree with that last statement!
I didn’t find it that mindfucky really,
[spoiler]Half the time I was playing as Kenway I was saying "wow, something weird must have happens/the writers must have messed up the dialogue. These assassins talk a LOT like Templar.
Then, during the final meeting, it slowly hit me. Then the sting happened and I was like “… huh, that would explain it.” Though I suppose that’s the mark of a good twist, something which subverts your expectations but makes everything make sense in hindsight.
[/spoiler]
Make sure you’re not holding R1 and X (or RT and A I think on 360), JUST hold R1. They changed the freerunning so if you hold R1 you’ll climb things, but it will prevent Connor/Kenway from leaping to their doom. If, for whatever reason, you NEED to jump a long ways and risk fall damage, that’s when you press X/A too.
Also, the more games I play, the more dubious I find Desmond’s lineage,
[spoiler]I’m having trouble swallowing that in about 200 years, Altair’s line could breed in such a way that they were considered a rich, powerful, pure bred Italian family. Especially considering that we know Altair’s sons went to Egypt. Which, while, close-ish to Italy (by boat) I still find difficult to believe that in a small handful of generations one of them (presumably a woman who married into Auditore family) would end up in Italy with the last name Auditore and become incredibly wealthy.
I find it slightly less hard to swallow the whole Ezio->Kenway line, but a truly marvelous set of coincidences must have occurred to make him what appears to be, again, purebred British. I won’t knock the Templar thing since they say Kenway was more or less an orphan and his foster father brought him into the order.
[/spoiler]
On another note, I let it slide because a Database entry mentions that the Animus abstracts away complexities with currency, but I find it endlessly amusing that Kenway is just walking around with 25k pounds, when in that day 7 pounds was exorbitantly expensive, that being around the cost of going to the New World and buying some land. Hell, 9 pounds could account for yearly expenditures for most families, and here I am looting 11 pounds sterling off random Redcoats.
Played a lot more this weekend, and had a few “I’ve been there!” moments as Haytham & then Connor traveled through Boston, Lexington & Concord. I’ll have to remember not to tomahawk anyone next time I got to Faneuil Hall.
Anyone else enjoying Shaun’s snark in all the historical database entries? Seems like they realized there’d bee some backlash against the “Templars are supporting the British” plot, and wrote his lines with that in mind.
Jragon, there’s a short DLC in ACII that explains the origins of the Auditore family - it’s in the town with the Auditore mansion. You find the Auditore family tomb, and as you explore, you find the writings of the first Auditore. I don’t remember all the details, but ISTR it involves himn being a courier for Marco Polo.
I’m having a bitch of a time trying to climb any of the Viewpoint trees in the frontier. Anyone having any luck with that? I always run out of options or he ends up jumping off the tree and desynchronizing.
I had a major glitch while trying to do the Paul Revere mission yesterday. I apparently went a slightly different way while trying to avoid some redcoats and came into a village from a different direction. As a result, Paul Revere kept saying things that didn’t make sense (“Get back on the horse, Connor!” despite the fact that I’m still on the horse, etc.) and the house that I was trying to get to didn’t trigger the plot. I know this because I went to literally every damn house in the green circle. I ended up quitting and restarting, then it worked.
Remember that if you’re in a fork, press A to climb further. There’s also kind of a split in the bark that you can climb by holding right trigger. You eventually reach a point where you have to swing from branch to branch to reach the fork that has the viewpoint - just hold RT and slide back and forth along the branch and he’ll eventually find the right spot and swing.
Or just check youtube - there are few tree climbing videos.
Now if I can only figure out how to get down from the damn trees.
The tree viewpoints: After you climb the trunk itself using the crack in the wood, there’s a place where you monkey-bar to another branch that was otherwise inaccessible lower down on the tree. Look for that.
As for the Paul Revere mission, I too had trouble with that. What made it more frustrating was that they tell you to press L2 to get directions, but he doesn’t give any, because for some reason, the game thinks you’re not on the horse. I ended up just following the yellow “goal” circles to get where I needed to be, then used Eagle Vision to find the right door whenever I came across a hamlet.
And in yet another spooky coincidence last night - I was drinking a Sam Adams when I met Sam Adams. Then I went hiking in my cellar, looking for rats.
Firstly, I feel the need to say this again: By far the hugest, grandest, awesomest improvement between 1 and 2 was getting rid of all those goddam NEVERENDING IRRITATIONS. You know what I’m talking about:
- Beggars that swarm around you and whine and scream and cry (and often do a very nice job of messing up stealth kill missions)
- Blabbermouth drones that yammer the same 5 suck-up speeches over and over and over.
- Worthless slugs that wander around and knock you down if you get close (sometimes right into a guard, and then of course it’s your fault).
Worst of all, even just smacking them around (which you’d think would be the appropriate response) costs you synchronization, and can also get you into trouble with thugs and even guards (which, when you get far enough, become goddam neverending irritations themselves).
Seriously, this is the only thing I remember about AC1 anymore. I’m vaguely aware of some kind of betrayal by Al-Mualim, and competing philosophies and the struggle between King Richard and Saladin having no real hero, and this, and that, but everything else is screeching crying and babbling and uncalled-for assaults and hideous injustice. It honest-to-god reached the point where I couldn’t understand why anyone would even want the Holy Land. Hell, my favorite part of the game was hunting for flags and Templars in the countryside. Because it was quiet, and if someone hit me I could fight back!
Thankfully, UbiSoft learned quickly and did a MUCH better job with these in the AC2 games. They still exist, but they’re far less pervasive and played for humor instead of aggravation. And you can pound them with near-impunity if you like. (I found clobbering beggars in Revelations strangely gratifying. Yeah, right, like any man would marry you, ya hussy. )
Now re. 3…I don’t have it yet, and probably won’t for quite some time, especially after all the reports about glitches and bugs that I’ve heard. Being able to patch mistakes via Internet connection has been a godsend for these later games, but unfortunately may have encouraged sloppiness. I.e., we need to release this in time for the big shopping season, just ship out what you got now and you can clean it up later, the video game equivalent of “we’ll fix it in post”. By the time the price becomes more reasonable, it should be at least mostly fine.
I don’t expect combat to be a problem. Ezio was, to be honest, seriously overpowered by Revelations, and I welcome a more elementary and cathartic fighting system. To be honest, I think the main problem most players are having with it is that they’ve been bellyaching about how “all you do is counter” for so long, when UbiSoft fixed it so it wasn’t like that anymore, they’re so locked into the mindset that they can’t make the adjustment. From what I’ve seen, it’s not that much different from 2, figuring out the right method for each enemy. (If the only way for you to win is to continuously gulp down medicine, you’re doing something wrong; there’s never a situation where you cannot defend yourself.) There aren’t a whole lot of enemy types, so this shouldn’t be extremely hard, and regenerating health making staying alive a lot simpler. Don’t forget chain kills, which can make quick work of mobs. I’m certain that fighting will be a lot different, but I’ve been hearing these woeful tales about how it’s become a thousand times harder since Brotherhood, and it’s never happened. (And believe me, I know what getting my butt kicked in a game is like!)
Storywise, I think the most interesting part is that this time the Assassins and Templars are essentially separate from the main power groups, the Redcoats and Patriots. From what I’ve heard of the plot, it gets complicated in a hurry for this exact reason. One of the things UbiSoft tried to implement was the idea that you could sympathize with someone even if you thought he was wrong. This was done very clumsily in 1 and pretty much abandoned in 2 (“sympathetic” is the last word I’d ever use to describe Rodrigo Borgia). Adding conflicting loyalties and multiple points of view makes it a lot more plausible.
Sounds good. More when I actually get to play it, of course. (I did preemtively buy the book, mainly because I didn’t want to be completely empty-handed.)
His lineage isn’t quite that absurd - remember, he has two parents, so not all 3 of his important ancestors had to come from the same side.
And IIRC, in one of the DLCs it was revealed thatwhile the original Auditore *was *an assassin, he was basically just some sailor who got a huge payout from Marco Polo
Finally got it last night. I was hanging on the top branches but didn’t realize that I’d be able to swing that far to the last one. Thanks for the advice.
I had a similar experience the first time I visited Miami and found I already knew the layout thanks to many hours spent playing Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.
And shortly thereafter the Haitian population was decimated.
I’m pretty sure all three of them had to come from the same side of his family, because all three have Eagle Vision which is supposedly genetic.