Parkour is absolutely amazing. Awesome to watch, and I am sure it is just as incredible to be able to do. For such a great concept/activity to be put into a game and executed pretty damn well is the same level of awesome. Possibly even more awesome because then people who would not normally try scaling building faces can get to try it out. This is the main reason Assassin's Creed kicks so much ass... but oh there is so much more.
First off, this game was hyped. The hype machine is a dangerous thing that can utterly shatter and beat down an easily above average game. This just so happens to be what happened to Assassin's Creed. Around the game's release early reviews of it acted as though it was such a disappointment for the future/past "twist" to be revealed so early. I found this hardly a twist, more like a genius explanation to why you can "redo" some of your investigations or how dying is actually a "mistake" for once as well as a great stage for the story to take place on. The twists and turns Desmond's ancestor Altair takes as he continues to take out his targets while beginning to question the motives behind his killing whenever a primary victim expels information regarding their motives I found to be very well done. The final stages of the story and the end of the game left me completely ready and wanting a sequel, almost but not quite as ready for a sequel that Beyond Good & Evil left me feeling (god that experience was so unfair, and having to wait this long for confirmation that they are even continuing the BG&E franchise was so painful haha). Looking at the game for purely the story that it delivers, I was absolutely thrilled and loved what it had.
Now for the gameplay/mechanics part. This is definitely a love or hate situation. To go on top of that it is reliant on one big factor, how much a person actually finds themself enjoying and immersed in the world. When I first popped the game in, I spent over an hour just running around Masyaf at the very beginning. The visuals had me entranced, and the fluidity of Altair's movement and the subtle interactions you can have with people (running into them, making them confused at your actions, taking them out) impressed me. As a rather important note I can say I am a relative stranger to most free-roaming games so this may not amaze some people, I'm sure other games may have higher levels of involvement with the populace of a game. Because I already stated my love of parkour then I just happened to love every minute of dashing around on tops of buildings or blasting through marketplaces or being sneaky and taking out rooftop guards etc. I have heard complaints that the game is highly repetative. To me it was one of those guilty pleasure repetatives, I know they could have switched it up a bit probably but I really didn't mind. If you really think hard about it they could've had all sorts of other types of investigation quests, other mini-quest types, different formats for assassinations etc. The problem I have, despite these possibilities of improvement, I still had so much damned fun that I really didn't care.
Another issue people attacked it for is that the combat system was too dull. I personally loved it. I am sick of those games where you have to hack someone a million and one times to whittle down their hp bar because you've gotten to the hard part of the game where *more hp* = *zomg difficulty ^^^*, while some great games don't do this a good deal of them do. I liked the fact that combat is short and sweet, you can insta-kill people, if you're skilled enough with your timing you can counter everything they throw at you. Think about it this way, these are random city guards and militia. Most of them are not gonna be sword experts, you've been trained as an assassin all your life. Obviously for the most part you can dish out massive damage, counter, evade, tear it up on most of the guards. The last final couple fights had it's difficulty increased because the enemy starts to counter or break your guard more frequently. This helps force you to utilize your dodging or reverse grabs more since they aren't as necessary earlier on. The combat system is fluid, animations are hot and sexy sprays of blood whenever you counter-kill someone, and best of all it's not a focal point of the game. Yes you can brawl your way to the target, but as a player you actually feel compelled to be sneaky just because it's so much cooler and makes you feel more like a badass.
That is basically what this game boils down to, how much you as a player buy into the atmosphere. It was incredible to me. The game is what it is, the over-hype hurt it's credibility to be as amazing as it was advertised but it is still a great game. Definitely above average, very memorable and I can't wait for a sequel. Honestly this is a genius set up in having an above average game which is brought down by mechanics and quests that could have been more diversified. This allows their sequel to easily surpass the first game seeing as how they have an amazingly solid base to build off of, now they get to work out all the details of making it even better. Ubisoft, I can't wait to see what you do with the second part of the trilogy... on a related note you better get to making that BG&E cause I want it bad.
Why the hell did you have to change the art-style on BG&E though? =(
The cel-shading of the original was so amazing and beautiful, and going off of that I hope they stick to the cel-shaded theme of the concept art for the new Prince of Persia game cause those look amazing. I have to say though I have yet to play any PoP games.
Now I don't know what I should dive into next... DMC4, GTA4, Ninja Gaiden 2, or Jericho.
"Oh you think that's hard! I'M JUST THE TUTORIAL LEVEL!"
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7 comments:
In previous posts you mentioned the Condemned games being pretty sweet, would you all highly recommend playing them?
I have only played Condemned 2, but I really enjoyed the experience. I would highly recommend it, and hope that if you play it, it grabs you the way that it did me.
I guess I should give the game a second chance... but I just wasn't as impressed as you two. The game was far too repetitive and while that's fine for some, I feel a game should not be catered to a certain play type. Games shouldn't be designed solely to play in small spurts or over long stretches. You should be able to do either and enjoy it. What you are able to do (side quests, etc.) just amounted to more repetition. The parkour mechanic was great and I really agree with your thoughts on the combat... although that boiled down to just doing counters in my case. The story was shit but I didn't get to the end so I shouldn't really comment. I feel as though it would have been more appealing(for me) if it would have just been set in ancient middle east during crusades.
Yeah, you should be able to marathon this game, but....You don't marathon GTA. You don't marathon Ninja Gaiden (unless you want to commit suicide sometime soon or you've beaten the game before). I couldn't marathon Half-Life 2, and marathoning Episode 2 may have caused me to downplay some good parts. I mean, even Kojima, recommends, in the game installs, that you not marathon MGS4. I change my mind about this: the ability to marathon a game isn't necessarily ideal.
The fact that there's a reason why you're looking so deeply at the past makes the story in the past more compelling and also what the villains are doing back then coincides with what the evil organization is doing in the future, which keeps the player wondering at what the deeper connection is, and I think you'll guess it pretty early on.
The modern story area also gives Ubisoft leeway to franchise which I think sucks. I am increasingly unhappy with games designed to be franchises rather than games like MGS or God of War whose badassery demanded rather than designed a sequel. I blame games like .hack and Xenosaga for that.
Coincidentally, I do like both those games...
Nowhere in my post did I say you should be "able to marathon a game." I simply was saying that you should be able to play a game for longer stretches than little spurts and still enjoy... not necessarily do it all the time. Because if you do it with any game, you can get a headache, need a break, etc. I got very little sleep last night so either your being defensive or you legitimately liked the game and want to defend it... I'm going to assume a little bit of both(haa haa). I do need to give it a second chance to consider the story. I just remember being severely frustrated at awkwardly long cutscenes (that weren't even cutscenes) that I really wasn't interested in. Yes, compare cutscene length to MGS... but I was actually interested in what was going on there. And they could franchise it even if it wasn't sci fi. I'm pretty sure the crusades lend themselves to more than just the game covered... but again, I should play... or at least read the wiki on the story...
when I say the cutscenes were long... I mean they were just frustrating to sit through (especially with the head guy of the assassins). This made them feel longer than they needed to be
The story/setting in AC wasn't made that way to open the possibility of sequels, I think they made the game already with a long storyboard for continuing the story. This is only to say that I don't think they made it have an open ending for merely the possibility of making a sequel if it did well, but more that they were planning it anyways. Thankfully in this case it did well sales wise so we won't be starved for a sequel and not hear anything for years *cough* BG&E.
I played AC for the most part non-stop these last couple days since I got it last week, that game was my weekend practically (save for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly). So like I said before I think it largely depends on how much one buys into the story/characters. I loved the characters and VAing in this game, definitely.
Also I just started Jericho and I love it's claustrophobic and actual "endless zombie hordes" feel to the enemies. Reminds me of the flood from Halo, but more dangerous and in your face. Also I totally wanna try out the Condemned games since I've started to have a hunger for creepy/surreal FPS games of late.
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