Assassin's Creed Series

[Punkd]

schreier cant confirm this

https://sea.ign.com/assassins-creed-2020/187801/news/next-assassins-creed-game-may-take-place-in-baghdad

we just have to wait for the ubisoft-assassinscreed event in september, im sure many questions will be answered then

[LittleJesus]

Funny how I've been a follower of the AC franchise but only completed two of them (First one & Blackflag).

Currently playing Origins it's smooth on PS5 with 60fps and Egypt looks freaking beautiful but hate to say I'm not that invested on the storyline and not a fan of rpj combat nevertheless I will still try to push myself to finish it.

With PS Plus extra I have access to Valhalla(even tho I really like the Vikings stuff still not a fan of the fantasy rpg approach), Ezio Collection & Unity that looks like the best one gameplay wise.

[DODI3OG]

On 7/16/2022 at 5:04 AM, LittleJesus said:

Funny how I've been a follower of the AC franchise but only completed two of them (First one & Blackflag).

Currently playing Origins it's smooth on PS5 with 60fps and Egypt looks freaking beautiful but hate to say I'm not that invested on the storyline and not a fan of rpj combat nevertheless I will still try to push myself to finish it.

With PS Plus extra I have access to Valhalla(even tho I really like the Vikings stuff still not a fan of the fantasy rpg approach), Ezio Collection & Unity that looks like the best one gameplay wise.

IMO, Ezio Collection had the best story and Black Flag had the best balance of gameplay.

I tried Valhalla and I haven't made it past the beginning yet. It wasn't as intriguing to play through even though I barely know anything about the story and am also a huge fan of Scandinavian culture.

 

I'm gonna give it another go to see how it really plays out. Tried playing it on M+K, and it was okay for me. But, I think for these kind of games, a controller would suffice.

[The Artist]

49 minutes ago, DODI3OG said:

IMO, Ezio Collection had the best story and Black Flag had the best balance of gameplay.

I tried Valhalla and I haven't made it past the beginning yet. It wasn't as intriguing to play through even though I barely know anything about the story and am also a huge fan of Scandinavian culture.

 

I'm gonna give it another go to see how it really plays out. Tried playing it on M+K, and it was okay for me. But, I think for these kind of games, a controller would suffice.

Black Flag has a nice touching story too. i liked Edward better than Ezio.

[DODI3OG]

2 hours ago, The Artist said:

Black Flag has a nice touching story too. i liked Edward better than Ezio.

It was one of those games I really wanted to get back in the early last-gen days.

 

I might get it sometime even if it's 30fps. I used to watch videos of the ship combat and customization. IDK why Ubisoft keeps changing too much of AC formula. I have a friend who liked Odyssey and Origins. If I end up liking AC Valhalla, I might end up buying its CE instead of TLOU Part 1.

[The Artist]

3 hours ago, DODI3OG said:

It was one of those games I really wanted to get back in the early last-gen days.

 

I might get it sometime even if it's 30fps. I used to watch videos of the ship combat and customization. IDK why Ubisoft keeps changing too much of AC formula. I have a friend who liked Odyssey and Origins. If I end up liking AC Valhalla, I might end up buying its CE instead of TLOU Part 1.

Definitely play Black Flag it's one of the best Ubisoft games ever made. Spent hours just cruising around, collecting and listening to sea shanties. Played it 4 times , higher than other AC games . Could not get into the new RPG style yeah. They should drop that and return to the older style.

Edited July 19 by The Artist

[DODI3OG]

23 minutes ago, The Artist said:

Definitely play Black Flag it's one of the best Ubisoft games ever made. Spent hours just cruising around, collecting and listening to sea shanties. Played it 4 times , higher than other AC games . Could not get into the new RPG style yeah. They should drop that and return to the older style.

I just can't push myself into playing more of Valhalla. I'll give it another chance tomorrow. The combat is clunkier that Witcher 3. I'm a huge RPG afficionado. I got addicted to GOW the moment I first played it. But, AC Valhalladoesn't seem to click enough for me.

[Jason]

Valhalla's combat is leagues ahead of TW3's. TW3's is incredibly basic and, IMO, pretty poor. Valhalla's action combat with various weapon types and combos, attack combos, shields, blocking, parrying, abilities, etc. It's way more dynamic with way more room for improvisation - which for me is the sign of a good combat system.

 

The combat in Valhalla carried me through much of the game, cause the progression sucks.

[Zello]

12 hours ago, DODI3OG said:

I tried Valhalla and I haven't made it past the beginning yet. It wasn't as intriguing to play through even though I barely know anything about the story and am also a huge fan of Scandinavian culture.

I didn't get far and haven't touched it in like 2 years  wasted like $60-$70 for it. What a waste of money.

[Jason]

Odyssey's the most enjoyable combat out of the "RPG" trilogy for me, then probably Black Flag for the rest.

 

What could've been, Skull and Bones... what should've been if they just, you know, listened.

[LittleJesus]

Now with some AC titles released on extra I'm very tempted to put Origins on hold and start The Ezio Collection, they probably have aged badly but I heard they are the best narrative wise.

[DODI3OG]

5 hours ago, Zello said:

I didn't get far and haven't touched it in like 2 years  wasted like $60-$70 for it. What a waste of money.

Almost spent money on it since the Complete Edition is on sale for $60 now. The controls are still reminiscent of AC2, but it's less compelling.

[Algonquin Assassin]

On 7/20/2022 at 8:38 AM, LittleJesus said:

Now with some AC titles released on extra I'm very tempted to put Origins on hold and start The Ezio Collection, they probably have aged badly but I heard they are the best narrative wise.

The Ezio Collection should still hold up since the games were remastered in 2016 or something like that.

 

IMO this was peak Assassin’s Creed. No other protagonist has had the character development like Ezio got and there’s something charming about Renaissance era Italy as the setting. It’s amazing scaling all those magnificent cathedrals in Rome, Florence etc.

Edited July 22 by Algonquin Assassin

[Jason]

The spin-off game "Rift" which is the one rumoured to feature whatshisname from Valhalla (Basem?) has been delayed according to Schreier.

 

Ubi continuing to just... collapse. Absolute mess of a publisher atm.

[Zello]

7 hours ago, Algonquin Assassin said:

IMO this was peak Assassin’s Creed. No other protagonist has had the character development like Ezio got and there’s something charming about Renaissance era Italy as the setting. It’s amazing scaling all those magnificent cathedrals in Rome, Florence etc.

Black Flag was peak AC for me.

4 minutes ago, Jason said:

Ubi continuing to just... collapse. Absolute mess of a publisher atm.

Shame what happened. 5 years ago I was hyped for a lot of their titles. Now not so much. What harmed them was making all of their titles feel very samey. It was around Ghost Recon breakpoint for me imo where Ubisoft just started falling off a cliff.

[Jason]

Few years ago I genuinely liked what Ubi were doing. They never made truly great games but they were always making new IP's and trying new stuff, and you could count on them all at least being a fairly enjoyable playthrough.

 

But then the BR craze started and they've since went absolutely nuts trying to chase that craze and created all sorts of garbage in the process. Hyperscape, Division Heartlands, xDefiant, GR Frontlines (canned and rebooted, apparently?), Project Q and maybe more I'm forgetting. All these games are chasing the same craze, they're so f*cking desperate for their own Fortnite/Warzone it's become sad.

[DODI3OG]

On 7/20/2022 at 5:39 AM, Jason said:

What could've been, Skull and Bones... what should've been if they just, you know, listened.

They messed up sooo bad on that one. I was like "WTH were they thinking! Ideas and concepts were just all over the net, all they had to do was brainstorm which goes along with which gameplay mechanic.

 

 

9 hours ago, Jason said:

But then the BR craze started and they've since went absolutely nuts trying to chase that craze and created all sorts of garbage in the process. Hyperscape, Division Heartlands, xDefiant, GR Frontlines (canned and rebooted, apparently?), Project Q and maybe more I'm forgetting. All these games are chasing the same craze, they're so f*cking desperate for their own Fortnite/Warzone it's become sad.

Guess where these BR games got their ideas? GTA Online. The thing with BRs is that they're mostly hit or miss. Warzone for example is a huge miss at this point since it's already lost a lot of its playerbase when it launched due to their awful anti-cheat as well as the pay-to-win mechanics. It's mostly dominated by either hackers and MP players with kitted-out guns or both.

 

If they somehow added a weapon attachment mechanic like Metro Exodus where you get to buy or detach attachments from existing weapons, then it would have been better. But, at this point players with custom loadouts get to dominate the lobby and I don't wanna bother grinding every year just to win a few rounds.

[Jason]

BR games have their origins on PC w/ Arma mods and are nothing to do with GTAO. The whole genre was arguably created by a modder called PlayerUnknown

 

DayZ BR mod by PU > Arma 3 BR mod by PU > H1Z1 (lead by PU) > PUBG (lead by PU) > Fortnite (console), Warzone, etc.

 

The thing with the whole BR genre though is that it's in the same situation as the MOBA genre. It's massively people so developers want in on it so they try and come up with their BR games each with their own twist, but they all just... miss the point. BR, like MOBA's, aren't really a genre, they're a game. When people want to play a MOBA they simply mean they wanna play Dota 2 or LoL, when people want to play a BR they want to play one of the original BR games, not the latest spin off. It's why the newer ones never take off, the genres already got it's games no one actually wants anymore of them.

[DODI3OG]

3 hours ago, Jason said:

BR games have their origins on PC w/ Arma mods and are nothing to do with GTAO. The whole genre was arguably created by a modder called PlayerUnknown

 

DayZ BR mod by PU > Arma 3 BR mod by PU > H1Z1 (lead by PU) > PUBG (lead by PU) > Fortnite (console), Warzone, etc.

That's another angle, but I remember back in 2015 during the earliest days of BR, they cited GTA Online as an inspiration. I remember the article citing the mayhem and players leaving being the inspiration for the elimination mechanics.

The base mechanics/gameplay probably has its very roots from DayZ and Arma which were the engines for these prototype BRs.

 

Not tryna bash on BR players since I also play BR myself, but I think Team Deathmatch and its derivatives are better. Winning a TDM through a hard clutch is more satisfying for me. IMO, Apex has the best balance of realism and OTT gameplay and most of the best Legends are free.

 

Back on topic, wth does ubisoft wanna dip into the BR market anyway? They have excelent coop games like Ghost Recon and The Division and even R6:Siege inspired some of MW2019's mechanics. I wish they made more coop Far Cry games.... I had lots of fun playing FC5, at least 300 hours in and a couple NG+ playthrough.

[Jason]

32 minutes ago, DODI3OG said:

That's another angle, but I remember back in 2015 during the earliest days of BR, they cited GTA Online as an inspiration. I remember the article citing the mayhem and players leaving being the inspiration for the elimination mechanics.

 

Perhaps, but BR's routes go further back than GTAO with DayZ so I dunno how influential it was to the early days of BR. There's possibly later BR's that took influence from GTAO mind you.

 

But anyway as for why Ubi wanna get into BR... I think it's literally a case of them wanting their own massive online live-service game. They want their own Fortnite/Warzone/GTAO but they're trying to force the issue rather than let a game develop into that naturally. They've been rummaging through their IP library throwing ideas around to see what sticks and it's showing in the quality of their games. That xDefiant game I imagine will die a very quick death, as well their Ghost Recon and Division spin-offs. There's just no demand for more of those types of games right now, it's an oversaturated market.

 

I just wish they'd dial it back, stop trying to turn literally everything into a live service game and do something they said they'd start doing after the Breakpoint disaster which is give their teams more creative freedom with their games, cause it's obvious that hasn't happened at all.

 

I've always likened Ubi games (especially their open world games) to fast food, they hit the spot when you need one but too much and it makes you feel sick (or bored, in this case). Their open world formula has gotten really stale and their trend chasing in recent years has taken their eyes off the ball. They really need to find something new.

 

It wouldn't surprise me if with the way they're going if they're acquired for a steep discount in the coming months, which would be a bad thing for the industry but the way they're collapsing right now feels like it's opening them up for a big corp to swoop in.

[DODI3OG]

6 minutes ago, Jason said:

Perhaps, but BR's routes go further back than GTAO with DayZ so I dunno how influential it was to the early days of BR. There's possibly later BR's that took influence from GTAO mind you.

Is DayZ an overhaul for Arma or Stalker? It seems to have that Stalker gameplay. The Metro series in particular have the usual BR looting and survival mechanics, esp. Metro Exodus.

 

Quote

But anyway as for why Ubi wanna get into BR... I think it's literally a case of them wanting their own massive online live-service game. They want their own Fortnite/Warzone/GTAO but they're trying to force the issue rather than let a game develop into that naturally. They've been rummaging through their IP library throwing ideas around to see what sticks and it's showing in the quality of their games. That xDefiant game I imagine will die a very quick death, as well their Ghost Recon and Division spin-offs. There's just no demand for more of those types of games right now, it's an oversaturated market.

 

I just wish they'd dial it back, stop trying to turn literally everything into a live service game and do something they said they'd start doing after the Breakpoint disaster which is give their teams more creative freedom with their games, cause it's obvious that hasn't happened at all.

 

I've always likened Ubi games (especially their open world games) to fast food, they hit the spot when you need one but too much and it makes you feel sick (or bored, in this case). Their open world formula has gotten really stale and their trend chasing in recent years has taken their eyes off the ball. They really need to find something new.

 

It wouldn't surprise me if with the way they're going if they're acquired for a steep discount in the coming months, which would be a bad thing for the industry but the way they're collapsing right now feels like it's opening them up for a big corp to swooping in.

They can't hit the spot with live service because their game formula gets stale really quick, particularly the open-world games. It's okay for their Arena shooters, but their open-world games get boring really quick. With the Far Cry games being slight exceptions for me. I never bothered with finishing any of their open-world games due to the overuse of map collectibles and repetitive exploration.

 

Ghost of Tsushima in particular is very Ubisoft-like with its exploration aspects, and the combat is a mix of Souls-like and AC-like. But, exploration in Ghost of Tsushima is rewarding. There's not too much armor that you end up ignoring the rest, while there's not too few you end up sticking to a couple loadouts throughout the game. They nailed what a ubisoft game should be like.

 

Another Ubisoft-like series that did it better than Ubisoft is Horizon: Zero Dawn and Forbidden West. There's just as much content as GOT in this one, albeit with far more useable collectibles and a plethora of loadouts. Although, the combat in GOT is waaay better than the one in these two.

 

Also, Ubi's gameplay gets really stale after a while. At first you get to choose a playstyle. The best weapons are reserved for the endgame, so we're stuck with stealthing for a while. Then after a while stealth gets boring because even in FC5, the premise is just to throw distractions, stab, throw a knife, relocate, go after the next marked target, rinse and repeat until the outpost is cleared, then rinse and repeat until you clear most outposts and better weapons are unlocked, you play several missions, then new outposts are unlocked....

 

At least in Horizon, once you accumulated enough resources, you can change your main weapons to more powerful, resource-heavy ones until you run out of said resources again.

[Jason]

IMO the Sony open world games like Horizon and GoT didn't handle progression or loot any better than the modern Ubi games - in fact I'd argue Sony's 1st party RPG lites have some of the most generic design out of the entire genre, but what they nailed was gameplay and presentation.

 

I say that as someone who absolutely adores Horizon: ZD and cannot wait for FW to come out on PC, I loved that game to bits, but yea it's skill trees, loot, crafting, progression is all mind numbingly boring and designed to make nothing too hard to get. GoT, GoW and Days Gone all have the same issues, all designed around the Ubi-like Sony formula.

 

It's why I, I think, I enjoyed Odyssey so much. It has good RPG loot system with random loot + unique loot, no item sets, lots of loot drops and a skill tree system designed around player choice vs unlocking the entire tree by the games end - though you can max out the skill trees in AC games due to the infinite leveling.

 

Playing Valhalla progression was okay early on as you planned your way through the skill tree but became uninteresting and in many ways limiting mid-game as your build heavily determined your weapon and gear type (wolf, bear, etc). The gear being based around sets is garbage as well, as set based design basically means the devs make the builds and you find the gear. I'll never be a fan of set based itemisation for that reason, it's lazy design.

[Creed Bratton]

Odyssey was basically an ARPG more than an action adventure game like its predecessors. And yeah, it worked really well. I still don't like the direction of new AC games, but I won't deny clocking more than 100h in Odyssey.  The game had to do something right to get me to play it for that long. Also, Kassandra is one of the coolest female protagonists in video games. But I still have not finished the Atlantis DLC. And I likely won't.

Edited July 23 by Creed Bratton

[Jason]

Yea I agree with that, an open world ARPG, and had some fantasy like abilities to go with it. Genuinely great game IMO. Valhalla improved in some areas (the open world events) but regressed in many.

[DODI3OG]

2 hours ago, Jason said:

IMO the Sony open world games like Horizon and GoT didn't handle progression or loot any better than the modern Ubi games - in fact I'd argue Sony's 1st party RPG lites have some of the most generic design out of the entire genre, but what they nailed was gameplay and presentation.

 

I say that as someone who absolutely adores Horizon: ZD and cannot wait for FW to come out on PC, I loved that game to bits, but yea it's skill trees, loot, crafting, progression is all mind numbingly boring and designed to make nothing too hard to get. GoT, GoW and Days Gone all have the same issues, all designed around the Ubi-like Sony formula.

 

Well if you want hard to get stuff, FW makes a lot of the grinding easier. I'm not sure if a rare machine part vendor was in Zero Dawn, but they're everywhere in Forbidden West and they don't cost much. Makes it easy to grind and level up Very Rare weapons without spending an entire day.

 

Quote

Playing Valhalla progression was okay early on as you planned your way through the skill tree but became uninteresting and in many ways limiting mid-game as your build heavily determined your weapon and gear type (wolf, bear, etc). The gear being based around sets is garbage as well, as set based design basically means the devs make the builds and you find the gear. I'll never be a fan of set based itemisation for that reason, it's lazy design.

This is my problem with Ghost of Tsushima. The outfits and armors are tied to specific playstyles via perks. I just hope there was at least transmog for the armors. What you said is also applicable to GOT since all the players had to do was grind for a charm to compliment a playstyle since weapons are fixed to a particular damage. I just hope for the next game there'd be weapon variety since the Samurai also carried different types of weapons and being a proto-ninja, Jin should not be limited to those carried by the Samurai.

 

BTW, I think Valhalla is still on sale on the PS Store. Didn't get it since I get more satisfaction by grinding a build til completion, then replaying the game after a while.

[Jason]

 

Been a few leaks about it the past few days, confirming some older rumours such as you play as Basim, no AC-RPG features like dialogue choices or leveling up and in general a more classic AC experience.

 

Curious to see where it's priced, it sounds like this is a smaller scale AC project but by Ubi standards thay may still mean a 60 hour full price game.

[DODI3OG]

4 hours ago, Jason said:

 

Been a few leaks about it the past few days, confirming some older rumours such as you play as Basim, no AC-RPG features like dialogue choices or leveling up and in general a more classic AC experience.

 

Curious to see where it's priced, it sounds like this is a smaller scale AC project but by Ubi standards thay may still mean a 60 hour full price game.

I hope it's real. I just want an AC game on the level of Black Flag with relevant side-quests, and especially AC 2-level of storytelling.

[Mister Pink]

Yeah, think it's real. Ubisoft sending DMCA's out. 

 

 

Looks kind of persian or Jordanian. . Definitely a return to the old style AC games. 

 

I knw i'm way off but reminds of an entrance to somewhere like Petra. 

 

 

 

Edited September 1 by Mister Pink

[Jason]

I heard Pakistan mentioned as a setting, not sure if that's legit or what.

[Mister Pink]

It could also be Saudi Arabia. When I think of Mirage, I think of deserts. Seeing the temple in what looks like being built into natural rock, I think of Jordan and Arabia. Pakistan and India certainly have ancient temples built into the ground as well, so it could be there too. Just the "Mirage" title has me in the desert for some reason.  Either way, exciting to see an throwback to the old style. 

 

Edited September 1 by Mister Pink