Assassin's Creed

[TheMightyEthan]

New cinematic trailer for Origins:

 

 

Which has made me want to repost the greatest video game trailer of all time:

 

 

[Hot Heart]

6 hours ago, TheMightyEthan said:

Which has made me want to repost the greatest video game trailer of all time:

 

That's not the Lost Odyssey trailer.

[MetalCaveman]

 

With Wolfenstein and Odyssey coming out the same day, most seem to have forgotten about Origins. Though it looks cool in terms of the setting and story, everything I've seen about the combat and other gameplay aspects hasn't convinced me, so I'll wait and see.  

[Mister Jack]

If this one sells poorly like the last one, they should really just do a DLC to wrap up the storyline and then quietly let this series die and move on to something else.

 

Unless they decide to finally stop being a bunch of fuckboys and do a Ninja sequel in feudal Japan. That would get me to come back.

[TheFlyingGerbil]

How well do they sell nowadays? I know everyone dumps on them, but is it a profitable series for Ubisoft?

[TheMightyEthan]

This is the first new one in 2 years, so I guess we'll find out.

[MetalCaveman]

I thought Syndicate had done well, guess not. Would be cool if Ubisoft gave this series a rest for a bit, and went back to Splinter Cell, or some other stuff.

 

 

[TheFlyingGerbil]

If I remember correctly the last game was the first one that was reviewed well in a while, but that didn't reflect in the sales which is why they gave it a bit of a rest and a reboot for this one. Trouble is nowadays (I think skewed by square enix) I don't know what a game needs to sell to remain profitable. I guess AC - being fairly formulaic - wouldn't be the most expensive game but the credits at the end seem to encompass half the global population so who knows.

[TheMightyEthan]

They decided to give it a rest after Unity's bad reception, but by that point Syndicate was already well into development (they were on a 2-year dev cycle), so it wasn't until after Syndicate released that they actually skipped a year.

[Mr. GOH!]

Origins is Assasin's Creed: Wild Hunt. This is not a bad thing at all, and I really like the open world aspect more than in any other non-Black Flag Asscreed. The storytelling has been weirdly presented so far. It does not do a great job of establishing your character or his motivation immediately. It starts in media res and then flashes back over the first section to show you why your character has taken on a mission of vengeance, which you seem to blaze through pretty quickly. I get the sense, though, that, at 8 or so hours in, I'm just about to begin the "real" story and that the questing for your first ten or so levels is more of an extended tutorial, as is common in many open world games.

 

The combat is very different than in previous Asscreed and feels like Dark Souls Lite, which is fine, though it takes getting used to. I have not yet seen any firm indication of a recruitment or team system, but I suspect it's in there in some fashion, just not yet. 

 

Minor spoilers:

Spoiler

 

The modern-day portion so far is limited; you play a (rogue?) Abstergo employee who is trying out an unauthorized mobile animus that can pull memories from a sample rather than the DNA of the user. I don't recall; was Abstergo able to do this in Balck Flag or Syndicate? Anyway, she's set up her custom-built animus in the tomb of the dude you play as in Egypt and her section so far has consisted of checking the many, many files on her computer for her history and hints of the modern-day plot. I know people hate the modern sequences of these games, but I like the zany conspiracy theory stuff.

 

Your character is also not an Assassin or part of any group other than the Pharaoah's troubleshooters, though he was booted from that group before the game begins. The alien god stuff figure prominently in the story. I already have a Piece of Eden, though my character doesn't know what it is other than a bauble he used to murder a villain. I also only just got the hidden blade; my takedowns had been non-lethal to this point.

 

 

I will post more as I progress. So far, it's my favorite AC game after Black Flag and 2 + Brotherhood.

 

Edited October 30, 2017 by Mr. ZOMBIE!

[TheMightyEthan]

What would you say is different about the combat?  Is it less counter oriented?  I haven't played much Dark Souls so that comparison doesn't mean a lot to me.

[Mr. GOH!]

You don't automatically lock onto enemies and auto-hit as you did in the previous games. Instead, even when you manually lock onto enemies, you have to gauge your weapon length and your relative position in ways you did not have to in earlier AC games. It's similar to how combat works in Dark Souls, Bloodborne (I assume), and the Witcher 3. Your weapon selection plays a large role in your reach, speed, and damage and you have a much larger variety of weapons to choose from, from fast dual short swords to massive maces. Each weapon has a level and rarity and may have special abilities. You change your weapon loadout way more than in previous AC games. Enemies are also much more liable to come at you all at once instead of waiting for you to kill each of them in one-by-one duels, which is good.

 

I think it's a step in the right direction from the generally bland combat of previous AC games overall. 

[MetalCaveman]

How's the levelling and stuff? Does it take long to reach the next level? Does your health/attack/other increase with each level or are they tied to weapons/skill points?

[Mr. GOH!]

The leveling is pretty quick, initially. I don't know what the cap is, but I've leveled to 12 in the time I've played. I know damage increases each level automatically, and I believe HP does as well. You also get a skill point per level, and I've just about run out of skills I can buy with a single point, aside those tied to items like bombs and darts that I don't have access to yet. The skill tree is sp[lit into three branches: stealth/ranged, melee combat, and gadgets & traps, with some overlap. The skills themselves are a mix of classic assassin's creed stuff (take down two dudes at once) and new things based on the changed combat system (pull arrows from your shield to replenish your ammo). it's all very easy to understand to anyone who has played open world games in the past five years.

 

Weapons and armor have level requirements, and it's important to have a weapon close to your level. You can pay a blacksmith a small sum to upgrade any weapon or shield to your current level. You cannot equip weapons that are above your level. You can also craft universal damage and defense upgrades outside of your particular weapon and shield ( which is also the only equipable armor there is, I think). That is, you can craft upgrades that increase all melee or ranged damage, as well as upgrades that increase your defense and HP,  if I remember correctly. The craftable upgrades are in a sequence; you go through upgrade 1, then 2, then 3, and so on as you get enough crafting ingredients. 

 

 

[MetalCaveman]

Sounds cool, way better than I imagined.

[Mr. GOH!]

It's better than earlier AC combat, for sure. Still has a ways to go to be great.

[Hot Heart]

 

[MetalCaveman]

 

I wonder if this title was affected by the changes done after Breakpoint. If it was I'm interested, otherwise, I'll wait and see, though in this case, tiered loot wouldn't bother me that much.

[MetalCaveman]

 

OK, this looks awesome so far, they'll be showing gameplay during the next inside Xbox (May 7th?), looking forward to it.

 

Only thing that would have made this better is if they had used Tyr, Amon Amarth, or Grand Magus for the trailer, I mean, Raven's Flight would have been the perfect track for it. \m/ \m/  

[TheMightyEthan]

So apparently all the stuff with Assassin's Creed not having female characters really was/is just straight-up sexism. Which we already knew, but it's nice to see it confirmed.

 

Apparently in Origins originally they were going to have Bayek get killed and his wife be the player character, but Hascoët thought that wouldn't sell. And in Odyssey Kassandra was going to be the only PC until he made them add her brother.

 

Also, lol @ marketing not thinking a female PC would sell. Horizon: Zero Dawn says hi.

[Mal]

You only have to go all the way back to Tomb Raider or even earlier. So many cases where people played as women with no issues. Doesn't have to be a sexy lady either. 

[MetalCaveman]

 

\m/ \m/

 

I wonder if Valhalla also got affected by that shit, probably, right?

Edited July 21, 2020 by MetalCaveman

[TheMightyEthan]

From the article:

 

Quote

Even with the reveal of Assassin's Creed Valhalla, which lets you play as either a male or female version of lead character Eivor, Ubisoft chose to debut the game with its male version front and centre, while its female option was first seen as a collector's edition action figure. When pressed on why Ubisoft had not showcased the female version at the game's reveal, Ubisoft told me at the time that Valhalla's marketing would "showcase both at different points".

 

So while it's not quite so blatant as the other examples, in light of what was going on it looks like that viewpoint is certainly still there. If I had to bet, I'd bet it's like the previous two entries, and the developers wanted it to be a female MC but marketing made them add a male option and then put him front and center.