by MiTT3NZ » Thu Jul 19, 2012 10:12 am
Proper lookin forward to the third, looks like they're makin necessary improvements, but I do have issues with a few things that I think they're just gonna skip over.
First, the environments are always brilliant in AC, but they rarely give you a reason to do anything other than chill on the rooftops, which in turn makes the game lose it's atmosphere. It always feels like a deeper game when you're in an area that you can't just climb and air assassinate/ use crosswbow/chuck throwin knives. For instance, the mission in Brotherhood where it asks you to assassinate from a bench for full synch. It posed a much greater challenge and made you appreciate the level of detail the team put into the games. Any other time though and it's a case of "climb buildin, follow roof route, dispatch of roof guards, jump and land in memory start marker. It just makes a brillaint game seem a little one-dimensional.
The next thing is multiplayer. I love it. Whether it's beastin guys on Manhunt, outwittin motherfuckers on Capture the Artifact, or casually poisonin unwitting targets on deathmatches, it rewards you for your awesome stealth skills (or, to be more specific, MY awesome stealth skills) One thing that pisses me off though, is that a lot of people who play multiplayer don't get multiplayer. In the team games, you can poison someone to give your team the lead, then some mongo comes along and high profile kills them for 100 points... Then you got the roofers. Guys who just chill on the roof like it's single player, which means you have to climb up to kill them, all the while exposin yourself to your pursuer as your target just runs off, leavin you a sitting duck if whoever's after you has a gun (or is already up there!) Then you got the boringly repetitive level 50 matches. Guaranteed that if it's Manhunt (or Wanted, can't remember, the one where you hide one round then kill the next), and it's full of Level 50-ers, the whole game is just a case of smoke bomb, stun, mute, stun, rinse and repeat. I have a firecrackers/gun ability combo to deal with this, but the cooldown time just cause it to be a tedious experience, as you wait for an opportunity to actually ASSASSINATE them (which obviously never comes along.
Then there's the limitations of multiplayer. Sure, I love it, and I know it's developed by another team, but surely it'd be an idea to implement a multiplayer mode more akin to single player. Single player is fuckin brilliant, as is multiplayer, so splice em together and you're onto a winner. Just imagine it, a huge city in which to hunt down your target or hide from your pursuer. You have all NPC character models activated, and you can buy dyes or different clothes from shops to blend in different places for different situations. Not only would it become more stealthy, but more tactical. Assassins could cut off escape routes, while the primary goes after the target, whilst the target could set up the assassins chasing them and have guards attack them, or hire factions to assist you. That way, the aim could be to outright just eliminate the targets instead of "kill using x method to earn x amount of points, then respawn". It'd make for a much better experience, imo. By the looks of it though, they're basically just using the new environments, character animations/models, adding a few new modes and adding an extra ability slot. That's it. I'd gladly buy a multiplayer only game at full retail price if it was more like single player.
Last, summat I'm really pissed off about is the decision to end Desmond's story here. Why? Why why why why why? I wanted one more AC in the animus after III, then a modern day AC to wrap up the story. Just imagine the possibilities. AC mixed with a little GTA and a little of Watch Dogs (which looks amazing btw) Police come after you instead of guards, and you have to hop around from safehouse to safehouse as Abstergo's own assassins try to hunt you down. Hell, fleein the country to get aid from a foreign faction of Assassins would just make it perfect. I really think it's gonna be a missed opportunity, and whilst I'm well aware of the whole 2012 idea, I can't help but whine and bitch about how Ubisoft are throwing away such a brilliant opportunity. I mean, shit, I'm pretty sick of playin video games feelin like the ultimate untouchable killing machine, I wanna feel exposed and vulnerable like a naked white bird in Compton. I want an element of actual danger. I think the last time I died in a video game (excluding multiplayer) was Sonic 4 Ep I, and that was over a year ago now. I just thought it'd be pretty cool to play as Desmond, thinkin "I've got the skills of Altair, Ezio and Connor, I'm untouchable", only for Ubisoft to turn round and say "Yes, but can you hide from CCTV or spot a sniper from the adjacent building?"
Ah well, maybe when I set up my own development team.........