[Aptorian]

Roldom, on 10 December 2010 - 05:59 AM, said:

^{The little tombs with all the jumping around to get the assaisns seals for atiars armour bugged the crap out of me also....}

But they are the best part! Finally some actual skill is needed from all the running and jumping you do through out the game.

I'm halfway or maybe 2/3s through the game right now, and while the game has improved on a lot of things I am also a little disappointed right now. I read in a review that people complained that the first game's story and mystery was too complex for the average gamer, which has apparently lead to a new storyline with no moral pillar. What made the first game so good in my opinion was the big question of who is the good guy and who was the bad guy. Does the end justify the means? Each of the bad guys had their convictions and believed to be in the right. AC2 has none of this. Instead it is just a revenge story. Everyone I am killing is doing what they do out of greed and malice. They are just a bunch of c**ts, meanwhile Ezio seems about as subtle as a bag of hammers. Hopefully, as I am killing my way up the food chain, this may change, but it doesn't seem likely.

The problem is of course that Ezio's father never trained him and taught him the values if the order, which means Ezio is no Altair. But couldn't they have thrown in some meetings with the uncle where he discussed philosophy and war against the Templars?

Also, the difficulty is laughable. I have more health than I need and then I have a bag with 15 vials of health that I never need unless I fall down a roof. Also the "hidden knife" trick is broken, if you just walk up to any guard with out being in guard mode, you can stab the guy with out him blocking. You can actually stab all 4 people standing in front of the banks with out them stopping you if you're just quick enough. In AC1, if the guards were aware of your presence such a trick would be impossible.

This post has been edited by Jenisapt Rul: 10 December 2010 - 08:50 AM

[MTS]

Jenisapt Rul, on 10 December 2010 - 08:47 AM, said:

Roldom, on 10 December 2010 - 05:59 AM, said:

^{The little tombs with all the jumping around to get the assaisns seals for atiars armour bugged the crap out of me also....}

But they are the best part! Finally some actual skill is needed from all the running and jumping you do through out the game.

I'm halfway or maybe 2/3s through the game right now, and while the game has improved on a lot of things I am also a little disappointed right now. I read in a review that people complained that the first game's story and mystery was too complex for the average gamer, which has apparently lead to a new storyline with no moral pillar. What made the first game so good in my opinion was the big question of who is the good guy and who was the bad guy. Does the end justify the means? Each of the bad guys had their convictions and believed to be in the right. AC2 has none of this. Instead it is just a revenge story. Everyone I am killing is doing what they do out of greed and malice. They are just a bunch of c**ts, meanwhile Ezio seems about as subtle as a bag of hammers. Hopefully, as I am killing my way up the food chain, this may change, but it doesn't seem likely.

The problem is of course that Ezio's father never trained him and taught him the values if the order, which means Ezio is no Altair. But couldn't they have thrown in some meetings with the uncle where he discussed philosophy and war against the Templars?

Also, the difficulty is laughable. I have more health than I need and then I have a bag with 15 vials of health that I never need unless I fall down a roof. Also the "hidden knife" trick is broken, if you just walk up to any guard with out being in guard mode, you can stab the guy with out him blocking. You can actually stab all 4 people standing in front of the banks with out them stopping you if you're just quick enough. In AC1, if the guards were aware of your presence such a trick would be impossible.

Yes, I'd say you've nailed the two areas where AC2 falls down. Say what you will about the gameplay of AC1, it had a good story. There was always the question as to whether what you did was right, and even whether what the Templars were doing was wrong. It was delightful in its ambiguity. And then for Al-Mualim to turn out to be a Templar? It was the perfect way to show that, essentially, the Assassins and the Templars were two sides of the same coin.

But all of that is gone in AC2, which is frustrating. The story definitely takes a back seat to the gameplay, which I enjoy, but again I agree in that the difficulty is laughable. It's almost GTA-like in its approach to the guards, whereby you can slaughter them by the score, run away for a bit and then they ignore you. The notoriety bit was a good touch, but it's far too easy to become anonymous. Really, with the amount of bodies I left in my wake in AC2, someone should have instituted martial law, plastered my face everywhere and made it impossible for me to get around. I realise there's a limit to how much they can realistically inhibit your freedom before it gets tiresome, but you're Public Enemy No. 1, wear very distinctive attire and yet you can stroll past guards like every Tom, Dick and Harry without a care in the world. It makes the part of being a wanted assassin far too easy. You never get the impression you're being hunted by very powerful people, in fact they're all mainly a bunch of idiots waiting around for you to stab them. It's even worse in Brotherhood in that respect.

They don't even need to change the combat mechanics to make it more difficult either, they just need to make it so that if you get hit, you die. It would make the whole point of stealth much more important, where you need to kill your target in a way where you won't have to cut a bloody swathe through the city guard to escape. I'd prefer better combat, but even that would be an improvement in my mind. They won't do it though, since it would make the game 'too hard' for the people who won't pick up a Ninja Gaiden game because it whoops your ass every five seconds and that isn't fun.

[Aptorian]

Finished the game last night including the bonefire of the Vanities and Battle at Forli pieces.

The ending was really, really bad. Like, I can't believe they did that, kind of bad, but I guess they always intended for the story to continue in AC Bro.

But now I HAVE to play AC Bro! Well, I guess there are worse ways to spend your free time.

[Aptorian]

It appears I am a fool.

I mentioned that the ending sucked to a friend at work and she remarked that if I hadn't been to Rome yet then the game wasn't over. I just assumed that the game had ended when I finished the candyfloos ending of "Bonfires of the Vanities". But it appears the extra content was just sandwiched in between the story segments and I have yet to finish the main storyline.

Well, I'm off to Rome to kill that fat bastard.

By the way, I just killed two guards with a spear and it was probably the awesomest thing ever. One of them I just stabbed through the back and the other one I punted in the stomach and when he bent over Ezio rammed the spear down through his neck and when the body fell it pulled the weapon out of his hands. The guard was just lying there with a spear sticking out of his neck. That is fucking awesome is what it.

This post has been edited by Jenisapt Rul: 13 December 2010 - 03:09 PM

[MTS]

The spear kills are so awesome. My favourite one is when you counter another spear wielder, you parry his attack out of the way, then thrust yours through his eye. The brute one is also sweet, the counter snaps your spear in half and then you stab both halves into the brute. In fact, every counter kill is just fantastic. The blunt weapon ones are almost painful to watch.

[Aptorian]

Cool montage/music video thingy

[Aptorian]

I am Jealous.

I have a policy that I don't buy my games before the price has been reduced by 60% - preferably more.

So far Brotherhood has not dipped below that level.

[Aptorian]

Just started playing AC Brotherhood. God damn this game is sexy. They've improved the combat, put in new useful abilities, quick travel, horse travel inside the cities, better weapon handling.

I am loving it.

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

DROP EVERYTHING I HAVE A QUESTION. I've never played an AC game. I watched most of AC 2 played though. If I were to try to get into this franchise, should I play the first which sounds hgirribly dated, or just skip to the second? Or skip to Brotherhood?

[Aptorian]

Compared with AC2 and Brotherhood AC1 is very dated and pretty repetitive in its mission structures and gameplay angles. How ever, AC1 is in my opinion the best game so far (I am only a little while into Brotherhood).

AC2 and the sequel are better games in terms of gameplay, design and, maybe, to an extent the atmosphere.

How ever what makes AC1 great is the story. The story in AC1 was so awesome that they had to dumb it down to kiddy level in AC2 so as to not bruise the soft heads of the young gamer. AC1 is all about ethics and makes you consider exactly who is good or bad, the guy who used power and wealth to rule for what is the better good, or the guy killing in the name of freedom for the sake of freedom.

Anyway you put it you should play the games from the beginning because there is an overarching plot that revolves around a modern day assassin descendant who is accessing his ancestors memories via super science and working with the Assassins to discover some ancient secret. Think the DaVinci Code only more crazy and with a lot of stabbing.

(EDIT: Also AC1 is a hell of a lot harder. The guards in AC1 will fuck you up if you look at them wrong. In AC2 they are a pushover since your fighting capabilities have grown exponentially)

This post has been edited by Clockwork Apt: 01 April 2011 - 08:16 PM

[Aptorian]

I am really loving AC Brotherhood, but the people who designed the character AI really fucking suck. I've just come to the point where you begin recruiting new Assassin candidates and THEY KEEP FUCKING DYING ON ME! And no, it's not because I am slow and the character is run through, nope. It's because every guy I find that needs rescuing is placed near a cliff edge or an open ledge on building and the character keeps falling over the edge because they have no awareness of their footing. So I reload to try and change my approach and they die again and again. This in itself is bad, but when the character I have to save is at the very top of the motherfucking Colosseum and it takes me a couple minutes to get to the colloseum... oh boy.

Not to mention the guards. At one point I spent 10 minutes waiting for a Guard Captain to return at a Borgia tower because I scared him away. Then when he returned and I was about to spring my perfectly planned attack, he loses his footing and falls in the fucking water and dies. What the fuck!? I didn't even have time to attack him.

[Aptorian]

I heard that they could change appearance, but I haven't figured out how to do it after they became fully fledged assassins. Anyway, it doesn't really matter, going by the first game, that's the way they are supposed to look. They don't do disguises, they always wear white.

After they become assassins they can't level up further but you can still use them to collect money and items through the missions, and of course, at max level they can single handedly kill 4 guards.

It's kinda insane the feeling of power you get from being able to call in assassin attacks when ever you want to.

[Cause]

I cant remember where the article was from but apparently AC3 will be set in paris. I prefer this idea to some of the speculation that it would be during the american civil war.

[caladanbrood]

If I ever win the lottery... Assassin's Creed: Capustan will happen. It would be so perfect

[Gothos]

I only played AC1 for about an hour and once you get past the novelty of the parkour mechanics, it got seriously BORING.
So, could one go straight to AC2 and avoid playing the first part and not lose much story-wise?

[Aptorian]

Briar King, on 07 April 2011 - 04:46 AM, said:

Fuck yeah it is... I had your problem kinda...with a Borgia Tower Captain running when I came close. What a pussy running like that. lol Anyway I waited through 3-4 guard changing shifts trying to knife him myself before giving up and just calling in my 6 wanna be Ezios lmao. They fucked him up. I was happy.

I burned all the Borgia towers that were accessible initially before I did any of the main storylines, so I didn't have any Assassins to help me. I had the same problem, I am guessing it was the horse captain guy right? After trying to catch him half a dozen times I instead stalked and killed a guard carrying a spear and I took that motherfucker out with a spear to the chest the next time he rode by. Now I use the heavy swords as flying death dealers.

Cause, on 07 April 2011 - 08:01 AM, said:

I cant remember where the article was from but apparently AC3 will be set in paris. I prefer this idea to some of the speculation that it would be during the american civil war.

This is confirmed?

Either place works, what with a revolution taking place. Napoleon would be an awesome bad guy. How ever I am kind of tired of Europe after playing two Ezio games. And America would be an interesting choice because they could continue the story of the sights seen on the continents that hadn't been discovered yet.

After playing Brotherhood I am also now convinced that firearms in an Assassins Creed game actually works. I suspect that they were testing this in Brotherhood by adding crossbows and early era muskets and pistols. It makes it a lot more intimidating to approach armed guards. Unfortunately it also makes it way too easy to take out the security around buildings.

Gothos, on 07 April 2011 - 09:18 AM, said:

I only played AC1 for about an hour and once you get past the novelty of the parkour mechanics, it got seriously BORING.
So, could one go straight to AC2 and avoid playing the first part and not lose much story-wise?

Damn it. Why does every one hate AC1! Even despite the repetition I found the game much more challenging and interesting than AC2 and Brotherhood.

Did you get to the other three cities, or are you still stuck in the starting area? Because the game gets much much better when you start exploring the three historical cities. The game is harder and the story kicks ass.

But I guess you can skip the game if you really need to. I would recommend scouring youtube for cut scenes and "lets play's" though just to get the essential bits.

[Aptorian]

Just finished AC Brotherhood this morning.

And I am not impressed.

What an awful game. I think this is the first time I have experienced such a gulf between the quality of the gameplay and the satisfaction of finishing the game. Is the game fun and interesting, yes. It is a great sand box games and some of the missions, especially the DaVinci ones, are brilliant. But the story. Oh my god, who wrote this manuscript? And has he been fired yet?

The story of AC1 was brilliant in its complexity.

AC2 was a step back for a straight forward revenge story.

Brotherhood... I don't even know what this is. There is no focus. No purpose. The characters are 2 dimensional. The story ignores everything that we learned in the first game. There is no connection between the Borgia and the Templars. There is no motivation to the Borgia other than power and greed. The Assassins are shitting all over their own creed. Ezio is an action hero instead of an assassin moving in shadows. And he keeps letting the bad guys go and spares their lives, when the very purpose of his order is to kill.

The ending of AC2 was just an excuse for making a sequel, and Brotherhood suffers under this. Yes the gameplay is even better than AC2, but there is no point to the story missions.

If they wanted to make this game good they should have either planted the Apple of Eden in the hands of Cesare or Ezio from the very beginning. And they should have made Ezio fight much more personal and emotional. The way he was acting through out the game, unprofessional and indecisive, I was actually expecting him to be the assassinated by some other cell of the Assassins.

[Tiste Simeon]

@Apt - I do kind of see what you mean, and I did find it pretty easy (unlike, as you said, AC1) I mean I never died in a fight (the quick healing thing makes it nigh on impossible to die) However, my word I still enjoyed playing it. What a game! And that is what I am choosing to focus on.

[MTS]

I would agree with Apt, the quality of the gameplay over the series has an inverse relationship with the quality of the story. The story is the thing that made AC1 playable, whereas I sure as hell didn't play Brotherhood on the strength of the story.

This post has been edited by MTS: 10 April 2011 - 07:57 AM

[QuickTidal]

I am only a few missions into the main storyline of AC2 and haven't played ACB yet...but...

@ Apt - According to Ubisoft, with AC being a flagship title people seem to be unaware that ACB is basically like an extension pack to AC2 since it still stars Ezio, and so the gameplay will be similar, but the story will only concern more Ezio. Basically Brotherhood acts like an additional mission to AC2 and if you look at it that way then it would probably seem to be less disappointing to you. At least that's what seems to be the case from other folk I've talked to.

In that same vein, AC3 (coming in first quarter 2012) will be a completely new lead (I am starting to think that it will be Desmond as the actual physical Assasin and it will take place in 2012 with no need for an Animus or anything) which could be anytime between Ezio's era (1500's) to the present...and the story will conclude with the whole thing acting like a trilogy. So hopefully the story will be thicker in the 3rd one and maybe win back some magic from the depth of awesome story in AC1. Who knows, and only time will tell, but I don't think Brotherhood is meant to be looked at as anything other than an expansion pack for AC2. MHO anyways.