The
Assassin’s Creed series is one of my all-time favorite videogame series, so,
now that I’m caught up on them, I’ve decided to give an overall review of them –
broken down by each game, highlighting the pros and cons.
The overarching
plot of the series is about a secret war that has been raging in our world
between two organisations for all of recorded time. The Templars are a group of
people who believe that humanity, if left to their own devices, will constantly
be warring and self-destructive, and so they strive to gain total dominion over
the human race so that they can force them to live idealised lives, free of
free will, and thus bring about world peace. Assassins, on the other hand,
believe that all people deserve to be free to make their own decisions,
regardless of good or bad, trusting that humanity will eventually sort itself
out – and so, they fight against the Templars and other powerful leaders
seeking to subvert free will.
It’s a
fascinating, intriguing, political and philosophical plotline that is woven
through a device that allows people to explore the memories of their ancestors,
stored within their DNA – thus allowing the games to take place both in modern
times and historical. Built around conspiracy theories, the stories have enough
merit that you can almost believe the events in the games are real.
Assassin’s Creed
The first
game in the series, and the one that became so popular that all the others were
possible, was a cutting-edge game when it was released. Along with the
captivating story of an imprisoned former Assassin being forced to seek a
powerful artefact in his Crusader-times ancestor’s memories, the game brought
forth a new play style that was exactly what a lot of people wanted. Based in
stealth and parkour, the game involved running around, climbing buildings,
being sneaky and killing enemies as stealthily as possible. Of course, if you
weren’t stealthy enough, you could end up being chased by a huge mob of guards
for a very long time.
That was
the most frustrating part of the game, and probably its biggest flaw. There was
an excellent system for running away and finding a place to hide so you could
escape guards, but the further you ran, the more guards joined in the chase –
making it harder to break their line of sight long enough to hide. This no
doubt led to a great deal of rage-quitting – especially since one of these chases
could be triggered by accidentally bumping into a guard.
The other
big challenge of the game was that it was secretly a bit of a puzzle game. The
intent of the game was that you had specific targets you had to kill, and if
you didn’t do it stealthily you ended up having to fight your way through a mob
of enemies. This made a lot of logical sense, but most of the missions were set
up in a way that it was almost impossible to figure out a sneaky way to
approach your targets on your first play-through – to the point where it often
seemed like it was impossible to get a stealth kill. A challenge is all well
and good, but the game needed a little more guidance.
The final
problem in this game was that, while it was a game built around stealth, the
end-game required a large amount of melee combat with large groups of enemies –
a very frustrating circumstance, particularly because the game’s combat system –
while good – was built strongly around pushing the right buttons at precisely
the right time.
In spite of
these issues, the game was immensely fun and popular – especially for those who
enjoyed a challenge. And for those that made it through, they were met with
wonderful plot revelations that left them with more questions than they answered,
making them desperate for the next game to find out what would happen next.
Assassin’s Creed
II
The second
game learned from the problems of the first, and fixed them, making the game
play far better. The modern-day hero escaped his Templar captors to work with
the Assassins, giving a great view of both sides of the conflict. In the past,
the player was now exploring renaissance Italy, giving a look at how the Templar-Assassin
conflict grew over time.
This game
took all the raw potential of the first game and made an amazing experience,
bringing in new abilities and systems that would make this the best game in the
series for a while. For fans of the first game, it was a dream come true.
It also
added a strong educational component to the game – with a database that was
updated as the game was played, filled with write-ups on historical landmarks,
figures, and events.
As with the
previous game, this one ended with wonderful cliff-hangers for many of its
plotlines.
Assassin’s Creed
Brotherhood
This was
essentially a clone of Assassin’s Creed II, with some added abilities and some
updated game functionality. This one, however, had the historical part of the
game set it renaissance Rome. It had a lot of great story and history, as well
as some fun new functions, but by the end of the game it was getting just a bit
stale.
However,
another wonderful cliff-hanger ending kept fans on the edges of their seats,
hungry for more...
Assassin’s Creed
Revelations
Assassin’s
Creed Revelations was the first big mistake in the series. Don’t get me wrong –
it was an excellent game in its own right, but... as I said, Assassin’s Creed
Brotherhood was getting stale by the end, and this game was just more of the
same, though set in Constantinople now. Yes, there were some neat new features,
but it was just a lot more of the same.
As for
plot, the main plot was a whole lot of “more of the same” that felt like it was
there just to allow filling in blanks for various characters’ personal back
stories – which was the actual interesting part of the game.
As for the
name “Revelations”... well, after the previous game, there was really only one
thing the players wanted revealed. And it wasn’t revealed. At least, not in the
main game. There was an optional mini-game downloadable content (that you had
to purchase separately) that eventually answered the questions we actually
wanted answered. As someone who doesn’t buy DLCs, I didn’t even know about this
until its contents were referenced in the following game, and I had to
extrapolate from context. Don’t put
main plot in DLC. Just... don’t.
The ending
of this game failed to live up to the cliff-hanger expectations, though it did
point us in the direction of the next game.
Assassin’s Creed
III
This game
revitalised the series, bringing in a new combat system and a whole lot of new
abilities. It also finally brought us out of the same historical character into
the renaissance and into the time of the American Revolution. The game now
brought in wilderness mechanics, allowing for hunting and climbing trees, which
was a very fun new aspect, as well as an ability to sneak through and hide in
foliage.
The best
part, however – at least in my opinion – was almost a mini-game, involving seafaring
missions. The ship game play was so well done that I immediately wished that
they would make a pirate game.
The
historical nature of the game was really brought to the fore, as there is so
much documentation about the time period. They also did a remarkable job of
representing the aboriginal populace within the game, as the main character was
half Mohawk.
In spite of
all the good things about this game, the stoic main character lacked the appeal
of the one we had through the renaissance, which made the game a bit less
enjoyable. The plotline also became a bit disjointed; hopping from one historical
checkpoint to another.
The game
did manage to end with a cliff-hanger – not quite as good as the earlier games,
but it was designed more for shock impact, and it did its job of making the
player wonder what would come next.
Assassin’s Creed
Liberation
This wasn’t
one of the main games in the series (originally made for a handheld system),
and it showed. The plot was almost a side-story in the series – it was
interesting, but it had no impact in the grand scheme of things. This was very disappointing
to me, as the game held a great deal of potential and could have been so much
more.
Set in New
Orleans, Liberation had the first female main character in the series – and with
her came a unique system of multiple personas, which changed her abilities and
how the people in the world reacted to her: she could dress as a member of
upper-class society, a slave, or as an assassin. The possibilities with the
game play were amazing, but they were stinted by it not being made as a main
feature.
Overall,
the plot felt like a time-loop plotline, where nothing that was done seemed to
have an impact on the big picture.
Assassin’s Creed
IV: Black Flag
Black Flag
was an instant hit, and in my opinion is still the best Assassin’s Creed game
to date. It took that mini-game from Assassin’s Creed III and made a full game
out of it – Assassins as pirates in the tropics. You would think that the game
would focus entirely on the seafaring aspect, but on land they had all the
great stuff in the previous game and more.
The one
downside to this game was that it continued with the disjointed plot points of
the previous, only slightly worse. In spite of that, the overall plot lines
were glorious, giving everything desired from an Assassin’s Creed game.
Not only
did the game end with a satisfying cliff-hanger, but it expanded upon the
illusion that the in-game events were really happening in our world in a
thoroughly enjoyable way. If you only ever play one game in this series, this
should be the one.
Assassin’s Creed
Rogue
This game
was once described to me as a “consolation prize” for people who hadn’t
upgraded to the most recent generation of gaming systems, which had Assassin’s
Creed Unity being released on them at the same time. After playing both games,
I strongly disagree.
Taking place
in the northern seas, Rogue is very much a clone of Black Flag for game play,
but it has an important twist: for the first time, we are playing as on the
Templar side of the game, giving us a deeper insight into what has always been
presented as the “enemy” side of the story. Apart from having an excellent plot
on its own, it also fills in some plot gaps that were chronologically in
between Black Flag and Assassin’s Creed III.
While it
didn’t have the greatest ending of the games in the series, it wasn’t disappointing
either.
Assassin’s Creed
Unity
The makers
of this game made a very bold leap with this game, and they clearly had very
good intentions, but it didn’t work out quite the way they hoped. Taking place
during the French Revolution, this game had great historical insight to the
times, but the main plot could have been a bit better. It was, unfortunately,
sidetracked by the desire to make the game a multiplayer experience. It was a
really cool idea – having teams of assassins working together on missions – but
it was brought out on a system which required payment for multiplayer, which
limited the pool of people who were playing. Having had other multiplayer modes
in earlier games, I think bringing multiplayer into the story mode of the game
was something players wanted – it just didn’t play out as well as everyone
hoped.
In spite of
that, this game doesn’t deserve the bad reputation is has. It wasn’t great, but
neither was it horrible. It also brought in some awesome puzzle-based side
quests – solving riddles and murder mysteries – which I found were a very
enjoyable addition to the gameplay.
Like
Liberation, however, the overall plot seemed to have little to no impact on the
overall plot of the series. Rogue, to me, was certainly the better of these simultaneously
released games.
Assassin’s Creed
Syndicate
Now, this
was an exciting game. Taking place in London, England, during the Industrial
Revolution, this game brought so many new aspects to the game: trains,
carriages, and a few slightly more technological tools than were previously
available. In addition, there were two
main characters to play in the game – twin brother and sister – which you could
switch between, though each also had their own private missions. This gave the
game two parallel plotlines in the historical times, as well as bonus sections occurring
during the world wars.
The game play
was wonderful (keeping, though to a lesser extent, the riddles and murder
mysteries of Unity), but the plot – while excellent – took on an almost comedic
tone at some points, breaking the willing suspension of disbelief that the series
is so good at achieving. The ending was also very good, but it didn’t have
quite the “I have to know what happens next!” of many of the previous games.
Assassin’s Creed
Origins
This game
was striving to remake the series, which it did need to keep the game play from
growing stale. It did a good job of it, too – not perfect, but it shows great
promise for the future of the series.
Taking us
into ancient Egypt this time, this game took place during the time of
Cleopatra. It also completely remade the combat system, and brought the players
into a completely open world experience. It was an excellent game, but it felt
a bit like a game that was exploring new territory and wasn’t sure what to do
with it yet.
The plot
was descent – captivating enough to keep me interested, but it felt a bit like
the game makers didn’t entirely know how to handle a game world as big as this
one, making it seem stretched and spread thin. Still, in the scheme of the
series, it gave a lot of good information. The ending, however, was a bit
lacking – to the point where I wasn’t even completely certain the game had ended.
I was convinced there had to be a “second ending”, but there wasn’t.
There was,
however, a great new addition to the game. Gone were the historical entries on everything
during the game, but replacing it was a virtual tour mode of the game, where
you got to explore the game without the combat aspects and could take guided
tours that taught what the teams learned during their research. It was a very fun
and interactive way to explore the history of Egypt.
And that
brings us up to date on the latest game. In spite of the disappointing ending
of the last one, I’m still excited to see what will come next. The new
direction brought by Origins suggests great potential for the future games.
Will the series live up to that potential? I like to think so – the game makers
aren’t perfect, but they have shown a remarkable ability to adapt and adjust
what they create when their games don’t perform as well as they hoped.
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