The Assassin's Creed Series

callaway92 · 09-08-2012 3:42am #1

Hello,

A friend of mine is heading away for a few months so gave me a load of his games which include Assassin's Creed I, II, Brotherhood & Revelations.

All I've heard really are good stuff about these. He said it can get a little tedious throughout, but stick with it and enjoy it.

I've played around 20 minutes of the first one and can't seem to get into it. Who are my enemies etc. Is the object to be 100% stealthy when possible, unless mandatory to fight. The combat system is pretty weak too I think. 1 button fighting.

I want to play it, but would like opinions on it. Is it like Metal Gear Solid??

Favourite games/series are Metal Gear Solids and Uncharteds.

Ty.

Mr Blobby · 09-08-2012 4:52am

First one I found boring ..... But the second one was amazing.

I'd say stick through the first one and then start enjoying the rest.
Combat wise I found it hard to be stealthy in the first and everything turned
Into a one button counter fight.

But AC2 was a lot better in that regard.

I should also get praise for replying to your comment at 4:52am

Helix · 09-08-2012 5:47am

start with ac2, then play 1

otherwise you'll never be able to do it

Josey Wales · 09-08-2012 8:32am

I think you should just stop playing AC1 and read about the story on Wikipedia or watch the cut-scenes on YouTube.

Then play the rest of them. AC2 and Brotherhood are two of the best games this generation. I think Brotherhood is actually the best of the AC games because it introduces the element of having a group of assassins to call on when you need them.

Revelations is good too but not quite up to the previous two.

Retr0gamer · 09-08-2012 9:03am

Have to agree, you shouldn't bother with AC1 at all. It's a really poor game. They fixed that for the sequel though.

Zero-Cool · 09-08-2012 9:13am

Agree with the above. I tried to play through AC 1 twice but got stuck on the same point around the 4th or 5th missions both times, just so boring. It put me off playing AC 2 for ages but turns out AC 2 was my GOTY when I played it.

Watch vids on youtube for story on AC 1 and lash straight into AC 2! Brotherhood adds to it nicely but Revelations will leave a bitter taste (imo)

Penn · 09-08-2012 9:14am

Yeah, skip AC1. Maybe check out the ending on Youtube or something. Most of what you need to know is explained in a quick recap when you start ACII anyway. ACII fixes everything that was wrong with AC, improves everything that was good about it, and then adds in a whole bunch of new stuff which is all brilliant. Genuinely one of the best games I've ever played.

TrustedApple · 09-08-2012 11:24am

Callaway dont waste your time with number one as it well bore you to death. Even if you dont pay it your missing notting what so ever. I played nmber 1 when it 1st came out still cant believe i paid 70 euro for it

Number 2 is maybe one of the best games of all time in my book fixs everything that was wrong with the 1st one. Has a very good story and great game play.

Brotherhood fixed a few things from number one and is great game which is just set in one city EG Rome and its huge EG GTA size city.

Revelations is more of the same of number 2 and Brotherhood. I found it hard to go back and play the game as it was the 3rd year in a row i played AS Creed but still its a good game.

Number 2 onwards plays a lot like Uncharteds with the jumping around the buildings and running. The stealth part you can get away with just running away if you dont wont to fight. The fighting is a lot better in number when you find out how to counter and block the fighting is very good when you take out maybe 7 people at the same time is great.

Assassins cread is my 2nd game series this gen after Uncharted. Just dont play number one. But number is when the game gets good. Hope you enjoy playing it callaway

C14N · 09-08-2012 12:34pm

I disagree with the posters above me that AC1 is a poor game. It's not great by any means, but it's passable in quality. If it were one game in isolation I would tell people not to get it but it is part of an excellent series. When it first came out I was horribly disappointed by it because I had similar expectations to you. I thought it would be a stealthy game but it isn't at all so just forget that straight away. Generally the only stealth involved is when you try to evade guards but it's usually as easy to just kill them all. When I went back to play it again, it wasn't as bad.

Stuff like the combat does pick up over time as you get new weapons and moves (counter really makes it more satisfying).

I recommend ploughing through it (honestly, 20 minutes? give it a chance! 20 minutes barely gets you passed the opening cutscenes) because it's not a very long game (I'd say about 8 hours it took me). The story is the main reason for this because I don't really think you get it properly from just reading Wikipedia. Not that you won't understand it, just that it won't be told as well since you won't get to learn about all the stuff in the middle and in Desmond's world.

The series does get better though with AC2. The general gameplay mechanics are tightened up and there's more variety than the first (which basically has you repeat the format of "do 2 of 3 side quests, then assassinate a guy".

Brotherhood and Revelations are essential for the story although you'll want to breeze through them because after 3 games it does start to feel a little stale.

callaway92 · 09-08-2012 2:37pm

Thanks for the replies yo'

I think I'll play through the first one just so I can understand the story 100% and the next games will be that bit more enjoyable knowing it all. I was hoping it would be more stealth oriented, but oh well!

Hopefully it won't be a chore though!

Thanks

Retr0gamer · 09-08-2012 2:40pm

callaway92 wrote: »

Hopefully it won't be a chore though!

The worst thing about the game is it feels like a chore.

Sarky · 09-08-2012 2:47pm

Stealth really has its place in the AC series. Not hiding in the shadows, but just not being seen, being subtle, moving with the crowd, hiding in plain sight stuff.

I actually miss some of the features from AC1. There was a lot more emphasis on finding out where your target would be and discovering a way to him that wouldn't attract attention, and there was considerable satisfaction in pulling it off, particularly if you managed to kill only your target. I'd have loved if they could have kept some of that in the following games.

Zomg Okay · 09-08-2012 2:52pm

I honestly enjoyed the first Assassin's Creed, enough that I've played through it at least three times. The investigations are repetitive, I'll grant that. But I really enjoyed the assassination missions by using a bit of imagination - planning out how I was going to get my target quietly and then trying to escape, rather than just fighting my way in and then fighting my way out like most people seem to do.

As for the combat being repetitive, a "one button" affair, just mix it up! If you only do counters for every fight of course it will get boring. Shake things up a bit, instead of always countering just go on the offensive from time to time, or throw a guy on the floor, run up a building and start throwing your knives. Maybe push a few guards off the roof once they catch up.

Sarky · 09-08-2012 2:55pm

Aye, I always thought AC1 was only as fun as you were prepared to make it (And thus I always saw it as mental stabby-stabby-leg-it-away mayhem>_>). AC2 really handed you too much, the story was much more focused, but it imposed a lot of restrictions on the missions.

johnny_ultimate · 09-08-2012 3:01pm

There's a good interview with Patrice Désilets in Edge this month about the first game, and he maintains that the first game is his personal favourite. He says that they really had to take away a lot of the player freedom present first time around to create a more accessible experience for the subsequent games.

The actual assassinations in the first game are still excellent and allow creativity (shame they're punctuated by those infuriating dialogues), but it's the stuff surrounding it to fluff it out - all the races, eavesdropping and other repetitive sub-missions - that drags it down. I'd still argue that Assassin's Creed built one of the most convincing, unusual and truly 'next-gen' gameworlds of this console generation, and the engine was terrifically designed from the off. As a sandbox and a place to explore Assassins Creed offered much of interest - but unfortunately you had to do stuff to make 'progress' in it. With the addition of a new, interesting protagonist, better designed 'content' and more variety the sequel allowed more people to experience a lot of what Assassins Creed had to offer, and IMO it's certainly a superior game to the first because of all that.

Shiminay · 09-08-2012 3:07pm

We have to remember too that AC1 was pretty much breaking new ground when it appeared too and that the levels of polish, combined with the removal of things that piss people off in 2, Brotherhood and Revelations have coloured the view of 1.

There was quite a bit of repetition in 1 in terms of how it made you scout out each "hit" you were going to do, but you didn't actually have to do all that if you didn't want to (it just gave you some pretty useful clues about stealthy approaches to the target etc).

If you see it somewhere on the cheap OP, definitely pick it up, if anything you'll appreciate the tweaks and updates to the follow ups all the more.

Fritzl Funderland · 09-08-2012 3:10pm

callaway92 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies yo'

I think I'll play through the first one just so I can understand the story 100% and the next games will be that bit more enjoyable knowing it all. I was hoping it would be more stealth oriented, but oh well!

Hopefully it won't be a chore though!

Thanks

get playing them as theres a new AC comin out in a few months

Retr0gamer · 09-08-2012 3:18pm

There were levels of creativity in the Assassination missions? That's not the game I played. There was a way to get to the target in some missions and take only them out but there was only one way to do it. It wasn't breaking any new ground really when you compare the game to the likes of the Hitman series that allowed a lot of creativity and variation in how you carried out assassinations. Even then a lot of the time when you wanted to take some one out on their own the game wouldn't let you due to the assassination being scripted. Even the supposedly unscripted ones were quite scripted, in one I killed the target by knocking him off the building, well more like glitched him off it and then the cutscene plays of me on top of him with a knife in him having a chat which was completely jarring.

I remember the E3 video they showed where the assassinations were looking very like the open ended Hitman assassinations but in game it was totally different.

spankmaster2000 · 09-08-2012 3:24pm

For me anyway; I'd rank them as follows:

1. Assassins Creed 2
2. Brotherhood
2. Assassins Creed 1
3. Revelations

Helix · 09-08-2012 4:04pm

[QUOTE=callaway92;80147416
I think I'll play through the first one just so I can understand the story 100% and the next games will be that bit more enjoyable knowing it all.[/QUOTE]

yeah...

that's not going to work out how you planned it

krudler · 09-08-2012 4:08pm

I like the AC games but hate the amount of padding in them, from collecting 100 of x, y and z to kitting out a house it seems like so much stuff stuck in there for no reason. AC2 is great though, the assassins tombs levels are fantastic.

CastorTroy · 09-08-2012 4:09pm

I remember the press conferences for the first one featuring Jade Raymond. Think there was something about the game as well.

I plan on playing through them at some point. At least by the time I manage that the complete edition of 3 should be out

danthefan · 09-08-2012 4:16pm

I'd skip 1 tbh, just read the story online somewhere. The second is just so much better in terms of gameplay.

Penn · 09-08-2012 5:31pm

krudler wrote: »

I like the AC games but hate the amount of padding in them, from collecting 100 of x, y and z to kitting out a house it seems like so much stuff stuck in there for no reason.

In fairness, most games have that sort of stuff. Maybe the AC ones aren't as well implemented as most others, but every game needs some padding. It got better when you can buy maps and stuff for the collection items rather than having to try and find them. Also depends on what you unlock for collecting items etc.

C14N · 09-08-2012 7:55pm

krudler wrote: »

I like the AC games but hate the amount of padding in them, from collecting 100 of x, y and z to kitting out a house it seems like so much stuff stuck in there for no reason. AC2 is great though, the assassins tombs levels are fantastic.

That stuff was all optional though. In AC1 the number of collectables was insane, I would be surprised if anyone went to the effort of getting them all.

One piece of advice I do have for the OP though is that in either Brotherhood or AC2 (can't remember which) there is a sidequest that involves searching for glowing patches on the side of landmarks and when they're found you're given a series of puzzles to complete. Definitely go for these.

I know a lot of people who never even bothered but they're well worth it. You get drip fed more backstory about historical conspiracies involving the Abstergo corporation and tiny snippets of a video clip with each one. Imo it was a small piece of genius storytelling and it alone made the games so much more enjoyable for me.

Sarn · 10-08-2012 5:41pm

C14N wrote: »

One piece of advice I do have for the OP though is that in either Brotherhood or AC2 (can't remember which) there is a sidequest that involves searching for glowing patches on the side of landmarks and when they're found you're given a series of puzzles to complete. Definitely go for these.

It's AC2, the satisfaction when you get the last symbol is great. I rented AC1 and finished it over a weekend, didn't bother with anything but the main storyline and enjoyed it. I've only played the first two and found by the end of the second I was getting fairly tired of the similar gameplay, but did get through all of the DLC and did most of the side quests so hardly surprising. Will get the others eventually.

Sephiroth_dude · 10-08-2012 5:44pm

Ya I Found the 1st one really boring after a while,haven't played any of the rest

The Assassin's Creed Series

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