Second Look - Assassin's Creed

Note: This review contains spoilers for Assassin’s Creed.

When I last played the original Assassin’s Creed in 2011, I didn’t think as much of it in comparison to other entries in the series and even wrote a review that, regrettably, didn't go into nearly enough detail. While playing the Sands of Time Trilogy on the PS2, however, I was intrigued by this game’s connection to Prince of Persia. After development of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time finished, director Patrice Désilets started work on another entry for seventh-generation hardware. As more information about those systems came to light, he considered an assassin character in an open world setting and called it Prince of Persia: Assassin. During development, however, the story and gameplay took on its own identity, which resulted in 2007’s Assassin’s Creed. With this knowledge, I replayed the game and found it not only better than I remembered, but a real breath of fresh air after the overly bloated direction of modern Assassin’s Creed titles.

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (PS3)

Five years after The Two Thrones, and two years after a failed Prince of Persia reboot, Ubisoft released The Forgotten Sands as a tie-in to the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time film. Despite this, however, The Forgotten Sands is actually the collective title of four games set between the events of The Sands of Time and Warrior Within, with a different story and gameplay style between each platform (PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360; Wii; Nintendo DS; and PSP). Due to timing, the PS3 version of The Forgotten Sands was actually my first exposure to Prince of Persia and I remember enjoying it back in 2010 before I picked up the PS2 games or was even aware of the differences in other platforms. Ten years later, I returned to The Forgotten Sands after giving myself the full context of the PS2 trilogy and, while it did mess with my muscle memory, I still had a good time.

Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones

Only a year after Warrior Within, Ubisoft completed the Sands of Time trilogy of the Prince of Persia series with the third installment, The Two Thrones. Although it shares the same director as the previous installment, The Two Thrones notably saw a shift back towards the style of the first game, The Sands of Time, and was met with positive reviews on release. Considering the general improvements made to the experience, this praise feels deserved. That said, it does feel like a compromise between The Sands of Time and Warrior Within, for better or worse.

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within

One year after the success of The Sands of Time had revitalized the Prince of Persia brand, Ubisoft released a sequel, Warrior Within. While it did receive generally positive reception, it notably had no involvement from Jordan Mechner, who didn’t like the darker direction the studio had taken the game compared to The Sands of Time. After finally playing Warrior Within for myself, I can see why.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (Game)

If there’s one series that has unfortunately faded into obscurity, it’s Ubisoft’s Prince of Persia, created by Jordan Mechner. Despite the prestige brought on by the Sands of Time trilogy, Ubisoft’s focus shifted to other endeavors, like Assassin’s Creed, and the general public stopped talking about it. With a remake of the first game, The Sands of Time, in the works, I finally played the original release, which has a reputation as one of the best games ever made, plus a script written by Jordan Mechner himself. Fortunately, this game lives up to its reputation and combines story and gameplay in ways that I wished more games had attempted.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game (PS3)

Back in 2010, Ubisoft developed and released Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game as a tie-in to Universal’s Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, both based on the Scott Pilgrim series of graphic novels. Though the game released to critical acclaim, Ubisoft delisted it and its DLC from digital storefronts on December 30, 2014, as Universal’s license expired. For the longest time, no new users could play it legally and the game subsequently turned into a poster child for the dangers of digital-only titles. However, in August 2020, Ubisoft struck a deal and announced a miraculous re-release, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game – Complete Edition, which would also include both pieces of DLC. To tie in with this new release, it felt right to go back and play my copy of the game to see how well it held up after a decade. It turns out that it aged pretty well, but there’s still some jank that I hope the re-release irons out.

Watch Dogs - A Bold New IP That Needs A Little Work

In actuality the very top is replaced with the new blue PS3 banner,
but this is the best I could find.

During E3 2012, Ubisoft announced a new IP called Watch Dogs (stylized WATCH_DOGS) which aimed to focus on a hacking mechanic in an open world Chicago. While watching Sony's E3 2013 press conference, I got a better look at the game and found it to be an interesting idea, so much so that I ended up pre-ordering it at San Diego Comic-Con 2013. Initially my pre-order was more of an excuse to get a free shirt, but since then I decided I might as well play the game anyway due to the interesting concept. When I got my copy I also had to deal with finals in college, hence why the review was delayed until now. Looking back on it, I’d say that Watch Dogs is a very interesting new IP, though it definitely needs to make some improvements if it wants to survive as a series for more than a game or two.

Watch Dogs follows the story of Aiden Pearce, a vigilante hacker whose niece was tragically, and inadvertently, killed in a car accident caused by an attempt on his life. Since then, he’s been hunting for the person responsible for her death and, eleven months later, by using a backdoor in Chicago’s ctOS system, he finds the hitman, Maurice Vega. At first, Aiden believes that the hit on him was ordered because of a failed robbery he orchestrated at the Merlaut Hotel, since Maurice wouldn’t tell him anything. However, as he investigates further, he realizes that there is more to it than he thought and tries to find the source of it all. Not far into his investigation however, his family is dragged into the conflict as a man named Damien kidnaps Aiden’s sister, Nicole. To save her, Aiden complies with Damien’s requests and, over the course of the game, is surprised to learn just how complicated the web of connections is to find the one who ordered his hit.

Aiden Pearce in his default outfit.

When the story began, I was hooked on learning more about the world until the very end. The web of intrigue and the political involvement, not to mention the corporate elite in general, made the story that much more fascinating to play through. That said though, it’s also a bit generic. Aiden Pearce is a man motivated by revenge and he has to go from one place to another while dealing with gangs and bosses, all while speaking with something akin to a Christian Bale Batman voice. I was able to get into him anyway, but his lack of real character development got me to focusing on the side characters which turned out to be much more interesting to follow from time to time. For example, there’s a gang member with the nickname Bedbug who’s not only a little dense, but he’s shown to have a very wide range of emotions. During his involvement with Pearce, they never meet face-to-face and Bedbug is terrified the entire time, added to him being afraid to directly confront his boss and having a home life where even his Grandma thinks he’s a loser; it’s enough to genuinely feel sorry for him.

There’s also an antagonist, a hacker name Defalt, who is hinted at through the story, but once he finally shows up, he’s powerful enough to be on equal footing with Pearce. His unique presence, including being an expy of Deadmau5, got me wondering why the game wasn’t structured around him being the ultimate villain. In fact, I found his part of the story to be much more interesting, but felt disappointed by this portion lasting only a few missions and ending with a very unceremonious disposal of him.

Defalt is actually a very interesting antagonist.
Also, why isn't there a Defalt outfit?

Like the story, the gameplay is also pretty uneven. I’d like to begin with the game’s main gimmick, which is the ability to hack at the push of a button. The concept of hacking in an open world is a cool one, which Watch Dogs thankfully pulls off very well. By holding down a single button, just about anything can be accessed or altered in some way, such as screwing around with traffic lights or peering through cameras to hack from further away. You can even hack civilians for quick cash or other great rewards, including the locations of certain side quests or caches. Hacking is also helpful during a police chase, since you can impede their progress by activating blockers or combusting steam pipes. I also liked that hacking isn’t a mini-game that imitates any form of Hollywood hacking, but rather is explained by using backdoors or other exploits to gain access to that part of ctOS. There are some instances where a mini-game is used, which I guess would play the Hollywood hacking a little straight, but when that happens it becomes an interesting breed of puzzle game that I enjoyed playing through.

This leads into something which can negate the wondrous idea of open-world hacking: gunplay. Aiden has access to a sizable selection of weaponry, with some guns obviously being more effective than others, although it isn’t always required. Guns can affect how you are viewed by the residents of Chicago depending on how you use them, including robbing stores or killing criminals unnecessarily, but there are points in the game where stealth and hacking simply won’t be an option. A silenced pistol will help with the stealth option to minimize detection in missions which require going through small areas populated with enemies, but it would be a little better if the hacking had more emphasis in the grand scheme of things. I’ll repeat that I liked the hacking, and it works really well, but the fact that most of the time you use it to blow stuff up or spy on people takes a little of the fun away from such an amazing idea. If the environment could be solved more like a puzzle just by hacking, then I might have felt more powerful in a bold new way, as opposed to someone armed to the teeth that can also hack to get the job done. It’s not a total waste of a perfectly good gimmick, but it’s enough to wish that the developers had focused more on stealth, which is the more entertaining way to play.

If only pure hacking was more of an option.

But Aiden can do more than just hack with his Smartphone. He also has access to a variety of apps, one of which acts as a manual of sorts for the game; it’s not a manual like ones that would comes with games in the olden days, but it’s not like the game doesn’t kind of tell what you can do as you go anyway. You can also check your progress or spend skill points to improve various aspects of the gameplay, including more things to hack or better driving and combat skills. One very useful app is the ability to summon any car you want on demand (as long as it fits into a list), which will materialize at the nearest spot to you to minimize the pain of getting one. Cars, motorcycles and trucks, to name some types, all have their own sub-lists and individual stats, which help making a selection easier. Of course the actual driving is an interesting subject, since the physics are a little floaty, as in the game itself is pretty good about the realism until it comes to colliding with any car or object (or even just turning/drifting). Steering is a little hard to accomplish because the cars are a bit sensitive to the controls and objects will comically fly about once you hit them, including phone lines and highway barriers (those yellow things that resembles trash cans and are filled with water or sand). It’s not impossible to get through the game anyhow, since I managed to drive my way across the city with little problem, but when it does get in your way, it really gets in your way; alternatively you can make a game out of it and see how closely you can total your car between points A and B.

One of the most fun apps by far though is the one for Digital Trips. Digital Trips are side games that you can play, which are similar to the VR game interactions spread across the city, but are far more immersive by putting you in an unconscious dream state, with someone even explicitly stating that they aren’t drugs. Digital Trips have you accomplishing certain objectives for skill points which you can use on each game’s individual skill wheel. The Trips end when you either fulfill all of the objectives or fail to meet one in an allotted time frame (or, in the case of one Trip, die). Obviously they get progressively difficult and it can get easier to screw up, but overall it’s fun to play each of the four Trips: Alone, Madness, Spider Tank and Psychedelic. My only real complaint beyond this is that there is a fifth Digital Trip, Conspiracy, which is DLC only, but the game actually went out of its way to not only place it in the Digital Trips app, but also plaster “Downloadable Content” on it and have selecting it take you to the DLC store. I don’t mind DLC normally, since I can choose to ignore it, but having it be advertised when it’s not a main menu announcement is going a little far for my tastes.

But on the other hand this Spider Tank is really awesome.

The Digital Trips aren’t the only major distraction however, since there are a number of side missions to partake in, some of which have their own storylines. Completing these missions in full can be very satisfying or, in the case of the Missing Persons cases, terrifying. When not uncovering a Weapons Trade operation or locating Burner Phones though, there’s always the ability to stop a crime or the Privacy Invasion side missions that will essentially grant you free experience or cash. These distractions are by now an essential element of an open world game and it’s good that there is pretty good execution to boot. Since I pre-ordered the game, I also had access to an exclusive mission, The Palace, but I didn’t really get very far because when I tried playing it, I kept running into a broken checkpoint that prevented me from going any further. You see, you’re supposed to go to the mansion of SoSueMe and hack his stuff before chasing him. When it gets to the part where you have to chase him and the checkpoint does work, it’s an exercise in frustration because you have to wait for a cutscene to end and then go down a specific winding path to catch him. When it doesn’t work however, he doesn’t even enter his car and you can kill him, but it will generate an invincible rag doll that will perpetually have an objective icon and can’t be removed no matter what you do (even if you grenade blast him to the nearby riverbed and make him fall through the game world).

In fact, glitches turned out to be a part of the experience in general. There’s nothing too game breaking, the worst is usually water not reacting to bullets, but sometimes there wouldn’t be a single car on the road at all. During a certain mission near the end of the game, I swear that Chicago turned into a large scale ghost town, since no one was around and, once, the only parked vehicles were motorcycles (how oddly specific). This was especially annoying since I was, by design apparently, unable to avoid the cops chasing me, which necessitated a vehicle despite none being around. I had to resort to stealing a police car right in front of them, which solved the problem for a bit until I found out that dying was the only surefire way to get cars (and people!) to finally spawn. It feels as though there was some sort of miscommunication (or lack thereof) with QA or they couldn’t fix that in time for release.

Fortunately, the PS3-exclusive hour of content was free from glitches. It consists of four missions, Ctrl, Alt, Delete and Shut Down. These involve Aiden working with the hacking collective DedSec to steal data from another group and use it to upload a virus to cripple them without being seen. The missions themselves amount to three tailing missions and a stealth/defense mission. I actually enjoyed these for the most part due to their simplicity and you may not be missing too much should you go away from the PlayStation versions. However, I always prefer the option where I get more out of my game, so I would encourage prospective players to take this into consideration.

Of course, one of the most hyped features about Watch Dogs was the ability for players to hack each other’s games via asynchronous multiplayer. I only took advantage of the Online Hacking option (there’s also Online Tailing and Racing), but I got the gist of how the logistics work. In Online Hacking, you invade someone else’s game either on a whim or encouraged by them having a bounty. When inside, you then install a backdoor and try to steal their data to benefit your game, though you have to be careful not to get caught; when on the receiving end of the invasion, it’s up to you to track down where the invader is and kill/neutralize them before they have a chance to do anything. Whenever I was hacking someone, I felt a huge adrenaline rush as I hoped that they wouldn’t find me, leading me to conclude that the mode is absolutely terrifying to initiate. Being on the receiving end however is a different story, since I’ve been successfully hacked a couple times but then figured out that the best way to quickly take someone down is to make sure you are in an isolated area or one with only one or two entry points to more easily pick them off. This mode works very well and it’s good that such a natural extension of the game’s gimmick is a success.

When you see this, it's time to act fast.

The most common complaint people would likely have about Watch Dogs is the graphics. The E3 trailers had very advanced graphics and looked very nice, which served as a heavy contrast to a later trailer displaying toned down capabilities. At first I sort of cared, but then once I played I didn’t really care. The graphics are still very nice and detailed, with great cloth and hair physics to boot, plus I didn’t really notice too much of a difference anyway.

I’m pretty impressed with the voice acting, particularly from the side characters, and was surprised to learn that Aisha Tyler has a physical presence in the game, so when I see her now I’ll be able to recognize her. No real complaints with voice acting (I usually never do unless it’s bad or wooden). As for the music, the licensed stuff is just all right, I even made an in-game playlist of the songs that I did like, but the original score is amazing. It captures just the right feel for each scene and is also very listenable to boot. If I see a soundtrack for it, I’d totally think about buying it.

Overall, Watch Dogs is pretty good game, though more by virtue of not being bad. There are some really great ideas in here, but for everything good there’s usually something else that almost negates it, resulting in a package that more or less (and more accurately) is just okay. If they had ironed out some of the bugs, emphasized the hacking more or had something that was more tonally equal, then this could easily have been a real gem. But as it stands, the questions it raises aren’t explored enough, especially given the world at the time of this writing, and the main character isn’t completely interesting. I ended up liking the game anyway, but prospective buyers should consider if this is really the game for them. If you’re totally sold on the game though, and the graphics are really important to you, then consider buying a PS4 copy to get a little more bang for your buck.

[OLD] Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag - The High Seas Caesar

Over the last couple of years or so I have become more of a fan of the Assassin’s Creed franchise. Each game has managed to improve on the last one in some way, but also introduced ideas that don’t really pan out very well. This became more pronounced when the franchise started going to a yearly release schedule with Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and Revelations, which helped pave the way for the divisive Assassin’s Creed III (though this divisiveness came more from reactions to the main character and setting). That said, it was a little surprising to me that they would announce a fourth numbered game shortly after the last, but I was still on board anyway and wanted to find out what it was like. Though I had pre-ordered Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and picked up on the day of release, I was only able to play it after finishing a couple other reviews after college finals, so I apologize for that delay on my end. Once I finished it, I did find myself overall liking this game more than its predecessors.

Black Flag follows the life of Edward Kenway, aka Connor’s grandfather. Edward wants to impress his estranged wife, Caroline, by becoming a “man of quality” and making a lot of money. To accomplish this, he becomes a privateer for the navy. While out to sea, he turns to pirating and ends up killing an Assassin named Duncan Walpole and taking what’s on his person. Afterwards, he meets up with Templars and, in the guise of Walpole, sells off valuable information that concerns the Assassins. Later in Nassau, after freeing a man named Adéwalé, he forms his own pirate crew and gains his own ship, which he dubs the Jackdaw. In search of further fortune, he ends up on a search for a place called the Observatory and eventually finds out just how big of a mistake he made in his meeting with the Templars.

The story moves along at a pretty good pace and is written well to boot. I was very fascinated by the information the player is given about the Templars and the First Civilization, as well as a more in-depth look at the titular Assassin’s Creed: “Nothing is true. Everything is permitted”. Edward is a man who at first runs his life purely out of love for money and with a blatant disregard for the safety and livelihood of everyone around him, even the allies who begin to trust him. As a result, he kind of deserves all of the scorn that he gets for his initial philosophy and way of life. Not only do I like having a protagonist in the franchise who is this deeply flawed, as opposed to a total ladies man, I also found it to make his character development later in the game that much more satisfying as he comes to realize the consequences of his actions. He does try to right his wrongs throughout the story, especially in a particular lengthy side quest, but eventually he grows to care about more than simply monetary gain and it was nice to see him fully understand the meaning behind the Assassin’s Creed and care for the lives of others. This real progression of character is what helps make him my favorite Assassin yet.

Yes, that is Blackbeard (left) and Black Bart (right) with Edward Kenway (middle).

Of course, the other half of the story is the modern day segments, which I found to be handled surprisingly well. Rather than focusing on a single Desmond-like character using the Animus, it follows an unnamed Abstergo Entertainment employee who is hired to look into the life of Edward Kenway and help the company get footage for a couple of their upcoming projects, those being a video game and a feature film. Since these segments are also in first-person, this implies that the employee is you, specifically, which helps some of the bigger twists in the story carry more impact. Also, in an effort to appeal to everyone, these segments are deliberately designed so that you can spend either a few minutes or a few hours trying to explore everything and learn more, so if you really dislike the modern day parts of the story, you can pretty much skip them entirely. This is a great move, though I ended up trying to get everything in the modern day anyway and one should be aware that there are points where you must interact with the real world to advance the plot.

In an intriguing twist, the setting of Black Flag is in a time before the events of Assassin’s Creed III, taking place in the Golden Age of Piracy instead of Colonial America. As such, the world itself is quite different, taking place in a much larger section of the globe. There are many different islands to explore, both big and small, all with varied environments that help them stand out from each other much more than Colonial America (though I wish to stress that I liked Colonial America anyway because my ancestors were involved in America all the way back to the Mayflower). I noticed a brighter color palette with Black Flag, which is actually very realistic and sells the very open setting as well as highlighting the high level of detail put into every part of the environment. The water is also very well animated, though I must say that the splash animations were a little sub-par. In any case, this is definitely the best looking Assassin’s Creed game yet.

True Fast Travel is a returning feature from Assassin’s Creed III, which is good because the world of Black Flag is absolutely gigantic. Getting to a spot on an island on foot isn’t so bad, but bigger levels may require you to traverse through dense jungles, so Fast Travelling on larger islands is more attractive. To get between individual islands however, you may need to sail all the way from one island to the next, which can take a really long time. There are ways to ease the length of the journey, but unlocking Fast Travel points becomes absolutely essential to cut down on travel time if you’re trying to go to a very specific location. Fluid movement among the platforms and trees is a returning element as well, albeit much more refined and less glitchy than before.

In searching for an appropriate image, I am assured that
this represents at least part of the game's world.

Combat is pretty similar to that of Assassin’s Creed III, but at the same time it seemed to be missing some features that I liked from the latter. Edward can still dual wield swords, but the effectiveness is limited to the individual stats of the swords, which was a little disappointing due to the lack of a single weapon to rely on. Unarmed combat and wristblade-only combat is also pretty much useless, a major disappointment as I had to depend almost purely on my swords to quickly get rid of enemies. Guns are also a viable option, though if you want to rapidly chain shots together, which you can with up to four shots, you have to wait a bit for Edward to reload before you can do that cool feature if you’ve fired already, and even then I was never able to reload back up to four (I have no idea if that was tied to my upgrade choices, so that could just be player error). Thankfully the momentum-based combat is still present, but the toughest enemies still can’t be taken down through this method, which awkwardly forced me to resort to breaking their guard even with a number of the enemies around me. This situation worsens as soon as a grenade gets thrown, so there was hardly an opportunity to kill a group with momentum alone. The blowpipe and rope dart also return for use both in combat and in the field, though the rope dart arrived too late in the game for me to really integrate it into my strategy all that well, though firing darts in the field is a good way to thin out the enemy forces before initiating combat. Also, smoke bombs are very helpful in a pinch to quickly eliminate a wave of unnecessarily tough opposition.

Since this is a pirate game, you will see the water quite a lot, mostly if you’re travelling somewhere for the first time. Fortunately there’s a lot on offer to keep things interesting and core ship mechanics introduced in III are greatly improved upon in Black Flag. The Jackdaw was very easy to maneuver and combat between ships is very refined and much easier to execute. Naval Battles are where the most improvements were made, including the ability to fire mortars and more advanced versions of specific weaponry. It takes a little getting used to, but after that it feels very intuitive and you feel like you can take on any ship. While locked in combat between ships, you can take two routes, those being to either sink or personally raid the ship. Sinking the ship offers less of a reward, that being half of whatever cargo that ship was carrying at the time; sometimes this is unavoidable once the Jackdaw is upgraded high enough. Boarding the enemy ship after crippling it will net you all of its cargo, though you may also need to complete other objectives like killing a certain number of crew members or destroying a flag. This option is the best route for gathering supplies for upgrades, so it’s fortunate that they made Naval Battles more fun to go through.

The Jackdaw (appearance can be manipulated by the player).

With that said, upgrading the Jackdaw can be extremely difficult if you don’t know what you’re doing. You’ll not only need Reales, the currency of the game, you’ll also probably need some amount of cloth, wood or metal, sometimes a combination of them. Earning the coin is easy, since you can just sell off all of the valuable sugar and rum you find, but getting the materials presents a challenge. There are a few ways to do it, but it can take forever no matter what you do, not helped by the noticeable lack of metal compared to the other materials. For this, there is both good and bad news. The bad news is that at certain points in the story you will be forced to upgrade the Jackdaw if you want to survive, making grinding for materials a necessity. The good news is that there is an exploit you can use if you haven’t been spending your time finding ships to raid, or don’t have the time, which requires you to repeatedly destroy a downed Man-o-War at a specific point in the story (I will only say Sequence 8, Memory 1) and reloading the checkpoint over and over before quitting to the Main Menu to save everything you earned. It may take a while, and the cargo may be random, but it’s the fastest and most consistent way to get everything you may need.

While you’re out to sea, you can also complete a number of side activities, enough to keep you busy for quite a while if you’re looking to do absolutely everything possible in Black Flag. Aside from Naval Battles, you can also go harpooning for a variety of whales and sharks [NOTE: While you can hunt whales, Ubisoft has stated that they do not condone whaling and that you are able to hunt whales for the sake of historical accuracy], explore underwater wrecks or even go on treasure hunts across the different islands in the game. There’s even more to do besides those, but being able to do so much in the first place allows the water sections to have even more of a purpose and I found what I did do to be a lot of fun. I haven’t tried to collect everything yet, due to the sheer number of Animus Fragments hidden underwater for instance, but I may go back in the future to try and find everything Black Flag has to offer.

Whaling doesn't look like this, but you can hunt what you see here.

The mission structure in Black Flag is improved over its predecessor, with no difference between gameplay and story to be seen (e.g. you actually follow instead of lead). I can see that more time was put into making sure that the missions were balanced and playable, but I found myself to not enjoy doing missions as much as I did just roaming around and doing my own thing. Eventually the story missions became a little monotonous, such as having to repeatedly tail people to find out information or accomplish something. When wandering through the world I felt more freedom and less constraint from the story, but I still went through it anyway to fully unlock everything, including the rope dart and diving bell (required for underwater exploration).

Before I get to PS3-specific content, I want to note that this is the first game I’ve played where sea shanties are a feature. You can find them around the world to have your crew sing them in a manner akin to a naval jukebox. Having your crew sing a shanty can make trips on the open sea less stressful and adds a bit of atmosphere. Collecting them, however, is another story. These things fly away when you try to get them, so you end up having to chase them down and you may not get them. This led me to do one thing I had previously never thought I’d say out loud: spawn camp the sea shanty. When you know exactly where they spawn, you can simply camp where they would be and you’ll get them without any problems except for the part where you have to wait what can feel like an eternity; still worth it in the end to get some vocal variety.

Running after a sea shanty can be difficult.

Since I played the PS3 version of the game, I also got access to an additional hour of gameplay (actual completion time may vary). Surprisingly, it follows the point of view of Aveline from Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation, so it felt a bit jarring to go between protagonists and time periods for only a small amount of time. This section has Aveline freeing a slave whom Connor mentioned via letter would be of interest to her. The story was more straightforward than the game she’s actually from, though I didn’t really find any trouble with combat thanks to the über powerful machete in her possession taking down enemies with ease. It might be worth it for some fans to get the PS3 version just for this one bit of story, but it feels like it could be safely skipped as it has no bearing on the events of any of the related games (including the tangentially related Black Flag). In any event, the controls for Aveline were a little better than the Vita, so I am now curious about the HD version of her original game just to see how much differently it controls.

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag is a yearly sequel that is actually fun to play. Edward is a deeper character than others before him and his time period is a very interesting one to explore. Improvements made across the board also help his story stand out, though I think the missions were less fun than going out to sea or just running around on my own. Assassin’s Creed fans should pick this up to continue the adventure, though it is getting increasingly difficult for newcomers to jump on without spending a lot of money. This is my favorite Assassin’s Creed game yet, but I really hope that Ubisoft actually waits another year to put out the next one because playing the games is now more of a thing that happens instead of a real event worth getting excited for.

[OLD] Assassin's Creed III - New Blood

While I did start playing Assassin's Creed from the second game, I did do something last year where I played through every single game from the beginning to build up to Revelations. Personally, I felt that the first game was a somewhat rocky start, the second showed higher promise and the other two games in the Ezio trilogy showed signs of decay from having yearly releases. This year saw the release of the franchise's third major entry, Assassin's Creed III, only a couple of weeks ago to positive acclaim. Assassin's Creed has been building up to this game through the previous four, taking a total of five games to align its release with the end of this year. So now this review will try to answer the simple question of whether or not the payoff is totally worth it.

In the present day, Desmond Miles and Co. take the Apple of Eden into an underground Temple in New York constructed by the precursors. While there, they hope to use the Animus to peer into Desmond's memories and discover the location of a key that will help prevent a great disaster: a solar flare so powerful that the Earth will be destroyed on 12/21/2012. Since Desmond has learned all that he can from Altaïr ibn-La'Ahad and Ezio Auditore da Firenze, he takes to learning from following a different ancestor, a half English half Mohawk named Connor Kenway, real name Ratonhnhaké:ton (pronouned "Ra-doon-ha-gay-doon"), through the American Revolution. After his village is burned down as a child, Connor, as a teenager, learns of a destiny involving an unfamiliar symbol and heads to the home of Achilles Davenport for guidance. Though reluctant as first, Achilles agrees to help train Connor as an Assassin to combat the Templars. During his training, Connor gets involved in the events of the American Revolution and learns more about the events leading up to that faithful day in his village, as well as how much of it may involve his father, Haytham Kenway.

The story of Assassin's Creed III shows just how well the game can handle the story and tie up loose ends. There is a lot of narrative depth in both time frames, though mostly in the world of the Animus, which I found actually helped me remember smaller details about the setting better. Connor's journey is a tough one for him, but he finds the perseverance to find the Templar named Charles Lee and make him pay for the crime against his people (and is a total badass at the end when he finally offs him). It was also interesting to watch the American Revolution unfold from his point of view, partly since I have an ancestor (Major John Buttrick) who was involved in the battle of Lexington and Concord, and I trust that any creative liberties didn't get in the way of historical accuracy. I enjoyed Connor's thread and felt that his story was the overall strongest aspect of the game. While some may feel that the number of cutscenes can get in the way of this, I actually felt the opposite.

As for the present day, the story of Desmond Miles was concluded in a way that was surprisingly satisfying. I wasn't jumping for joy every time I got to control him, but he was definitely fleshed out better as a character. My least favorite bit about him was the missions he performed to gather the power sources for the precursor Temple, since the villains are defeated in a very anticlimactic fashion, but the rest of the time was certainly interesting. He has time to actually bond with his dad (voiced by John de Lancie), adding some weight to his backstory as seen in Assassin's Creed: Revelations. The information we also learn about the precursors while inserting the devices however is nothing short of fascinating, making the climax of the game more emotional and somehow transforming Desmond from a character we don't usually care about to one that we can actually feel emotion for in the final minutes. The ending, especially its twist, was pulled off rather well and can be seen as setting up a potential sequel.

The world of the Animus itself however is very impressively constructed. Between Boston, New York and the Frontier, this world is massive and simply fun to explore, though a little tiring at times. The two cities look similar to each other in some places, though I did find that enough differences existed to make them feel unique. The Frontier avoids this however by having plenty of environmental obstacles to navigate, mainly trees and steep cliffs. Everything is also beautifully rendered, with graphics that actually surpass those in the Ezio trilogy of games. The colors stand out a little more and the lighting combined with the dynamic weather help everything look visually appealing.

Of course navigating the world is important and can be accomplished in brand new ways. You could run and climb or go on horseback to get to your destination quicker, but now it is possible to climb up trees and navigate through them quickly from branch to branch simply by holding down one button while running. This method is very convenient for stealth as well, letting you strike from above with the element of surprise at your advantage. Other ways of climbing are carried over from previous games and also tweaked in just the right ways to help emphasize the focus on fluidity. Then there's the newly introduced Fast Travel mechanic, allowing Connor to go between certain locations at any given time, instead of just when you get to a station that allows it, provided you have discovered some of them first. Fast Travel comes in really handy, so it's a great idea to take advantage of it when you can and it really cuts down the time required to get to most missions.

In the heat of combat, it's always good to consider your options, and the latest installment has been tweaked in all the right ways to make that decision easier. Long gone are the days of struggling with your weapons to have any effect on your enemies, horrible block timing windows and relying solely on counterattacking. Okay, that last one is still there, but it's been reduced to an option rather than something to lean on. By that, I mean that combat is still based on countering the opponent, but you can now reliably attack an enemy, be they Redcoat or Patriot, in a much more fluid manner. Weapons can now be dual-wielded, a feature that's both useful and powerful. Because of this, I was able to rely on Connor's Tomahawk rather than a hidden blade during a struggle. It is also possible to use items such as rope darts, an immediate favorite, to bring some enemies down to where you could end their life with one blow.

Thanks to the advanced combat, it's also much easier to battle unarmed, since there are now enemy types with tactics to defeat them that are easy to remember, especially if you know that you can trip them up or use alternate weapons in combat. Performing kill streaks will also increase Connor's power gradually and create flashier kills, so eventually a tougher guy will die in one hit. Better block timing also helps make combat more of a breeze, since blocking enemy strikes is now more of a real possibility. Assassin's Creed III, with regard to timing and combat abilities, seems to have taken some cues from Batman: Arkham Asylum, but I think that by doing so it's much better off and has the best combat system of any Assassin's Creed game.

Also new to this game are Naval Battles, also known as combat between ships. When missions within the story required these I was able to get the hang of them and felt good with each victory, but it wasn't a feature I was ready to jump back into. It definitely increases the replay value however and is a good compression of actual naval fights, though it's rather interesting how ordering the crew to duck from cannon fire avoids any and all damage to even the ship.

As for the economy system of this installment, I couldn't really get into it. In the Ezio trilogy the economy was simple enough that I could get hooked on increasing the value of the property and earning more money extremely quickly and efficiently. In this game however, I felt that the economy system either wasn't explained well enough or it didn't do enough to grab my attention. The way they set it up is interesting and fits the time period, but I won't be trying to up the Davenport Homestead anytime soon.

I also have a couple other complaints, the first involving a rather annoying glitch. You see, there's a lock picking mechanic that involves turning tools with both sticks and mashing on one button to brute force the lock. While a little annoying from slight mistakes leading to everything coming undone in a second, it still worked pretty well. However, there were times where it was completely obvious that Connor's animations for this minigame were meant for a certain height, a very specific one at that. Sometimes the tools would be completely misaligned with their proper locations and be above the intended slot. I even had it where I just held the tools in the right spot, but then the lock would undo itself all the way without the chest opening, forcing me to redo the entire operation. I would question whether or not someone caught that in testing, but thanks to Tales from the Trenches, I know that someone must have, the developers just probably didn't have the time or didn't want to iron that bug out for release.

I also felt disappointed somewhat with the mission structure. There seem to be fewer missions this time around thanks to there only being 15 memory sequences, but at least five of these sequences are more like extended tutorials even though they advance the story. Aside from these, even though the game has a heightened sense of freedom, there are still some very strict constraints on what you can do, such as staying on one set path. Sometimes it seemed a little vague on whether or not the target could die during a chase, of which there are quite a few that are also poorly handled, but in one instance I tackled a target properly and the game still registered them as being dead! In some of them, there's even somewhat of a limit on your margin of error, which is to say none. If you get hit by one guy during a chase, you're pretty much screwed and might as well just start over, unless the environment is lucky enough to give you some way of anticipating them. In one specific instance near the end of the game, a particularly linear chase sequence with no way to get ahead of my target (Charles Lee), an explosion occurred and the game physics collided in a way that forced Connor to spin in the air and land in the water, ruining my chances of success. Then there's also the case of Samuel Adams telling you that he'll lead you through the underground, only for the game to really mean "You're leading him to your destination without a real guide. Good luck!"

Before I end my review however, I should go over a couple of bonuses I received. First off, I got the PS3 version of the game, granting me access to an extra hour of gameplay (actual time may vary, by the way). In these exclusive missions, you play through West Point missions that have Connor interacting with Benedict Arnold. This I felt was alright, since it retained the same level of mission structure as with the core game, but the story is definitely what you play them for, since it gives you an alternate insight into what went on with him at the time. However I will point out that one cutscene in particular felt more like an obvious machinima. The other bonus is from pre-ordering the game at GameStop, granting access to the "Lost Mayan Ruins" mission and the exclusive Sawtooth Sword weapon, belonging previously to Captain Kidd. This mission is pretty short, but I enjoyed it for taking advantage of Connor's skills in the core game, the weapon serving as an extremely useful and powerful reward. I felt this "GameStop Edition" was worth it.

So, is the payoff totally worth it? Yes and no. In terms of narrative, the game delivers on all fronts and is a very satisfying journey through the American Revolution with a great protagonist and a very fitting finale for Desmond Miles' journey as well. However, despite some very good tweaks, there is the occasional odd glitch and some poor mission design choices that can bog down the enjoyability for some, though the quality of the economy and the Naval Battles are more dependent on who's playing. It's a great trip for returning fans of the franchise, who have no doubt already bought this. If you still haven't played anything in the Assassin's Creed franchise, I would really recommend playing it from the beginning. The games aren't really that hard to get at this point and it seriously helps the narrative flow, especially considering the continuity lockout at the gorgeously animated opening cutscene. Otherwise, this is probably one of the best games of this year.

[OLD] Assassin's Creed: Revelations - An Assassin With A Broken Blade

At last the wait is over. After finally playing through all of the Assassin's Creed franchise, I really wasn't sure what to expect based on the twist ending of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood as well as the various previews I had read of the gameplay systems. With this next entry, released only a year after Brotherhood, I had expected something that would at least be an enjoyable improvement. Since completing the campaign however, I find myself liking it and yet feeling like it could have done better.

While the campaign does shed some light on the protagonists Desmond and Altair, Ezio is still the big star. After the events of Brotherhood, he undergoes a pilgrimage to Masyaf in an attempt to leave his Assassin life behind him, only to be sucked into another adventure that leads him to the city of Constantinople. When he gets there, two plots emerge. In one, he becomes involved in a power struggle between the Ottoman Empire and the Byzantines, while in the other he comes across a beautiful woman who helps him locate important artifacts once belonging to Altair. I enjoyed watching both paths unravel, while introducing some interesting new characters, and then later intersect to help conclude the well-written narrative in a pounding cliffhanger. The story missions themselves are very balanced and offer good variety without being overly frustrating, along with some more engaging cutscenes.

Like with the other games, a number of side missions can be played to help break up the action, including the return of the economic system built in Brotherhood. Thankfully, the shop quests that I also found an annoyance have been scrapped, in favor of just simply allowing the player to buy the item they need. As with before, Ezio can also raise an army of Assassins to assist him around the city as well as send on missions around the Mediterranean. This feature felt improved and more fun, with Assassins now upgrading much easier and offering more content with each level up. They can also now be assigned to Assassin Dens and be put on special missions from there to increase their strength and skill.

New additions are made to the game outside of general tweaks, such as a new Hookblade in Ezio's arsenal. This allows for more combat options such as flipping enemies over, as well as navigation abilities like going across zip lines or grabbing ledges that would normally be out of reach. I found this to be fun and useful, though it wasn't as big a difference as the introduction of bomb crafting. While this feature is unique and interesting, with the game pushing you to use the system by handing out parts at every opportunity or even whole bombs in chests, I didn't really feel any incentive to indulge in this feature. I ended up just doing missions how I had always approached them before using the tools on hand.

But what is perhaps the most disappointing addition is the new Den Defense game, which you may regularly be called upon to play. While it tries to add even more variety to the game by adding an element of Tower Defense, the execution of the idea fails horribly. The controls are sloppy and sometimes hard to wrestle with, since trying to place units with an analog stick requires incredible precision that the controller simply can't provide. It seems designed more with a computer mouse in mind, although I'm not quite sure how much more enjoyment PC users would get out of it thanks to the very awkward camera angle. To top it all off, the whole idea seems a little absurd when compared to the Assassin philosophy of staying hidden and fighting a secret war with the Templars. Lowering your level of suspicion will decrease the likelihood of encountering this game, which is what I ended up doing to avoid it most of the time, but it definitely could have been easily scrapped without negatively impacting the overall product.

While Ezio may play a big role in the game, there is still opportunity to interact with the other two characters. Throughout the story, Ezio will recover Masyaf Keys that allow him to look at the memories of Altair spanning the rest of his life. This allows players to not only find out what happens to him at the end of the original Assassin's Creed, but also control him one last time. The missions may be short in this department and take place exclusively in one location, but they are also fun and memorable and let players feel more emotion for the character.

As for Desmond, the game also gives some follow-up since the events of the previous game while he tries to restore his shattered memory. Collecting Animus Data Fragments in the main game allows for a playable side quest that explores his own past and delivers more depth into his character. While I did find the stories intriguing, the gameplay felt a little iffy. His memories are rendered in First-person platforming levels, which can be a little difficult given the limitations of that gameplay mechanic.

Overall, Assassin's Creed: Revelations feels like a mixed bag. I had more fun than I did with Brotherhood, but some of the new gameplay additions I either ignored or got frustrated with in the long run. However, the story is very much worth it and serves to help lead fantasticaly into the upcoming Assassin's Creed III due next year. I would not recommend newer players to start with this game due to the attempts at variety. However, getting the PS3 version of the game also allows access to the original Assassin's Creed for free, which is a great incentive for purchase and should offer those players a proper place to begin.