Topic: Assassin's Creed -OT-

Now that Mirage is out, I thought it'd be a good idea for this series to have its own thread. How's everyone finding the game so far?

I've played it for over 10 hours now and it's such a blast. It took a while for combat to become interesting, but it finally clicked for me. I think this game has one of the best combat systems of the entire series. I recorded a short clip of me experimenting with some new tools and skills that I've unlocked.

It's just so much fun wandering around and exploring the world. It isn't your typical Ubisoft map filled with markers. Instead, it's more like Breath of the Wild, and I know people are tired of others making this comparison. But that's genuinely the feeling that I got from this game. There are tons of "aha!"-moments. For example, you see some throwing knives lying on the ground. You then see an opening in one of the windows. Through the window you see a chandelier that you can drop from the ceiling with the help of a throwing knife. With your eagle vision, you can see that by doing this, it will land on a jar of oil that will catch on fire and explode, thereby destroying a nearby fragile wall. This will grant you access to the room and the treasure chest within it. The game lets you figure it out mostly on your own but it helps guide you with the help of the throwing knives on the ground. It's just fantastic game design.

I've been mostly exploring the world and collecting stuff. Granted, the stuff that you get aren't that helpful to me, e.g. weapons with different attributes or upgrade schematics for weapons that I don't want to use. But at least there isn't a plethora of weapons or equipment like in the open world AC games. So it definitely doesn't feel overwhelming to explore the world. It's fun and like I showed in the video clip, it's fun to experiment with the tools you're given. For example, in the video, you can see that I first throw a smoke bomb and then a noise maker that causes the smoke to ignite. These are all upgrades to these tools. You can upgrade the smoke bomb to release smoke that can be set on fire, and you can upgrade your noise maker to become a fire starter. Therefore, if I throw a smoke bomb first (which also damages enemies that breathe in the smoke) and then throw a noise maker, I can set all nearby enemies on fire. I discovered this way of combining the tools while I was upgrading them and it's such a satisfying feeling whenever you get an idea like this. The game didn't tell me that I could do this, I found this out on my own. The level of creativity and experimentation in this game is just brilliant.

@LtSarge gosh the AI is dumb though 😅😅😅

What is this? Some kind of smoke bomb? I think I'll stand here for a while. Oh what is this, my friends have been set on fire by another bomb... interesting.

Oh what is this? Some kind of smoke bomb? I'd better keep standing here to see what happens next... Oh look, I've been set on fire like the others.

Hey, what was that? Some kind of smoke bomb next to a pile of burning corpses?

...

It's like the introduction to Phantom Liberty where a guard is guarding a gate by standing 1 foot away from a metal container, staring at absolutely nothing but metal, with their back to said gate. I hate how dumb games are right now, and how we just accept it as gameplay 😅😅😅

At least they should add a pinch of logic to these things

@Ravix I get what you're saying. Personally though, when I play a game, I expect it to follow a set of rules and not constantly learn. For example, if I throw a noise maker, I expect enemies within that range to gather close to it every time. That's the rule of that item. If enemies suddenly stop doing that because it already happened once before and they won't fall for it again, then the game stops being fun. I think there should be a fine line between what's realistic and what's fun. Too much realism isn't fun for me.

Not to say that I wouldn't enjoy a game that constantly challenges you to think differently. But I don't want most games to be like that.

@LtSarge I absolutely agree. While I think AI in AC could use some improvements sometimes, it's mostly just what works in a context of the game's design.
Same thing could be said about patrolling enemies following the exact same path over and over - it's not exactly realistic but it allows you to take your time planning your approach, which is an important part of the game.

@LtSarge well, I mean the next group of enemies can fall for it, sure, but not the same exact one multiple times, especially if there has since been a deadly attack that has killed half their visible party 😆

Deadly-Attack should always override their investigation into a noise to either seek the source of said attack or... you know, hide/move away from the clearly unsafe position that has seen half of them murdered already 😁

It's not simply a "huh, what was that noise" moment on repeat, as they are clearly in mortal danger.

I don't think adding this would make it any less fun. It would just reduce a stay in one spot cheesing enemies cycle, and allow the player to seek further advantage elsewhere, leading to even more opportunities to experiment.

Lure a group, burn a group, lure a further enemy, but they sense danger so you have to react with an assassination or direct attack, and then seek a new position to lure someone else. Its pretty much still cheesable 😁

@Voltan to be fair, patrol routes are still based in logic. Guards work in groups and follow certain routes so they can cover an area without leaving another exposed. And this is something relatable to real life, and works nicely in games too.

If the guard sees a body on a patrol route, even in a game, you expect a reaction, right? So why not expect a reaction to smoke and fire bombs to trigger a new pattern of behaviour beyond... stand there and take it? 😅

Regarding enemy AI, I do think that there’s a fine balance that needs to be struck. I find it immersion breaking when an enemy just stands around getting burned or walks into obvious danger or the enemies standing guard facing a wall with their back to you. Those things are pretty silly. I also dislike advanced knowledge of the AI where they can predict my actions and counter every move and feel like they’re “cheating” by reading my inputs and reacting accordingly in real time instantaneously. Blocking and dodging my every move, for example. But also the AI that attacks in swarms or learns my skill set, weapons, or armor and modifies itself to take advantage of my weaknesses. People get excited about making the AI more human like that, but I don’t care for it. I don’t like playing PvP either, so it’s the same. I don’t want video games to become like the chess AI that now are impossible for even the Grand Masters to beat. 😅

So yeah, developers have a difficult job to do with making enemy AI less stupid and yet not superhuman either.

I know this is an Assassin Creed thread but enemy AI is an interesting subject.

I was wondering earlier why there was no Assassin's Creed thread, and here it is.

I've only just started Mirage, but already it just feels right and is nicely building up. As always, I love the AC games where you can get a good parkour flow going, and where there's plenty of verticality to the environment. Unsurprisingly, my favourites are the Ezio Trilogy and Unity. It took me a while, but I did also click with Origins.

II am loving it but I am a massive AC fan so it really would have had to be a dog for me not to liked it.

As said in the above posts there are some minor annoyances but you could say that about most games and they wouldn't have put me off buying the game had I known about them before release.

I struggled to get it to look good for a while it looked too dark or bright whatever settings I had it on but I got there in the end.

I will never tire of dropping a basket of rocks on the guards heads, happy days.

I know I am probably going to kick myself for asking but here goes.
In the old AC games you could stab two guards at the same time by running up to them from behind is this something you again as you progress or have they done away with it.

I haven't gotten round to picking up Mirage yet, but hopefully I will at some point in the next week or so. I've been holding off a bit just so I can finish up getting the final ending in Lies of P and then I'll be ready to assassinate some bad guys.

For those playing, how is the game? Is it more akin to the original games in the series?

@KAIRU It's definitely closer to the old games. There's a clear emphasis on stealth and significantly more parkour than in the last few.

I agree.

The other thing i like that i forgot to mention is the amount of settings you can change to make the game play the ay you want it, i am not a fan of life bars over enemies heads i think they ruin the look of the game (all games) fortunately you can disable it in ACM.

@Voltan @Max_Headroom Glad to hear it's holding up to expectations. Hopefully I'll manage to pick it up before too long. It seems the series is going in the right direction again.

Please watch a few reviews i would hate you to buy the game on my recommendation and be disappointed, i have been out of gaming for at least a couple of years so am loving all the games i have played.

The Radbrad is my favourite reviewer have a look at this and see what you think -

Ever since enjoying the hell out of Assassins Creed: Odyssey back in 2019 (I played it around 9 months after release), I’ve been slowly working my way through the series. Well I’m finally about to start III, which for some reason has always been the one I’m particularly intrigued by. I know it’s a bit of a forgotten step-child as far as the fan-base is concerned (what with it following on from the un-following-on-able… 🤔) but the whole colonial America setting… and the dlc entitled The Tyranny of King Washington tickles my inner conspiracy theorist in just the right way. Can’t wait tbh!

It is funny, because I played the original AC games around release and thought they were fine, but didn't set my world alight. I then basically bounced off the franchise for what feels like decades, until I played Odyssey again a few years after release. I'd bounced off of that game a few times, but then I dunno, it suddenly clicked and I'd now regard Odyssey as one of my favourite games of all time.

I've, however, tried to go back to the series in response to this, but none of them have clicked for me again in the same way. I did finish Valhalla, but the sheer length of that game was just soul destroying towards the end, and its almost impossible for me to separate my feelings for Valhalla out from the extreme burnout I felt at the end of that.

I hear the next one is gonna be in Japan, so obvious comparisons to Ghost of Tsushima are gonna be made and I say good luck to them, as GOT is one of the best examples of this style of open world game ever made imo.

Must be like 2/3’s of the way through Assassins Creed 3’s main story now and am really enjoying it. Love the setting, love how they set Connor up with playing the first few sequences as his father and then the next couple while he’s still a child. Nice big open world full of activities… and looks damn nice at 4k on PS5.

@colonelkilgore Refreshing to hear someone who actually liked the opening hours as that was one of the complaints of many people back when the game first came out, i.e. that it takes a while before you actually get to play as an assassin.

@colonelkilgore @LtSarge
I played AC3 on PS3 and hated it, I thought where are all the massive buildings to climb? Or even small ones to run across?
Anyhoo I played the remaster, can't think why I gave it another chance (was it on ps plus?), anyhoo I really enjoyed it the second time so I think LTSarge is correct and I just gave up too early before.
Also played Unity and Syndicate recently, both were very good...I think Syndicate is highly underrated but it maybe because it is set in Blighty so it ranked a bit higher for me, apples n pears and all that.