Poll: Assassins Creed: Anyone else hate Desmond?

[Sparcrypt]

Yeah, I don't have much love for Desmond. Didn't care for Altaïr either tbh. Been a while since I played the first AC, but I recall it pretty much being;
Altaïr: "But why?"
The-leader-guy: "Shush, you must not ask questions!"
Altaïr: "k."

Ezio is the only one I liked so far. Probably since we got to play as him while he grew up.

Altaïr is my favourite assassin, but I really am dissapointed we didn't get to do with him what we did with Ezio. A think a game (or even a trilogy) that focuses entirely on Altaïr from a young age entering the ranks of assassins and working his way up from a recruit to a master would be excellent - it could basically end where AC1 began.

Essentially, AC2 and AC:B were better then AC1 in pretty much every single way.. gameplay, story, everything. However the premise of Altaïr just feels to have had so much more promise to me. Plus I really like that particular era of history more than what we explore in Ezios games which no doubt makes me a little biased.

But I really am nitpicking - I love these games, just a few things that would make them perfect for me.

 

[DEAD34345]

Hate him!? Why would I hate him?

He's too bland to hate.

 

[GiantRaven]

Playing in Desmond's era is the only thing that would get me to buy another Assassin's Creed game. So yeah, I like the Desmond shit.

edit: I should clarify. I don't like the character of Desmond, but I find the story surrounding him to be more interesting than the other stories of the games.

 

[Woodsey]

I find the entirety of the series' plot very interesting, but as for the actual character, Desmond has significantly less screen time so its much harder to care. I certainly don't dislike him, but he could be more interesting.

 

[Damura]

In every other game I've come across that features a mute protagonist I've been pretty disappointed with them.

My take is more that Assassin's Creed already has protagonists - Altair and Ezio. Desmond's more of a framing device/backup protagonist, and if he didn't talk (or was a blank slate) the game would still have a speaking protagonist. It would also allow them to focus on the protagonist with the more extensive personality and character arc. Also, if Desmond wasn't in the picture the series would be a lot more flexible in terms of where it could take the next games, because they aren't limited to the genetic memories of one person.

Fair enough. I like the fact there is more one protagonist. I also like the idea of there being a stable protoganist inbetween games. They still have the potential to use other characters other than Desmond but I don't think it would make much of a difference to be honest.

At the moment I like Desmond. He's nothing extraordinary but he's okay. If they had made him a mute I probably wouldn't have enjoyed anything outside of the Animus. His roles in the past 3 games have been so small they don't really detract from either Altair or Ezio's stories.

I really can't see it adding anything to the game for me and I happen to like the idea of multiple protagonists.

 

[Zhukov]

I regard Desmond and his story with complete apathy.

Considering he's supposed to be the protagonist, that's not a good thing.

 

[Sparcrypt]

I regard Desmond and his story with complete apathy.

Considering he's supposed to be the protagonist, that's not a good thing.

Indeed that is bad.. he just brings nothing new or interesting to the tale - he explains why we get to see the old assassins but thats about all..

Though I guess the ending to brotherhood was a minor surprise, could be interesting to see where it goes.

 

[tharglet]

Hrm, I guess I feel differently about him than most. I didn't mind his stuff, and I prefer having nice clear points to leave the animus and go progress the story in the current time period.
In AC:B, often when I ended up seeing there was a message in the "real world" I was often torn between continuing the mission, investigating the message or doing side missions.

The way I see Desmond, especially over the course of the series so far, is the longterm story arc. We're not supposed to be really exploring him as a character yet, until we understand his legacy. If we end up really exploring Desmond, we're prolly getting to the end of the series imo.
So far Altair and Ezio are the main shows, with a bit of Desmond in between, so we know who he is and what's going on roughly, when it's time to introduce Desmond's main arc. Atm, he's more glue than story, but I can see that changing.

As for his story bits, a good compromise for me would be to have clear points saying "good time to go leave animus", where you're "in between" chapters, so you can choose to plow on and ignore him if you hate him, or leave the animus if you want to see what is going on. With AC:B chapters started as one ended, so it was a bit jarring on the pace if I should be roaming or not.