What is so great about Assassins creed games?

[Johnny Novgorod]

so my friends, what do u see in AC games that make it great?

They're fun to play through. I couldn't tell you precisely why. AC1 got repetitive fast but I liked that game enough to keep playing. Maybe it's the "historical fanfic" setting that appeals to me, personally. I like parkour as well and everything that has to do with exploration.

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

AssCreed is one of those series with a lot of good ideas but often horrible execution. So there's a lot of potential for fun but the frustration can at times be difficult to overcome. Let me give you some examples:

- Parkour: this can be awesome when done right; jumping across rooftops, swinging from pillars, climbing sheer surfaces etc is thrilling and frequently open-ended. However, the camera often gets in the way, the control system requires you to jump in unintuitive directions and the overall implementation of 'sticky' surfaces means that you will occasionally latch onto objects when you're actually trying to run away, because there's just one control for both run and climb.
- Combat: The first time you get into a fight with several guards and take them down one by one with swift counters, you feel like a serious badass. But that's all there ever is to it. The game gives you so many fighting styles, weapons, moves etc but most of them have very little application. The most efficient approach to every combat boils down to "lock onto target, wait for attack animation, hit counter button, win." And then the camera has a frustrating habit of getting stuck in a wall while you're trying to fight.
- Stealth: When you can enter an area without drawing an entire army upon yourself, there's a huge element of satisfaction involved, especially if you do everything right: stabbing guards with the hidden blade and then hiding the bodies, blending in with the crowds, leaping from a rooftop or a haystack to take down a target etc. But the implementation of this is often frustrating. It lends itself to considered, lengthy planning and scoping out the patrol routes of guards and the movements of civilians before you go in: but often the mission is on a timer and if you don't go fast enough you lose. Other times the camera and controls will get in the way when you have only a few seconds to get to a bench or into a crowd before a guard gets alerted, and you start humping a nearby pillar instead.

 

[MirenBainesUSMC]

I wouldn't go bashing it as if it was some easy stroll in the park, actually, the game did have its very hard moments but I liked the option of letting be kept on easy so I could enjoy the fine detailed work the people of UBI soft did at bringing us back in time.

Lets stop for a minute and think about it. I heard some History teachers even use AC2 and AC Brotherhood as a companion to teaching kids and young adults about that time period --- they did their homework, the landmarks are real and who can pass up climbing the biggest Mosque in New Constantinople the Hagia Sophia? Old and Renaissance Rome? The paintings. Riding a white horse while antagonizing English crusaders and Saladin's army --- on your way to Damascus and also being able to walk into its famous Bazaar? I mean that was wild to accomplish --- plus the rich details and building architecture. I think my favorite thing to do was run through Rome and watching the artists painting while trying to capture a scene or telling the woman they were trying to capture to hold still --- or the lover taking a knee and proposing to his lady amongst the backdrop of an old Roman ruin? How about walking at the foot steps of the Parthenon with the crimson carpets and rose petals raining down while palace guards marched onward? You can't get such an environment anywhere. They did an extremely beautiful job and for that, they deserve many praises. I mean c'mon --- You got to talk to King Henry the Lion and kick his Captain's ass.

I say look for the good in it.

Now granted I will concede that the story is garbage at this point and they are def running out of ideas. When they took the games out of Europe and the ancient world, it kind of lost its mysterious adventure. Crashing into a long since abandoned cathedral where the black pope used to reside? How can you match that? As I appreciate the idea of going into the revolutionary war, they didn't quite hit the mark with it as they treated the European History and I didn't care for the writing or the story. Now its reduced to Pirates of the Caribbean: AC. Now while that may seem entertaining to some, it just shows its loosing its steam and they probably should tie things up and call it a day.

I think it was a very missed opportunity that they didn't take Assassins Creed into say the history of Ancient China, the Himalayas, Korea or Japan. I think I would have liked to see what they could have done with Chinese/Japanese/Mongolian architecture and stories they could pull from that part of the world instead of focusing on the West.

Assassins Creed is a world history junkie's dream.

 

[NiPah]

I think you missed the point of your own topic, you named it "What is so great about Assassins Creed games" and you don't even go into why you think they're great.
A better name of this topic would be:
"Reasons why I disliked Assassins Creed, please explain why you like it."
Threads like these are a dime a dozen, some guy doesn't like Half Life 2 and wants to know why others enjoyed them so much, switch out the well liked game and your distaste for it.
I get it, you disliked the game and you didn't think to read a review (since those are a good place to start to see why people liked them), but can it with the faux ignorance and read whats already out there.

I'm not even a fan of Assassins creed, but I know damn well why people like it since most fans will talk your ear off given the chance.

 

[Danbo Jambo]

They do have a lot of excellent elements, but I agree that overall they flatter to deceive. Main reason for that being that you just kind of coast through them.(I've not played 4 yet though)

It would be nice to see them reach their full potential.

 

[Laughing Man]

what do u see in AC games that make it great?

Nothing, I played the first one on the back of playing Tenchu which was a brilliant game. I thought I would be getting the same sort of game. One where you plan, approach and then have the option to stupidly go in full force and fight to kill the target or hold back and plan for the silent unseen kill and escape.

After the third boss, the third attempt at a stealth approach only to then be pulled out of the game for an intro to the target cut scene followed by an all out brawl to kill the bad guy I concluded that if this ASSASSIN had ever existed he would have very quickly become a very dead Assassin.

The combat is basic, the video of the kill streak shown above watch as your player takes on one character at a time while the other three or four stand around at the edge of combat waiting for you to finish the guy you are dealing with before executing their attack in a fashion that then allows you to hit a single button to dodge and then engage them. The combat combined with the ASSASSIN premise is stupidly at odds with each other.

Like I said if this was the only game of it's type then it would be a passable button masher (which is kinda what most of the combat turns in to) but given that Tenchu Stealth Assassin did this game and did it RIGHT nearly ten years before Assassin's Creed appeared, no sorry but just no.

Of course the games after the first may have improved things but from the footage I've seen I am kinda guessing that that is not the case, at the very least the first one was such a mish mash of concept over actual execution that I'll never look at another Ass Creed game again.

 

[Belaam]

I played the first one on the back of playing Tenchu which was a brilliant game.

I also loved Tenchu; one of my favorite PS1 games. I think there are moments throughout earlier AC games that remind me of them. As later games occasionally mandated long battles and Unity is clearly tossing the single assassin concept out the window entirely for a squad game, those earlier games had a few awesome moments that brought back Tenchu. Also a huge part of the reason I'd like to see pre-gunpower feudal Japan as an AC setting.

Would "I like AC as it's the closest thing to Tenchu I've seen on the PS3." work as a what's so great about it?

(and if I missed a good melee stealth assassination game on PS3, please make a recommendation)

 

[Evonisia]

Assassins Creed is the CoD of the stealth genre.

So it's a severely hated on franchise that's also incredibly popular. It tries much harder than any of the rip offs and is actually a solid product? (Most of the time, I guess AssCreed III is the Ghosts of the series). Good to know.

Personally I don't care for AssCreed, but I guess it's pretty.

 

[Marik2]

I just play them for the settings and jumping around stuff.

The first one was good with the cast of people Altair needed to assassinate and they turned out to be interesting and they were all parts of something bigger.

 

[Greg White]

I'll be honest, after the first game, the series didn't catch my attention again until Black Flag. The ship combat and the fact that it liked to try and pretend the whole Templar vs Assassins thing wasn't very important really helped the story.

My only qualm with it was that I was stuck with the Jackdaw the entire game instead of letting me use one of those great 100 gun man'o wars like they did one mission. Hell, the trade routes looked like they would have been more entertaining to fight out than most of the engagements were.

It's sad to say that Shadow of Mordor does assassinations better than Assassin's Creed ever did, but that's just the nature of evolution: become stagnant and something will outdo you in your niche.

 

[FenchurchSt]

Well, I'll be honest and say I haven't played more than the first one. I really liked it though. I am kind of a history nerd and I love games with a bit of stealth where you can run around very fast in a free environment and all of the environments were impeccably made. The first time I went over a certain hill and saw Damascus off in the distance I was instantly enamored by the care taken to rebuild the city how it could have looked so long ago. Yes it takes liberties with history but even those really shoddy history channel games take liberties [not that they have any good programming aside from Modern Marvels anyway].

As I said, I haven't played the others, but you can really feel the developer's heart in the first one. I'm normally a huge advocate of gameplay over graphics, but the background scenery only enhances this game... but basically most of the game is learning to deal with the scenery in one way or other by climbing up it and jumping and all that, so it only makes sense.

Also, I have to say, this game is very funny. I mean, the story isn't, but it's hilarious when you're not completely used to the controls and you launch yourself onto a table and start accidentally smashing all the pots with your feet. Once very early in the game I accidentally pushed the wrong buttons for some reason while walking around in the hometown area and ended up bouncing off a wall and kicking a guard in the back of the head. This was funny and you should laugh.

You also get the opportunity to go all GTA with it and just save and then start running amok. At the end of the day, isn't that enough for some of us to want?

Basically what I'm getting at is that this title is way more fun if you don't take it as seriously as the creators think you should.

I get that some games are for some people and others for others and you're probably never going to like this series, but this is just a bit of why I like it... which is technically the only thing you asked for. [Oh and also I've never EVER felt like the "ease" of a game was a good reason to say it's outright bad unless you're talking about a title like Dark Souls or Devil May Cry-- something you expect to be a ball-buster that gets nerfed. You're allowed to dislike it for ease, but don't say it's automatically bad for it.]

 

[sanquin]

I only played 1 and 4 myself.

For 1, I can say it definitely wasn't my game. But I could see that even though some gameplay mechanics were simple, there was a lot of depth behind it as well. Plus at that time there wasn't really any game like it. So it was new and had pretty decent gameplay, which got people's interests.

As for 4. I can only speak for myself, but...pirates! The game's pretty much a power fantasy for me. I've always wanted to have a game where I could be a pirate captain, but which would also give me a lot of chance to free-roam. The making your own base on an island and taking over forts was an added bonus. I really like the graphics and aesthetics of 4 too. Just enough out of reality to make playing the game feel a little fantastical, just enough in reality to make the world look beautiful.

Ah well, to each their own I guess. The series is definitely not for everyone. But please don't come with unfounded claims of crappiness just because you don't like it.

 

[Bravo Company]

I'm going to add to the echo of people saying how much they enjoyed the environment. Perhaps my favourite part of the AC games is climbing up the historical buildings and seeing how they recreated the ancient cities. I liked AC 1-Revelations well enough and didn't really have TOO much of a problem with them. However, I hated everything about AC3. The protagonist was completely un-likable for me and the the setting was extremely bland (hey, I heard you like climbing trees and the exact same brick church).

I would've accepted AC3's faults with story if I could at least enjoy climbing up cool things, but nope, it didn't even have that in it for me.

 

[Flammablezeus]

The first one (whilst dated in a number of ways) had a very promising system where you could gather intelligence on each target and then plan your attack with it. You could interrogate people, pickpocket them and eavesdrop (and maybe one or two other things I'm forgetting) to gather different pieces of information, such as maps of guard layouts and other things.

However, this was pulled in sequels because most people ignored it (some didn't even know you actually gained bits of information after doing these activities) and simply ran towards the marker on the minimap. Because of this, the sequels focused on having more icons to get to on the map, because that was how people played it. In AC3, they dropped the finer controls of free running so that people didn't have to think at all and could simply hold a direction and a single button to get to their map icons.

It's sad that the game had so much promise, but now we have Shadow of Mordor anyway, which is basically closer to what AC was aiming at. Hopefully in the next Middle-Earth game, they incorporate more things from the first AC (variety in interrogation, and actually splitting up pieces of intelligence instead of learning everything about your target from a single random orc.)

 

[Guffe]

I didn't play until the third one because I own only Nintendo consoles and so I've tried the older ones a few times and enjoyed them enough to get AC3 when ti was released on WiiU, and only for 22?. Was entertaining game, I mean it isn't anything special but it has that Batman feeling to it. Exploration, side missions, cool combat with easy to learn but hard to master thing going on and generally just a fun time to spend an hour here and there.
I'm glad you said you liked AC4 the most since I have bought it when it was on sale for 12? in the Eshop, just have not had time to play it yet, waiting for the moment when HyruleWarrior/Bayonetta/SmashBros will get boring

 

[sageoftruth]

Aren't you the same person who's always championing how great Doom/Quake/etc are? This is a bit ironic.

Oh right. It's that guy. I forgot about him. I mean, I'm no fan of Assassin's Creed either, but after that last thread, I'm feeling a bit wary this time.

Anyway, how do you get 100% sync? Is that something they introduced after AC2?

 

[sageoftruth]

combat is very basic

Huh? Did we play the same game?

If this is your idea of "very basic", I'd hate to see your idea of complicated game combat.

Those were some impressive animations, but those inputs didn't look very complicated. If it's anything like my old experiences with AC and AC2, then it's pretty much attack, attack, counter, attack, counter, attack, counter. Not very hard stuff.