#sydicate

So. I love Assassin’s Creed as a concept. History, running around on rooftops, assassinating like a badass, all amazing. I had so much fun playing Assassin’s Creed 2 (I didn’t play the first game, sue me...), and Brotherhood (my favourite) Revelations was a bit of a slog, but it was still good. So I bought 3 on Ebay for £2.50, bargain. And it glitched out on me within the first minute of playing it. So I forgot about my Assassin’s Creed phase for a while until I found AC3 for £2 in CEX, even cheaper, winner! Luckily this one didn’t glitch out on me, huzzah! 

After what felt like a lifetime of an introduction when playing as Englishman Haytham, discovering he is actually a Templar #spoilers, and then realising that you are actually, in fact going to be playing as his son, Connor for the remainder of the game. But wait, you have to go through a whole new set introduction sequences and it was eventually six hours of gameplay until I actually got the assassin gear. Six hours!! 

After that nonsense I actually got a bit of a chance to evaluate my surroundings. I do like the change of setting, even though I have no idea about the historical significance because the English education system doesn’t like to tell us innocent children what a terrible country we were to others in the hope that we will continue in our adulthood to be patriotic fools! Yay historical censorship! So, because of that I couldn’t really get invested or excited about the setting because I had not kind of reference point to them, the only person who I knew really was Washington, but all I know really is that he was the first President, that is it...As a result of this I found the missions rather boring, and the endless cut scenes with people who I had no interest in made it a chore to play. 

I will give the game this. They did try to do something difference and some of the gameplay, for instance the naval battles where a lot of fun and really shook the game up a little bit. But what confused me the most was the hunting aspect, I never used it for anything, but maybe I was missing a vital element of the gameplay, but still it was never made glaringly obvious. 

I couldn’t update my armour, and if I am not mistaken there was not an option to gain health during combat. Which, you know is always mega useful when surrounded by twenty soldiers. I just found it so stupid, at one point during a mission I had to run around a shed with mercenaries in pursuit just to gain my health back as I was in the red. The amount of times I had to do something like this was so ridiculous and it would have really helped to have some damn health potions!!

My main issue, and the only reason why I am really writing this, because it is an issue that I have been having with gaming recently. The lack of actually playing the game, and the amount of story driven games that are mainly cutscenes. The worst. The whole point of the game is assassinating, it is in the title. So one would assume that in the final scene of the game you would assassinate the main villain. WRONG. 

I had to sit through two agonising cut scenes after chasing the main villain. The first Connor (I emphasise Connor) shot Lee during the cutscene, I didn’t press a single button or do a thing. So then we are staggering through a road at snails pace because Connor is injured and this is the final bit of real gameplay...slowly walking. I get to a pub, guess what. ANOTHER CUT SCENE. So Connor and Lee are just sitting at this table gazing meaningfully into each others eyes for a stupid amount of time and Connor stabs Lee, killing him. Again I pressed no buttons during this scene, I just sat back and watched while the main villain of the game died in a cut scene. Satisfied. Nah. 

THEN. I had to endure cut scene after cut scene with Desmond, who I am past the point of caring about, to the end the game without pressing a single button in another, yes ANOTHER cut scene. It still isn’t over, after letting the credits roll I thought, maybe the epilogue will be different. I am Connor again, I get to run all the way to New York to be met with, you guessed it, a cut scene. Why. 

Gaming, for me is meant to be about actually playing the game, interacting etc etc. As much as I like story driven games, I want the gameplay to be the prominent feature. Games like Mass Effect do this well, even in cutscenes you still have stuff to do, it keeps your interest because you have to make important decisions. AC3 was just boring cut scene after another, even at the end when it was meant to be most exciting. This, for me is not what games should be about. 

Despite all of this I am willing to keep playing the Assassin’s Creed games, because I do love the concept, I have heard Black Flag is amazing, and I really did love the naval battles in AC3 and hopefully there will be more of the same. But mostly, I cannot wait to scale the Houses of Parliament in Syndicate and the Pyramids of Giza in Origins! 

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