Assassin's Creed Series: Nothing is True, Everything is Permitted

Hey Kaidan Fan I don't dislike Bayek it just frustrates me that I have no choice to say no when it comes to some missions. I would have loved more back story on Bayek at the beginning of the game but I do understand who he is and what he represents and hence his actions. However I'd love to be able to blow some of the missions off.

I love Ezio too and I enjoyed his games, just not as much as I liked Edward  .

Unity was a mess for me on PC as well at the start but not completely unplayable, the issues for me were with some missions and the silly loot crates linked to the app but the game was beautifully rendered and yes Arno was a bit dull but the story was good and like Element Zero I think the gameplay was at its best in Unity.

Yeah Syndicate is my least favourite of the AC Games, I liked the twins, hated the train and just didn't like the combat which is really just a reflection on my combat abilities  . Using adrenaline bars and combos is too much for my skills, I like to be able to parry and I cannot for the life of me make it work in Origins. I persevered in Syndicate though and got  most of the achievements but I just felt (as you mentioned) that it was the start of AC moving away from being a game about assassins and stealth to just up front walking down the street and attacking people in broad daylight. And don't get me started on the stupid god damn carriage missions!!!! I love the games for being able to sneak around and take down a whole palace without being caught but in ACO they seemed to have grabbed every opportunity to force you into combat. Yesterday I am in stealth working my way around a camp heading for the warning beacon to trap it and a guy riding by on a horse says hey you there and starts firing arrows at me and forcing me into combat. No one in the camp could see me how did some random guy galloping by telling people to get out of the way see me in cover????? So then of course the warning beacon is lit and more riders come  galloping in to join in and suddenly "I am Gladiator" fighting about 20 guys.

Or how's this I was in stealth in a camp in a ruin and goddam Hyenas came in and attacked me again forcing me into combat 

I have actively avoided the Hippodrome, will  give it a go but have seen someone playing it and it doesn't look like I'd enjoy it at all.

Don't get me wrong I am enjoying ACO but I am finding parts of to be a grind and the quality of some of the side missions exacerbate that.

And I love your opinions and agree with nearly all of them, don't be a stranger 

Rumor has it there's a 'Chocobo' style mount coming to Origins, if we are to believe that...

I understand the need to change the combat just like they did in MEA and for me that was great and improved the game. Element Zero as you well know I love talking about builds and strategy and that was an absolute bonus of the changes in MEA. So many ways to approach and execute combat differently was brilliant, hence I have played it 10 times.

But that was all about planning and working out what skills to use but in ACO the changes are about what buttons to press and when and for how long. I just am not good at that stuff so for me personally all they have done is made combat harder. Its not that it doesn't appeal to me I just do not have the ability to execute the new stuff consistently or successfully. I do love that now we have a range of bow and swords with their differing abilities but unfortunately as I said earlier I cannot even get parry to work and I was a master in previous AC games at using E to counter.

So yes my default is to stealth the forts etc. but in all honesty in my impatience I have just been wading in of late from a time perspective as much as anything  If there are less that 10 guys I am finding it easier to just walk in and say "Hi I am the Dread Pirate Roberts and I am here for your soul" and start killing the guards. Now where did I leave that holocaust cloak and the wheelbarrow??? 

I agree with much of the article and his last sentence sums it up for me at this stage:

"But I yearn for a fresh approach and new ideas, something that astounds the senses as much as the wondrous world this game inhabits."

I think that was why ACBF is my favourite, it was still AC but they did it entirely different to the past in terms of the setting, the protagonist and the whole naval thing.

Yeah I wanted him to pick a side but I liked how Edward was true to himself and how that in the end, that was his downfall. Yes he was a rascally rogue, a real rapscallion with a devil may care attitude but he truly cared about the people around him.  Yeah its a shame Haytham never got his own game.

I have not seen enough of future stuff in ACO yet to really know where they are going with it. It was a massive part of the appeal to me when I played for the first time in AC3 and I enjoyed going back and playing the earlier games with the knowledge of what had happened in AC3. Then AC4 took it to a new level but I don't really remember where it went in Unity and it was only touched on in Syndicate. It was good seeing more in Rogue.

Modern day story

Yeah I feel like it's easier in Syndicate to just send your Rooks in and kill everyone with brute force...
At least Jacob's brawler personality is part of the story. And you can choose to play Evie most of the time and do proper stealth. Well, if you manage to avoid getting stuck hanging off buildings instead of gracefully dropping to the ground undetected... Maybe it's just me but half of the time I get spotted because the twin wouldn't perform the movement I had in mind. And then I had to fight for my life anyway. And with Evie this really isn't fun.

That said I am not usually a fan of stealth. And I suck at it. I liked the storytelling of Deus Ex Human Revolution but the gameplay was just frustrating for me. Couldn't pull off the 100% non-lethal approach. I'm too impatient and have crap perception of my environment (in real life too).

My favorite toy in Horizon Zero Dawn was the Blast Sling.
I did enjoy stealth in that game but the best part was blowing them up hahaha.

I agree though that a game about friggin assassins should have proper and challenging stealth. Then again if combat has been a complaint for years, it only makes sense to address it. As long as the player can still choose to 100% stealth kill I don't see a problem.
But looks like this isn't always the case in Origins?

I'll get back to you about how I like combat in Origins in, say, 2 years.

I haven't played the DLC yet. I'm still waiting for a good 4K TV deal to go with my recently acquired PS4 Pro. But I might not be able to wait and play over the Christmas break.
I've seen the new weapons in action already though and omg this is right up my alley!!!

HZD is GOTY for me. No contest. My most played game this year was FO4 though BY FAR. Followed by ME3MP (lol).

This is the key. Adding the more intricate combat has in no way changed the stealth or flow of the game. It’s more involved and likely tougher for most players; but I imagine this is why they added Game Difficulty options for the first time. This game on Easy is pretty similar to the old games, regardless of player skill. There are not even any Trophies or content missed for playing on Easy. In the meantime, those of us who wanted more challenge can play Nightmare+Scaling. Everyone wins, since all comers are addressed.

I feel like the new combat is a strictly positive addition, since it is in no way incompatible the old, “legacy” playstyle.

The skill tree was one of my first gripes. It's more like a skill maze. Sometimes there's a logical progression, but often there isn't. You mentioned something I'd complained about on my first PT: Why are features (auto-looting) framed as skills? How does buying a chariot require a third-tier skill, instead of just drachmae?

I don't think the combat system is built correctly for such specific skills as "Single-handed", "Heavy Melee", etc... It worked in Unity because you got a weapon and mostly stuck with it. In Origins, the assumption seems to be that we rotate weapons, using the best we've found at a given point. (I'm playing this way now for the first time. I had previously upgraded my legendaries regularly.) If the loot is random as in Origins, a specialist tree becomes less useful (or more frustrating). MEA has random loot, too. It's so plentiful, though, that finding your preferred weapon type is guaranteed. Plus, we can (and should!) start crafting from the very start.

I liked the skills okay in Unity, though I didn't think I would. They made sense for a novice-to-master progression. I liked that there was no tree. You simply chose what you wanted, with some restrictions. Syndicate's tree mostly made sense, but suffers from some of the same useless skills as Origins.

Honestly, I don't really feel like AC benefits from skill trees, leveled enemies and RNG loot. I would prefer to have a handful of weapon types with cosmetic variance within those categories. Skill progression can be tied to narrative for zero to hero stories, and totally scrapped for most stories. I never felt restricted by Origins' leveled zones, since I always had plenty to do in the accessible zones. Still, I think this is artificial and mostly unnecessary. Origins uses it to guide plot progress, which is fine I guess.

The worst part is that the chocobo-camel fits least obstrusively into the setting. I wish we could get some more setting-appropriate content amidst the D&D Nightmare horses and FF cross-promotion. Of course, then I'd still complain because said content would cost $10 for a few weapons and an outfit.

Anyone else notice that one of the patches screwed up camels? They now have strange, patchy, pixelated grass where they used to have life-like tail tufts and fur ridges. I hope that gets fixed. I also hope they remove the giant cat head from the "updated" right bracer. The new upgrades look like ass, finished or not. They still have time to tone down the changes.

dazk, I know it runs a bit contrary to the "reliving the past", but I'd love an AC RPG in which we actually go to make choices. Join the Brotherhood or the Templars. Oppose or aid a cause. I'd want a full RPG experience. At the very least, they could give us a few conversation options like in HZD. That's not an RPG, but it has some RPG elements. No matter what Aloy says, though, the game is mostly the same. She does have the power of life and death over one person, and may be able to alienate persons with insensitive dialogue. I'm not sure of the latter, though.

I've been playing on Nightmare+Scaling through 19 levels, now. I like the tougher challenge, but it also gets a bit tedious. Nightmare itself is cool, but barely feels harder than Normal at most times. Enemies behave exactly the same and simply deal far stronger damage. Since I'm not in the habit of being hit, it's not a big deal. The scaling presents the exact conundrum I predicted. Weapon level vs enemy level has a sweet spot of about +/- 3 levels. With scaling, enemies generally out-level your weapons, sometimes dramatically. This means they take very little damage. It can be fun, but it gets to be monotonous after a time. I'm not sure that it actually adds anything positive to my experience. I believe I'll simply play Nightmare from now on until level 37+, and then turn on enemy-scaling. It will be perfect for NG+, if such is ever added, and for the last half of the game. (I generally hit level 40 in Giza, after Memphis, before visiting the Faiyum or anything in the heart of the map.)