Assassin's Creed series

Overall I dislike the series for the usual open world, collectathon reasons, but I did enjoy some of the earlier games. Overall the series has tons of cool mechanics spread out but I never really enjoyed the combat, outside of a few elements.

How is Origins if any of you have played it? I'm probably not going to really look into it unless one of you guys recommends it. I did hear it's more combat focused this time.

I've only played 2 and Brotherhood years ago but I've not concerned myself with them since. Can't offer much here sorry.

Went ahead an looked into it a bit. While the combat looks like a decent upgrade, it's pretty much the same old tired rouge/brawler/stealth skill tree system with not a single unique aspect to its name.

Oh and the microtransactions. To hell with those and Assassin's Creed: Unoriginal.

This topic needs to be deleted lol.

Go ahead, maybe wait for Roy or Erica to chip in.

Brotherhood is a game I loved to hell and back when I was in my teens. I got AC2 for my birthday once and was hooked, I loved the story, music, setting and the animations of the combat. Brotherhood took all this and put it to 11. It really is one of the better games out there.

It also has aged about as well as shit put into a vacume sealed jar for 20 years. Playing it now isn't all that satisfying haha... it is really wooden in terms of mechanics and animations and the controls are abysmall. Having a stealth game without a dedicated crouch button is even worse haha.

ACII did have some fun combat though. It was especially fun when unarmed as you could throw sand in people's eyes to distract them, disarm them and use their own weapons against them. I remember toying around with an unarmed run (just running around the city doing combat) and having a ton of fun.

Series really went downhill though with a worse story, milked franchise and little evolution in mechanics. I'm pretty sure if I buy Origins, the newest one, I'd get the exact same thing I got nearly 10 years ago.

Is AC2 the dark souls of grand turismo?

I just couldn't bring myself to buy "Jade's game". AC1 looked like it was going to be trash (and it was). It had promise, sure. A decently realized historical location from an old time, meeting famous figures (and killing them), being an assassin with gadgets doing parkour, etc. Not so much all the filler trash (taking up the vast majority of the game's main quest to say nothing of the side-content), loading, lame future story, bad bugs and complete denial of the option to go after 'innocents' (unacceptable *I draw the line here in particular*). I understand AC2 did alright for itself (getting things mostly in-shape), but I think the only notable (on the positive) side going forward is said to be boat shit (not the Tower Defense, co-op and other crap) that probably should have been a new IP altogether (these days it isn't even AC so much as some weird transformation getting closer to GoW's territory while forgetting to make a game worth playing while visiting that setting). They've lost their way almost completely.

AC: Brotherhood is generally considered to be the best one. But it's controls aren't as good or fluid as I remember them being. What was mostly interesting were the combat options, not that you needed them with how easy the enemies were. Still, we had a fully functioning bare-handed moveset that included weapon stealing, throwing sand in enemies's eyes and much more, not to mention unique movesets for nearly every weapon type.

The series has nearly completely lost its way since then though I feel. The narrative was at least somewhat interesting originally, while currently it is mostly the target of controversy. Not to mention the gameplay being a poor imitation of 'Souls'.

> Boat shit
That was AC4.

I liked the summoning in Brotherhood.

>easy foes don't encourage learning the system
Sort of reminds me of ME:SoM. Enjoyed it plenty all the same (fair bit of run work there). Vault was OP for a tool that didn't require upgrades and/or skills (or gear in the case of the sequel I never played).

>weapon stealing
First time I recall using enemy weapons on others was PP:WW, but I don't believe we took them from the still living.

>pocket sand
Doing Bejita-sama proud.

>AC4
Yes, yes. I forget which one made the bad guy the better MC (only to kill him off). Maybe AC3. Possibly also AC4.

Weapon stealing was originally in Warrior Within, fantastic game. But as noted you could only steal as a killing-move. Here the counter of the barehanded moveset is a disarm.

AC1 was cool, AC2 was greeat. Every AC after that has been the same game, I was done after 2.
AC2 was the OG batman combat.

Roy: >disarm the living
"How sweet it is." - 'muh trucker hat' droid

Recently felt like playing AC2 again. It was the only one I really liked but I never fully completed it or looked into all the combat options. There's a GOTY version on PS3 though I might go for the PSN version as its hard to find here physical now.

Don't really want to get the PS4 collection. Watched a comparison video and I think it looks like shit. That googly eye glitch is bizarre and creepy as well.

Snagged a cheap copy of the PS3 GOTY. This is the same one I used to have but I don't have my save file anymore.

Did the first fight with that rival gang and I barely remembered how to play. Got the hang of it pretty fast though.

The melee punch string is pretty basic.
Grabs were more interesting. Once you've got hold of them, you can punch, knee, headbutt or throw.

The strikes don't seem to have anything to differeniate that I could immediately notice. You get a few shots or can mix them up then he releases the enemy.

The throw is far more interesting. Basically Ezio grabs them then pushes and they go stumbling along depending on which direction you press. If you push them away from you, from the front, they'll fall backwards, but you can also send them stumbling into others, and even off the bridge for an instant 'kill'. Not sure if there's a wall slam yet.

That Uplay thing doesn't seem to work anymore if you try through the title screen but you can still access rewards on the Ubisoft club site. If you have enough points, you can get the extra knife carry, Altair skin and a new map of some secret place. I had 100 points from when I played Child of Light and Black Flag but I didn't have enough for all 3. You get these points by doing random trophy-like tasks I think, so eventually I'll have enough for that map.

Cool, you can send them into walls for a knockdown, then kick the shit out of them on the ground. This was on the cheating boyfriend but I assume the same rule applies for at least basic guards.

Edit: You can for the basic ones at least. They don't seem to be able to do anything about it. I imagine later enemies or the big armored guys are immune or can break out. I wonder if they're susceptible to thrown regular soldiers colliding with them?

With a weapon, after the enemy is downed from a wall hit, you can insta-kill stab them.

You can throw an enemy even if you're holding a weapon which is nice. If they don't hit a wall, they'll stumble along and trip over then you can follow and ground stab.

I noticed you can unequip and go into free run while in battle and I was able to do that running tackle and take a guard to the ground. I thought you could only do that on those courier guys. Haven't had a chance to test much because I keep running into cut-scenes. I've got most of the assassin powers now so I might avoid advancing the story for a while.

Another thing I've been doing by accident is dropping on people. Tested and it works on soldiers. What I mean is you simply drop down from above, like walking off a rooftop of dropping from climbing.

It absolutely flattens them. I haven't tested follow ups but that will be next.

Done some more cool stuff.

Learned sand throw, which is a nice tool for what it does, but its usage is weird. It's pretty much a charge attack. You hold square, and Ezio will sweep up sand with both hands, then goes into this DBZ pose like he's about to fire a ki attack. Releasing throws the sand, and it has decent range and coverage, hitting multiple opponents. Doesn't work on grounded enemies or while they're getting up though.

I never learned this move when I played years ago, and didn't even know you could learn moves through the trainer. I thought he was just a tutorial guy.

I wish you could move while holding sand. When I first heard about this technique, I thought it would be a one-handed sand throw and you could move around while holding on to it. Ezio always fights with one-handed weapons so this would have easily been possible. Think something like attacking with Nero while holding a charge shot. Maybe attack a guy and then throw sand at a guy coming from another direction.

The way it is now, I can't see myself using it that much outside of an initial attack when guys are running in.

With the normal grab while holding a sword, you will take a guard 'hostage', though no one cares. His pals will still attack. You have them from behind with your sword at their throat, and from here you can slice their throat or move around with them, in addition to the regular option of sending them stumbling in any direction.

I had hired a group of mercenaries, and when I grabbed a guy, they attacked and killed him while I was holding him. Not sure if they can break out of the sword throw.

Regular guards, as usual, can do nothing about these throws. I fought a 'boss' recently and he was able to throw escape, but at some point I did succeed. I was slashing him and he was defending, then I grabbed and it worked. Ran him into the wall for a knockdown and stabbed him. Might be that these tougher types have to be on the backfoot first.

I mentioned earlier about being able to go into free run during combat. I've found that you can run and jump at enemies, and it will cause them to stumble back a bit. Haven't found a real use for it yet, because when you jump you go quite far and by the time you turn around they've already recovered. If there's a shorter jump, it could be useful.

Got throwing knives now, and they kill regular guards instantly most of the time and from a distance. You can charge to throw a spread shot of 3, but that's more for close/mid range combat.

Not liking the regular melee that much. Seems a waste of time when you have all these other insta-kill/more fun options.

If you hire a mercenary group, guards will focus on them, and you can just walk around getting free back stabs.

The way health works is weird. Most of the time enemies are blocking and you're just pounding on their guard, but it still damages them, just not as much as direct hits. Sometimes when you score direct hits, Ezio does this counter type fancy move and kills them. Not sure how that works. It might be that the health I see when they're blocking is more 'stamina'.

Haven't come across heavy types yet and don't remember much about them. Hoping half my tools don't stop working on them. If I remember correctly, you had to dodge their attacks because they're so strong.

Thoughts on the game overall Birdman? It's a super widely acclaimed game, so I'm thinking of giving it a run. Only Assassin's Creed I played was Origins, and that was all before I got into action games. Even then, I thought it was just "fine". The highlight of that game wasn't the combat, or story, it was primarily just exploring the admittedly very detailed world.

I love AC2, but I've only played the other Ezio games and Black Flag.

You CAN down stab from the running tackle. Good to know.

Also did the tutorial for long weapons. These are quite cool because their special attack is a sweep. You can knock down multiple enemies in one sweep, and it has a quick version. Not even sure why there's a full charge version because it doesn't appear to change anything.

Sadly, you can never own these types of weapons; you can only get them from enemies through disarming or off the ground after killing them.

There's two handed stuff too like axes but I haven't messed with those yet. There's a pistol but I haven't unlocked it yet and only vaguely remember using it in the past.

Edit: Forgot to add something else that happened. I grabbed and threw this guy and he went running off-screen. I turned the camera to keep track of him and saw he was on the ground, as is normal, but there was another guard on the ground as well. So far I've only had them bump into other guards, which causes them to stumble, but never fully knock to the ground. I guess it's to do with where exactly the thrown one makes contact with the other.

Another thing was using grabs to cancel an enemy's attack. I was fighting an elite guard, and you can't grab them unless their health/stamina or whatever it is, is lower.

If you time your grab, you can grab them right out of their sword swings and they do the throw escape animation. Need to figure out if this has any real use. Interesting to know though.

Oh man. FUN.

Just got the poison hidden blade.

With this, you go up and inject people and they don't know you've done it. After a few seconds they start spazzing out and causing a spectacle, drawing a crowd.

Eventually they drop and flop around a bit more, then die. Extremely satisfying to watch from a rooftop.

If you do this to guards, they'll flail about with their weapon, though other guards and civilians tend to back away and watch, and the poisoned enemy doesn't really advance. They just swing back and forth.

It functions similarly to berserk darts in Black Flag, but the enemies won't fight each other in AC2. Still, it causes a huge distraction.

I've been using it for assassin contracts which have just opened up. Very fun finding ways to get near the target to poison, then getting out of there to watch it unfold.

Like this one guy,  you have to kill without him or his heavy guard seeing you. He wanders this market place in a loop with his guard in tow. What I did was hire some nearby pickpockets (will talk about stuff like this later) who pinched some coin from him, then he went after them, allowing me to approach the target and inject him. I then retreated to a nearby alley and giggled as he slowly died. I know that sounds sick but hey I didn't make this game lol.

FUN.

Seeing you, one of the pickiest players I know, really enjoy an Assassin's Creed game, is truly something to behold.

Definitely gonna pick this game up at some point.

Probably because this was the first AC game I ever played and still very early in the series.

I don't like every aspect of it though, and what I do like, such as those poison shenanigans, may only appeal to me because I'm sick like that. I mentioned the melee strings as something I wasn't a fan of.

I like that you need to be holding X to free run and 'connect' with parts of the environment, but I wish there was more agency when climbing. I really like how in the old TR games you had to hold the button down to maintain your grip.

Blending is good in this one because it's harder to do. In later games when in a crowd, you'll auto walk with them, but in AC2 you have to stay in the group yourself you need to keep an eye on your walking speed.

I really like some of these stealth and distraction options like hiring courtesans to seduce guards, throwing money, blending.

As Roy mentioned, there's no crouch which is odd. I think later games may have added it.

Got smoke bombs. These shroud a large area and make you invisible. The guards will just stand there coughing and are completely open to stealth kills.

I bombed a group of 5 then poisoned them all and watched from a rooftop. Got some good chuckles out of that.

You can't throw them like grenades though; Ezio just throws them at the ground at his feet, but they work even if you've been spotted.

Here are some things I find truly annoying.

When you've hired courtesans, they will auto seduce any guards in range. It's either that or the guards are the ones initiating. Hard to tell because when you actually order them to distract, the process looks the same.

Anyway, it's annoying because I might be taking them to distract some posted guards, but along the way I lose some, if not all to passing guards.

Courtesans are fantastic for blending because they follow you positioned all around you. So long and you don't run away, it's easy blending because they move with YOU, not the other way around like with other crowds. Even if you have just 2 left, you can still blend with them. You can't do this with others.

Second thing that annoys me is that pickpocketing is done by holding the button to fast walk. I use fast walk often in the street so I don't knock anyone down, but problem is if you brush past anyone, pickpocketing happens. I've had guards see me do this when I didn't mean to.

I bought the Ezio Collection today as it was on sale. Will be good to have if I ever want to see how AC2 runs or if I want to have easy access to the other 2 games.

>smoke bombs
Regarding smoke bombs, I had a situation where some other enemies were alerted and ran into the cloud. They were immediately affected and started coughing. These things are INSANE. You can drop them when surrounded or being chased and it's a free escape. If you choose to fight, equip your hidden blade and get double stealth kills. You can clear a group of even the toughest enemies with ease. You only can only hold three at a time, though that's more than enough considering the absurd havoc you can administer with just one bomb.

>poison
Guards CAN hit civilians, but seems situational, like if you poison one in a tight area like an alley or maybe if the onlookers back into a wall, because they back up a few steps as soon as they see someone flailing about.

A poisoned enemy will start flailing about, swinging their weapon wildly as detailed earlier, but don't actually move around that much. Maybe a step or so in a direction, then back the opposite way. However, I did get a guard to fall off a rooftop like this by poisoning him very close to the edge.

Had another interesting situation last night. There was a building guarded by 4 guards, and I needed to get the codex page inside. What I usually do here is hire courtesans if available, and have them seduce the guards. So I did this, got the codex page, and exited, then poisoned one guard for fun.

Once the guard started flailing, the nearby crowds stopped to spectate, as did the courtesans. They stopped all their sexy motions and just stood watching the guard. The weird thing here was that the guards were still responding to the courtesans, and not the poisoned guard right beside them. I think the game got mixed up or something.

There's quite a few ideas I want to try and more stuff I need to test.

Like with throwing knives, you can't hit downed enemies. My idea is to send an enemy running into a wall and throw a knife as he rebounds so it connects just before he falls.

Regarding sand throw, I wonder if you can stealth kill or poison during this state? I keep forgetting I have this move.

Edit: Tested the throw to knife throw and it works, but has to be before they fall, otherwise the knife goes over them. Also, hitting with the knife stops their stumbling run and they go back to standing position if they take more than one knife, or dead if they don't. This is good because you can get in good damage and not have to run after them.

It just came to me that it might be possible to stealth kill right after the knife. I always get ideas after I've turned everything off. Forgot to test sand throw too.

Can't remember if I said this already, but you can stealth kill during poison. You'll need to be careful though as you can be hit by their flailing.

Finally remembered to test sand throw, and you can stealth kill from it.

Seems none of the enemies can actually escape after being grabbed. Also, when you grab a poisoned enemy, the poison process just stops. If you throw them, it resumes after they get up.

Another thing the game tells you, is that you can throw enemies into breakable objects and it kills them instantly. Just gave this a go for the first time, and realized I had no idea which objects it was referring to. It wasn't barrels or carts.

I dragged a guard around and threw him at a fish stall and the whole thing came down, killing him (and the owner) instantly. Good to know, but doesn't seem that useful unless there are way more breakables around that I'm unaware of.

I had a guard dodge my tackle. That was weird and I'm not sure what triggered it. It was one of those rooftop archers, so maybe only they can do it.

I should probably stop saying 'stealth kill' as it doesn't really apply but I'm used to using it for these instant kill moves. The game actually calls them 'assassinate' which makes perfect sense, but I hate typing that word.

*If a guard is poisoned, which is guaranteed death, they'll still throw escape if they're capable. They can't defend themselves in any other way so I don't see why they'd be able to throw escape in this case.

*Courtesans can actually fight. Had this happen last night and I've never seen this before. It happens either when you get involved in a fight while they're with you, or maybe when they get hit.

When it happened, I was taking them to distract some guards when a pickpocket ran past and stole some of my coin. I could have let this go because I have so much money and he barely takes any, but I hate them and take it as a personal offense so I threw a knife at him as he ran off. Some off-screen guards I wasn't paying attention to saw all this and attacked me. I was dealing with one guard then when I turned to look for others I saw them fighting with the courtesans.

Out of 5, 3 were already dead, and they were armed with some kind of daggers, though I think one had a short sword. They seemed unable to put up much of a fight and I saw a guard strike one down. She didn't even try to block.

*Got the hidden pistol. You can fire a quick shot, or hold it down until the line focuses. The game says the longer you hold it, the better the accuracy. Haven't tested it in combat yet.

Just found this.

Your best weapon against a good defense is the insta-kill. If an opponent defends your attack, you can still continue the combo by mashing the attack button. But if you time your second attack button press at the very moment your previous blow is blocked, Ezio will execute an instant kill maneuver, knocking away the enemy's weapon and in the same motion executing a deadly slash. There's a rhythm to the clashing of swords that varies with every weapon you use, so use your ears to learn the timing. The insta-kill is generally the end-all, be-all when it comes to killing a difficult enemy.

This explains why sometimes I insta-kill at weird times. I had no idea there was a timing mechanic like this. I was about to say melee strings are kind of useless since they'll usually block the whole thing. Even though it still does damage to them, it's inefficient and unsafe, but with this timing technique it seems you can bypass their guard.

I can't believe it. I just realized that they didn't give me the GOTY version. I couldn't locate the DLC which is supposed to appear automatically. Only the case says GOTY. Don't know if I can be bothered getting a replacement as it won't be compatible with my regular version's save.

Oh well I was pretty much done anyway. Might analyze Brotherhood in the future but not for a long time.

A few final notes.

*That drop down thing is something else I think. I keep accidentally doing this pounce on civilians when I jump from somewhere and into the street and they happen to be in the way. It's the same animation where Ezio flattens them on the ground. It's really difficult to set up on enemies so I haven't bothered testing for follow-ups.

*Still don't like the melee. It has some similarities to Batman in the basic strikes. Like when attacking you can press the stick towards another enemy and Ezio will launch at them. What I hate about this is how, depending on distance, Ezio will take more or less steps to reach and strike. His attack comes out automatically when within range, just like Batman's attacks.

I don't like how there's no judging of distance, and I've had other enemies attack during that movement or even the one I'm targeting tries to attack at the same time.

This is especially apparent with spears because you can't really use the range effectively when he auto-runs in. It seems the aim of the game is to use techniques that facilitate insta-kills, because regular melee sucks and is a chore.

*Courtesans will draw daggers and fight whenever you enter open conflict while they're hired.

*Whenever you poison someone and they're spazzing out, it draws attention and everyone nearby will stop and stare. Even if you're in the crowd, blending is cancelled. This includes courtesans and benches.

*Earlier I said after throwing a guard, then getting them with a knife throw, will stop them and they'll return to standing. This doesn't seem to be the case with some guards. I could have been mistiming it but in a later city I just couldn't get it to work.

*I was fighting this guard on the docks and he wasn't weak enough to be thrown and kept breaking. That's when I noticed that he takes a very small step back during the break animation. I kept doing it and after about 4 times he actually stepped off the dock and dropped into the water, which is an insta-kill because none of them can swim for some reason.

*Bosses in this game are few, and function like normal enemies, only with more HP and some of your stuff doesn't work. Smoke bombs, poison, grabs (until HP is lower) or any kind of insta-kill. Strangely, you can just knife throw them to death, but it's weird. If you throw as rapidly as the game allows, every second knife won't cause any hit-stun. I never noticed on normal guards because they always die from 2 knives.

Bosses aren't really good in this game for the above reasons. The final boss was an absolute joke and made no sense to me. In the cut-scene he had powers but loses them. Why can't you fight him with his powers? It all ends with a generic fist fight, and you can grab him right from the start. I just grabbed and threw him into the wall then stomped him over and over.

*The open world is super detailed but at the end of the day I'm just speeding through to the marker and everything becomes a blur. In some cases it's used well, like tailing someone while blending in various ways and trying to avoid guards and idiots in the crowd.

Like there are these losers carrying crates and the slightest touch will make them drop them, resulting in them having a meltdown and attracting guards. In cases where you're following someone, I noticed the AI of these NPCs dramatically changes. They appear more often and actually purposely move in front of you. I've even seen them pass, then 180 just to cross my path again.

Most annoying are the bards. I've never wanted to murder an NPC more than these guys. They run right up in your face and start strumming their guitar or whatever it is while singing in the most cringe inducing voice ever. I know the devs designed them to make us want to kill them, so we can attract the guards. I isolated a few and brutally murdered them.

If you bump into these guys while running, they'll drop their guitar and run away whining. If guards see this they'll come after you.

Overall, poison was very fun to use and figuring out how to get close enough to inject and escape without being detected. Brotherhood has poison darts which is like a dream come true to me, but I need a break for now.

I wanted something to play on PS4 so I picked up Odyssey on sale. I haven't played an AC since 2.
I am skipping most of the dialogue, only watching the main cutscenes. This game is a lot of fun.
It is basically shadow of mordor in structure. Combat and build wise it is better than the witcher 3.

The combat doesn't have a ton of depth, but they get massive points for not just making batman combat.
Has dark souls lock on but no stamina.
There is a charge attack that can completely knockdown loop 1 on 1 enemies every time they get up

There is a perfect dodge and parry, as well as a bunch of abilities and weapon types to experiment with.
The nightmare difficulty puts up a fight throughout. The stealth is forgiving but isn't an instant win button. One thing I really like is if you are stealthing a stronghold, a guy or two can spot you and fight you without alerting the whole area. Overall a decent checklist game with ok combat.
I actually am sort of looking forward to Valhalla which I never thought I would say.
Would love to see them expand on the combat, weapon types and skills.

>builds

Go on.

>Builds

It is mostly ranged/melee/stealth. There is poison and fire damage over time skill buffs, haven't messed with them yet.

But they can be mix and matched. Gear affects the damage skills from each class do, in theory you could make anything viable with the right gear. There are also legendary armors and weapons that buff most builds like poison clothes increasing poison duration/effect, etc.
Leveling is pretty slow so you really feel like each point matters.

I am focusing on a crit build which can give huge damage numbers, but also makes the fights a bit random if they go my way or not. A crit could mean the difference of 1 shot stealth killing a tough enemy, or only doing half damage.
I have heard you can get crit chance to 100%, sounds nuts.

Ranged could potentially be very good, only have a bit of skill in it. The first skill is a shot that does like 500% damage. Been keeping my bow high level as a chip damage option.
There is a shield breaker skill so it would go great with ranged combat, there are a lot of shields.
Worst part of this game is the cool downs on abilities.
You spend a lot of time just dodging around waiting for cool downs, since on nightmare the high level enemies can two shot you.

Would you suggest trying this game again?

I remember making a whole review somewhere ranting about why I thought it was extremely mediocre. That was like, a year ago though.

I am really enjoying it. The difficulty is there on Nightmare. I think the gameplay and RPG builds are better than the Witcher 3, if you played that. I have skipped all dialogue in odyssey.

Looks like the director of odyssey is making this game at ubisoft. It is basically odyssey 2/ BOTW.
Very interesting, I wonder if I would even like Valhalla if that is a different team.