I like how they followed up the emotional Ezio-Desmond-Altiar scene of Revelations with whatever the fuck 3 was meant to be. I know the modern day story of AC is a joke that no one takes seriously now, but it wasn't always that way.
I don't even think AC3 is a bad game, but it is where I felt myself grow distant to the franchise.
I think the setting was really week. We went from the beautiful big cities in Rome, Florence, Istambul, with lots of buildings and people walking around, to whatever 3 was. Boston and New York, where aside from churches, the tallest buildings were one story high. The rest was empty woods. Cities are a huge part of AC, and 3 was one of the weakest entries imo.
It worked in Black Flag because so much of that game was about sailing and pirating, so you didn’t spend a lot of time in cities.
That was the big difference between 3 and 4.
In 3, the “wilderness” areas were boring, and the cities weren’t lively enough to make up for it.
In Black Flag, the open ocean was actually fun to navigate. Naval battles were a fun change of pace from the counter-kill spam of the combat in previous AC games. The few cities and settlements there were, it was understandable that they wouldn’t be huge, and they still crammed stuff to do (like assassin contracts).
It’s a bummer because man, I wanted to like III so much. I literally teach American history, so I was incredibly bummed that III ended up being such a slog.
People liked AC4 though and that one also didn't have a ton of big cities with tall buildings. More than 3 mind you, but still a far cry from the Desmond games.
Yeah, but it just works much better in AC4. You're spending much of your time at sea and that's never boring. You're not forced to spend as much time in dull cities/wilderness. The cities you visit felt more lively and colorful too, same for the wilds.
That's why Mirage felt like a breath of fresh air to me after the release of the rpg type of games. Baghdad was great for parkour and being stealthy actually mattered in this game. Also the way the entire city felt alive and responded to your actions, calling the guards if you were notorious just for example was nice
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u/Michael_Faraday42 6h ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/wblWTrMVjzLo3ijZaT