This game has been such a hard litmus test for “what would it take to get you to purchase another Assassins Creed game?” for me.
Like, “Would you buy it if it was just a genuienly good Assassins Creed game?” - Paid Ubisoft Reviewer
“No, I’ve played them during their heyday and I’m a bit over the formula” - Tired Inner gamer
“But what if it had Samurai, including the certified BAMF Yasuke?” - Ubi Devs
“hmm… I do love Samurai and Yasuke… but no, I don’t think that would do it. I don’t like Ubisoft’s business practices and would rather not support it even if it speaks to my inner Chanbara nerd.” - Inner Anti-corpo voice
“Not even if Ubisoft was taking a strong stance against the Anti-Woke nonsense culture wars? You couldn’t even let their business practices go for just one game?” - Ubi Marketing team
“No no no, I know that businesses only take these stances when it’s profitable. They would just as easily take the opposite opinion if that was where the money was at.” - Inner cynic voice
“But what if we dunked on Elon, on his own platform no less?” - AC twiiter account
“okay…I’m in… but only when it goes on a good Steam sale” - Defeated sense of self
For me, it isn’t even any of this stuff. It’s almost totally that the games are too big and take too long to get any enjoyment. Most of the time spent playing the games isn’t fun. It’s just traveling and maybe collecting garbage that doesn’t add anything to the enjoyment.
The old games were fun for every moment with the traversal. I don’t think that can carry a newer game, because it isn’t as unique anymore, but it was always more fun than riding a horse from point to point.
If they condensed the story and game down to tens of hours, I would consider it. I’m not going to play a typical Ubisoft game that takes hundreds. Even Elden Ring took me just about 100 and it was getting to the point of being too much, and it was far more interesting and fun.
Couldn’t agree more. When open worlds were new and shiney, I enjoyed the sense of freedom and exploration. Now though, it usually just feels like padding. Like I’m being told I need to eat 20 crackers for every bite of burger.
Even worse when they are just big maps dotted with equally spaced event icons and way points that you are just expected to complete. Really makes me miss open world games that felt like they existed for their own sake like Morrowind.
As much as I enjoyed Elden Ring, I definitely felt like the open world added so little ta the formula, but took so much when you could just casually run by most enemies.
Yep. Open world games usually feel like they can’t have any blank spaces, and so they waste resources filling every inch with something, even if it’s just a waste of time. You’ve always been able to run past enemies in FS games, but it took effort and you had to pay attention. The open world of ER wastes so many resources filling the open world, but also makes it trivial to not engage with. Even when there’s a collectable you want, you just ride by on Torrent, grab it, and leave. You don’t engage with it, but they expended time and money creating it.
The open world gives you a lot of distinct options, but do you really have more real ones than DS1? At the start of DS1 you have three paths (4 with the master key). In ER at the start you have three obvious paths (Stormveil, Weeping Peninsula, and Cailid) and one less obvious (going around Stormveil). I’d argue the paths of DS1 are far more interesting to engage with. The Catacombs are a design mistake though because it’s so hard to get out of. The reward for that path is very interesting for a new start (and it’s balanced for a new player, which is why Pinwheel becomes a joke at the mid-game when most people fight him), but getting out without the Lord Vessel is a huge challenge. It needs to have a TP or jump or something at the bottom to get back when you’re done.
I agree woth everything you said but want to add that leaving big open spaces can be an effective design choice. Compare botw to totk and the ambiance changes drastically due to this.
I’ll buy another Ubisoft game when they get rid of microtransactions, pre orders of multiple different collector’s editions and all the other anti-consumer monetization schemes. So, right after hell has frozen over.
I have been a huge AC fan since AC 2. In fact, I am currently replaying AC 2 to recapture the good times. But, Valhalla was the last straw. AC games have become too bloated for their own good. I gave up on AC for good.
Tired inner gamer. The original AC got boring for me. Just lots of repetitive uncreative climbing to complete collections. They they came out with Uplay with AC2 and i keep going back to “is this game worth creating an account and giving up my personal information to play, when there are multiple other games available with a better value proposition for my time, money, and privacy?”
The answer (for ubisoft) is invariably no. So i’ve effectively been on an unintentional Ubisoft boycott since 2008 since i refuse to create an account.
Personally, I dug the “social stealth” mechanics in the early AC games, especially as it was a interesting deviation from the more line of sight based formula of the MGS games, and the light/shadow based stealth of the Theif and Splinter Cell series (everything old is new again in that regards), but I’ve always been a fan of stealth games anyway. And I found the climbing and parkour to be fun and novel at the time, even if it is extremely “automated”.
Was fortunate enough to just rent AC 1&2 for the 360 at the time, so uPlay never really entered into my decision making.
But yeah, if you were a completionist, I could see how that would get extremely boring. And Ubisoft’s business practices are super shitty.
“Who fucking cares? I dont play videogames to learn about history.” - frustrated inner gamer that doesn’t give two shits about what color the pixels are.
lol, that’s a fair take. Though I do love learning about history in games. And I enjoy when games allow me the chance to live out some childhood fantasy. So in that sense, I do care about the color of pixels, and shape, and implied fiction behind it all.
This game has been such a hard litmus test for “what would it take to get you to purchase another Assassins Creed game?” for me.
Like, “Would you buy it if it was just a genuienly good Assassins Creed game?” - Paid Ubisoft Reviewer
“No, I’ve played them during their heyday and I’m a bit over the formula” - Tired Inner gamer
“But what if it had Samurai, including the certified BAMF Yasuke?” - Ubi Devs
“hmm… I do love Samurai and Yasuke… but no, I don’t think that would do it. I don’t like Ubisoft’s business practices and would rather not support it even if it speaks to my inner Chanbara nerd.” - Inner Anti-corpo voice
“Not even if Ubisoft was taking a strong stance against the Anti-Woke nonsense culture wars? You couldn’t even let their business practices go for just one game?” - Ubi Marketing team
“No no no, I know that businesses only take these stances when it’s profitable. They would just as easily take the opposite opinion if that was where the money was at.” - Inner cynic voice
“But what if we dunked on Elon, on his own platform no less?” - AC twiiter account
“okay…I’m in… but only when it goes on a good Steam sale” - Defeated sense of self
For me, it isn’t even any of this stuff. It’s almost totally that the games are too big and take too long to get any enjoyment. Most of the time spent playing the games isn’t fun. It’s just traveling and maybe collecting garbage that doesn’t add anything to the enjoyment.
The old games were fun for every moment with the traversal. I don’t think that can carry a newer game, because it isn’t as unique anymore, but it was always more fun than riding a horse from point to point.
If they condensed the story and game down to tens of hours, I would consider it. I’m not going to play a typical Ubisoft game that takes hundreds. Even Elden Ring took me just about 100 and it was getting to the point of being too much, and it was far more interesting and fun.
Couldn’t agree more. When open worlds were new and shiney, I enjoyed the sense of freedom and exploration. Now though, it usually just feels like padding. Like I’m being told I need to eat 20 crackers for every bite of burger.
Even worse when they are just big maps dotted with equally spaced event icons and way points that you are just expected to complete. Really makes me miss open world games that felt like they existed for their own sake like Morrowind.
As much as I enjoyed Elden Ring, I definitely felt like the open world added so little ta the formula, but took so much when you could just casually run by most enemies.
Yep. Open world games usually feel like they can’t have any blank spaces, and so they waste resources filling every inch with something, even if it’s just a waste of time. You’ve always been able to run past enemies in FS games, but it took effort and you had to pay attention. The open world of ER wastes so many resources filling the open world, but also makes it trivial to not engage with. Even when there’s a collectable you want, you just ride by on Torrent, grab it, and leave. You don’t engage with it, but they expended time and money creating it.
The open world gives you a lot of distinct options, but do you really have more real ones than DS1? At the start of DS1 you have three paths (4 with the master key). In ER at the start you have three obvious paths (Stormveil, Weeping Peninsula, and Cailid) and one less obvious (going around Stormveil). I’d argue the paths of DS1 are far more interesting to engage with. The Catacombs are a design mistake though because it’s so hard to get out of. The reward for that path is very interesting for a new start (and it’s balanced for a new player, which is why Pinwheel becomes a joke at the mid-game when most people fight him), but getting out without the Lord Vessel is a huge challenge. It needs to have a TP or jump or something at the bottom to get back when you’re done.
I agree woth everything you said but want to add that leaving big open spaces can be an effective design choice. Compare botw to totk and the ambiance changes drastically due to this.
I’ll buy another Ubisoft game when they get rid of microtransactions, pre orders of multiple different collector’s editions and all the other anti-consumer monetization schemes. So, right after hell has frozen over.
lol, fair enough.
I have been a huge AC fan since AC 2. In fact, I am currently replaying AC 2 to recapture the good times. But, Valhalla was the last straw. AC games have become too bloated for their own good. I gave up on AC for good.
Tired inner gamer. The original AC got boring for me. Just lots of repetitive uncreative climbing to complete collections. They they came out with Uplay with AC2 and i keep going back to “is this game worth creating an account and giving up my personal information to play, when there are multiple other games available with a better value proposition for my time, money, and privacy?”
The answer (for ubisoft) is invariably no. So i’ve effectively been on an unintentional Ubisoft boycott since 2008 since i refuse to create an account.
Good on ya! Fight the good fight!
Personally, I dug the “social stealth” mechanics in the early AC games, especially as it was a interesting deviation from the more line of sight based formula of the MGS games, and the light/shadow based stealth of the Theif and Splinter Cell series (everything old is new again in that regards), but I’ve always been a fan of stealth games anyway. And I found the climbing and parkour to be fun and novel at the time, even if it is extremely “automated”.
Was fortunate enough to just rent AC 1&2 for the 360 at the time, so uPlay never really entered into my decision making.
But yeah, if you were a completionist, I could see how that would get extremely boring. And Ubisoft’s business practices are super shitty.
“Who fucking cares? I dont play videogames to learn about history.” - frustrated inner gamer that doesn’t give two shits about what color the pixels are.
lol, that’s a fair take. Though I do love learning about history in games. And I enjoy when games allow me the chance to live out some childhood fantasy. So in that sense, I do care about the color of pixels, and shape, and implied fiction behind it all.
But different strokes for different folks.