|
| Thread: Doomforge's review corner |  This thread is pages long: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 · «PREV / NEXT» |
|
JoonasTo
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
What if Elvin was female?
|
posted April 16, 2012 09:38 PM |
|
|
I would probably have mentioned underworld in it's own chapter as to make the distinction between vanilla and UL clearer. Currently it's mixed up and if you want to find the improvements it makes you can't see it, you have to find it.
Mentioning mods in the review is good but they should be differentiated clearly.
I just have a thing for hating goblins. And in my books, satyrs are goblins. And I have to kill them through the whole bloody chapter? Not to mention reskinned ones later? Come on!
Even Diablo was wise enough to let the fallen ones stay on the first few levels, not follow you through the game.
I get no satisfaction for beating little brown guys. I like to kill big ugly guys.
____________
DON'T BE A NOOB, JOIN A.D.V.E.N.T.U.R.E.
|
|
Doomforge
Admirable
Undefeatable Hero
Retired Hero
|
|
posted April 16, 2012 09:45 PM |
|
|
I would settle on killing skeletons. All the damn game. 
I will edit out the parts about UL and re-add them below. I think that will indeed be a bit better and less confusing.
____________
We reached to the stars and everything is now ours
|
|
avalon00x
Bad-mannered
Known Hero
|
|
posted April 24, 2012 09:15 PM |
|
|
hmm i find myself a huge fan of titan quest.
the zero death x-max challenge is pretty fun. especially on an untwinked char. the most important mod for me is TQ vault tho. the given invetory space is simply not enough and super flying bodies well. i dont like it too much on pt 1 and 2 bodies should be flying far away enough anyway. sadly the game dous seem to suffer from some bad area loading in some places, and that is irrelevant on machine power or monster spawn number there can be 100 on screen at the same time and nothing is wrong but other areas can clog up any machine.
|
|
Doomforge
Admirable
Undefeatable Hero
Retired Hero
|
|
posted June 30, 2012 11:27 PM |
|
|
I cleaned up TQ's review according to Joonas' suggestion. Vanilla game & UL mod now are separately reviewed 
Time for a new review, too.
[FALLOUT: NEW VEGAS]
Fallout: New Vegas came in a difficult time for the Fallout franchise - a lot of old fans were grossly disappointed by Bethesda's take on Fallout and the news of a game developed on the same Gamebryo engine didn't seem a reason to be overly optimistic. On the other hand - F:NV was created by Obsidian - which contained a good bunch of people responsible for the original Fallout games. Not just that, but also, F:NV utilized the plot of Van Buren (code name for Black Isle's canceled Fallout 3), or at least, parts of it. A fusion of the old and new, in other words.
You can view F:NV in three different ways: as a sequel to Fallout2, as a successor to Fallout3, and as an entirely different game. In each of those realms, F:NV feels different.
The first thing that's important to mention is.. the genre. Even though this game is classified as "RPG", I like to call the genre "sRPG" or "sandbox RPG". It's fundamentally different from typical RPG games - on one hand, it offers open worlds without boundaries, on the other, the world is usually a tiny, square-shaped land that takes about 10 minutes to cross on foot - adorned by randomly placed mountains, forests, seas and cities, most of which contain 5-20 houses and 10-30 NPCs. The minimalistic nature of sRPGs is something one must get used to - it takes some imagination to feel immersed by a world where even the biggest cities are in fact a bunch of randomly placed houses with a population smaller than a mosquito's IQ. However, it's not impossible - one of the first sandbox RPGs I recall, Betrayal at Krondor, was also incredibly atmospheric game, despite "towns" that consisted of a tavern, shop and three homes, two of which were abandoned. Of course, in 1993, we weren't really expecting GTA-sized cities and stuff, but still...
As I mentioned, F:NV can be viewed differently depending on our approach. As a F2's successor, the game is sort of screwed from the beginning - and that's because of - you guessed it - the genre. You simply can't make much of an epic world having a cube randomly populated by microscopic cities - it's pretty hard to make any sort of story interesting and logical, seeing that the player technically isn't really driven to finish the plot altogether. It's no miracle that no sandbox - BaK aside - has ever offered a plot as deep and entertaining as typical RPGs. On other hand, it's true F:NV creators gave it their best. We basically have Van Buren's plot, adapted to the crappiness of a sRPG platform and served on an engine that doesn't seem very fitting for a sci-fi setting. In other words, the potential is wasted by default. There are no scripted/forced events to glue the pieces together, you just have some NPCs to tell you where to go and what to do. Some have more to say, some have less to say, but until you "uncover the story behind your past", the game pretty much resembles going from point A to point B, asking about guy X, solving a brain-dead miniquest to get answers, then going from point B to point C and repeating the steps. When you finally uncover the truth, it will be quite amazing for you to notice that you're 8-9 quests away from finishing the game. And those quests aren't really long. Let's say it straight : as "decent" as the plot is, it's a material for a few hours MAX should the setting be any different than typical sRPG.
And what's so special about "typical" sRPG setting, you ask? Well... to put it bluntly, sRPGs are mostly based on filler, not the plot itself. The time between "plot" talks are simply filled with walking. Yup. In an "open world", walking from point A to point B is wha takes most time. And it's not exactly something great. Of course, the devs tried to make it as interesting as you can make it, by putting enemies and quest-giving NPCs on those "plot" paths, but you just can't help it - you'll waste hours in this game WALKING. Simply having the "W" button (or whatever you're using for "forward" movement) pressed and staring at the screen, watching how your character slowly walks forward through similarly looking wasteland. As you can guess, this is not the most fascinating thing around, hence, there are methods of fast travel and 9001 points to fast travel to on the map... provided you uncover them first. Which brings out to a very important problem, which I'll get to around the end of this review. For now, let's get back to the plot.
As I don't want to spoil anything, I won't go in detail. I can only say that you're caught in a warzone, and you're given the option to support one of the factions, or to say "screw you" to all of them and support your own behind. Pretty standard for RPGs, nothing to be amazed about, but still better than Fallout3. What's important to notice is that the factions aren't exactly equal. Going by logic, you can easily pick the most influential and "moral" one, and this is reflected by number of subquests that faction offers (which is quite big). If you support the "evil" (grotesquely, might I add) nation however, you will get a few subquests only, and around 80% of the inhabitants of this tiny world will hate you and/or attempt to shoot you on sight. Not really well thought if you ask me. The political intrigue however is constructed surprisingly well (you can pretty much feel it has been imported from a REAL rpg, even if it's just a crappy adaptation) and it's mostly faithful to Fallout's canon, something F3 could only dream about.
However, while the plot sparks interest at "macro" level, it kinda disappoints at "micro" level. In other words, there's a lack of charismatic NPCs to make you immersed in the storyline. The setting is interesting, but it's just politics. Except for Mr.House and Caesar, you're just a merc doing grunt's job for faceless employees. Even though Fallout series were never big on the NPCs and instead put much more emphasis on politics and gameworld, it does kinda irritate that most of the NPCs are bland and boring. Fortunately, the DLCs released for this game provided colorful and interesting characters into this depressingly bland world, with characters such as Elijah, Think Tank members and Ulysses - the vanilla game however really falls short in this matter.
As for the gameplay itself, it's decent. It has its bright and dark sides, but it does give a pleasurable experience. Even though F:NV keeps using that retarded "time stop auto aim" way of utilizing Action Points (which are a rather silly attempt to make some sort of bridge between older Fallouts and F3), the battles seem enjoyable for most part, and the weapons behave rather properly. There's much fun in popping heads, and the sight of a bad guy's head exploding after getting penetrated by a large caliber bullet in slow-motion, with his body falling to the ground lifelessly, brings a lot of sadistic satisfaction. The game has (as expected) fake difficulty and is in fact brain-dead easy, especially with crazily overpowered perks introduced both in vanilla game (Rad Child) and DLCs (And Stay Back), something that is, due to lack of respecialization of your character, NOT good, because there's no real way to get rid of the overpowered effects once you've taken them, forcing you to play on "very easy" mode for the rest of the game. Of course, due to the nature of this game, it's not a big problem, as you're likely to avoid similar builds or paths when replaying the game, but it's a problem nevertheless.
And, since I mentioned replaying the game, time to address the game's biggest flaw: replayability, or rather, lack of it. I know, some people may be outraged by this, but I consider this game to have low replay value. Think of it: even if you pick a different faction, the only outcome you'll see (or rather, hear) will be a different ending read by a reader before game credits, as there's virtually zero impact of your choices on the ACTUAL (game time) world. The weapons, despite having different model and maybe a different projectile (energy/bullet) are largely the same and you'll mostly use the same methods of fighting, as there's often not much difference in playstyle after switching to a different weapon (this is, after all, a first person shooter). Because of that, even with different choices and different weapons, the game will feel mostly the same, like driving the same car, only painted in different color and driving through a different street. Now, add the biggest problem of the sRPGs - walking - and you'll understand. As I said before, the pains of walking are reduced by having fast travel points... but if you're re-playing the game, there are no fast travel points available. You have to re-discover them again. This means walking through the same wasteland at the same uber-slow speed, something I couldn't handle myself without getting bored to tears. Basically, this and this alone is what makes the thought of replaying a sandbox RPG a VERY bad idea to me - and F:NV is no different. During first playthrough, the pains of walking are rewarded by joy of exploration, and after the world is explored, you have quick travel and you don't have to walk anymore. However, in subsequent playthroughs, you already know the world, there's nothing to explore, the quicktravel points are not active yet, and you just walk, walk for hours through the same empty wastes to fulfill the same trivial subquests. Honestly, those games - sRPGs in general - lose a lot of appeal if you know them by heart, it just shows how small, shallow and boring they are deep "inside".
But... obviously, replayability is not all, and the lack of it does NOT make the game bad. On the contrary! On first playthrough, those flaws don't exist and the exploration - even if the world isn't exactly big enough to make it overly fun - is a source of joy. I bet most of the positive reviews came from people who simply played the game once and never came back to it. To be honest, this is not F:NV's fault, the sRPG genre is just made that way. Still... they weren't FORCED to pick this genre, or to make it exactly like every other sRPG around when it comes to those problems, were they?
And a special note for those bored enough to read through this wall of text: even though DLCs disgust me in general, I rate NV's DLCs very high. They almost feel like a completely different game - perhaps because they show much of the features of real RPGs such as interesting characters, more linear/forced (hence interesting) plot and tighter, less bland locations? Whether it's the goofy humor and crazy plot of "Old world blues", the claustrophobic and desolated atmosphere of "Lonesome road" or the dark, ghoulish and slightly maddening "Dead Money", it just feels fun and interesting. Only the first DLC - "Honest Hearts" - feels lackluster and more like the vanilla game with its empty map, lame quests and rather average/boring NPCs. That one is the only one I wouldn't recommend, as it feels rushed and not thought out well. And that's despite it introducing my favorite ranged weapon - Survivalist Rifle.
I don't really know how to put my thoughts in a summary. This is a game that you can speak off quite a long time. As you see, I wrote a wall of text and didn't even go in detail about pretty much anything. All that's left is to comment on the two remaining ways to rate this game. I already stated it's not much of a Fallout2 sequel (unless you consider it to be one bug-wise - as it has swarms, literally thousands of bugs regarding pretty much everything) - as for the two remaining options, it's actually quite decent. it's better than Fallout 3 regarding plot, balance (despite OP perks) and joy of playing, and it's a rather good game if you consider it a spin-off and not a part of the glorious Fallout franchise. Damn good. However, the title FALLOUT is quite demanding. F:NV is overshadowed by its fantastic predecessors, and because of that, it's not the game it could be, at least in my eyes. Well, I guess you have to blame Black Isle for making the previous games so good there's little room left for sRPGs like that to impress gamers. All in all, it's a good game and worth playing through, especially if you plan to finish it & never return to it again 
Rating: 7/10
And a sad little note, reviews worse then mine end up on gamebanshee & their authors get PAID for them. Whee.
____________
We reached to the stars and everything is now ours
|
|
Tsar-Ivor
Promising
Legendary Hero
Scourge of God
|
|
posted July 01, 2012 12:08 PM |
|
|
Quote:
biggest problem of the sRPGs - walking - and you'll understand.
On the contrary, I found oblivion to be bland and frankly a not very good game because I fast traveled everywhere, the quests were too easy, and too short, and I never even finished the main quest just got bogged down, then I realized that the beautiful and dangerous and interesting world between the settlements is what makes sRPGs so ****ing good. Different approach, means different outcome. (IMHo) Since exploring is one of the fundamentals of an sRPG, viewing it as a con is where the problem is at.
Quote:
land that takes about 10 minutes to cross on foot
Good god no, crossing from one corner to the other, for example Mohave outpost to cottonwood cove is atleast 20min of walking, not including mountains or enemies. Not to mention that the map isn't a square, it's a 1 across, 2 up scale.
And the main quest is not what determines replayability, I've replayed FO-NV two dozen times, sometimes with the same character with just an altered persona. I don't see why a game has to be drastically different every time you replay it, in my experience this is the case, but that's because my approach/I'm different, and due to that I get a different experience, a new experience. Still haven't finished the main mission, for any TES or Fallout games, in sRPGs they're what keep me going, completing them cuts out the purpose for anything else.
____________
"No laughs were had. There is only shame and sadness." Jenny
|
|
Doomforge
Admirable
Undefeatable Hero
Retired Hero
|
|
posted July 01, 2012 12:36 PM |
|
|
Quote:
On the contrary, I found oblivion to be bland and frankly a not very good game because I fast traveled everywhere, the quests were too easy, and too short, and I never even finished the main quest just got bogged down, then I realized that the beautiful and dangerous and interesting world between the settlements is what makes sRPGs so ****ing good. Different approach, means different outcome. (IMHo) Since exploring is one of the fundamentals of an sRPG, viewing it as a con is where the problem is at.
As I said, the exploration is a strong point of sRPGs. The problem here is the "second time" when you have already explored the land and there's nothing new to find. Idk about you, but walking for 10 minutes just to activate fast travel was painfully boring to me 
Quote:
Good god no, crossing from one corner to the other, for example Mohave outpost to cottonwood cove is atleast 20min of walking, not including mountains or enemies. Not to mention that the map isn't a square, it's a 1 across, 2 up scale.
You probably used heavy armor
I was using light armor + "travel light" perk to minimize travel time. It took me about 10 minutes to run across CLEARED map (clocked from Mohave outpost to Jacobstown). Give or take two or three minutes.
By the way, 10 mins was figurative for the whole genre. It's not an actual game time
Quote:
And the main quest is not what determines replayability, I've replayed FO-NV two dozen times, sometimes with the same character with just an altered persona.
Actually, yes, for non-hardcore fans, people expect different stuff to be interested in playing through the plot again. Otherwise it's same quests, same dialogs, same everything again. Of course there will be fans who like it despite no differences in walkthroughs, but for the majority, it's boring.
Quote:
Still haven't finished the main mission, for any TES or Fallout games, in sRPGs they're what keep me going, completing them cuts out the purpose for anything else.
Meaning you like to walk around, collect stuff and shoot stuff. Nothing wrong in it, but the game has to be reviewed on many levels, not just diablo-like experience
____________
We reached to the stars and everything is now ours
|
|
Elodin
Promising
Legendary Hero
Free Thinker
|
|
posted July 03, 2012 05:15 AM |
|
|
I like FO:NV. The re-playability comes in role playing your character. And I like that playing a sneaky hand to hand type of character is every bit as viable as playing a sharpshooter of a "guns-blazing" character. There are lots of perks and skills so you can develop your character in a lots of ways.
____________
Revelation
|
|
Doomforge
Admirable
Undefeatable Hero
Retired Hero
|
|
posted July 03, 2012 11:45 AM |
|
|
The level 50 limit is enough to combine at least three or four builds in it That's assuming a complete game with all DLCs. I ended up with crucial skills in the range of 80-100 despite having only 5 INT for powergaming purposes.
But, I guess you can try something different, provided you're okay with walking
____________
We reached to the stars and everything is now ours
|
|
Tsar-Ivor
Promising
Legendary Hero
Scourge of God
|
|
posted July 03, 2012 12:23 PM |
|
|
Not anymore, after playing skyrim, F-NV's running animations hurt my eyes 
____________
"No laughs were had. There is only shame and sadness." Jenny
|
|
Doomforge
Admirable
Undefeatable Hero
Retired Hero
|
|
posted July 03, 2012 12:31 PM |
|
|
why is that? apart from the fact F:NV uses an antiquated engine, that is
____________
We reached to the stars and everything is now ours
|
|
Tsar-Ivor
Promising
Legendary Hero
Scourge of God
|
|
posted July 03, 2012 12:40 PM |
|
|
Personally I'm surprised that you didn't mention any glitches, hell I encountered a few hundred or even a thousand (I didn't count) in my first game alone, funny ones sometimes.
And after playing dark-souls, I lost all taste for Skyrim's combat mechanics, every time I play a game that does something significantly better than another game, it sticks into my mind. But hopefully I'll find some juicy new combat animation mod to fill that hole.
____________
"No laughs were had. There is only shame and sadness." Jenny
|
|
Doomforge
Admirable
Undefeatable Hero
Retired Hero
|
|
posted July 03, 2012 12:42 PM |
|
|
That's because I always try to review the latest/final version of the game, and the final patch fixed most gamebreaking bugs. Yes, the game is still bugged as hell, but it's rather stable, and most of the bugs take some ingame knowledge to find.
____________
We reached to the stars and everything is now ours
|
|
Lexxan
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
Unimpressed by your logic
|
|
posted December 16, 2012 05:37 PM |
bonus applied by Doomforge on 18 Dec 2012. |
Edited by Lexxan at 23:20, 18 Dec 2012.
|
Assassins Creed
Ok since it is ok to hijack this thread for a guest review, so I shall today to talk about this game i've been playing for the past weeks:
ASSASSINS CREED 1
Like always I check out franchises aeons after everyone else and their dog has already played them. I've had a copy of Assassins Creed locked up in a drawer somewhere for years and totally forgot about it(since my old computer wasn't powerful enough to run AC1) until two weeks ago. Having stumbled upon it, and having nothing productive to do lately, i decided to check it out.
I actually really loved this game athough it isn't exactly my ~flavour~ (town-creating games <3 always). I would label this one as a breed between Adventure and Hack & Slash (with a bigger focus on the H&S part.)As I said, Hack & Slash isn't my favourite genre (as it can get very repetitive very easily - see Dungeon Siege, Titan Quest, etc), but in Assassins Creed, there's more to the game than just pounding on hordes of enemies with a rusty blade.
The story
In my opinion, the weak link of Assassins Creed is definitely its story. I wouldn't say it is an inherently bad story like H5's, no, AC1's story sucks because of how amateuristically it is explained.
Although the game's name suggests it is about some assassin living sometime during the middle ages, Assassins Creed actually takes place in the present day  .
The protagonist is one Desmond Miles, who is held captive by Evil Scientist Warren Vidic and Not So Evil Scientist Lucy Stillman. Professors Vidic and Stillman work for a shady company called Abstergo Industries, and they want to use Desmond's memories as a means of research.
Hi don't mind me, I'll just talk to you while we hold you into this glass cage against your will la la la
Why? Because apparently, humans subconscieously store the memories of their ancestors into their DNA, and these are the memories Abstergo wants to tap from Desmond by stripping him onto a contraption called "The Animus". The Animus is a device that causes whoever who lies in it to fall into a deep coma. Meanwhile, in that coma, the subject relives the memories of their ancestors by actually becoming their ancestor in some kind of a dream world.
Sounds complicated and unnecessairly far-fetched? Well it is, especially since that is the ONLY bit of info you get before being plunged into the game.
The Medieval World of Assassins Creed is actually a dream world conjured up by The Animus through the thoughts of Desmond. The *actual* protagonist is Desmond's ancestor, who is a Syrian member of the infamous order of the Assassins. His name is official "Altaïr", but I always thought that he looked more like an Apostolis, so that is how I will henceforth refer to him in this write-up. dwi.
I dress up like Arcane Archers for enhanced badassery
The story of Apostolis is, unlike Desmond's story, kind of really bad. While Desmond's story (which we'll get back to in a jiffy!) actually serves as framework to explain why Apostolis can't die in the game and why assigments like "Pick Pocket this shady individual" or "assassinate this Evil Templar" (whoops spoiler) can be redone if Apo fails to do them at first. Among other things, of course.
Meanwhile, the story of our Assassin Friend here is mind-numblingly clichématic. Apostolis is one of the higher ranked Assassins within the Brotherhood, but when on an assignment to retrieve an unknown artefact with two novices he not only breaks all three tenets of the creed (don't kill innocents, don't compromize the brotherhood and act stealthily), he also single-handedly fails in his assignment by alarming the nearby enemies and gets one of his novices killed in the process. Making the most out of that high rank of his <3
Don't be such a Failblog.org
To make matter worse, the other novice survives and actually succeeds in the assignment, bringing back the artefact, which is revealed to be the Apple of Eden. And finally, Apostolis also managed to lure the Templars (the mortal enemies of the Assassins) to the Assassins Stronghold of Masyaf, almost resulting in the destruction of the Brotherhood for good. Brilliant Job!
You deserve a medal for being our LVP
Obviously, Apostolis is demoted and has to fight his way back to his previous rank by killing nine "evil warmongers" for his master Al-Mualim.
A really layer-thin and simple storyline imo, but to its credit, is presented really well. Besides, most people who play AC don't play it because of its storyline. My only issue is that you CAN'T skip the many cutscenes. So if you want to replay AC1, you have to sit through cut scene after cut scene after cut scene.
Back to present-day storyline which, while good, is actually a real drag. The only reason it was put in the game was to make sure that sequels can take place in other time zones AND to explain why Apostolis can't die.
Unfortunately, after completing every level, you get kicked out of the Animus and HAVE to talk with Warren and Lucy to find out more about your (or their) background. However, it is mostly a waste of time, because as I said, people don't play Assassins Creed because of the backstory. They want to kill and climb, dammit.
I can't really decide what the worst part is of the present-day storyline. That you can't, EVER, skip it OR that you can't do anything *fun* during it. You can't run, jump, climb, fight, even pick things up. You can only talk, lie down or interact with certain objects at certain times. It is really tedious and imo takes away from the game's intensity (i heard it was executed better in the sequels, where Desmond can do the same things his ancestors can do). Which imo is a pity because I do think the storyline itself IS good, but I am forced to dislike it due to how peripheral it is to all the action in the game and how you MUST go throught it, no matter what.
One thing I really loved about both storylines however is that neither protagonist is particularly good, and their antagonists aren't particularly evil either. Every character is somewhere inbetween Good and Evil, being build up from different shades of grey, which makes both Apostolis and the men he is supposed to slaughter surprisingly humane.
I can't really disclose more without spoiling it all. BUT I will tell you this: Desmond is George effing Stobbard, only vastly inferior.
GAMEPLAY
Ah, THIS is Assassins Creed's strong suit... but at the same time, also a weakness. Don't get me wrong, Assassins Creed's gameplay is very addictive and the game is VERY open in allowing you to learn how to efficiently play it. But at the same time, the world of Assassins Creed is a virtual sandbox. You have to experiment and try for yourself, yet at the same time, if you fail, you can always start over untill whatever you are attempting DOES succeed.
On the flip side, like in H6, there are only several really effective ways to play Assassins Creed, and once you have figured those out, the game gets very repetitive very soon. It depends on your level of tolerance towards repetition (mine is pretty high, admittedly) how long it'll take before you get bored by it. And I can guarantee, you will be, eventually. Assassins Creed 1 is a game with very little room for replayability.
Nevertheless, AC's freedom and the fact that it there is such a learning curve to it, usually mean that you WON'T be bored untill you have beaten the seven levels.
But what is so addictive about Assassins Creed? The foremost reason is this:
::insert Nelly Furtado Lyrics::
FREERUNNING. It is such a simple concept, but oh-so addictive. In Assassins Creed, there are two ways to travel.
Either you can blend in with the crowd, which is a really slow (but realistic) way to travel or you can HOLY $#!£ JUMP OVER THESE F@&|#ç°$ BUILDINGS WITH THE ENTIRE CITY GUARD SNAPPING AT YOUR HEELS.
The latter option is AC's strong suit, because of his addicting it is. I have actually started to pay more attention to architecture nowadays, looking for cracks and ledges Apostolis could use to climb to the roof. You really get such a kick out of being chased over the rooftops or fighting the guards atop Acre's cathedral.
Climbing a Holy Mosque? Acceptable if you are an assassin!!!
Additionally, the graphics are beyond GORGEOUS. I have difficulty believing this game is, what, 5 years old? older still? The graphics are breathtaking, and they literally SUCK you into the world. When you are playing as Apostolis, you do have the feeling it is you, not Desmond Miles, who has been sucked into the Animus.
On top of that, there's the Assassination Assignments themselves. Each assignment is unique, and a puzzle on its own. The Nine Targets can be located in three different cities (Damascus, Acre and Jerusalem), each in either the poor, middle or rich district.
Before you can go and assassinate your target you have to conduct an investigations into the target's whereabouts and their motives. Then you have to confront your target, kill him and get the frigging hell OUT OF THERE. It is pretty simple, but no two assignments are the same, and each time it pays off the investigate all leads and explore all your surroundings before returning to the Assassins Bureau and getting their approval for the kill.
ONE DOES NOT KILL A MAN WITHOUT HAVING A *FEATHER*!!!!!11!! --
There are many ways to procure information, including:
- Eavesdropping (which is laughably easy)
- Picking Pockets (which is frustratingly difficult)
- interrogating one of your target's thralls (ie: beating him up untill he speaks and then kill him lol)
- helping out an informer by assassinating guards, escorting them, destroying merchant stalls (easily the MOST annoying assignment ever) or racing to an unspecified destination before a time limit expires.
To complete and investigation you don't have to complete all the quests in a district. Depending on how far you are in the game, 2-5 will usually do. Each quest however yields different information and the more information you have, the easier it will be to approach the target and escape after the assassination.
In addition, there are three types of subquests that you can fullfill. These yield no information, BUT their rewards are still worth your while, most of the time.
1) You can climb every high point in a district, updating your map with EVERY quest in nearby.
2) You can save a woman from being harassed by soldiers, after which she'll call her brothers to the scene. These brothers (called "Vigilantes") will stop guards from chasing you and will apprehend your target if he manages to escape you.
3) You can rescue a scholar from being harassed by soldiers, after which he'll summon his colleagues. Because the garments of an Assassin look like the Scholar robes, it allows Apostolis to blend in with them, enabling him to pass guards without notice.
Completing all of *these* quests will help you unlock additional memories, a secret 8th level that you can access if you rescue every citizen, climb every tower, slay every templar in the game and find a fixed number of flags in every region.
I never played this eighth level, and frankly i don't intend to. While rescuing citizens and climbing towers is easy on its own (although some, like the Merchant King's palace, the Mashad-Al-Haram AND especially Acre's Cathedral are difficult to climb), the other prequisites for this additional level suck.
You have to slay 60 Templars, who are hap-hazardly scattered among all maps. Unfortunately, you have no idea where these Templars are, and they usually are HIDDEN in alcoves and alleyways you usually wouldn't frequent. Additionally, aside from some of the bosses, these Templars are VERY hard to kill and they hit twice as hard as a normal soldier would in top of that. The life of a perfectionist who wants to finish every.single.part of the game is no picnic basket.
Combat with the Templars isn't necessarily that tedious (you can lure them to a roof top and push them off, our you can throw a knife in their back, even stealth-assassinate them if you are quick enough), but it's the fact you have to explore every nook and cranny of every map to ensure you have found and killed every single one of them that drives me up the wall. You don't know how many Templars are hidden in one map, for one, and you don't know where they are. Basically, every encounter with a templar is met either through thoroughly scrutinizing every corner and alleyway or through chance.
Another quest you MUST complete for this is finding every flag on a map. This is a climbing challenge, but although I prefer climbing over fighting, flag challenges are possibly even more tedious than the Templar ones. The reason for this is that most of these flags, like Templars, are hidden from plain sight and worse, those that are NOT hidden are guarded by at least 8 soldiers of differing ranks. So although fighting isn't necessary, you usually end up doing it anyway. Additionally, these flags are tiny, so more often than not, you will simply not find them at first.
In other words, the eighth level: don't bother. The seven Levels are more than enough, and if you want more (like i want), play the sequel.
COMBAT. ok, this is the last thing I need to address. While Assassins Creed focuses more on ~being part of the experience~ and exploring the vast Sandbox environments of Palestine and Syria, the farther you get in the game, the more it focuses on combat. Stealth is very important, but as the game progresses, your fighting skills improve and it is simply easier to stand, fight and kick ass instead of running, hiding and blending with the crowd.
I personally LOVE this transition, as it makes the lower levels a ~cultural experience~, the middle levels a motley of action and stealth and the higher levels VERY action packed. As you go, you acquire new weapons and learn new fighting moves, to enable you to excell in combat, which is a MUST in the higher levels. During the ninth assignment for instance you have to fight the boss, 2-4 templars and 7+ guards AT ONCE.
Although there are rather easy methods to win fights with lots of guards, the game remains challenging from start to finish. The higher levels REALLY are a pain, especially the ninth assignment, which took me about 15 tries to finish. The only downside to the game becoming more difficult is that the action-packed levels tend to get boring much more quickly, as you have to REDO all the fights if you die. Trust me, doing the same fight 15 times in a row is not fun.
By contrast, the tenth assignment (where Apostolis battles the antagonist in the medieval storyline) is ridiculously easy compared to assignments 7, 8 and 9.
All in all, Assassins Creed provides a very thrilling experience, albeit repetitive. I would NOT say this is my favourite game, but i definitely enjoyed playing it. Unfortunately, it is not suitable to play multiple times, so the next time I'll experience AC it will probably be through its sequels, which I heard cover most of the flaws in AC1.
To summarize:
Pros
- Very engaging and realistic graphics
- Amazing musical score and voice acting
- Sandbox environment that stimulates the player to *think* without being too difficult
- Every boss fight is different (some will fight you, others will run, others can only be defeated in one, particular way)
- Freerunning. Need I say more?
- As the game progresses, the focus shifts from anonymity to open action, making the game less repetitive
- Pretty easy but STILL challenging
- 10 unique assignments spread over seven levels, which is the perfect amount of assignments
- good storytelling and uncanny character development.
Con
- Low replayability
- Gameplay becomes very repetitive when you have figured out how to best play AC
- The subquests are virtually identical, regardless of which assignment you are working on.
- the Bonus Level is useless due to the AWFUL prequisites.
- You really CAN'T skip the vast cutscenes or the real-time scenes, which are more harmful to the game than engaging
- A very easy final level
- Rather weak and unclear ending (i mean could they be MORE obvious they were planning a sequel?)
Score: 8
note to self: buy AC2 and play it 
____________
Coincidence? I think not!!!!
|
|
Corribus
Hero of Order
The Abyss Staring Back at You
|
|
posted December 16, 2012 05:42 PM |
|
|
I love the AC games. The overarching story is a bit of a jumbled mess that doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but the gameplay and visuals more than make up for it. If I've got one gripe about it, it is that the combat is way too easy.
____________
I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask them where they're goin', and hook up with them later. -Mitch Hedberg
|
|
Adrius
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
Stand and fight!
|
|
posted December 16, 2012 05:46 PM |
|
|
Quote:
His name is official "Altaïr", but I always thought that he looked more like an Apostolis, so that is how I will henceforth refer to him in this write-up. dwi.
Ahhhhh see what you did there ^_^
____________
|
|
Elvin
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Endless Revival
|
|
posted December 17, 2012 12:08 AM |
|
|
Heh AC really is a fun game and god damn, it becomes vastly better in the next titles. In itself it is a game to experience than one to beat though it still has its challenges. Atmospehere, freerunning, leaps of faith, awesome combat maneuvers, it just feels good. But strangely enough.. there barely are any assassinations! And I mean that in a blend and stab kind of way. Altair just won't get the drop on his key opponents and there aren't many assassination missions either. That's where AC2 shines, stabbity stab stab I was definitely annoyed at the inability to skip cutscenes and at some point the game really felt repetitive but when you can walk the loads and climb the buildings of Jerusalem and Acre.. who cares really? In reality AC is but a prelude, a mere taste of what is to come and fairly simplistic compared to the rest of the series. This is true for the evolution of gameplay as well as the story, you only begin to grasp what is going on at the end and even then you have more questions than answers. This and the ending of the next two games left me with a sincerely puzzled WTF expression on my face.
Well played ubi ^^
Personally I kind of liked the transition between modern and medieval times. The game doesn't really need it and it was handled poorly in the first game but I kind of liked that duality, it was different. Of course Desmond is plain boring but.. he gets better And things change fast in the modern times, you won't be in that secluded ground forever. See, the bleeding effect can drive you bonkers like your poor predecessor who painted the whole place with his blood but at the same time it allows your ancestors' experience to seep into you. And Desmond isn't only surrounded by enemies. You might like where this is going.
Nice review, cheers 
____________
H5 is still alive and kicking, join us in the Duel Map discord server!
Map also hosted on Moddb
|
|
Doomforge
Admirable
Undefeatable Hero
Retired Hero
|
|
posted December 18, 2012 07:27 PM |
|
|
Nice one Lexxan
____________
We reached to the stars and everything is now ours
|
|
Doomforge
Admirable
Undefeatable Hero
Retired Hero
|
|
posted December 23, 2012 09:39 PM |
|
|
by the way, a new, detailed review is coming! marry xmas!
[BORDERLANDS 2]
OH GAWD THIS GAME IS SO BORING WHAT THE HELL WHEY THEY THINKING!!!!!!!!!! SHOULD BE CALLED BORINGLANDS 2 INSTEAD!
score: 1/10
____________
We reached to the stars and everything is now ours
|
|
JoonasTo
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
What if Elvin was female?
|
|
posted December 23, 2012 09:44 PM |
|
|
So no difference from boringlands then?
____________
DON'T BE A NOOB, JOIN A.D.V.E.N.T.U.R.E.
|
|
Doomforge
Admirable
Undefeatable Hero
Retired Hero
|
|
posted December 23, 2012 09:52 PM |
|
|
Never played the first one honestly, but the second... My God, it's terrible. I almost fell asleep playing it.
____________
We reached to the stars and everything is now ours
|
| |
|
|
