The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

That's really disappointing. Leaving potentially the best parts of the story for the multiplayer gameplay? Baaaaaaaad idea...

I will not calm down, Daniel Jackson. In fact, I will calm up.

Just something someone else noticed:

"When you’re playing as Haytham, there’s no animation for walking near fires.

When playing as Connor, he flinches, looks scared and covers his eyes from it.

When you realize what happened to his village as a child, it’s a great little detail."

Never even crossed my mind.

Alright. My major question about the post-game gameplay is this: who are the hackers talking to / who are you?

It's apparent that there is a (team of) hacker(s) hacking into Connor's environment somehow. What's not apparent is who you are... and how you are controlling Connor.

• Are you another hacker that gets to do all the fun work of exploring? Rebecca perhaps? This seems plausible.
• Are you Desmond's consciousness stuck inside the Grand Temple (a sort of proto-Animus, if you will) and hackers came to the Temple and are hacking in and relaying info to you, still Desmond? Also plausible. Maybe moreso than the first idea.
• Are you actually Connor no longer living through an Animus at all and being reached out to by members of TWCB who are hacking your reality? It's far fetched, given the Animus interface (we never had HUD playing as Desmond, only ever inside an Animus), but who knows.

I haven't done ANYTHING with the pivots yet... just got the first pivot tutorial, so to speak. So if the answer is story related, just tell me that and I will discover on my own in time.

Hmm... perhaps people read too much into things.

I took it as... "Fire is bright, let me shield my eyes when I get real close." I think I saw an NPC do the same thing on occasion. I mean, Connor has no qualms at all about running around on burned buildings in NY... I would think he'd be scared of burned buildings as well if his village were at the root of his actions here.

As for why Haytham doesn't care, who knows. Maybe he's a bad-ass, or perhaps it was an oversight in the coding.

Interesting tidbit and speculation, though.

The Pivot Storyline doesn't truly reveal who the hackers are at the end but I have a huge suspicion that it's

Does the pivot storyline reveal who YOU are? Does it reveal who is playing as Connor?

Mm.. Kiiind of, I think. We're all still trying to figure it out. It is kind of creepy though because,

I didn't even know what those Pivots are even are. To me, it just seemed that Ubisoft just got lazy and squeezed them in the last second. Why can't they be automatically unlocked after achieving 100% per sequence?

They have their own little mini story before and after you find all of them, maybe that's why. I'm sure there were other ways to include it but I felt pretty satisfied in hearing what's closer to the "true" ending after I collected them all.

It's gotta be Desmond pulling a S16 in the Temple. He replaced Juno. She's now in a tech-body (remember how they said they needed to transfer their minds into machines to survive?)

It would be hard to materialize her former body tens of thousands of years later. Even their technology wasn't that advanced.

Anyways, I'm speculating that it's Desmond they're referring to. He's still conscious in the Temple and that was their way of contacting him. Once you collect the pivots, that's telling them that Desmond is still alive. The pivots are also story-related for the next series of games. We just don't know how, yet.

Here's a good analysis of the ending:

The "uploading to the Cloud" makes me wonder what would happen if extracted the genetic memory from a large number of descendants. In every game we've only ever scene events from the perspective of ONE ancestor, if you could gather enough memories from different perspectives it would provide a much clearer picture of what ACTUALLY happened in history.

Maybe if you have enough points of reference you could even predict the future the same way Minerva does.

P.S. Why is that Jupiter is referred to as Tinia when the Roman names seem to be more recent(at least with Minerva and Juno).

Did they ever really refer to him as Jupiter in the games? I think the fans assumed that was his name because he was a male, had a beard, and seemed to be a leader-type of person ("king of the 'gods'").

In AC2 Minerva refers to Jupiter(who was previously called Tinia). Obviously the go by different names to accommodate different mythologies, maybe they have different preferences as to which name they like most.

i haven't read the topic, to stay away from spoilers, and i'm playing pretty slowly.
i'm on Sequence 6 right now, just finished the battle by the bridge.

here's what i think so far. the very short version:
I'm so very bored.

What's the funniest thing you've done in this game?

Me: I noticed a bobcat stalking me and decided to see what would happen if i put a trip mine down and lured it over the mine. It was hilarious. The bobcat flew up and backwards about 20 m (at least) before landing limp on the ground. Definitely worth the damaged pelt. haha

Rob, I hear you loud and clear.

One of the biggest flaws of the game is the pacing. Nothing picks up until you're almost at the end.

i just finished the game.
yep, i continued to be bored most of the way through.
i did like the parts when Haytham returned. i like that he was able to put a more human face on the Templars, but once he was gone, i got bored again.

i can't believe i'm actually saying this, but i think i found a villain that's even worse than Cesare, in Charles Lee.

it might look like i'm just complaining all the time, and it's probably true.
but i just stopped caring so long ago.

and now i'm done, i will never touch another Assassins Creed game ever again.

Do you mean any future game, or even the previous games? My heart goes out to you, Rob (just please don't say you will retire). This just sucks. To me none of the games were bad, just not how I wanted it. But you can tell how it's taken a toll on us. A lot of users aren't as active as they were, most of the video makers aren't motivated to make vids, and the rumors of a game next year aren't helping. The days of glory are far over. As far as anyone is concerned, the series assassinated itself.

That...is an excellent phrase. Wait - there's another game coming out? Jesus freakin' Christ - how much can a series be milked? I'm already saving for GTA, WATCH_DOGS, and The Last of Us

Nailed it!

Although I like the idea of a two player co op, I don't like the idea of another game coming out next year!

I'd probably get it just for the story and co op (hopefully it's the singleplayer mixed with Splinter Cell multiplayer). It's extremely soon for any new AC game, but half of us are going to buy it regardless.

the first one, maybe. it's not impossible.
but i can 100% without any doubt promise that if they make more games, i will not even look at them twice.

Just saw this on the AC Facebook page:

Finished the peg leg side mission..the shard of eden?

Did you read about it? It's some sort of awesome magnet that redirects bullets... why no one could shoot/kill Captain Kidd.

Works for you too... Don't have to human shield as much when the shard protects you.

You'll notice a weird golden aura flash around Connor if he's shot at. It doesn't work every time. More like 10% of the time. Usually when you're running away from the rifles being aimed at you.

Oh, thats useful. Thanks for the info guys!

I thought it was bluish... is it gold? I don't know how often it works or not.

All of Desmond's Assassin training in the Animus led up to this moment: "So I press here to die? Okay."

Isn't that what all of our lives lead up to? *inspiring music plays in the background*

I read about this on GameFAQs. It's an epilogue spoken by Connor that was cut from the game. If it had been left in, I think the plot would have been redeemed quite a bit and Desmond's choice at the end would have made a LOT more sense.

Seems like it could be an intro dialogue to a post-AC3 DLC, really...

Picking up a few years later, when all is not what he thinks it should have been...

Possibly the best voice acting from that actor in the entire game. Too bad it got cut.

*sigh*

I can only imagine what were they thinking when they decided to cut this from the game. This would've been the PERFECT monologue towards any ending, but no...

If they did decide to put this on this DLC, it wouldn't make any sense at all. Connor never became an Assassin to begin with.

I never said the King Washington DLC.

Still waiting on this.

So I was playing ACIII again when I discover how much padding this game has...in the 1st level. Did we really need to start the game with that mutiny subplot? I know it's to establish character, atmosphere, and serves as somewhat of a tutorial segment, but it practically goes nowhere (for me personally).

In fact...you could have cut Haytham's sequences entirely. Package him in a DLC or some sort.

Just my opinion.

I completely disagree. Tutorial missions in games do take some time, and Ubisoft found a way to make it somewhat interesting. Compare to AC1, where you are in an empty environment learning things... THAT takes forever. I'd rather them work the tutorials into the game than force us to go through them before you even start.

Haytham's sequences were some of the most interesting in the game. Sure, they were all tutorial missions, more or less (learn to human shield, learn to eavesdrop, learn to shoot powder kegs, learn to... etc etc etc), but on top of that, there was an immense amount of character development on the main characters in the game that you would not have if you didn't play them. It makes the targets more like people fighting for what they think is right. It adds to the "Are Templar's really bad?" feel we got in AC1 and AC3. Compared to ACB where the whole storyline is "lol, Borgia suck. Must kill them all, haha."

I approve of the effort Ubisoft took to incorporate and weave all these tutorials into the background story of the entire game.

If you're going to pare something down, it was sequences 4 and 5 that took forever to me...

I agree. You'd think Haytham's sequences would have been the boring ones, with the tutorials and all, but Connor as a child and teenager just took forever to get through. It was trudging through necessary plot points. It was important to see how Connor was guided by Juno to force Desmond to free her, but they could have fast forwarded it to when he was grown up. Leave those memories for the book version, but in the game, simply have Connor and Achilles reference back to how he came to the Assassins (while mentioning Juno's image and stuff). Maybe then we could've had more assassinations as an Assassin.

So I'm wandering around post-Seq2, pre-Seq3 as Haytham on a new game save... just to see what I can and cannot do as him...

1 - Who are the grey uniformed soldiers in the northwest frontier fort, Fort Duquesne? Are they the French? This would make the most sense, as it's the French and Indian Wars and I think the French owned this fort at that time (isn't this the whole point of the Seq3 actions? to take over Fort Duquesne for the British?). But if that's the case, why don't the French fight the British redcoats? The grey and the red just ganged up on Haytham.
2 - Haytham can't climb trees, to a certain extent. Interestingly, he can climb on some trees, but nothing that requires the tree-climbing abilities. He can cross ravines/rivers on fallen or suspended logs. He can even climb up to the tops of viewpoint trees... but can't synchronize them... hmm.
3 - Haytham can access the underground tunnels in Boston. I imagine this will be extremely useful for Connor later... why travel across Boston fully notorious when you can just teleport to your destination?
4 - The Mohawk village is practically empty. Just a group of kids and an adult female in one longhouse.
5 - Haytham can enter all the general stores... and when he does so (in the Frontier anyway) there is the "interact wire orb" where the Connor's Homestead books shows up.
6 - Haytham cannot enter the homestead. There is no black wall of "not available in this memory," though (as is the case with New York). He just can't walk on the path anymore.

Thought it was pretty crap tbh. I only enjoyed the side missions because thats what the seemd to focus on, exploring the frontier without a map and making my own fun was the only way I felt I could get my moneys worth. Would prefer if the series just ended with AC3 so that the story would have been better, instead it just seems like a halfassed attempt to spew out another game for $$ and bait us for another game. Fuck this shit.

The only way I can really enjoy this game is to not think of it as AC (since it's kind of lost itself throughout each game). When you play it just as its own standalone game that has nothing to do with AC, except maybe some inspirations like the weapons and mythology, it's actually damn good.

I'm not counting AC3 as the official end to the series in my headcanon. It's its own beast.

Yeah but it should have been imo, the story has gotten so drawn out its becoming like LOST, its losing its value. With every release it drastically changes so everything you wanted from the previous games doesn't really get closure. The way the whole satellite thing was dealt with in AC3 was pretty weak, hope they seriously go into that in AC4.

Now dont get me wrong I really enjoyed this game and I will most definately go through it again doing side missions and such, as I rushed the story at the end. I thought the Frontier was a masterpiece and the characters were a huge improvement. Im just really dissapointed in how the overall story is heading. The way they dealt with Vidic was pretty weak, ever since AC1 I always imagined how they would do proper Desmond sequences in the present time, I imagined a kind of splinter cell sort of infiltration and a really awesome main assassination done in Vidic. Insted he walks straight through the front door and slips past the worst security in literature, who take like 10 seconds to draw a gun and mostly choose to go unarmed.

Not to mention most of the main assassinations were done in a cutscene or some heavily scripted mannor. I am also pissed off with the way they dealt with Lucy, I never bought the DLC in ACR and never wanted to be spoiled about it, I cant believe they barely explained what she did and actually expected us to buy that crap to get the final piece to a huge cliffhanger from ACB... it just doesnt add up.

I totally agree with you, which is why I'm making a personal statement that says AC3 isn't the "real" end to the story that Altair started. Vidic was so anticlimactic and poorly done. He never got enough screentime to justify the actor that plays him to show up to recordings. In fact, they handled the entire modern day storyline poorly. Everything was automated except the 2 fight sequences at the stadium and Abstergo.

*sigh* And this is probably why the forums here are nearly dead. To keep this site alive we'll have to discuss more things than AC.