kind of spoilers thread
just wanted to make this thread cause there's not really a place to say, but I'm happy with the approach they took for the TWCB side content. It allows the Juno story to be told in more detail without the worry of ruining the pacing of the main path.
I believe I suggested a similar thing, where all TWCB content would follow its own arc over the course of animus glitch side missions. Obviously there's a little bit of PoE stuff in Syndicate's main path, but it doesn't seem especially inside, more like "here's a magic macguffin". Ideally I'd like for the main story to be entirely focused on being an assassin, with this TWCB side content being even more fleshed out than it is here.
Just entirely get away from the idea of the things you have to do to see the end credits being the most important. Or perhaps have seperate credits sequences for main story and TWCB stuff.
EDIT:
It's cool that your hideout is a train. I haven't gotten a chance to watch a full playthrough yet but I definitely will, based on what I've seen. It's nice to not feel worried about seeing spoilers
Watched about 4 reviews that all had different perspectives and the ending of the game. I have to say, for as boring as I thought Unity's story to be the ending was still an ok ending.
stray observations: I like that you avoid getting shot by pressing a button to auto-throw a knife, since that makes more actual physical sense than any of the other methods of dealing with guns we've seen in the games.
I kind of like that side missions for each district are all tied together, but I dislike that for each one it's all about taking on that district's gang. It's fine for side missions to be grouped by location, but it would be more interesting if each location had a different context those missions were applied to.
I hope that eventually the structure of the main story path looks a lot more like that: a collection of open world activities leading to a big mission, and you can choose which ones you want to do first.
The concept of a traditional "mission chain" could be reserved for things like the TWCB missions, since it makes the most sense for them to progress linearly.
I kind of like that side missions for each district are all tied together, but I dislike that for each one it's all about taking on that district's gang. It's fine for side missions to be grouped by location, but it would be more interesting if each location had a different context those missions were applied to.
But, isn't that kind of how they framed the point of the game? To take down other gangs/syndicates to build yours to run the city with your form of justice?
“Force has no place where there is need of skill." Herodotus
Jermaine Tito wrote:
I kind of like that side missions for each district are all tied together, but I dislike that for each one it's all about taking on that district's gang. It's fine for side missions to be grouped by location, but it would be more interesting if each location had a different context those missions were applied to.But, isn't that kind of how they framed the point of the game? To take down other gangs/syndicates to build yours to run the city with your form of justice?
Yeah, and I think that framing isn't very interesting when it means that's all that the story of each district revolves around. I would have preferred if the gangs were simply an important part of a multi-faceted objective.
After all, it's a bit ludicrous to think that street gangs would be the single most effective and crucial tool for controlling a city: surely crooked cops, politicians, and bankers could represent other Templar-influenced factions?
EDIT:
Oh boy, almost forgot to mention: the camera still has the same problems as in Unity. It feels like it's pulled slightly too far in and down in order to show you the maximum amount of the character at all times. It makes me a bit claustrophobic. Something like Black Flag nailed the exact field of vision I find comfortable.
EDIT2: I hate the way they introduce the rooks. Jacob brings it up semi-jokingly and no one takes him seriously, yet the game almost immediately begins talking in terms of "strengthening your gang's control", and referring to your gang by the name jacob just made up even though no one has joined the gang yet.
They should have been more sincere and direct about what the game is going to be about in these set-up cutscenes, because it just ends up seeming kind of dissonant. I get that its hard because of how complicated it is for you to have a main quest that is tied to but separate from these open world activities.
This is where the structure of AC1 was useful: in an expanded version of that game, taking over a gang would have been one single thing you could have done to aid in taking out a single target. Specificity can be powerful, and ends up giving you plenty of excuses to generate content that's easier to parse and better paced.
I feel like trying to make these single thematic elements apply to the entire game is a really easy way to set your writing up to trip over itself.