The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

The Assassin's Creed brand is making more money for Ubisoft than it ever has before while simultaneously being a shadow of its former self in terms of narrative and thematic cohesion/resonance. It makes me quite sad. Conversely, this forum still existing makes me quite happy. It's like the snowy remains of Masyaf, centuries later. Something great and legendary happened here. One day, perhaps it will again.

There was a recent interview with Patrice Désilets about the game mechanic of climbing towers to unfog the map:
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/patrice-desilets-creator-of-assassins-...

I wish Patrice had stuck around longer. His AC games were the best.

That is a fun read. Absolutely agree; Revelations was was really when the series started to lose its spark for me. Maybe that was why.

If you or anyone else is interested on whether or not to play other ACs, I'm leaving a brief description of how I personally felt about each game (excluding side AC games for DS, PSP, etc).

AC1 - The first and most original, Assassins Creed at its finest. Nothing else to say.

AC2 - Not as serious as the first, but with a similar focus on assassinations. They really made a push for progression and variety. Looking back, the only flaws I see are not being able to replay story missions and the combat is way too easy.

Brotherhood and Revelations - I'm putting these two together because of how similar they are. On one hand you are left feeling there should have been more content, on the other hand it's nice continuing Ezio's adventures. Revelations in particular felt like an experimental game with the many types of bombs and uses for the hookblade.

AC3 - A really big change. I wasn't prepared for this and finished the game feeling like the revamped system was unnecessary. However I finally recognize it as a worthy entry. More on that later.

AC4 - A pirate themed AC, oh boy. Gonna be honest, I did not want to play this. As Mcstab said "AC has jumped the shark." But I got the opportunity to and had nothing to lose. And... I enjoyed it. Wouldn't dare call it an AC game, more of an adventure game that just so happens to involve assassins and Templars.

Unity - What I loved about this game was how they brought back the focus on assassinations. It could have been one of the best were it not for being rushed, leading to clunky mechanics. It was after this I finally appreciated how seamless the flow of everything that ran in AC3. Combat was also boring due to having the least amount of fighting options in an AC game. Such a shame because I loved how Unity made combat challenging.

Rogue - AC told from the perspective of an assassin turned Templar. In a way it was the AC3 I had hoped for (had a few things I was expecting for AC3, such as Ben Franklin as the Leonardo de Vinci inventor and a native American assassin trainer. The Templars seemed more of a threat now, instead of just a handful of men). It also tied AC3 and 4 together, so that the Americas entries were now their own standalone thing.

Syndicate - Even less of an AC game than AC4. I'd rather call it "Grand Theft Auto Victorian London Edition". The absolute lowest point of the series. Nuff said.

Origins - Yet again a revamped system. How does it do? Pretty good actually. The RPG system is both a good thing and bad. I like the cool abilities I can perform and looting can yield great rewards. But having to grind levels just to one-hit-kill enemies is not in my interests. I've become too used to a guard falling over dead after a stab to the back. At least there is a focus on assassinations again.

Odyssey - A reskinned Origins. The option of two playable characters adds replay value. Because this predates everything, no more of a focus on assassinations. It feels like I'm playing as Han Solo in ancient Greece. Still having to grind levels.

AC seems to go back and forth with being a good entry into the series or a bad entry. For example: Origins was a worthy AC game in my opinion. The only thing I didn't necessarily like was, like Aurel said, grinding for countless hours to get your one-hit-kills up to par. Odyssey was such a departure from what makes AC enjoyable, that it shouldn't have even had the Assassin's Creed title included anywhere. They could have released this as its own franchise and I would've honestly liked it a whole lot more.

The originals are still the best out there because they stuck to their pillars. The new games seem to experiment too far all at once.

Came here to see if I should get Odyssey now that my kid is a little older and is taking longer naps. (I haven't turned on the console in over a year, gonna take weeks to do system updates!)

The last two posts are far from ringing endorsements.

Nice to have you back, Cheese. I was just thinking about you.

Hey, stabguy! I think about this place once in a while. Kid is almost 18 months old now, so maybe I'll play some video games again soon. I turned on my PS4 for the first time since Dec 2018 yesterday... but I don't think I've played a game since June/July 2018 or so (based on my achievements)... maybe September-ish 2018.

From Revelations or after it?