But if that didn't bother you to begin with, the rest has only been improved.
ACBro's narrative seems a lot more focused so far. The Assassin's Creed games are some of my favorite this generation. Kegwen fucked around with this message on 11-20-2010 at 02:49 AM.
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Mr. Parcelan painfully thought these words up:
Mind, none of the issues were addressed. Combat remains lame, controls twitchy and so forth.But if that didn't bother you to begin with, the rest has only been improved.
So it's still "Hold Block, Spam Counter" for most combats? Kind of a downer. Granted, "if it's not broke..."
Sounds like I should finish the copy of AC2 before I start on Brotherhood though. Well at least I don't have to worry about the first one then.
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Random Insanity Generator Model 2000 was programmed to say:
So it's still "Hold Block, Spam Counter" for most combats? Kind of a downer. Granted, "if it's not broke..."Sounds like I should finish the copy of AC2 before I start on Brotherhood though. Well at least I don't have to worry about the first one then.
It kind of is broke, though. I mean, it's intended to be easy and trivial, but...eh. I just find it a little discouraging that the concerns about the combat were brought up in Assassin's Creed 1, were brought up against as a major flaw for Assassin's Creed 2 and now, on the third one, they have shown absolutely no desire to change it.
Kegwen fucked around with this message on 11-20-2010 at 03:26 PM.
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Mr. Parcelan painfully thought these words up:
I just find it a little discouraging that the concerns about the combat were brought up in Assassin's Creed 1, were brought up against as a major flaw for Assassin's Creed 2 and now, on the third one, they have shown absolutely no desire to change it.
Oh, they changed it since AC1. Straight from the lead designer's mouth (and only vaguely paraphrased), instead of having only one "I WIN" button (counter), every button is now a "I WIN" button.
What people don't often notice straight away is certain weapons perform better against slow/fast/etc. enemy types. It's not very noticeable because you can still pretty much kill anything by just wailing away at them, though.
I don't find normal combat all that challenging, but the combat you need to maintain for some of the full synch conditions (like not losing health, even partial squares) can make for some interesting challenges. I think Kick is a bit less cryptic in Brotherhood than it was in II as well.
And I love the Execution Streaks. They're a godsend when you're trying to fulfill those full synch conditions.
Lyinar Ka`Bael, Piney Fresh Druidess - Luclin
Second game has a beefier story at its core, and they do a somewhat better job of minimizing the need for doing the repetitive/tedious/optional crap, both of which help. Weapons and armor are all upgradeable, and some of them offer marginal differences in combat (hammers are interchangeable with long blades in that weapon slot, and while swords are faster; hammers make countering easier, etc), which helps, but doesn't solve the issues in combat (it's not perfect, but it seems to flow a lot better than in the first game). Character-wise, Ezio is an infinitely more likeable character than Altair, they do a hell of a lot better explaining his motivations and reasons for doing what he does, and it's frankly a bit more believable than Altair...and if you get bored you can make fun of all the Renaissance Italian stereotypes. Game also does a better job of explaining that the hell is going on, why you should care, and it starts to posit some interesting questions about the world they've created. The stuff outside the Animus dealing with Desmond is also VASTLY more interesting, mainly because he starts to get answers rather than being locked in a bedroom 90% of the time he's out of the Animus like he was in the first game.
Brotherhood actually started life intended to be a major DLC/Expansion Pack, introducing a conceptual reason for why they'd add 1. more assassins, and 2. distinctively different assassins with different personalities, and it sort of evolved. I haven't played Brotherhood myself, but from what Lyinar and our friend Karl have told me, it has a pretty solid (if not full 40+ hour feature length) storyline that contributes to the overall story of AC2.
sigpic courtesy of This Guy, original modified by me
Will definately get Brotherhood, probably for xmas.
HOLY SHIT
It was a well-crafted addition to the ACII story. It ties up things left hanging at the end of ACII and the end leaves things more than open for continuing the story. Plus it definitely ends on an "OMG!" moment.
It doesn't have *quite* the same feel of length as ACII, but I imagine that's why they made this a sequel to the story in II rather than ACIII. There's still plenty of optional things to do like in II, but there are less core memory sequences, so even if you do the optional memories, the game does have a shorter feel to it.
All in all, well worth getting and a great addition to the franchise. And damnit, now I want the next one because I want to jump into finding out what's going on.
Lyinar Ka`Bael, Piney Fresh Druidess - Luclin