Ubisoft do a lot of wrong and compared to others a lot of right, but are very, very loud about how they do their wrong. Actually I believe half if not more of the hatred that can be leveled at them are statements that are totally unnecessary and easy to take care of. It feels like they distribute loaded statements that pinch somebodies nerve, but left unsaid nobody would have thought or known anything of the situation that sparked it. I could go on to name examples, but that's not so much of what this article is about. Fact is though its happened again recently when Ubisoft felt the urge to drop console resolutions for AC Unity and framerate specs. Alongside that already unneeded info dump, there was also the unprovoked statement addressing that the console ports are identical because they wanted to "avoid debates". Yup, by dodging the fanboy war debates that are practically over with already they ended up causing their own storm over console parity. Nice "debate" you triggered on your own self there ubisoft! Look its just fact by now that the PS4 is the leading tech platform, not by a ton, but enough to boost some settings. Of course the PC is the lead of everything, and I'll throw in the fact to that it seems like Watch Dogs on PC went a similar fate as what's going on with AC Unity. So it seems a bit messed up to stunt all of these just to make things look closer to a match up. Fact is these are different machines, we bought them based on that and should be treated to them as such. I could discuss more into this, but to be entirely honest I don't find myself caring all that much. For starters, this was a similar case for all of last gen as well where the PS3's cell was never used by difficult design (not a perfect comparison, but its still a matter of not getting the expected best power you paid for). In addition to that, 900p and 30fps is still solid. Lastly the game is still in tact, but really that's the reason I don't care, its just another AC using a mostly routine trip I'm kind of done with. Or am I?
The entire situation alongside some recent events has just gotten me thinking of how unusual Assassins Creed is in its place. Its an annual copy and past release game like Call of Duty or Madden, but the amount of content, largely single player focus, the great writing, long length, and its unique stance on fictional writing all make it above and beyond the normal annualization mess. That alone makes it a pretty unique case, and back when this questionable situation occurred around my introduction through brotherhood I was thinking it'd never get old. However I couldn't drag myself to be enthusiastic or finish a game since then. Brotherhood was incredible, and I mean that in every sense of the word. I was addicted to collecting things, buying shops, completing objectives, unlocking territory, fooling around with the guards and civilians, etc. I loved that game, and I haven't even bothered to mention it was a decent story trip as well. Revelations? Well not quite as fresh, and the setting and pacing just felt a little weird. I loved some of the idea brought it, but something just didn't feel on par with Brotherhood and I never got around to beating it. AC3 is where things went downhill in a more obvious way. Mechanics felt dumbed down, pacing was a wreck (7 hours of tutorial!? um, no!), and things just weren't quite as fun. Don't get me wrong though, the story I felt I loved even more than the past, the hunting and diverse areas were awesome, and I generally felt like there was something special to it despite all my more clear dislike for many things. AC4 took off boasting the naval combat I didn't understand the appeal of, and dragging the same shallow mechanics from 3 within the core system. Island hoping, storming forts, and clearing an island all felt strangely compelling. AC4 was a better game on a meta sense rather than a gameplay one. The writing was still excellent though, and the narrative with characters took cool risks. Oh, and shanties.... such a great little touch to add in, and I've gotten on the boat just to hear some tunes out of them and found myself humming them while I step away from the game. Still for the whole, I feel done with this series.
Yet I still kind of care about it. Look at how much effort is found in the things that are proven as unnecessary to print money. Fantastic story writing, deeply details settings and worlds, the activities, the long 12+ hour length of the main campaign, and things like shanties. Look at all the details on the uniforms, the expanded universe lore, the codex you can easily forget exists, all the optionally skipable parts of the present day pieces, etc. It was recently revealed that someone spent around 2 years working on Notre Dame for AC unity! There's a ton of things in there provided thanks to Ubisoft's odd (though admittedly clumsy and stressful) set-up of thousands of staff on the game's development. It really holds up my belief that out of all the crooked scumbags of the triple A field, Ubisoft is the best for true quality. I recently found an AC3 leather and steel necklace at a thrift shop for cheap. For a game on par with how I felt about it, I should have just shrugged it off, its not really much to look at for a symbol anyways. Yet somehow it kind of lit up and blew my mind that it existed and was cheap right in front of me. It needed a bit of cleaning, but I felt generally proud to say "yup I own this now" and then felt slightly.... well, kind of nostalgic for the good parts of AC3. I really use nostalgia heavily, as I knew I had plenty of problems with the game, but I for some reason kept my head thinking about the cooler parts. That awesome bar fight, the beautiful snowy forest lands, charging around a battlefield helping a questionable George Washington, being intrigued by the headquarters the game had, and how amazed I was at that twist in the beginning they pulled with the first playable character. All mechanical quips and pacing frustration aside, despite discovering glitches and being annoyed with QTEs, I had to admit... the game was still full of grade A work at points. Oh and its one of the only games to touch on Native American stuff (alongside Turok glossing over it and Prey doing something weird with it), which I've got to say is nice. This kind of reflects the rest of the series as well. Sure I'm bitter about the combat, the changes the series has taken since revelations, and I just feel like there isn't much for me in the core gameplay aspects, but in the end there's guys that adore this series and I feel very much like they have every reason and right to. There's a ton to do, a lot worth seeing, and some clear hard work and effort put into the writing. The lack of full PC or PS4 power isn't taking away from that either, though I'd worry a little on season passes and Uplay for that.
So... what really is the right way to tackle this series? In the end its a bit of a convoluted mess, but not in the way you'd expect of an annualized series. Its about the good and the bad, and occasionally the ugly, but at the end of the day Assassins Creed falls down to the market rules. If you love it, it entertains you, you collect and enjoy the special editions and can live with the evil triple A practices, then by all means I'm happy for you and I think this series deserves to continue doing well and pleasing you. Don't lose any sleep over the recent parity crap either, it'll be okay even if its a dumb move. If its not something for you... well then that's alright to, and I may find myself on that side, but then again I was saying the same about AC4 and caved in anyways. I still do play it to, and maybe one day I'll finish it. I think its best to have at least played one game for the big skeptics though, but if that's all and you can give it and feel burned out or bitter on changes, or don't agree with the way they manage the series.... well you may not exactly be missing out on too much either. Its still kind of easy to find your fix of open world fun elsewhere, and the story is well written but not a must follow situation. Speaking of which the only major issue I see with the series is that its annualized practice removes any clear indication of a solid conclusion, and that's already made clear as they had to think outside the box for AC4's outer world story arc. Still for the most part the series is an interesting case for the lot of triple A, and I'm kind of glad some people still feel good about it and I'm glad ubisoft looks like they continue to pour effort into its universe and fiction. I don't think they're doing enough for gameplay (they sure are making a big deal over "stealth mode" which just seems to be an ordinary cover system, bound to frustrate you as they force it in with some instant fail stealth missions), but they still put enough care in to rile up some legitimate excitement. I hope it does well, and maybe in the long run I'll jump back into the series sometime.
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