I'd love to know why they ever thought killing off Desmond was a good idea in the first place. Did Nolan North want out of the role or something? The story has been in a tailspin since then.
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I'd love to know why they ever thought killing off Desmond was a good idea in the first place. Did Nolan North want out of the role or something? The story has been in a tailspin since then.
Huge mistake IMO.
This will make all modern day story lines essentially optional. And this will inevitably lead to them being bad.
MD chapters is the defining part of an AC experience, the one which makes it an AC experience instead of some random history game.
It was bad already when they moved these into cinematics prior to Origins. Removing them from games into a separate "launcher" thingie will make them obsolete as most people will never even see them.
This will make all modern day story lines essentially optional. And this will inevitably lead to them being bad.
MD chapters is the defining part of an AC experience, the one which makes it an AC experience instead of some random history game.
It was bad already when they moved these into cinematics prior to Origins. Removing them from games into a separate "launcher" thingie will make them obsolete as most people will never even see them.
By massive coincidence, Nolan North also had to save our world from the 2012 doomsday catastrophe. Every voice acting he's done since has been from his consciousness in the cloud.
For real.
After playing the very first game all the way back on the 360, I remember thinking that they're probably building towards a game set entirely in that future universe. My only surprise is that it took them this long to actually do it. It was right there sitting on the table the entire time!
I also remember that they hadn't said anything about Desmond or the Animus stuff before the first game came out. They intentionally tried to keep all of that tightly under wraps, so we all thought it was just going to be a historical assassin game. The future tech sci-fi storyline was a bit of a bait and switch, so it made sense to expect more of that sort of stuff going forward, which.... never really happened again. Certainly not to that degree.
Yeah no. They need to stop bullshitting get rid of the modern day stuff cause they clearly have no interest in it. But don't string people along because that's all that sounds like. Still salty after what they did with desmond.Found a Eurogamer interview that has a bit more information, I think. Most of it is stuff I included already in the OP, but there's a bit more information thanks to Tom Phillips' insistence.
Ubisoft explains what Assassin's Creed Infinity actually is
Speaking to Eurogamer this week at Ubisoft's headquarters in Paris, Assassin's Creed boss Marc-Alexis Coté has exenstiv…www.eurogamer.net
The "We could go into the definition of what is playable" has me a bit worried. I get the feeling that rather than playing a character in missions and levels and such, we might just be doing Black Flag- and Rogue-esque puzzles instead or something. I guess we'll see though, at least there's confirmation that there will be some form of gameplay at minimum.
EDIT: I completely missed some more information further into the article that I think is kind of crucial for understanding the approach they're taking with this:
Reading this part in particular has actually reassured me a little bit. HIs assessment of the state of the modern storyline is 100% on the head. Execution is important, but knowing that he understands nobody is really happy with how it's been handled and wants to make it better for everyone gives me hope.
I can imagine something like the Ubi pts and rewards system but when you reach certain moments in the games, maybe you're granted certain keys and pieces of a puzzle for the Infinity hub to unlock modern day data entries or cutscenes that are separate from the main games but accessible for those that care. Maybe cosmetic stuff like backgrounds, avatars and music or whatever as well for folks who don't care about the modern day stuff.
I liked the modern day story until 3. Wish they stick more to that kind of stuff. The Odin and mythical stuff is god awful.
Modern part always sucked. yes, even with desmond. So glad its getting yeeted out of the games. Ubisoft still sucks though and they proudly brought some of the worst offenders to talk and smile for the camera, so not getting any of the games regardless of the good things ive heard.
The Isu are such a big part of this series and I just can't picture them completely abandoning the threads of the modern day they have set up. I'm hoping Infinity is going to be able to keep the aspect of the modern day alive and well.
Can you clarify? Can go full spoilers if you wish, I don't plan to finish Valhalla anytime soon
To me it's a sad news.
I always enjoyed the modern time storytelling, it was the big mistery of it all, the ties with past, present and future.
I stopped playing AC because of this and the pirate/boat gameplay. I hate it so much. At least Mirage won't have that, I hope...
I always enjoyed the modern time storytelling, it was the big mistery of it all, the ties with past, present and future.
I stopped playing AC because of this and the pirate/boat gameplay. I hate it so much. At least Mirage won't have that, I hope...
correct me if I'm wrong but the modern day narrative spans through the games right?
with 100h games you're obviously gonna get a lot of people that don't finish them, people that skip a game here and there etc
with 100h games you're obviously gonna get a lot of people that don't finish them, people that skip a game here and there etc
I've found the stories post Black Flag to be extremely boring and forgettable in any aspect that didn't have a tie to the modern day world or the Isu (which is inextricably tied to the modern day story). Valhalla in particular, every quest that didn't have to do with the mystery of the ancients and was just a straightforward historical storyline had me sleeping. If that's what they're going to focus on exclusively going forward in the games with maybe an occasional Isu artifact to fight over or whatever (with no story significance for the artifact beyond being a MacGuffin), then they're going to have to step their historical storytelling up hard.
I dont think the modern storyline mattered after AC3,in fact it is a mess
Its a shame because it was a real draw for the series for me.
Hell yes! The animus was always a dumb contrivance which felt like Ubi weren't confident enough that players would want to play in a purely historical setting.
To be fair, they nearly pulled it off with the Desmond stuff but they then totally shit the bed by focusing on Ezio for a trilogy (despite the games being good) and both fatiguing players on the franchise and not giving them the modern Desmond game which the series was ultimately leading up to.
Nowadays, it just feels like this weird vestigial part because both the uber fans and marketing docs claim it's a core component of the franchise.
To be fair, they nearly pulled it off with the Desmond stuff but they then totally shit the bed by focusing on Ezio for a trilogy (despite the games being good) and both fatiguing players on the franchise and not giving them the modern Desmond game which the series was ultimately leading up to.
Nowadays, it just feels like this weird vestigial part because both the uber fans and marketing docs claim it's a core component of the franchise.
Honestly relegating the modern day story to cutscenes make a lot of sense because, it takes a LOT of dev time and effort to create a modern day level. Syndicate was even supposed to have modern day stages but they cut them and told the story through CG cutscenes. And during that time they said the best idea would be to reuse assets in order to create hubs, which they did with the Ancient trilogy. But like, say, Loki is the new MD protagonist for Infinity, where do you create that modern day hub? And now you have multiple time periods that would need a modern facelift if say, they did the typical "we're gonna go find the POE in this section of modern day Japan." They probably haven't exactly got a handle on how these things will play out especially as they're building a next gen only title and already have to deal with the technology overhaul.
How about Ubisoft not make the modern segment complete utter shit instead of just removing them. They made the game unique and it was a great break from the action
But if you can't do it right just remove it? Lol
But if you can't do it right just remove it? Lol
Good! Neat idea; continuously stupid execution.EDIT: Make sure to check the threadmark. Eurogamer's interview with Infinity's lead sheds some light on the team's thought process regarding this change and gives a bit more information on what to expect.
Original post below:
Lots of Assassin's Creed news coming out today, but I think this bit is thread-worthy as well since it's related to a topic that has been a big point of contention within the AC community. Beginning with Mirage, it appears that Ubisoft will no longer be including present-day story segments inside of the main portions of the game. That said, they aren't entirely eliminating the ongoing modern narrative either, though their approach to it will be different between Mirage and Infinity.
First off, regarding Assassin's Creed: Mirage:
And then, regarding Assassin's Creed: Infinity, which will be the hub for all mainline AC games after Mirage:
What Is Assassin’s Creed Infinity? Ubisoft Explains the Next Phase of its Historical Series - IGN
IGN spoke to Ubisoft to learn how Assassin's Creed Infinity will change the series' future, genre, multiplayer, game lengths, and the modern day storyline.www.ign.com
Tl;dr:
- In Mirage, while the game will begin with someone entering an Animus to relive Basim's memories and there will be some sort of ending to that part of the game's narrative, there will be no interruptions during the historical story of the game
- In Infinity, the hub is presented as the player's very own Animus, with each game (Red, Hexe, Invictus, etc.) being presented as a memory for the player to explore. Each game will exclusively be set in the past, and any story elements tied to the modern storyline will be part of Infinity rather than the game, with the player serving as the main character in the story
I'm of two minds on this:
On one hand, this is great news for anyone who has found the modern elements to detract from the game. For the most part, they'll be able to just play the historical stories without having to think much about the other side of the story, to an even bigger degree than games like Unity and Syndicate. And it sounds like since they aren't entirely eliminating that story and are instead just separating it out into its own thing within Infinity, those of us who enjoy the overarching narrative will still have something to follow. It sounds like a win-win, right?
But on the other hand... Ubisoft tried somewhat similar (but not the same) approaches in Unity and Syndicate, and those games' modern stories ended up being pretty lackluster for many of us who were actually interested in it. There was very minimal story presented in them, and what was there was limited to cutscenes and text logs, with nothing being playable. Syndicate's cutscenes were at least more interesting and did actually tell a story, but there was still no gameplay to it, and the cutscenes were only ten minutes in overall length.
Now, to give Ubisoft benefit of the doubt, they haven't said that there won't be any modern gameplay in Infinity, and they say that the way they tell the modern story will "evolve with time". We don't actually know if they're taking inspiration from Unity and Syndicate by only having audio and text logs, a few cutscenes, etc., or if they do have something more involved planned. Perhaps they do intend to have stuff people can actually play if they want to, maybe in the form of limited-time events or something since they like to tell the story in "real-time". However, there have been many points over the years where it's felt like this aspect of the series has become more of an afterthought and a hindrance to what they'd like to do, which is why it instills little confidence to hear that it's being separated from the main games. I feel like the only clear "winners" with this news are people who don't enjoy the modern narrative, while those of us who do like it are, as always, left to wonder if we're going to get something worthwhile or just some more breadcrumbs.
Either way, I'm interested to see how exactly this works in Infinite. I'm at least glad it isn't going away entirely, and I am genuinely happy for those who have fallen off of it or have never enjoyed it. This should help them enjoy each game more.
I'd have rather it was kept in the main games but made skippable, that way everyone wins
I think Revelations did the modern day stuff well, it was pretty much 10mins at the start and end of the game with the rest being something you had to opt into by exiting the animus
It's always been a cool framing device, but one they've never really managed to translate into fun gameplay
I feel like Infinity will be pointless/a pain at best, and a means in which to shove unsavoury monetisation into the games at worst
If they know what Infinity is and why it's a cool idea, they should spell it out clearly. The fact it's still kind of vague makes me think either they don't really know what it is yet, or it's going to be good for Ubisoft but crap for players
I will give Ubisoft props for making new games and not remaking any of the older Assassin's Creed games though. I thought a remake of 1 was rumoured, but instead it looks like Mirage will be a kind of new take on the gameplay of 1, which is obviously the better option vs a boring remake
I think Revelations did the modern day stuff well, it was pretty much 10mins at the start and end of the game with the rest being something you had to opt into by exiting the animus
It's always been a cool framing device, but one they've never really managed to translate into fun gameplay
I feel like Infinity will be pointless/a pain at best, and a means in which to shove unsavoury monetisation into the games at worst
If they know what Infinity is and why it's a cool idea, they should spell it out clearly. The fact it's still kind of vague makes me think either they don't really know what it is yet, or it's going to be good for Ubisoft but crap for players
I will give Ubisoft props for making new games and not remaking any of the older Assassin's Creed games though. I thought a remake of 1 was rumoured, but instead it looks like Mirage will be a kind of new take on the gameplay of 1, which is obviously the better option vs a boring remake
honestly I am fine with this move, I just want to see how the modern day story ends. i was always interested in that aspect.
OP
OP
The modern story will never end. That went out the window once they began to annualize the series.
Ever since IV it felt like they had no idea what to do with the present day. The present day cast has also just sucked. Shaun and Rebecca feel tired, Desmond was really one-note and Layla was just awful. I don't know a single person who liked her. Which is insane given how well written Bayek and Kassandra are. I don't know why modern Ubisoft can't write likeable modern day protagonists but aside from Marcus in WD2, they really haven't. Rider's Republic had dialogue that actively detracted from the game.
I stopped playing AC after AC3. I absolutely adored the series until Brotherhood but then things turned and it just became boring. I actually really enjoyed the modern day stuff, so Brotherhood's ending and then putting the (awful and lazy) reasoning behind it in DLC for Revelations really was the kicker for me. 3's ending was so poor that I don't even remember what happened exactly. The Japan setting had me tempted to try the new one, this should realistically make it easier since I'll have nothing external to follow or try to catch up on I guess, yet it also just confirms that it's never really recovered from that mess.