• Welcome to the Fantasy Writing Forums. Register Now to join us!

Debate about Assassins Creed's quality of stories

fantastic

Minstrel
This is a thread about stories in Assassin's Creed. I am a huge fan of the games.

But at the same I am a fan of stories. And I am interested in writing.

I think talking about this would be very useful for our own writing and at the same time be fun to discuss different opinions with others.

Any opinion is welcome.

Personally, I finished Assassin's Creed, Assassin's Creed 2 (I finished it around 5 times), Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (I finished it twice), Assassin's Creed Revelations, Assassin's Creed 3.

I played but was not quite satisfied with Assassin's Creed 4, so I did not finish it. I also played Assassin's Creed Unity but have not finished it and I am not sure if I will continue it someday.

My favorite story in the games would be that of Assassin's Creed 2 and Ezio's story in general.

How knowledgeable are you about stories of Assassin's Creed? Feel free to talk about it.
 

Gryphos

Auror
I've played Assassin's Creed 2, Brotherhood, Revelations and 3, and then stopped due to the sadly disappointing nature of the lattermost. I hear Black Flag was good, but I feel that it was too much of a step away from what I feel is the core them of Assassin's Creed – urban environments and stealth assassination. I feel that a pirate game would be a fantastic idea, I just would rather it not pretend to be an Assassin's Creed game, if you see what I mean.

My favourite that I've played is probably number 2, mainly because it by far has the best story, a classic revenge plot. Brotherhood made a lot of mechanical improvements, for example making the combat smoother, but a sad side effect of that was a lessened focus on stealth, which is what I feel Assassin's Creed should be about. Plus, I feel as though number 2 had better level design.
 

fantastic

Minstrel
I've played Assassin's Creed 2, Brotherhood, Revelations and 3, and then stopped due to the sadly disappointing nature of the lattermost. I hear Black Flag was good, but I feel that it was too much of a step away from what I feel is the core them of Assassin's Creed – urban environments and stealth assassination. I feel that a pirate game would be a fantastic idea, I just would rather it not pretend to be an Assassin's Creed game, if you see what I mean.

My favourite that I've played is probably number 2, mainly because it by far has the best story, a classic revenge plot. Brotherhood made a lot of mechanical improvements, for example making the combat smoother, but a sad side effect of that was a lessened focus on stealth, which is what I feel Assassin's Creed should be about. Plus, I feel as though number 2 had better level design.

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood was technically better but in my opinion Assassin's Creed 2 had better story. This is probably the reason for different level design.
 

Laurence

Inkling
I always enjoyed the stories of the past lives but quickly became livid the moment I was faced with one of Desmond's chapters.
 

Reaver

Staff
Moderator
The Ezio Trilogy is the best in my opinion, but I also enjoy AC3 and Black Flag as well. They all have their strength and weaknesses.

I feel the same as Laurence each time I'm forced to play as Desmond and was genuinely happy when
they killed him off.

But then AC Black Flag's "game company secretly ran by the Templar's plot and faceless 'hero who saves the day" was just ridiculous. Edward's story was pretty great and I enjoy the ship battles, shipwreck diving and harpooning.

My biggest problem with Black Flag is when you get yanked out of the animus to advance the faceless hero's plot. It's frustrating.
 
Last edited:

fantastic

Minstrel
The Ezio Trilogy is the best in my opinion, but I also enjoy AC3 and Black Flag as well. They all have their strength and weaknesses.

I feel the same as Laurence each time I'm forced to play as Desmond and was genuinely happy when
they killed him off.

But then AC Black Flag's "game company secretly ran by the Templar's plot and faceless 'hero who saves the day" was just ridiculous. Edward's story was pretty great and I enjoy the ship battles, shipwreck diving and harpooning.

My biggest problem with Black Flag is when you get yanked out of the animus to advance the faceless hero's plot. It's frustrating.

In my opinion Ezio's story is the best, too.

I didn't mind Desmond while I thought he would become Assassin and be the main character in Assassin's Creed game where you would play in our time. But that didn't happen. I did like moments with him and his role but I expected he would get his own game. I like Desmond's story much more than some random unknown character.

What I didn't like in Assassin's Creed Black Flag was that you had to constantly upgrade your ship and earn a lot of money to do that. I was not interested in ship management, sailing and pirating aspect, which was a big part of the game. And it did not feel quite like an Assassin's Creed Game to me. But I know that some liked the change.
 

Reaver

Staff
Moderator
In my opinion, the best thing about the Assassin's Creed franchise is that there's something for everyone. From AC1 to its current iterations, it's an all-around great concept.
 
I can't believe no one has played Freedom Cry or Liberation. FC gives a whole new perspective of the Black Flag world. Liberation also did very well, but some thought it was too rushed. My favourites were the Ezio saga, but after that...AC 3 nearly bored me at parts. Something was missing. Never played any after that since I don't support Ubisoft milking the series like it is. I'm not sure how much they actually care for the story because they have not improved anything else with the games. Reading the dispute between the original writer and Ubi left me not wanting to support a company like them.
 

Reaver

Staff
Moderator
I can't believe no one has played Freedom Cry or Liberation. FC gives a whole new perspective of the Black Flag world.

I've played Freedom Cry and I wish they'd make an entire game featuring Adewale. I've also played the Aveline DLC and think that it would make for a great full game.
 
I've played Freedom Cry and I wish they'd make an entire game featuring Adewale. I've also played the Aveline DLC and think that it would make for a great full game.

Ah, I guess I should have figured some people would have considered Freedom Cry as part of Black Flag since it was DLC first. I correct that bit, but they did make it a standalone game on the PSN store (likely 360 as well). If you meant an actual separate IP, I agree; it had a lot of potential to stand on its own and expand, but I guess they didn't see it that way? It's the one Assassin's Creed I want to finish playing as I played on PC, but it was far too poorly optimized.

Liberation was said to be very good, but sadly rushed where they would have fleshed it out. That might be due to it having a PSP title or they didn't take their time, yet it left enough of an impression that it gleamed some awards. Ubisoft makes...interesting choices on lots of things, but not sure if they thought those games might center too much on a particular demographic to appeal widely or perhaps something else. I really never hear fans of the series talk about either game, so there may be merit somewhere as to how either was received.

One thing always makes me wonder; how can Desmond Miles have such a diverse background filled with extraordinary people, and still manage to have fans despise his part till his un-climatic end, lol! I saw potential in III, but then...well, you know what happened. He just undid all his ancestors fought for and led the world to an uncertain fate because I guess the story was implying a biblical/prophetic restart to the world that would eventually lead to the same misconceptions of the truth and thus repeating a cycle.

That was all very weak in my opinion. Minerva and whatever the other one's name was clearly represented to options for mankind, neither fully saying why they had to be those choices. Minerva programmed to carry out that scenario no matter what? She didn't foresee Desmond making the choice he did? Desmond himself could see the pattern, but not think of any way to alter the outcome from going that path? It was very lazy writing when it focused on him and the alien aspect threw off the entire story for me from AC II; not exactly personal taste, but the New Age element could have been entirely removed and the story would have done just as amazing (which says something).

Perhaps that's why they axed Desmond and that aspect of the game, although I don't know if they kept the 'Ancient Aliens' over-arche in the other games. AC II has been the most beloved because of the thought the original writer put into it. Now it just seems like the current team cares half as much, putting out somewhat decent stories (that depends on person really) while the games suffer continually from the same flaws; they know enough people will keep buying them no matter what and that gives Ubi no incentive to change. We'll see how Syndicate is received after gamers play it since editorial reviews are undoubtedly purchased.
 
Top