Assassin's Creed 3 Catch-All

Supposedly it's going to tie back into the main story somehow.
It's set in an alternate universe? One where Conner is never recruited by the Assassins and must stand alone to protect his tribe from the mad George Washington, King of the United States.

...what? How... like I'm curious and will certainly play it... but how do those two things even work together?

Slumberland, beeporama: there are no 'perks' in the season pass for multiplayer. One just has to spend time and earn XP to unlock everything. I played a tonne when it first came out: getting up to level 50, prestiging and then up to level 25ish or so.

The main problem is that all of the map packs in the season pass fractured an already too-small player base. Then there were the 'actual' problems:

- niche game basically means you'll find yourself on a team of novices against a seasoned AC clan that will mop the floor with you more often that you'd like

- people who have never played an AC game before have no understanding that slow, stealthy kills net you way more points than sprinting on the roofs all the time

- the unbalanced nature of the unlocks means that the majority of the time it's a smokebomb-stun fiesta

- while the matchmaking is finally good, the lag and connection is crap. Add on that a good chunk of the time I was playing Europeans* and well...

I had fun for a bit, but all of these little things turned it from 'fascinating Turing test assassination simulator' to 'controller breaking hair yanker'.

*nothing against Europeans, it's just the overseas lag I'm referring to.

Right, no perks in season pass, but you do get everything unlocked from the get-go if you buy the separate Assassin's Creed III Gameplay Pack. So it's like I buy in for $30 and still know I'm fighting an uphill battle against folks online who bought this other thing.

Ah yeah, forgot about that pack. In all honesty, I never could tell if someone had that or not as the majority of the folks were using smokebombs in tandem with their team to go on stunning/killing sprees.

I'd say the bigger problem would be making sure enough people on your friends list are playing that you can at least get a team together and share the misery if you're getting pummeled. That was what eventually got me to trade this in since there was literally 1 person on my FL playing, and even then he wasn't playing the multi.

It's too bad the main game didn't review well because the multi is really a nice change of pace from the typical competitive shooter.

Sorry nel, that was probably me

I usually don't hit MP on a game until I finish off the SP side of things.

I played through the DLC. It was okay, but there were a couple things about it that I found supremely annoying.

First, the whole thing takes place in winter. I wouldn't mind that so much, but there seemed to always be blizzards cutting the visibility to almost nothing. And then there was one section which was a kind of abstract zone that cut the visibility even MORE... you could literally see about as far as you could stretch out your arms. And in that ultra foggy environment you are supposed to be following something and searching for something. WTF. I thought we left fog as a 3D rendering gimmick behind years ago.

Another thing that annoyed me was that there was a bunch of non-assassin stuff going on. One part that was effectively a game of tag. Another part that had you using a cannon. What's with the AC team's cannon fetish? Moving a bullseye around slowly to try and blow up fast moving targets is not fun.

Finally...

Spoiler:

Ziio is in it, which I thought was nice. Unfortunately they used a different voice actor for her, and the original voice actor was one of the better ones in the game, I thought. Also they killed her off very early on. I guess they couldn't figure out a way to make her useful.

Oh, and one more thing. I hated the stupid invisibility mode. They made it work okay in gameplay terms, but magic spells empowered by native tea voodoo just don't frickin belong in an Assassin's Creed game.

The parts that are assassiny are okay, but there really is no time in the DLC where they just let you loose and send you after some targets.

I am at this point not optimistic for the rest of the DLC, because it seems like they are carrying on with the worst decisions they made in the main game - a lack of open-ended gameplay and a reliance on gimmicky abilities. The AC team needs to go back and play AC2 and Brotherhood.

Thanks badken. You just saved me some money. Before I remove it completely from my wishlist however, is there a price that you would actually think it's worth? Like $2 or something? I may keep it on the wishlist if it ever hits that point, or I could just ditch it now and save myself the heartache.

McIrishJihad wrote:

Sorry nel, that was probably me

I usually don't hit MP on a game until I finish off the SP side of things.

Oh! I guess I had TWO people on my FL playing.

No biggie. It was just such a pronounced difference from Brotherhood and Revelations where I had a regular group of 4-8 people that would play at least once a week.

Yeah, I'd see you pop in, and be like "oh cool, nel is playing!" but then I'd keep searching for almanac pages or hunting down elusive rabbits in SP :/

BlackSabre wrote:

Thanks badken. You just saved me some money. Before I remove it completely from my wishlist however, is there a price that you would actually think it's worth? Like $2 or something? I may keep it on the wishlist if it ever hits that point, or I could just ditch it now and save myself the heartache.

I think it'll probably be worth getting if you can get all three of the Tyranny DLC episodes at once for a discount. They've made it tie in to the main story in what they say is a rewarding way (nothing like "ooh, it was all a dream"), though as of the end of Episode 1 it's still a mystery how that tie-in is going to work. There are parts of the first episode that are okay, so maybe all three will add up to something good. I got the digital deluxe edition which includes the season pass, so I'm already on the hook for all of it.

BadKen wrote:
BlackSabre wrote:

Thanks badken. You just saved me some money. Before I remove it completely from my wishlist however, is there a price that you would actually think it's worth? Like $2 or something? I may keep it on the wishlist if it ever hits that point, or I could just ditch it now and save myself the heartache.

I think it'll probably be worth getting if you can get all three of the Tyranny DLC episodes at once for a discount. They've made it tie in to the main story in what they say is a rewarding way (nothing like "ooh, it was all a dream"), though as of the end of Episode 1 it's still a mystery how that tie-in is going to work. There are parts of the first episode that are okay, so maybe all three will add up to something good. I got the digital deluxe edition which includes the season pass, so I'm already on the hook for all of it.

Yeah, I bought the season pass when I preordered, so I'll have to check it out at some point this weekend... but only after I finish building up Lakeview Manor in Falkreath!

Well I'm pretty happy with my purchase. While I agree the story doesn't seem as focused as brotherhood I'm really enjoying hunting animals and trinkets.

With regard to there being too many feathers here's what I do. Check out the hunting map (Press up while in the main map menu on xbox). It breaks up the frontier into territories. I've just been clearing one territory of feathers and trinkets then moving on to something else if I feel like a change. This works well when combined with the complete your hunting map challenge.

Speaking of which are some animals not available during winter? I want to complete Johns Town but all the elk seem to be hibernating.

I certainly had elk rushing at me during winter, but I did have a hell of a time trying to find foxes in Monmouth to complete the challenge. Spent about an hour running around trying to find where they would spawn, and looks like there's only one place. From what I remember, Elk tend to be in heavily wooded areas.

I've certainly found lots of them in other regions just not in Johns town.

Wait do I have to pay for DLC in order to be able to complete all achievements in this game?

strangederby wrote:

Wait do I have to pay for DLC in order to be able to complete all achievements in this game?

For any given game you get a full set of achievements totaling 1000 gamerscore with the base release. With any DLC pack, additional achievements are always added, directly related to that DLC. They will all be shown together with the base game achievements, driving the OCD completionists insane.

Well. I was going to try and get all the achievements for once but no point now.

strangederby wrote:

Well. I was going to try and get all the achievements for once but no point now.

Whenever a game has MP-related achievements, I just throw that ambition right out the door.

McIrishJihad wrote:
strangederby wrote:

Well. I was going to try and get all the achievements for once but no point now.

Whenever a game has MP-related achievements, I just throw that ambition right out the door.

Yup.

I picked this one up recently and I'm not finding it as engaging as the previous versions. I distinctly remember with the previous games there was a point where I got sucked in and couldn't stop playing. It took a few hours for that to happen but I distinctly remember the feeling where everything "clicked."

Not sure what it is about this one, perhaps the open expanse of frontier and smaller towns. Or maybe I just haven't gotten far enough in yet. I've only just unlocked the ship and have been wandering around on the frontier completing some of the homestead items. It just doesn't seem to have that "just one more vantage point and then I'll stop."

Anyone else have this feeling or is it just a slower burn? I think the ungodly long intro sequences may have sapped some of the juice from me.

JC wrote:

I picked this one up recently and I'm not finding it as engaging as the previous versions. I distinctly remember with the previous games there was a point where I got sucked in and couldn't stop playing. It took a few hours for that to happen but I distinctly remember the feeling where everything "clicked."

Not sure what it is about this one, perhaps the open expanse of frontier and smaller towns. Or maybe I just haven't gotten far enough in yet. I've only just unlocked the ship and have been wandering around on the frontier completing some of the homestead items. It just doesn't seem to have that "just one more vantage point and then I'll stop."

Anyone else have this feeling or is it just a slower burn? I think the ungodly long intro sequences may have sapped some of the juice from me.

I believe what you're experiencing is the "there's no Ezio, and this is not Rome" syndrome. Connor is a joke compared to Ezio in terms of character development and personality. Hopefully the start of AC4: Black Flag will be a bit more interesting.

Demosthenes wrote:
JC wrote:

Not sure what it is about this one, perhaps the open expanse of frontier and smaller towns. Or maybe I just haven't gotten far enough in yet. I've only just unlocked the ship and have been wandering around on the frontier completing some of the homestead items. It just doesn't seem to have that "just one more vantage point and then I'll stop."

Anyone else have this feeling or is it just a slower burn? I think the ungodly long intro sequences may have sapped some of the juice from me.

I believe what you're experiencing is the "there's no Ezio, and this is not Rome" syndrome. Connor is a joke compared to Ezio in terms of character development and personality. Hopefully the start of AC4: Black Flag will be a bit more interesting.

I think this is part right, but I felt the same as you, JC... up until very shortly after the point you are at. Suddenly you start having a lot of things to do and less of the narrative shoving you along. If it doesn't "click" for you in a couple more hours, though, it probably isn't going to.

I will admit that it never fully "clicked" AS MUCH as the previous games, though. Besides personality, the game design gives you less reward for more work with finding the viewpoints and such. Everything is farther apart and harder to traverse, making it slightly more tedious to get "just one more viewpoint," and that broke the addiction cycle the previous games really nailed.

It can feel a little aimless. Still I'm enjoying the gameplay so much I've actually bothered to get all the feathers, chests etc and have been aiming for full sync in missions. Something I've never attempted in an AC game before so for me somethings clicking.

Full Sync for every mission is where I gave up. I did all the collectibles and all the various club challenges, but the thought of replaying 70% of the missions, trying to get the 2-5 requirements for each one, in a single playthrough, killed my motivation to 100% the SP stuff.

If I were a younger man, with more free time to kill, and less of a pile - it would be totally different.

strangederby wrote:

It can feel a little aimless. Still I'm enjoying the gameplay so much I've actually bothered to get all the feathers, chests etc and have been aiming for full sync in missions. Something I've never attempted in an AC game before so for me somethings clicking.

My feeling with full sync attempts is that it would end up killing the game for me out of sheer frustration. By all means go for it but, if the aggravation gets too much, be prepared to let it go.

I've not played AC3 yet. I loved all the other games in the series and it's weird to wonder how I'll feel about the game when I do eventually play it. At the moment it's impossible to imagine AC being under whelming.

Maybe I'm just odd. After all I also enjoyed revelations and the majority opinion seems to be that it's better to skip that one.

beeporama wrote:

up until very shortly after the point you are at. Suddenly you start having a lot of things to do and less of the narrative shoving you along. And then the game ends.

FTFY

strangederby wrote:

Maybe I'm just odd. After all I also enjoyed revelations and the majority opinion seems to be that it's better to skip that one.

I also really enjoyed revelations after dodging the base defence mechanic so there is hope yet :).

I had much more fun with Revelations than this one. I suspect that has a lot to do with the main character. Connor doesn't come close to Ezio in my book.

Higgledy wrote:
strangederby wrote:

Maybe I'm just odd. After all I also enjoyed revelations and the majority opinion seems to be that it's better to skip that one.

I also really enjoyed revelations after dodging the base defence mechanic so there is hope yet :).

For me after the first one, its Brotherhood, 2, Revealtions, then 3.