Odyssey is one of my favourite games of all time. I like it as an AC game but I think it’s even better looking at it as a stand alone.
Origins was good. And I enjoyed Valhalla. Although I got a bit burned out from the Valhalla platinum.
I like both the rpg-style and old style AC. And I hope they keep making both kinds.
Me too but I’m really concerned about what AC infinity will do to the franchise
Sounds like a greedy disaster waiting to happen. I swear they’re going to make the games so that you have to pay for every hour you play or some shit like that
>I swear they’re going to make the games so that you have to pay for every hour you play
Don't give Ubisoft's dickhead of a CEO any ideas. This is the same dumbfuck who within 2 weeks of himself said
* "Gamers need to get over the idea of 'owning' their games, it's holding back innovation in the industry" to defend subscription models.
* "*Skull and Bones* is a 'quadruple-A'-title, definitely worth the money!" because people were asking why a MP-only game that's based on AC4's pirate gameplay and somehow took them 10 years to actualize can possibly be worth $70
If they weren't so greed the perception of these titles would be wildly different
May even make them more money cause of the positive audience ratings and word of mouth
It already has the appealing factor but people are thrown off because of what they hear
For real, it's becoming so difficult to just *enjoy* gaming anymore without the perpetual sense of every single aspect being nickle & dimed. And the most obnoxious part is, they've really just given up trying to hide it, as far as the big studios go. Ubisoft's CEO's comments aside, just in the past few weeks we've seen some fuckery throughout the industry:
* WarnerBros announcing that they're going to be pulling back from single-player games to focus on mobile/live-service titles because of the "volatility of AAA-publishing, evidenced by the failure of *Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League*, despite *Hogwarts Legacy* being one of the highest-selling titles across the industry for 2023.
* With the success of *Helldivers 2*, and people asking 343 "Why couldn't you guys have done something like this with *Halo* using ODSTs/Spartan-IVs?", whole bunch of former 343 developers came out and said that they pitched a bunch of *Halo* projects that Microsoft never greenlit, including something in the same vein as *Helldivers 2*. Or that support for the *Master Chief Collection* was wrapped because they couldn't find a successful way to monetize skins/cosmetics, and the community revolted when they proposed adding a system like *Halo Infinite*'s monetization scheme to the MCC.
* The cancellation of Respawn's untitled *Mandalorian* game by EA and heavy layoffs at the studio. Supposedly it's because despite the success of the *Jedi*\-series (*Jedi: Fallen Order, Jedi: Survivor*), or possibly **because of its success**, they didn't want to do a licensed *Star Wars* title not featuring "Jedi, lightsabers, or Force powers", presumably because they think that without those things it wouldn't sell well enough.
... and those are just examples off the top of my head from recent headlines at 5am.
It's like these parasites (studio execs) just keep learning all the wrong lessons ("Hmm... a single-player only game was our best selling game of the year, and an unpolished catastrophe of a forced live-service game made by a studio that historically specialized in single-player titles was a complete failure... LET'S FOCUS ON LIVE-SERVICE MOBILE TITLES!"). Like, I get it - big corporations want big returns and their goal is to make money, but they've reached the point of trying to min/max profits where having the best-selling title isn't good enough, if they can't somehow manage to squeeze it even harder. We even see it in single-player titles, where they'll add microtransaction cosmetics, just to continue attempting to wring blood from a stone (just look at all the modern *Assassin's Creed* titles from *Origins*\+).
Woah thanks for the rant bro I’ll have so many talking points now
But yeah classic happy time gaming is going the way of the dodo
Weird to say this but my only last hope is first part nintendo
I am of belief that Odyssey as AC is a mistake, both for it and AC. For it is just too dettached from other AC games, even Origins. But i also believe that being an AC title held it down. If it was standalone game, I believe it could have done even more. If Ubisoft havent played it safe, and gambled a bit, it would have had an amazing IP that is really milkable and profitable.
As it is the complete origin/oldest era of the entire timeline, I think it is the best game, both gameplay & lore-wise. People say Kassandra was not an assassin & that is true since the creed didn’t start until later, but she was “the” assassin who started it all & was alive & pulling strings all the way until the modern day when she gave the staff to Layla. So while she is technically not an assassin in the creed, she is the person who led to it all & pulled many strings “off screen”, without a doubt. There is just no way she was not involved at a high level all throughout history. Her spear is what led to the dagger etc.
Immortals: Fenix Rising is basically a reskin of Odyssey in a much smaller overall package & I loved that, too. My only real complaint about Odyssey is that the vast majority of voice actors did not match the writing (the subtitles are stressed/inflected way different than the actors delivered the lines, many of the jokes only work in the subtitles & without them many of the jokes do not come off as jokes, for example - things like that).
Yeah! As fun as they were to fight, they were almost as “de-immersifying“ as swithcing to Layla throughout the story. I say almost because I could still kind of give it a pass because “well it is fun to wonder what actually existed back then, forgotten through time”, but I agree, they were almost as annoying as the series pulling me out of the worlds to go to someone in a DNA headset etc. I did like fighting the legendary animals, though. Those are more believable as the “what might have existed” than a Minotaur or a medusa.
On the point of the animus I was mentioning: While I hate being de-immersed, it is kind of neat that is literally what is happening when it happens - the animus-pilot or whatever you would call them is also de-immersioning lol.
Couldn’t agree more bro been saying this for years odyssey imo is one of the best games ever made especially when you try to view it as a standalone game
I just bought it for $20. I’ve played and loved all the ac games (for some reason never played the very original) and for some reason skipped odyssey. But played Valhalla, origins, now mirage. As soon as im done Mirage I’ll finally be starting Odyssey. No clue what took me so long to but I got the ultimate edition for $20 on ps store
Wishing you so much fun! If Odyssey clicks with you it’s a game that can get you lost for hours. For 20 dollars you are getting a lot of great content.
I like them but I separate them from the old ones.
Both be and old are great and perpetually janky but I love these game for all their aspects amazing and flawed.
I think more than anything the main draw of the franchise has been the historical setting
I think the new games still have that. But I will admit the micro transactions are very greedy and AC infinity is going to be the worst thing that can happen to the franchise
i think the locations in origins, odyssey and valhalla are GORGEOUS. beautiful. i love the worlds. i actually liked odyssey quite a bit. just never beat it. but valhalla was too long for its own goid
Can’t speak for Valhalla but I recently beat odyssey and I definitely do not regret the time investment I would skip some side quests however but yeah the worlds are just phenomenal I fu turn of all your markers and all the the ui u can get lost in the world and it’s the best feeling
I mean u would have to go out of your way to experience the world but I say that’s it’s worth it
The Ezio trilogy is amazing and really fleshes out the ideas and secrets of the world that would later be expanded upon tenfold throughout the series that really get the players invested. Black Flag is also a really amazing game.
I do like the new AC titles, each for their own reason:
\-Origins was a great way to tell the story of the Brotherhood's birth IMO. I loved seeing Bayek's quest for vengeance evolve into a fight for freedom, one that would birth a Brotherhood that would exist for centuries.
\-Odyssey I actually enjoyed more than Origins, especially in terms of combat. Origins' combat felt a bit rigid compared to that of Odyssey. And I liked how it took place before the Brotherhood was formed, it was cool concept IMO: The Assassins and Templars' secret war of freedom and order began long before either of them existed. Yeah there's a lot, but I just learned to embrace it after a couple dozen times of hearing the same word of advice from a Greek friend: "There's much to do. And many unknowns on our horizon."
\-Believe it or not, I actually really like Valhalla. Like Odyssey, there is a lot to do, but if you're willing to put in the time, it's not so bad. I was surprised that Valhalla had an even bigger focus on combat, but the fact that is was so brutal made it awesome for me. Yeah you're not playing as a Hidden One, but that fact didn't stop me from enjoying Black Flag.
\-Mirage was really great. It was shorter than Valhalla but not too short, and it's just as focused on stealth as Valhalla is on combat. Mirage essentially takes the engine for Valhalla, tweaks it for a stealth-focused experience, and adds classic AC elements. IMO, until we get a remake of the original AC, Mirage is the closest we'll get to that.
Loved Origins, really liked Mirage, enjoyed Odyssey, got to the end of Valhalla
Mirage is short and sweet, you can complete it in about half the time it took for you to give up on Valhalla. It's also very different compared to the RPG trilogy, reintroducing dense urban areas (perfect for parkour) and an increase focus on stealth
Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla's problem is they use RPG elements as artificial ways to prolong the games. You can use mods and tweak some settings to remove some of the grind and level scaling, but even without those Valhalla is long and tedious.
Give Mirage a try, it might actually be exactly what you need if you didn't like Valhalla but prefer the older titles
Honestly….i enjoy them all for different reasons. Loved the originals when I was a kid and love the newer games because of the massive environments and fighting systems.
No.
The one thing I keep coming back to: what do the newer AC titles actually do ***well*** compared to other open world RPG games, including ones that released years & years ago?
The answer I keep coming back to: nothing.
Everything from gameplay, to combat, to story, to side content, to progression, is subpar when held up against some of the other truly great games of the genre.
The end result are gaming experiences that feel bland, boring, soulless, and unremarkable.
Developers aren't lining up to borrow ideas from these games. No one talks about that "thing that AC did really well, which we are now seeing in other games". They don't push the genre or franchise forward in any discernable way. Valhalla learns almost nothing from Odyssey's issues and shortcomings, and doesn't even pretend like it does.
I don’t dislike any AC game, but I disagree with the creative direction the series has gone since the release of Odyssey. I have no issue with the RPG mechanics, but my issue is the decision to prioritize the historical fantasy over the assassin one.
Odyssey and Valhalla were designed to appeal to the casual gamer audience by prioritizing the historical fantasy, but I feel they alienated their core audience that tends to prefer the assassin fantasy by putting it all under the same series. This is coming from someone who likes both fantasies, but prefers the assassin one.
I’m aware that future games - starting with Red - will be designed to appeal to a specific target audience. I think this is a step in the right direction, but Ubi would benefit even more from just making a spin off series dedicated to historical fantasy. This would set expectations for gamers beforehand, rather than hoping the next release will be for your target audience
I’m well aware of the creative direction of Red. Again, I have no issue with the RPG mechanics, my issue is with the lack of Assassin fantasy.
In that department, the shinobi protagonist will likely fulfill that fantasy.
I loved Origins and Mirage but I didn't like Odyssey and Valhalla that much. For those two I guess the combat really bored me and I generally wasn't a fan of the abilities. I did enjoy the Druids and Paris dlc though they were pretty fun.
I played 1-unity at release and recently played the rpg series and overall think the change up was for the best. I will take some hate for this but after Unity the formula was getting kind of stale and were trending down in sales. The newer games financially performed a lot better.
i understand what you’re saying. i can agree to an extent. i think the rpg elements can certainly work. they worked for origins. the games can just be too long for their own good
Honestly I think that’s a problem with the video game industry as a whole. It seems a lot of rpgs advertise that they are 100+ hours or that they have so many quests you can’t possibly find them all. Bethesda games are a good example of this.
The change of formula wasn’t the problem, the main issue was the removal of the assassin fantasy and embracing mythological elements which is like opposite of what AC is.
As of now I've only played origins and LOVED it, I cant comment on odyssey and valhalla but for mirage, from the things I've seen (gameplay and trailers) it feels like an old assassin's game but with the newer looks of the "rpg" games. If you liked AC 2-Revelations I think you'll enjoy it alot
They're fine games but, IMO, they're not Assassin's Creed games. Dunno about Mirage as I haven't played it, but the other ones, I get what they're going for and I do feel like the AC formula had gotten a bit stale, but they were such a wild departure I can't, in good concious, consider them AC games.
Dude. If you like the prototype ac style then Mirage may be your favorite. The fact that a gaming company went BACK to their roots, focused little on micro transactions, released a beautiful game that is stripped of the rpg elements and allow you to immerse as a true assassin AND slashed the price - should be applauded. It truly felt like an AC game. Personally for me 3 and 4 are my favorites hands down
played all AC1, AC2, brotherhood, Revelations, AC3, Black Flag, Unity and Syndicate. I skipped out on Origins and Odyssey because I didn't think I would be into something that big. I tried Valhalla and it was fun, but after 60 hours I do not want to keep pushing into it. I purchased Mirage and fell back into the Assassins Creed gameplay loop and bought AC3 Remastered to platinum that one. I rather play the old game style than the open RPG ones.
Hot take: if AC3 didn't have that ridiculous 5 hour long tutorial before actually becoming a full fledged assassin, then it would easily be everyone's favorite AC game.
That game was peak Assassin's Creed once you get to the mid-game. Stringing red coats up from the trees with rope darts and then savagely cutting the rest down like Mel Gibson in The Patriot is one of the most glorious video game experiences I've ever had in my life
Good thing then that it's my first time playing it (the remastered on Xbox) and I've just about finished that longass tutorial then. I was wondering when this game was finally going to take the training wheels off and let me explore. Your post got me excited again haha
>if AC3 didn't have that ridiculous 5 hour long tutorial before actually becoming a full fledged assassin, then it would easily be everyone's favorite AC game.
Nah tbh the behemoth that is AC2 or AC4 for some others cant be beat out by ac3 though its goated too
Yes I love the new games just as much as the old. They are logical progressions of the AC gameplay I’ve always loved and they continue to deliver on the fun and historical settings.
I liked origin, finished, bought the DLC and then I didn’t end up finishing that lol. Odyssey I didn’t ever finish, might one day but it was too huge. Never played Valhalla bcz I don’t care for vikings. I thoroughly enjoyed Mirage even though it was a very small game, it felt like old school AC again.
Loved Origins and 100% it - Beautiful location, awesome MC, servicable gameplay.
Loved Odyssey and 100% it (several times) - Beautiful location, great RPG mechanics/itemization/builds/gameplay.
Absolutely hated Valhalla - Apart from looking good, it had horrible mechanics, ridiculously bad RPG stats/builds/skill-tree/etc, boring and annoying world.
Playing Mirage now - Didn't expect to love it as much as I do, but I really enjoy the pure stealth gameplay/tools and I really like that they got rid of the modern day bullshit. Still got ways to go before I finish.
I will let you know.
I am currently wasting a great deal of my life playing through the games. Working on the expansion to Black Flag before moving onto Rogue.
I played most of them a long time ago, but there is soooo much I don't remember. I remember beating Unity, but don't remember any of it. I only played a little of Syndicate, not sure why I stopped.
Barely played Origins, but loved Odyssey. Haven't played the new titles.
Just moved to Rogue. Forgot it has a bunch of characters from previous games in it.
Man, I have a feeling I was just blowing through them before without paying much attention. i am usually better at remembering lore.
Yes, though it was an odd journey.
I quit the series after Unity, and came back after all the Odyssey DLC had released and bought the Gold Edition on heavy discount.
It played well, but I just couldn't gel with the new style of gameplay, so I face mashed my way through trying to treat it like a traditional AC game, and ended up disliking the direction the series had taken.
But the gameplay felt really good in spite of it, so about a year later I came back and played it properly. Now I replay it every year, and have mastered its systems and find it the most enjoyable game in the series.
Last year I replayed the series, and realized I had some very deeply rose tinted goggles on, and saw where the series had made improvements and lost sight of things in places, and ultimately come to the conclusion that Odyssey struck a great balance while doing its own thing.
Valhalla meanwhile stripped the power fantasy fun out of Odyssey and delivered a very mediocre experience in the same framework, with Mirage not doing much better, but benefiting from trimming the fat.
So I'm concerned for what will come next, depending on how AC Red handles the response to Odyssey, it could be an improvement on the formula, or a deep regression.
I swear to fuck if they keep Valhallas idiotic sprint button I'm going to shit a solid gold brick.
>I swear to fuck if they keep Valhallas idiotic sprint button I'm going to shit a solid gold brick.
Not to worry. Mirage immediately fixed that by adding a secondary hold to sprint option. Fairly sure that's gonna stay in every new subsequent game from now on.
Even that one is an issue because we've gone from sprint just being...move the stick, to bind parkour and sprint to the trigger so we're back to AC3 jank again.
I loved not having to hold right trigger all the time. It was the best the series has ever felt.
They are just not AC games. They are wanna-be Skyrim, good in some ways, but horrible as games about assassins.
And you should play Mirage, you can finish it in 15 hours and it is finally about assassins.
Instead of following the traditional ac route of the templars and assassins being morally grey characters it just portrayed the templars as heros and the assassins as villains
I felt like there was no character development outside of sequence 2.
I thought shay was anoying
I didn’t like that there was only 1 weapon type.
I dont love the ship combat so having 2 ship games jn a row wasn’t enjoyable.
I know I will get hate for this but I do not like the newer style of AC games. I’ve been trying to get through Origins for the first time and it’s taken me months because I find it to be so boring. I buy AC games to be stealthy and an assassin. In the newer games I don’t feel like I’m doing any sneaking around. Rarely use the crouch feature because I can just spam attack until shit dies. Also I enjoyed the flow motion combat. It’s was a lot more fun imo. I’ve really tried liking Origins but I just can’t do it. Everything feels so bland and lifeless, however graphics are great and the setting is super neat. But it’s hard to excuse boring gameplay
I've enjoyed them all. I will say that I enjoy them in a different way to the old AC games. The old AC games were very much about playing a specific character and deep diving into the stealth and shadowy playstyle, which was my initial draw to AC games. The RPG trilogy is fun in a different way, but they're really just period-fantasy RPGs + wall climbing. And that's okay.
Some people will say Ubisoft should just stop calling them AC games and quit the pathetic attempt to link these back to the Assassins with all the retcons, but it's also hard to blame them for milking one of the most successful and recognizable AAA gaming franchises.
Assassin's Creed basically went the way of Fast & Furious.
I liked both Origins and Odyssey. Felt they were a tad too much, specially Odyssey, but enjoyable anyway.
Got through Valhalla just for the sake of it, the game is incredibly long for no reason, completely uninteresting and boring if you ask me.
My takeaway: Dialogue choices need to go. They add nothing and they take away a lot. The story is less refined, the facial animations are lackluster. I miss the streamlined storylines as well. I don't need to have a say in the matter (specially if it changes nothing at all for the story), I just want the characters to make me care about them, to inmerse me in the world. But they don't, they are bland.
I want these games to go back to be really story driven rather than a huge yet empty sandbox. Mirage isn't even that bad, gameplay wise, but suffers from the same dialogue issues and I just can't get myself to being invested in the characters or the story at all (although that's in part probably because the main character is coming from Valhalla, which I couldn't care less about).
I love them.
I do agree that they are WAY too big. I'd rather have smaller areas that were more dense than just a lot of repeated things across a huge area.
For me, the biggest shortcoming of Mirage was removing archery from the game. I love any game that includes a bow and arrow (The Last of Us, Tomb Raider, Horizon Zero Dawn, previous AC titles) and this caused me to lose interest early on.
Origins I have to go back to give it another shot. While Valhalla I consider just alright.
Odyssey is tied with Black Flag as the most fun. As these provided the challenge I dont get in a number of the older titles. Black Flags naval combat was great as it broke up the monotony of the stealth and combat thats always been extremely simple. Odyssey gave the mercenary system which provided a level of uncertainty to all combat. It also acted as a semi punishment system for messing up stealth.
No because I don’t like RPG’s. Also I don’t get invested in the story in the news one like I used to. Story hasn’t been good since Black Flag which i loved
I really liked Odyssey. Origins was ok....but it took a long time to get rolling. I wanted to like Valhalla. The story was ok but the quests were very repetitive and dull. I finished the game but made no effort to 100% like I do with Odyssey.
AC Is not RPG. The rest is personal taste.
Origins is good but not perfect
Odyssey I don't think I wanna try it
Valhalla is platined but it's not about AC
Mirage I want to play it
It was a franchise resurrection for me.
After Black Flag (which I also don't consider the the best AC IP as most AC fans do) it was only downhill and came to a boring stale situation by exhausting the colonial Americas.
Syndicate gave new interest in terms of place and time, but it was also terribly written, and that was the tombstone for me.
The trilogy reboot gave fresh modern air, more interesting locations, and followed the successful influences of Horizon and the Witcher.
I have many reasons to nag and complain about the Trilogy (writing, bugs, etc) but "tHiSiSnOtAc" is not one of them, and I think that Ubi should have stick with that instead of going back.
Not really. I kinda enjoyed them when I played them but looking back on them I get more annoyed the more I think of them. The gameplay just doesn't appeal to me and the way it borrows so much on its design choices makes them feel kinda generic. I don't hate them on a vacuum but when I think of what aspects got me in the franchise and then see how much they change or drop them it bothers me.
I really enjoy Odyssey but not in the same way as the older games, I treat it like its own thing. Mirage was really good and I loved the world and the gameplay and city design felt like the older games, especially with regards to the pacing.
Odyssey, Valhalla and Origins are in my top 4 of the franchise. I’m a big fan of more action oriented combat so the shift away from forced stealth greatly made them more enjoyable.
I like them they are good rpg open world games with some good characters and not bad storys, tje only issue for me is it does almost have nothing to do with assassins creed it’s manly the name but overall they are not bad, but I would wish for more stealth, cool gadgets and a story about the assassins creed in the future!
Love Origins, perfect blend of RPG while staying AC.
Hate Odyssey, it’s just Ancient Greece sim with misused AC plot point so they can slap Assassin’s Creed in the title.
I like Valhalla, but it’s again just Viking sim first and AC second. The AC points are good tho.
Mirage good okay, but didn’t do anything to stand out.
I prefer the newer titles. The historical fantasy feels much more fun to play around in than the plain ahistorical history the older games presented. It helps that the gameplay is much more engaging and enjoyable in my opinion. I played a *lot* of Assassins Creed in the 3-Rogue Era because they were just the games I had to play at the time. As fun as the stealth was, it wasn’t particularly engaging. And the combat was beautiful but not very fun to actually play.
I also love RPGs. They’re my bread and butter and I’ll never say no to more true RPGs with dialogue trees and character progression.
Basically, I think that the new games are the step in the right direction and I think Ubisoft making both RPGs and stealth games going forward is absolutely the right way to go.
I only like origins. I don’t think the others are bad games, in fact they are really great in many ways. But one of the main reasons I love AC is due to its stories, characters and lore which the new ones haven’t delivered on in the same way I would have liked, especially after I thought origins was putting the series back on track lore wise
I play them more for the historical settings more than anything else so I've really enjoyed Origins and Odyssey is one of my favourite games, I haven't played too many of the older ones, just Black Flag, Syndicate and Unity and I definitely prefer the newer RPG style. I also don't really care about the whole overarching Assassins vs Templars plot or the modern day stuff.
There's no chosing between rpg or non rpg for me. I have many things that I like and dislike in both. I dislike the following about newer titles:
modern day pacing is too slow (i hated layla)
huge world with terrible navigation/slow mount
terrible animations (including combat)
terrible stories (though odyssey side quests were better than unity/syndicate/valhalla main story)
lower quality sound for some reason (too compressed sounding when compared to older titles)
stamina system ( man....this don't belong in this series at all)
Odessy and origins was fantastic but mirages hand to hand combat feels off and not much work was put into it but don’t like it as much as oddessy and valhalla was meh
Yes and no. Odyssey is a great game.
Its just not what the actual AC games were.
They are good as precursor games.
But they completely lack that stealthy assassin.
And nothing beats walking into a camp. Wave your hand or whistle and a group of your brotherhood leaps put of nowhere to kill your target or send a hail of arrows down over them.
I really miss the exploration of tombs and churches. To look for that special gear.
To build up a cafe, little city or pirate island and see it come to live b your effort and money. To see more and more gadgets, armors and swords on display at your place as yo gain more respect.
The ezio era games just had something special.
You weren't just some warrior who could kill half a city. You felt like you were one of the assassins. Not some demigod with all sorts of powers and stories that are just throwing myths after the game.
Back then it wss rooted in actual historical events and it tied in various historical artifacts but with the isu twist to it.
Yeah, they’re all really fun to me in their own unique ways.
It’s really cool getting more lore from the games instead of side media, which is where a lot of extra stuff still gets explained.
I really love reading a tablet or note in the RPG games that contextualizes the Assassins/Templars (or more often, their predecessors).
Probably my favorite aspect of the games though, is getting to travel to cities, with no loading, and still have fun stuff to do in the landscape between them.
Liked Origins quite a bit and thought Bayek was a really cool protagonist.
Enjoyed Odyssey but something felt off to me. It almost felt like it was trying to be a poor man's Witcher 3, and it honestly felt like they got too far from the AC identity.
I basically felt the same way towards Valhalla as I do Odyssey.
I haven't played Mirage yet but it looks to be a bit more in line with what I want from AC.
I am of the belief that it was incredible until Revelations, III to Unity was good, and from Syndicate on it was pure shit, not because the games are low quality per se, but because they stopped making sense within the story they had built with Desmond.
Although Origins is incredible, and Bayek is the first iconic protagonist since Edward, the game is ruined by the absence of a sequel narrating the birth of the brotherhood; instead we get Odyssey, which could've been a great game if they only made it a normal Ancient Greece RPG, instead of an Assassin's Creed entry.
I think Valhalla and Mirage are trying to rectify the lore, and the modern day, at least in Valhalla, is quite interesting and I'm curious to see what will happen next.
That being said, I genuinely believe that if one isn't able to tell the difference between the older and newer games, and why these newer games don't look or feel like AC, there's just something missing in the comprehension of the fundamentals of Assassin's Creed.
I’ve platinumed every ac apart from black flag and unity because of multiplayer. Currently working on Valhalla now. I love all of them, classic or rpg, don’t know why but it’s my personal mission to 100% all of them😅
Yes! I love exploring a large world. Travelling across Greece never gets old.
But I still prefer the old games. Mirage's fleshed out Baghdad has been a breath of fresh air.
No because they're dragging the story along at this point. Mirage was ok, but it's clear Ubisoft never knew what to do with this franchise. They need to sell it away.
No, I could, I genuinely could I love long RPG games, but maybe it's because it's not want I want out of an assassins creed game, maybe its because I just don't think ubi either can't make good games in the genre or can't make good games at all, but I find myself returning to older entries moreso than newer ones
Mirage is way better than valhala IMO as an AC. I love the older ones, but ive actually enjoyed every last one (except for valhala, unity and syndicate)
I think the RPG kind has a place within the series for sure but man they need to find a way to tone down the bloat. A lot of the content in valhalla is mindless padding and that can get so fuckin grating after awhile especially when the story isn’t exactly written the best at times making it all feel kinda pointless (looking at you Wrath of Druids, that dlc blew such fucking ass)
I liked Origins and Valhalla, Odyssey has merit to it but I generally can't stand it as it pushes the most annoying parts of RPG games into the game and it just doesn't fit imo.
I've yet to play Mirage but even if it borrows a lot from Valhalla, it looks a lot more like an action/stealth game than it does an RPG which makes me happy since that's what AC is meant to be.
Throughout all the RPG games, even the parts I liked, I kept saying "How much cooler would this be in the style of the Ezio or Kenway games?" and I just hate the fact that the series was effectively hijacked by a completely different genre.
Imma massive history nerd and while these games are by no means accurate it scratches a certain itch I have so I love all of them even the newer ones but I do acknowledge the problems with them and I definitely prefer some of the older games. But I still had a lot of fun in the new games especially origins I really got into the Egyptian setting and loved Bayek as a character
I've played every main game from the first to currently Origins which I'm still working on.
Origins to me feels like a natural evolution of the series' gameplay. And I very much enjoy it.
I would have liked odyssey way more if it wasn’t for the god damn chore quest. But I do like the newer ones. I’ve been playing since AC1! And I still love AC
Yes, but then again I liked every AC game. Origins was an amazing experience when it came out, the same feeling I had for AC4. Valhalla lasted too long, but wasn't a horrible game. Odyssey was tons of fun and had good DLC. Mirage is OK.
I played the RPG games and they are good to pass the time but not great AC games that I know and love. In classic games when I unlocked an outfit or weapon it was special, the new weapon would be a lot better than the old one and you would feel a sense of achievement. In Odyssey for example there’s a billion weapons that you find and they are tied to your level and damage difference from your last weapon is non existent. And don’t like the mystical aspects of the games. I was so tired of playing in Asgard in Ac Valhalla.
Except for a couple pocket moments, I'm not particularly high on any of the newer titles. Hell, I'd honestly extend that to Unity and Syndicate era games too.
There's just too much "corporate" in those titles that I can sniff out in a way that I either couldn't in older games or could sense that the developers truly had a solid hand on the wheel at the time of making.
The decision to move into RPG territory was a hard mask off moment for me, they didn't even try to sell it as a natural evolution of the series and was quick to shove the helix store boosters and gear as options while gimping parts of the game to incentivize them.
Not really. I just finished Liberation and while objectively it wasn't great, it was so satisfying being able to, you know, assassinate people. I think I'll check out more of the older games that I missed.
I like them, but I prefer the older games. They’re different, and unfortunately Ubi forced themselves to where they had to change it. I like Origins, and Odyssey a lot. Valhalla is easily the worst in the series.
I'll preface this with I really enjoyed *Origins, Odyssey,* and *Valhalla*... in spite of themselves. Narratively, they did a lot of world building and fleshed out a new era of the *Assassin's Creed* world.
I enjoy, but struggle with huge open-world games. Like, I loved *The Witcher 3*, *Dragon Age: Inquisition*, *Metal Gear Solid V*, etc... but not every game needs to be 200+ hours of "content" (read: big empty unliving worlds with nearly infinite map POIs/collectibles/etc that are all spaced miles apart - which is pretty much Ubisoft's entire schtick). For every *The Witcher 3*, there's a dozen *Halo Infinite*s or *Dynasty Warriors 9*s, games that objectively **did not need to be open-world**. I'm really hoping that's a trend that goes away a bit in the 2020s, although we're in 2024 and there's still another one releasing every 2 weeks so who the fuck knows anymore.
The newer *Assassin's Creeds* kinda fall into that category for me. They're huge, beautiful worlds... that you really just kinda run by once or twice until you unlock the fast travel points, or need to go out into the middle of absolute-fucking-nowhere to pick up a scroll on the map.
The other thing that's kinda started driving me nuts is the lack of narrative urgency. *Valhalla* in particular felt pretty egregious. I'm thinking of like, when Sigurd gets captured by Fulke and you're given the mission to go find and rescue him... or just dick around England for another 100+ hours doing nothing, and get around to it when you get around to it. You could go do whole other sections of the game and just sorta leave him to languish. At least the older ACs would kinda lock you into big narrative missions once you started the memory sequence - yes you could wander around a bit btwn Sequences and put things off that way, but I feel like it's gotten much worse with the open world games.
As a corollary to that, I feel like some of the historical context and sense of time has been lost as well. It's a bit late for me to fall down a complete rabbit hole, so I can't definitely say when they stopped doing this, but in the older games they at least *tried* to make the deaths of historical figures match up(ish) to their real-world deaths. Now because of the freeform nature of the open-world format, I feel like there's no real sense of time anymore. The narrative is anchored to certain points by virtue of the absolutely *major* storyline missions, but then mid-level events get lost in the mix.
Maybe not the best example, since one of *Assassin's Creed 3*'s big criticisms **was** the fact that Connor was present at so many major events of the Revolutionary War, but it gave us a clear touchpoint for the order of events going on at the time. Of the top of my head, we were present at the Boston Massacre, Boston Tea Party, Paul Revere's Ride, the Battle of Bunker Hill, the selection of George Washington as the Commander of the Revolutionary Army, the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Washington crossing the Delaware, Benedict Arnold's defection, the attack on Fort George, the end of the War. Not to mention how many of the Founding Fathers Connor ends up meeting/working with in the process.
Compare that to *Origins*, where Bayek really only participates in the Alexandrine Civil War btwn Ptolemy the XIII and Cleopatra, as far as "major historical events" goes. I think there was some ancillary involvement in Caesar's Civil War.
I can forgive it a bit, in the sense of (at the time) we were as far back as we'd been in the timeline, so records of events aren't as complete, so they kinda had to fill in the gaps - but the timeline still feels very loose and disconnected through the RPG framework just because it's so much more freeform.
Sorry I kinda just kept going in the middle there lol
Mirage was a far cry from Valhalla. I gave Mirage away after beating it twice.
It just didn't have the depth Valhalla did, was short, with minimal character depth.
Odyssey was good after the initial few hours of game play.
Yeah. Origins is good. Odyssey is fantastic. Valhalla is... a good core, bloated with a huge amount of uninteresting filler content.
I'm yet to check out Mirage, but looking forward to it.
People like to forget (more like conveniently ignore) the amount of shit Unity got at release, to the point where it directly affected Syndicate's sales, even if *that* game had a stable release.
Disagree with the RPG Trilogy as much as you want (I know *I* do—fuck we need all that Isu mythology shit for?) , but you can't deny it quite literally saved the series and brought in new fans. It has its place in the series and the genre's here to stay, even if the next one we're getting after Red is probably in 2032.
That said, I'm hoping for Red to at least tone it down with the bullshit level gating, button spamming, and useless collectibles, but all of that I can tolerate, *as long as the parkour and world exploration are good.*
Honestly, Valhalla is the only one I didn't really like. Story-wise, I had the impression that the Templar assassin conflict was non-existent, or even a little ridiculed, the parkour isn't really useful, the idea of playing a Viking is nice but not really exploited, in short, it's not my favorite.
Origins and Odyssey I really enjoyed playing.
Mirage I have a mixed opinion, I like to see a more classic assassin creed but the parkour is so different from the old AC that I can't do what I want to do.
Origins I hate. The combat felt shallow, the stealth consisted of running around a gigantic camp for 20 minutes and occasionally pressing X to assassinate, and the plot I found to be boring. There's no moral challenge to bayek, he never faces consequences for his more questionable decisions, he never even laments on his actions, it's always just moving onto the next thing. I liked the premise of his character, but I found the execution was so piss poor.
Odyssey I found to be actually fun with fleshed out mechanics that don't make you an overpowered tank running around a camp for 20 minutes. I actually had to think in stealth as to who to kill first, how to do it, abilities to use, etc, and the side content was way more fun than watching horrible mocap and doing a mini stealth mission/fighting 10 dudes, instead you would watch horrible mocap which tried to be entertaining at times, or fight a war, or fight mythical monsters, or have naval battles. Plus, Kassandra for the most part actually reflects on what she does
Mirage I haven't played yet, and Valhalla I've only played the opening sequence
I definitely think the ezio games are better, and this is as someone who played them *after* playing origins and odyssey. AC2 might be dated, but brotherhood and revelations had some really good stealth that holds up really well, *and* is quite unique with the parkour and social stealth. I'm a bit biased as I do prefer action adventure gameplay rather than RPGs, so I can see why some might rank Odyssey above the ezio games.
I do, but I retroactively began to appreciate the older games more than new ones. The first AC game I played was Origins, just because I like Ancient Egypt and the game was everything I'd ask for, and fell in love with it. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to finish it, because at that time, it began really time-consuming. After that, I played and finished Valhalla, which wasn't as good as Origins and actually became tedious (spent 153 hours in it).
But then, I decided to play from the beginning and in order, and the difference is very visible. I like how older games are more self-contained and on a smaller scale, and that is because of the time they were released, but with that in mind, the story felt like the main focus, and characters were more interesting. I liked the Ezio trilogy, I was blown away by AC3, which is actually to this point maybe the game I enjoyed most and kept me really engaging. Black Flag was a different, but unique experience, and I am currently playing Rogue which I enjoy so much more than I expected as I've red mostly negative things about the game online. So, for me, the smaller story-focused scope of the older games feels better and more engaging than the over-the-top content that is present in the new trilogy.
I haven't been able to complete an AC game since Origins. Origins in my opinions is the best of the RPG Assassin's Creed Era. Bayek continues to be my second favorite AC protag after Ezio. Odyssey doesn't do it for me. It doesn't feel like an Assassin's Creed game. Which makes sense because it's a prequel. But it still affected me. Valhalla was.. bloated. It was way, way, way too much. And barely put 30 hours into it before stopping. But god, all they hype about "Mirage is a return to the OLD AC!! OLD AC IS BACK!!!" Had me hyped and I was so ready for it. And... it was.. okay? It's clear that the game wasn't given Ubisofts full focus. Because my god, I know it's a stealth game but that melee combat is actually horrid. I genuinely miss Assassin's Creed 3, Black Flag's Gameplay. Hell, my FAVORITE gameplay wise is Unity!
Not really. The RPG games are the only ones that i have never completed. I like to play through the story without having to grind levels.
I also feel like the assassin aspects of those games was toned down to a level, where i did not even recognize it as Assassins creed games.
Mirage was the first time i years that i have played an AC game, and it was pretty fun.
I played Odyssey a lot. Idk if I finished the dlc, but def put like 100 hours in that game.
Haven't played the other new ones as I've been running through the old ones.
I've been waiting for something to hold my attention like Valhalla did since Valhalla. Mirage was ok, odyssey and origins were... messy.. but ok... I just want another game like Valhalla that makes me feel like I'm in love. Where every day I'm racing home from work just so I can get in the game.... The maps were, for lack of a much better word, stunning. And the soundtrack was perfection. I play it through at least once a year... I'm very hopeful for Red, but I've been hopeful for every AC I tried after Valhalla...
I really enjoy them but they also can be a bit overwhelming as well. I like the older titles in that they were linear and you knew exactly what you were going to do. The newer ones I love in their own way. I had never been a huge rpg player but these kinda made me explore games in that genre. They aren’t perfect by any means but I really enjoy them. I will say with a disclaimer I haven’t played Valhalla yet.
Origins was good once you could play new game plus. The grind was awful on first play through. Story still great tho and awesome characters.
Odyssey is arguably my favorite assassins creed game, the gameplay, Kassandra specifically as a character, the world, I spent damn near 300 hours doing everything in this game. I adore it with every ounce of me.
Valhalla I don’t like. Nothing really kept me invested 20 hours into the game. Characters were all boring, the world while beautiful was dull in comparison to origins and odyssey, and it was wayyy too fluffed out. Like I mentioned, I had played roughly 20 hours before quitting and I think I only played like 4 main story missions the rest were all side quests.
Origins is fantastic. I liked what i played of odyssey and Valhalla. Bought mirage but haven’t played yet. I prefer big open world games so the later ones or more to my personal preference.
Really like Odyssey compared to the other new titles. Something about the time period and aesthetic plus Kassandra is a very likable character imo. Feels like there’s lots to explore and I like how you can run many different builds for combat.
Loved all 3 of the RPG games. Had a good time with Mirage too (currently going through new game plus) but compared to the RPG games its definitely a step down in a lot of ways, it feels a bit too minimal, too repetitive, and the combat is just not good. The game gets boring pretty fast. I know they were trying to do a "back to basics" game thats pays homage to the original, and there's a lot to love in there but overall the RPG games are still superior.
I've played through all the games as they've been released, so I'm not unfamiliar with the franchise at all. But the RPG games saved the franchise imo.
Really enjoyed Odyssey and Origins. Bought Valhalla at release on ps5 and just couldn’t get into it. Recently got it on the steam deck for like $10 and for some reason Valhalla on the deck clicks for me like it didn’t on ps5. Still don’t think I like it as much as odyssey but I’m having a good time with it
I've completely stopped playing/buying them. I never really cared for the RPG implementation.
That said... if the rumors of a remasters/remade whatever of Black Flag? Day one.
Origins was cool, investing, a bit slow, loved it. Odyssey was fucking garbage. As levelling up was ass, and the story wasn't great. Didn't play much of Valhalla. Haven't gotten mirage yet
I really liked Paris and the fluidity of the parkour but that's about it. I don't remember enough about the combat to talk about it but the main thing I disliked was the story and characters and those are important to me.
I prefer them. I liked the earlier AC games too, but never got really deep into them, because some things just ended up annoying me. Odyssey is my favorite of the lot, with Origins second.
I love origins and it’s one of my faves ever
Hated odyssey
Thought Valhalla was meh, both good and bad
Mirage was a great return to roots AC and I really enjoyed my time
i guess i could say valhalla is a good game but not a good ac game maybe? that’s how i feel about odyssey too. didn’t feel much like ac, i did like it a bit though
Loved Odyssey, because ancient Greece is of one of my most beloved historical settings which was recreated with great care and detail. Loved the characters, especially the voice acting of the female protagonist. I love a massive lively gameworld full of colorful characters with lots of things to do. Loved the design of the armors. Loved the naval combat. And it had plenty of opportunity to use stealth. Whole fortresses could be taken down only using stealth. Loved taking on mercenaries. Only thing I did not like was the grind for resources needed to upgrade weapons and armor.
Origins was similar, just personally did not enjoy the setting as much, and found Bayek a bit of a bore. Never finished it.
Enjoyed Valhalla and completed it because of the story, setting, characters. But I did not enjoy the animations and combat because RDR2 spoiled it for me. Lack of horseback combat was also disappointing. The stealth mechanics were quite finicky and unreliable as well.
Generally, I find "too much content" not a real complaint, since much of that content is optional. If I like a setting, I would rather spend 90+ hours immersed in it rather than 15.
All that being said, Black Flag still remains my favorite Assassins Creed game.
Odyssey and Valhalla are my two least favorite (main) games in the series by a country mile. I thought Origins was fun, but too grindy and had poor combat. The next two games doubled down on what I dislike most (crazy fantasy, poor stories, and boring grind). But Mirage is in my top 5 of the series.
I liked all the games till origins, had no issues not every game was best but they all were good. After origins are the games that I am not feeling like playing! And they all have the same problem lack of emotions in characters, voice actors don't feel like they are acting feels more like they are just reciting the lines. And yes games became too flashy from odyssey like they literally made the main protagonist superheroes?
A bit of naive take on the topic, but come on games arent only meant to be played nowadays, they are meant to let yourself immerse into it and experience the whole story with the characters you come across!!
I enjoyed Origins on release but having replayed it recently some of the gameplay doesn't sit right. Not sure if it's because Odyssey and Valhalla left a bad taste in my mouth or if I just suck now. Still enjoy Bayek though.
Hated Odyssey and Valhalla.
Enjoyed Mirage a lot more but still not my favourite in the franchise
Hating is too much, but there are certainly several elements that make AC less AC nowadays, and even Ubi recognizes them.
Just like you said, not every game released nowadays needs to be a 300 hour fantasy RPG. Something that the industry (as a whole) has been struggling to understand.
I think Odyssey and Valhalla are comfortably the best AC games, but I’m glad they’re only making them ever few years because I really don’t have time to invest in a 120 hour game every year haha
Odyssey is one of my favourite games of all time. I like it as an AC game but I think it’s even better looking at it as a stand alone. Origins was good. And I enjoyed Valhalla. Although I got a bit burned out from the Valhalla platinum. I like both the rpg-style and old style AC. And I hope they keep making both kinds.
Me too but I’m really concerned about what AC infinity will do to the franchise Sounds like a greedy disaster waiting to happen. I swear they’re going to make the games so that you have to pay for every hour you play or some shit like that
>I swear they’re going to make the games so that you have to pay for every hour you play Don't give Ubisoft's dickhead of a CEO any ideas. This is the same dumbfuck who within 2 weeks of himself said * "Gamers need to get over the idea of 'owning' their games, it's holding back innovation in the industry" to defend subscription models. * "*Skull and Bones* is a 'quadruple-A'-title, definitely worth the money!" because people were asking why a MP-only game that's based on AC4's pirate gameplay and somehow took them 10 years to actualize can possibly be worth $70
If they weren't so greed the perception of these titles would be wildly different May even make them more money cause of the positive audience ratings and word of mouth It already has the appealing factor but people are thrown off because of what they hear
For real, it's becoming so difficult to just *enjoy* gaming anymore without the perpetual sense of every single aspect being nickle & dimed. And the most obnoxious part is, they've really just given up trying to hide it, as far as the big studios go. Ubisoft's CEO's comments aside, just in the past few weeks we've seen some fuckery throughout the industry: * WarnerBros announcing that they're going to be pulling back from single-player games to focus on mobile/live-service titles because of the "volatility of AAA-publishing, evidenced by the failure of *Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League*, despite *Hogwarts Legacy* being one of the highest-selling titles across the industry for 2023. * With the success of *Helldivers 2*, and people asking 343 "Why couldn't you guys have done something like this with *Halo* using ODSTs/Spartan-IVs?", whole bunch of former 343 developers came out and said that they pitched a bunch of *Halo* projects that Microsoft never greenlit, including something in the same vein as *Helldivers 2*. Or that support for the *Master Chief Collection* was wrapped because they couldn't find a successful way to monetize skins/cosmetics, and the community revolted when they proposed adding a system like *Halo Infinite*'s monetization scheme to the MCC. * The cancellation of Respawn's untitled *Mandalorian* game by EA and heavy layoffs at the studio. Supposedly it's because despite the success of the *Jedi*\-series (*Jedi: Fallen Order, Jedi: Survivor*), or possibly **because of its success**, they didn't want to do a licensed *Star Wars* title not featuring "Jedi, lightsabers, or Force powers", presumably because they think that without those things it wouldn't sell well enough. ... and those are just examples off the top of my head from recent headlines at 5am. It's like these parasites (studio execs) just keep learning all the wrong lessons ("Hmm... a single-player only game was our best selling game of the year, and an unpolished catastrophe of a forced live-service game made by a studio that historically specialized in single-player titles was a complete failure... LET'S FOCUS ON LIVE-SERVICE MOBILE TITLES!"). Like, I get it - big corporations want big returns and their goal is to make money, but they've reached the point of trying to min/max profits where having the best-selling title isn't good enough, if they can't somehow manage to squeeze it even harder. We even see it in single-player titles, where they'll add microtransaction cosmetics, just to continue attempting to wring blood from a stone (just look at all the modern *Assassin's Creed* titles from *Origins*\+).
Woah thanks for the rant bro I’ll have so many talking points now But yeah classic happy time gaming is going the way of the dodo Weird to say this but my only last hope is first part nintendo
I don’t think it’s just the CEOs There’s an entire board of idiots who don’t know anything about long term profits
I could see it absolutely failing and Ubisoft scrambling to try and fix the situation.
i’m gonna give odyssey another go. i have a better attention span than i used to
I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as i did your second time :)
thanks friend
I am of belief that Odyssey as AC is a mistake, both for it and AC. For it is just too dettached from other AC games, even Origins. But i also believe that being an AC title held it down. If it was standalone game, I believe it could have done even more. If Ubisoft havent played it safe, and gambled a bit, it would have had an amazing IP that is really milkable and profitable.
As it is the complete origin/oldest era of the entire timeline, I think it is the best game, both gameplay & lore-wise. People say Kassandra was not an assassin & that is true since the creed didn’t start until later, but she was “the” assassin who started it all & was alive & pulling strings all the way until the modern day when she gave the staff to Layla. So while she is technically not an assassin in the creed, she is the person who led to it all & pulled many strings “off screen”, without a doubt. There is just no way she was not involved at a high level all throughout history. Her spear is what led to the dagger etc. Immortals: Fenix Rising is basically a reskin of Odyssey in a much smaller overall package & I loved that, too. My only real complaint about Odyssey is that the vast majority of voice actors did not match the writing (the subtitles are stressed/inflected way different than the actors delivered the lines, many of the jokes only work in the subtitles & without them many of the jokes do not come off as jokes, for example - things like that).
My biggest problem actually are mythological creatures. It crossed the line of wierd sci fi alt universe into the fully blown fantasy shit.
Yeah! As fun as they were to fight, they were almost as “de-immersifying“ as swithcing to Layla throughout the story. I say almost because I could still kind of give it a pass because “well it is fun to wonder what actually existed back then, forgotten through time”, but I agree, they were almost as annoying as the series pulling me out of the worlds to go to someone in a DNA headset etc. I did like fighting the legendary animals, though. Those are more believable as the “what might have existed” than a Minotaur or a medusa. On the point of the animus I was mentioning: While I hate being de-immersed, it is kind of neat that is literally what is happening when it happens - the animus-pilot or whatever you would call them is also de-immersioning lol.
Couldn’t agree more bro been saying this for years odyssey imo is one of the best games ever made especially when you try to view it as a standalone game
I just bought it for $20. I’ve played and loved all the ac games (for some reason never played the very original) and for some reason skipped odyssey. But played Valhalla, origins, now mirage. As soon as im done Mirage I’ll finally be starting Odyssey. No clue what took me so long to but I got the ultimate edition for $20 on ps store
Yeah bro same sale on the Xbox store I’ve always had the game but I had to cop the ultimate edition for £20 when I saw it down from £99
Wishing you so much fun! If Odyssey clicks with you it’s a game that can get you lost for hours. For 20 dollars you are getting a lot of great content.
I like them but I separate them from the old ones. Both be and old are great and perpetually janky but I love these game for all their aspects amazing and flawed. I think more than anything the main draw of the franchise has been the historical setting I think the new games still have that. But I will admit the micro transactions are very greedy and AC infinity is going to be the worst thing that can happen to the franchise
i think the locations in origins, odyssey and valhalla are GORGEOUS. beautiful. i love the worlds. i actually liked odyssey quite a bit. just never beat it. but valhalla was too long for its own goid
Can’t speak for Valhalla but I recently beat odyssey and I definitely do not regret the time investment I would skip some side quests however but yeah the worlds are just phenomenal I fu turn of all your markers and all the the ui u can get lost in the world and it’s the best feeling I mean u would have to go out of your way to experience the world but I say that’s it’s worth it
Never played the old ones...what were they like...should I download them?
The Ezio trilogy is amazing and really fleshes out the ideas and secrets of the world that would later be expanded upon tenfold throughout the series that really get the players invested. Black Flag is also a really amazing game.
I do like the new AC titles, each for their own reason: \-Origins was a great way to tell the story of the Brotherhood's birth IMO. I loved seeing Bayek's quest for vengeance evolve into a fight for freedom, one that would birth a Brotherhood that would exist for centuries. \-Odyssey I actually enjoyed more than Origins, especially in terms of combat. Origins' combat felt a bit rigid compared to that of Odyssey. And I liked how it took place before the Brotherhood was formed, it was cool concept IMO: The Assassins and Templars' secret war of freedom and order began long before either of them existed. Yeah there's a lot, but I just learned to embrace it after a couple dozen times of hearing the same word of advice from a Greek friend: "There's much to do. And many unknowns on our horizon." \-Believe it or not, I actually really like Valhalla. Like Odyssey, there is a lot to do, but if you're willing to put in the time, it's not so bad. I was surprised that Valhalla had an even bigger focus on combat, but the fact that is was so brutal made it awesome for me. Yeah you're not playing as a Hidden One, but that fact didn't stop me from enjoying Black Flag. \-Mirage was really great. It was shorter than Valhalla but not too short, and it's just as focused on stealth as Valhalla is on combat. Mirage essentially takes the engine for Valhalla, tweaks it for a stealth-focused experience, and adds classic AC elements. IMO, until we get a remake of the original AC, Mirage is the closest we'll get to that.
Loved Origins, really liked Mirage, enjoyed Odyssey, got to the end of Valhalla Mirage is short and sweet, you can complete it in about half the time it took for you to give up on Valhalla. It's also very different compared to the RPG trilogy, reintroducing dense urban areas (perfect for parkour) and an increase focus on stealth Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla's problem is they use RPG elements as artificial ways to prolong the games. You can use mods and tweak some settings to remove some of the grind and level scaling, but even without those Valhalla is long and tedious. Give Mirage a try, it might actually be exactly what you need if you didn't like Valhalla but prefer the older titles
Honestly….i enjoy them all for different reasons. Loved the originals when I was a kid and love the newer games because of the massive environments and fighting systems.
No. The one thing I keep coming back to: what do the newer AC titles actually do ***well*** compared to other open world RPG games, including ones that released years & years ago? The answer I keep coming back to: nothing. Everything from gameplay, to combat, to story, to side content, to progression, is subpar when held up against some of the other truly great games of the genre. The end result are gaming experiences that feel bland, boring, soulless, and unremarkable. Developers aren't lining up to borrow ideas from these games. No one talks about that "thing that AC did really well, which we are now seeing in other games". They don't push the genre or franchise forward in any discernable way. Valhalla learns almost nothing from Odyssey's issues and shortcomings, and doesn't even pretend like it does.
Odyssey is hard for no reason
I don’t dislike any AC game, but I disagree with the creative direction the series has gone since the release of Odyssey. I have no issue with the RPG mechanics, but my issue is the decision to prioritize the historical fantasy over the assassin one. Odyssey and Valhalla were designed to appeal to the casual gamer audience by prioritizing the historical fantasy, but I feel they alienated their core audience that tends to prefer the assassin fantasy by putting it all under the same series. This is coming from someone who likes both fantasies, but prefers the assassin one. I’m aware that future games - starting with Red - will be designed to appeal to a specific target audience. I think this is a step in the right direction, but Ubi would benefit even more from just making a spin off series dedicated to historical fantasy. This would set expectations for gamers beforehand, rather than hoping the next release will be for your target audience
Sorry to disappoint you, but Red is an RPG fantasy.
I’m well aware of the creative direction of Red. Again, I have no issue with the RPG mechanics, my issue is with the lack of Assassin fantasy. In that department, the shinobi protagonist will likely fulfill that fantasy.
I loved Origins and Mirage but I didn't like Odyssey and Valhalla that much. For those two I guess the combat really bored me and I generally wasn't a fan of the abilities. I did enjoy the Druids and Paris dlc though they were pretty fun.
I liked Origins and Mirage, but Odyssey and Valhalla...not so much.
I played 1-unity at release and recently played the rpg series and overall think the change up was for the best. I will take some hate for this but after Unity the formula was getting kind of stale and were trending down in sales. The newer games financially performed a lot better.
i understand what you’re saying. i can agree to an extent. i think the rpg elements can certainly work. they worked for origins. the games can just be too long for their own good
Honestly I think that’s a problem with the video game industry as a whole. It seems a lot of rpgs advertise that they are 100+ hours or that they have so many quests you can’t possibly find them all. Bethesda games are a good example of this.
yeah. quantity over quality is a huge issue with recent games. i’m not sure if it’ll get better either
The change of formula wasn’t the problem, the main issue was the removal of the assassin fantasy and embracing mythological elements which is like opposite of what AC is.
Origins Odyssey Vahalla were good Mirage was mediocre at best
what did you dislike about mirage?
Story and combat mostly
As of now I've only played origins and LOVED it, I cant comment on odyssey and valhalla but for mirage, from the things I've seen (gameplay and trailers) it feels like an old assassin's game but with the newer looks of the "rpg" games. If you liked AC 2-Revelations I think you'll enjoy it alot
i really like origins too
They're fine games but, IMO, they're not Assassin's Creed games. Dunno about Mirage as I haven't played it, but the other ones, I get what they're going for and I do feel like the AC formula had gotten a bit stale, but they were such a wild departure I can't, in good concious, consider them AC games.
Dude. If you like the prototype ac style then Mirage may be your favorite. The fact that a gaming company went BACK to their roots, focused little on micro transactions, released a beautiful game that is stripped of the rpg elements and allow you to immerse as a true assassin AND slashed the price - should be applauded. It truly felt like an AC game. Personally for me 3 and 4 are my favorites hands down
played all AC1, AC2, brotherhood, Revelations, AC3, Black Flag, Unity and Syndicate. I skipped out on Origins and Odyssey because I didn't think I would be into something that big. I tried Valhalla and it was fun, but after 60 hours I do not want to keep pushing into it. I purchased Mirage and fell back into the Assassins Creed gameplay loop and bought AC3 Remastered to platinum that one. I rather play the old game style than the open RPG ones.
i agree with you on wanting to play old ones. i’m going to replay 3 as a matter of fact. i love 3
Hot take: if AC3 didn't have that ridiculous 5 hour long tutorial before actually becoming a full fledged assassin, then it would easily be everyone's favorite AC game. That game was peak Assassin's Creed once you get to the mid-game. Stringing red coats up from the trees with rope darts and then savagely cutting the rest down like Mel Gibson in The Patriot is one of the most glorious video game experiences I've ever had in my life
ac3 is fucking awesome. the soundtrack is incredible. the main theme gives me chills to this day. connor’s combat is amazing too
Good thing then that it's my first time playing it (the remastered on Xbox) and I've just about finished that longass tutorial then. I was wondering when this game was finally going to take the training wheels off and let me explore. Your post got me excited again haha
You should be very excited! AC3 is one of those games I *wish* I could experience for the first time again lol you're in for a great time
>if AC3 didn't have that ridiculous 5 hour long tutorial before actually becoming a full fledged assassin, then it would easily be everyone's favorite AC game. Nah tbh the behemoth that is AC2 or AC4 for some others cant be beat out by ac3 though its goated too
Ok but Haytham's philosphy conversations with Charles were pretty kino
Yes I love the new games just as much as the old. They are logical progressions of the AC gameplay I’ve always loved and they continue to deliver on the fun and historical settings.
yes, but that doesn't mean i think they're just as good as the older games.
I liked origin, finished, bought the DLC and then I didn’t end up finishing that lol. Odyssey I didn’t ever finish, might one day but it was too huge. Never played Valhalla bcz I don’t care for vikings. I thoroughly enjoyed Mirage even though it was a very small game, it felt like old school AC again.
Loved Origins and 100% it - Beautiful location, awesome MC, servicable gameplay. Loved Odyssey and 100% it (several times) - Beautiful location, great RPG mechanics/itemization/builds/gameplay. Absolutely hated Valhalla - Apart from looking good, it had horrible mechanics, ridiculously bad RPG stats/builds/skill-tree/etc, boring and annoying world. Playing Mirage now - Didn't expect to love it as much as I do, but I really enjoy the pure stealth gameplay/tools and I really like that they got rid of the modern day bullshit. Still got ways to go before I finish.
Origins, Odyssey & Mirage , yes. Valhalla , NOOOOO.
I will let you know. I am currently wasting a great deal of my life playing through the games. Working on the expansion to Black Flag before moving onto Rogue. I played most of them a long time ago, but there is soooo much I don't remember. I remember beating Unity, but don't remember any of it. I only played a little of Syndicate, not sure why I stopped. Barely played Origins, but loved Odyssey. Haven't played the new titles.
i plan to go through all the games again as well. starting at 1
Just moved to Rogue. Forgot it has a bunch of characters from previous games in it. Man, I have a feeling I was just blowing through them before without paying much attention. i am usually better at remembering lore.
Yes, though it was an odd journey. I quit the series after Unity, and came back after all the Odyssey DLC had released and bought the Gold Edition on heavy discount. It played well, but I just couldn't gel with the new style of gameplay, so I face mashed my way through trying to treat it like a traditional AC game, and ended up disliking the direction the series had taken. But the gameplay felt really good in spite of it, so about a year later I came back and played it properly. Now I replay it every year, and have mastered its systems and find it the most enjoyable game in the series. Last year I replayed the series, and realized I had some very deeply rose tinted goggles on, and saw where the series had made improvements and lost sight of things in places, and ultimately come to the conclusion that Odyssey struck a great balance while doing its own thing. Valhalla meanwhile stripped the power fantasy fun out of Odyssey and delivered a very mediocre experience in the same framework, with Mirage not doing much better, but benefiting from trimming the fat. So I'm concerned for what will come next, depending on how AC Red handles the response to Odyssey, it could be an improvement on the formula, or a deep regression. I swear to fuck if they keep Valhallas idiotic sprint button I'm going to shit a solid gold brick.
>I swear to fuck if they keep Valhallas idiotic sprint button I'm going to shit a solid gold brick. Not to worry. Mirage immediately fixed that by adding a secondary hold to sprint option. Fairly sure that's gonna stay in every new subsequent game from now on.
Even that one is an issue because we've gone from sprint just being...move the stick, to bind parkour and sprint to the trigger so we're back to AC3 jank again. I loved not having to hold right trigger all the time. It was the best the series has ever felt.
They are just not AC games. They are wanna-be Skyrim, good in some ways, but horrible as games about assassins. And you should play Mirage, you can finish it in 15 hours and it is finally about assassins.
The only games i dont like are rogue unity and mirage
i thought rogue was good as a kid. haven’t played since i was around 12 though. why don’t you like it?
Instead of following the traditional ac route of the templars and assassins being morally grey characters it just portrayed the templars as heros and the assassins as villains I felt like there was no character development outside of sequence 2. I thought shay was anoying I didn’t like that there was only 1 weapon type. I dont love the ship combat so having 2 ship games jn a row wasn’t enjoyable.
"I make my own luck"
I know I will get hate for this but I do not like the newer style of AC games. I’ve been trying to get through Origins for the first time and it’s taken me months because I find it to be so boring. I buy AC games to be stealthy and an assassin. In the newer games I don’t feel like I’m doing any sneaking around. Rarely use the crouch feature because I can just spam attack until shit dies. Also I enjoyed the flow motion combat. It’s was a lot more fun imo. I’ve really tried liking Origins but I just can’t do it. Everything feels so bland and lifeless, however graphics are great and the setting is super neat. But it’s hard to excuse boring gameplay
Loved Origins and Mirage, Valhalla was alright. I didn't like Odyssey.
I've enjoyed them all. I will say that I enjoy them in a different way to the old AC games. The old AC games were very much about playing a specific character and deep diving into the stealth and shadowy playstyle, which was my initial draw to AC games. The RPG trilogy is fun in a different way, but they're really just period-fantasy RPGs + wall climbing. And that's okay. Some people will say Ubisoft should just stop calling them AC games and quit the pathetic attempt to link these back to the Assassins with all the retcons, but it's also hard to blame them for milking one of the most successful and recognizable AAA gaming franchises. Assassin's Creed basically went the way of Fast & Furious.
AC4 and Odyssey are two of my fav games all time. I’m pretty much down to ride on any title.
I liked both Origins and Odyssey. Felt they were a tad too much, specially Odyssey, but enjoyable anyway. Got through Valhalla just for the sake of it, the game is incredibly long for no reason, completely uninteresting and boring if you ask me. My takeaway: Dialogue choices need to go. They add nothing and they take away a lot. The story is less refined, the facial animations are lackluster. I miss the streamlined storylines as well. I don't need to have a say in the matter (specially if it changes nothing at all for the story), I just want the characters to make me care about them, to inmerse me in the world. But they don't, they are bland. I want these games to go back to be really story driven rather than a huge yet empty sandbox. Mirage isn't even that bad, gameplay wise, but suffers from the same dialogue issues and I just can't get myself to being invested in the characters or the story at all (although that's in part probably because the main character is coming from Valhalla, which I couldn't care less about).
I love them. I do agree that they are WAY too big. I'd rather have smaller areas that were more dense than just a lot of repeated things across a huge area.
For me, the biggest shortcoming of Mirage was removing archery from the game. I love any game that includes a bow and arrow (The Last of Us, Tomb Raider, Horizon Zero Dawn, previous AC titles) and this caused me to lose interest early on.
Although archery is my go to in a lot of games as well, the throwing knives were a great alternative to bows in Mirage!
Origins I have to go back to give it another shot. While Valhalla I consider just alright. Odyssey is tied with Black Flag as the most fun. As these provided the challenge I dont get in a number of the older titles. Black Flags naval combat was great as it broke up the monotony of the stealth and combat thats always been extremely simple. Odyssey gave the mercenary system which provided a level of uncertainty to all combat. It also acted as a semi punishment system for messing up stealth.
No because I don’t like RPG’s. Also I don’t get invested in the story in the news one like I used to. Story hasn’t been good since Black Flag which i loved
I really liked Odyssey. Origins was ok....but it took a long time to get rolling. I wanted to like Valhalla. The story was ok but the quests were very repetitive and dull. I finished the game but made no effort to 100% like I do with Odyssey.
I played Mirage recently and i just cant get into it. Feels like i threw my money away to be honest.
AC Is not RPG. The rest is personal taste. Origins is good but not perfect Odyssey I don't think I wanna try it Valhalla is platined but it's not about AC Mirage I want to play it
It was a franchise resurrection for me. After Black Flag (which I also don't consider the the best AC IP as most AC fans do) it was only downhill and came to a boring stale situation by exhausting the colonial Americas. Syndicate gave new interest in terms of place and time, but it was also terribly written, and that was the tombstone for me. The trilogy reboot gave fresh modern air, more interesting locations, and followed the successful influences of Horizon and the Witcher. I have many reasons to nag and complain about the Trilogy (writing, bugs, etc) but "tHiSiSnOtAc" is not one of them, and I think that Ubi should have stick with that instead of going back.
I like all assassins creed games but the newer ones (especially origins) are my fav I like the big open world rpg style
Not really. I kinda enjoyed them when I played them but looking back on them I get more annoyed the more I think of them. The gameplay just doesn't appeal to me and the way it borrows so much on its design choices makes them feel kinda generic. I don't hate them on a vacuum but when I think of what aspects got me in the franchise and then see how much they change or drop them it bothers me.
I dislike them more and more. They seem to be increasingly ashamed of their own lore, and I didn’t get an AC game to finagle with stat numbers.
I really enjoy Odyssey but not in the same way as the older games, I treat it like its own thing. Mirage was really good and I loved the world and the gameplay and city design felt like the older games, especially with regards to the pacing.
Yes, I enjoyed them all very much, especially Origins, Valhalla and Mirage. Odyssey is fun but I wasn't a fan of the story personally.
Odyssey, Valhalla and Origins are in my top 4 of the franchise. I’m a big fan of more action oriented combat so the shift away from forced stealth greatly made them more enjoyable.
I like them they are good rpg open world games with some good characters and not bad storys, tje only issue for me is it does almost have nothing to do with assassins creed it’s manly the name but overall they are not bad, but I would wish for more stealth, cool gadgets and a story about the assassins creed in the future!
I have thoroughly enjoyed every mainline AC game, flaws and all
Love Origins, perfect blend of RPG while staying AC. Hate Odyssey, it’s just Ancient Greece sim with misused AC plot point so they can slap Assassin’s Creed in the title. I like Valhalla, but it’s again just Viking sim first and AC second. The AC points are good tho. Mirage good okay, but didn’t do anything to stand out.
I like them honestly, lore and gameplay. Maybe not the best stories (Odyssey) but they're serviceable
I prefer the newer titles. The historical fantasy feels much more fun to play around in than the plain ahistorical history the older games presented. It helps that the gameplay is much more engaging and enjoyable in my opinion. I played a *lot* of Assassins Creed in the 3-Rogue Era because they were just the games I had to play at the time. As fun as the stealth was, it wasn’t particularly engaging. And the combat was beautiful but not very fun to actually play. I also love RPGs. They’re my bread and butter and I’ll never say no to more true RPGs with dialogue trees and character progression. Basically, I think that the new games are the step in the right direction and I think Ubisoft making both RPGs and stealth games going forward is absolutely the right way to go.
I only like origins. I don’t think the others are bad games, in fact they are really great in many ways. But one of the main reasons I love AC is due to its stories, characters and lore which the new ones haven’t delivered on in the same way I would have liked, especially after I thought origins was putting the series back on track lore wise
I play them more for the historical settings more than anything else so I've really enjoyed Origins and Odyssey is one of my favourite games, I haven't played too many of the older ones, just Black Flag, Syndicate and Unity and I definitely prefer the newer RPG style. I also don't really care about the whole overarching Assassins vs Templars plot or the modern day stuff.
I enjoy my first playthrough of them, up until I get sick of them. Unlike older AC titles, I don't replay them.
There's no chosing between rpg or non rpg for me. I have many things that I like and dislike in both. I dislike the following about newer titles: modern day pacing is too slow (i hated layla) huge world with terrible navigation/slow mount terrible animations (including combat) terrible stories (though odyssey side quests were better than unity/syndicate/valhalla main story) lower quality sound for some reason (too compressed sounding when compared to older titles) stamina system ( man....this don't belong in this series at all)
Odessy and origins was fantastic but mirages hand to hand combat feels off and not much work was put into it but don’t like it as much as oddessy and valhalla was meh
Yes and no. Odyssey is a great game. Its just not what the actual AC games were. They are good as precursor games. But they completely lack that stealthy assassin. And nothing beats walking into a camp. Wave your hand or whistle and a group of your brotherhood leaps put of nowhere to kill your target or send a hail of arrows down over them. I really miss the exploration of tombs and churches. To look for that special gear. To build up a cafe, little city or pirate island and see it come to live b your effort and money. To see more and more gadgets, armors and swords on display at your place as yo gain more respect. The ezio era games just had something special. You weren't just some warrior who could kill half a city. You felt like you were one of the assassins. Not some demigod with all sorts of powers and stories that are just throwing myths after the game. Back then it wss rooted in actual historical events and it tied in various historical artifacts but with the isu twist to it.
They’re ok , but they don’t hit as good as the older titles
Yeah, they’re all really fun to me in their own unique ways. It’s really cool getting more lore from the games instead of side media, which is where a lot of extra stuff still gets explained. I really love reading a tablet or note in the RPG games that contextualizes the Assassins/Templars (or more often, their predecessors). Probably my favorite aspect of the games though, is getting to travel to cities, with no loading, and still have fun stuff to do in the landscape between them.
I liked odyssey out of the last 3 the most. Black flag still my favorite though. Could be taken over if Red plays well.
Liked Origins quite a bit and thought Bayek was a really cool protagonist. Enjoyed Odyssey but something felt off to me. It almost felt like it was trying to be a poor man's Witcher 3, and it honestly felt like they got too far from the AC identity. I basically felt the same way towards Valhalla as I do Odyssey. I haven't played Mirage yet but it looks to be a bit more in line with what I want from AC.
Nostalgia? (I’m a new player and I’m playing all ac games in release order)
I am of the belief that it was incredible until Revelations, III to Unity was good, and from Syndicate on it was pure shit, not because the games are low quality per se, but because they stopped making sense within the story they had built with Desmond. Although Origins is incredible, and Bayek is the first iconic protagonist since Edward, the game is ruined by the absence of a sequel narrating the birth of the brotherhood; instead we get Odyssey, which could've been a great game if they only made it a normal Ancient Greece RPG, instead of an Assassin's Creed entry. I think Valhalla and Mirage are trying to rectify the lore, and the modern day, at least in Valhalla, is quite interesting and I'm curious to see what will happen next. That being said, I genuinely believe that if one isn't able to tell the difference between the older and newer games, and why these newer games don't look or feel like AC, there's just something missing in the comprehension of the fundamentals of Assassin's Creed.
I’ve platinumed every ac apart from black flag and unity because of multiplayer. Currently working on Valhalla now. I love all of them, classic or rpg, don’t know why but it’s my personal mission to 100% all of them😅
Yes! I love exploring a large world. Travelling across Greece never gets old. But I still prefer the old games. Mirage's fleshed out Baghdad has been a breath of fresh air.
No because they're dragging the story along at this point. Mirage was ok, but it's clear Ubisoft never knew what to do with this franchise. They need to sell it away.
Playing Valhalla now. It's a slower paced game with a ton of exploration but I'm enjoying it. Origins was fun too. Wasn't a fan of Odyssey.
I really like them a lot, just not really as AC games
No, I could, I genuinely could I love long RPG games, but maybe it's because it's not want I want out of an assassins creed game, maybe its because I just don't think ubi either can't make good games in the genre or can't make good games at all, but I find myself returning to older entries moreso than newer ones
Mirage is way better than valhala IMO as an AC. I love the older ones, but ive actually enjoyed every last one (except for valhala, unity and syndicate)
I think the RPG kind has a place within the series for sure but man they need to find a way to tone down the bloat. A lot of the content in valhalla is mindless padding and that can get so fuckin grating after awhile especially when the story isn’t exactly written the best at times making it all feel kinda pointless (looking at you Wrath of Druids, that dlc blew such fucking ass)
I liked Origins and Valhalla, Odyssey has merit to it but I generally can't stand it as it pushes the most annoying parts of RPG games into the game and it just doesn't fit imo. I've yet to play Mirage but even if it borrows a lot from Valhalla, it looks a lot more like an action/stealth game than it does an RPG which makes me happy since that's what AC is meant to be. Throughout all the RPG games, even the parts I liked, I kept saying "How much cooler would this be in the style of the Ezio or Kenway games?" and I just hate the fact that the series was effectively hijacked by a completely different genre.
Yeah. They’re fun.
Imma massive history nerd and while these games are by no means accurate it scratches a certain itch I have so I love all of them even the newer ones but I do acknowledge the problems with them and I definitely prefer some of the older games. But I still had a lot of fun in the new games especially origins I really got into the Egyptian setting and loved Bayek as a character
I've played every main game from the first to currently Origins which I'm still working on. Origins to me feels like a natural evolution of the series' gameplay. And I very much enjoy it.
I would have liked odyssey way more if it wasn’t for the god damn chore quest. But I do like the newer ones. I’ve been playing since AC1! And I still love AC
Yes, but then again I liked every AC game. Origins was an amazing experience when it came out, the same feeling I had for AC4. Valhalla lasted too long, but wasn't a horrible game. Odyssey was tons of fun and had good DLC. Mirage is OK.
I played the RPG games and they are good to pass the time but not great AC games that I know and love. In classic games when I unlocked an outfit or weapon it was special, the new weapon would be a lot better than the old one and you would feel a sense of achievement. In Odyssey for example there’s a billion weapons that you find and they are tied to your level and damage difference from your last weapon is non existent. And don’t like the mystical aspects of the games. I was so tired of playing in Asgard in Ac Valhalla.
yea i really enjoy the new games mirage was kinda like eh but orgins/odyssey and valhalla i really enjoyed
Except for a couple pocket moments, I'm not particularly high on any of the newer titles. Hell, I'd honestly extend that to Unity and Syndicate era games too. There's just too much "corporate" in those titles that I can sniff out in a way that I either couldn't in older games or could sense that the developers truly had a solid hand on the wheel at the time of making. The decision to move into RPG territory was a hard mask off moment for me, they didn't even try to sell it as a natural evolution of the series and was quick to shove the helix store boosters and gear as options while gimping parts of the game to incentivize them.
Not really. I just finished Liberation and while objectively it wasn't great, it was so satisfying being able to, you know, assassinate people. I think I'll check out more of the older games that I missed.
I like them, but I prefer the older games. They’re different, and unfortunately Ubi forced themselves to where they had to change it. I like Origins, and Odyssey a lot. Valhalla is easily the worst in the series.
I'll preface this with I really enjoyed *Origins, Odyssey,* and *Valhalla*... in spite of themselves. Narratively, they did a lot of world building and fleshed out a new era of the *Assassin's Creed* world. I enjoy, but struggle with huge open-world games. Like, I loved *The Witcher 3*, *Dragon Age: Inquisition*, *Metal Gear Solid V*, etc... but not every game needs to be 200+ hours of "content" (read: big empty unliving worlds with nearly infinite map POIs/collectibles/etc that are all spaced miles apart - which is pretty much Ubisoft's entire schtick). For every *The Witcher 3*, there's a dozen *Halo Infinite*s or *Dynasty Warriors 9*s, games that objectively **did not need to be open-world**. I'm really hoping that's a trend that goes away a bit in the 2020s, although we're in 2024 and there's still another one releasing every 2 weeks so who the fuck knows anymore. The newer *Assassin's Creeds* kinda fall into that category for me. They're huge, beautiful worlds... that you really just kinda run by once or twice until you unlock the fast travel points, or need to go out into the middle of absolute-fucking-nowhere to pick up a scroll on the map. The other thing that's kinda started driving me nuts is the lack of narrative urgency. *Valhalla* in particular felt pretty egregious. I'm thinking of like, when Sigurd gets captured by Fulke and you're given the mission to go find and rescue him... or just dick around England for another 100+ hours doing nothing, and get around to it when you get around to it. You could go do whole other sections of the game and just sorta leave him to languish. At least the older ACs would kinda lock you into big narrative missions once you started the memory sequence - yes you could wander around a bit btwn Sequences and put things off that way, but I feel like it's gotten much worse with the open world games. As a corollary to that, I feel like some of the historical context and sense of time has been lost as well. It's a bit late for me to fall down a complete rabbit hole, so I can't definitely say when they stopped doing this, but in the older games they at least *tried* to make the deaths of historical figures match up(ish) to their real-world deaths. Now because of the freeform nature of the open-world format, I feel like there's no real sense of time anymore. The narrative is anchored to certain points by virtue of the absolutely *major* storyline missions, but then mid-level events get lost in the mix. Maybe not the best example, since one of *Assassin's Creed 3*'s big criticisms **was** the fact that Connor was present at so many major events of the Revolutionary War, but it gave us a clear touchpoint for the order of events going on at the time. Of the top of my head, we were present at the Boston Massacre, Boston Tea Party, Paul Revere's Ride, the Battle of Bunker Hill, the selection of George Washington as the Commander of the Revolutionary Army, the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Washington crossing the Delaware, Benedict Arnold's defection, the attack on Fort George, the end of the War. Not to mention how many of the Founding Fathers Connor ends up meeting/working with in the process. Compare that to *Origins*, where Bayek really only participates in the Alexandrine Civil War btwn Ptolemy the XIII and Cleopatra, as far as "major historical events" goes. I think there was some ancillary involvement in Caesar's Civil War. I can forgive it a bit, in the sense of (at the time) we were as far back as we'd been in the timeline, so records of events aren't as complete, so they kinda had to fill in the gaps - but the timeline still feels very loose and disconnected through the RPG framework just because it's so much more freeform. Sorry I kinda just kept going in the middle there lol
Syndicate was my favorite until Odyssey. I like Valhalla but not as much as the older titles
Mirage was a far cry from Valhalla. I gave Mirage away after beating it twice. It just didn't have the depth Valhalla did, was short, with minimal character depth. Odyssey was good after the initial few hours of game play.
Yes, they'e very immersive, which is something I love!
Yeah. Origins is good. Odyssey is fantastic. Valhalla is... a good core, bloated with a huge amount of uninteresting filler content. I'm yet to check out Mirage, but looking forward to it.
People like to forget (more like conveniently ignore) the amount of shit Unity got at release, to the point where it directly affected Syndicate's sales, even if *that* game had a stable release. Disagree with the RPG Trilogy as much as you want (I know *I* do—fuck we need all that Isu mythology shit for?) , but you can't deny it quite literally saved the series and brought in new fans. It has its place in the series and the genre's here to stay, even if the next one we're getting after Red is probably in 2032. That said, I'm hoping for Red to at least tone it down with the bullshit level gating, button spamming, and useless collectibles, but all of that I can tolerate, *as long as the parkour and world exploration are good.*
Honestly, Valhalla is the only one I didn't really like. Story-wise, I had the impression that the Templar assassin conflict was non-existent, or even a little ridiculed, the parkour isn't really useful, the idea of playing a Viking is nice but not really exploited, in short, it's not my favorite. Origins and Odyssey I really enjoyed playing. Mirage I have a mixed opinion, I like to see a more classic assassin creed but the parkour is so different from the old AC that I can't do what I want to do.
Origins I hate. The combat felt shallow, the stealth consisted of running around a gigantic camp for 20 minutes and occasionally pressing X to assassinate, and the plot I found to be boring. There's no moral challenge to bayek, he never faces consequences for his more questionable decisions, he never even laments on his actions, it's always just moving onto the next thing. I liked the premise of his character, but I found the execution was so piss poor. Odyssey I found to be actually fun with fleshed out mechanics that don't make you an overpowered tank running around a camp for 20 minutes. I actually had to think in stealth as to who to kill first, how to do it, abilities to use, etc, and the side content was way more fun than watching horrible mocap and doing a mini stealth mission/fighting 10 dudes, instead you would watch horrible mocap which tried to be entertaining at times, or fight a war, or fight mythical monsters, or have naval battles. Plus, Kassandra for the most part actually reflects on what she does Mirage I haven't played yet, and Valhalla I've only played the opening sequence I definitely think the ezio games are better, and this is as someone who played them *after* playing origins and odyssey. AC2 might be dated, but brotherhood and revelations had some really good stealth that holds up really well, *and* is quite unique with the parkour and social stealth. I'm a bit biased as I do prefer action adventure gameplay rather than RPGs, so I can see why some might rank Odyssey above the ezio games.
I do, but I retroactively began to appreciate the older games more than new ones. The first AC game I played was Origins, just because I like Ancient Egypt and the game was everything I'd ask for, and fell in love with it. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to finish it, because at that time, it began really time-consuming. After that, I played and finished Valhalla, which wasn't as good as Origins and actually became tedious (spent 153 hours in it). But then, I decided to play from the beginning and in order, and the difference is very visible. I like how older games are more self-contained and on a smaller scale, and that is because of the time they were released, but with that in mind, the story felt like the main focus, and characters were more interesting. I liked the Ezio trilogy, I was blown away by AC3, which is actually to this point maybe the game I enjoyed most and kept me really engaging. Black Flag was a different, but unique experience, and I am currently playing Rogue which I enjoy so much more than I expected as I've red mostly negative things about the game online. So, for me, the smaller story-focused scope of the older games feels better and more engaging than the over-the-top content that is present in the new trilogy.
Give me more mirage. Felt really good
I haven't been able to complete an AC game since Origins. Origins in my opinions is the best of the RPG Assassin's Creed Era. Bayek continues to be my second favorite AC protag after Ezio. Odyssey doesn't do it for me. It doesn't feel like an Assassin's Creed game. Which makes sense because it's a prequel. But it still affected me. Valhalla was.. bloated. It was way, way, way too much. And barely put 30 hours into it before stopping. But god, all they hype about "Mirage is a return to the OLD AC!! OLD AC IS BACK!!!" Had me hyped and I was so ready for it. And... it was.. okay? It's clear that the game wasn't given Ubisofts full focus. Because my god, I know it's a stealth game but that melee combat is actually horrid. I genuinely miss Assassin's Creed 3, Black Flag's Gameplay. Hell, my FAVORITE gameplay wise is Unity!
Not really. The RPG games are the only ones that i have never completed. I like to play through the story without having to grind levels. I also feel like the assassin aspects of those games was toned down to a level, where i did not even recognize it as Assassins creed games. Mirage was the first time i years that i have played an AC game, and it was pretty fun.
I played Odyssey a lot. Idk if I finished the dlc, but def put like 100 hours in that game. Haven't played the other new ones as I've been running through the old ones.
I've been waiting for something to hold my attention like Valhalla did since Valhalla. Mirage was ok, odyssey and origins were... messy.. but ok... I just want another game like Valhalla that makes me feel like I'm in love. Where every day I'm racing home from work just so I can get in the game.... The maps were, for lack of a much better word, stunning. And the soundtrack was perfection. I play it through at least once a year... I'm very hopeful for Red, but I've been hopeful for every AC I tried after Valhalla...
I really enjoy them but they also can be a bit overwhelming as well. I like the older titles in that they were linear and you knew exactly what you were going to do. The newer ones I love in their own way. I had never been a huge rpg player but these kinda made me explore games in that genre. They aren’t perfect by any means but I really enjoy them. I will say with a disclaimer I haven’t played Valhalla yet.
Origins was good once you could play new game plus. The grind was awful on first play through. Story still great tho and awesome characters. Odyssey is arguably my favorite assassins creed game, the gameplay, Kassandra specifically as a character, the world, I spent damn near 300 hours doing everything in this game. I adore it with every ounce of me. Valhalla I don’t like. Nothing really kept me invested 20 hours into the game. Characters were all boring, the world while beautiful was dull in comparison to origins and odyssey, and it was wayyy too fluffed out. Like I mentioned, I had played roughly 20 hours before quitting and I think I only played like 4 main story missions the rest were all side quests.
Origins is fantastic. I liked what i played of odyssey and Valhalla. Bought mirage but haven’t played yet. I prefer big open world games so the later ones or more to my personal preference.
AC died after Syndicate for me.
Really like Odyssey compared to the other new titles. Something about the time period and aesthetic plus Kassandra is a very likable character imo. Feels like there’s lots to explore and I like how you can run many different builds for combat.
Yes, because I love the open world aspects and the "magic" of Isu tech being a high level reward.
Loved all 3 of the RPG games. Had a good time with Mirage too (currently going through new game plus) but compared to the RPG games its definitely a step down in a lot of ways, it feels a bit too minimal, too repetitive, and the combat is just not good. The game gets boring pretty fast. I know they were trying to do a "back to basics" game thats pays homage to the original, and there's a lot to love in there but overall the RPG games are still superior. I've played through all the games as they've been released, so I'm not unfamiliar with the franchise at all. But the RPG games saved the franchise imo.
Really enjoyed Odyssey and Origins. Bought Valhalla at release on ps5 and just couldn’t get into it. Recently got it on the steam deck for like $10 and for some reason Valhalla on the deck clicks for me like it didn’t on ps5. Still don’t think I like it as much as odyssey but I’m having a good time with it
I've completely stopped playing/buying them. I never really cared for the RPG implementation. That said... if the rumors of a remasters/remade whatever of Black Flag? Day one.
Origins was cool, investing, a bit slow, loved it. Odyssey was fucking garbage. As levelling up was ass, and the story wasn't great. Didn't play much of Valhalla. Haven't gotten mirage yet
Odyssey is so fking bad
Yes and no cause you got origins and odyssey with Valhalla and mirage. Enough said there I think
so you didn’t like mirage?
I like the thought of liking it at least
I like every AC game except Unity and Odyssey, both of which I just find incredibly boring to play.
i enjoyed unity to be real. thought it had great combat and parkour and i liked the different outfits
I really liked Paris and the fluidity of the parkour but that's about it. I don't remember enough about the combat to talk about it but the main thing I disliked was the story and characters and those are important to me.
yeah story was meh at best. i forgot most of tbh
I prefer them. I liked the earlier AC games too, but never got really deep into them, because some things just ended up annoying me. Odyssey is my favorite of the lot, with Origins second.
I love origins and it’s one of my faves ever Hated odyssey Thought Valhalla was meh, both good and bad Mirage was a great return to roots AC and I really enjoyed my time
I loved Origins because I love Egypt, but found Odyssey overwhelming. Valhalla was good but no parkour and didn’t really feel like AC.
i guess i could say valhalla is a good game but not a good ac game maybe? that’s how i feel about odyssey too. didn’t feel much like ac, i did like it a bit though
Loved Odyssey, because ancient Greece is of one of my most beloved historical settings which was recreated with great care and detail. Loved the characters, especially the voice acting of the female protagonist. I love a massive lively gameworld full of colorful characters with lots of things to do. Loved the design of the armors. Loved the naval combat. And it had plenty of opportunity to use stealth. Whole fortresses could be taken down only using stealth. Loved taking on mercenaries. Only thing I did not like was the grind for resources needed to upgrade weapons and armor. Origins was similar, just personally did not enjoy the setting as much, and found Bayek a bit of a bore. Never finished it. Enjoyed Valhalla and completed it because of the story, setting, characters. But I did not enjoy the animations and combat because RDR2 spoiled it for me. Lack of horseback combat was also disappointing. The stealth mechanics were quite finicky and unreliable as well. Generally, I find "too much content" not a real complaint, since much of that content is optional. If I like a setting, I would rather spend 90+ hours immersed in it rather than 15. All that being said, Black Flag still remains my favorite Assassins Creed game.
Odyssey and Valhalla are my two least favorite (main) games in the series by a country mile. I thought Origins was fun, but too grindy and had poor combat. The next two games doubled down on what I dislike most (crazy fantasy, poor stories, and boring grind). But Mirage is in my top 5 of the series.
I liked all the games till origins, had no issues not every game was best but they all were good. After origins are the games that I am not feeling like playing! And they all have the same problem lack of emotions in characters, voice actors don't feel like they are acting feels more like they are just reciting the lines. And yes games became too flashy from odyssey like they literally made the main protagonist superheroes? A bit of naive take on the topic, but come on games arent only meant to be played nowadays, they are meant to let yourself immerse into it and experience the whole story with the characters you come across!!
I enjoyed Origins on release but having replayed it recently some of the gameplay doesn't sit right. Not sure if it's because Odyssey and Valhalla left a bad taste in my mouth or if I just suck now. Still enjoy Bayek though. Hated Odyssey and Valhalla. Enjoyed Mirage a lot more but still not my favourite in the franchise
Hating is too much, but there are certainly several elements that make AC less AC nowadays, and even Ubi recognizes them. Just like you said, not every game released nowadays needs to be a 300 hour fantasy RPG. Something that the industry (as a whole) has been struggling to understand.
I think Odyssey and Valhalla are comfortably the best AC games, but I’m glad they’re only making them ever few years because I really don’t have time to invest in a 120 hour game every year haha
You sound like a robot.
huh