On a different subject, I kind of want to go off a little on something that has kind of irritated me a little. It's when narrative goes against gameplay, specifically in cases of origin stories and when gameplay goes against what the narrative has setup. I realised this when playing Assassin's Creed 3, when Connor goes out to find the Assassin mentor so he can be trained in the art of assassination. To me it implies that Connor is there to learn and in time he will be skilled in combat and all that jazz. Except, when you're actually playing the game, the story dictates that you have to fight these guards before the mentor will accept you, and Connor doesn't need any training at all. You are just as experienced if you know the combat mechanics that you can dispatch the guards with all the ease of a master assassin anyway.
It's even worse in AC2. At least there is some justification in that Connor at that age is also an experienced huntsman, with the stamina and physique of someone living in the wilderness. In the beginnning of AC2, Ezio is a playboy who never fought in his life. Now before he even dons the robes you're saying that he can kill guards in sword combat? Same with Jason in Far Cry 3, a spoilt rich kid is now experienced in all kinds of handling firearms and killing guards with ease from the very beginning. This new Devil May Cry is meant to tell Dante's origin story, about the man before his demon skills have fully formed, but you know, still looks like an all powerful unstoppable demon killing machine to me.
See to me, I think there is more worth in playing as someone who isn't all powerful from the get go. In those scenarios I described with AC, I'd rather that the character just get beaten up or wounded, with no chance to defend yourself. Make that be a harsh lesson he learns and be part of his character development. Have the game then progress and so you learn how to block, to counter etc and take fulfillment in seeing your character start as someone who can barely swing a sword, into someone who can kill guards with alarming efficiency. Same with a FPS, I wouldn't mind it if, while playing as someone who the narrative dictates has never used a gun in their life, to make it so the aim wasn't perfect from the beginning. That the hands shake and then gradually get more steady as you progress.
I get the argument as well that you don't want to play as a weak character from the beginning and ultimately these contradictions don't detract much from my overall enjoyment of a game. It's just something that I rarely see developers do right when telling someone's origin story and in making a character's progression become somewhat believable.
I do want to mention that I actually got a better experience by navigating the frontier. So much so that I felt it was a more effective way of Connor's training than what the main narrative served up. After the Boston massacre you're given an option to fast travel, either directly back to the homestead and continue with the next mission, or back to the frontier. I chose the latter. I thought it would be cool to not only explore some of it, because I hadn't done much before then, but also built this story in my own head, that as part of Connor's training he is asked to make his way back to the homestead by travelling across the frontier on his own. It takes a while too, like maybe 20-30 mins of travel on foot to reach the homestead. But honestly, doing that gave me some greater experiences than following the main storyline progression.
Like I found a synchronisation point that was this massive tree. And I had difficulty climbing up it, I would get so far and then mess up and slide back down the tree or just fall like a stone to the snowy ground below. I eventually made it and found it really satisfying that Connor would take multiple attempts to climb it, thinking that it would increase his knowledge, his physique and test his determination. I learned of the dangers of the frontier while running across the trees as I saw a guard run for his life from a wolf before getting mauled by it. I would hunt for food in the harsh winter setting, get to learn more about how those mechanics work. I saw a camp of redcoats and avoided them by running along the trees above. I saw a smaller group of guards protect a treasure chest in a barn and through planning and entering through the roof, I was able to dispatch them quickly, not shedding much blood.
All of those things were pretty satisfying to me as part of the character development. It wasn't necessary and it just added more game time for me than anything, but I thought it was cool that those things happened to me and I consider it as part of my experience of getting to know Assassin's Creed 3 better and serve as some kind of development for Connor.
Topic: Assassins Creed (Read 64889 times)