Assassin's Creed 4 (Don't forget to spoiler)

[Callie Del Noire]

You got to enjoy something and for me it is sandbox games like AC. The latest one is pretty good. Doesn't hang or hiccup like the Batman: Origins game does.. so far.

The backstory, to me, is fairly interesting. You're not an assassin, you're a computer analyst working on extracting a storyline for a movie/interactive game by Astergo entertainment. You are concentrating on the life and times of a pirate in the golden age of piracy in the Caribbean.

Of course this IS Assassin's Creed, so there are shadow conspiracies but for the most part you're not part of them. But even from the  beginning you get hints that things aren't 'business as usual'.  They did a good job of blending in the historical figures and making them seem real in the 'AC' world as they were in the history books. Blackbeard and so many many others.

Anyone else playing this?

[Inkidu]

I've got it. I like it, but I've hated the optional objectives since their introduction. :P

[Chris Brady]

I too am playing this, but I think there's more wrong than you think. 

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

Little hints like the 'donor' for the Animus memories being one Desmond Miles.

Or read through the Employee Manifesto, you get little warning signs that things are really, really, really off for any employment option.

[Callie Del Noire]

Some of them I don't mind.

Others I LOATH!

(I'm looking at you 'Kill X baddies with a keg o'  Gun powder')

I like sneaking. I REALLY like sneaking.

I sometimes suck at it.

I don't need loud bangs making it harder.




Now, when you're doing an Assassination and rather than shooting 'Target X' you shoot said barrel and get 'X' and his four guards and watch them fly like ragdolls..that is totally cool.

I'm also having fun with my tablet app that ties to the game (When I'm on my xbox) and lets' me control my fleet when I'm not at home!) Yeah! Wins LOTS. The companion app runs on Android and iOS, and I know can mate to my Xbox..and requires a Uplay account tied to your save. YOu can put the tablet up and use it as a real time map while you sail the seas!

[Callie Del Noire]

I too am playing this, but I think there's more wrong than you think. 

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

Little hints like the 'donor' for the Animus memories being one Desmond Miles.

Or read through the Employee Manifesto, you get little warning signs that things are really, really, really off for any employment option.

Oh.. it's definitely...

Sample 17

IS DESMOND MILES. They recovered his body. And now they have ANOTHER very scary sample after the story in the modern era progresses.

There are a lot of things you might miss right off. But they get REALLY unsubtle quickly.

[Inkidu]

I can't use the Fleet thing (having no internet capability for Xbox Live). Still if I don't need a repair or a notoriety reduction I add it to the fleet.

I think I have three or four frigates, two schooners, and a couple of brigs. 

[Callie Del Noire]

I can't use the Fleet thing (having no internet capability for Xbox Live). Still if I don't need a repair or a notoriety reduction I add it to the fleet.

I think I have three or four frigates, two schooners, and a couple of brigs.

I got VERY lucky about 20% thru the story and found a man o' war that had run aground. It was fairly east to broadside from point blank range and then pick off its three schooner reinforcements. That made me a TON.

[Revelation]

Y'all better be enjoying this game, a friend of mine helped make it and he needs to stay employed with Ubisoft. :P

I've never played an Assassin's creed game, but come december i'll be buying this. Already hit my limit on games this month between ordering Ys and Fate Paradox, but this is the first Creed title that has interested me.

[Callie Del Noire]

I love the companion app a lot.. it lets me play whenever I have access to Wi-Fi, giving orders to the Kenway Fleet and then comeback later for a massive payoff. (I'm up to Galway and the Med for mission.. only problem I have is I can't find ships with 80 cargo space now.. so some of the opening up missions aren't doable)

[Inkidu]

People are right to be apprehensive, though good I felt that AC: Revelations and AC 3 were kind of phoned in and rushed respectively. Actually on AC 3 I know it was rushed. Though I am happy with Black Flag, despite the obnoxious optional objective system.

HEY WE ARE GOING TO SPRING A SECOND ONE ON YOU HALFWAY THROUGH THE MISSION IN A PARTICULARLY ACTIONY PART WHEN YOU'RE DEFINITELY NOT PAYING ATTENTION TO THE BOTTOM RIGHT-HAND CORNER OF THE SCREEN! KAYTHNXBAI!

[Callie Del Noire]

People are right to be apprehensive, though good I felt that AC: Revelations and AC 3 were kind of phoned in and rushed respectively. Actually on AC 3 I know it was rushed. Though I am happy with Black Flag, despite the obnoxious optional objective system.

HEY WE ARE GOING TO SPRING A SECOND ONE ON YOU HALFWAY THROUGH THE MISSION IN A PARTICULARLY ACTIONY PART WHEN YOU'RE DEFINITELY NOT PAYING ATTENTION TO THE BOTTOM RIGHT-HAND CORNER OF THE SCREEN! KAYTHNXBAI!

I think they should have allowed a 'LB' show option like they did with the city menu.. you know how many shantys you got left, ect.

[Inkidu]

I think they should have allowed a 'LB' show option like they did with the city menu.. you know how many shantys you got left, ect.

I agree. That would have been great, because right now I'm compulsively hitting start and it's breaking up the immersion.

Still, no matter how many ships I board it never gets old. Never. Hitting that rope air-stabbing, never gets old.

EDIT: I'm not sure how I feel about the diving section. I don't think there's really enough there. Everything's trying to kill you, you're on a time limit (via breath meter). So while they're pretty scenery they're really kind of annoying.

Supporting Character Spoiler

Who didn't see James Kidd being a woman? That was so freaking obvious.

[Callie Del Noire]

Yeah.. well given that James Kidd was a historical figure I saw it comeing from day 1. :D

[Sel Nar]

In memory Sequence 8 Now; I'm having fun bashing around the Four naval 'screw you's', because I only sometimes win.

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

The Four Legendary Warships are in each corner of the carribean map, and are each Level 75; the most-dangerous Man'o'War you'll ever fight is level 60, and piddly weak in comparison. Each Legendary will give you 20K dosh when you take them down, you can't board them, so don't bother trying, and they each have a special trait to twist the fight a little. (One might be deep in a perpetual fog bank, for example)

Another favourite thing; The Diving Bell. (Memory 6 is when you can get it) So much FUN exploring the wreck sites, even if there's only a double-handful of them.

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

(Required to get the final upgrades for the Jackdaw, so there's that, but it's goddamn interesting to muck about in the areas as well, as long as you have access to air...)

As for Abstergo Entertainment... Looks like the Olympic Stadium was repurposed.

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

Pop out of the animus every sequence after 3; you can find some interesting stuff if you poke around...

[Callie Del Noire]

My favorite diving bell moment.  Swimming along as a humpback whale swims by. Huge whale overhead. Totally mind blowing.

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

my Jackdaw is all geared out, so I'm legendary hunting. Got 2 so far. The tow bottom ones. 

[Chris Brady]

I agree. That would have been great, because right now I'm compulsively hitting start and it's breaking up the immersion.

Still, no matter how many ships I board it never gets old. Never. Hitting that rope air-stabbing, never gets old.

EDIT: I'm not sure how I feel about the diving section. I don't think there's really enough there. Everything's trying to kill you, you're on a time limit (via breath meter). So while they're pretty scenery they're really kind of annoying.

Supporting Character Spoiler

Who didn't see James Kidd being a woman? That was so freaking obvious.

I saw it coming. 

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

The voice and the animations were clearly female.  I had no idea the historical character was female though.

[Inkidu]

Yeah, I officially hate the diving portions now. If it's not being able to see the urchins in the dark cave, it's missing the last chest because your unresponsive downward swimming got you sucked into a current so you had to do the WHOLE THING OVER AGAIN! I don't mean go around again, I mean have to surface so the air barrels reset. Also FUCK EELS! FUCK THEM WITH A STICK! Divers from the 18th Century all the way up to divers today know to carry a fucking knife. Not Edwin Kenway!

[Sel Nar]

Stop, deep breath, tap L3; tada, urchins, jellies and morays are all highlit in red so you know what spots to avoid before swimming into it. Admitedly, my favourite part of the Diving was on the last wreck I went to; No swarms of bull sharks trying to turn me into lunch, no hordes of moray eeels (there's some, but not many), only a few jellyfish, and, as I swam out of a small cave that had led on a roundabout route to all the chests and fragments in the area, and began to swim towards the diving bell, a sperm whale hove into view, moving liesurely along as if it had naught a care in the world.

Regarding the four Legendaries;

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

La Dama Negra, El Impoluto, HMS Prince, HMS Fearless and HMS Royal Sovereign are all dead in my game; of them, 'The Twins' Wrecked my shit twenty ways to sunday, and their reaction to one or other other being sunk was a 'holy crap' moment, on top of the fight being with TWO Ships of the Line that are bigger, tougher, ~Much~ faster, and more agile than you.

(Hint: Sink one; the other one applies the 'Infernal retaliation' trait and proceeds to try to beat you to death with its foremast; You can't outrun it, so your only hope is to force it into s-bends as it tries to hit you and dump all your flame barrels in its path. Hell fun and a definite twist on the battle.)

Story spoiler for chapter 8 (Do Not Read until you hit 9, damnit);

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

I was genuinely kinda sad that Edward Teach died; I know that it was actually less gruesome than his Real Life death (Shot no less than 5 times, and stabbed or slashed no less than 20 before he finally fell in battle, FYI), but it's a bit of a low blow for the game to basically say 'Welp, here's his retirement party, and here's the half-dozen Man'o'Wars sent to blow up the entire town to try to kill him.', especially as the game did go to some length to show that, while he was as scary a fucker as you could ever meet, a large part of that was the image portrayed to cow his targets into surrender to avoid bloodshed.

[Inkidu]

No... I still don't like the diving parts. It'd be great to look, but you don't have any time, real leisure, or most likely attention because you're trying not to drown. They're not as lengthy, but I put them as a whole on the same level as the Fade from Dragon Age Origins.

EDIT:

Y'all better be enjoying this game, a friend of mine helped make it and he needs to stay employed with Ubisoft. :P

If your friend designed the objectives for (optional ones too)  the memory "Trust is Earned" he deserves to be fired. If he didn't tell him to gut punch anyone who did.

One of the optional objectives on that mission is nigh impossible. The two targets are never close enough to double assassinate.

[Sel Nar]

<snip> ...the memory "Trust is Earned" he deserves to be fired. If he didn't tell him to gut punch anyone who did.

One of the optional objectives on that mission is nigh impossible. The two targets are never close enough to double assassinate.

Having just done that mission, I can tell you how to do it, if you'd like. PM me for the details.

[Inkidu]

Having just done that mission, I can tell you how to do it, if you'd like. PM me for the details.

Oh, I got it done, but as far as I can tell there's about three seconds where they're close enough. So you'd better not miss.

Now I'm farming Man O' Wars for metal. I need to hunt down the Elite Upgrades and my Jackdaw will be reading to take on the legendaries.

[Sel Nar]

Personal reccomendation? Bag the two Westerlies first;

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

La Dama Negra is mortar-happy and invulnerable everywhere except her stern, El Impoluto is an 'in your face' fella and has a ram that makes the jackdaw's look like a toothpick. The Easterlies are HMS Prince, who's tough but otherwise unremarkable, while HMS Fearless and Royal Sovereign I suggest you save for last because it's goddamn exhilarating to go up against two Ships of the Line at once.

[Inkidu]

I almost took down the North Western one, but he got to turn into me twice with all those damn cannons and I ended up eating it. Give me a few more times and I'll take it down.

EDIT: Goddamned optional objectives! Not only was this memory long as hell, I missed the optional objective popup (surprise, surprise). You're supposed to use two guards as human shields. There's no real need to do that in this memory. It's deliberately there to give the player something to do. It doesn't even make sense.

I'll have to do that memory again damn it. Part of me, the very, very, very petty part of me that only comes out at extreme frustration, wants to go back and rate every memory at one just to screw with the metrics (if they're taking them as such).

EDIT, EDIT: So, I've got a bit of an issue. There's three buried treasures left in the world, and I'm all out of treasure maps. Are they some kind of online thing?

[Sel Nar]

They're collected through Kenway's Fleet, If they're the ones I'm thinking of.

The three Fleet Missions that give Chests are (Location; Mission-name);

Mediterranean Sea - Great Reputation II
Eastern Canada - Scarlatina
Eastern British Colonies - The Empty Cellar

[Inkidu]

They're collected through Kenway's Fleet, If they're the ones I'm thinking of.

The three Fleet Missions that give Chests are (Location; Mission-name);

Mediterranean Sea - Great Reputation II
Eastern Canada - Scarlatina
Eastern British Colonies - The Empty Cellar

Well fuck me. I can't use it.