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Dr.Cthulhu posted:Too late to join the PS4 club? [lljk] or [gbgo] ya? Nope! I just saw your app and accepted it.
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Mar 1, 2015 19:39
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I'd say the game is pretty and it's an Assassin's Creed game but otherwise it's not great. It's a forgettable title in the series. The story is disjointed to the point of almost being incoherent, the missions are repetitive, and the setpiece missions that were memorable in AC II and AC: Brotherhood (the best ones) are not memorable in Unity. Arno doesn't receive much characterization. The game manages to debut a new main character and one of the most interesting settings they could have picked and then fails to develop either of them. Ancien Regime Paris and Versailles are very, very pretty. Parkour controls are slightly improved. Combat is harder but due to some problems with camera control not really more fun. The Animus missions are better in concept than they have been for several games, but still are fairly repetitive. For some reason in the English version they decided to give all the French characters English accents. It was jarring enough to make me put the game on French. Can they not do comical French accents like they did comical Italian accents?
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Mar 2, 2015 06:47
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Arglebargle III posted:For some reason in the English version they decided to give all the French characters English accents. It was jarring enough to make me put the game on French. Can they not do comical French accents like they did comical Italian accents? I know, it's like they've never even seen 'Allo 'Allo.
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Mar 2, 2015 13:11
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Arglebargle III posted:For some reason in the English version they decided to give all the French characters English accents. It was jarring enough to make me put the game on French. Can they not do comical French accents like they did comical Italian accents? The developers gave some bullshit excuse about that about how it didn't sound "right", so they went with a "generic European" accent (read: British.) What's funny is it isn't even a GOOD British accent. Sometimes they use rhotic "r"s and sometimes they don't. I really wish they made Elise the main character on this one. She's way more interesting than Arno. But I'm willing to bet then all the reviews would've been something along the lines of "Why am I being forced to hang out with my whiny broody boyfriend?"
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Mar 2, 2015 13:35
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Whiny? I think I managed to play for a good three hours without Arno speaking a word. It kinda made me jump when he actually had a line in some mission briefing. Arno is hilariously under-characterized. Who is he? I'm in Sequence 5 and all I know about him is that his dad got killed and he lived with M. La Salle as a stable boy and fell in love with the boss's daughter. Then his boss/surrogate dad got murdered and he's an assassin now. That's it. He hasn't actually done anything except blandly seek revenge. He is occasionally less thoughtful than he should be. He doesn't have much to say. What does he think about things? Does he have overweening pride and ambition like Altair? Does he have panache and a heart of gold like Ezio? Autistic rage like Connor? A drinking problem and an estranged wife like Edward? Not as far as I can tell. He hasn't even expressed an opinion about the French Revolution going on around him. He doesn't appear to have a personality at all. His dumb little argument with La Salle's butler was the most entertaining thing he's done all game. If I had to describe him right now all I would say is "earnest and not too bright." He's like the best parkourer in the series, and there's zero reason presented for it either. Ezio learned to climb into girls' windows as a randy teen, Connor climbed big trees, Edward was a sailor, and Arno is better at climbing than all of them for... no reason at all. Arglebargle III fucked around with this message at 14:03 on Mar 2, 2015 |
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Mar 2, 2015 13:48
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Arglebargle III posted:Whiny? I think I managed to play for a good three hours without Arno speaking a word. It kinda made me jump when he actually had a line in some mission briefing. At least being a stable boy gives him a natural affinity with haystacks.
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Mar 2, 2015 14:16
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Don't forget also Arno has the ability to telepathically read the memories of people he's assassinated. (Those aren't just clips for the audience, Arno actually states in a conversation that he "read someone's memories.") This is something that goes totally unexplained in the entire game, and also has no basis from any of the previous AC games to draw from. It's completely out of nowhere and makes no sense. None of the other assassins really seem that surprised by it either. They just take his claims at face value.
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Mar 2, 2015 16:38
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Arglebargle III posted:Arno is hilariously under-characterized. Who is he? I'm in Sequence 5 and all I know about him is that his dad got killed and he lived with M. La Salle as a stable boy and fell in love with the boss's daughter. Then his boss/surrogate dad got murdered and he's an assassin now. That's it. He hasn't actually done anything except blandly seek revenge. As I'm playing the game and get to any given plot beat my opinion inevitably turns to "you aren't even ripping off The Count of Monte Cristo correctly." I'm not angry that they they ripped off Dumas, I'm disappointed that they did it wrong. It's like they were so afraid to do anything that could possibly jeopardize the immense R&D budget that they wound up doing nothing.
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Mar 2, 2015 17:27
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I applied to [GBG0] as frontlinekhan.
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Mar 2, 2015 17:40
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macnbc posted:Don't forget also Arno has the ability to telepathically read the memories of people he's assassinated. (Those aren't just clips for the audience, Arno actually states in a conversation that he "read someone's memories.") This was the dumbest loving thing and they really should have atleast tried to explain it if they felt they HAD to do this. It doesn't fit in with anything previously shown in the series.
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Mar 3, 2015 03:15
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The Grimace posted:This was the dumbest loving thing and they really should have atleast tried to explain it if they felt they HAD to do this. It doesn't fit in with anything previously shown in the series. Ehhh, I think they could have fudged it if they wanted to--some horseshit about the ability to read memories being another branch of Eagle Vision, which was probably the plan--but from the sound of it they just went 
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Mar 3, 2015 03:29
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macnbc posted:Don't forget also Arno has the ability to telepathically read the memories of people he's assassinated. (Those aren't just clips for the audience, Arno actually states in a conversation that he "read someone's memories.") This is really dumb because Assassin's Creed II, only the second game in the series, understood the little confession memories well enough to surprise the player by having the Borgia guy stab Ezio and turn the expectation around with the player character lying on the floor bleeding and the bad guy asking the questions. It takes a certain understanding of how you've established the narrative format in order to subvert it like that. Clearly by Unity whoever is writing it does not possess that level of understanding. Arglebargle III fucked around with this message at 06:39 on Mar 3, 2015 |
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Mar 3, 2015 06:37
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They probably got tired of people realizing "Hey, I just stabbed that guy in the throat, how is he talking to me? And why isn't his huge guard squad jumping right on me?" If you look at how the post-assassination talks actually function, Arno's ~visions~ are not really much weirder than a lot of them. Just another weirdo ability thanks to First Civ DNA, yay. But coming out and calling them visions in-game is a lot more jarring. I didn't hate them, but I like it better when the Assassin actually gets to talk to the target. Philosophical debate before dying is more interesting to me than "hey check out this part of the mystery."
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Mar 3, 2015 14:02
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No the assassination memories always made sense up until now. You're playing a simulation in the Animus that is not 1:1 accurate to what the ancestor experienced. You just have to get close enough to maintain sync. I always thought the assassination cutscenes are "canon memories" that your ancestor really experienced, as opposed to the "non-canon" Animus simulation. Presumably the historical assassins didn't crouch on a chair for five seconds pinwheeling their arms before murdering the guy, just like the player's clumsy assassination in the Animus is not whatever sneaky poo poo they pulled off that let them have a chat with the dying target. Arno seeing their memories makes zero sense without invoking supernatural abilities though. Arglebargle III fucked around with this message at 16:41 on Mar 3, 2015 |
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Mar 3, 2015 16:38
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Arglebargle III posted:No the assassination memories always made sense up until now. You're playing a simulation in the Animus that is not 1:1 accurate to what the ancestor experienced. You just have to get close enough to maintain sync. I always thought the assassination cutscenes are "canon memories" that your ancestor really experienced, as opposed to the "non-canon" Animus simulation. Presumably the historical assassins didn't crouch on a chair for five seconds pinwheeling their arms before murdering the guy, just like the player's clumsy assassination in the Animus is not whatever sneaky poo poo they pulled off that let them have a chat with the dying target. Supernatural abilities like seeing through walls, and being able to tell someone's intent or how important they are by staring at them?
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Mar 3, 2015 17:01
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TheMaskedChemist posted:Supernatural abilities like seeing through walls, and being able to tell someone's intent or how important they are by staring at them? Both are easily handwaved by "Assassins are really good at listening for verbal cues/have the patrol routes memorized so they know when people are going to be in certain places." and "That dude has like 7 swords on him, he's probably not someone I should gently caress with/That guy looks exactly like the guy I was told to kill, and is surrounded by armed guards."
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Mar 3, 2015 17:21
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Preordered the Rogue Deluxe Edition, how much am I going to regret it?  Mainly cause I loved Black Flag.
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Mar 3, 2015 17:24
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Rookersh posted:Both are easily handwaved by "Assassins are really good at listening for verbal cues/have the patrol routes memorized so they know when people are going to be in certain places." and "That dude has like 7 swords on him, he's probably not someone I should gently caress with/That guy looks exactly like the guy I was told to kill, and is surrounded by armed guards." Somewhere in the series (Brotherhood?) it's chalked up as extra senses passed on by First Civ genes. These senses include knowing the future or something.
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Mar 3, 2015 17:28
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Rookersh posted:Both are easily handwaved by "Assassins are really good at listening for verbal cues/have the patrol routes memorized so they know when people are going to be in certain places." and "That dude has like 7 swords on him, he's probably not someone I should gently caress with/That guy looks exactly like the guy I was told to kill, and is surrounded by armed guards." Except that Eagle Vision is explicitly referred to as a supernatural ability multiple times.
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Mar 3, 2015 17:29
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Rookersh posted:Both are easily handwaved by "Assassins are really good at listening for verbal cues/have the patrol routes memorized so they know when people are going to be in certain places." and "That dude has like 7 swords on him, he's probably not someone I should gently caress with/That guy looks exactly like the guy I was told to kill, and is surrounded by armed guards." Nah, Assassin's vision is straight up talked about in-universe by the characters. Off the top of my head, I know Kenway specifically talks to Kidd about how he can concentrate and see things, and he's been able to do it since he can remember. I'm sure it's come up before in previous games as well, but yeah, Assassins literally have special magic vision that lets them see hidden things in the environment and determine the allegiance of characters they look at. Don't forget, Desmond has Assassin vision, and he's in the real world running around, not even plugged into the Animus. Granted, he sees Lucy as friendly, so maybe his is on the fritz, but it still exists as an actual thing ingame.
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Mar 3, 2015 17:30
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Crappy Jack posted:Nah, Assassin's vision is straight up talked about in-universe by the characters. Off the top of my head, I know Kenway specifically talks to Kidd about how he can concentrate and see things, and he's been able to do it since he can remember. I'm sure it's come up before in previous games as well, but yeah, Assassins literally have special magic vision that lets them see hidden things in the environment and determine the allegiance of characters they look at. Don't forget, Desmond has Assassin vision, and he's in the real world running around, not even plugged into the Animus. Granted, he sees Lucy as friendly, so maybe his is on the fritz, but it still exists as an actual thing ingame. Well at the time Lucy was considering jumping ship back to the assassins to hop on Desmond's cock. I'd imagine that, that will probably read as friendly in most cases.
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Mar 3, 2015 17:35
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Arglebargle III posted:Arno seeing their memories makes zero sense without invoking supernatural abilities though. Note to self: AC is a series that has zero science fiction or supernatural elements. There are no alien ghost holograms or bat lanterns or mind explodey flashes or observatories that let you spy on people if you have their blood.
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Mar 3, 2015 17:35
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Deakul posted:Preordered the Rogue Deluxe Edition, how much am I going to regret it?
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Mar 3, 2015 21:10
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Palpek posted:You're going to love the hell out of it then. Oh yeah, it should be stated that as somebody who loved Black Flag, I just got Rogue via gamefly to try out, and aside from the fact that I don't like Shay as much as Edward, and that I kinda feel a little dirty killing Assassin bros, I'm REALLY digging it.
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Mar 3, 2015 21:26
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Crappy Jack posted:Nah, Assassin's vision is straight up talked about in-universe by the characters. Off the top of my head, I know Kenway specifically talks to Kidd about how he can concentrate and see things, and he's been able to do it since he can remember. I'm sure it's come up before in previous games as well, but yeah, Assassins literally have special magic vision that lets them see hidden things in the environment and determine the allegiance of characters they look at. Don't forget, Desmond has Assassin vision, and he's in the real world running around, not even plugged into the Animus. Granted, he sees Lucy as friendly, so maybe his is on the fritz, but it still exists as an actual thing ingame. I always interpreted it as they were just really good at picking up on subtle clues and tracking things, and eagle vision is sort of the Animus's abstracted interpretation of it. Like I don't think Edward or Shay or whoever actually sees their target painted in a gold light, they just are able to make a mental note of their target and track them better than others. Seeing things others don't I think is seeing First Civ symbols, sort of like how Arno does in the Bastille but others can't.
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Mar 3, 2015 22:41
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macnbc posted:I always interpreted it as they were just really good at picking up on subtle clues and tracking things, and eagle vision is sort of the Animus's abstracted interpretation of it. Like I don't think Edward or Shay or whoever actually sees their target painted in a gold light, they just are able to make a mental note of their target and track them better than others. But again, Desmond isn't in the Animus, and yet he's able to do it as well, complete with glowing people and everything. And yet they even go to the trouble of explaining the in-game camera in 3 as being a remote drone that Shaun is operating. (Of course the answer to all this is "it's a videogame", but it's still fun to discuss the inconsistencies that are just plain going to pop up when you keep a series going for almost a decade and pumping out yearly entries. That being said, I was really looking forward to the game explaining how the hell Arno has mindreading powers. Not even a throwaway line of dialogue "Oh, I don't understand it myself, I could just always do it"? Sheesh.)
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Mar 3, 2015 22:46
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Lucy also explicitly says he acquired eagle vision through the bleeding effect. I don't doubt that the Assassins are really good at picking up non-verbal cues, memorizing guard paths and the like--all the non-special snowflake Assassins would need to be good at that stuff, after all. But it's silly to pretend the super eye powers aren't a thing. They are, accept it.
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Mar 3, 2015 23:05
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Someone in Ubisoft is convinced the idea of an assassin operating in a historical world which has been lovingly brought to life is not interesting enough to carry a videogame without superpowers and a meta-story. I'll never be able to wrap my head around that. jneer fucked around with this message at 20:13 on Mar 4, 2015 |
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Mar 4, 2015 06:02
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jneer posted:Someone in Ubisoft is convinced the idea of an assassin operating in a historical world which has been lovingly brought to life is not interesting enough to carry a videogame without superpowers and a meta-story. That would be Patrice Désilets, original creator of the franchise and he who got fired (twice) from Ubisoft after AC2.
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Mar 4, 2015 15:14
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There's something to be said for the series starting to take a nose dive as soon as he left. He was able to work on Brotherhood, I know. It was after he left that AC3 came out and completely dropped the ball on the story he'd been telling.
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Mar 4, 2015 15:21
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Palpek posted:You're going to love the hell out of it then.  Going to be a long week.
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Mar 4, 2015 17:21
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Yeah, I really enjoyed Rogue. The story is on the short side--something like eight or nine sequences--and there's a ton of side stuff like collecting Native artifacts and pieces of Viking swords and war letters and and and to pad the length instead, but the grenade launcher is an awesome addition, characters return from both AC3 and Black Flag (the latter are older, the former are younger), and hunting Assassin stalkers is a lot of fun. The other night a lady tried to air-assassinate me from a rooftop and shouted "Now you see me, now you're DEAD" which made me laugh out loud. Also new shanties.
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Mar 5, 2015 01:25
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Pretzel Rod Stewart posted:Also new shanties. The addition of Jolly Roving Tar is all that matters.  EDIT: Well poo poo...They added "Donkey Riding", "New York Girls" AND "Rolling Down To Old Maui"? AC:Rogue. Best Shanty Soundtrack. Snuffman fucked around with this message at 02:23 on Mar 5, 2015 |
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Mar 5, 2015 02:19
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Is it not a kick in the balls then? I have to admit with every misstep and mistake in the series I still live the core gameplay.
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Mar 5, 2015 02:31
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Nope, not even a love tap. It's Black Flag with a new story and characters and a couple cool new features. If you loved ACIV and/or Freedom Cry and aren't burnt out or haven't played either in a while you'll likely really dig Rogue. (I should mention most of y'all seem to have played Unity in between and I haven't cracked it open yet--yep, I'm aware of all the caveats--so it might feel a little off for a bit, but I don't know how Unity plays well enough to say.)
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Mar 5, 2015 02:36
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I have to say I spent an hour going through the 4-player co-op mission Les Enrages solo and forgot to stock up on medicine before I went and it felt like an Assassin's Creed game again. I actually had to worry about guards, timing, had to use smoke bombs and the phantom blade in new ways that I hadn't thought of before, got a ton of use out of Disguise and actually assassinated the target without being detected. I previously played it with four other people and it was a boring clusterfuck. Maybe a lot of the level design effort going to co-op missions where it's wasted by chucklefucks is one of the problems with unmemorable and short missions in Unity? Turns out it was actually a great, tense, skill-demanding hour+ mission done solo.
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Mar 5, 2015 02:50
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I'm considering picking up Rogue on Steam. Talk me up or down I definitely loved 4 but I also felt super burned by Unity, and I'm not sure I'm up for just a retread of 4. How does it stack up as a game in the series? Skippable, enjoyable?
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Mar 6, 2015 12:00
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It's really good. It's more compact and focused than Black Flag - it offers 2 distinctive sailing environments, one being a winter sea and the other spring river valley. At the same time it feels way more hand-crafted - even some stupid little island with a single chest is somehow customized. At the same time they trimmed everything that didn't work in Black Flag and expanded on the good parts. For example the following missions are completely gone while the ship customization got new cool features etc. At the same time the story is fresh as you're against assassins this time which brings twists to the estabilished ideas - for example you get to prevent assassinations instead of doing them (while there are still assassination targets as well) or you get to look for assassins hiding in the haystacks/on rooftops/in hiding places instead of being in their place (while you can still use those places during missions). It's basically the peak of the gameplay formula and I can't really find anything against this game, it's just pure fun.
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Mar 6, 2015 12:24
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It does have some missteps though, like how the NYC area feels completely pointless and the general AC feature creep where they just add a bunch more mechanics in just to have more mechanics. Although it definitely feels like they paid attention to the criticisms of Black Flag as they cut out all of the annoying mission types from that. No boat sneaking, no following or eavesdropping and pretty much nothing that has an instafail component. Also I'm not sure how easy it would be to go back to the old style climbing after Unity's more smooth system.
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Mar 6, 2015 13:02
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Rogue also lets you walk around in this outfit, so it's the best game in the franchise.
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Mar 6, 2015 14:36
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