First, let's make one thing clear: I loved the original Assassin's Creed. It was--and still is--the best game of the series. What made it so good was the integrity of your gaming experience. As a player, you felt connected to the character through the control interface. It was partially achieved through, in my opinion, revolutionary control system that included two modes: low-profile and high-profile mode. Moving around in the crowd using that "gentle push" option was just a lot of fun. Also, climbing felt much more impressive than in any later installments. Why? I have no idea, that's just how it feels when you compare the original game with the newer releases.
I'm aware that many people criticized how repetitive the original title was, but that's only if you played it like an asshole. If you were really role-playing the story (e.g. avoid repeating a failed investigation task) the limited story line wasn't problematic.
Which brings us to to Black Flag. I was excited about the title, mostly because sailing was the best part of Assassin's Creed III, where you couldn't really free roam. After two days of playing Black Flag, it slowly occurs to me that Ubisoft is incapable of making a good sandbox game (maybe with the exception of Far Cry 3). Here's the list of my problems with Black Flag:
- The third person view is too close to the character (severely limits playability)
- The time passes too fast (watch the moon race up the sky like a rocket)
- There's no logical day & night cycle ( + the weather changes too quickly)
- There are too many ships around and your ship covers ground way too quickly
It feels like Ubisoft identified their main target as 14-year-olds who don't like challenges too much and there's no way to convince them that adults might also want to play. I think I know a fix: open it to modders and they'll fix it :)
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