I feel like the truth puzzles doesnt get the recognition it deserves. It is probably the best presentation to a games lore and world that i have ever seen. Diving into this grand conspiracy going through all of human history and seeing the truth of human creation was mind blowing and kind of scary to see back in the day, mainly because it was done so well it felt kind of believable.
Yeah, and it didn't feel like a meaningless easter egg, but something the games were building towards. But then Revelations come and Desmond doesn't even ask 16 what the hell he was trying to say all this time...
@@S1DDUD yess the cryptic quality of the lore in AC2 is a huge part of what made the atmosphere of it so cool and different. They’ve tried to replicate that with lore drops in Valhalla and stuff but the presentation is totally different, it’s just dialogue in a cutscene there is a sort of existential horror present in AC2-revelations regarding the Animus that they totally did away with and it’s too bad because it had a lot of potential
@@ekosovic I feel like Valhalla took many steps in the right direction. Might be an unpopular opinion but i did get a lot of old school AC vibes from that game. The animus anomalies brought back that creepy atmosphere like the truth puzzles, even though the truth puzzles are at a completely different level. The soundtrack gives off a lot of AC vibes thanks to Jesper Kyd coming back, and the story is actually pretty good if you filter out the 50 hours of filler content. There is also the modern day story that finally felt relevant and meaningful again.
Kind of? That stuff ignited the conspiracy theorist in me. A curiosity about the past i never knew i had. “The Truth” puzzles are stupidly close to the truth of our origins and how we’ve forgotten more then we know….
Its been said a thousamd times before, even on this channel, bit I feel it bears repeating. The big downfall of Ubisoft as a whole, which has really plagued the AC franchise, is they just toss ideas out rather than iterating and expanding. The switch to modern RPG AC is a bummer because it kind of feels like they never quite managed to actually make the assassin fantasy they had been promising since AC 1. Various amounts of jank and busted systems always keant the games fell at least a little short of what they could have been. Personally, I wasnt sick of AC's systems, I just wanted to see them actually full realized. Parkour has never quite felt right. Social stealth has never delievered quite the right toolset. The franchisenis full of a lot of '1 step forward, 2 steps back.'
That was my takeaway after 4 too. The games are great, but the lack of iteration feels like threading water whenever a new game comes out. Whenever new thing gets introduction you know it will be thrown out in the next one in favour of the next new thing.
I feel like this willingness to just throw things out was best shown in 3. Up until then every game had this promise that it was all building up to something with Desmond, that the gameplay and story was building towards us seeing modern day gameplay of Desmond taking up the mantle of his ancestors. Then they just jettisoned all of that purpose and meaning, without a second thought. But maybe you're a deep lore fellow, and you remember the next best example, maybe an even bigger example if you weren't really looking for that modern AC experience, where they just killed off Juno in a random comic and abandoned that story line too.
One of the things that was introduced to the series and then immediately dropped that I'm still, to this day, pissed off about is small in comparison to what you've all mentioned, but it aggravates me nonetheless: the Hookblade. Revelations is still my favourite game in the series, and the hookblade is one of my favourite mechanics that was introduced. It had utility in both traversal and combat, and to see it immediately discarded by AC3 annoyed the hell out of me. It feels like they tried to retool the concept with the grapnel from Syndicate, but it just seems to me to be a watered-down version of the hookblade, minus the combat utility, and with barely a tenth of the functionality outside of the zip line capability.
So we all agree that 8:28 is the single greatest moment in whole of AC franchise and maybe all of gaming, it certainly is mine ❤ It is a good life we lead brother ❤
I played AC II for the absolute first time as my first ac game 1 year ago in 2023. One of the best games ive ever played imo. It holds up extremely well.
It’s unbelievable how much the Ezio collection holds up and highlights how much story telling in the gaming industry as a whole has fell off and landed in the gutter.
ac 2 still feels like the biggest ac game. journeying through smaller very distinct cities is so much more grand than these kinds of gigantic amorphous blob worlds we've been getting recently.
Smaller worlds more densely populated will feel bigger and more immersive. Unity feels bigger than Origins sometimes.. Especially when you fast travel everywhere.
@@seiaka it was shorter but you can also do a lot more with the content you get. And that makes brotherhood better gameplay-wise. Also, most of the clunkiness was gone.
Yep. Nothing as small-world feeling as having a massive open world where everything feels the same and when you've explored 10%, you've explored 90%. It's also why Night City in Cyberpunk works so well. It's not the biggest open world city ever, but its so well fleshed out and every street corner is uniquely cared for, so you can explore for a long time even in a small neighborhood district and still find so much worth your time.
Hands down you’re the best AC critic out there in my opinion. MUSIC is my biggest disappointment in the series (plus the story). The soundtracks feel like they are just put over the game like a hat. That the game never stays quiet was one of the main reasons AC 1 and 2 had such a great atmosphere. Just remember wandering around Masyaf castle in AC 1, for me peak mystery atmosphere. In recent installments music is constantly cut because every time you interact with anything you get a short black loading screen. The music gets stuck even in cutscenes 🤦♂️. It’s just baffling to me and I don’t understand why this is never criticized. So yeah, shout out to you Jay!
This. While not my biggest disappointment of AC, it's something that's just as important as the story/gameplay. Odyssey was the first game that made me HATE the reuse of Ezio's Family, since it would play a neutered version on repeat every time you open up the map(congrats Ubi for somehow ruining one of the best OSTs in gaming). Valhalla sparked my interest when I heard Jesper Kyd was returning, but even that wasn't enough to save the game since everything else managed to feel soulless.
The fall of AC was Ubisoft switching away from what made the series popular. They didn't need to switch from the original formula to an RPG, They just needed to raise the levels of the mechanics in place.. The closest they got was AC Unity.. Which stills holds up today, imo. They have an identity crisis. They wanted Origins to have a more of a "witcher feel" They seen the success of Ghost of Tsushima and decided then to do Fuedal Japan. They seem to be trying to copy other successful games instead of focusing on themselves and how they can innovate their own success.
@@kibathefang6022 It's a lot like So Says Jay's latest video to briefly summarize he essentially states "AC Brotherhood is a game that should've never been made but because we live in the timeline where it was made, I'm glad it's at least a great game". He basically said that in reference to the fact Brotherhood started the trend of everything wrong with modern Assassin's Creed but it's still a great game. To add onto that point, you can still enjoy a game but criticize it. Odyssey and Valhalla may be good games but they're everything that Assassin's Creed isn't and should have just been fully separate games that weren't connected to AC, same goes for AC4 these games are fantastic games but they could've been so much more without the baggage of the AC series dragging them down and AC wouldn't feel like it lost its identity every time they decide to do a time period or gameplay style that doesn't make sense for the Assassin's Creed formula.
I think Ubisoft could try to save itself if they remade the original AC games (AC1-ACIII). I would love to play AC2 with improved graphics, bigger cities, enhanced parkour, more stealth options etc.
I remember when I was in high school, and I wasn't terminally online. I loved AC1 and had no idea about there being a sequel. Then I got that Game Informer issue with Ezio on the front cover. Just seeing him with two hidden blades was mindblowing. I read the entire cover story, and my hype was immeasurable. Reading about all the advancements and improvements was insane. I remember everyone being obsessed with Modern Warfare 2 releasing, another legendary game, but I was way more hyped for AC2. I played the absolute hell out of that game. I'm glad you mentioned Ubisoft's better reputation back then. I agree that Ubisoft was the shit back in the day, and they were my favorite game publisher in high school. I was always excited for their E3 showcases. What a time to be alive. Damn I miss it.
When you talked about collecting feathers, it reminded me of something. Long time ago I came up with the idea how the feather could be implemented in a genius way into AC2. In hindsight, I'm surprised no one in Ubisoft had this idea, because it's brilliant and so obvious! You know how in AC games there are always eagles flying around viewpoints, right? What Ubisoft should have done is to tie collecting feathers to the viewpoints, to give both mechanics more purpose! First of all, don't show viewpoints on the map. Players should have to find the viewpoints themselves by looking at the sky and finding eagles. At the top of every viewpoint, there should be an eagle's nest with a feather you can collect. This simple change would be a massive improvement for 2 reasons: 1. Feather locations would no longer feel random. Instead they would make sense, because eagle nests are obviously located on top of high buildings. This would make collecting feathers a more engaging activity. You wouldn't have to look up the map online or aimlessly wander the city in hopes of finding the random spot with a feather. Instead, locating feathers would be a cool side activity that requires you to observe the environment. 2. It would give Ezio a narrative justification for climbing viewpoints. As it is, Ezio climbs them for no apparent reason. It's just a videogamey mechanic for unfogging the map and nothing else. But with my idea, climbing viewpoints would become a meaningful activity. Ezio purposefully scales tall buildings to find eagle's feathers to honor Petruccio and to give solace to his mother. Completing each viewpoint would feel like next step in Ezio's progression and it'd serve as a reminder of what happened to Ezio's family. Personally, I would go even futher and give Ezio some inner monologue for every viewpoint/eagle's nest that he finds. A brief moment of introspection that lets us hear Ezio's thoughts on his family and what happened. Maybe a short story from Ezio's childhood. Or perhaps a deep dive into Ezio's psyche and emotions that drive him. This would be a very interesting side activity that directly ties into the story + it would give context to the iconic gameplay mechanic of climbing towers. Think about it! AC2 main title appears during that legendary scene with Ezio and Federico on top of a tower. Every next tower Ezio climbs would serve as a reminder of that moment. The whole thing could work similar to Jin's inner monologue when he takes a bath in hot springs in Ghost of Tsushima.
Viewpoints unlock the map because more can be seen from higher up. Feathers appear everywhere, not just in bird nests. AC2 feathers give us another reason to do parkour
@anna-flora999 nah. It's not established in AC2 even once that Ezio climbs towers to survey the area. The first tower in the game he literally climbs for fun with Federico. And for most of the game he's not even an Assassin. He doesn't conduct his own investigations like Altair did, and he was never trained to use high points to scan his surroundings. You're just assuming this is the case, but the game never says that. My idea is better because it contextualizes the activity of climbing viewpoints. It would no longer be an artificial mechanic for unfogging the map. Instead, it would be a meaningful activity that ties directly into the plot, and creates opportunities to give Ezio some moments of introspection.
@@CinematicSeriesGaming I don't think we need to be explicitly told, the fact that it reveals the map tells us that Ezio is more aware of his surroundings. I know of no reason this should be linked to Assassin status Your idea could be in there as well but I would prefer to still have feathers everywhere and use parkour to retrieve them. So maybe viewpoints could help us find them in some way. Certainly better than buying a map like we can in Brotherhood
I always felt like letting Rodrigo live was handled kind of sloppily. I get that it’s meant to signify Ezio’s growth, his acknowledgement that his family is never coming back so killing Rodrigo serves no purpose. But this feels like an epiphany he would have come to halfway through his journey, not at the very end. By this point he’s a true assassin, both in title and in his beliefs. He’s completely committed to the assassin ideals and he understands how dangerous Rodrigo is, even more so with his new found role in the Catholic Church. So letting him live doesn’t feel consistent with the lessons he’s learnt and the character growth he’s had. It feels like even after learning of how dangerous and evil the Templars are, instead of killing Rodrigo for the greater good, he just let him live because he realised his death would never bring his family back. It almost seems selfish from a guy who’s meant to have learnt so much and grown so wise and like a cheap way to bring Rodrigo back for the sequel.
The main mistake was making Rodrigo the bad guy. They knew they couldn't kill him off before his time and any narrative reason to keep him alive wouldn't be satisfactory.
@@liamdooley863 Well, in the book Assassin's Creed Renaissance the plot was mostly the same (except of some things like the absence of Piero de Medici), and the mission in Vatican took place after Savonarola's execution but there was the explicit 5-year time skip as well - Ezio became wiser, stronger and older, as he was 44 in 1503. And after entering the Vault and meeting Minerva, Ezio exited the Sistine Chapel witnessing Rogrigo's self-poisoning. It was changed to have an option to continue the story with Brotherhood, but, in my opinion, it could be handled much better.
the very first piece of music i ever learnt on the piano as a kid was ezios family. safe to say this game meant alot to me growing up. its shaped me in such a way that i really wouldnt be who i am today without it. i recently replayed it and realised just how much more i was picking up of the story/characters and how much there was to appreciate. while nostalgia definitely plays into this, i still also hold the opinion that ac2 is simply one of a kind. yes it has its flaws, yes the pacing would sometimes break the immersion or the world could feel a bit empty, but there is just something so special about it which i think you elaborate on really well in this video :) i found your point of the art style/graphics resembling actual paintings from the renaissance so good cause ive always thought the same! the art (incredible soundtrack included god bless jesper kyd) is such a driving force of this game and something that i as an artist and musician myself will always cherish. awesome video :)!
This game brings back so many memories. I’ll always remember around Christmas time as a child I used to be nosey and snoop and this game was wrapped,it introduced me to the series and I also got caught right after the fight fight in the prologue😭 greatest 45 min of my 9 year old life
I have to say, i never had anything negative to say about AC 2 other than the repetitive trailing missions. This was the first game that got me EMOTIONALLY and got me attached to every character. It was like watching a very good movie about revenge since the game felt personal. I think the franchise became more about the mechanics and graphics and forgot that the most attractive thing about a game is personal connection. The newer games while looking really good (but somehow having the worse kinds of cutscenes), take me out of the experience so often due to bloated side campaigns that i do not get to feel the main character's story as much as i did in the Ezio Trilogy.
The combination of the soundtrack and the setting is what does it for me with this game. I definitely played games that do most things better than AC2, but I just never played anything else that has the same atmosphere. For me, just the feeling of a game is enough to make me like it and come back to it, even if other similar games did most other things better.
Outstanding review. So incredibly thorough in examining every facet and appreciating how it works in tandem with all the other facets - not just within it's own game, but in the context of a series and in the time it was released. The respect for the creators and audience and your own personal experience is just overflowing. And all that in such an easily digestible explanation. You're doing great stuff on this channel, dude.
Hi Jay. I am here just to tell you that I love your vids. I love your tone, your voice and your dedicated work. I would watch hours and hours of videos like this one. I really hope that a larger audience come to know you in the future, because in my opinion you deserve many more subs and views. If my channel was in english, or if I talked about AC, I would certainly recommend your channel in my vids, maybe I would even invite you to come for my people to know you. But my audience is in spanish and I talk about The Lord of the Rings, not AC, not even videogames. And I am not fluent not confident enough with my english. But I hope that this message gets to you: there is people all around the world loving your work. I am from Barcelona and I watch every one of your AC vids without any exception. You have all my support. I have more than 500 videos and 900k subs, so if there is a day when you need some feedback about ideas for your channel, or marketing questions, or anything that I can help you about... please, just ask me. It would be an honour for me to try to help you.
I sent you an email with a longer thank you as well but in case you don’t check that I want you to know that I really appreciate you commenting and watching my stuff! Clearly you’re doing well for yourself, and I’m happy to hear people around the world have enjoyed my content at least to some extent
I remember being so excited to play AC 2 after playing 1 that I put up with the game running exceptionally poor on my system (we are talking powerpoint presentation types of slow, I don't thibk it ever broke past 15 FPS) not once, but twice. One of the details I miss most from AC 2 was how your armour would change appearance as you bought new parts. Health, in general, made much more sense in the Ezio trilogy than in the rest of the series, with health being mostly armour protecting the wearer from strikes and true flesh hits being lethal.
This was probably mostly because I was bad at it, but I remember liking the idea of the combat in AC2. Because I wasn’t very good at it I generally found I wasn’t equipped to take on multiple heavily armored enemies head on, so I went out of my way to prioritize those guys with stealth or with gadgets. In a way it made me feel like one of the more grounded depictions of someone like Batman, a skilled but light combatant who uses tricks and strategy to get an edge, which I thought suited the assassin concept well.
Youre not supposed to take on multiple guards over 5 id say at once remember Ezio was just a boy with basic training, but a fire in his belly and some first Civ DNA sprinkled on top. The jokes are so good too
@@rizzle3272 yeah, that was the general vibe I got. I’ve heard that once you really get the hang of AC II combat it becomes relatively trivial, but I never got to that point. So rather than feeling like a one man walking army (like other similar games can make you feel) I felt more like a clever and scrappy combatant who probably wouldn’t be able to take all of those guards in a straight fight, but I could handle things if given a small edge like stealth or a smoke bomb. It actually formed decent ludonarrative harmony. My abilities in a straight fight felt on par with what the narrative seemed to think Ezio was capable of.
I really miss the times when adding another entry to a franchise aimed at advancing and adding more to said franchise instead of whatever heap of garbage way of corporate thinking now. Assassin's Creed 2 really fits in that mindset, it took the first game and made something completely else for better and in some more rare cases, for worse. Other entries like Brotherhood and such added stuff yes but it never felt like what we had during AC 2.
I’ll never forget being 11-12 years old in the little game room downstairs on my shitty little CRTV at night, uncovering the conspiracy behind AC2’s lore via puzzles and the hidden symbols and being totally enthralled by the environmental storytelling & creepy ambiance and the mystery behind subject 16. you can totally feel the love and dedication from the team to telling an entirely new story with AC2 that I have come to accept we will probably never feel in this franchise again. At this point I just appreciate and love it for what it was in my life because regardless of what they do with the franchise in the future, it’ll never reach the same significance for me & many other people and that’s ok
AC4 multiplayer parkour is literally Ezio system but with new sprint animation, now you can beam flip without a horse, and sound effects are updated, it even zooms out like ezio games so AC4 multiplayer in terms of parkour honestly might be the best parkour in the franchise ever. why is no one talking about this ? it blew my mind when i realized that the multiplayer doesnt have the same as the base game singleplayer campaign , instead it replaced it with ezio system . meaning the engine can implement tge old parkour but they just refuse to do so
@@khankhomrad8855 Thats not what i am asking. kenway trilogy is made on AnvilNext engine. and we know that AnvilNext engine CAN do ezio trilogy's parkour system, cuz they literally did it on AC4/blackflag's multiplayer with ezio beamflip, directional grab, classic wall ejects, zoomed out camera and everything. Origins unity etc all use updated "Anvil" engine (known as rpg engine by fans). but devs and experts/programmers cringe and say "no no dont call it rpg engine or anything, it is the same AnvilNext but improved and updated bro" so it is just a rebrand of the same AnvilNext according a video from this channel . Since Mirage's whole selling point was "Back to the roots" then why tf not just update and reiterate upon AC4's multiplayer parkour system aka updated Ezio system, instead of this whole game updates for mirage trying to mimick the OG parkour system(and failing miserably). they could have just put the actual OG system instead of whatever they currently they have in mirage which looks like a downgrade: no sense of momentum, basim having an invisible jetpack, inferior wall ejects. Even the new combat looks and feels worse than Ezio games, no impact no weight. like wtf.
@@khankhomrad8855I remember playing Brotherhood multiplayer when it came out, THAT was social stealth. Absolutely some of the best multiplayer design I ever engaged with and I’m sad it seemed like that approach died so fast. Even culture wise I remember I dropped into an AC4 Multiplayer game way back when an the way people played was different, more sprinting around, compared to the initial brotherhood launch where a lot of people played it stealthy
@@florenceforbush63 Oh for sure. I was fortunate enough to play about three matches in Brotherhood and the MP was amazing. Some of the best Stealth PvP out there.
I've been replaying the original Mercenaries. It's a surprisingly thoughtful game despite how it advertises itself, and I don't think the developers quite realized the appeal of what they had created, which partly explains how the sequel turned out (An idea supported by a few of the post-mortems that were included in the recent source code leak.) It's from the era you mentioned in the video where everyone was still trying to figure out just what an open world sandbox could be, and I would say there hasn't been anything quite like it since. You're given almost complete freedom in how you tackle missions, and the difficulty is punishing enough that you're rewarded for learning its mechanics and outside the box thinking. It's still rough around the edges, some of the aforementioned mechanics are quite opaque to use just one example, but it's incredibly satisfying when you're able to successfully pull off a risky plan. I honestly can't think of many other games in the genre with the same level of emergent gameplay.
Despite falling off the series after origins and kinda being disillusioned by a lot of critics of games like AC, i truly do think you make the best and balanced essays that feel they have a composure to them that others do not (likely because of your love for the series as a whole, without it blinding you). I may not agree with you on everything but you treat differences of opinion not as fact and so it doesn't feel insulting to hear, which is refreshing for the most part as you don't parrot the common talking points for the series at the time. I really appreciate your insight and the way you both balance the positives and negatives and remind me of my nostalgia and appreciation for this series. It's videos like these that i do wonder to myself what a remake of 2/brotherhood may look like. Considering we have these games already, I would be open to more drastic changes to certain areas, although I wouldn't want changes to the modern day combat/ psrkour. I am not necessarily asking for the worlds to be much bigger as I prefer smaller condensed worlds, but more like adding in certain mechanics from other games into these earlier ones, such as adding in more player choice for free running and getting certain agency like in AC1 which can easily be adjusted in accessibility options (like insomniac Spider-Man) but also world traversal options like those added in the dlc (like those bouncing poles to cover gaps), brotherhood (the lifts in certain areas or horses for possibly bigger cities), this could also include changes to the combat to incentivise not optimising the fun out by possibly having customisable levels for guard agression and counter windows etc, as well as basic changes that reward the player for using different weapons and skills in the arsenal. As well as adding side content in the open world like more engaging enemy camps in 2, also improving animations, textures and models, adding extra stories that could thematically fit in at better points (like unlocking Christina missions from brotherhood when they would've taken place or recreating content from bloodlines) and adding mechanics from even revelations (such as the notoriety system and stalkers) and fixing issues with the plot. You could have many issues rewritten or reordered to be better like incorporating parts from the books that flesh out certain themes, have foreshadowing with mentions of Machiavelli earlier on, having Ezio be actually outplayed during the attack on the Medici family and rewriting the villain confessionals to give them depth much like in the books (Vieri de'Pazzi sticks in my mind with how he was also a child forced to go through the same torment of Ezio), and more. As much as I would love for Rome to be included to make it a fully immersive world, I think the main issue is narrative wise in which Ezio would suddenly have Monteriggioni be destroyed cutting off those mechanics and suddenly having all the assassin brotherhood mechanics as well, which works better when split into two games. Overall I would just want it to be a love letter to the games and franchise by also fixing issues and modernising these games, by referencing the books/side content and make it feel like parts were planned from the beginning, as well as giving an actual upgrade and changed experience that although not everyone would love, many would appreciate it (im looking at you ff7 remake)
Although I enjoyed black flag and the American revolution, AC turned into a rinse and repeat cash grab instead of finite series following the epic adventure of Desmond to a conclusion. It’s a daring gamble to squeeze as many iterations as possible out of a game series. They/we would have been better served with a planned finite series with well thought out writing. There’s a lot to be said for moving on to something new/different. You can’t make the same game forever.
Awesome Video! It has been years since I've played AC2 and this trip down memory lane was really satisfying, thanks for that 😊 One thing that becomes more apparent to me with many of your videos is that I have genuinely no idea what the modern story was all about or to what conclusions it lead. Ive played most AC Games, but have never really pieced together what really happened with that side of the narrative. Most of it went over my head as a child when playing the early games where modern stuff was most prominent and in the new games it feels like I occasionally get glimpses of a plot that I lack many critical information about because of that. Is there a comprehensive review/critique of the overarching plot of these games on UA-cam? I would be really interested to finally have all of this laid out without scouring some wikis for hours on end 😅
You sly dog, you're asking end of video questions for engagement, aren't you? Well, you got me, because you deserve the engagement: I've been playing the Dishonoured series. I finally let go of needing to do everything perfectly and just let myself mess up and recover from those mess-ups, and it's made me appreciate them a lot more - as has taking the time to actually read about and take in the world, courtesy of some vague notion of running a TTRPG set there some day. Shame about the absolute drags that are the hub levels though.
I love the Dishonored games, 100%ed those are while back as well. As much as I liked the first game I got really attached to the creativity of Dishonored 2, especially with the Crack in the Slab and the Mechanical Mansion
It's my favourite too but for me it's less about the gameplay mechanics and more about the aesthetics. I just think AC2 is the most beautiful and charming game in the series. There's just something about its design which has always been so cool and captivating to me. Nostalgia undoubtedly plays a role too but even without that I'd say it has the best art and sound design in the series. And I'll never forget that ending, I was so unbelievably hyped for AC3 after I finished this.
Man that ending was heartbreaking, truly. It did also get me extrodinarily hyped for the presumed modern desmond AC game it seemed to be setting up. oh well indie game recs? while it is early access, I've quite enjoyed my time with old school rally so far. an arcade rally game where the physics are juuust right
Aside from beautiful and diverse world and very fun way to traverse it good gameplay and music the game had a lot of charm a lot of soul and the story made you feel a connection to the character where you felt completely immersed.
Місяць тому+1
I know and understand why many people consider the emptiness of early open world games to be a flaw or a sign of dated game desing, but honestly I like it and I disagree with that assesment. AC1, AC2, Infamous, Prototype, they all had complex and engaging movement systems that made the traversal fun and active, so the open world was there as a playground to explore those mechanics, rather than to complete missions on a list. Also I will fight you over the use of "fun over realism", because it implies realism isn't fun (which is obviously incredibly subjective). Also also I wanna point out a correction: counter kill isn't the fastest way to solve a combat encounter, is the easiest, and that's what players are always gonna choose better. That's the reason why a lot of players criticized that system back in the day.
Your videos are always great, dude. I don't always agree but I always find what you have to say interesting. I definitely agree on the Arkham comparison -- incidentally it's also disappointing that IMO those games did the stealth (at least, the non-social stealth) better than AC as well despite coming out at around the same time. Brotherhood fixed the flaws of AC2's combat for me but I still feel like the stealth was always lacking in the Ezio trilogy despite still having a lot of fun with it (in Brotherhood and Revelations at least, I personally found AC2's level design a bit clunkier at points *cough* sequence 13 boat assassination). I also agree that it's frustrating how a lot of the subsequent games did some things better but then took steps backward in other directions. Story-wise, though, I still feel like the journey Ezio goes through in Brotherhood and especially Revelations (as that game actually involved him ruminating on the creed itself and on the legacy of Altair, something we didn't get a whole lot of in AC2 since he collects the codex pages and all but he never really talks about them) added a lot more to his character, and while I can appreciate how his story ended in AC2, I gotta say I prefer where his character ultimately ended up over the course of the trilogy.
Some of the weirdness around Rodrigo Borgia's 'not-death' at the end of ACII is related to some original intentions being muddied in the run-up to producing Brotherhood. Originally sequence 14 took place in 1503, not 1499 as in the finished product. This is evidenced by the database entry you get for the Sistine Chapel, in which Shaun jokingly references that you can't climb on the famous 'finger of god' painting on the ceiling yet, saying it wasn't painted in, you guessed it, 1503. (The same entry is updated in Brotherhood to say 1508 instead, reflecting that game's ending date, although Brotherhood actually ends in 1507, so it introduces a small additional error) In the Renaissance novelisation of ACII, which adapts cut content such as the Cristina memories or the appearance of Piero de Medici, after emerging from the vault Borgia commits suicide by taking poison. This is to imply that his historically recorded death by illness was in fact poison, similar to how he dies in Brotherhood as well. The original death taking place outside the vault in 1503 is almost certainly the intention behind Ezio sparing him in ACII, rather than to set-up Brotherhood's plot with Cesare. This was likely never intended to be directly shown in-game however, as it would majorly affect the final scene with Minerva to interject anything else before flashing back to Desmond. The Brotherhood novel adds another retcon, by having Rodrigo take the poison before Ezio enters the vault, and the dosage simply not being enough to kill him so it can fit the events of its story.
I'm excited for India Jones and the Great Circle in December it looks really good. I agree with most of what you said but I think AC2 holds up just as well today as it did back then. I know it's not just because of nostalgia because relatively speaking, I'm a fairly new fan of that trilogy. I didn't play these games for the first time until 2021 and loved it.
Ubisoft should take a break from making games and just remake the first 5 AC games (I-III). They’ve clearly lost their ability to talk a good story or make fun games anymore. So they should just faithfully remake their actually good games while they figure out who to fire and hire
Currently replaying through the Ezio games at the moment, as when I played through them as a kid, I never did a lot of the side content. Ezio's Family always gives me chills. ITs not just a beautiful track, not just a tone setter for the game, it feels like the brotherhood. It has a bit of an ethereal feel to it, it gives that sense of emotion. AC2 is in many ways where we got to properly meet the brotherhood and its creed, from an outsider coming in, like us. In these games the creed part of the name felt like it mattered, it became a driving point for our actions. The brotherhood stood as a defence against the templars getting the PoEs and in turn dismantled their infrastructure and control. It was a natural progress, which feel like was lost sometime after black flag. I love the series, I love the idea of the Assassin's, and I hate that Ubisoft's only means of keeping their story going is by making them borderline incompetent.
I've been looking at these games from the side for years now, but this video got me to play AC2, and for that I can't thank you enough. It feels strangely fresh despite being 15 years old... Though the PC port being so poorly done is a little sour product of the times, but it's managable. 21:30 I just played through the tombs and honestly, I think it's less about the players lack of critical thinking than the devs not really putting those mechanics and movements to use. Never really got to form any muscle memories, or actual memories of them. The tombs felt like the first time I hade to use them. And I swear the eject on top of that glass stained cross there barely works... Might be the mouse and keyboard controls, but I'm not sure.
Will we get an AC1 video? I would be so hyped for that, especially if it got some extra spice of _"what Mirage misunderstood about AC1"_ elements, although of course you're videos are typically more about appreciating what's there rather than lamenting about the newer games.
it is not that deep. if you are creative stealth gameplay connosiuer( aka dishonored1 fan) than mirafe has better stealth mechanics, better stealth level design. but AC's identity lies in parkour and decisive combat. in which Altair/Ezio games revel in but Mirage failed miserably. open combat in mirage feels like $$$ and parkour is a massive downgrade from AC1 as well. thats honestly it
@@btchiaintkidding7837 I think thematically and story structure-wise there's still something to explore there, while re-examining AC1's strengths and weaknesses have plenty of value as well.
You know, the first 2 games i didn't pirate in my life was assassins creed 2 and brotherhood. They were 2 of the only pc single player games i bought. I couldn't say why at the time, but you certainly did.
another great video, I really enjoy these long form analysis, esp bc we mostly agree. this game is a bit hard for me to form a concise opinion on, bc I have just finished playing the AC2 trilogy, for the *first* time. I have played literally every other game in the franchise before these, so you could say I got sort of a reversed experience than the majority of the long-time players and fans. at the time AC2 came out, having only a pretty crude AC1 to compare it to, I bet it felt like a huge upgrade, and by the time the trilogy ended, a masterpiece for many. I kind of expected to view it differently in 2024, but in the first moments almost, while also understanding the pure nostalgia factor, it started to make sense why people still rave about it so much. sure it felt a bit old and janky compared to newer games, and yeah, the story may have been weird or nonsensical at times, but it also had that feeling of being, in a way, just right. over the years and games Ubisoft changed the formula slightly every time, being it mechanics, UI, different gameplay systems, weapons, controls etc. and I mostly found that jarring and annoying bc it rarely felt like an upgrade, so I was happy to finally play the game that jumpstarted most of it, and where it all seemed like it belonged (not totally polished, but that's understandable). I very much enjoyed learning about Ezio and his part in the bigger picture, and grew fond of him throughout his journey. I also learned more about the modern day story and how that connected, bc my first game was AC3 and when Desmond died it was more of a "oh..so this guy just dies..?" than "holy sh!t he dies", so it was a meaningful connecting tissue between AC1 and the rest of the games. overall, I can't tell if AC2 falls into my top 3 (the ranking lists are subjective anyway and don't really matter), I'm just glad I got to experience it and wasn't at all disappointed, quite the opposite.
I'm fine without crouching in stealth games. It usually just means that you stay crouched during the entirety of the stealth segment. I do think contextual crouching is a more interesting idea. If you go up to an object, then your character can snap to it an hide behind it.
I was thinking about picking up the Ezio Collection on Switch as someone who's never really played a mainline AC game, so I'm glad I found your channel! Not sure if you have a VR headset, but were you ever thinking about talking about AC Nexus?
Please consider doing a video about the various Assassin's Creed noveld thT have been published over the years. Assassin's Creed The Secret Crusade and Forsaken are the best ones in my opinion, especially the latter, which is a must read.
I stopped caring about AC after Origins. Origins isn't bad story-wise. It's just that RPG elements don't go well with AC. Ezio's story is the best but Edward has the best gameplay & Arno has the best parkour.
I would almost prefer an Assassin's Creed styled like the Hitman WOA trilogy. No open world, just sandboxes that give you a primary target(s) with some optional side content and collectibles. Condense the experience down to give it more focus: a few viewpoints to scale and increase your knowledge of the map, parkour challenges, intel you can gather from finding documents, overhearing conversations etc. Missions won't have an optional objective to improve synchronisation, just challenges and performance rated by time and clean, target only kills
It's still wild to consider that AC2 and the Ezio trilogy as a whole, were basically first try follow-ups to what was essentially a prototype project of AC1 that merely existed as a proof of concept and not much more. In 2009. They went above and beyond, and you can see how they thoroughly wanted to take that proven concept of AC1 and flesh it out in every way imaginable. That sense of "lets take what was proven great, and make it even better" approach has since been long lost, at the feet of formulaic greed leading to not a desire to make a great game, but rather a passable game that won't offend anyone. Games that "appeal to all markets", even if that appeal itself is miniscule.
I enjoy Black Flag far and away more than AC2. I'm not sorry. Everything after though, I either didn't bother or hated. I pushed through origins based off the glowing praise and wish I hadn't wasted my time on it.
I myself started out with AC Syndicate, and that is my favourite, I did enjoy Origins and Odyssey, but I just couldn't commit to Valhalla. These videos are brilliant at cohesively threading the appraisal and dissonance I feel with the franchise. Also my question: I know Syndicate is your least played title, but what did you like the most about it? I personally love the fight clubs, as simple as combat was, I'd say its among the most stylish we've had.
I love London as a City, and how full of content it is. Fight clubs, historical figures, dynamic events with the vehicles, the gang presence, all of that. I know some people wanted a darker iteration of Victorian London but I was happy to take the version that Ubisoft wanted to make, and I think they did a good job
The Jack the Ripper DLC was pretty great too. Mostly playing as an iteration of Jack the Ripper making enemies trip over themselves in fear was so fun, his death scream ability I especially liked.
to me unity s parkour and combat were the ones that were never allowed to flourish, if the bugs of the parkour were ironed out steadily and the combat was sped a bit but kept some challenge... oh dare i not dream what assasins creed would look like!
Unity really needed the mechanics of the older games. Catch ledge (I know it's technically in Unity) and manual wall/side ejects. Honestly, the original parkour system just needed a parkour down feature.
Unity combat leaves much to be desired.. especially the shooters in any combat scenario with more than 3-4 enemies.. the only way to avoid damage is to dodge.. and you cant dodge if you want to escape the encounter (like an assassin would).. literally game prevents dodging when you are running away.. sometimes Arno can be shot through buildings 🤣
Top 5: Ody, Orig, Uni, Synd, Val. I need a remake of this to fully get into it and give a proper judgement of it. I do think Eivor (male), Alex & Bayek are better characters than Ezio, wit much darker backstories
I agree that Ezios story is the best in the second game. My only problem with the story is that they jump ahead in time too much. One second Ezio is 26 and the next, he’s 40. Like whoa slow down, what happened in between? Plus even after such a huge time jump, the characters talk about past events like they happened yesterday. It feels weird man.
I had finished most of the games and lost a lot of interest in AC but then I saw the Ezio trioligy and decided why not buy it when I played AC2 I felt this connection with the game it was was a great game best story the only problem was that since it was so old the mechanics weren’t that great but it’s still my favourite
I agree that the memory of Assassin's Creed 2 is probably the best full package in the series. I still enjoy the series heavily, I'm currently in the middle of playing through all the games in release order (just started Origins), and I really enjoy both "styles" of AC, the action/adventure stealth games AND the RPGs. I REALLY hope AC Shadows is good, and it's really disappointing to see it get so much hate due to bigotry before it has even had its time in the sun. I'm even looking forward to AC Hexe, the idea of a Witch? During the witch hunts? And with fear mechanics like the Jack the Ripper DLC? That sounds so fucking cool to me. All this to say, I guess, that I'm pretty easy to please, and will probably enjoy this franchise until it dies.
Ezio collection itself is the best ever whats amazing is it never needs to be remade I play it everyday on switch and ps4 and been playing assassins creed since the orignal back in 07 Nothing beats the switch version so far of AC 2 Brotherhood and Revalations its nice on thier original systems but in 1080p they look way better on switch and 2nd best on ps4 and I miss the OG engines
personally if Ubisoft wasnt trashing its concepts left and right and let it fester and mature like From Soft does with its AC games (yes this can get confusing) or let them know its strides like how Bamco and Nintendo takes its AC games (yes yes), maybe Unity's parkour system would be robust enough that the simlation wont break for every unexpected turns you make in the game, as it stands right now why AC2 is the "pinnacle" is due to the fact they expounded a lot of what could be concepts from AC1, applied somewhat to AC3 call tree based parkour movement an upgrade but still fall short behind that due to not letting a system mature or reuse "assets" from other games imagine a stealth system in AC that has the robustness from the Splinter cell games I doubt they could do that unlike From Software apparently inject AC into Elden Ring sure its jank but it kinda works on a conceptual level take note Ubisoft holds a From Software AC title or 2
I'm replaying the whole Ezio Trilogy at this point, and I'm up to Revelations. My opinions on the game have reamined the same. AC2 has the best story but was lacking in side content, ACBH has some of the best side content but the worst controls (So damn sensitive and completely unresponsive at the same time, how the hell did they even do that) and ACRev had the best controls and movement but the weakest story and those weird as hell, but still pretty fun tower defense sections. ACRev was a game I would launch up for years even after I beat it just to run around the city and screw around. Only ever beat it once though. Brotherhood, I dropped it as soon as I was done with it, both the first time I beat it and this most recent time of beating it. I am gonna go and 100% all three of them though, since I've never gotten 100% an AC game before. AC brotherhood also introduced the mechanic that has always driven me insane with the optional objectives and sync %, I can't stand that shit because if you screw it up, you have to replay the entire mission all over again. I gave up on getting full sync on all missions when I snuck into the pope's house the first time because I got literally right to the end of it and got detected. I wasn't about to spend another 10 minutes breaking in. Brotherhood is also just really short and is probably my least favorite out of the 3.
Ubisoft needs to make smaller games for fans, like what they almost did with Mirage, but sadly they don't sell. Let's see the next page after Shadows, maybe the script will change depending on the success.
I feel like the truth puzzles doesnt get the recognition it deserves. It is probably the best presentation to a games lore and world that i have ever seen. Diving into this grand conspiracy going through all of human history and seeing the truth of human creation was mind blowing and kind of scary to see back in the day, mainly because it was done so well it felt kind of believable.
Fully agree with you
Yeah, and it didn't feel like a meaningless easter egg, but something the games were building towards. But then Revelations come and Desmond doesn't even ask 16 what the hell he was trying to say all this time...
@@S1DDUD yess the cryptic quality of the lore in AC2 is a huge part of what made the atmosphere of it so cool and different. They’ve tried to replicate that with lore drops in Valhalla and stuff but the presentation is totally different, it’s just dialogue in a cutscene
there is a sort of existential horror present in AC2-revelations regarding the Animus that they totally did away with and it’s too bad because it had a lot of potential
@@ekosovic I feel like Valhalla took many steps in the right direction. Might be an unpopular opinion but i did get a lot of old school AC vibes from that game. The animus anomalies brought back that creepy atmosphere like the truth puzzles, even though the truth puzzles are at a completely different level. The soundtrack gives off a lot of AC vibes thanks to Jesper Kyd coming back, and the story is actually pretty good if you filter out the 50 hours of filler content. There is also the modern day story that finally felt relevant and meaningful again.
Kind of? That stuff ignited the conspiracy theorist in me. A curiosity about the past i never knew i had. “The Truth” puzzles are stupidly close to the truth of our origins and how we’ve forgotten more then we know….
Its been said a thousamd times before, even on this channel, bit I feel it bears repeating.
The big downfall of Ubisoft as a whole, which has really plagued the AC franchise, is they just toss ideas out rather than iterating and expanding.
The switch to modern RPG AC is a bummer because it kind of feels like they never quite managed to actually make the assassin fantasy they had been promising since AC 1. Various amounts of jank and busted systems always keant the games fell at least a little short of what they could have been.
Personally, I wasnt sick of AC's systems, I just wanted to see them actually full realized.
Parkour has never quite felt right. Social stealth has never delievered quite the right toolset. The franchisenis full of a lot of '1 step forward, 2 steps back.'
That was my takeaway after 4 too. The games are great, but the lack of iteration feels like threading water whenever a new game comes out. Whenever new thing gets introduction you know it will be thrown out in the next one in favour of the next new thing.
I feel like this willingness to just throw things out was best shown in 3. Up until then every game had this promise that it was all building up to something with Desmond, that the gameplay and story was building towards us seeing modern day gameplay of Desmond taking up the mantle of his ancestors. Then they just jettisoned all of that purpose and meaning, without a second thought.
But maybe you're a deep lore fellow, and you remember the next best example, maybe an even bigger example if you weren't really looking for that modern AC experience, where they just killed off Juno in a random comic and abandoned that story line too.
Ubisoft wanted AC to be their own Call of Duty. The single decision of yearly releases is, in my opinion, the worst desision for this franchise.
@sorackamet5558 oh totally. That decision had so many knock on effects.
One of the things that was introduced to the series and then immediately dropped that I'm still, to this day, pissed off about is small in comparison to what you've all mentioned, but it aggravates me nonetheless: the Hookblade.
Revelations is still my favourite game in the series, and the hookblade is one of my favourite mechanics that was introduced. It had utility in both traversal and combat, and to see it immediately discarded by AC3 annoyed the hell out of me.
It feels like they tried to retool the concept with the grapnel from Syndicate, but it just seems to me to be a watered-down version of the hookblade, minus the combat utility, and with barely a tenth of the functionality outside of the zip line capability.
So we all agree that 8:28 is the single greatest moment in whole of AC franchise and maybe all of gaming, it certainly is mine ❤ It is a good life we lead brother ❤
Haven't gotten to that point in the video yet, but I already know what you're referring to, and I wholeheartedly agree!
I say I liked rouge song too was good It was a copy of ac2 but sure I love those too
It definitely is. Because from that point on, is when everything changed for Ezio.
kinda gay
I played AC II for the absolute first time as my first ac game 1 year ago in 2023. One of the best games ive ever played imo. It holds up extremely well.
It’s unbelievable how much the Ezio collection holds up and highlights how much story telling in the gaming industry as a whole has fell off and landed in the gutter.
ac 2 still feels like the biggest ac game. journeying through smaller very distinct cities is so much more grand than these kinds of gigantic amorphous blob worlds we've been getting recently.
No. Brotherhood and everything after Revelations are and feel bigger. But that's not necessarily a good thing.
Smaller worlds more densely populated will feel bigger and more immersive.
Unity feels bigger than Origins sometimes.. Especially when you fast travel everywhere.
@@Engille967 I disagree. I recently played the Ezio games back to back and I felt like Brotherhood was WAY shorter and smaller scale than AC2.
@@seiaka it was shorter but you can also do a lot more with the content you get. And that makes brotherhood better gameplay-wise. Also, most of the clunkiness was gone.
Yep. Nothing as small-world feeling as having a massive open world where everything feels the same and when you've explored 10%, you've explored 90%.
It's also why Night City in Cyberpunk works so well. It's not the biggest open world city ever, but its so well fleshed out and every street corner is uniquely cared for, so you can explore for a long time even in a small neighborhood district and still find so much worth your time.
Hands down you’re the best AC critic out there in my opinion.
MUSIC is my biggest disappointment in the series (plus the story). The soundtracks feel like they are just put over the game like a hat. That the game never stays quiet was one of the main reasons AC 1 and 2 had such a great atmosphere. Just remember wandering around Masyaf castle in AC 1, for me peak mystery atmosphere.
In recent installments music is constantly cut because every time you interact with anything you get a short black loading screen. The music gets stuck even in cutscenes 🤦♂️. It’s just baffling to me and I don’t understand why this is never criticized. So yeah, shout out to you Jay!
That means a lot, I appreciate it
This.
While not my biggest disappointment of AC, it's something that's just as important as the story/gameplay.
Odyssey was the first game that made me HATE the reuse of Ezio's Family, since it would play a neutered version on repeat every time you open up the map(congrats Ubi for somehow ruining one of the best OSTs in gaming).
Valhalla sparked my interest when I heard Jesper Kyd was returning, but even that wasn't enough to save the game since everything else managed to feel soulless.
The fall of AC was Ubisoft switching away from what made the series popular.
They didn't need to switch from the original formula to an RPG, They just needed to raise the levels of the mechanics in place.. The closest they got was AC Unity.. Which stills holds up today, imo.
They have an identity crisis. They wanted Origins to have a more of a "witcher feel" They seen the success of Ghost of Tsushima and decided then to do Fuedal Japan.
They seem to be trying to copy other successful games instead of focusing on themselves and how they can innovate their own success.
Yet I enjoyed Odyssey and Valhalla in their own ways. So while we had 3 games of straying from AC, I can't say that I would wish they weren't there.
@@kibathefang6022 It's a lot like So Says Jay's latest video to briefly summarize he essentially states "AC Brotherhood is a game that should've never been made but because we live in the timeline where it was made, I'm glad it's at least a great game".
He basically said that in reference to the fact Brotherhood started the trend of everything wrong with modern Assassin's Creed but it's still a great game.
To add onto that point, you can still enjoy a game but criticize it.
Odyssey and Valhalla may be good games but they're everything that Assassin's Creed isn't and should have just been fully separate games that weren't connected to AC, same goes for AC4 these games are fantastic games but they could've been so much more without the baggage of the AC series dragging them down and AC wouldn't feel like it lost its identity every time they decide to do a time period or gameplay style that doesn't make sense for the Assassin's Creed formula.
I think Ubisoft could try to save itself if they remade the original AC games (AC1-ACIII). I would love to play AC2 with improved graphics, bigger cities, enhanced parkour, more stealth options etc.
I don't think they're even capable or competent enough to do such a thing.
@@shira_yone They should hire me 😎 I know exactly what the remake should be like
would also be nice to play the spinoff games they had
please no
Is it a zoomer thing to want every video game in history remade?
Corey May. You will be missed massively
And Patrice Desilletes
I remember when I was in high school, and I wasn't terminally online. I loved AC1 and had no idea about there being a sequel. Then I got that Game Informer issue with Ezio on the front cover. Just seeing him with two hidden blades was mindblowing. I read the entire cover story, and my hype was immeasurable. Reading about all the advancements and improvements was insane. I remember everyone being obsessed with Modern Warfare 2 releasing, another legendary game, but I was way more hyped for AC2. I played the absolute hell out of that game. I'm glad you mentioned Ubisoft's better reputation back then. I agree that Ubisoft was the shit back in the day, and they were my favorite game publisher in high school. I was always excited for their E3 showcases. What a time to be alive. Damn I miss it.
When you talked about collecting feathers, it reminded me of something. Long time ago I came up with the idea how the feather could be implemented in a genius way into AC2. In hindsight, I'm surprised no one in Ubisoft had this idea, because it's brilliant and so obvious! You know how in AC games there are always eagles flying around viewpoints, right? What Ubisoft should have done is to tie collecting feathers to the viewpoints, to give both mechanics more purpose!
First of all, don't show viewpoints on the map. Players should have to find the viewpoints themselves by looking at the sky and finding eagles. At the top of every viewpoint, there should be an eagle's nest with a feather you can collect. This simple change would be a massive improvement for 2 reasons:
1. Feather locations would no longer feel random. Instead they would make sense, because eagle nests are obviously located on top of high buildings. This would make collecting feathers a more engaging activity. You wouldn't have to look up the map online or aimlessly wander the city in hopes of finding the random spot with a feather. Instead, locating feathers would be a cool side activity that requires you to observe the environment.
2. It would give Ezio a narrative justification for climbing viewpoints. As it is, Ezio climbs them for no apparent reason. It's just a videogamey mechanic for unfogging the map and nothing else. But with my idea, climbing viewpoints would become a meaningful activity. Ezio purposefully scales tall buildings to find eagle's feathers to honor Petruccio and to give solace to his mother. Completing each viewpoint would feel like next step in Ezio's progression and it'd serve as a reminder of what happened to Ezio's family. Personally, I would go even futher and give Ezio some inner monologue for every viewpoint/eagle's nest that he finds. A brief moment of introspection that lets us hear Ezio's thoughts on his family and what happened. Maybe a short story from Ezio's childhood. Or perhaps a deep dive into Ezio's psyche and emotions that drive him. This would be a very interesting side activity that directly ties into the story + it would give context to the iconic gameplay mechanic of climbing towers. Think about it! AC2 main title appears during that legendary scene with Ezio and Federico on top of a tower. Every next tower Ezio climbs would serve as a reminder of that moment.
The whole thing could work similar to Jin's inner monologue when he takes a bath in hot springs in Ghost of Tsushima.
beautiful.
Viewpoints unlock the map because more can be seen from higher up. Feathers appear everywhere, not just in bird nests. AC2 feathers give us another reason to do parkour
I think it's very apparent from the name alone why ezio climbs viewpoints.
@anna-flora999 nah. It's not established in AC2 even once that Ezio climbs towers to survey the area. The first tower in the game he literally climbs for fun with Federico. And for most of the game he's not even an Assassin. He doesn't conduct his own investigations like Altair did, and he was never trained to use high points to scan his surroundings. You're just assuming this is the case, but the game never says that.
My idea is better because it contextualizes the activity of climbing viewpoints. It would no longer be an artificial mechanic for unfogging the map. Instead, it would be a meaningful activity that ties directly into the plot, and creates opportunities to give Ezio some moments of introspection.
@@CinematicSeriesGaming I don't think we need to be explicitly told, the fact that it reveals the map tells us that Ezio is more aware of his surroundings. I know of no reason this should be linked to Assassin status
Your idea could be in there as well but I would prefer to still have feathers everywhere and use parkour to retrieve them. So maybe viewpoints could help us find them in some way. Certainly better than buying a map like we can in Brotherhood
I always felt like letting Rodrigo live was handled kind of sloppily. I get that it’s meant to signify Ezio’s growth, his acknowledgement that his family is never coming back so killing Rodrigo serves no purpose. But this feels like an epiphany he would have come to halfway through his journey, not at the very end. By this point he’s a true assassin, both in title and in his beliefs. He’s completely committed to the assassin ideals and he understands how dangerous Rodrigo is, even more so with his new found role in the Catholic Church. So letting him live doesn’t feel consistent with the lessons he’s learnt and the character growth he’s had. It feels like even after learning of how dangerous and evil the Templars are, instead of killing Rodrigo for the greater good, he just let him live because he realised his death would never bring his family back. It almost seems selfish from a guy who’s meant to have learnt so much and grown so wise and like a cheap way to bring Rodrigo back for the sequel.
The main mistake was making Rodrigo the bad guy. They knew they couldn't kill him off before his time and any narrative reason to keep him alive wouldn't be satisfactory.
@@bloodymares you mean because historically he wouldn’t die till years later?
@@liamdooley863 precisely
@@bloodymares yeah, you’re totally right. They often wrote themselves into a corner while trying to be historically accurate
@@liamdooley863 Well, in the book Assassin's Creed Renaissance the plot was mostly the same (except of some things like the absence of Piero de Medici), and the mission in Vatican took place after Savonarola's execution but there was the explicit 5-year time skip as well - Ezio became wiser, stronger and older, as he was 44 in 1503. And after entering the Vault and meeting Minerva, Ezio exited the Sistine Chapel witnessing Rogrigo's self-poisoning. It was changed to have an option to continue the story with Brotherhood, but, in my opinion, it could be handled much better.
The downfall of Ubisoft and Assassin's Creed is one of the biggest tragedies in all of gaming.
the very first piece of music i ever learnt on the piano as a kid was ezios family. safe to say this game meant alot to me growing up. its shaped me in such a way that i really wouldnt be who i am today without it.
i recently replayed it and realised just how much more i was picking up of the story/characters and how much there was to appreciate. while nostalgia definitely plays into this, i still also hold the opinion that ac2 is simply one of a kind. yes it has its flaws, yes the pacing would sometimes break the immersion or the world could feel a bit empty, but there is just something so special about it which i think you elaborate on really well in this video :) i found your point of the art style/graphics resembling actual paintings from the renaissance so good cause ive always thought the same! the art (incredible soundtrack included god bless jesper kyd) is such a driving force of this game and something that i as an artist and musician myself will always cherish. awesome video :)!
AC 2 is the Goat
This game brings back so many memories. I’ll always remember around Christmas time as a child I used to be nosey and snoop and this game was wrapped,it introduced me to the series and I also got caught right after the fight fight in the prologue😭 greatest 45 min of my 9 year old life
That title drop moment with "Ezio's Family" you mentioned will always stand out to me. Beautiful song!
I have to say, i never had anything negative to say about AC 2 other than the repetitive trailing missions. This was the first game that got me EMOTIONALLY and got me attached to every character. It was like watching a very good movie about revenge since the game felt personal. I think the franchise became more about the mechanics and graphics and forgot that the most attractive thing about a game is personal connection. The newer games while looking really good (but somehow having the worse kinds of cutscenes), take me out of the experience so often due to bloated side campaigns that i do not get to feel the main character's story as much as i did in the Ezio Trilogy.
The combination of the soundtrack and the setting is what does it for me with this game. I definitely played games that do most things better than AC2, but I just never played anything else that has the same atmosphere. For me, just the feeling of a game is enough to make me like it and come back to it, even if other similar games did most other things better.
Outstanding review. So incredibly thorough in examining every facet and appreciating how it works in tandem with all the other facets - not just within it's own game, but in the context of a series and in the time it was released. The respect for the creators and audience and your own personal experience is just overflowing. And all that in such an easily digestible explanation. You're doing great stuff on this channel, dude.
Hi Jay. I am here just to tell you that I love your vids. I love your tone, your voice and your dedicated work. I would watch hours and hours of videos like this one. I really hope that a larger audience come to know you in the future, because in my opinion you deserve many more subs and views. If my channel was in english, or if I talked about AC, I would certainly recommend your channel in my vids, maybe I would even invite you to come for my people to know you. But my audience is in spanish and I talk about The Lord of the Rings, not AC, not even videogames. And I am not fluent not confident enough with my english. But I hope that this message gets to you: there is people all around the world loving your work. I am from Barcelona and I watch every one of your AC vids without any exception. You have all my support.
I have more than 500 videos and 900k subs, so if there is a day when you need some feedback about ideas for your channel, or marketing questions, or anything that I can help you about... please, just ask me. It would be an honour for me to try to help you.
I sent you an email with a longer thank you as well but in case you don’t check that I want you to know that I really appreciate you commenting and watching my stuff! Clearly you’re doing well for yourself, and I’m happy to hear people around the world have enjoyed my content at least to some extent
I remember being so excited to play AC 2 after playing 1 that I put up with the game running exceptionally poor on my system (we are talking powerpoint presentation types of slow, I don't thibk it ever broke past 15 FPS) not once, but twice.
One of the details I miss most from AC 2 was how your armour would change appearance as you bought new parts. Health, in general, made much more sense in the Ezio trilogy than in the rest of the series, with health being mostly armour protecting the wearer from strikes and true flesh hits being lethal.
This was probably mostly because I was bad at it, but I remember liking the idea of the combat in AC2. Because I wasn’t very good at it I generally found I wasn’t equipped to take on multiple heavily armored enemies head on, so I went out of my way to prioritize those guys with stealth or with gadgets. In a way it made me feel like one of the more grounded depictions of someone like Batman, a skilled but light combatant who uses tricks and strategy to get an edge, which I thought suited the assassin concept well.
Same but I liked the animations for stealth as well so sometimes I would even restart to do everything without being found out.
Youre not supposed to take on multiple guards over 5 id say at once remember Ezio was just a boy with basic training, but a fire in his belly and some first Civ DNA sprinkled on top. The jokes are so good too
@@rizzle3272 yeah, that was the general vibe I got. I’ve heard that once you really get the hang of AC II combat it becomes relatively trivial, but I never got to that point. So rather than feeling like a one man walking army (like other similar games can make you feel) I felt more like a clever and scrappy combatant who probably wouldn’t be able to take all of those guards in a straight fight, but I could handle things if given a small edge like stealth or a smoke bomb.
It actually formed decent ludonarrative harmony. My abilities in a straight fight felt on par with what the narrative seemed to think Ezio was capable of.
I really miss the times when adding another entry to a franchise aimed at advancing and adding more to said franchise instead of whatever heap of garbage way of corporate thinking now. Assassin's Creed 2 really fits in that mindset, it took the first game and made something completely else for better and in some more rare cases, for worse. Other entries like Brotherhood and such added stuff yes but it never felt like what we had during AC 2.
The puzzle tombs in AC 2 are for me unmatched by any other game. I don't know who was on the team for those tombs but they were true artists
Anytime one of your videos shows up in my feed, I know I’m in for a treat.
I’ll never forget being 11-12 years old in the little game room downstairs on my shitty little CRTV at night, uncovering the conspiracy behind AC2’s lore via puzzles and the hidden symbols and being totally enthralled by the environmental storytelling & creepy ambiance and the mystery behind subject 16. you can totally feel the love and dedication from the team to telling an entirely new story with AC2 that I have come to accept we will probably never feel in this franchise again. At this point I just appreciate and love it for what it was in my life because regardless of what they do with the franchise in the future, it’ll never reach the same significance for me & many other people and that’s ok
AC4 multiplayer parkour is literally Ezio system but with new sprint animation, now you can beam flip without a horse, and sound effects are updated, it even zooms out like ezio games
so AC4 multiplayer in terms of parkour honestly might be the best parkour in the franchise ever.
why is no one talking about this ?
it blew my mind when i realized that the multiplayer doesnt have the same as the base game singleplayer campaign , instead it replaced it with ezio system . meaning the engine can implement tge old parkour but they just refuse to do so
Because only a small fraction of the playerbase ever played MP, and the servers are systematically killed when newer entries come out.
@@khankhomrad8855
Thats not what i am asking.
kenway trilogy is made on AnvilNext engine. and we know that AnvilNext engine CAN do ezio trilogy's parkour system, cuz they literally did it on AC4/blackflag's multiplayer with ezio beamflip, directional grab, classic wall ejects, zoomed out camera and everything.
Origins unity etc all use updated "Anvil" engine (known as rpg engine by fans). but devs and experts/programmers cringe and say "no no dont call it rpg engine or anything, it is the same AnvilNext but improved and updated bro" so it is just a rebrand of the same AnvilNext according a video from this channel .
Since Mirage's whole selling point was "Back to the roots" then why tf not just update and reiterate upon AC4's multiplayer parkour system aka updated Ezio system, instead of this whole game updates for mirage trying to mimick the OG parkour system(and failing miserably). they could have just put the actual OG system instead of whatever they currently they have in mirage which looks like a downgrade: no sense of momentum, basim having an invisible jetpack, inferior wall ejects. Even the new combat looks and feels worse than Ezio games, no impact no weight.
like wtf.
@@khankhomrad8855I remember playing Brotherhood multiplayer when it came out, THAT was social stealth. Absolutely some of the best multiplayer design I ever engaged with and I’m sad it seemed like that approach died so fast. Even culture wise I remember I dropped into an AC4 Multiplayer game way back when an the way people played was different, more sprinting around, compared to the initial brotherhood launch where a lot of people played it stealthy
@@florenceforbush63 Oh for sure. I was fortunate enough to play about three matches in Brotherhood and the MP was amazing. Some of the best Stealth PvP out there.
I've been replaying the original Mercenaries. It's a surprisingly thoughtful game despite how it advertises itself, and I don't think the developers quite realized the appeal of what they had created, which partly explains how the sequel turned out (An idea supported by a few of the post-mortems that were included in the recent source code leak.) It's from the era you mentioned in the video where everyone was still trying to figure out just what an open world sandbox could be, and I would say there hasn't been anything quite like it since. You're given almost complete freedom in how you tackle missions, and the difficulty is punishing enough that you're rewarded for learning its mechanics and outside the box thinking. It's still rough around the edges, some of the aforementioned mechanics are quite opaque to use just one example, but it's incredibly satisfying when you're able to successfully pull off a risky plan. I honestly can't think of many other games in the genre with the same level of emergent gameplay.
Despite falling off the series after origins and kinda being disillusioned by a lot of critics of games like AC, i truly do think you make the best and balanced essays that feel they have a composure to them that others do not (likely because of your love for the series as a whole, without it blinding you). I may not agree with you on everything but you treat differences of opinion not as fact and so it doesn't feel insulting to hear, which is refreshing for the most part as you don't parrot the common talking points for the series at the time. I really appreciate your insight and the way you both balance the positives and negatives and remind me of my nostalgia and appreciation for this series.
It's videos like these that i do wonder to myself what a remake of 2/brotherhood may look like. Considering we have these games already, I would be open to more drastic changes to certain areas, although I wouldn't want changes to the modern day combat/ psrkour. I am not necessarily asking for the worlds to be much bigger as I prefer smaller condensed worlds, but more like adding in certain mechanics from other games into these earlier ones, such as adding in more player choice for free running and getting certain agency like in AC1 which can easily be adjusted in accessibility options (like insomniac Spider-Man) but also world traversal options like those added in the dlc (like those bouncing poles to cover gaps), brotherhood (the lifts in certain areas or horses for possibly bigger cities), this could also include changes to the combat to incentivise not optimising the fun out by possibly having customisable levels for guard agression and counter windows etc, as well as basic changes that reward the player for using different weapons and skills in the arsenal. As well as adding side content in the open world like more engaging enemy camps in 2, also improving animations, textures and models, adding extra stories that could thematically fit in at better points (like unlocking Christina missions from brotherhood when they would've taken place or recreating content from bloodlines) and adding mechanics from even revelations (such as the notoriety system and stalkers) and fixing issues with the plot. You could have many issues rewritten or reordered to be better like incorporating parts from the books that flesh out certain themes, have foreshadowing with mentions of Machiavelli earlier on, having Ezio be actually outplayed during the attack on the Medici family and rewriting the villain confessionals to give them depth much like in the books (Vieri de'Pazzi sticks in my mind with how he was also a child forced to go through the same torment of Ezio), and more. As much as I would love for Rome to be included to make it a fully immersive world, I think the main issue is narrative wise in which Ezio would suddenly have Monteriggioni be destroyed cutting off those mechanics and suddenly having all the assassin brotherhood mechanics as well, which works better when split into two games.
Overall I would just want it to be a love letter to the games and franchise by also fixing issues and modernising these games, by referencing the books/side content and make it feel like parts were planned from the beginning, as well as giving an actual upgrade and changed experience that although not everyone would love, many would appreciate it (im looking at you ff7 remake)
I've been looking forward to your next long form video so much
My goal is to make a video on Brotherhood in October and Revelations in November, so hopefully you won’t have to wait long for the next one
@@sosaysjay I didn't mean to come off as insistent, take your time. You make quality videos and I enjoy listening to your thoughts.
Although I enjoyed black flag and the American revolution, AC turned into a rinse and repeat cash grab instead of finite series following the epic adventure of Desmond to a conclusion. It’s a daring gamble to squeeze as many iterations as possible out of a game series. They/we would have been better served with a planned finite series with well thought out writing. There’s a lot to be said for moving on to something new/different. You can’t make the same game forever.
What a fantastic vid! I'm glad the YT algorithm brought me to your channel. Subbed and excited to watch your other content.
That is kind of you, thank you
Awesome Video! It has been years since I've played AC2 and this trip down memory lane was really satisfying, thanks for that 😊
One thing that becomes more apparent to me with many of your videos is that I have genuinely no idea what the modern story was all about or to what conclusions it lead. Ive played most AC Games, but have never really pieced together what really happened with that side of the narrative.
Most of it went over my head as a child when playing the early games where modern stuff was most prominent and in the new games it feels like I occasionally get glimpses of a plot that I lack many critical information about because of that.
Is there a comprehensive review/critique of the overarching plot of these games on UA-cam? I would be really interested to finally have all of this laid out without scouring some wikis for hours on end 😅
You sly dog, you're asking end of video questions for engagement, aren't you?
Well, you got me, because you deserve the engagement: I've been playing the Dishonoured series. I finally let go of needing to do everything perfectly and just let myself mess up and recover from those mess-ups, and it's made me appreciate them a lot more - as has taking the time to actually read about and take in the world, courtesy of some vague notion of running a TTRPG set there some day.
Shame about the absolute drags that are the hub levels though.
I love the Dishonored games, 100%ed those are while back as well. As much as I liked the first game I got really attached to the creativity of Dishonored 2, especially with the Crack in the Slab and the Mechanical Mansion
im not sure comment engagement still works after the bot epidemic happened
@@sosaysjay I have played all games in the series but still only like the first one and its dlc
Very well written and well spoken video, highly enjoyed
It's my favourite too but for me it's less about the gameplay mechanics and more about the aesthetics. I just think AC2 is the most beautiful and charming game in the series.
There's just something about its design which has always been so cool and captivating to me. Nostalgia undoubtedly plays a role too but even without that I'd say it has the best art and sound design in the series.
And I'll never forget that ending, I was so unbelievably hyped for AC3 after I finished this.
AC2 and Black Flag are the GOATS
Man that ending was heartbreaking, truly. It did also get me extrodinarily hyped for the presumed modern desmond AC game it seemed to be setting up. oh well
indie game recs? while it is early access, I've quite enjoyed my time with old school rally so far. an arcade rally game where the physics are juuust right
8:37 nowadays I literally start tearing up at this introduction, what a story
Aside from beautiful and diverse world and very fun way to traverse it good gameplay and music the game had a lot of charm a lot of soul and the story made you feel a connection to the character where you felt completely immersed.
I know and understand why many people consider the emptiness of early open world games to be a flaw or a sign of dated game desing, but honestly I like it and I disagree with that assesment. AC1, AC2, Infamous, Prototype, they all had complex and engaging movement systems that made the traversal fun and active, so the open world was there as a playground to explore those mechanics, rather than to complete missions on a list.
Also I will fight you over the use of "fun over realism", because it implies realism isn't fun (which is obviously incredibly subjective).
Also also I wanna point out a correction: counter kill isn't the fastest way to solve a combat encounter, is the easiest, and that's what players are always gonna choose better. That's the reason why a lot of players criticized that system back in the day.
My favourite I still listen to Jesper Kid’s soundtrack on Spotify the music is so smoothing
Well now you’ve put me in the mood to play the ezio collection
Your videos are always great, dude. I don't always agree but I always find what you have to say interesting.
I definitely agree on the Arkham comparison -- incidentally it's also disappointing that IMO those games did the stealth (at least, the non-social stealth) better than AC as well despite coming out at around the same time. Brotherhood fixed the flaws of AC2's combat for me but I still feel like the stealth was always lacking in the Ezio trilogy despite still having a lot of fun with it (in Brotherhood and Revelations at least, I personally found AC2's level design a bit clunkier at points *cough* sequence 13 boat assassination). I also agree that it's frustrating how a lot of the subsequent games did some things better but then took steps backward in other directions.
Story-wise, though, I still feel like the journey Ezio goes through in Brotherhood and especially Revelations (as that game actually involved him ruminating on the creed itself and on the legacy of Altair, something we didn't get a whole lot of in AC2 since he collects the codex pages and all but he never really talks about them) added a lot more to his character, and while I can appreciate how his story ended in AC2, I gotta say I prefer where his character ultimately ended up over the course of the trilogy.
YEEAAAAAHHH! A new one about classic AC, lets gooooo!!!
Some of the weirdness around Rodrigo Borgia's 'not-death' at the end of ACII is related to some original intentions being muddied in the run-up to producing Brotherhood. Originally sequence 14 took place in 1503, not 1499 as in the finished product. This is evidenced by the database entry you get for the Sistine Chapel, in which Shaun jokingly references that you can't climb on the famous 'finger of god' painting on the ceiling yet, saying it wasn't painted in, you guessed it, 1503. (The same entry is updated in Brotherhood to say 1508 instead, reflecting that game's ending date, although Brotherhood actually ends in 1507, so it introduces a small additional error)
In the Renaissance novelisation of ACII, which adapts cut content such as the Cristina memories or the appearance of Piero de Medici, after emerging from the vault Borgia commits suicide by taking poison. This is to imply that his historically recorded death by illness was in fact poison, similar to how he dies in Brotherhood as well. The original death taking place outside the vault in 1503 is almost certainly the intention behind Ezio sparing him in ACII, rather than to set-up Brotherhood's plot with Cesare. This was likely never intended to be directly shown in-game however, as it would majorly affect the final scene with Minerva to interject anything else before flashing back to Desmond. The Brotherhood novel adds another retcon, by having Rodrigo take the poison before Ezio enters the vault, and the dosage simply not being enough to kill him so it can fit the events of its story.
I'm excited for India Jones and the Great Circle in December it looks really
good.
I agree with most of what you said but I think AC2 holds up just as well today as it did back then. I know it's not just because of nostalgia because relatively speaking, I'm a fairly new fan of that trilogy. I didn't play these games for the first time until 2021 and loved it.
Ubisoft should take a break from making games and just remake the first 5 AC games (I-III). They’ve clearly lost their ability to talk a good story or make fun games anymore. So they should just faithfully remake their actually good games while they figure out who to fire and hire
Currently replaying through the Ezio games at the moment, as when I played through them as a kid, I never did a lot of the side content. Ezio's Family always gives me chills. ITs not just a beautiful track, not just a tone setter for the game, it feels like the brotherhood. It has a bit of an ethereal feel to it, it gives that sense of emotion. AC2 is in many ways where we got to properly meet the brotherhood and its creed, from an outsider coming in, like us. In these games the creed part of the name felt like it mattered, it became a driving point for our actions. The brotherhood stood as a defence against the templars getting the PoEs and in turn dismantled their infrastructure and control. It was a natural progress, which feel like was lost sometime after black flag.
I love the series, I love the idea of the Assassin's, and I hate that Ubisoft's only means of keeping their story going is by making them borderline incompetent.
I've been looking at these games from the side for years now, but this video got me to play AC2, and for that I can't thank you enough. It feels strangely fresh despite being 15 years old... Though the PC port being so poorly done is a little sour product of the times, but it's managable.
21:30 I just played through the tombs and honestly, I think it's less about the players lack of critical thinking than the devs not really putting those mechanics and movements to use. Never really got to form any muscle memories, or actual memories of them. The tombs felt like the first time I hade to use them. And I swear the eject on top of that glass stained cross there barely works... Might be the mouse and keyboard controls, but I'm not sure.
babe wake up new so says jay video
Will we get an AC1 video? I would be so hyped for that, especially if it got some extra spice of _"what Mirage misunderstood about AC1"_ elements, although of course you're videos are typically more about appreciating what's there rather than lamenting about the newer games.
it is not that deep.
if you are creative stealth gameplay connosiuer( aka dishonored1 fan) than mirafe has better stealth mechanics, better stealth level design.
but AC's identity lies in parkour and decisive combat. in which Altair/Ezio games revel in but Mirage failed miserably. open combat in mirage feels like $$$ and parkour is a massive downgrade from AC1 as well. thats honestly it
@@btchiaintkidding7837 I think thematically and story structure-wise there's still something to explore there, while re-examining AC1's strengths and weaknesses have plenty of value as well.
AC2 has its flaws and so much potential. I love the review. I feel you are being very fair
I got a world record time in one of the virtual training missions, I was 15 and stupidly proud!
You know, the first 2 games i didn't pirate in my life was assassins creed 2 and brotherhood.
They were 2 of the only pc single player games i bought.
I couldn't say why at the time, but you certainly did.
Welp , time to replay the ezio collection again
another great video, I really enjoy these long form analysis, esp bc we mostly agree.
this game is a bit hard for me to form a concise opinion on, bc I have just finished playing the AC2 trilogy, for the *first* time. I have played literally every other game in the franchise before these, so you could say I got sort of a reversed experience than the majority of the long-time players and fans. at the time AC2 came out, having only a pretty crude AC1 to compare it to, I bet it felt like a huge upgrade, and by the time the trilogy ended, a masterpiece for many. I kind of expected to view it differently in 2024, but in the first moments almost, while also understanding the pure nostalgia factor, it started to make sense why people still rave about it so much. sure it felt a bit old and janky compared to newer games, and yeah, the story may have been weird or nonsensical at times, but it also had that feeling of being, in a way, just right.
over the years and games Ubisoft changed the formula slightly every time, being it mechanics, UI, different gameplay systems, weapons, controls etc. and I mostly found that jarring and annoying bc it rarely felt like an upgrade, so I was happy to finally play the game that jumpstarted most of it, and where it all seemed like it belonged (not totally polished, but that's understandable). I very much enjoyed learning about Ezio and his part in the bigger picture, and grew fond of him throughout his journey. I also learned more about the modern day story and how that connected, bc my first game was AC3 and when Desmond died it was more of a "oh..so this guy just dies..?" than "holy sh!t he dies", so it was a meaningful connecting tissue between AC1 and the rest of the games.
overall, I can't tell if AC2 falls into my top 3 (the ranking lists are subjective anyway and don't really matter), I'm just glad I got to experience it and wasn't at all disappointed, quite the opposite.
Bros has been cooking 🔥
ACII is absolutely greater than the sum of its parts. It's just good across the board.
Peak Video about my Favourite Game oat
Thank you so much
I love ALL So Says Jay videos!!!! ❤
That is kind of you, thank you
I'm fine without crouching in stealth games. It usually just means that you stay crouched during the entirety of the stealth segment.
I do think contextual crouching is a more interesting idea. If you go up to an object, then your character can snap to it an hide behind it.
I play the ezio trilogy every summer even though it feels hella clunky to play sometimes especially when I gotta side eject
I was thinking about picking up the Ezio Collection on Switch as someone who's never really played a mainline AC game, so I'm glad I found your channel! Not sure if you have a VR headset, but were you ever thinking about talking about AC Nexus?
Please consider doing a video about the various Assassin's Creed noveld thT have been published over the years. Assassin's Creed The Secret Crusade and Forsaken are the best ones in my opinion, especially the latter, which is a must read.
I stopped caring about AC after Origins. Origins isn't bad story-wise. It's just that RPG elements don't go well with AC. Ezio's story is the best but Edward has the best gameplay & Arno has the best parkour.
Worst part about the parkour system is that they did make more but locked it, there is a mod that unlocks the parkour freedom.
I would almost prefer an Assassin's Creed styled like the Hitman WOA trilogy. No open world, just sandboxes that give you a primary target(s) with some optional side content and collectibles.
Condense the experience down to give it more focus: a few viewpoints to scale and increase your knowledge of the map, parkour challenges, intel you can gather from finding documents, overhearing conversations etc.
Missions won't have an optional objective to improve synchronisation, just challenges and performance rated by time and clean, target only kills
Another top notch script for this video.
Keep up the good work!
That means a lot, thank you. I checked out your channel, your AC4 video is really well done
It’s literally the best and I will never stop playing it every once in a while
This nostalgic review is far too underrated.
It's still wild to consider that AC2 and the Ezio trilogy as a whole, were basically first try follow-ups to what was essentially a prototype project of AC1 that merely existed as a proof of concept and not much more. In 2009. They went above and beyond, and you can see how they thoroughly wanted to take that proven concept of AC1 and flesh it out in every way imaginable. That sense of "lets take what was proven great, and make it even better" approach has since been long lost, at the feet of formulaic greed leading to not a desire to make a great game, but rather a passable game that won't offend anyone. Games that "appeal to all markets", even if that appeal itself is miniscule.
18:55
Haven't played an AC game since revelations and I didn't know they removed catch ledge💀💀💀
Finally someone talks about it, parkour has been getting worse since ac3, it wasn’t a new problem with the rpg games
My goat has once again uploaded a video which is 50 MINS LONG!. im so excited to watch this no glaze 😭😭😭😭🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
I hope you enjoy the video! Thank you for watching
@@sosaysjay it was really good and i agreed with your points.
Great video! 100% agree
I enjoy Black Flag far and away more than AC2. I'm not sorry. Everything after though, I either didn't bother or hated. I pushed through origins based off the glowing praise and wish I hadn't wasted my time on it.
Even Rogue?
No reason to be sorry about liking a great game
I myself started out with AC Syndicate, and that is my favourite, I did enjoy Origins and Odyssey, but I just couldn't commit to Valhalla.
These videos are brilliant at cohesively threading the appraisal and dissonance I feel with the franchise.
Also my question: I know Syndicate is your least played title, but what did you like the most about it? I personally love the fight clubs, as simple as combat was, I'd say its among the most stylish we've had.
I love London as a City, and how full of content it is. Fight clubs, historical figures, dynamic events with the vehicles, the gang presence, all of that. I know some people wanted a darker iteration of Victorian London but I was happy to take the version that Ubisoft wanted to make, and I think they did a good job
The Jack the Ripper DLC was pretty great too.
Mostly playing as an iteration of Jack the Ripper making enemies trip over themselves in fear was so fun, his death scream ability I especially liked.
to me unity s parkour and combat were the ones that were never allowed to flourish, if the bugs of the parkour were ironed out steadily and the combat was sped a bit but kept some challenge... oh dare i not dream what assasins creed would look like!
Unity really needed the mechanics of the older games. Catch ledge (I know it's technically in Unity) and manual wall/side ejects.
Honestly, the original parkour system just needed a parkour down feature.
Unity combat leaves much to be desired.. especially the shooters in any combat scenario with more than 3-4 enemies.. the only way to avoid damage is to dodge.. and you cant dodge if you want to escape the encounter (like an assassin would).. literally game prevents dodging when you are running away.. sometimes Arno can be shot through buildings 🤣
In terms of a sequel, this improves everything the original established
I'll agree with AC2 as the peak AC game, my fav still goes to Brotherhood.
Top 5: Ody, Orig, Uni, Synd, Val. I need a remake of this to fully get into it and give a proper judgement of it. I do think Eivor (male), Alex & Bayek are better characters than Ezio, wit much darker backstories
One thing i know is game directors do not play the new games anymore from sfart to finish and can say this game is fun
I agree that Ezios story is the best in the second game. My only problem with the story is that they jump ahead in time too much. One second Ezio is 26 and the next, he’s 40. Like whoa slow down, what happened in between? Plus even after such a huge time jump, the characters talk about past events like they happened yesterday. It feels weird man.
I had finished most of the games and lost a lot of interest in AC but then I saw the Ezio trioligy and decided why not buy it when I played AC2 I felt this connection with the game it was was a great game best story the only problem was that since it was so old the mechanics weren’t that great but it’s still my favourite
alright now do one talking about how Brotherhood and Revelations do or don’t improve on the systems and ideas in AC2
I agree that the memory of Assassin's Creed 2 is probably the best full package in the series. I still enjoy the series heavily, I'm currently in the middle of playing through all the games in release order (just started Origins), and I really enjoy both "styles" of AC, the action/adventure stealth games AND the RPGs.
I REALLY hope AC Shadows is good, and it's really disappointing to see it get so much hate due to bigotry before it has even had its time in the sun. I'm even looking forward to AC Hexe, the idea of a Witch? During the witch hunts? And with fear mechanics like the Jack the Ripper DLC? That sounds so fucking cool to me.
All this to say, I guess, that I'm pretty easy to please, and will probably enjoy this franchise until it dies.
AC3 is my favorite to play but I like most of them except the obvious odyssey
Went back last week. Shit was so boring, it made me miss AC1.
I will gladly sacrifice having tons of side content if it means a strong main content.
Ezio collection itself is the best ever whats amazing is it never needs to be remade I play it everyday on switch and ps4 and been playing assassins creed since the orignal back in 07 Nothing beats the switch version so far of AC 2 Brotherhood and Revalations its nice on thier original systems but in 1080p they look way better on switch and 2nd best on ps4 and I miss the OG engines
Someone needs to send this to the head of operations at abster... I mean ubisoft.
personally if Ubisoft wasnt trashing its concepts left and right and let it fester and mature like From Soft does with its AC games (yes this can get confusing) or let them know its strides like how Bamco and Nintendo takes its AC games (yes yes), maybe Unity's parkour system would be robust enough that the simlation wont break for every unexpected turns you make in the game, as it stands right now why AC2 is the "pinnacle" is due to the fact they expounded a lot of what could be concepts from AC1, applied somewhat to AC3 call tree based parkour movement an upgrade but still fall short behind that due to not letting a system mature or reuse "assets" from other games imagine a stealth system in AC that has the robustness from the Splinter cell games I doubt they could do that unlike From Software apparently inject AC into Elden Ring sure its jank but it kinda works on a conceptual level
take note Ubisoft holds a From Software AC title or 2
I miss the excitement I felt seeing ubisoft drop a new game... now I'm jusst disapointed.
I'm replaying the whole Ezio Trilogy at this point, and I'm up to Revelations. My opinions on the game have reamined the same. AC2 has the best story but was lacking in side content, ACBH has some of the best side content but the worst controls (So damn sensitive and completely unresponsive at the same time, how the hell did they even do that) and ACRev had the best controls and movement but the weakest story and those weird as hell, but still pretty fun tower defense sections. ACRev was a game I would launch up for years even after I beat it just to run around the city and screw around. Only ever beat it once though. Brotherhood, I dropped it as soon as I was done with it, both the first time I beat it and this most recent time of beating it.
I am gonna go and 100% all three of them though, since I've never gotten 100% an AC game before.
AC brotherhood also introduced the mechanic that has always driven me insane with the optional objectives and sync %, I can't stand that shit because if you screw it up, you have to replay the entire mission all over again. I gave up on getting full sync on all missions when I snuck into the pope's house the first time because I got literally right to the end of it and got detected. I wasn't about to spend another 10 minutes breaking in. Brotherhood is also just really short and is probably my least favorite out of the 3.
Ubisoft needs to make smaller games for fans, like what they almost did with Mirage, but sadly they don't sell. Let's see the next page after Shadows, maybe the script will change depending on the success.
Strange there’s no indie games focused on social stealth? I guess it’s a hard sell as a gameplay focus.
AC2 is second best. Black Flag is the goat. In my humble opinion.
Signalis mentioned 🗣🗣🗣