The cinematic storytelling techniques they used in those other games, the use of the camera itself, the different angles, the different kinds of shots, and the blocking of the actors as to where they stand, where they move within the frame - it's a crafted and curated approach. The newer games though? It's an assembly line approach, with very basic camera set ups. Character A says something, the camera focuses on them. Character B replies, the camera focuses on them. And back and forth as their conversation happens.
That is true, the thing is that they are too busy putting a focus on big expansive open worlds than focusing on the characters and story, this is why the games lack depth and emotion. That "It's an assembly line approach" is a really good saying lol😂👍 I might use it lol
They hire different camera director/supervisor, that's why it looks so downgrade. Crafting a cinematic scene with camera takes a lot of talent and every single director are unique. The one they hire for Odyssey, Vallhala, and Mirage is just sucks
Yeah finally someone talks about this. I fucking hate these awful cutscenes, they have no soul. Bring back the good old traditional cutscenes and leave this shit behind
It's crazy how that game got dogged on back in the day. The controversy surrounding that games launch is literal child's play compared to what we get now. I'm not making excuses for Unity, but it is funny how it's only gotten worse since then.
@@bilbobaggins9451 yeah, Cyberjunk comes to my mind, that garbage set the bar even lower than what happen with Unity. If Unity will be out nowadays, will get only praises and defenses, the community got used to broken games after Cyberjunk 171.
Cutscene wise my favorite is definitely Black Flag. The dialogue, performances, scene direction and whatnot are absolutely amazing. They're so detailed and poetic too. For example each character moves and acts completely differently/has their own kind of swagger in a way that heightens characterization. Edward moves very differently from Blackbeard for example, who moves very differently from James Kidd, who moves very differently from Adewale....Rackham....Vane....Bonny....Stede etc. The sheer amount of body language and casual fidgeting is also better than even in many movies, and tell a story of their own. Take the scene where James Kidd wakes Edward up by hitting him with a stick for example. Edward grabs the stick and throws it away annoyed, and as the two start talking Kidd walks over to pick the stick back up and starts hitting some random plants with it. Throughout that entire scene she keeps on fidgeting with the stupid stick, like she has some type of childish attachment to that particular stick (relatable btw😅). None of that has anything to do with the dialogue, it's just there to add character and to give the players a better idea of their unique personalities. I feel like there wasn't as much attention to such detail in Unity and Syndicate. Yes those games have smoother movement, better graphics and more realistic looking character models, but the characters aren't as distinguishable if it weren't for their voice and appearance. I also don't think the scenes are as poetic/symbolic in those two games. In Black Flag every camera angle, location, color scheme, weather circumstance etc. felt like it had a purpose and fit the mood and dialogue of that particular scene perfectly. Yes the Unity scene with Bellec is pretty cinematic, but other than that one and the one at the end with Elise, nothing really stood out to me as much. Meanwhile Black Flag is filled with those types of cinematic scenes, but with an added symbolism to them on top of that. Almost every scene in Black Flag completely outshines anything in Unity and Syndicate and I honestly believe it's got some of the best cutscenes I've ever seen in games in general.
THANK YOU. No one talks about how robotic the new cutscenes are since Odyssey. It dampens the experience heavily for me. I find it strange that this is a problem in Mirage too bc this game is much smaller than its two predecessors. I hope at some point they can get back to the quality of the games before Odyssey. Good video as always!
Finally a video about it. It's insane how much Ubisoft downgraded their cutscenes. It's not only in Assassin's Creed now but also in Far Cry 6. I couldn't believe when I saw how robotic the characters were after Far Cry 5, where cutscenes could be mistaken for a film. They were that good! In Mirage it feels like Ubisoft went even more back in time because the animations in cutscenes seem to be even worse than in Ezio's trilogy. While it could be partially excused in Odyssey and Valhalla due to the size of those games, Mirage is a much smaller game where they could put more focus on that aspect. I don't know whether they want to cut the costs by not doing mocap or they're just lazy.
I have been thinking this exact same thing! I thought I was being biased cause all cutscenes I remembered was from "smaller" cutscenes or from those dialogue option conversations, but I'm happy to hear that other people feel the same
Finally more people talking about this i replayed unity before mirage came out and I was genuinely confused why a 10 year old game looked way better and smoother
Ubisoft took ideas from other RPGs and executed those ideas poorly. In The Witcher III, a game that they drew heavy inspirations from, Geralt’s interactions are greatly expressive. Even though you still have the have the focus on the face when choosing dialogues, Geralt usually sits and stands in different positions, as well as moving around to interact. From Origins to Mirage the protagonists just stared at the NPCs and moved like mannequins like waving their arms around violently for no reason (Origins is the least offender but is still uninspiring)
The scene where Connor finally confronts Charles Lee is the pinnacle of AC3 cutscenes. No dialog, no memory corridors, just body language and top-notch physical acting. A shining example of “show, don’t tell.” If the 7th-gen graphics didn’t give it away I’d be fooled into thinking it was a scene out of HBO’s John Adams. How did we go from this to the paint-by-numbers “cinematography” of Mirage?
I like Mirage as a game. I like the story. But if the cutscenes' presentation aspect was better and done with motion capture, I would be able to connect to these characters a lot more. I understand why motion capture for games like Odyssey and Valhalla wasn't as used because the scope of those games is massive with so many quests and even dialogue choices for two different genders, but for a smaller game like Mirage, I thought Ubisoft would bring motion capture back. In the end, I don't blame the developers, because this was obviously a smaller project so they probably didn't get the money and time from the top. I hope AC Red despite its scale can get that more cinematic feel back.
What I just can’t understand is why ubisoft chose to make games since unity so “doll-like”. AC 1 through Unity sought out to create more realistic scenerys and humanlike characters, so while it does save money (I guess(?)), I can’t picture a single argument for the childish depictions that are being made by ubisoft. Almost like going from a photograph to claymation graphics. Realistic scenerys and characters made the game so much more immersive
It felt like they were passionate about them through Unity then just became worried about getting something out. Mirage could've/should've been the best game in the series! They knew we wanted a true AC game but that passion is gone.
I’m still a fan of handcrafted animations the movements feels snappier and quicker in my opinion but when motion capture is done right I also still love it. I have no idea what is going on with the RPGs. Maybe they should scale back down a little
AC2 holds up so well. It is 15 years old and still the scenes work and make you feel all the emotions. Brotherhood made the faces sooo much better, too. Ubisoft Was on fire back then
The cutscenes in mirage are sooo laughable! It’s hilarious every time basim goes to take off or put on his hood, it cuts away because they were too lazy to animate it 😂😂
Yup the fantastic direction is gone, probably because the unified vision has been watered down with 10 studios all needing to work together from zoom calls
the one thing i really dislike with RPGs cutscenes is the lighting. often times the characters do not match the background and surrounding lighting of the game at all.
The same could be said about multiple video games and franchises in modern times. I played Final fantasy XII (the remaster) for the first time last year. And I was amazed over how well directed the cutscenes were compared to modern games. I guess some of the reasons are technical limitations. They didn't have as detailed in game graphics so the scripted in engine cutscenes had to hit the mark in order to present the story. Meanwhile nowdays its the opposite. Yes the graphics are better and photorealism, motion capure and detailed facial animations are the standard in AAA. But they put very little effort in the presentation and the characters are just standing there exchanging dialogue. It all feels very arbitrary and stale. I guess thats why Witcher 3 and BG 3 are both so revered. They put a lot of effort in the cutscenes. Somehow the complete lack of cutscenes all together in AC 1 works. It fits the tone and atmosphere and not taking away the players agency completely at any point in the game gives it a sort of consistency. To quote Todd Howard. It just works.
The AC1 cutscenes fits Abstergo’s cold, no-nonsense approach to the Animus. Coincidentally, it also fits Altaïr’s stoic demeanor and the general dark tone of the Crusades. Then AC2 comes along and becomes the polar opposite to all these things. There’s more life, more flourish, more warmth in the cutscenes and general ambiance of the Animus, reflective of the personality of its programmer/hacker Rebecca, Ezio, and the Renaissance.
Odyseey had some preety bad cutscenes, but then for a random fight there was like a hole epic fight scene which was very shocking when i first played it cause it was so good and so long
It's too bad really, I ended up getting mirage with valhalla in a bundle and was going to complete Valhalla first but the game is simply too long for me to care enough about it. So far I've enjoyed mirage but I can agree the cutscenes are simply just a step back from what once was in ac games but it's nice to actually have assassin's creed be about an assassin again
I'm glad to see someone talking about this. I haven't really been a fan of the newer Assassin's Creed games in part for this reason, but it became so blatant in Mirage that I returned the copy I'd borrowed from my mother within a few days. I really hope Shadow does things better or Valhalla will likely be my last purchased AC game.
I said this since odyssey was made, ubisoft had something great, and instead of running with it, they sprinted tripped and broke their leg. Origins was a nice step forward, then they just made a u-turn and stopped the amazing storytelling and turned it into horse shite.
For me Odyssey's and Valhalla's "cutscene" if you could even call them that was soo bad, that I just skipped every cutscene and sacrificed a lot of stuff from the story. Assassin creed doesn't feel like a story game, a story game should bring good graphics, and good story, but If I skip the cutscenes I get neither graphics nor story, I can only experience the graphics while roaming... Maybe I'm just delusional or maybe some people would agree with me, nevertheless, it's my opinion, and that's how I feel while playing the game. But the Older Games ARE INSANE GAMES, better than the newer ones for sure.
YES that is my biggest problem with the newer games. Origins, Unity, AC4 to me are the best and they felt so immersive. but I was soo disappointed with Mirage...
The best cutscene of all time In Assassins Creed is the Toba Catastrophe, the amount of good productions that the AC games used to have just isn't there anymore, RPG is what is killing Assassins Creed games and is stretching their resources thin , they no longer take you through a well story driven, Sci-Fi Historical adventure that is based on a simulation that is set in the modern day, they want you to come up with your own fun 🤷♂😅, great video man.
You can go back further. Assassins creed 1 had better cutscenes than this. Im referring to when you get a target and hear their last words. You can view their animation as they give a speech. Its better acting than whatever tf I just witnessed in Mirage.
Its oct 19th and im seeing the trailer for it on steam. why does this game look like an actual downgrade. It looks like mushy smooth characters. Tbh it looks like a remastered version of an old assassin's creed with slight mobile game movements. It's not choppy but the movement looks weird and fast forwarded like mobile games
I got it!!! They are using the AI programs that make "human movement" they have to have something that let's them pull old movement tech and just upload to this "new 2024" quality game
The thing is, there are a few cutscenes here and there that actually look very good. It is their choice to make them mediocre at best. They decided to abandon the annual release cycle to avoid stagnation and then went backwards instead of forward.
The cutscene in Brotherhood where Cesare and Rodrigo have an argument is easily the best one in the series. The acting, the facial animation, the direction, everything is best in the business.
Still get goosebumps from ezios speech scenes. Not only was the acting on point, but the vibe you get during the cutscenes is just special, even for a old ass game. Ac2 is just brilliant, and it speaks for itself
When people tell me don't hate the rpg Assassin's Creeds for being a different direction, I show them this. The storytelling, cinematography and portrayal of emotions simply got worse, that's the problem, not the health bars over an enemy's head and combat style
I like AC Mirage a lot, but it honestly hurts to watch the cutscenes in that game, because even when compared to Unity, the quality of the cutscenes is just not up to par. I could understand these issues for an MMO like FFXIV, which is such a huge game that it wouldn't be feasible to include high-quality cutscenes for every quest, but for a smaller, more condensed single-player title like Mirage, it's shocking how bad the cutscenes look. I might be wrong, but I suspect it's to do with the Origin/Odyssey/Valhalla engine they're working with, my own thesis is that it simply can't handle more complex animations or mo-capped scenes, as even Valhalla, Ubisoft's BIGGEST title, ever, has cutscenes that at their best, look just okay and at their worst, look horrendous. It's a good thing that the narrative in Mirage comes as a secondary thing for me and that the gameplay is so enjoyable that I don't mind it, because if the game actually required you to be interested in the story, I would've dropped the game halfway through.
My biggest criticism is when New Game Plus first came out it didn't tell you what save you were deleting when you made a new game plus the second time so when I try to make a new game pass when I realized oh no I actually want to start and back Dad I didn't realize I was deleting my 100% savefile that I spent over 41 hours on and if it did I didn't see it
Honestly, I was expecting for the characters to have more interactions around the environment when talking, not just walking and crossing their arms, or having their hands behind their backs and stuff, and the camera only facing from one angle. But i think it's just me cause I skipped most cutscenes (I still watch some of them) but its just my opinion.
For the rpg type of genre rn, but i think odyssey have really detail characters model, and they still make cinematic camera for the cutscenes that we can appriciate. Not like valhalla and mirage that we just spin the camera to see our main characters ass🤸🏻♂️
The voice acting in Mirage is pretty good(at times), and passable at worst, especially with the Arabic dub. The cinematography is quite a bit more cinematic and sprawling than previous titles, especially in the intro. But goddamn, the facial animations suck
After I played Mirage and completed it, I don't felt any memories, it's souless and I don't want to play again But when it comes to Unity I played the campaign 3 times, it's all because of Graphics stories, gaming mechanics and List of weapons and the character feels Alive even Syndicate is also Great game
Despite the poor quality of videos and animation, Valhalla brought Ubisoft a billion. A BILLION. Compare it to the Unity, Syndicate and Origins outcome. How do you think, what community prefers more?
Those "great" cutscenes from unity are probably one of the reasons why the game was unstable. But of course Ubisoft being Ubisoft just removed something entirely instead of improving upon it.
For not just the cutscenes went downhill but the acting in the cutscenes started to become bad as well. Up until Mirage I can watch the cutscenes and acting was ok but in Mirage, I couldn't even stant for 5 minutes to acting in the game. Alongside movement of the characters in the cutscenes, the acting felt like robots voicing characters as well. Maybe it just felt like that to me but I don't know. Mirage as whole really felt like a combination of soulless cutscenes.
Cutscenes in Origins were unparalleled. Every dialogue uttered, every emotion visible on the faces of the characters. Goosebumps every time. Even Syndicate and Unity had such amazing cinematic cutscenes. Odyssey is dogshit. I hate that I spent so much money on it
Level of detail and graphics have gotten better, but cinematography, writing, and realistic facial and body movement to go along with the great graphics have definitely gotten worse
overall the game is good but i haven't heard anyone mentioning about the cutscenes in mirage lmao like ik some of them is good but 90% in the cutscenes the character moves like a robot lmaoo
THIS. This is one of the reasons why I stopped playing AC games after Valhalla. I couldn't stand how pointless the narrative has become and how robotic and unrelatable the cutscenes are.
@@samhibberd5153 Most definitely. The pacing might be a problem for you, since you play as Connor’s dad for about 5 hours (sorry for the spoilers), and the naval combat isn’t as good as Black Flag’s. But the story and combat are great, the stealth overall is good but the detection system is kinda weird. Overall, it was a great experience
Hot take: the series shoud've take a break after unity, which still has some unpatched bugs and broken mechanics. The new trilogy shoud be its own thing, maybe in the universe of AC, but it should be something new, without assassin's but with more Isu lore, so casual player could understand the universes plot.
I’m gonna say something a lot of people won’t like but it simply came down to budget the team that worked on mirage hasn’t mad any mainstream games in the assassins creed series until now and on top of that there were alot of language issues they brought together a team of developers from the Philippines and another from Iraq. The game overall is great but is missing details like basim never physically taking down his hood it just comes off. Or like with the cutscenes. They were so focused on making a semi decent parkour experience for old ac fans and tbh it worked. Yea the cutscenes suck but I don’t play a game to watch a cutscene I play to play.
I feel like nobody is talking about how Ubisoft is just trying to pump out a new game every other year or something. It’s kinda why I stopped after Valhalla.
AC2 released in 2009 ACB released in 2010 ACR released in 2011 AC3 released in 2012 ACBF released in 2013 ACRO & ACU released in 2014 nobody had any problem with them releasing it every year back then.
OK, so here’s my take on it I do agree that assassin’s creed mirage Is a little bit robotic, but the people who made assassins Creed games before were the greatest. I think if they put those people back in charge, that may be the games will go back to normal.
16yrs and AC seems like it’s moving backwards it’s like Ubisoft downgraded since unity. The only way AC red will be successful is if Ubisoft brings back AC unity parkour animations and AC 3 combat
The cinematic storytelling techniques they used in those other games, the use of the camera itself, the different angles, the different kinds of shots, and the blocking of the actors as to where they stand, where they move within the frame - it's a crafted and curated approach. The newer games though? It's an assembly line approach, with very basic camera set ups. Character A says something, the camera focuses on them. Character B replies, the camera focuses on them. And back and forth as their conversation happens.
That is true, the thing is that they are too busy putting a focus on big expansive open worlds than focusing on the characters and story, this is why the games lack depth and emotion. That "It's an assembly line approach" is a really good saying lol😂👍 I might use it lol
They hire different camera director/supervisor, that's why it looks so downgrade. Crafting a cinematic scene with camera takes a lot of talent and every single director are unique. The one they hire for Odyssey, Vallhala, and Mirage is just sucks
Yeah finally someone talks about this. I fucking hate these awful cutscenes, they have no soul. Bring back the good old traditional cutscenes and leave this shit behind
Still baffles me that Unity, whos gonna be 10 years old this year, have better cutscenes, better graphics than a game released in October 2023.
It's crazy how that game got dogged on back in the day. The controversy surrounding that games launch is literal child's play compared to what we get now. I'm not making excuses for Unity, but it is funny how it's only gotten worse since then.
@@bilbobaggins9451 yeah, Cyberjunk comes to my mind, that garbage set the bar even lower than what happen with Unity. If Unity will be out nowadays, will get only praises and defenses, the community got used to broken games after Cyberjunk 171.
@@futureintime I'd say Fallout 76 set the bar pretty high, along with Battlefront 2017. Cybercrust wasn't the first that tanked industry standards.
Cutscene wise my favorite is definitely Black Flag. The dialogue, performances, scene direction and whatnot are absolutely amazing. They're so detailed and poetic too. For example each character moves and acts completely differently/has their own kind of swagger in a way that heightens characterization. Edward moves very differently from Blackbeard for example, who moves very differently from James Kidd, who moves very differently from Adewale....Rackham....Vane....Bonny....Stede etc.
The sheer amount of body language and casual fidgeting is also better than even in many movies, and tell a story of their own. Take the scene where James Kidd wakes Edward up by hitting him with a stick for example. Edward grabs the stick and throws it away annoyed, and as the two start talking Kidd walks over to pick the stick back up and starts hitting some random plants with it. Throughout that entire scene she keeps on fidgeting with the stupid stick, like she has some type of childish attachment to that particular stick (relatable btw😅). None of that has anything to do with the dialogue, it's just there to add character and to give the players a better idea of their unique personalities.
I feel like there wasn't as much attention to such detail in Unity and Syndicate. Yes those games have smoother movement, better graphics and more realistic looking character models, but the characters aren't as distinguishable if it weren't for their voice and appearance. I also don't think the scenes are as poetic/symbolic in those two games. In Black Flag every camera angle, location, color scheme, weather circumstance etc. felt like it had a purpose and fit the mood and dialogue of that particular scene perfectly. Yes the Unity scene with Bellec is pretty cinematic, but other than that one and the one at the end with Elise, nothing really stood out to me as much. Meanwhile Black Flag is filled with those types of cinematic scenes, but with an added symbolism to them on top of that. Almost every scene in Black Flag completely outshines anything in Unity and Syndicate and I honestly believe it's got some of the best cutscenes I've ever seen in games in general.
Assassin’s Creed cutscenes: “I used to be beautiful.”
But beauty fades...
THANK YOU. No one talks about how robotic the new cutscenes are since Odyssey. It dampens the experience heavily for me. I find it strange that this is a problem in Mirage too bc this game is much smaller than its two predecessors. I hope at some point they can get back to the quality of the games before Odyssey. Good video as always!
Yeah, it has gotten so cringe
Yep but also way way smaller team that has never made a mainstream assassins creed game. They did amazing with the budget they had
@BengalaFracatons of people still play halo
@BengalaFracahe has good taste 🤷🏽♂️
@BengalaFracaIf you play certain games because they’re popular and not because you genuinely like them, guess what? You’re basic.
Finally a video about it. It's insane how much Ubisoft downgraded their cutscenes. It's not only in Assassin's Creed now but also in Far Cry 6. I couldn't believe when I saw how robotic the characters were after Far Cry 5, where cutscenes could be mistaken for a film. They were that good! In Mirage it feels like Ubisoft went even more back in time because the animations in cutscenes seem to be even worse than in Ezio's trilogy. While it could be partially excused in Odyssey and Valhalla due to the size of those games, Mirage is a much smaller game where they could put more focus on that aspect. I don't know whether they want to cut the costs by not doing mocap or they're just lazy.
Funny how Basim will never pull his hood up 'on camera'
I’m glad someone is finally bringing this up, the cutscenes look like absolute odyss- I mean shit well same thing but you get my point.
Glad to know I'm not the only one thinking this issue, it really isnt been talking enough
I have been thinking this exact same thing! I thought I was being biased cause all cutscenes I remembered was from "smaller" cutscenes or from those dialogue option conversations, but I'm happy to hear that other people feel the same
Finally more people talking about this i replayed unity before mirage came out and I was genuinely confused why a 10 year old game looked way better and smoother
Who needs ray tracing when you have Unity’s photorealistic baked-in lighting?
@@jmal facts lol
10 Years ago when Assassins Creed was about Assassins and the Creed.
Ubisoft took ideas from other RPGs and executed those ideas poorly. In The Witcher III, a game that they drew heavy inspirations from, Geralt’s interactions are greatly expressive. Even though you still have the have the focus on the face when choosing dialogues, Geralt usually sits and stands in different positions, as well as moving around to interact. From Origins to Mirage the protagonists just stared at the NPCs and moved like mannequins like waving their arms around violently for no reason (Origins is the least offender but is still uninspiring)
Unity, next to AC3 has the best cutscenes. The animation and quality of the graphics are top tier.
The scene where Connor finally confronts Charles Lee is the pinnacle of AC3 cutscenes. No dialog, no memory corridors, just body language and top-notch physical acting. A shining example of “show, don’t tell.” If the 7th-gen graphics didn’t give it away I’d be fooled into thinking it was a scene out of HBO’s John Adams.
How did we go from this to the paint-by-numbers “cinematography” of Mirage?
I like Mirage as a game. I like the story. But if the cutscenes' presentation aspect was better and done with motion capture, I would be able to connect to these characters a lot more. I understand why motion capture for games like Odyssey and Valhalla wasn't as used because the scope of those games is massive with so many quests and even dialogue choices for two different genders, but for a smaller game like Mirage, I thought Ubisoft would bring motion capture back. In the end, I don't blame the developers, because this was obviously a smaller project so they probably didn't get the money and time from the top. I hope AC Red despite its scale can get that more cinematic feel back.
What I just can’t understand is why ubisoft chose to make games since unity so “doll-like”. AC 1 through Unity sought out to create more realistic scenerys and humanlike characters, so while it does save money (I guess(?)), I can’t picture a single argument for the childish depictions that are being made by ubisoft. Almost like going from a photograph to claymation graphics. Realistic scenerys and characters made the game so much more immersive
It’s so weird in Mirage that the swords just kinda…hang off their hips. Like completely unattached to anything.
I had the same problem with Black Flag...
@@N10Tkilla It’s been a pet peeve of mine since AC2, what with the swords having no sheaths. That shit’s dangerous lol.
You're the best assassin's creed youtuber,for real. love your videos man keep it going
Thank you man I appreciate that! Have a great rest of your day and thank you for the kinds words!
It felt like they were passionate about them through Unity then just became worried about getting something out. Mirage could've/should've been the best game in the series! They knew we wanted a true AC game but that passion is gone.
I’m still a fan of handcrafted animations the movements feels snappier and quicker in my opinion but when motion capture is done right I also still love it.
I have no idea what is going on with the RPGs. Maybe they should scale back down a little
AC2 holds up so well. It is 15 years old and still the scenes work and make you feel all the emotions. Brotherhood made the faces sooo much better, too. Ubisoft Was on fire back then
The cutscenes in mirage are sooo laughable! It’s hilarious every time basim goes to take off or put on his hood, it cuts away because they were too lazy to animate it 😂😂
Yup the fantastic direction is gone, probably because the unified vision has been watered down with 10 studios all needing to work together from zoom calls
the one thing i really dislike with RPGs cutscenes is the lighting. often times the characters do not match the background and surrounding lighting of the game at all.
I never could really point a finger on what is so strange looking on the new cutscenes...now I finally know!
The same could be said about multiple video games and franchises in modern times. I played Final fantasy XII (the remaster) for the first time last year. And I was amazed over how well directed the cutscenes were compared to modern games. I guess some of the reasons are technical limitations. They didn't have as detailed in game graphics so the scripted in engine cutscenes had to hit the mark in order to present the story.
Meanwhile nowdays its the opposite. Yes the graphics are better and photorealism, motion capure and detailed facial animations are the standard in AAA. But they put very little effort in the presentation and the characters are just standing there exchanging dialogue. It all feels very arbitrary and stale. I guess thats why Witcher 3 and BG 3 are both so revered. They put a lot of effort in the cutscenes.
Somehow the complete lack of cutscenes all together in AC 1 works. It fits the tone and atmosphere and not taking away the players agency completely at any point in the game gives it a sort of consistency. To quote Todd Howard. It just works.
The AC1 cutscenes fits Abstergo’s cold, no-nonsense approach to the Animus. Coincidentally, it also fits Altaïr’s stoic demeanor and the general dark tone of the Crusades.
Then AC2 comes along and becomes the polar opposite to all these things. There’s more life, more flourish, more warmth in the cutscenes and general ambiance of the Animus, reflective of the personality of its programmer/hacker Rebecca, Ezio, and the Renaissance.
Indeed. Very great and thoughtful direction for both games. They are both some of my favourite games from the 7th gen.
Thank you for addressing this. The cutscenes are the biggest immersion breaker in these new games for me.
Odyseey had some preety bad cutscenes, but then for a random fight there was like a hole epic fight scene which was very shocking when i first played it cause it was so good and so long
It's too bad really, I ended up getting mirage with valhalla in a bundle and was going to complete Valhalla first but the game is simply too long for me to care enough about it. So far I've enjoyed mirage but I can agree the cutscenes are simply just a step back from what once was in ac games but it's nice to actually have assassin's creed be about an assassin again
I'm glad to see someone talking about this. I haven't really been a fan of the newer Assassin's Creed games in part for this reason, but it became so blatant in Mirage that I returned the copy I'd borrowed from my mother within a few days. I really hope Shadow does things better or Valhalla will likely be my last purchased AC game.
I said this since odyssey was made, ubisoft had something great, and instead of running with it, they sprinted tripped and broke their leg. Origins was a nice step forward, then they just made a u-turn and stopped the amazing storytelling and turned it into horse shite.
The factor you forgot to mention is that Ubisoft hates it's fans/customers.
They really do, but at the same time, they keep getting new casual gamer fans, I have seen so many people buy the worst AC games lol.
Lucasfilm: "GiVe ThEm ThE sTaR wArS lIcEnSe!!!"
I agree 💯% Ubisoft has been real stingy on their biggest IPs in terms of cutscene quality and story depth which is totally unacceptable.
This has been my biggest issue for a while 🤦🏿♂️
For me Odyssey's and Valhalla's "cutscene" if you could even call them that was soo bad, that I just skipped every cutscene and sacrificed a lot of stuff from the story. Assassin creed doesn't feel like a story game, a story game should bring good graphics, and good story, but If I skip the cutscenes I get neither graphics nor story, I can only experience the graphics while roaming... Maybe I'm just delusional or maybe some people would agree with me, nevertheless, it's my opinion, and that's how I feel while playing the game. But the Older Games ARE INSANE GAMES, better than the newer ones for sure.
YES that is my biggest problem with the newer games. Origins, Unity, AC4 to me are the best and they felt so immersive. but I was soo disappointed with Mirage...
The voice dialogues went complete 180
The best cutscene of all time In Assassins Creed is the Toba Catastrophe, the amount of good productions that the AC games used to have just isn't there anymore, RPG is what is killing Assassins Creed games and is stretching their resources thin , they no longer take you through a well story driven, Sci-Fi Historical adventure that is based on a simulation that is set in the modern day, they want you to come up with your own fun 🤷♂😅, great video man.
I'll take pre-rendered cutscenes over iN-eNgInE rpg slop any day
Me too. Finally sb agree with me.
can’t believe they stopped mocapping cutscenes. it gave so much more emotion to the scenes
You can go back further. Assassins creed 1 had better cutscenes than this. Im referring to when you get a target and hear their last words. You can view their animation as they give a speech. Its better acting than whatever tf I just witnessed in Mirage.
Thanks for covering this issue! Hopefully with the newest Anvil tech (and of course larger budget) they could make cutscenes and facial great again 👍
I found it weird in AC1 how in cutscenes it’s just Altair’s idol position
Like the video first, then proceed to watch! U just never miss brother!
Its oct 19th and im seeing the trailer for it on steam. why does this game look like an actual downgrade. It looks like mushy smooth characters. Tbh it looks like a remastered version of an old assassin's creed with slight mobile game movements. It's not choppy but the movement looks weird and fast forwarded like mobile games
I got it!!! They are using the AI programs that make "human movement" they have to have something that let's them pull old movement tech and just upload to this "new 2024" quality game
The thing is, there are a few cutscenes here and there that actually look very good. It is their choice to make them mediocre at best. They decided to abandon the annual release cycle to avoid stagnation and then went backwards instead of forward.
The cutscene in Brotherhood where Cesare and Rodrigo have an argument is easily the best one in the series. The acting, the facial animation, the direction, everything is best in the business.
Standards. That word has got to be one of an artist's greatest enemies.
Still get goosebumps from ezios speech scenes. Not only was the acting on point, but the vibe you get during the cutscenes is just special, even for a old ass game. Ac2 is just brilliant, and it speaks for itself
The new AC games has My sims ahh animations
When people tell me don't hate the rpg Assassin's Creeds for being a different direction, I show them this. The storytelling, cinematography and portrayal of emotions simply got worse, that's the problem, not the health bars over an enemy's head and combat style
I like AC Mirage a lot, but it honestly hurts to watch the cutscenes in that game, because even when compared to Unity, the quality of the cutscenes is just not up to par.
I could understand these issues for an MMO like FFXIV, which is such a huge game that it wouldn't be feasible to include high-quality cutscenes for every quest, but for a smaller, more condensed single-player title like Mirage, it's shocking how bad the cutscenes look.
I might be wrong, but I suspect it's to do with the Origin/Odyssey/Valhalla engine they're working with, my own thesis is that it simply can't handle more complex animations or mo-capped scenes, as even Valhalla, Ubisoft's BIGGEST title, ever, has cutscenes that at their best, look just okay and at their worst, look horrendous. It's a good thing that the narrative in Mirage comes as a secondary thing for me and that the gameplay is so enjoyable that I don't mind it, because if the game actually required you to be interested in the story, I would've dropped the game halfway through.
My biggest criticism is when New Game Plus first came out it didn't tell you what save you were deleting when you made a new game plus the second time so when I try to make a new game pass when I realized oh no I actually want to start and back Dad I didn't realize I was deleting my 100% savefile that I spent over 41 hours on and if it did I didn't see it
Meanwhile rockstar doing performance capture for random collectible missions and even normal npcs
Aaand they ended up doing the exact same thing with Skull and Bones... definitely a AAAA experience. 🤡🤡🤡
Honestly, I was expecting for the characters to have more interactions around the environment when talking, not just walking and crossing their arms, or having their hands behind their backs and stuff, and the camera only facing from one angle. But i think it's just me cause I skipped most cutscenes (I still watch some of them) but its just my opinion.
Finally somebody who’s talking about this
I totally agree with you man
You are a great UA-camr when it comes to these topics
Keep up the good content ❤
For the rpg type of genre rn, but i think odyssey have really detail characters model, and they still make cinematic camera for the cutscenes that we can appriciate. Not like valhalla and mirage that we just spin the camera to see our main characters ass🤸🏻♂️
Honestly for me it's so immersion breaking and one of the main reasons I can't even complete the new games
The voice acting in Mirage is pretty good(at times), and passable at worst, especially with the Arabic dub. The cinematography is quite a bit more cinematic and sprawling than previous titles, especially in the intro. But goddamn, the facial animations suck
After I played Mirage and completed it, I don't felt any memories, it's souless and I don't want to play again
But when it comes to Unity I played the campaign 3 times, it's all because of Graphics stories, gaming mechanics and List of weapons and the character feels Alive even Syndicate is also Great game
Its stupid to me that ubisoft thinks bigger is better, rather than quality
I just pray for the music. If that drops in quality, then the franchise is screwed for LIFE!
It felt like your playin an online game with the cutscene just minimal mouth movement and janky movements
finally someone is talking about this!
Can't even take time to improve cutscenes.
Despite the poor quality of videos and animation, Valhalla brought Ubisoft a billion. A BILLION. Compare it to the Unity, Syndicate and Origins outcome. How do you think, what community prefers more?
Those "great" cutscenes from unity are probably one of the reasons why the game was unstable.
But of course Ubisoft being Ubisoft just removed something entirely instead of improving upon it.
Hey master assassin i was wondering if i should play 4 then freedom cry then rouge and then 3?
Hey brotha great video, do you have a public discord server?
For not just the cutscenes went downhill but the acting in the cutscenes started to become bad as well. Up until Mirage I can watch the cutscenes and acting was ok but in Mirage, I couldn't even stant for 5 minutes to acting in the game. Alongside movement of the characters in the cutscenes, the acting felt like robots voicing characters as well. Maybe it just felt like that to me but I don't know. Mirage as whole really felt like a combination of soulless cutscenes.
Cutscenes in Origins were unparalleled. Every dialogue uttered, every emotion visible on the faces of the characters.
Goosebumps every time.
Even Syndicate and Unity had such amazing cinematic cutscenes.
Odyssey is dogshit. I hate that I spent so much money on it
Level of detail and graphics have gotten better, but cinematography, writing, and realistic facial and body movement to go along with the great graphics have definitely gotten worse
overall the game is good but i haven't heard anyone mentioning about the cutscenes in mirage lmao like ik some of them is good but 90% in the cutscenes the character moves like a robot lmaoo
Mirage goes back to AC1, even the cut scene😂
THIS.
This is one of the reasons why I stopped playing AC games after Valhalla. I couldn't stand how pointless the narrative has become and how robotic and unrelatable the cutscenes are.
unity and origins had the best cutscenes but they were pre rendered which is why they look so good
What if haytham joined mikko on corsica and became an assassin
Video idea which is the best out of the Kenway trilogy AC3, AC4 and Rogue
In my opinion AC3
@@JFVideos960 I actually haven’t played 3 is it worth it
@@samhibberd5153 Most definitely. The pacing might be a problem for you, since you play as Connor’s dad for about 5 hours (sorry for the spoilers), and the naval combat isn’t as good as Black Flag’s. But the story and combat are great, the stealth overall is good but the detection system is kinda weird. Overall, it was a great experience
@@JFVideos960 sounds good, I’ve heard haytham really good
@@samhibberd5153 he is
Hot take: the series shoud've take a break after unity, which still has some unpatched bugs and broken mechanics. The new trilogy shoud be its own thing, maybe in the universe of AC, but it should be something new, without assassin's but with more Isu lore, so casual player could understand the universes plot.
I’m gonna say something a lot of people won’t like but it simply came down to budget the team that worked on mirage hasn’t mad any mainstream games in the assassins creed series until now and on top of that there were alot of language issues they brought together a team of developers from the Philippines and another from Iraq. The game overall is great but is missing details like basim never physically taking down his hood it just comes off. Or like with the cutscenes. They were so focused on making a semi decent parkour experience for old ac fans and tbh it worked. Yea the cutscenes suck but I don’t play a game to watch a cutscene I play to play.
Not to mention, I swear Basim’s voice is A.I. generated.
No one talks about how Unity has graphics as good as modern day games. My favorite in presentation is AC3, followed by Unity
Its not only the cutscenes. Even the character animations in gameplay are really awful. In the recent 4 games.
I’d say 3. The character animations in Origins are good
I played only origins. I'm trying to find all ac games but for now I can't. I am keeping myself from any spoilers
The downgrade of the entire series assassins creed unity is so peak
I feel like nobody is talking about how Ubisoft is just trying to pump out a new game every other year or something. It’s kinda why I stopped after Valhalla.
AC2 released in 2009
ACB released in 2010
ACR released in 2011
AC3 released in 2012
ACBF released in 2013
ACRO & ACU released in 2014
nobody had any problem with them releasing it every year back then.
i mean games were just way smaller in 2010 in general
AC Unity has the best presentantion and graphics. Everything else after that was downgraded
I wouldn’t say downgraded. Syndicate was very similar, and Origins’ graphics and presentation was great
Always give the game to Ubisoft Montreal, they make the best games. Of the AC games.
Facts, we got the Ezio games, AC3 and 4, Unity, and Origins. I can survive with all them
They have downgraded all around
That's ubi$oft for you.
OK, so here’s my take on it I do agree that assassin’s creed mirage Is a little bit robotic, but the people who made assassins Creed games before were the greatest. I think if they put those people back in charge, that may be the games will go back to normal.
Thank you for making great videos I named my gamer tag after you
I gotta say the cutsecense are kinda bad now but I still really like what they did with mirage and I think alot of ppl overhate basims great character
Make a video on assassin's Creed Odyssey using no armor but on easy mode
You really are the master assassin I love ur vids man, keep it going
please make a captain laserhawk video i beg
black flag had best animations in cutscenes and in dialogues
16yrs and AC seems like it’s moving backwards it’s like Ubisoft downgraded since unity. The only way AC red will be successful is if Ubisoft brings back AC unity parkour animations and AC 3 combat
It’s an RPG, they’re definitely not bringing back AC3’s combat and Unity’s parkour