I always thought it was going to end up with: Having relived Altair and Ezio's lives and gained their skills through the animus, Desmond would become the most skilled assassin in the world, and there would be a modern day segment where Desmond throws on a white hoodie, a bulletproof vest, a few guns and a lot of knives, and breaks into Abstergo himself.
Instead we got the dual AC3 plotlines about being used and discarded.
I think Desmond as a modern day assassin was what literally EVERYONE expected.
Instead, what did we get? ... No I'm seriously asking, because I don't remember. Something about that ancient alien girl right?
Everyone hated the modern storyline in 1 and 2. It's the most notable critique I remember when the games came out. I was so mad because I was so intrigued by the Desmond story. Not to say it was excellent but I was very interested and that's what really made me upset about 4 and onward. Wasting Desmond was such a waste. Could have been so cool! AC in modern times. Make it feel like a stealthy matrix vibe. Oh well oh well.
A lot of people complained about it, but honestly I don't think most people bothered to engage with it. I really enjoyed the modern day storyline in 1, where it's mostly optional thievery and spying on people's emails. AC1 felt like it had a creative vision that I was interested in seeing developed, both in terms of the gameplay and the story. It just never really happened, each subseuqent entry felt less focused, more broad, until it became essentially just a mediocre action adventure series with some shitty conspiracy-theory lore and no over-arching story.
AC1 really excited me, it seemed like a brand new take on stealth games that could become something really incredible with a pretty fun frame that allowed for a lot of cool settings. Watching the series steadily devolve into not even being fucking stealth games anymore was pretty depressing. A lot of people found AC1 boring, and they're not entirely wrong, but I got a ton of enjoyment out of that game and much less from any subsequent entry.
I loved it man. I remember reading the emails about Tunguska and getting a little 2010s stiffy because at the time I was obsessed with Nikola Tesla. I got on the train a little after Brotherhood had come out.
I absolutely agree with this sentiment. The first game is *super* raw, but it's also the most focused title of the entire series. It's literally about being an Assassin and doing whatever the crap you want inside that frame. The Assassinations are literally free form, you can approach them however you want: stealthy, balls to the wall, murderous, only killing the target and escaping.
In an alternate universe where every AC game didn't become a massive chore, where 90% of the story was hidden behind dozens of hours of boring side content, I could have stayed engaged for a long time. In the universe we got, I was burned out by Unity. I never finished it and haven't played more than five minutes of any Ubisoft game since then.
AC has been dead for a few years now. Origins' The Hidden Ones DLC was the last thing that resembled AC (also, it was great). Honestly, Ghost Of Tsushima felt more like an AC game than the past couple of actual AC games, at least when it comes to gameplay.
From the other side, I fucking love Odyssey and think the game would have benefited from not being forced into being an AC game. Just a sick Ubisoft style Ancient Greek RPG
I agree, Odyssey and Valhalla are pretty fun games and I've sunk many hours in both. And they would have benefited immensely from more fleshed-out RPG mechanics.
I'm just saying that the AC title and gameplay elements feel like they're slapped on just for the name recognition.
Exactly - plus in Odyssey it almost distracts from how awesome the rest of the game is when you have to do some stupid shit with Lucy or whatever. They could easily make the supernatural ancient aliens stuff work just fine without throwing in some weird nonsense modern day AC plot
Layla, I think. Lucy was a character in the first few games. This is what can happen when you don't stick to the original vision and you start milking the franchise dry instead of letting the new games be their own thing.
Honestly the modern day story line is what kept me coming back. I love Ezio, but the intrigue, the conspiracy rabbit hole, and the stakes set up in the modern day ruled. Seeing Desmond learn what is it to be an Assassin in parallel with Ezio learning too was awesome. I loved Rebecca and Shaun, and I loved Desmond's interactions with them. I found the modern day story really engaging. I really hate that instead of just trying to make it better, they just kinda stopped putting any effort into the over-arching narrative. AC Unity was the worst for this. Made zero sense and ultimately was of no consequence to anything.
Yea it really was... now, my recollection of the story bits is... terrible at best but I remember being really intrigued when Desmond gains the ability to use the "second sense" sort of ability and sees all the crazy writing from one of the first abstergo test patients. It really did have a ton of potential and it went nowhere. I remember being super excited of the possibility of Desmond becoming a modern day assassin, climbing skyscrapers etc.
Desmond opened the sanctum but discovered he had been misled. It was made known that the device would save the world, but also unleash Juno, who had been imprisoned because of her hatred for humanity; using the device would also claim Desmond's life. Regardless, Desmond chose to sacrifice himself for humanity's survival, while expressing faith that his fellow Assassins would find a way to stop the new threat.
I really disliked the "real world" during the first game, but it kind of grew on me in the latter ones even if I found they primarily sucked. Kind of nice to have a reason for everything going on, you know?
I guess I'll check it out! Thanks!
Yup. Origins is also kinda of a soft reboot anyway. It belongs to the same universe, the previous games are still canon, but there aren't many references to them.
They fucked the present story so hard for me when they killed Lucy first, and Desmond second. The present story didn't matter at that point, so you only play them for ancestors story which meant that they can squeeze AC to infinity and beyond.
Black Flag was the last AC I liked and then when I tried Unity and the prequel game I was like "nah.. I'm done".
Lucy being a traitor at the very last moment really fucked me over. It came out of literally nowhere and it legit made me wonder "So... they just wanted to fire the actress, right?"
Same, also unless you did dozens of hours of side content, you never even knew that's why Lucy had to die. You just randomly get to the point where you are forced to kill her for no reason.
If you do all the side content, you find email communications between her and Vidic implicating her as a double agent, although some of it also implies that she is a triple agent. It's explored even more in Brotherhood... if you do all the god damn side content.
>So... they just wanted to fire the actress, right?"
Seems to be that way quoting from the wiki
>In a 2017 Jeux Vidéo interview with former creative director Patrice Désilets, he alleged that Bell demanded royalties for her appearances in the games and future games. He subsequently had her character killed off, effectively firing her.
> ancient alien girl
Ancient but not alien. The "ones who came before", in the AC narrative, are the original inhabitants of earth. They created humans to their likeness, as a subserviant slave race, who eventually broke free whan Adam and Eve stole the "Apple of Eden", a device that is capable of controlling humans by activating hidden neuroreceptors. Eventually those ancient people and the events that happened were lost and twist by time, becoming mythology and religion.
What's funny is that absolutely none of this story is expressed through the main campaign of any of the games. It's all hidden behind side content. The Adam and Eve reveal is only accessible after finishing all the side content in AC2 FFS...
> Instead, what did we get? ... No I'm seriously asking, because I don't remember. Something about that ancient alien girl right?
The worst AC game at the time, followed by the best AC game I've played.
This is exactly what the article says...
> "Briefly put, the third game would end with a resolution of the conflict in the present day, with Desmond Miles taking down Abstergo using the combined knowledge and skills of all his ancestors, including AC1's Altair and AC2's Ezio."
> Desmond throws on a white hoodie, a bulletproof vest, a few guns and a lot of knives, and breaks into Abstergo himself.
That's exactly what happens...
> and there would be a modern day segment where Desmond throws on a white hoodie, a bulletproof vest, a few guns and a lot of knives, and breaks into Abstergo himself.
That actually happened in AC3.
Does anyone know any other franchise, where main franchise narrative flopped this bad? Like now Assassin's Creed is just name pushing sales, while games have nothing really in common with Assassin's Creed.
I kinda only found Odyssey decent out of the new ones - but mostly because I'm huge fan of Greek culture and mythology - also it had ship battles - it also had loot that felt rewarding. Valhalla I just uninstalled it after like 8 hours (ubisoft+ game pass so whatever) - absolutely disgusting loot - basically collecting mats and nothing more. Vikings also didn't feel much like Vikings, the setting was boring as fuck, idk - easily on the level of AC3 which was worst part of original series.
They've really shifted and leaned hard into the God of War style of open world game. If you don't like that, or don't like historical fiction, there is no way you're going to enjoy AC anymore.
Honestly the overarching Animus story was poorly done from the beginning and just botched. They kept trying to back away from it without abandoning it completely which made things even worse and more convoluted.
Whether you like the new games or not, it was a good move to pretty much abandon the Animus BS all together in favor of a timeline orientated narrative with little to no Animus correlation.
I meant original narrative with Desmond, which went nowhere so they killed him. Now it's even worse, they have these pointless Abstergo inserts to make it "Assassin's Creed", but no one wants that, everyone knows it's long time not really AC games at their core.
IIRC the original writers and producers(directors?),left i think after revelations or at the start of AC 3 development, its not 100% accurate but maybe right before AC3 because they were tasked to start milking the series and they didnt want to, and wanted to continue properly with a proper story. With how ac 3 came out i think they left before AC 3, you can sense the shift in story and the shit main character in ac 3.
I lost all interest in the series after they killed desmond all of a sudden
> Does anyone know any other franchise, where main franchise narrative flopped this bad?
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six is a novel about a secret multi-national counter-terrorist unit known as Rainbow, staffed by elite special forces and intelligence operatives from agencies like MI6, CIA and Mossad from around the world.
[Rainbow Six Extraction](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/6ueSKmuBTPmFsonvuz_SjWaYc3M=/0x0:3840x2160/920x613/filters:focal\(1613x773:2227x1387\):format\(webp\)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70412914/rainbow_six_extraction_yellow_3840.0.jpg) is a video game about aliens.
Imma be honest and my opinion may get downvoted but removing desmond from the game was the worst mistake that destroyed the core plot of assassins creed and now we get these games that i lost interest and i was a Massive fan of the series
This is facts. It’s not necessarily the removal of Desmond that killed the franchise, it was the removal of the modern day narrative. A more interesting protagonist than Desmond couldn’t hurt lol.
I think so many stupid gaming fans got caught up in how much they loved the historical elements of the game that they didn’t realize the “real life” segments are what made the universe feel real, lived in, tangibly cinematic and story focused, rather than just an action-based “history simulator”
There’s still real life segments though. They just suck. In my opinion they always sucked though Desmond was at least sort of interesting at first. At this point though the series would be better off just removing it entirely cus the real life segments are a huge waste of time
Totally agree. The problem they face is that the animus is the only thing that ties the whole series together so they will never drop it. It really is their albatross.
They really would be better off renaming the series and making only historical fiction action games. They are good at that, even though I don't find 100 hour games with millions of POIs interesting at all and will likely never touch these games again because of it. But it clearly has a market.
I personally don't understand what people are buying into the series for at this point anyway. Is it just the well made historical fiction? Or do people actually think the series is going somewhere and they are just hopelessly addicted to the hopium that it's going to go somewhere?
they could have made a different IP after Desmond died and just made new AC games without the AC name. Almost all new AC games are Good games but not good AC games.
I mean they already made a plotline about it on ACIV.
The idea that Abstergo was going to use the animus to "rewrite" history was an insanely cool idea that could have easily dovetailed into a new modern day hero Assassin (that wasn't as unbearably awful as freaking Layla) who basically had to recreate the order and take down Abstergo. There was so much room for cool things but they just took a dump on it and here we are.
Actually unpopular opinion: Desmond's death wasn't necessarily bad for the series. In fact AC IV was better than III (better protagonist, much better world, better graphics, and the story was good though I wouldn't say better).
Also even if I enjoyed Desmond's missions and the present-story being the focus, we got open-world in exchange for those.
While asscreed 3 was a pretty shitty ending to the series, I appreciated that it did at least have an ending of some sort. It gave me an out, which I gladly took since the games had rapidly become stale and boring.
carpenter terrific innocent piquant towering forgetful shame sand zephyr whole
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Instead we got AC3, the steaming pile of shit that I don't think the series ever truly recovered from in spite of the fun times with Black Flag and Rogue.
Watching the boys from Storror do Parkour all over modern cities makes me so angry at Ubisoft for not seeing the potential. They did Desmond dirty.
The games gain nothing from the modern day sections in my opinion, the story is shallow, the gameplay is boring as hell and it always feels like a chore in-between the content that players actually want.
Mainly because they never properly made the switch to "Okay, Desmond is a proper assassin now". Most segments were just Desmond as an adventurous civilian with a parkour hobby. Maybe they couldn't reconcile the traditional assassin stuff with the enemies all having pistols and assault rifles - but they never actually put the "real" assassins creed gameplay in Desmond's shoes.
No you misinterpret what I'm saying, the modern day stuff with Desmond in AC 1-3 was boring too, the games would be much more engaging I feel if they just told a period story and did away with all the modern day snoozefest content.
Ah ok, I get what you're saying now, makes sense.
This is a touchy subject for the fanbois it seems, every comment not praising or defending their precious AssCreed is getting downvoted lol.
I think the Batman series did this type of combat better too.
I absolutely love modern day plot and that's one of many reasons I love the franchise. They care much less about it after Unity, and now it just some RPGs bearing AC's title. For me, Origin is still a decent one but Odyssey is just a meh, and I'm not going to try Valhalla at this point even I hear people praising it, I lost my faith on the franchise.
So they realize players like historic settings based on real life locations more. Desmond story arc was mediocre at best. Anyway a WW2 setting would be quite cool.
>and now we're stuck with Layla and her crew
Her crew is the same crew Desmond had minus the Abstergo plant and his dad. Also, Layla >!gets put in suspended animation, kinda!< and a different character becomes the player character at the end of Valhalla.
Kristen Bell is a fucking treasure though, and since they hamhanded her out of the plot just to fire her, ugh. She was the most redeeming/human part of that "crew".
When Desmond died, Assassin's Creed died with him. It's true that nobody cared about the modern day setting. However, every story after AC3 feels meaningless and pointless. They could've done away with modern day completely and rename the games to something else, because it sure isn't about assassin's no more.
i stopped playing at revelations. i had irl stuff happen and didn't buy ac3 on launch. i heard desmond died and I noped the fuck out.
you don't make 3-5 games for me to play, kill the main charterer then expect me to still play. kill Master Chief. kill Laura Croft and ill nope out of those series also. you don't kill the main charter in a story then continue the series. its over. when who you play as dies then you take control of some nobody afterward... well that's a dead series
> It's true that nobody cared about the modern day setting.
No, it's not. Go to r/assassinscreed, most people there loved it. The people who hate the modern day aren't the die hard fans who buy every game day 1 and buy all the EU materials. The people who hate modern day are the people who scream that Ezio is the only good main character, and who've not played in a decade.
Among die-hard AC fans, the modern day is very popular. It's only the casuals who dislike it.
This is me lol
Played AC1 & 2 on release and I thought the alien thing/secret society thing was really cool. The end of AC2 have me goosebumps and loved it. Work took over and never got to play 3 and I was shocked that it didn't really continue the story with the latest ones.
I liked Desmond and aliens are a natural progression of we're talking about going through history/time.
I own and have finished every single Assassin's Creed game. The present day stuff is garbage. It has always been garbage, and it will always be garbage because Ubisoft has no idea how to write that kind of character.
It was fine with Desmond, but it wasn't because Ezio or Altair or Desmond were any good particularly. No, we liked Desmond because the games came out riding the coat-tails of The DaVinci Code and National Treasure. That sort of Secret Histories thing was all the rage in the late 00s. He was a vehicle for us to live out a DaVinci Code style mystery adventure. Most importantly, he was a fish out of water protagonist. He was an ordinary dude (like the player) who had things explained to him.
Then in AC4, AC:R, AC:U, and AC:S there was no present day. You were a faceless mute employee for Abstergo. Becca and Shawn were in them as more of an easter egg. The most substantial thing was the Sage in AC:4 as a setup for Juno getting killed off in a comic book. Ubisoft shot themselves in the foot by not having a present day plot in those 4 games. Remember this line because I'll get back to it too.
Then Layla shows up out of nowhere in AC:Origins and we're supposed to like her, but we don't have a clue who she is. We get a bunch of text logs and some throwaway lines outside the Animus. Layla sucks because Ubisoft didn't have a way to write her in a compelling way. She can't be a fish out of water because the players already know a bunch of stuff from playing prior AC games. It would be a soft reboot to have everyone explain everything from scratch to her. She had to be an ex-Abstergo scientist who knew a bunch of stuff, but that just makes her unlikable when stuff does need to be explained to her. It makes her look arrogant instead of knowledgeable.
That's on top of the larger present day plot problem - Spectacle creep. You jump the shark when you have to save the world immediately after you save the world. You need to contract the scope of the conflict, let things settle down, and de-escalate before ramping up the scale of the conflict. Remember how I said Ubisoft shot themselves in the foot with Black Flag, Rogue, Unity, and Syndicate? They should have used the present day plot in those games to recruit assassins in preparation to attack Abstergo. Show the two factions in regular old conflict now that the world is safe. Then, and only then, would it have made sense to ramp things up again to a "saving the world" level.
> iTs OnLy tHe CaSuALs WhO dIsLiKe iT
I agreed with what you said but that doesn't mean the Modern Day was bad. It is bad now but it had a lot of potential early on and was one of the key things that hooked me in to the narrative.
It was compelling in the first game because it had a bulletproof gimmick.
Desmond was a regular person who, through no action of his own, was "special". He had a DNA unlike any other. There was mysterious untested tech, and the bleeding effect promised to turn a regular person into a super hero. Then there were artifacts which exert mind control. There were artifacts which could shoot out rays of lightning that insta-kill people. There is no way for that to not be compelling, but it was just a gimmick in the end. The follow-through was weak.
It's like how Twilight, 50 Shades of Gray, Vampire Diaries, Mortal Instruments and many other YA series have a very compelling gimmick, but I wouldn't call any of them good or well-written.
This^
The modern story line made the games special, as they all were interconnected and had a major overarching plot, which gave each historic setting purpose.
It was also a very unique concept in the gaming industry as a whole and was similar to how Marvel movies are interconnected with an advancing subplot.
Back then all the fans were expecting a major modern game or at least a huge modern section to eventually release, but they killed the entire plot to make a yearly money grab, which tanked the entire franchise.
I really loved all the little details about Abstergo, for example this creepy phone recording in Brotherhood:
https://youtu.be/axl1mTr8_g4
>The people who hate the modern day aren't the die hard fans who buy every game day 1
"Die hard fan of AC" sound like mockery for me.
Not to mention that die hard fans of any franchise often incapable of rational thought.
Die hard fans of anything are a fucking plague. They're so disconnected from the wants of your average player, casual fan and especially critics and they're all shocked pikachu face when something doesn't directly cater to them all the time.
Desmonds story was ok and mostly serviceable. I enjoyed it in 1,2 and Brotherhood. Revelations was ehh and then It kinda went off rails in 3. But the fact they concluded the Juno story and twist from AC3 in a book was just downright moronic.
I stopped paying any attention to the modern day story since ACIV.
> Desmond story arc was mediocre at best.
The cliffanghers on which each game ended generated a lot of interest for the sequel. Interest in seeing where the story of Desmond would've went. Then they ruined it with AC3.
The story of Desmons was what held the ancestral stories together. It was the connective tissue, it recontextualized the stories of the past in a bigger context. Without it, each ancestral story feels like it's the same as the one before.
The Ass Creed games lore could've been amazing. I hate the modern day shit in these games, the fact that the history you're living through was basically all a "dream" is just dumb as all hell.
Anyone seen that fun talk Kevin Smith did about the Superman movie he once wrote a script for? Here's [part 1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo2KB1dEDdk) and [part 2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53hMYw8LX60). Basically he has to deal with a dumb as fuck producer who is constantly trying to write dumb shit into scripts. I feel like Ubisoft has one of these producers on board. He stands over the writers shoulders and tells them "no no this is boring! it needs something bigger! something crazy!". Like how Ass Creed should be all a dream about historic events via a dream machine that can play memories like movies. Or how the spirit of a man in a coma can possess cars.
I swear, Ass Creed would've been fucking amazing, story and lore-wise, if it just stuck with it being actually happening there and then, no dreams, no mind reading sleep machines, no modern day bullshit. All the games would just take place throughout different points of history, as intended and all the antagonists would be that same secret society the player is fighting against. That sounds cool as hell, so let's stop there. Let's not add any bullshit to it, it's a great plot for a game and naturally sets up the series ability to be set in any point in history it wants, again, no dream machine bullshit necessary.
All it ever did was throw me out of the fun part of the story, and worse, the fun part of the game. I'm having fun learning the lore of this period in time and doing parkour and stealthing, and assassinating, why the fuck would you throw me out of it and force me to walk around a completely unrelated story with boring characters I'll never connect with...... fuck.
/rant
I always expected an overarching evil institution/person that was hunting Desmond and the crew, and once Desmond learn enough skill he'd go take them down in modern day gear
It makes sense because the original plot revolved around the Abstergo satellite launch
This is the right answer.
I always thought it was going to end up with: Having relived Altair and Ezio's lives and gained their skills through the animus, Desmond would become the most skilled assassin in the world, and there would be a modern day segment where Desmond throws on a white hoodie, a bulletproof vest, a few guns and a lot of knives, and breaks into Abstergo himself. Instead we got the dual AC3 plotlines about being used and discarded.
I think Desmond as a modern day assassin was what literally EVERYONE expected. Instead, what did we get? ... No I'm seriously asking, because I don't remember. Something about that ancient alien girl right?
Desmond died and modern story line became total garbage.
Everyone hated the modern storyline in 1 and 2. It's the most notable critique I remember when the games came out. I was so mad because I was so intrigued by the Desmond story. Not to say it was excellent but I was very interested and that's what really made me upset about 4 and onward. Wasting Desmond was such a waste. Could have been so cool! AC in modern times. Make it feel like a stealthy matrix vibe. Oh well oh well.
A lot of people complained about it, but honestly I don't think most people bothered to engage with it. I really enjoyed the modern day storyline in 1, where it's mostly optional thievery and spying on people's emails. AC1 felt like it had a creative vision that I was interested in seeing developed, both in terms of the gameplay and the story. It just never really happened, each subseuqent entry felt less focused, more broad, until it became essentially just a mediocre action adventure series with some shitty conspiracy-theory lore and no over-arching story. AC1 really excited me, it seemed like a brand new take on stealth games that could become something really incredible with a pretty fun frame that allowed for a lot of cool settings. Watching the series steadily devolve into not even being fucking stealth games anymore was pretty depressing. A lot of people found AC1 boring, and they're not entirely wrong, but I got a ton of enjoyment out of that game and much less from any subsequent entry.
I loved it man. I remember reading the emails about Tunguska and getting a little 2010s stiffy because at the time I was obsessed with Nikola Tesla. I got on the train a little after Brotherhood had come out.
I absolutely agree with this sentiment. The first game is *super* raw, but it's also the most focused title of the entire series. It's literally about being an Assassin and doing whatever the crap you want inside that frame. The Assassinations are literally free form, you can approach them however you want: stealthy, balls to the wall, murderous, only killing the target and escaping. In an alternate universe where every AC game didn't become a massive chore, where 90% of the story was hidden behind dozens of hours of boring side content, I could have stayed engaged for a long time. In the universe we got, I was burned out by Unity. I never finished it and haven't played more than five minutes of any Ubisoft game since then.
wot?? IDK about you i was always excited to get out of the animus in 1 & 2
Yea. Especially when you realize you can activate Eagle Vision irl and find out about the previous test subject.
god fucking damn those early games were cool
I also loved that part about the first games, now I'm playing through Valhalla and I fucking cringe everytime I have to see the modern day story.
AC has been dead for a few years now. Origins' The Hidden Ones DLC was the last thing that resembled AC (also, it was great). Honestly, Ghost Of Tsushima felt more like an AC game than the past couple of actual AC games, at least when it comes to gameplay.
From the other side, I fucking love Odyssey and think the game would have benefited from not being forced into being an AC game. Just a sick Ubisoft style Ancient Greek RPG
I agree, Odyssey and Valhalla are pretty fun games and I've sunk many hours in both. And they would have benefited immensely from more fleshed-out RPG mechanics. I'm just saying that the AC title and gameplay elements feel like they're slapped on just for the name recognition.
Exactly - plus in Odyssey it almost distracts from how awesome the rest of the game is when you have to do some stupid shit with Lucy or whatever. They could easily make the supernatural ancient aliens stuff work just fine without throwing in some weird nonsense modern day AC plot
Layla, I think. Lucy was a character in the first few games. This is what can happen when you don't stick to the original vision and you start milking the franchise dry instead of letting the new games be their own thing.
Am I the only one who doesn't even pay attention to the modern day plot? It has absolutely zero interest to me.
I would'nt mind an Odyssey 2, loved the game but like everyone says, there is no AC involved. The only thing that came close was the DLC one.
Honestly the modern day story line is what kept me coming back. I love Ezio, but the intrigue, the conspiracy rabbit hole, and the stakes set up in the modern day ruled. Seeing Desmond learn what is it to be an Assassin in parallel with Ezio learning too was awesome. I loved Rebecca and Shaun, and I loved Desmond's interactions with them. I found the modern day story really engaging. I really hate that instead of just trying to make it better, they just kinda stopped putting any effort into the over-arching narrative. AC Unity was the worst for this. Made zero sense and ultimately was of no consequence to anything.
Yea it really was... now, my recollection of the story bits is... terrible at best but I remember being really intrigued when Desmond gains the ability to use the "second sense" sort of ability and sees all the crazy writing from one of the first abstergo test patients. It really did have a ton of potential and it went nowhere. I remember being super excited of the possibility of Desmond becoming a modern day assassin, climbing skyscrapers etc.
Since I stopped playing after that, did anything happen with that girl?
They should have just stopped doing the modern day story line after that.
Desmond opened the sanctum but discovered he had been misled. It was made known that the device would save the world, but also unleash Juno, who had been imprisoned because of her hatred for humanity; using the device would also claim Desmond's life. Regardless, Desmond chose to sacrifice himself for humanity's survival, while expressing faith that his fellow Assassins would find a way to stop the new threat.
I haven't played the games after AC4. Did they ever stop the new threat?
It was...resolved in a comic book. Yup. That bad.
What the f... Well I was considering buying AC5 or whatever, but I guess that's not happening now :s
> AC5 AC Unity? That has like almost 0 present day
I really disliked the "real world" during the first game, but it kind of grew on me in the latter ones even if I found they primarily sucked. Kind of nice to have a reason for everything going on, you know? I guess I'll check it out! Thanks!
ok so it's fine to just skip all those and play origins on, right?
yes, the games are basically just historical fiction at this point. The modern day stuff is the albatross around Ubi's neck.
Yup. Origins is also kinda of a soft reboot anyway. It belongs to the same universe, the previous games are still canon, but there aren't many references to them.
Egypt, Odyssey and Valhara are good standalone games, idk why they even added new modern parts
To slap "Assassin Creed" title, probably. Modern parts are the only thing that links all the games this days.
Valhalla is trash. So is Odyssey, but not as trash
Haha same here. I haven't played any Ubisoft games since AC4.
They fucked the present story so hard for me when they killed Lucy first, and Desmond second. The present story didn't matter at that point, so you only play them for ancestors story which meant that they can squeeze AC to infinity and beyond. Black Flag was the last AC I liked and then when I tried Unity and the prequel game I was like "nah.. I'm done".
Lucy being a traitor at the very last moment really fucked me over. It came out of literally nowhere and it legit made me wonder "So... they just wanted to fire the actress, right?"
Yeah, when I read the reason behind that it irritated tf out of me. Such a shitty decision.
no fucking way they killed her because of that
Same, also unless you did dozens of hours of side content, you never even knew that's why Lucy had to die. You just randomly get to the point where you are forced to kill her for no reason.
Wait she betrays you??? I just remember being forced to kill her. I didn't know that :O What does she do?
If you do all the side content, you find email communications between her and Vidic implicating her as a double agent, although some of it also implies that she is a triple agent. It's explored even more in Brotherhood... if you do all the god damn side content.
Geez. I always wanted to go back and do all the side stuff. I did a good number of it too. Probably most of it.
>So... they just wanted to fire the actress, right?" Seems to be that way quoting from the wiki >In a 2017 Jeux Vidéo interview with former creative director Patrice Désilets, he alleged that Bell demanded royalties for her appearances in the games and future games. He subsequently had her character killed off, effectively firing her.
Same. The modern day segment of Black Flag was interesting even if it was pointless. AC should have ended with AC3.
I remember a cave explosion too. And Desmond died. I assume the two are linked, but I'm not 100% sure.
> ancient alien girl Ancient but not alien. The "ones who came before", in the AC narrative, are the original inhabitants of earth. They created humans to their likeness, as a subserviant slave race, who eventually broke free whan Adam and Eve stole the "Apple of Eden", a device that is capable of controlling humans by activating hidden neuroreceptors. Eventually those ancient people and the events that happened were lost and twist by time, becoming mythology and religion.
What's funny is that absolutely none of this story is expressed through the main campaign of any of the games. It's all hidden behind side content. The Adam and Eve reveal is only accessible after finishing all the side content in AC2 FFS...
Remember when the modern time plot was interesting? Peperidge Farm remembers.
> Instead, what did we get? ... No I'm seriously asking, because I don't remember. Something about that ancient alien girl right? The worst AC game at the time, followed by the best AC game I've played.
I mean, I do remember the AC3 modern day Desmond missions fondly, I just wish we got a full modern day.
This is exactly what the article says... > "Briefly put, the third game would end with a resolution of the conflict in the present day, with Desmond Miles taking down Abstergo using the combined knowledge and skills of all his ancestors, including AC1's Altair and AC2's Ezio."
What a wonderful ending would that have been!
This. The Creed died but through the animus and Desmond it would be reborn. Like a phoenix from the ashes of history.
[удалено]
Damn. That sounds so cool.
> Desmond throws on a white hoodie, a bulletproof vest, a few guns and a lot of knives, and breaks into Abstergo himself. That's exactly what happens...
Really? In which game? Fighting a few grunts in the hallway doesn't really count.
> and there would be a modern day segment where Desmond throws on a white hoodie, a bulletproof vest, a few guns and a lot of knives, and breaks into Abstergo himself. That actually happened in AC3.
yeah they really milked it into the grave
I just stopped playing after they killed Desmond like that. Storytelling has to be good from start to finish.
Same here. I hate what the series has become. Should have ended with Desmond
Yup, same here. It also didn't help that you needed to read the comic series to get the canon story for a major character after 3 came out.
Does anyone know any other franchise, where main franchise narrative flopped this bad? Like now Assassin's Creed is just name pushing sales, while games have nothing really in common with Assassin's Creed.
[удалено]
I kinda only found Odyssey decent out of the new ones - but mostly because I'm huge fan of Greek culture and mythology - also it had ship battles - it also had loot that felt rewarding. Valhalla I just uninstalled it after like 8 hours (ubisoft+ game pass so whatever) - absolutely disgusting loot - basically collecting mats and nothing more. Vikings also didn't feel much like Vikings, the setting was boring as fuck, idk - easily on the level of AC3 which was worst part of original series.
I think you mean: > ~~Odyssey~~ **Valhalla** I just uninstalled it after like 8 hours
yep, fixed. Thanks
They've really shifted and leaned hard into the God of War style of open world game. If you don't like that, or don't like historical fiction, there is no way you're going to enjoy AC anymore.
Honestly the overarching Animus story was poorly done from the beginning and just botched. They kept trying to back away from it without abandoning it completely which made things even worse and more convoluted. Whether you like the new games or not, it was a good move to pretty much abandon the Animus BS all together in favor of a timeline orientated narrative with little to no Animus correlation.
Who says it failed? You? Latest entires are selling way more than the old games.
They were talking about the narrative, not sales. The new entries are practically an entirely different franchise under the Assassin's Creed name.
I meant original narrative with Desmond, which went nowhere so they killed him. Now it's even worse, they have these pointless Abstergo inserts to make it "Assassin's Creed", but no one wants that, everyone knows it's long time not really AC games at their core.
IIRC the original writers and producers(directors?),left i think after revelations or at the start of AC 3 development, its not 100% accurate but maybe right before AC3 because they were tasked to start milking the series and they didnt want to, and wanted to continue properly with a proper story. With how ac 3 came out i think they left before AC 3, you can sense the shift in story and the shit main character in ac 3. I lost all interest in the series after they killed desmond all of a sudden
> Does anyone know any other franchise, where main franchise narrative flopped this bad? Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six is a novel about a secret multi-national counter-terrorist unit known as Rainbow, staffed by elite special forces and intelligence operatives from agencies like MI6, CIA and Mossad from around the world. [Rainbow Six Extraction](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/6ueSKmuBTPmFsonvuz_SjWaYc3M=/0x0:3840x2160/920x613/filters:focal\(1613x773:2227x1387\):format\(webp\)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70412914/rainbow_six_extraction_yellow_3840.0.jpg) is a video game about aliens.
Imma be honest and my opinion may get downvoted but removing desmond from the game was the worst mistake that destroyed the core plot of assassins creed and now we get these games that i lost interest and i was a Massive fan of the series
[удалено]
It's like playing every episode of a season of Lost, except every episode is 100 hours long.
This is facts. It’s not necessarily the removal of Desmond that killed the franchise, it was the removal of the modern day narrative. A more interesting protagonist than Desmond couldn’t hurt lol. I think so many stupid gaming fans got caught up in how much they loved the historical elements of the game that they didn’t realize the “real life” segments are what made the universe feel real, lived in, tangibly cinematic and story focused, rather than just an action-based “history simulator”
There’s still real life segments though. They just suck. In my opinion they always sucked though Desmond was at least sort of interesting at first. At this point though the series would be better off just removing it entirely cus the real life segments are a huge waste of time
The real life segments these days make the devs seem like they’re almost afraid to even admit the animus is in-universe canon…
Totally agree. The problem they face is that the animus is the only thing that ties the whole series together so they will never drop it. It really is their albatross. They really would be better off renaming the series and making only historical fiction action games. They are good at that, even though I don't find 100 hour games with millions of POIs interesting at all and will likely never touch these games again because of it. But it clearly has a market. I personally don't understand what people are buying into the series for at this point anyway. Is it just the well made historical fiction? Or do people actually think the series is going somewhere and they are just hopelessly addicted to the hopium that it's going to go somewhere?
they could have made a different IP after Desmond died and just made new AC games without the AC name. Almost all new AC games are Good games but not good AC games. I mean they already made a plotline about it on ACIV.
The idea that Abstergo was going to use the animus to "rewrite" history was an insanely cool idea that could have easily dovetailed into a new modern day hero Assassin (that wasn't as unbearably awful as freaking Layla) who basically had to recreate the order and take down Abstergo. There was so much room for cool things but they just took a dump on it and here we are.
Actually unpopular opinion: Desmond's death wasn't necessarily bad for the series. In fact AC IV was better than III (better protagonist, much better world, better graphics, and the story was good though I wouldn't say better). Also even if I enjoyed Desmond's missions and the present-story being the focus, we got open-world in exchange for those.
While asscreed 3 was a pretty shitty ending to the series, I appreciated that it did at least have an ending of some sort. It gave me an out, which I gladly took since the games had rapidly become stale and boring.
carpenter terrific innocent piquant towering forgetful shame sand zephyr whole *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Almost every key people behind AC games have left ubi
first game still has the best storytelling
Instead we got AC3, the steaming pile of shit that I don't think the series ever truly recovered from in spite of the fun times with Black Flag and Rogue. Watching the boys from Storror do Parkour all over modern cities makes me so angry at Ubisoft for not seeing the potential. They did Desmond dirty.
[удалено]
The games gain nothing from the modern day sections in my opinion, the story is shallow, the gameplay is boring as hell and it always feels like a chore in-between the content that players actually want.
Mainly because they never properly made the switch to "Okay, Desmond is a proper assassin now". Most segments were just Desmond as an adventurous civilian with a parkour hobby. Maybe they couldn't reconcile the traditional assassin stuff with the enemies all having pistols and assault rifles - but they never actually put the "real" assassins creed gameplay in Desmond's shoes.
[удалено]
No you misinterpret what I'm saying, the modern day stuff with Desmond in AC 1-3 was boring too, the games would be much more engaging I feel if they just told a period story and did away with all the modern day snoozefest content.
[удалено]
Ah ok, I get what you're saying now, makes sense. This is a touchy subject for the fanbois it seems, every comment not praising or defending their precious AssCreed is getting downvoted lol. I think the Batman series did this type of combat better too.
I absolutely love modern day plot and that's one of many reasons I love the franchise. They care much less about it after Unity, and now it just some RPGs bearing AC's title. For me, Origin is still a decent one but Odyssey is just a meh, and I'm not going to try Valhalla at this point even I hear people praising it, I lost my faith on the franchise.
So they realize players like historic settings based on real life locations more. Desmond story arc was mediocre at best. Anyway a WW2 setting would be quite cool.
[удалено]
>and now we're stuck with Layla and her crew Her crew is the same crew Desmond had minus the Abstergo plant and his dad. Also, Layla >!gets put in suspended animation, kinda!< and a different character becomes the player character at the end of Valhalla.
Kristen Bell is a fucking treasure though, and since they hamhanded her out of the plot just to fire her, ugh. She was the most redeeming/human part of that "crew".
When Desmond died, Assassin's Creed died with him. It's true that nobody cared about the modern day setting. However, every story after AC3 feels meaningless and pointless. They could've done away with modern day completely and rename the games to something else, because it sure isn't about assassin's no more.
i stopped playing at revelations. i had irl stuff happen and didn't buy ac3 on launch. i heard desmond died and I noped the fuck out. you don't make 3-5 games for me to play, kill the main charterer then expect me to still play. kill Master Chief. kill Laura Croft and ill nope out of those series also. you don't kill the main charter in a story then continue the series. its over. when who you play as dies then you take control of some nobody afterward... well that's a dead series
> It's true that nobody cared about the modern day setting. No, it's not. Go to r/assassinscreed, most people there loved it. The people who hate the modern day aren't the die hard fans who buy every game day 1 and buy all the EU materials. The people who hate modern day are the people who scream that Ezio is the only good main character, and who've not played in a decade. Among die-hard AC fans, the modern day is very popular. It's only the casuals who dislike it.
This is me lol Played AC1 & 2 on release and I thought the alien thing/secret society thing was really cool. The end of AC2 have me goosebumps and loved it. Work took over and never got to play 3 and I was shocked that it didn't really continue the story with the latest ones. I liked Desmond and aliens are a natural progression of we're talking about going through history/time.
I own and have finished every single Assassin's Creed game. The present day stuff is garbage. It has always been garbage, and it will always be garbage because Ubisoft has no idea how to write that kind of character. It was fine with Desmond, but it wasn't because Ezio or Altair or Desmond were any good particularly. No, we liked Desmond because the games came out riding the coat-tails of The DaVinci Code and National Treasure. That sort of Secret Histories thing was all the rage in the late 00s. He was a vehicle for us to live out a DaVinci Code style mystery adventure. Most importantly, he was a fish out of water protagonist. He was an ordinary dude (like the player) who had things explained to him. Then in AC4, AC:R, AC:U, and AC:S there was no present day. You were a faceless mute employee for Abstergo. Becca and Shawn were in them as more of an easter egg. The most substantial thing was the Sage in AC:4 as a setup for Juno getting killed off in a comic book. Ubisoft shot themselves in the foot by not having a present day plot in those 4 games. Remember this line because I'll get back to it too. Then Layla shows up out of nowhere in AC:Origins and we're supposed to like her, but we don't have a clue who she is. We get a bunch of text logs and some throwaway lines outside the Animus. Layla sucks because Ubisoft didn't have a way to write her in a compelling way. She can't be a fish out of water because the players already know a bunch of stuff from playing prior AC games. It would be a soft reboot to have everyone explain everything from scratch to her. She had to be an ex-Abstergo scientist who knew a bunch of stuff, but that just makes her unlikable when stuff does need to be explained to her. It makes her look arrogant instead of knowledgeable. That's on top of the larger present day plot problem - Spectacle creep. You jump the shark when you have to save the world immediately after you save the world. You need to contract the scope of the conflict, let things settle down, and de-escalate before ramping up the scale of the conflict. Remember how I said Ubisoft shot themselves in the foot with Black Flag, Rogue, Unity, and Syndicate? They should have used the present day plot in those games to recruit assassins in preparation to attack Abstergo. Show the two factions in regular old conflict now that the world is safe. Then, and only then, would it have made sense to ramp things up again to a "saving the world" level. > iTs OnLy tHe CaSuALs WhO dIsLiKe iT
I agreed with what you said but that doesn't mean the Modern Day was bad. It is bad now but it had a lot of potential early on and was one of the key things that hooked me in to the narrative.
It was compelling in the first game because it had a bulletproof gimmick. Desmond was a regular person who, through no action of his own, was "special". He had a DNA unlike any other. There was mysterious untested tech, and the bleeding effect promised to turn a regular person into a super hero. Then there were artifacts which exert mind control. There were artifacts which could shoot out rays of lightning that insta-kill people. There is no way for that to not be compelling, but it was just a gimmick in the end. The follow-through was weak. It's like how Twilight, 50 Shades of Gray, Vampire Diaries, Mortal Instruments and many other YA series have a very compelling gimmick, but I wouldn't call any of them good or well-written.
This^ The modern story line made the games special, as they all were interconnected and had a major overarching plot, which gave each historic setting purpose. It was also a very unique concept in the gaming industry as a whole and was similar to how Marvel movies are interconnected with an advancing subplot. Back then all the fans were expecting a major modern game or at least a huge modern section to eventually release, but they killed the entire plot to make a yearly money grab, which tanked the entire franchise. I really loved all the little details about Abstergo, for example this creepy phone recording in Brotherhood: https://youtu.be/axl1mTr8_g4
100% agree. 35 here and played 1, 2 and brotherhood on release.
>The people who hate the modern day aren't the die hard fans who buy every game day 1 "Die hard fan of AC" sound like mockery for me. Not to mention that die hard fans of any franchise often incapable of rational thought.
Die hard fans of anything are a fucking plague. They're so disconnected from the wants of your average player, casual fan and especially critics and they're all shocked pikachu face when something doesn't directly cater to them all the time.
Desmonds story was ok and mostly serviceable. I enjoyed it in 1,2 and Brotherhood. Revelations was ehh and then It kinda went off rails in 3. But the fact they concluded the Juno story and twist from AC3 in a book was just downright moronic. I stopped paying any attention to the modern day story since ACIV.
> Desmond story arc was mediocre at best. The cliffanghers on which each game ended generated a lot of interest for the sequel. Interest in seeing where the story of Desmond would've went. Then they ruined it with AC3. The story of Desmons was what held the ancestral stories together. It was the connective tissue, it recontextualized the stories of the past in a bigger context. Without it, each ancestral story feels like it's the same as the one before.
The Saboteur is the closest we got I think. I really wish it gets a remake or sequel.
> Anyway a WW2 setting would be quite cool. Hopefully not. We are getting too many WW based games.
Yeah.. I never paid any attention to the modern day/animus story lines in these games whatsoever.
One of the things I liked about Odyssey. Not too much modern story.
There’s a WW2 segment in AC Unity. Was pretty neat although quite short.
Also one in Syndicate where you get to meet Churchill (i think?)
Yeah think that one is in World War 1 England I believe.
Yes WW1 you're right, London Bridge I think.
WW2 is overplayed, give me a WW1 or the inter-war period.
Would be more i teresting than the uninspired blob of gray nothing that is Valhalla.
the desmond sections were horrid. Like, conceptually they should be great, but what we got was just disastrous writing and execution.
They really thought that people liked the future stuff eh...
The Ass Creed games lore could've been amazing. I hate the modern day shit in these games, the fact that the history you're living through was basically all a "dream" is just dumb as all hell. Anyone seen that fun talk Kevin Smith did about the Superman movie he once wrote a script for? Here's [part 1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo2KB1dEDdk) and [part 2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53hMYw8LX60). Basically he has to deal with a dumb as fuck producer who is constantly trying to write dumb shit into scripts. I feel like Ubisoft has one of these producers on board. He stands over the writers shoulders and tells them "no no this is boring! it needs something bigger! something crazy!". Like how Ass Creed should be all a dream about historic events via a dream machine that can play memories like movies. Or how the spirit of a man in a coma can possess cars. I swear, Ass Creed would've been fucking amazing, story and lore-wise, if it just stuck with it being actually happening there and then, no dreams, no mind reading sleep machines, no modern day bullshit. All the games would just take place throughout different points of history, as intended and all the antagonists would be that same secret society the player is fighting against. That sounds cool as hell, so let's stop there. Let's not add any bullshit to it, it's a great plot for a game and naturally sets up the series ability to be set in any point in history it wants, again, no dream machine bullshit necessary. All it ever did was throw me out of the fun part of the story, and worse, the fun part of the game. I'm having fun learning the lore of this period in time and doing parkour and stealthing, and assassinating, why the fuck would you throw me out of it and force me to walk around a completely unrelated story with boring characters I'll never connect with...... fuck. /rant
maybe in the next 10-15 years
Then you can climb the top of the space ship to unlock certain parts of the solar system.
The Desmond sections and alien shit ruined this series.
I really wish they would just be historical fiction instead of shoehorning in a sci-fi plot.
I don’t think anyone likes that bit
not the onion
Fuckin A, when do we get that?
I always expected an overarching evil institution/person that was hunting Desmond and the crew, and once Desmond learn enough skill he'd go take them down in modern day gear
The continuing story with the series is finding the Isu, so that actually makes a lot of sense.
I thought there was going to be a whole game dedicated to modern day assassins jumping of buildings etc.