Assassin's Creed: Revelations, Saint's Row the Third
I was sick today! Like actual "had trouble getting out of bed" sick, not "sure is convenient there are two games I want to play out today" sick, but man, it was sure was convenient there were two games I wanted to play that came out today. So, once I could manage, I dragged myself to the Gamestop, picked those up, and plopped down in front of the TV to drink water and play games.
First on the docket was Assassin's Creed: Revelations. So, Ezio is off to Istanbul this time around. Or Constantinople, or Kostantiniyye. The city with a lot of names. He's there because he went back to the little village from Assassin's Creed, and found a crapton of templars there, as well as a door that he needs to collect keys to open. Because if Ezio isn't collecting things, he is not living. These were all hidden by Niccolo Polo, and we needed a reason for Ezio to be there. Of course, the real reason we're in Constantinople is because Desmond broke his brain and is now in a coma, and they just connected him to the Animus because they couldn't figure out what else to do. He's stuck on Animus Island, a holding screen, and he's got to "finish up" his memories with both Ezio and Altair so that his brain can figure out they aren't all the same guy and he can be normal again, and Subject 16's consciousness is there to help. It feels very Inception, I'm waiting patiently for Ezio to find an ancient Animus and then they can go deeper. BWWWAAMM.
BUT! Mainly we're sticking with Ezio, who is getting a new cast of friends, including an assassins guild that's helping him out, and a hot chick that he might finally get with to ensure he actually passes on his genes, like he's supposed to. There's a lot of old stuff carried over, and a few new things, such as bomb crafting, which is okay at best, and a tower defense mode, which I hate. Okay, I don't "hate" it, but it feels super unnecessary and fair too different than the standard gameplay to be offensive. I'm still getting my feet off the ground, learning all there is and whatever, and nothing to talk about, except for this one part, in which Ezio is chatting up his new lady friend, and when she asks who the hell he is, he responds, "The most interesting man in your life." He doesn't always drink beer, you see.
After completing a hidden zone (also still don't like these), I switched to Saint's Row the Third, which is kinda crazy. It starts with a mock bank robbery, or a real one (who knows), with a ridealong actor, because he's going to be in a movie about the Saints. You do this entire segment while wearing a giant bobblehead of Johnny Gat and voice modulators. At one point you are asked by police to autograph and then put down your gun. So, it's setting the right tone right away. In one mission you actually dive out of a plane, catch your friend, dive back into the plane, dive out again, and catch your friend one more time. This happens in the first hour of play. The game is all kinds of goofy fun, although it's a bit harder than I'd like, it really throws some nonsense fights at you first thing, so prepare for cover. I've advanced to the point where you set up a sweet new pad and go through all the introduction to all the activities, and...I don't know, don't have a lot to say at this point. I'm going to like it, I know that much.
Then it's back to Assassin's Creed for the multiplayer, and oh son, this is so much better. They really wangled the system to be more friendly, adding more modes, abilities, and customization options, as well as a storyline! The starting experience is a lot better, you now have access to two full ability sets as default, so you aren't running dry, and after a certain point you can start crafting your own. There's a currency system in play, and you need to buy all your abilities, as well as your new looks and weapons and other stuff. It's not that big of deal though, as you get currency easily and you won't be wanting if you fail to buy a certain thing (the cost of a full set of abilities will likely be easily achieveable before level 50, and the game goes far far beyond that). But the biggest deal for me is that there's more achievement in each game, and you can just keep rolling in the same server if you want to. No more having to worry about getting into a game, and you can slip from mode to mode easily, as the next game on the server is put up to a vote. And more importantly, modes that I used to hate have been vastly improved, so now I am willing to play just about anything.
Before I go on and on, first some basic gameplay changes that improve things greatly. In addition to everyone having access to similar ability sets from the start, so they know what's happening, they've changed scoring when it comes to the actual kills. First, you don't start as incognito, but as discreet. You have to perform some simple actions to get full points for a kill, really setting up the kill. So people who smash and grab earn a lot of less than people who carefully plan their actions. Second, if you know someone is coming at you, you can stun as normal, but if you weren't quite fast enough and they hit kill at the same time, you'll instead execute a contested kill, which nukes their bonus, makes them super obvious, and nets the killed 100 points. This is amazing. It really levels the field and requires people to pay attention and be even sneakier. I cannot talk about how great it feels to get an honorable death. I still died, and that sucks, but I saw you coming, and therefore I get rewarded as well.
Also, two modes have catapulted to favorite: Deathmatch and Assassinate. Deathmatch is a new mode in which the compass is gone, but the area is much smaller (this was the mode they were showing at PAX, which they failed to explain). So, you have less places to hide, but no real clue where your target is, and have to check for player tells to sort it out. It's nice and subtle and fun. The other is assassinate, which I used to just hate in Brotherhood, that was improved here by the changes to gameplay, and me finally noticing one thing I just didn't catch the first time I tried the mode, the half-compass that tells you in general where someone is. With this, you can tell when someone is nearby and in what direction, but that's not enough info to really tell who they are, especially if they are doing it right. I'm not sure if the fact that the metagame has also effectively reset also helped me enjoy this more (I had a couple of games of this in which it seemed nobody but me know how to play). But I like Assassinate now, had a few great games, and can't wait to get needlessly sucked into this again.
