Syndicate: A friend told me this one was weird and well I had to experience weird myself so I bought it on sale from gamestop and here is what I figured out. (I'd like to note I've not yet finished this title so if I'm short or did not include something you feel crucial please take this into account).
Rating: on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the best game ever) I give it a 7.
Game Style : FPS run and gun
Opinion: I was told this was just a weird approach, I'd like to clarify it as a weird approach that should have been used with Deus Ex. The concept is very similar you are a test subject in bio-engineering with a chip in you brain that allows you to do really cool stuff once you get the hang of the play style. A lot of the action is in the play which makes things relatively quick, but also intriguing. I found I want to know more and thus I am still playing, but I'm as well intrigued by what is there. You have your chip mode where time slows and you can have your basic Max Payne slow motion attack in an FPS cyber wonderland. It's not perfect, but it's well done.
The major flaw I find to the game so far is that it doesn't explain well enough what you should be on the look out for so it's a lot of trial and error. As well there are things you can control that don't always work for you or with you so you have to take that into account in your gun spree. I feel this is a game that should have done better and could have given the player more so far. I may revisit this title after I complete the story.
Now I'd like to approach a series as well as specifics of two titles in a series so please bear with the awkward so I can give this a fair approach.
Series: Assassins Creed
Titles Played: 1, 3, 4
Overall score Rating: 9
The Breakdown
I played the original Assassin's Creed a long time ago, but got a feeling of accomplishment pulling off assassinations and well following the rather unusual storyline so I'm not going to review 1 as well it's really old news, but as part of the series I used 1 as my comparison to how the game made me feel with the other two titles I've played in the series. Now before I get bashed for not playing 2, revelations or brotherhood I want to point out that what pulled me back in was seeing a friend play 4. I will get to those titles, but this series rates rather high thus far so please keep this in mind. Now the reviews in order of play.
Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag:
Rating: 8
Game Style: Historic Act Adv with scifi aspects
Opinion: As I stated a friend was playing this in my living room and it peaked my curiosity as what I saw seemed like such a jump from the original. The graphics were great, the gameplay kept my attention hell even the basics were entertaining. So thus I had to own it. The story is a nice change from the original but seems to be a rebuild of part of 1 and hint's of a furthering to the series. The things new to me IE Hunting and Boat battle are well done and after a few snafu's I got it down rather quickly. The swimming in the diving bell annoys me, but it doesn't take from the games beauty. The storyline is rather quick, but seems to be leading to so so much more and as I was told and figured out it leads back into 3. Thus my play approach.
This did a great job of Redefining Assassin's Creed for me so I gladly offer it as a title that should be played at least once. Now let's head backwards.
Assassin's Creed III
Rating: 7.5
Game Style: Same
Opinion: This really bothered me at first because I did not see where 4 had tied back in completely. The beginning is a bit slow and the hero who is actually the enemy is really slow and the button work is frustrating. I was thinking 4 had this well done crowd control and battle feature that I was great with is this game going to suck. Then the story progressed.... As you get Connor and work him up to being an Assassin things become so well done. The hunting is more in depth, you can do so much more mission wise and even get so far in detail that you spend more time playing with other features than the story. Not that the story is bad.
So this is what everyone was talking about as I play as Connor I get the sense that I like dabbling with so many of the features that 4 pulled back on. The hunting is in depth , The ship is a bit tricky to maneuver some of the details compared to 4 but I can see the promise of what lead to 4. This is really ideal. What hurts this game is there are things that keep you off guard and things that take forever to fully understand. If you screw up a sneaky mission in 4 you hit check points that reduce frustration in 3 it's not quite there so you find yourself really trying to keep up with some of your associates who go nuts with their sneaky selves.
So now I keep pulling both titles in my head together and try to see what could make up the next title as there is so much here that is great. Ubisoft if you're listening take notes....
- Hunting - this is really enthralling especially if you give a wide variety of animal. I usually stay away from hunting games but for some reason the assassin's got the idea of how to make it the best part of the game.
- Crafting - This is a little lax in 3 in four you can bump so much so quick if you get into a hunting mood.
- Pirating - this was well done naval combat. To be honest it's the best part of 4 and you really want to upgrade your boat to do some crazy damage.
- Weapons and tools - 3 gives you so much more of a variety, but 4 gives them a polish even though it was simplified. Love the rope dart.
- Missions are great
- Crowd fighting - either give me a way to kill faster or work it so we can get ourselves out of some of these corners you keep giving us.
- Hiding glitching - I've noticed this in all your games sometimes people can see you when you are so well hidden that it just screws you over.
- Large animals in packs. This is a rarity, but I know wolves are a pack animal, but some times you over do packs where there is no survival.
- Outfits - I'm cool with the changing out outfits idea, but if you know we are going to want to play with an ultimate don't force us to buy all outfits afterwards.
- DL Weapons - if you're going to use Uplay or DLC to give us cool weapons give them an edge, not some medium grade aspect where they are practically useless by the time we aquire them.
