Video Game Review: Assassin’s Creed: Freedom Cry

Details: Beat it in about five hours. I played the stand alone DLC, but if you buy the DLC that is not, then you will need Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag installed if you want to play this DLC. Played it on the PC. Purchased for $5.

I really enjoyed Freedom Cry. The problems I had with Black Flag were certainly still there. However, I bought Freedom Cry for one main reason: the story. I wanted more story that tied with the historical setting of the time. This game delivered that.

The story premise is this: Adwele, the first mate of Edward Kenway and member of the Assassins, is shipwrecked in a slave trading town. He meets the locals in an attempt to get back out to sea and return to the Assassins. In his efforts, he befriends and sympathizes with a slave rebellion in the town and takes up their cause.

One of the main draws of the Assassin’s Creed games is that it is educational. Often times, they take a historical event or attitude and immerse you in it, both introducing you to an idea and showing you how it may have felt to live in that era. Freedom Cry does a great job showing just a small slice of the slave trade of that time period and the attitudes present.

It’s a sensitive subject for various reasons. Movies and shows like Roots or 12 Years a Slave have done a great job showing some of the ugliness related to the slavery of that time period. People often criticize an exploration of these ideas because it is ugly, because some people still adhere to that racism and do not want it perceived negatively, and also because people who identify themselves with the countries that were responsible for slavery feel the cruelty and evil of that time is an insult to them personally and their national pride. For these reasons, I wanted to see this game even more because — while this is a fictional games — those attitudes were very real. For some people, they likely still are.

And you do feel the wrongness of the era through this game. The mental gymnastics necessary to justify enslaving a people are always ridiculous to see. The last few missions were particularly striking in how they illustrated just how little the slave overseers valued the lives of their slaves; they just didn’t think they were human. While the slavery of the colonial era is over, that kind of thinking and prejudice is powerful in that it often times rings familiar, even in the present day.

In regards to gameplay, it’s exactly the same as Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. In other words,  there is some sailing, some sneaking, and the same counter based combat from prior games.

The graphics are the same as Black Flag, which isn’t bad in my opinion because I thought Black Flag looked great for its time.

The music deserves special mention because I think all the tracks are new and not present in Black Flag. It’s mostly orchestral with some moving vocal portions that help immerse the player even more. The music is great.

Score: 6/10 Good downloadable content. I feel like it was worth the five dollars I paid, but the game unlikely justifies a penny higher than that.

Video Game Review: South Park: The Stick of Truth (PC)

A short preface: played this game for about twenty hours. Beat the main quest and most if not all side quests.

In order to truly enjoy this game, you must first check off two boxes: (1) you’ve watched South Park before and you are a fan, and (2) you like turn based role playing games (especially old Japanese RPG’s). If you fit this criteria, South Park: The Stick of Truth is an incredibly fun game, arguably even a near perfect adaptation of a television show and a near perfect South Park game.

However, it is important to note that the first twenty minutes of this game are a slog. When I first tried this game out, I found it really boring and gave up on it for a few months. I came back to it later and forced myself through the beginning tutorial and I am so glad I did. After that first twenty minutes the game opens up and you get all the South Park humor you’d expect in this type of game.

Speaking of humor, this game exudes the humor of the television series to an extreme, R rated degree. The premise is thus: you are the new kid in South Park and you play a fantasy role playing game with the other kids of South Park when a sudden crisis strikes the town.

While not all of the past South Park characters are present, there are a ton of them. Some cameos include Al Gore, Jesus, Moses in dreidel form, Terrence and Philip and the Canadians. It’s just good fun to see familiar faces, and then see that character used as a magic spell or an enemy boss. For example, (minor spoilers) you get to fight Al Gore and one of his attacks is a power point on the environment which has the effect of putting you to sleep. You can also summon Mr. Hankey onto your side and he casts a poop themed wave attack reminiscent of Disney’s Fantasia. It’s pretty nuts, yet awesome at the same time.

Of note is just how far this game goes. There is nudity in this game, even though it is cartoon nudity. In fact, one boss fight takes place in the middle of a bedroom while two persons engage in sex. The battle ends with one of you getting hit by a boob while the other gets hit by a nut sack.

In regards to gameplay, it is a fairly simple form of turn based role playing game reminiscent of Super Mario RPG and old Final Fantasy games. There are a lot of spells and attacks that involve timed button presses, which can be annoying. However, I’m okay with these since they do at some interactivity to turn based combat.

Visually, the game looks just like an episode of South Park, which I loved.

Score: 8.2/10 Loved this game. It captures the spirit of the show so well. It’s like playing through a really long episode of South Park, yet even better because of all the references and cameos from old South Park episodes. If you like the show, playing this game is a no-brainer. This game is perfect for a rental or to borrow from a friend. There is also no replay value to the game after beating the main quest and side missions.

Video Game Review: Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (PC)

Just some considerations: played the game for about twenty-something hours, no downloadable content, beat the game and then some. Didn’t play multiplayer because didn’t care for that.

Story

The story is great, actually one of the more compelling stories in the Assassin’s Creed franchise. When I play an Assassin’s Creed game, I’m looking for a compelling adventure story that takes place in a setting that is visually accurate to history but loosely based on actual events. This game is definitely that.

The protagonist — like many in that time period I imagine — tries to find a better life by becoming a pirate. Less realistically he is friends with all the well known pirates of that era. It’s a forgivable offense however, since all these characters are represented well and are charismatic in their own right.

Of course the war between Assassins and Templar is largely featured in the story, but they are kind of ancillary. The main story focuses on the protagonist, his experiences as a pirate, and his experience in noteworthy moments in the time period.

The ending somehow managed to choke me up a little.

Gameplay

The combat is standard Assassin’s Creed formula; stand around, wait for someone to attack, counter, then kill. It’s pretty boring and a glaringly substandard combat system when compared to games like Batman: Arkham City and Shadow of Mordor. It’s really boring and kind of sucks you out of the experience.

Sneaking and assassinating is okay, but I wish it was further polished to something of the level of Splinter Cell. Not necessarily at that level, but a little more detailed. It’s satisfactory though.

Parkour is fun, but still needs tweaking. It’s really annoying when your running and magnetically float towards something you did not want to run towards or jump to. It’s mostly tolerable.

The most awesome part of this game is the sailing and sea battles. Man, this part shines. It’s hard to think of other games where you can sail around while your crew sings sea shanties and you ship just rolls over the waves. Seas battles are not complex, but still really fun. Fighting a sea battle when a storm hits is really chaotic, but still really fun.

There are a couple of mini games. There’s a hunting mini game, which I really enjoyed. The music during these hunting portions is exactly right, perfectly expressing the tension of hunting a great white shark in a tiny boat. Another mini game concerns sending ships on trade runs. There some minor animation, but it’s really an excel spread sheet game that mostly deals with numbers. It’s all right.

Graphics

This game came out a few years ago, but the game holds up wonderfully. There’s just no other feeling like sailing the open ocean, passing by islands and other ships, watching the sun rise and set and the weather change. The water looks fantastic. The game looks fantastic.

Sound

The music is incredible, exactly embodying the time period. Loved it.

Conclusion

Loved the game, the weakest parts of the game are the traditional gameplay from past Assassin’s Creed games. The story is great. Visuals and audios are great. Additionally, I skipped as much of the present day stuff as I could. I just did not care. I wanted to play as a pirate and that’s what I did.

Score: 7.4

Discussion: The Assassin’s Creed Franchise Is Stale, Here’s What Ubisoft Needs to Do Next

I have Assassin’s Creed fatigue. I watched this trailer for the next game and I am not even remotely looking forward to it. And I love the Assassin’s Creed franchise. I played a ton of the games. But there have been far too many games and Ubisoft needs to make some changes so that I — and the rest of the fan base — don’t drop our top hats and walk out on the franchise. Here’s some things they can do to make sure that doesn’t happen.

1.     Release the game less often. This is an easy one. Your customers can only play so many games and you kill hype if you over saturate.

2.     Introduce a new game mechanic. In Assassin’s Creed Black Flag and Rogue, the best new mechanic in these games was your boat. You got this awesome, big boat, with an awesome singing crew, that you could upgrade up the yin yang with tons of cannons. What more could you want? An enormous ocean to explore? Done! We need something like in the next Assassin’s Creed game; something unexpected.

Two suggestions I can think of would be squad/platoon fighting mechanic or a general/commander mechanic. The squad/platoon mechanic I’m referring to is something akin to something reminiscent of the film Gladiator or 300, where you can fight with a small squad against an enemy force, employing tactics and working together as a single platoon.

The general/commander mechanic refers to the player taking the role of the commander on the battlefield, yelling orders to his army and eventually even joining the fray on the battlefield. You can get some real memorable, medieval, Braveheart, Lord of the Rings-esque moments out of a mechanic like that. Just some ideas.

3.     We need more interesting settings. Ubisoft is a French company. The settings they thusly choose are going to lean toward France, Europe, or to the West in general. It’s time to step outside your comfort zone and pick a setting you might not be so comfortable with. This is risky from a business standpoint. Many countries that Ubisoft might seek distribution in likely have laws against any interpretation of history that diverts from the official narrative (Ahem… China). However, the introduction of a new setting and an accompanying new mechanic would help to revitalize this weakened franchise.

Here are a few to consider: the Qin wars of unification of China which would be great for the commander/general mechanic mentioned above; the rise of the Roman Empire and the use of the squad/platoon mechanic mentioned; and the Vietnam War and perhaps new jungle-stealth mechanics and gun handling mechanics. Again, just some ideas. Step out of your comfort zone Ubisoft, the franchise needs something new.

In conclusion, Ubisofts needs to do something to improve this franchise. What helped Black Flag and Rogue was that awesome boat and vast ocean to explore, which helped express the setting better. A new environment with exciting new game mechanics to match an unexpected new setting. That’s what I think we fans want. Not more of the same.

Just some food for thought Ubisoft.

Video Game Review: Splinter Cell: Blacklist (2013)

Details: Played on PC. Because Uplay stupidly has no way to measure time played on a game, I have no idea how long I played it. Felt like around fifteen hours.

Splinter Cell: Blacklist is the latest in the Splinter Cell video game franchise and was released about two years ago. I received a copy when I upgraded my video card and I am so glad I did.

As the name suggests, the game plays out like a political thriller written by Tom Clancy: terrorists called the “Engineers” seek to commit a number of terrorist attacks and it’s up to Sam Fisher and his crew to stop them. Sam Fish and his crew are part of a splinter cell of American operatives who answer only to the president and can exercise the “Fifth Freedom,” which is to do whatever it takes (legal or not) to protect the country. The story is a lot of fun and really has that Tom Clancy feel. It rivals that of his other works in the political-thriller genre.

Voice acting is top notch and the performances of the actors really come through. I am a little upset they replaced the voice actors for Grim and Sam Fisher, but I can see why they did. The performances require a lot more physicality due to motion capture and hiring actors who can do the voices and act out the scenes really add to the atmosphere of the game.

In regards to gameplay, the game is the best iteration of the Splinter Cell formula yet. There are three ways to get through a level: assault (going in guns blazing, no stealth), panther (remaining stealthy but taking out all the enemies), and ghost (avoiding enemies and stealthing through an entire level without fighting). Personally, I prefer panther style, but I would occasionally engage in some ghost and assault style as well. Enemies generally walk on a predetermined route and your job is to either avoid or take them out as you proceed to the end of the level. It’s a fun formula that gives the player substantial discretion over how to approach a situation.

Of note is the games computer controlled enemies. While not clever in all situations, they can still be impressive. For instance, if you open a door in a hallway along an enemy guard’s patrol route and they come around and see it open, they will notice the door and begin to search the area/room associated with that door.

On the other hand, the enemy guards are completely oblivious to the disappearance of their colleagues as I was assassinating them one by one. This however, is a wise gameplay choice in my opinion because a substantial part of my enjoyment of the game was going around and stealthily taking out the guards at my leisure, without the worry that one of them would fail to radio in and incur the wrath of reinforcements. You still get screwed if the bodies are found, but I found hiding the bodies in creative places (e.g. on a toilet, in a jacuzzi) a hilarious and fun part of the game.

The game also has a kind of level progression in the form of purchasing weapons and armor through in-game currency. You earn money by finishing missions and fulfilling certain parameters during missions (like finding a laptop or capturing a high value target). Armor and weapons have stats which can then be upgraded through further purchases. It’s not an in depth leveling system, but I appreciate the inclusion of it. Furthermore, acquiring money to purchase things isn’t really that difficult and I purchased all of my favorite things around halfway through the game.

In regards to multiplayer, Blacklist provides a fun, if not troll-heavy form of entertainment. One mode is “spies versus mercenaries,” where one group of players play as patrolling guards while another group tries to take them out through stealth.

The game also provides coop missions which can be played with a friend. These are really fun and often provide all sorts of hilarity as you try (and often fail) to accomplish missions with teamwork. I really appreciate that Ubisoft kept this feature from prior games as this is one of the best parts of the Splinter Cell games.

Additionally, the graphics for this game are fantastic. I played this game on my computer on maximum graphical settings. It can easily compete with the games coming out today despite being released around two years ago.

Score: 8/10 Loved this game. I’m not sure it is worth $60, but seeing that it was released a while ago, you could probably get it at a discount. In fact, as I type this, it is currently on sale on Steam for $7.49. For that price, it is well worth the purchase.