Does Assassin's Creed Still Need The Animus?

Ever since the 2007 release of the original Assassin’s Creed, I have been enamored with this long and successful franchise - the freedom of movement, the historical setting, the sandbox style assassinations and of course, the ever cool, hidden blade. I sunk dozens of hours just roaming around 12^th Century holy lands, creating my own stories that usually descended (ascended?) into leading useless guards on a dangerous dash across the rooftops. It was a flawed game, but one that I have so much time and adoration for.

One element of Assassin’s Creed that always stuck with me was the modern day sections of the game that put you in the shoes of Desmond Miles, an ex-assassin thrust back into the on-going war between Assassins and Templars. Apart from the fact that Desmond was as bland as an especially boring potato, this modern day story kept me interested enough that I wasn’t cursing when I was dragged out of my historical romp to wander the Abstergo labs.

This tradition continued right through to Assassin’s Creed 3, with the idea of two secret organisations vying for power as well as a colourful cast of supporting characters (I’m looking at you, Shaun Hastings) keeping me invested enough to genuinely enjoy the obviously less developed modern story. The end to Desmond Miles’ story, as rushed and a hackneyed job as it was, signaled an end to Ubisoft genuinely trying to tie the franchise together with a coherent modern story.

Well, Black Flag did at least try to make you care about present day. You played as a mute, nameless character in first person as you worked for Abstergo Entertainment, an evil video game corporation – not looking at you EA. You are coerced into hacking various points of the office by a familiar sounding voice – none of it seems important or relevant right up until the final moments when the voice is revealed to be none other than a reincarnation of the Sage you are chasing through the high seas of the Caribbean. It was a nice little reveal but I still wasn’t interested, nor did I care enough about this story to feel anything but annoyed when I was dragged out of 18^th Century.

Unity’s attempts at telling a modern day story were pretty much non-existent, with Ubisoft opting for a ‘let’s go find a sage’s remains’ tale that was laughably under-developed and forced, right up until the conclusion when it became a full blown hilarious joke as you discover that the whole ‘sage remains’ thing was a complete non issue in the first place. No big revelation, no cliffhanger and no attempt to coherently link these entertaining ventures into history all mean that the animus has just become a crude reminder I am playing a video game.

Assassins Creed games are great because of the fantastic sandbox worlds that Ubisoft create for us to explore. We become heavily invested in the realism and scope of these worlds that we feel a living, breathing part of it – and the animus breaks that immersion. I don’t want to be constantly reminded that I’m not in revolutionary Paris, or renaissance Italy just so Ubisoft feel better about calling these collections of games a franchise. We already know of the endless war between Assassins and Templars and that is the only link we need as we go from new entry to new entry.

Ubisoft has even started to use the animus as an excuse for Unity’s technical problems. See a couple hundred clones in Unity’s impressive crowd tech? That’s just animus programming. Wondering why everyone in Paris speaks with immersion breaking British accents? Oh, that’s just the animus doing its thing. Why doesn’t Napoleon have a face when I speak to him? That lovable animus and its hilarious mistakes, when will it learn eh?

In short Ubisoft, if you aren’t going to bother trying to tell a decent modern day story then drop the animus, reinvest in some new HUD and menu designs and give us an Assassin’s Creed world that we can immerse ourselves in for hundreds of hours without thinking we are playing a video game. Seriously, reality is pretty shit.

Alex A.

A Far Cry From Far Cry 3.

I bloody well loved Far Cry 3. I couldn’t get enough of its dark character driven narrative, addictive and responsive gunplay as well as its genuinely charismatic villain in the form of Vaas Montenegro. I eagerly downloaded the beautiful soundtrack as I sat back and let Far Cry 3 influence my writing and university projects – in other words, I was completely blown away by pretty much everything Far Cry 3 had to offer. All Far Cry 4 has to do to earn my love is offer me more of the same, right?

Except, in my first 15 hours or so with Far Cry 4, I’m not really feeling the same sort of adoration that came so naturally with its predecessor. That’s not to say that I’m not enjoying Far Cry 4, it is a great game that makes me want to keep coming back for more but I can’t help feel that it is missing that certain special ingredient that made Far Cry 3 so special. And it isn’t spending the first half of the game saving useless surfer dudes who then spend the second half of the game whining at you. Fuck you Liza.

It hasn’t always been sunshine and roses between Far Cry and me though. For the life of me, I just could not get into Far Cry 2 and to this day I am still not sure why. I would always start off excited to explore the African Savannah, which would then wane a little bit as I struggled with the finicky driving controls and the annoyingly frequent checkpoints, concluding with me turning my ps3 off when I died for the 10^th time because I forgot to collect my Malaria prescription from the doctors. The game felt inaccessible and awkward despite my determination to push through, probably a big reason why I wasn’t expecting much from a sequel.

But then Far Cry 3 rolled around and I was introduced to Jason Brody, Vaas Montenegro and the beautifully realised Rook Island. All my memories of Far Cry 2 vanished as I drew back my bow to clear a pirate outpost, again and again. It was an amazing experience that continued to blow me away, whether I was getting high burning marijuana plants with dub step or zip lining across a ravine to escape a series of explosions that I accidentally caused when I got a little too excited. Far Cry 4 endeavours to replicate these experiences and then some, so what the fuck is my problem!?

Context. You can intricately plan amazing set piece after amazing set piece but if I genuinely don’t care about the motivations of what I’m doing then I am just playing a glorified shooting range. Far Cry 3 set up Jason Brody as this helpless character who learns to become a warrior and saviour to his friends and the people of Rook Island, except that is just half the story. The real interest lies within Jason’s personal struggles as he descends down a dark path of murder, revenge and bloodshed and he can’t get enough of it. He laughs and cries in triumph as he slaughters his 100^th pirate, showing no remorse, determined by the task Citra has set for him. By the end of the game, Jason is a completely different character unable to tell friend from foe (depending on your choice of ending). Jason’s character arc gave me the context I craved to become even more invested in this world that Ubisoft has created.

Far Cry 4 doesn’t really understand this notion as the game introduces us to Ajay Ghale, a character already handy with a wide arsenal of weapons, showing little to no character. Yes, he has a personal stake in the fight for Kyrat with his Father dying for the revolution but that is about it. Ajay has no personal motivations and just follows orders, no matter who is giving them – literally. If you wait around for 10 minutes at the start of the game in Pagan Min’s house, he will return and you just follow him on to his helicopter with the promise of fucking shit up together, no questions asked. Ajay just follows the lunatic who brings table manners to all new lows, because Mr. Ghale can’t think for himself. Want to fight with the revolution? Sure thing stranger! Want to jump off a cliff to catch up to plane? If you say so guy I just met!

That’s probably a bit harsh, and a criticism that could be thrown at pretty much every video game character but coming off the back of Far Cry 3 and the foundation that was created – I expected better. I feel like a blank slate video character instead of person with genuine personality and motivations. This problem feeds back into the whole of Far Cry 4’s gameplay, with padding feeling exactly that instead of something that I really want to do. As I said, I am really enjoying Far Cry 4. Kyrat is a beautiful country, Pagan Min is electrifying (when he is actually present) and I don’t think I will ever get tired of blowing up bears with C4 (sorry WWF) but I can’t deny that the missing ingredient is starting to gnaw away at me.

I miss you Vaas.

Alex A.