Reverse Sequelitis

Triple A games have become a kind overblown derogatory item. Back in the day before games had street dates we would read about the carts that could hit stores any day. The hype machine wasn’t as well oiled and we wanted anything that has to do with gaming. Huge titles occasionally hit the sweet spot and rarely receive acclaim from everyone. Today we fight on the largest scale!

Assassin’s Creed has become one of our beloved yearly franchises that try to pump as much money out of our pockets with little innovation. There was a time when AC was a new and interesting intellectual property, and it was amazing. We had never seen parkour that flowed so smoothly and time periods that traditionally weren’t represented because they had nothing to do with World War II. The idea of a non wargame taking place during the Crusades or Revolutionary War is an inventive place to begin brainstorming. Even better is the idea of game during the Italian Renaissance, now there’s something we weren’t expecting.

If the proper care is taken in crafting a sequel it can be a shining example of progression. Elements from the previous games need to be enhanced or cut for the best experience. The first Assassin’s Creed had a main character that was a jerk, repetitive gameplay objectives, and a framing story no one cares about (or remembers). Assassin’s Creed II took everything from the first game and made it much better. Ezio is a loveable jerk of a lady’s man, objectives are varied, and they did something with the framing story that made it bearable.  To take the story further they somehow made me care more about the jerk face Altair character, talk about pulling a rabbit out of hat.

There are still plenty of flaws in the Assassin’s Creed formula. It’s understood that collectathons are around to lengthen game time with little effort or creativity. The item hunts are still around but not quite as obnoxious. The addition of small puzzles hidden in the environment was awesome, and the best part was there were only 20 of them to find. There’s nothing I really hate to see more than hundreds of collectable items thrown all over the place; look at Batman: Arkham Asylum versus Batman: Arkham City’s Riddler trophies. I prefer Asylum to City and one of the main reasons was I felt compelled to find all the Riddler collectables because there were fewer well thought out items as opposed to what felt like a sloppy selection of underwhelming widgets. It goes without saying that the 100 feather hunt in ACII is something I didn’t participate in. You obtain a villa to upgrade a few hours in, and it’s a take it or leave it experience. It’s nice to have what seems to be a Suikoden castle but it’s more of a diversion towards affording the best equipment in the game.

In a time when Assassin’s Creed was a new and exciting venture there were some neat combinations thrown together. Now we just expect another title every year. When I look at the “greater” games of a generation, they seem to have multi-year development cycles. Grand Theft Auto 5 took years and delivered an awesome single player experience, The Last of Us had been in development for years, and Assassin’s Creed II came out a few after after the first with a lot of thought behind it. It’s too bad that video games are no longer dominated by artists and are geared more toward making investors happy, but America has proven that the Michael Bay larger than life style has a place in our collective wallets. This is why the games press is so obsessed with smaller studios because this is where the innovation is coming from; support your local game makers.