Assassin's Creed: Buccaneer

[SilentBtAmazing]

Dude. I cannot express the sheer piratical joy that this game captures at times. I thought about making this more descriptive but all I really want to add to avoid spoilers is that my pirate-joy relates to game mechanics and the way I really love their implementation. The shanties are one example I can point to without feeling bad

Edit to expand: so the music in this game is really great I think, from the haunting cello theme to the authentic shanties I have never heard before. My daughter and I have decided that we love it when the crew sings, especially at night and at travel speed where you can see the hanging lanterns off the back of the ship. But anyway I have blown so many missions by spotting a nearby shanty (they're moving collectible orbs basically) and just chasing after it and for example blowing my stealth and then having to kill everyone in some denied area.

There are much better examples but I don't see any point in putting them in as spoilers, but they basically are slightly more meaningful elements of piracy that are core mechanics in a good way. I am glad that they took this pirate thing deeper than "you have a parrot or a monkey, assassin dude."

[Nappi]

So far this has been a huge improvement over the previous game. Lots of stuff to do and most of it is actually fun this time around. There has definitely been some frustrating Assassin's Creed moments here and there but not nearly as much as in the previous games. The ability to hide in the foliage, for example, makes some of the stealth missions almost enjoyable.

[melmer]

Played this for almost 5 hours today, it's really gooooooood. Ass creeds greatest hits!

[youmeyou]

Turn of the UI (excluding map and ship stuff) for maximum piratey immersion levels.

[Erkki]

Do you think there's any hope that it will be some % off at the holiday sale?

[Justin Leego]

Surely not more than 20%

[Roderick]

Yeah, doubt it'll be more than that. I first have to start AC3 though >_>

[colinp]

If you search eBay for 'Assassin's Creed 4 Nvidia' you might be able to find it for half price. Nvidia bundled the uPlay version in some card so lots of people were selling them. I got mine for $30 on the GAF Buy/Sell thread. YMM.

Love them shanties!

[Tundra]

Played this for almost 5 hours today, it's really gooooooood. Ass creeds greatest hits!

I played the whole weekend, loving everything but animus stuff.

Can't help but imagine Rockstar Games a Presents: Privateer

[Salacious Snake]

I "shared" a "video."

 

 

I'm enjoying the game a lot, though I've mostly been attacking ships and forts and sea creatures. I so don't care about the primary missions, but the game is surprisingly good about getting out of your way.

[SilentBtAmazing]

I "shared" a "video."

I'm enjoying the game a lot, though I've mostly been attacking ships and forts and sea creatures. I so don't care about the primary missions, but the game is surprisingly good about getting out of your way.

Is it possible to just ignore the story and role play pirate king out there on my island? It seems that way... ?

[Salacious Snake]

Is it possible to just ignore the story and role play pirate king out there on my island? It seems that way... ?

Up to a point, but it'll wear thin eventually. There's no real economic simulation or anything like that.

 

It has that theme park feel where it seems like all the ships in the sea are simply there for you to have fun fighting. It's no Pirates! or Sea Dogs. 

 

Man, I love Sea Dogs.

 

Also, while my video shows things breaking (because of that extra ship caught in a boarding action), they've generally done an outstanding job of applying Assassin's Creed style climbing and "freerunning" to dynamic geometry. It must have been tricky.

 

It works surprisingly well when you climb the rigging and leap back and forth between the spars of two ships that are bobbing around.

[Frenetic Pony]

EEEEEEEEEEEEE! This game is so fun when it's not being god damned Assassin's Creed!

 

The tutorial takes way too long. It's not egregious, you just aren't being a pirate. But as soon as your ARE being a pirate... Listen to your crew sing sea shanties, wander around like its Winwaker but you don't have to do the wind song everytime you want to get somewhere. Plunder ships, upgrade your ship, plunder bigger ships. Wander around beautiful tropical islands making local species go extinct or killing smugglers to get yet more loot. Then drink some rum, play a cool board game thingy, chase a new sea shanty to get your guys to sing it, and back to plundering some more!

 

It's not without faults. There are bugs. You can't climb up a ship your boarding from the sea because the enemies will stab you through the boat and you'll just be stuck in the water till you die. It seems like anytime you do a blasted "story" mission you're tailing some paranoid npc around for an hour where you can't be seen but have to be close enough to overhear them at some point. But when it's not screwing up it's awesome! The closest thing I'll ever get to a Master and Commander game, and it's damned close enough I'd say.

[Salacious Snake]

When things don't get too janky, I love boarding enemy ships. It can be a nice little combat playground, where you have a lot of choice in terms of how you deal with things. It's super fun to swing across on a line and perform an air assassination, and kicking people off the upper platforms is always good for a laugh.

 

This was a fun one; I like countering with the long guns: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10202460782431247

 

Of course, half the time I kill everyone with the swivel guns.

[Thrik]

This game sounds like a blast. Who's playing it on last-gen consoles? I can't say there's that much visual difference between the versions, but if the PS3 version is also really laggy and such I'll just wait. I've been waiting since Monkey Island 3 for a great new pirate game, after all — a bit longer won't hurt!

[youmeyou]

When things don't get too janky, I love boarding enemy ships. It can be a nice little combat playground, where you have a lot of choice in terms of how you deal with things. It's super fun to swing across on a line and perform an air assassination, and kicking people off the upper platforms is always good for a laugh.

 

This was a fun one; I like countering with the long guns: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10202460782431247

 

Of course, half the time I kill everyone with the swivel guns.

 

I have so much fun with the boarding fights that I try and avoid using the swivel guns wherever possible. The fights are definitely one of the highlights of the game precisely because, as you mentioned, there are multiple ways to approach it every time. 

[Salacious Snake]

I've heard the framerate is a little inconsistent on the PS3, but not too bad. If you were going to get a new console soon, I'd wait, but if you're being a sensible member of society for now, then go ahead and play it.

 

It does feel really nice to play an AC on a console with such fluid performance, but unless you have the basis of comparison, I'd imagine the obsolete pauper version is just fine.

[Nappi]

http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/6/5183496/ubisoft-survey-future-of-assassins-creed-separate-pirate-spinoff

 

If I could be arsed to actually answer these sort of surveys, I'd give a huge "YES" to a non-Assassin's Creed pirate game. Like many others, I find the actual AC stuff to be the weakest part of the game and the Assassins vs. Templars storyline feels more forced than ever. To the point where, after spending considerable amount of time trying to obtain medicine for the people of your island, someone in the future sequences says something like "We need to focus on The Observatory more." So I guess I will be chasing some supernatural bullshit for the rest of the game, instead of doing epic pirate stuff.

[melmer]

Me, wrecking a fort like it ain't no thang

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10153557374350389

[Thrik]

Interesting survey that Ubisoft has been sending out:

 

http://kotaku.com/ubisoft-is-asking-surprising-questions-about-assassins-1478714690

 

My impression is that Ubisoft realises the whole sci-fi storyline perhaps isn't so hot now, yet like me they clearly see the value in things like the Animus' database of historical facts (which I have to admit I very much enjoyed in AC2). Lots of very specific questions about exactly what parts of the Ass Creed experience people like. Seems like something worth filling in for those who want more good-ass games.

[Roderick]

The idea to have one area or city set in wildly diverse times and eras is very appealing.

[Erkki]

Finally bought it -- was waiting for the sale -- and have really enjoyed it so far. I played like 13 hours already over the last two days. It works surprisingly well as a pirate game, and you can even unlock a real pirate costume without a stupid assassin hood after playing a little. Which made it weird when the story missions referred to my supposed assassin costume (which I was not wearing).

 

Also this makes me think that there are some periods that would be totally ridiculous as Assassin's Creed games, unless they drop all the Abstergo shit. For example, can you imagine a Western Assassin's Creed game where Billy The Kid is a leader of the Assassins and Templars run the Pinkerton Agency? It would all be utterly ridiculous. I admit that already this pirate theme is a bit ruined by all of the Assassins/Templars shit.

[melmer]

There's a 4th wall breaking email string that you come across (probably around 20 hours in) that has a back and forth amongst abstergo employees talking about possible future locations of games. It's quite a nice glimpse behind the curtains at some of the thinking that has gone on at ubi

One thing they do say is that they'll never use an era with cars as, I think the way they put it, your brain goes in to a similar auto pilot state when you are in a car as when you are using an animus, so they get sync issues when using a car in an animus in a playstation in your brain in the cosmos in an animus

Found it, worth a read:

http://assassinscreed.wikia.com/wiki/Abstergo_Entertainment_files

[SilentBtAmazing]

and you can even unlock a real pirate costume without a stupid assassin hood after playing a little. Which made it weird when the story missions referred to my supposed assassin costume (which I was not wearing).

This actually really annoyed me! For some reason probably related to my irrational love for customizable costumes in games.

[Erkki]

Oh man, I got so addicted to this -- that always seems to happen to me with Assassin's Creed games -- they are just so big. But this one is even worse because the side content is so great. I took an assassination contract, but it lead to an island that was guarded by two frigates. At that point I hadn't had much experience with sea battles so I narrowly escaped. Then I decided I need to upgrade my ship, and began practicing on small ships and looting materials for upgrades. I think I spent 10 hours mostly fighting sea battles, intermixed with finding treasures, exploring minor islands and even the occasional main mission that happened to be near me. I've never used fast travel so far. Anyway, with some practice in sea battles behind me and my ship upgraded with fearsome weapons, I was finally able to complete my contract on that island, and after that even managed to capture a Man o' War. That made me bold enough to attack another one, but that didn't go well as it had some friends, and this led to a chase in restricted waters around one of the huge islands, where I again barely escaped.

 

Now I'm still more drawn to the pirating and assassin's quests (the first one I did sucked a bit, though) than the main story. But there's still some stuff to unlock by the main quest so I guess I'll have to do it at some point.

 

But at this point isn't some higher-up at Ubisoft already doubting whether they really need to continue that Assassins story with these games? I'm sure they probably save a lot of pre-production and development time that way, by having certain aspects already designed and implemented from the start... but this could be such a great real pirate game. A real pirate game doesn't need to focus on free-running and wrist-blades and all the other assassin-like stuff these games do. But it would probably have a lot more realistic way of conducting piracy -- e.g. you can't really sell your stuff in your captain's cabin in the middle of the sea and you should also probably have to go to a shipyard to have your ship upgraded etc. Sadly in this game all of that is tacked onto an action game structure so it works the way it works and on the other hand I really love the seamless transition between sea and land and the open world aspect of it. A game that started more as a pirate sim probably wouldn't allow for that.