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Assassin's Creed Odyssey, set in ancient Greece - it's definitely an RPG now

vonAchdorf

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This game has dialogue option, branching stories depending on your behaviour and choices, different endings, character progression. It is as much a RPG as Withcer 3, even more than Witcher 3 since you can choose your gender when playing this game.

Next AC will even feature a turn-based combat option, I heard.
 
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Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-06-11-three-hours-with-assassins-creed-odyssey

Three hours with Assassin's Creed Odyssey
Rhodes untravelled.

The least interesting thing about Assassin's Creed Odyssey is its October 2018 release date, but the timing of another massive game in the series just 12 months after Assassin's Creed Origins will generate headlines regardless. Origins' success - its brilliant new characters and reworked RPG-lite focus - is something of a double-edged sword: these changes reinvigorated the series, but by taking an extra year of time to bed them in Ubisoft reinforced the feeling each installment could offer the same leaps forward, if only the publisher leant on its biggest franchise a little less. It's against this backdrop Odyssey has been detailed and its release date confirmed - but I'm confident, after more than three hours of gameplay, this year's installment answers those immediate questions.

"We started discussing the setting and what we wanted to do even before we were finished with Syndicate," Odyssey's creative director Marc-Alexis Côté tells me. It's a couple of weeks before E3 and I'm speaking to Côté at an event in Paris, attended by numerous developers from Odyssey's lead studio, Ubisoft Quebec. This is the team behind the London-based Assassin's Creed Syndicate, the enjoyable 2015 entry which released while the future of the franchise post-Unity was being quietly reworked behind the scenes. "Together with the Origins team [at Ubisoft Montreal] we've been busy plotting the course of the franchise, from action adventure to a full-fledged RPG as something to happen over these two games," he continues. When introducing Odyssey, Côté boasts that it "completes the transition" of the franchise into a "full-scale open world RPG". Where the team behind Bayek focused on rebooting the series' combat, navigation and sense of space, Côté and co. have focused on improving the series' storytelling so you can "finally interact with history".

As in the full game, my demo - the same on offer this week here at E3 - begins with the choice of Alexios or Kassandra as a playable character. They are individuals - not male or female versions of the same person, or your own avatar - but you can expect the same script for them both. It's 431BC in Ancient Greece, 400 years before Assassin's Creed Origins. Sparta and Athens are at war, and it's been about 50 years since the Gerard Butler's King Leonidas fought the famous battle in the movie 300. Your player character is a forgotten descendant of Leonidas, kicked off a cliff at a young age for having done something which brought great shame on your family. 17 in-game years later and about the same number of hours into the game's story, the demo opens with you well on the path to becoming a mercenary of renown.

I was given free reign to explore a pair of islands within the Greek archipelago, Mykonos and Delos, whose geography was familiar from Origins - settlements, shops, forts, treasures, and high-up sync points to climb and unlock fast travel. As with Origins, you can again scope out the lay of the land using your eagle, this time named Ikarus. As with Black Flag and Rogue, you can also once again sail your dedicated ship. After taking a backseat in Origins, the series' fan-favourite naval gameplay allows you to sail, fight and board enemy ships using an upgradable vessel, strengthened by a recruitable crew.

Rocking up with your friend Socrates, because of course, you are directed to the main questline of these two islands, which involves dictatorial ruler Podarkes and the rebel effort to oust him, led by a couple: Kyra and Thaletas. I quickly befriended Kyra through the game's new dialogue options - a first for the series - which show off a sharper overall script. Early on in the questline, dialogue choices mainly comprise you choosing to find out more detail on the local conflict and characters. Alternatively, you can leap straight into the action, taking out forts or destroying resources to weaken Podarkes' overall strength level. He exists as a roaming figure on the map you can tackle at any time, but by neutralising his support around the islands you can lower the difficulty of the final encounter. In some occasions, dialogue lets you perform a clearly-marked option to influence the conversation a certain way (to lie, or charm) and if this is beginning to sound a little Mass Effect, then you'll be pleased to know you can indeed romance many characters throughout the game - and do so regardless of the character you chose to play as.

Fast forward three hours and Kyra and I are now close friends. We've attacked Podarkes' troops, gone hunting together and are now sharing a moment on a beach. Should she tell Thaletas about us, she wonders? Perhaps, but maybe later, I choose. I wonder how this scene would have played out - or existed at all - if we hadn't flirted before. A final detour, a seemingly innocuous side-mission I've left on the map for a while, offers a big plot revelation about evil Podarkes and his relationship to Kyra. I'm lead to confront Kyra with what I've discovered and again choose what happens next. The order I've played these missions, leaving this one last, just about works - it certainly provides an interesting twist now my relationship with Kyra has already reached a certain point. And then it's off to the final showdown.

Along the way I've undertaken a naval battle, blasting away enemy ships parked in the bay between the islands, and fought in a giant 150 vs. 150 war battle. This latter mode, new to the series, uses 300 (no coincidence, I'm sure) characters on screen to illustrate the ongoing Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta which underpins a lot of Odyssey's big picture storyline. It's a fun way to mess about with some of the game's new combat mechanics in a high-intensity setting, whittling down an overall meter of the opposing army's strength before they do the same to you. Origins' hit-box based combat returns in Odyssey with a new range of special moves and an ability bar which fills as you defeat enemies and successfully dodge attacks. These new special moves include Leonidas' famous Spartan kick - it obviously runs in the family - which you can use to hoof enemies off cliffs or simply clear a bit of space around you if things are getting too hectic. There are special abilities for your bow, such as to call in a rain of arrows. You can gain stealth for a limited period of time, and rush an enemy to get the first strike. Your bow can now equip multiple types of arrows, too (fire type was the only one on offer here).

I completed every mission in the demo and was then at a level equal to Podarkes, so the final battle against him therefore went fairly smoothly, with him robbed of much of his defensive garrison. I've lowered public opinion to him, too, so when I find him he's actually been set upon by a passing NPC. And then it's over, and it's back to my rebel friends Kyra and Thaletas for a victory party. Except, it's not - those choices I've been making throughout three hours of quests on these islands have finally kicked in, and those same friends are paying the price. The information on Podarkes I shared with Kyra, my decision to hide our romance from Thaletas, and the subsequent conversations these resulted in have cascaded into an unexpected conclusion which left me sailing away haunted by how things wound up. "I lived through the same experience," Côté relates to me, later. "I thought I was really good, but that happened... I went to see the writers! They told me, 'do you realise what you did, twice, during your answers? You double confirmed that through the dialogue tree. You told her to..." I'm genuinely a little upset to hear how things could have played differently - but am relieved to find out Odyssey is getting a proper RPG-style save system so I will be able to dip back in and explore alternative outcomes. "A lot of those islands have those self-contained stories," Côté adds. "Every island has its own self-contained adventure with its own town and story." As for romanceable characters, you can expect them to work throughout as in other traditional RPGs, too. "Sometimes you've got that ability [to go back and visit], sometimes you can bring them on your boat as a lieutenant."

This focus on story - there are 30 hours of dialogue, Côté tells me - is the core of Odyssey, a game designed to tell an "epic Greek tragedy", but large enough to tell smaller stories too, reflecting the period's own obsession with dramatic comedies and legends. It's also a choice born out of a freedom from many of the series' long-held linchpins. "The player fantasy is not to become an Assassin but to be a mercenary and become a legendary Greek hero," Côté says. "We play with the themes of the franchise - but it's not the hood, it's not the blade. It's about a pivotal moment in history." (Your hidden blade, this time around, is actually the broken tip of Leonidas' spear, an object bestowed with First Civilisation powers.) As for how the game connects to the wider Assassin's Creed storyline, well, the enemy faction in the game is the Cult of Kosmos which appears to a precursor to Origins' mysterious Order of Ancients. Odyssey will also continue Origins' ongoing modern day plotline with Layla, the playable character last seen meeting up with a notable Assassin in the present day. Series fans will not be disappointed, Côté concludes. "You'll see us explore the First Civilisation more, a lot more than we've ever done," he teases.

As you're not playing an Assassin, you will no longer be desynchronised if you kill civilians. But you will be penalised, in the form of a notoriety system which will attract nearby mercenaries to hunt you down. These are the roaming Phylakitai from Origins, now with procedurally-generated reinforcements who will turn up to cut you down to size if you gain too much of a bad reputation. Even stealing from neutral NPCs will get you noticed. Up to 50 of these mercenaries can roam the map at any time, some sent after you at certain points in the story, others generated if you choose to take more of them on - with the ability to rank yourself against the other mercenaries in the world. It's one of several new RPG layers which have been added to the world, alongside the upgrading of your boat (you can choose to spare defeated mercenaries and add them to your crew) and a new Peloponnesian War System which responds to your influence over the game's entire map, and lets you turn the conflict's tide towards either Athens or Sparta. Details of that, specifically, remain under wraps.

When back at the drawing board for Assassin's Creed's future, Ubisoft's Montreal and Quebec teams plotted how the series might change by applying a theory of Autonomy, Relatedness, and Competence to the game. The values derive from a philosophic idea of what guides self-determination. "The theory goes that by improving those factors you will foster greater player engagement, people will spend a longer amount of time in-game, enjoy their time more, and this goes hand-in-hand very well with the principles of an RPG," Côté says. "Origins was very good at Competency because of its progression, but how can we make you Relate better? It comes with player choice - choosing your character, choosing how you role-play through dialogue choices." Autonomy, meanwhile, is being worked on via the ancillary naval, war and mercenary rank systems. After three hours play, it's easy to look back on Origins and see it as the stepping stone it was to get here. After three hours play, it is obvious the labours behind Odyssey amount to much more than another 12 months work.
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
https://www.pcgamer.com/assassins-c...-style-choices-bring-the-games-story-to-life/

Assassin's Creed Odyssey hands-on: RPG-style choices bring the game's story to life
We've spent a few hours with the just-announced Ancient Greece-set entry.

I just killed a bear on a beach. It took me a few attempts—mostly because I find dodging animals attacks fraught in Assassin's Creed Odyssey, much like I did in Origins—but I finally shot the thing with enough fire arrows that it went down. While I normally wouldn't expect a game to justify the logic of a boss battle with a bear, an investigation of a nearby shipwreck, strewn with bodies, reveals the reason why it's there. The bear was being transported by shady smugglers, until the boat crashed.

The character who sent me to kill the bear was a smuggler too—something she didn't tell me at the start of the quest. Confronting her, I choose to blackmail her with what I've discovered about her illegal activities. Rather than pay up, she angrily draws her sword, and I cut her down her pretty quickly. If I'd responded with "this stays between us" rather than "this stays between us...for a price", the quest would've ended with no fight, and this NPC would still be alive.

Dialogue choices and consequences are well-worn territory for RPGs, but it's new to Assassin's Creed, and it's a great fit based on my several hours with the game's E3 demo. The setting is Ancient Greece in 431, during the Peloponnesian War between Sparta and Athens. Ubisoft highlights it as a founding period for art, science and politics. This demo is more specifically set on the two islands of Delos and Mykonos, a self-contained episode away from the game's larger world. During my hands-on, I gift wine to a character I want to romance. I get to choose whether to pick a head-on military strategy or a more careful one. I choose to be a dick to everyone I can, just to provoke heated responses. As a result of these actions, characters can live or die. It's an exciting wrinkle that makes me more engaged with the goings on in an Assassin's Creed cutscene than I usually am.

Greek tragedy
That idea of choice even extends to which character you take the journey with in Odyssey. You've got male and female protagonists—Alexios, who's unmistakably voiced by Elias Toufexis of Adam Jensen fame, and Kassandra, who I choose to play as in this demo.

You're the descendant of the Spartan king Leonidas, and you carry his spear as a secondary weapon in Odyssey. Both Alexios and Kassandra's stories play out similarly. It's described by Ubisoft as an epic Greek tragedy—the hero's family is shattered, they're thrown off a mountain and left for dead, and the story then picks up seventeen years later.

"When we look at the game, there's short term, medium term and long term goals," creative director Jonathan Dumont tells me when I ask how granular the game's choices are. "The long term can pan out over, I don't know, 70 hours—'oh, that was the result of that, holy crap!'. And what you've played in the E3 demo, was much more medium term. If you get to the ending of the island, that's medium term. And then short term is, someone will ask you, 'I want you to deal with this guy'. Do you kill him? Do you talk to him? Do you beat him up? You'll get some of these options. And then when you come back, that'll have a repercussion on your reward and your relationship with that character.

"I'll give you an example: we have a quest where you're asked to find a weapon. Someone asks, 'can you find my sword?' You find the sword, and you can come back, lie and keep it for yourself. These are choices that have an immediate impact. And then there's an accumulation of things that you can build up towards—bigger things. There are definite major choices in the game, which I won't spoil, but that really spin the story in a different direction."

Despite having Spartan roots, you're playing a mercenary in the game, and you'll make choices that shape the war in favour of Sparta and Athens, and who gets to control areas of the map. Exactly how this works isn't made particularly clear by my demo. The goal is to remove the Athenians and their leader, Podarkes the Cruel, so the Spartans, led by a soldier called Thaletas and a resistance leader called Kyra, can muscle in. I spend most of the demo reducing a bar that represented the Athenians' control by murdering their soldiers and clearing out occupied areas—there's no option to switch sides, for example. It feels like the Athenians are meant to be the bad guys in the demo, so I ask creative director Jonathan Dumont how much this represents the full game's conflict between them.

"For this specific mission and island, yes, but the Athenians aren't always going to be bad, or anything like that. You'll do the opposite in the game, too—you'll help Athenians fight Spartans. They're hiring you as a mercenary. Sometimes it's going to be an Athenian who hires you, sometimes a Spartan. [You're] not fighting on the Spartan side, even though [you] have more of a history with Sparta. As you're exploring the world with your character, you'll be in all sorts of situations. If you go into a region that is owned by Sparta, for example, you can do contracts to take it away from Sparta and put the Athenians there based on the rewards you want. So that's how it works. It's not good guys are Spartans, bad guys are Athenians, it's much more complex than that."

The Athenians are marked as blue and the Spartans as red on the map—at one point I see their ships battling in the waters surrounding the islands, which is a surprising and cool dynamic event. I hope there's a lot more like that in the finished game, since it sells the sense of a war going on around your character.

With a promised 30 hours of 'interactive storytelling', I ask Dumont how much this tale will branch. "You have some big choices that will influence what's coming next, and the ending you can get down the road. Without promising millions of endings—that's not the case at all—we are catering to your choices and how you play it."

Love island
In the demo, it's possible to romance both Thaletas and Kyra. I pick up some wine at one point while exploring, and when I next chat to Kyra, an extra dialogue options comes up with a heart next to it if I want to gift it to her. Romances are dalliances in Odyssey—it's not like you can go full Fable and have three husbands. "You go from an island or a new place in the world, and you'll romance a character there, but it's not like 'I found the love of my world and I'm keeping that character'," says Dumont. "It's much more casual, a spur-of-the-moment type of romance."

Kyra is probably the most interesting supporting character in the demo—she's been fighting Podarkes and his forces on Delos for some time, and hangs out in an underground hideout with the rest of her allies. I don't want to spoil what happens during this quest in case you want to see it yourself, but eventually you do clear out Podarkes' forces, which is kind of obvious. I killed him at a point that actually cut off several other missions of the game, partly because I took him on several levels above where I was supposed to. The quest line then ends in a party, where Kyra and Thaletas attend.

What you say to them at this point can apparently determine which of them lives and dies, and there are even what's described to me as 'wild card' scenarios, where a seemingly unrelated decision of the player's affects the outcome. That happened during my demo. I saved a prisoner, and it had deadly consequences later on. And in the aftermath, I had to decide whether the prisoner lived or died. These actually feel like interesting choices.

Spear tactics
Ubisoft Quebec seems committed to letting you make decisions at key moments, then, but it's not Odyssey's only headline feature. To play, it feels a lot like a direct sequel to Origins: the platforming is the same, the environment's layout is pretty similar and you still use an eagle to scout the environment for enemies and objectives. The combat has undergone the most change, though. You have no shield this time, meaning you can't really block in the same way you could with Origins. Since you're carrying Leonidas's spear instead, you can only parry when you're carrying a one-handed weapon. The window for parrying isn't long, too, so you feel a bit exposed.

To compensate, you're given more aggressive combat abilities. You have to map these yourself—on an Xbox controller, you hold down LB and LT and press the face buttons to activate your chosen ability (I can't speak for mouse and keyboard, since the demo was running on an Xbox). These abilities are divided up by hunter (bow), warrior (melee) and assassin (stealth). You can only map four ranged abilities and four melee abilities at a time, so there's an element of mix-and-match depending on the enemy.

Spartan kick is the one you can't miss—it's great fun to boot an enemy off the edge of a cliff in stealth. Another sets a weapon on fire for extra damage, then another grants 25% of the character's health back. There's one that lets you throw the spear to instantly kill an enemy while in stealth, and an essential move that can instantly disarm an enemy's shield when upgraded. Each one costs a certain portion of your character's adrenaline bar to use in a fight.

They're unlocked via a grid not to dissimilar to the one in Origins, except abilities can be upgraded two more times for extra effects. Some of Alexios or Kassandra's basic abilities can be upgraded, too: if you jump from a precariously high spot, you can hold down A not to take any damage upon landing with the right ability upgraded. You can later level this up so your character stun enemies when they land.

The intention of having no shield but extra powers is to create a more aggressive fighting system, one that reflects the style of combat in its setting. "We wanted an agile character," Dumont says. "We didn't want to be a defensive character, but to be much more of a powerhouse character that comes into the fight—a bit more Spartan spirit. The shield thing was something we discussed quite a bit, but in the end, we felt that the offensive abilities that we added that you can map to the game was giving us a good tempo in fighting. Once you get accustomed to it, you're actually balancing crowd control with the abilities."

I die a lot at the start of the demo without the shield—I'm pretty used to fighting that way in Origins, but those partial to dual swords might pick the rhythm up faster. The window to parry is pretty tight, and Dumont says Ubisoft Quebec wants to make it easier based on the comments they've been getting. After I have a strong coffee to quash my jet lag, though, I get the hang of it. The game's adrenaline bar charges very quickly during a battle, so the intention is you're always meant to be using these abilities to keep crowds under control.

Even if Origins marked a big improvement on Assassin's Creed's old combat, I found it a little clunky and too beholden to level numbers, and I still feel that way playing Odyssey. By the end of the demo, I'm spamming the same moves over and over again to win fights—this is how I beat Podarkes, by setting my sword on fire and repeating a heavy attack move until he dies. That said, I like that different scenarios challenge me to use the new abilities based on the situation. There's little point in using a shield break on a bear, for example, but firing a super powerful arrow or restoring a chunk of Kassandra's health helped me win that battle after a few failed attempts.

You'll also be able to participate in giant 150 vs 150 battles between the two sides, and the screen will be absolutely filled with units. My one encounter like this was pretty simple, though: I just killed captains to make the Athenian army's health bar go down, then defeated a hero character when he turned up. It was a pretty rote set of fights, even if the scale of the conflict is impressive.

'Epic legs'
Ubisoft is calling Odyssey a full RPG—the Assassin's Creed version of that, anyway. Alongside narrative choices, 'RPG' means more numbers. Ubisoft Quebec has extended the stats and perks system of weapons in the last game to armour, so you're constantly changing up individual pieces for rarer ones. Helping Sparta overcome the Athenians rewards Kassandra with a rad-looking goldplated Spartan breastplate. At one point I get a piece of leg armour that the game calls 'epic legs', which I find amusing.

If you enjoyed stealing loot in Origins, you can't do that as openly this time. A bounty system exists in Odyssey, and if you steal loot marked with red and get caught doing so by an NPC, it's possible they'll put a price on your head. Mercenaries will then come after you, in what seems like a similar system to the Thylakes in Origins, although you can pay off bounties in the menu screen if you're worried about it.

As with Egypt, I expect to be dazzled by the world of Odyssey. These two islands look gorgeous, with clean white architecture, lots of ornate surfaces and huge statues to climb. Ubisoft promises everything from snowy peaks to deserts across its version of Ancient Greece. On the in-game map, locations include Attika, Euboea, Arkadia, Lakonia and Lesbos, and you'll be able to navigate its many islands with a ship, as naval combat once again returns to the series. If you enjoyed battling Egyptian gods last time, I'm pretty convinced Greek mythology will form the basis of some superbosses. "For now, let's keep it for later, but it's Ancient Greece, so we'll see," smiles Dumont when I ask about the possibility.

Origins was the strongest Assassin's Creed in years for me, and I see plenty here that reminds me why: decent quest design, which nicely paces out the series' icon-heavy filler, and a gorgeous world that's fun to explore. Giving you narrative choices is potentially the biggest change to the series in years—at the very least, it could make me emotionally invested in an Assassin's Creed story in a way that I haven't been before.
 
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Alexios, who's unmistakably voiced by Elias Toufexis of Adam Jensen fame

Alexios sounds hilariously bad. Although, the writing itself is abysmal so it might be just that.

This is what happens when your writers instead of reading Xenophon read Percy Jackson.
 

frajaq

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At last, to differentiate their products on the market and make them stand out, the big AAA companies selectively cannibalize RPG aspects into their games

cant wait for the Halo/Call of Duty RPG announcement next year
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
At last, to differentiate their products on the market and make them stand out, the big AAA companies selectively cannibalize RPG aspects into their games

Oh they've been doing that for a while.

What Ubisoft are doing strikes me more as transitioning Assassin's Creed into a straight-up Witcher 3 clone.
 

Paul_cz

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So, we finally defined an RPG - if an action game has dialogues, it's an RPG. Is that it?
If it has dialogue choices that lead to some meaningful consequences, then it can be defined as an Action RPG in my book.

Obviously it is still far away from RPG like Fallout 2, but still, baby steps.
 

Kyl Von Kull

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I've been praying for someone to make a Peloponnesian war RPG for ages, so I can't really complain when Ubisoft decides to make an AC ARPG in this awesome setting. Was Origins any good? Have any of these games ever been any good?

It really does feel like the world's been turned upside down. But who knows, maybe the best way to make an action RPG is to come at it from the action side rather than having RPG developers try to design gameplay that they don't understand.
 

Xeon

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I hope one day they make an Assassin Creed in Japan or China, I hope it will be similar to Origin or this maybe if its better.
 

Jarmaro

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I hope one day they make an Assassin Creed in Japan or China, I hope it will be similar to Origin or this maybe if its better.
They are coming short of settings, they are strangely hesitant to use Europe again, so Asia seems logical next game. Inb4 golden age of India. It sounds like a good setting.
 

cvv

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I hope one day they make an Assassin Creed in Japan or China, I hope it will be similar to Origin or this maybe if its better.
They are coming short of settings, they are strangely hesitant to use Europe again, so Asia seems logical next game. Inb4 golden age of India. It sounds like a good setting.

Asia has a limited appeal in the West. Egypt passed coz it's Ceasar and Cleopatra and the pyramids and shit. But running around as some village gook during the Three Kingdoms era would utterly flop with the Kwan audience.

And the gook market is still not big enough to feed a game of this size.
 

vonAchdorf

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I hope one day they make an Assassin Creed in Japan or China, I hope it will be similar to Origin or this maybe if its better.
They are coming short of settings, they are strangely hesitant to use Europe again, so Asia seems logical next game. Inb4 golden age of India. It sounds like a good setting.

The Assassin's Creed Chronicles games take place in China, India (and Russia).
 

Doktor Best

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Male protagonist looks like one of those sleazy greek folk singers. Would play as a stronk woman if i take a look at it once the price is in 20 euro range.
 

Nutria

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Strap Yourselves In
> The intention of having no shield but extra powers is to create a more aggressive fighting system, one that reflects the style of combat in its setting. "We wanted an agile character," Dumont says. "We didn't want to be a defensive character, but to be much more of a powerhouse character that comes into the fight—a bit more Spartan spirit.

I have no words for how 180 degrees ass-backwards this is from everything Thucydides wrote about the Spartans. But who needs history when you can draw your inspiration from movies and comic books?
 

Morkar Left

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Looks completely popamole and will be the starting point to make future action rpgs even more popamole and less rpg than they already are (except ELEX! ofc).
 

Kyl Von Kull

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
> The intention of having no shield but extra powers is to create a more aggressive fighting system, one that reflects the style of combat in its setting. "We wanted an agile character," Dumont says. "We didn't want to be a defensive character, but to be much more of a powerhouse character that comes into the fight—a bit more Spartan spirit.

I have no words for how 180 degrees ass-backwards this is from everything Thucydides wrote about the Spartans. But who needs history when you can draw your inspiration from movies and comic books?

You can't be a hoplite without a shield. On the other hand, you can't really do parkour with gigantic aspis on your back. At the very least, they need a good in-game explanation for why the main character would do something so suicidally stupid and socially frowned upon.

Still, the way they describe the political system and the battles sounds like some good choice and consequence. You have 17 different states, each with a pro Sparta and pro Athens faction; by weakening whichever faction is in charge you'll trigger an invasion and get a battle. Then whoever wins takes control of the area. That's a smart way to weave together the gameplay and the history as the Peloponnesian war was full of these smaller proxy conflicts.

Does Ubisoft actually have the ability to execute something like this well?
 

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